The second game began. Yuel and Lars arrived in Bot, playing Aquamancer and Gunslinger. Their lane opponents were Cryomancer and Pirate.

The outcome of this laning phasing will probably be decided by how much the enemy underestimate Lars's Gunslinger. If they think Gunslinger is just one of the many classes which Lars can play at a passable level, they’re in for a surprise.

“He's good.” Howard had to admit while observing Lars. The Gunslinger scored one headshot after another on minions, which made each hit deliver critical damage due to Gunslinger's passive: Bullseye. Even without any AoE lane clears, Lars held the lane by simply landing one critical hit after another.

“No,” Ellen shook her head. “He's not good. He's VERY good. Actually, TOO good, I'd say.”

“Well, they supposedly grinded ladder like crazy this summer, so it's not that strange Lars improved.”

“Maybe, but I don't like it.” Ellen puffed her cheeks. ”Gunslinger is supposed to lose lane control early on, but Larsy isn’t losing squat. Cheater.”

“You need to play more aggressively if you want lane control.”

“But, that means risking getting headshot. No thanks”

“Sorry to inform you, princess, but you can't have lane control unless you actually take control.”

“What a pain.” Ellen pouted. “You think it's safe to come closer?”

“Heck if I knew,” Howard shrugged. “Against Trickshooter, it'd be a clear cut NO. But, I don't know what to tell you yet about his Gunslinger. He only built Lv.1 Samurai Tabi, so I suppose he could have invested the rest into Blink or Dark Contract. So, he got some interesting options, but we won't know unless we poke him.”

“You asking me to go ahead and become a guinea pig?”

“You can think of it that way, heh.”

“You meanie! Hmph.” Ellen puffed her cheeks but her lips soon curved into a smirk. She wasn't any less interested than Howard. Poking Larsy to test the limit of his ability with Gunslinger will be fun, it’ll give her a good idea how much she could mess with him this game~

“Oh!” Lars exclaimed. “She came closer. Can I go for it? Can I? Please?”

“Hmm,” Yuel confirmed the stats. Lars was at Lv3, with an Lv.1 Combat Roll and an Lv.2 Fan the Hammer. Good, that's exactly the scenario they wanted. “You should be good. Just don't forget to use the potion.”

“Okay, here we gooooo!” Lars drank his Potion of Strength and rolled forward with Combat Roll. It was similar to the regular dodge-roll, except this bad boy was faster and had better recovery properties. On top of that, it increased Lars’s crit damage for his next shot and gave it a cripple effect.

But, that’s not even the coolest part! By following up with Fan the Hammer, the crit buff and the cripple effect gonna extend to all the quick shots Lars gonna fire during that sick skill! Stuff gonna go down, yo!

Lars spun the hammer of his revolver and pulled the trigger. One! Two! Three! The shots fired one after another like a machinegun! Ellen was dead meat, yo!

“M-My!” Ellen exclaimed. She slipped away with Backfire Cannon as soon as Lars rolled forward... or, at least, that was the plan. Lars recovered from his roll way too fast and shot Ellen in the middle of the knockback from Backfire Cannon.

Bang. Headshot! The bullet crippled Ellen, which abruptly interrupted the knockback movement from Backfire Cannon.

Bang. Another headshot! Her HP fell below 50%.

Bang. ANOTHER FLIPPING HEADSHOT! Three headshots in a row! It stunned Ellen in place!

You shitting me!? Ellen received astronomical damage and fell from 80% HP to below 20% in a matter of a single second. What the actual bloody flipping hell!?

Not a single shot missed its target. Lars nailed each and every headshot. He hit Ellen in the middle of the knockback movement, he hit her again right as she started moving and he hit her a third time when she was already running away at full speed. Didn’t these shots have recoil which made them harder to land in succession? And, these were all HEADSHOTS too! It was preposterous!

And now, Ellen was stunned in place after eating three of these shots in a row. She was completely powerless. Larsy, you bully!

You’re done for, dude! Lars aimed the fourth shot. Another headshot gonna seal the deal. He gonna win against Ellen! Easy!

Bang. The bullet flew right toward Ellen's head. That's it! It's a sealed deal- clang. The bullet hit a wall.

“Wha!? No way!” Lars exclaimed. An ice wall formed between him and Ellen. Not only it stopped the killing blow but it also prevented any follow-up shots. That Shield Dude, yo! It was sick defense and all, but nuuuuuuuu! Whaaaaaay!? Lars was so close!

“I'll knock her up!” Yuel dashed toward the ice wall. He has been following the attack from the get-go, so he was close-by. There was never telling what kind of defensive masterpiece Howard would pull off. As Yuel feared, Howard responded splendidly with that Ice Wall and almost stopped the assault. Almost.

Lars's attack was like a swift spear thrust which got deflected by a shield before delivering the finishing blow. However, Yuel was going to grab that spear and thrust it once more! This time, it'll break through Howard's defense for sure!

Yuel activated Geyser Eruption and targeted it behind the ice wall. He couldn't see Ellen's exact position, but he knew she has been stunned by Lars’s shots up until now. The cripple effect from the shots lasted longer than the stun, so Ellen was still crippled at the moment and couldn’t roll away. Therefore, she had to be around the same place she was before. Maybe Yuel didn't have Lars's amazing split-second accuracy, but he still could accurately calculate the enemy’s position with enough data.

Splash! Water erupted on the other side of the ice wall and sent Ellen flying high into the air! For a brief moment, she flew above the ice wall and became visible.

