章 19: The Cocky Rookie's Greeting

Lars's exam began. First, he was given the option to decide which classes to ban during the drafting phase. It was a great opportunity to earn himself some points before the actual match, but he didn't care all.

"Nah, I don't like banning, dude." Lars shrugged. "Just ban whatever, I'mma beat anything they pick. The stronger they are, the harder they fall, yo!"

"I see you're quite confident." Aron frowned. "You know you're about to play against members from our club, right?"

"Yeah, no biggie." Lars grinned and raised three fingers. "I'm Platinum III, yo,. Let 'em at me and I'mma knock 'em out!"

"You said Platinum?" Gilbert's blinked.

"That's sure rare." Aron nodded in agreement, but he was far from impressed. Lars wasn't their first Platinum candidate this exam. And, more than anything, he couldn't stomach Lars's attitude. "Just so you know, Platinum III is currently the lowest rank among our members. Most of us are at least in Diamond."

"Oh! Cool!" Lars wasn't fazed at all. Rather, his eyes lit up and his grin only grew bigger. "Finally some real challenge! To tell ya the truth, the grind in Platinum have been kinda stale lately, so this is awesome! Let me at 'em already!"

"Alright, I got it. I'll handle the banning." Aron sighed. This kid resembled a certain idiot in the club a bit too much to his liking. Based on his experience, words didn't work much on these simpletons, they had to experience everything on their flesh. There's no doubt Lars was going to sing a very different song after facing his lane opponent, who happened to be the very idiot Aron had in mind.

After the first banning phase came to an end, it was time to pick classes. The enemy team got to ban first, so Lars's team got to pick a class first. During such an important exam, it was the smartest to wait until your lane opponent picked their class first, so you could counter-

"Okay, gimme Trickshooter please." Lars requested right away.

"You want to pick first?" Aron frowned. "Don't tell me Trickshooter is the only class you can play?"

"Nah, ya think I could make it to Platinum playing just one class? But Trickshooter is still my number one dude, yo."

"Alright, so you're sure you want to pick first?"

"Yep, lemme grab dat Trickshooter."

"If their Carry counters your pick, you'll have a very hard time showing us your full strength. Of course, we'll have to factor in the fact it was a bad matchup for you, but you'll most likely leave a negative impression."

"Heh, worrying about me? And I thought you were some stuck up jerk."

"Whoa, he went and called his examiner a jerk." Gilbert concealed a muffled laugh.

"Worrying? No, I..." Aron averted his eyes. Right, what was he doing? It's his policy to be ruthless with newbies. It's just that the resemblance was so strong, that he mistook Lars for that other idiot for a moment. "Anyway, what were you saying about a 'stuck up jerk'?" Aron wore the usual stoic expression, but his eyes emitted death rays.

"A-Ahaha, I just heard some nasty stuff from others." Lars rolled his eyes and scratched his head. "Like, how you're a ruthless mastermind examiner who manipulates newbies and stuff."

"And, I take it you heard it from Yuel?"

"Yeah, he- GAH!" Lars slapped his own mouth. Gah! GAAAAAAH! He wasn't supposed to reveal that! He silently stared at Aron for a few seconds, then gave up. "... how did you figure?"

"It's hard to believe two Platinum newbies would pop out of thin air like that. I take it you're been grinding ranks together?"

"Yeah..." Lars kept staring at Aron, awaiting judgment. According to the rules, Yuel wasn't supposed to discuss his exam with others.

"Well, I suppose it's fine." Aron said. "Knowing him, he was selective about what he told you. He didn't strike me as the type to unnecessary take risks."

"Yeah, he just told me to behave myself around ya, because there's like 120% chance you gonna hate my guts or something, haha."

"And, it seems like that advice was completely wasted on you."

"Yeah. I mean, we're totally best buds already, right? There was no reason to worry at all."

"Huh." Best buds? Aron felt like throwing up from disgust. "Anyway, what else Yuel told you? Was there anything concerning the skills or playstyles of our members?"

"Hmm." Lars genuinely tried recalling Yuel's words, he gave up on hiding anything from Aron. "Oh, right! He also said there's some guy with a shield."

"A guy with a shield?"

"Yeah, something like that. Or, maybe the guy himself is the shield? I don't really remember, but he said if I play well, I may awaken the final form of this shield boss dude and get some serious fight going."

"A 'shield boss dude', heh." Even Aron failed to maintain his composure against this one. The rest of the team laughed out loud, as everybody understood who Lars was talking about.

"Okay, from now on we gonna call Howard the Shield Boss Dude." Gilbert announced, then turned to Lars. "Sorry to disappoint, but he's not playing today. So, no 'final form boss' action for you, pft. Though, if you draw too much attention to yourself, you may awaken the goddess-"

"That's enough."

"Ah, my bad." Gilbert nodded and quit his blabbing.

"What goddess?" Lars looked at Gilbert, then at Aron, then at Gilbert, then at Aron, but they pretended to not hear him. "Hey, I asked what goddess? What god-"

"Trickshooter, here you go." Aron selected the Trickshooter on Lars's screen. "Let's move on.".

"Hmph, so that's how you gonna play it." Lars smirked. "Okey dokey, then I'mma trash yo boys one by one, until I awaken that goddess dude of yours."

"Heh, I don't recommend it, but good luck." Gilbert said. "I'm going to be your Support, so anything you'd like me to pick? I'm more of a Mid player, so I prefer mages if possible."

"Anything's fine as long as you're good with it." Lars shrugged. "If you don't care which mage, then maybe go for Cryo so we can pull some wall bounce combos."

"You really think we can pull that off without any practice?"

"Yeah, no problem. Just set up a wall when I ask and I'mma figure out the rest from there."

