After taking the long route, Nia finally got close to Top Lane. However, o obstacle stood between her and the self.

  Is there a ward he entrania couldn't possibly tell for she never had the opportunity to vehis far in this game. Therefore, she had to make an educated guess.

  It’s probably better to assume that it’s warded. Such was Nia's clusion based on her experiences with the Leopards' warding thus far.

  These guys were good, they stuffed the entire juh pesky wards to make Nia's life as difficult as possible. So, surely, they had a ward he rance well. And, unfortunately, Nia had no choice but to pass through this area in order to ehe ne.

  There were three entrances avaible: one on the allied side of the jungle, one on the enemy side, and one in the middle. Most likely, there was a ward near at least one of these locations.

  Nia could take a gamble here and choose ara random, but the odds were against her. If there were two wards, then her ce of pig the right entrance was 1 to 3.

  Actually, the ce is pretty much 0%. Nia reasoned. If they pced two wards, then they’re probably near our entrand theirs.

  That kind ement made it practically impossible to reach the middle entrahout being spotted by one of the wards. And, the worst thing was that there were no practical alternatives in this situation. Nia had to ehe hrough one of these paths.

  Entering the ne from behind the tower area was also an option but that would take way too long. Therefoing through one of the regur entrances had to be the py.

  But, how could Nia possibly slip by unnoticed?

  I guess it’s time to ask my dear sister for help. Nia activated Shadow e, summoning a copy of herself. I'm sorry I have to treat you like this, sis. But, this is for the greater good…

  Nia directed her dear sister… into a wall. Yes, that's right. The e was forced to dash straight into a wall, head-first.

  Though this e was supposed to be a copy of Nia, the bot trolling it didn’t possess a shred of intelligeherefore, Nia’s sister simply kept running forward in the dire she was summoned in. In other words, the e kept running into the wall like a cssic bugged bot.

  Please stay like this and don’t run into any wards, thank you. This may have looked like familial abuse but it was a necessary evil.

  Now, that the e was summoned, Nia became cloaked ih. This should allow her to get through the sus area ahead without being spotted. Probably.

  I just hope they don't have any Stealth Wards… This train of thought might’ve seemed paranoid for su early phase of the game, but it was impossible to put anything past the Leopards. Their warding has beehe-top the entire game so anything is possible…

  Nia gulped as she set foot ihe sus zone. Nervousness assaulted from all dires, but she heless pressed onward. At the end of the day, she had no choice but to hope that not even the Leopards would resort to pg Stealth Wards this early into the game.

  Stealth Wards ore than regur wards and they offered nothira except for revealing stealthed pyers like Nia. As such, it was a huge money sink for the earlier stages of the game.

  Besides, Nia hasn't eveablished herself as much of a threat thus far. So, no matter how careful the Leopards were, surely even they wouldn't resort to something like this... right?

  Right? Nia gulped. A shudder ran through her entire body with every step she traversed through the sus area. Logically, there shouldn’t be any danger here, but the paranoia didn't give her rest.

  She half-expected to see Challeurn around and make a break for it, any moment now. Her gank attempt could end just like this before eveing a ce to start.

  Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened. Challenger showed no signs of notig Nia's approach. The guy was nontly pressing his offense on the ne, f Ben to retreat.

  I-I made it. Nia took a deep breath as she set foot in Top La long st, she was here! This was her first real gank attempt of the day!

  And, I hope it’ll also be my first kill. Nia steeled herself and dashed toward the unsuspeg target. I don’t have Imperial yet, so no point attag first. I’ll ght for the ult.

  Nia approached the prey from behind and ed her arms around the Dragonborn, the into the air! Nobody saw this development ing!

  "What the-!?" Ronald jumped. By the time he realized what was happening - he was already flying high through the air! It was the Ninja's ult!

  "Dang, where did she even e from!?” Ronald ranted. “I thought we had the entire flipping jungle warded!"

  His loud rea caught the attention of his teammates and they all wohe same thing: “How did Vanishing mao show up in Top without any warning?”

  As Ronald said, there were tless wards in the jungle, specially pced to keep track of this elusive Ninja. On top of that, Sonya delivered regur reports on the phantom's test position. Or at least, she should have been doing that…

  "Ah..." Sonya stiffened. When did I make my st report, again? I think it was over a minute ago…

  The st time Sonya actually saw Vanishing in the flesh was when Vanishing was still in Bot Jungle. Sonya reported as much at the time, and ever since she has been making a bunpty reports that said a whole lot of nothing.

  “The enemy Jungler was st seen in Bot Jungle, but that was a while ago.” That was the extent of Sonya’s reports. As frustrating as it was to admit, she simply couldn’t deliver anythier than that.

  sidering how much time has passed, it was reasoo assume that Vanishing rotated from Bot Juo Top Jungle. Even though there was no hard evidence, Sonya should’ve at least mentiohat it was a likely possibility.

  As, she didn't. Why? Because, during that time, she found herself preoccupied with her uation all of a sudde decided to dial up her aggression out of the blue, which forced Sonya to pay more attention to her oppo’s position in the ne.

  Until then, Sonya was carefully splittitentioween Vanishing, the ne, and the rest of the map. But, the moment one of these topics started demanding so much attention all of a sudden - the bance was broken.