“Whoa! Sick!” Lars exclaimed as he was put on the spot outta nowhere. Yuel literally notified of this play at the last moment, so Lars had like a millisecond to hit a target which only briefly popped her head over the wall. It's like a sudden whack-a-mole from two meters away and up in the sky! Crazy shenanigans!

But, Lars has already pointed his revolver toward the sky as soon as Yuel dropped the news. Headshot or not headshot, he just gotta hit, yo! His aim was ready!

As soon as Ellen's head appeared - Lars fired. He had no idea how quickly she was gonna fall down, so he had to fire instantly.

Well, crap. It wasn't a head shot. There went his combo. He landed three straight headshots but messed up the fourth. That sucks.

But hey, at least he hit! Easy kill!

『You have killed an enemy!』

“Woohoo! Let's go!” Lars raised his left hand toward Yuel.

“We're not supposed to do that during the game, you know.” Yuel sighed but he gave Lars a high five anyway.

They did it. They actually did it! This time, they nailed the whole offense from start to end. Howard interrupted them in the middle, but they pierced through his shield! They broke through the absolute defense!

The special training regime for Lars paid off. Even though Lars's Gunslinger wasn't nearly as strong as his Trickshooter before, it became almost as deadly through special training throughout the week!

“L.A.R.S.Y.” Ellen puffed her cheeks and aggressively waved her arms as if shaking Lars’s imaginary shoulders. “Gaaaah! I'm mad. I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooo mad! Did you just see that bullshit?”

“Yeah, I saw it alright.” Howard nodded.

“He hit me three times. Three!” Ellen shoved three fingers into Howard's face. “And all them were headshots. Each and every single one of them! Because it's not like that skill has a big recoil or anything. And it was three shots! Three!”

“That was really something,” Howard knitted his brows. “Tai, didn't you say Lars's Gunslinger wasn't anything special?”

“Yep.?”

“Then, how would you call it when a Gunslinger lands three headshots in a row during Fan the Hammer?”

“Aimbotting! Khaha... Wait, don't tell me that mofo...!”

“Yeah, Lars just pulled that off and pretty convincingly too.”

“You gotta be shitting me! I missed some hella cool stuff.”

“I take it you never saw him pull anything like that?”

“Nope. I only ever saw highlight clips of pros pulling that cool stuff.”

“I see,” Howard got the confirmation he needed. This wasn’t normal. Taison played Lars more than anybody else here, so he knew Lars's level the best. This deadeye headshot accuracy was clearly beyond what Lars's current skill with Gunslinger was supposed to be.

Considering how confident Lars seemed when he opened the attack, this wasn't a fluke. Lars even drank a Potion of Strength beforehand to boost his damage. That was likely an idea Yuel came up with because starting with Potion of Strength wasn't popular in the current meta but it has been done before in some niche situation. This opening worked wonders for Gunslinger because it provided a flat power boost, which the Gunslinger doubled with guaranteed crits when landing headshots.

So, this clearly wasn’t a fluke. Yuel and Lars were confidence in this play from start to end. Somehow, Lars leveled up like fifty levels as a Gunslinger in term of mechanical skill and there was only one explanation Howard could think of.

“I think I get it,” Howard said. “Lars must’ve heavily focused on practicing Gunslinger this past week.”

“Hmm,” Ellen cocked her head. “You think he could really improve so much in just a week?”

“It sounds unreal, but it's Lars we're talking about. I’m not sure scoring headshots is any harder hitting bouncing Trickshots. So, if he really focused on Gunslinger, and I mean REALLY focused on it, then it may be possible.”

“Like, you mean he barely played any other classes at all?”

“Yeah, he probably spammed Gunslinger every game. And, I assume he did some special head-shooting practice. The goal was probably...”

A strong secondary class. Yuel smiled proudly. They did it. They really did it! By focusing almost exclusively on Gunslinger this past week, they bumped Lars's skills almost to the same level of his Trickshooter.

Most people probably had a huge misunderstanding about Lars’s skills. Indeed, he was a mechanical monster gifted with godlike coordination and superhuman reaction speed. These talents definitely contributed a lot to Lars’s amazing Trickshotoer skills, but they were only the baseline.

Lars’s talents enabled him to play on that level, but they weren’t the only reason he performed so well. Everything was thanks to his daily training with Trickshooter. Every night, without fail, Lars practiced Trickshooter before going to sleep, it became something of a habit. Lars even said he couldn't fall asleep if he missed his Trickshooter training that day.

It was through this combination of talent and daily training that Lars ascended to his supreme level with Trickshooter. So, Yuel capitalized on that successful training regime and asked Lars to incorporate another class into it. It just so happened that the second class Lars loved the most was Gunslinger and it was picked solely based on that factor. As long as it was a class Lars loved, he’d enjoy practicing it even late at night.

Yuel also complemented Lars’s solo training with team practice by letting Lars play lots and lots of Gunslinger with everybody in Ranked. So, even though the training lasted “less than a week”, Lars practically spent every day playing Gunslinger from morning to evening. In term of total training hours, it rivaled a month of practice!

Lars was still a little rough around the edges, but he completely nailed down the headshots. It was the most important aspect of playing Gunslinger and set apart an amateur from a pro. They had this game!

This is bad. Howard gritted his teeth. That Gunslinger stunt completely stole the momentum, Yuel, and Lars were on a roll right now. If things continue like this, this game will become unrecoverable.

Thankfully, the other lanes were doing alright so far. Even though Ellen’s death set the team a little back, the others will make up for it. They'll turn this around, step by step. The real battle was only beginning!