"Huh." Gilbert wore a complicated look. This kid was sure entertaining, but his baseless confidence bordered on stupidity at this point.

Landing a bouncing Trickshot with the help of Ice Wall was by no means an easy feat. The burden laid not only with the Trickshooter, but with the Cryomancer as well. It's true it's the Trickshooter's job to make the bullet connect. However, the Cryomancer was equally responsible, as he had to place the wall at the right place at the right time to make the play even possible in the first place. It was mandatory for both players to be coordinated, so there's no chance Lars and Gilbert would smoothly pull this off the first time they play together.

"It's his exam, so let's entertain his request" Aron said. "Pick Cryomancer and do what you can."

"Alright, but I'm not promising anything." Gilbert shrugged and selected Cryomancer. Shortly afterwards, the rest of the team composition was decided and the match began.

Lars, Gilbert and Aron started off in the jungle to clear camps together, then split ways as Lars and Gilbert headed to Bot Lane. Their lane opponents were Pirate and Druid, a nasty duo. On top of that, they were controlled by veteran members from the club, who both passed this exam before. These dudes might actually be kinda strong, this was gonna be fun!

[Okay, first I'mma take out this Pirate. ]Lars nodded to himself.[ Their "goddess" is probably that Ranger chick, but sounds like I hafta put on a show to make her take me seriously.]

After exchanging a couple of blows with the Pirate between minion waves, Lars went for the kill. He dashed toward the Pirate and activated Trickslide, sliding forward to quickly close the distance. While still in the middle of sliding, he fired Trickshot at a nearby wall.

By hitting the Pirate with this sliding Trickshot, Lars was going to gain two stacks of his Attention Grabber passive, granting him extra power and speed for a short time. With these buffs, he was going to finish the job after getting closer to the Pirate. No matter how many times he executed this before, he never grew tired of it. It was one of the sickest Trickshooter plays, yo!

"Wha- Wait, don't just charge in like that!" Nobody saw this reckless attack coming, not even Gilbert who was supposed to be Lars's Support. To fool your enemy, you first had to fool your allies... or something, yo!

Of course, the enemy didn't expect this aggression either. The Druid was low on MP and the Pirate's Backfire Cannon was on cooldown, so he had no way to dodge or flee. It was 120% over for him! That is, if he were alone on the lane.

"Gah!" Lars cried out. A moment before his perfect Trickshot connected, the Druid cast Gaia's Protection to grant the Pirate a shield. The Trickshot did land on the Pirate, but over half of its damage was wasted on destroying the shield. That's not how it was supposed to go!

Even though things didn't go Lars's way, that hit still granted him two stacks of Attention Grabber. His attack power and attack speed were boosted by 20%, enough to turn him into an immediate threat and make the Pirate retreat.

"Gah, he got away!" Lars growled.

"I'm still in shock he actually landed that one." Gilbert blinked as he turned to Aron. "That would've been a kill If not for the shield, right?"

"Hard to say..." Aron squinted his eyes as he stared at Lars's screen. It was unbelievable, this rookie fired a Trickshot out of Trickslide with pitch-perfect speed and accuracy, even Trever was caught off guard against that absurd play. It must had been a fluke, there was no other way to explain it. "Anyway, regardless of what it could or couldn't have been, it didn't convert into a kill in the end. It ended up as nothing more than a reckless misplay."

"Yeah, I got it, I got it." Lars grumped. "Just you watch, I'mma get him next time!"

"You know," Gilbert said. "I [really] wouldn't mind if you informed me next time before charging in. I can't support you when you're on the other side of the lane."

"Oh, sorry, dude." Lars scratched his head. "I'm so used to playing with Yuel that I forgot people can't read minds, haha. I swear dude is a telepath, yo!"

"As long as you understand."

With this, Lars's first assault ended in failure. By Aron's harsh standards, it counted as nothing more than an uncoordinated reckless misplay. However, another examiner didn't share that opinion at all.

"Wow, I... I just died, right? Ha. Haha." Trever produced a hollow laugh after retreating to safety. As a fellow Carry main, he understood the consequences of the Trickshooter's play better than anybody.

It all happened in an instant. As soon as the Trickshooter started sliding, the Trickshot was also already locked on Trever, there was no escape. In the split second he found himself fazed by the Trickshooter's play - he doomed himself to death. The timing was perfect too, since Backfire Cannon was on cooldown.

"Bro, you really saved me there." Trever thanked Allen, the Druid. "Good job reading that one, I'd be totally screwed without that shield."

"I... didn't read it." Allen's grimaced.

"Huh? What are you on about? You totally saved my ass there."

"Yeah, but I was already going to cast Gaia anyway." Allen explained he was low on MP, so planned to cast Gaia's Protection one last time before returning to base. He barely even had the necessary MP for casting Gaia's Protection, so the Trickshooter might had assumed he was out of juice at that point.

"Heh, so you think he rushed in because he miscalculated your MP and thought you were out of gas?"

"Yeah, probably. Honestly, I only had enough MP because I didn't level Gaia yet. Casual players usually level it up right away, but thing is: Gaia's cost goes up with each level, so I kept it at Lv.1 to not burn MP too fast. If not for that, I really wouldn't have been able to cast it in that situation with such low MP."

[And then I would have died.] Trever added silently. That rookie sure pulled a fast one on them. His attack came off as a reckless charge at first glance, but apparently he thought things through.

『No need to go easy on our Carry. Rather, crush him with all you've got. Don't you dare holding back.』

"Heh, so that's what he meant." Trever grinned as he went over Aron's instructions again. He received this private message as soon as the match began, but he didn't take it seriously. Bullying rookies wasn't among his hobbies so he wanted to play nice. However, now it was clear: against an opponent of this caliber, Trever had to get serious for real!