  Sonya found herself in a position where she had to prioritize the uation other the rest of the map, so she ended up ing her duty of supervising Vanishing. As a result, she failed to wareammates about the possibility of Vanishing being in Top Ju this point.

  I thought Vanishing was a lower priority sidering she hasn’t aplished anything the entire game. But, it seems like that assumption was my undoing…

  There were never any signs of Vanishing trying to pull anything, so Sonya started paying less and less attention to the girl. And, that turned out to be a grave mistake.

  I was supposed to be the one who pays the most attention to her but in the end… Sonya fell into the very trap that she was supposed to warn others about.

  Sonya was like a sentry who stood guard at the gate, her job was to stop Vanishing from slipping past the team’s radar. Yet, the guard fell asleep for just a moment and the phantom exploited that brief opportunity to slip through.

  With a Vanguard helping her out, they even kill Ronald here… or they? Sonya blinked in fusion and pushed her gsses up. Unless she was missing something, the situation in Top seemed a little off.

  The Ninja successfully snuck up to Ronald and unched Izuna Drop, her trump card. Vanishing was most likely stealthed when she arrived, so Ronald had no ce to respond to the attack at all. It seemed like a well-executed gank, all in all.

  , Vanishing and Ronald crashed into the ground together. Ronald sustained heavy damage and found himself in critical health.

  From that position, with the help of the Vanguard’s taunt, the enemy should have no problem finishing Ronald off. But, oddly enough, they couldn’t quite do it. Why? Because the Vanguard was too far away from the se.

  Phoenix was in the middle of retreating before Vanishing showed up. His ag seemed very ving to that end, successfully fooling even Sonya. And surely, Ronald was also 100% vihat Phoenix was gerying to retreat, therefore he let his guard down.

  But, looking at the situation now, was that really just ag? Even after Vanishing showed up in the felt as if it took Phoenix a moment tister her presend cel his pns for retreat.

  It took the Vanguard a sed or two to turn around and hurry back to the se. That short dey was going to prove fatal in this delicate situation.

  After such a te start, could Pheonix even reach the se on time to aid Vanishing? Unless he had a cloaked Blink up his sleeve, it seemed impossible.

  heless, the guy dashed to the se with all his strength. At the very least, he seemed vihat this was the right py to shoot for.

  Oh no! Ben gulped as he dashed toward the battlefield. I-I don't think I'm going to make it in time! But, if I don't, the entire gank might fall apart and it'll all be my fault! I have to hurry!

  And so, Ben darted across the ne while ign the enemy minions along his path. Likewise, the minions ignored him as well. The little guys were preoccupied with the stealthy invader who dared to assault their leader.

  And so, the same way Ben hurried to the se of the crime, so did the enemy minions. They all raogether like an anized police squad, even though their goals were pletely opposite of each other.

  These minions are bad news. Ben realized in the middle of the rush. Maybe it's better if I stall them? But, then I won't be able to CC the Dragon...

  This euation was chaotic beyond salvation. If there was more time to think things through, then maybe Ben would have been able to find the best respoo this sario. As, in the heat of the moment, his brain short-circuited from the overload of information.

  In short, it was impossible to tell what was the best py here! So, what should he do!?

  Amidst the darkness of uainty that threateo swallow him whole, a clear voice resounded all of a sudden.

  "Ben, you won't make it," Yuel said. "Taunt the minions. that's the best py in this position."

  "O-Okay!" Ben shifted his focus from the distant Dragonborn to the nearby minions. Uhe faraway target which Ben might ht not rea time, the minions were within arm's read he kly how to hahem.

  Ben used Dodge Roll to instantly close the distao them and then activated Provoke. As a result, the enemy squad, sisting of one swordsman and three bowmen, now focused their attention on Ben.

  In a blink of ahe enemy soldiers pletely fot about the offender who hurt their captain. Now, all they wanted in life was to smack Ben to death.

  O-Okay, I did it! Ben sighed in relief.

  From here, he was in full trol of the situation. This was no longer some chaotifamiliar position that he had to analyze on the fly.

  , the stomp. Ben lifted his metal-cd foot. He left it in the air for a sed and then brought it down in an instant! BAM! Ahquake erupted across the area!

  The force of the impact shook the entire earth, knog up all the enemies in the viity. One moment, the bowmen were in the middle of nog their arrows in order to Ben, but the moment, they found themselves flying high in the air.

  Phew. Ben sighed in relief. It was over, he successfully dealt with the situation.

  This was a simple and familiar sario for a Vanguard pyer, ohat Ben has handled many times before. And thankfully, he was able to execute the py correctly despite the pressure of the petitive stage.

  But, this was not the time to celebrate. The problem Ben resolved was like a side dish. The main course was Nia's gank on Challenger, a py that Ben gave up on participating in the momeopped to deal with the minions. Or, so he thought.

  "Keep moving toward the Dragonborn as you deal with the minions," Yuel instructed. "You have to make it clear that this a 2v1 situation so that Challenger won't try any funny ideas like terattag in dragon form."

  "O-On it!" Ben hurried to the se once again.

  Unfortunately, the situation indeed developed the way Yuel predicted. Challenger activated his dragon form, and that alone was enough to shift the odds in his favor. Challeransformed from prey into predator!

  Will Nia be able to deal with this threat all by herself? Most likely not, which was why Ben was rushing to the rescue. I hope I make it in time...!

  DarkestCymore