Dan was filled to the brim with his desire for revenge, but he wasn't the only one haunted by the first game. Julia also suffered an embarrassing defeat at Rosemary's hand back then.
In fact, that one defeat was likely the reason Howard booted Julia off the team. So, naturally, she wanted nothing less than to COMPLETELY ELIMINATE THAT BITCH!
I'll bury you! Julia unleashed Hurricane on Rosemary. Yes, she straight-up dumped that huge ult on a single target; efficiency could be damned at this point. I'm killing her, no matter what!
Julia couldn't afford to waste time. Rosemary rolled toward the jungle when she dodged Dan's Chronostasis, so it was clear she was planning to run away.
Not under my watch! Julia tactically placed the Hurricane ahead of Rosemary, right in front of the jungle entrance.
So, now what are you gonna do? Julia grinned. You either dive straight into that storm and get your ass whooped, or you stick around and let Dan DPS you down. Either way, you're through!
But, Rosemary found a third option. She activated Slumber Coffin, rendering herself immune to all sources of damage.
"Oh, fuck!" Julia exclaimed. "I totally forgot about that!"
"Meh, no biggie," Dan reassured. "This is where Chrono's specialty comes into play!"
Coffin Slumber was an infamous panic button, but it had one glaring weakness: basic attacks. Especially, lightning-fast basic attacks.
"I'mma drag her out into the sunlight real fast!" WHISH! WHISH! Dan unleashed a barrage of magical shots, clapping that coffin!
After the first few hits, it should already be obvious to Rosemary that her coffin was about to fall apart. In fact, she must've known it'll come to this in advance.
So, what was she planning to do next? Did she have another trick up her sleeve? Surely, holing herself up for a couple of seconds wasn't her entire game plan.
This only grants me a brief reprieve. Fiona exhaled slowly to recompose herself. The recent turn of events caught her completely off-guard, so she needed a moment to recollect her thoughts.
During the most critical plays, the first thing to do was to breathe. Yes, just to breathe. It was the most natural activity for the human body, one that everybody took for granted. Alas, it had a bad habit of malfunctioning during tense situations like this.
So, while safely locked away inside the coffin, Fiona took a moment to breathe in and breathe out. She did it slowly, carefully, without hurrying anywhere.
It was true that imminent doom was knocking on her door, but panicking about it would not help anybody. She had to remain calm as she analyzed her options.
Is this a total blunder? Fiona wondered. Or, can I still salvage this situation if I make accurate plays from here on out?
Fiona was down to 40% HP at this point, but Venus was even lower at 20%. So, perhaps it was possible to strike Venus down before perishing? That would at least turn the outcome into a 1-for-1 trade.
Realistically, I cannot imagine it going smoothly. Fiona thought. All my skills are on cooldown, even my roll. I have no tools at my disposal, no pieces to move around.If only somebody was here to back me up, just like Average is helping out Venus…
The more Fiona thought about the sequence of events that led up to this position, the more she was convinced that she had completely and utterly blundered everything about it.
I was too eager. She criticized herself. I thought it was a great opportunity to turn the game around, but in hindsight, this opening was way too obvious. I should have expected Aegis to cover it.
It was unclear whether the entire play was an intended bait. With players like Athena, anything was possible.
Either way, Finoa should have expected Aegis not to miss such an obvious opening. She went after this one attractive opportunity like a starving dog.
It was a blunder, no two ways about it. And, against strong opponents like StormBlitz, a single blunder meant defeat, just like in high-level chess.
Considering all that, fighting for a "good trade" is futile. Fiona concluded. I made a terrible mistake and I must own up to it. The best I can do is minimize the advantage the enemy will gain from this kill.
Unfortunately, her time ran out as she was reflecting on all that. CRACK! The coffin shuttered, exposing Fiona to the hungry hounds.
There was no more time to leisurely deconstruct to situation. Fiona now had to play bullet chess and fully trust her trained intuition on every move!