"Say,” Yuel addressed Luke. “You don't happen to have any other ‘surprises’ to show us, do you? For example, some other css you’ve been w on during the past month?"

  "Aside from DK? Nope," Luke said. “I mean, it was only a month, man. You 't expect me to master a bunch of new spicy memes in such a short time."

  "Yes, you're right. I was just making sure." Yuel took a moment to sider his options again, or the ck thereof. "It seems like we have no choice. You’ll have to py as usual in the game."

  "You mean I gonna go all-in with DK again, right? Right?" Luke's eyes glittered. He was like aed puppy about to be taken for a walk.

  "A rerun of DK? Absolutely not," Yuel rejected. "We delivered a successful surprise attad it worked against all odds, but it was a oime thing. We won't be able to pull it off again, not against the Leopards."

  "Hey, what's with this defeatist talk? You’ll never know until you try!"

  "No, I DO know,” Yuel insisted. “It's not too hard to imagine what'll happen if we use a simir lineup again. Basically, we'll get tered hard."

  "Who knows?" Luke argued. "You only think that gonna happen because everybody and their moms be putting the Leopards on a pedestal. But bruh, tell me something. Did you ever imagine us smoking the Leopards so hard with that lineup?”

  "No, I suppose not," Yuel said. "I always believed we had a ce to win if we pyed our hands right, but I admit that the result surpassed all expectations."

  "So, you wanna see me do it again?" Luke grinned. "I run all over them with my DK anytime, word!"

  "Yeah, let's go!" Lars pumped a fist. "That was sick! We gotta do it again!"

  "Indeed, it was a magnifit performance!" Viuned in. "Dark Knight and Jungler, a bination from the very depths of unventional picks! It has already shattered all expectations once, but it do it again!?"

  "Are you guys stupid?" Kai shot them down. “First of all, that DK nonsense only worked because Yuel did a good job misleading the Leopards during the drafting phase. Also, these bastards were clearly uimating us that game, which won’t happen again now that we beat them."

  "You think they were going easy on us?" Luke asked. “How do you tell?”

  "Trust me, I know,” Kai assured. “I have a sixth sense for when somebody uimates me for any reason." I have more than enough experieh that from previous years of this club.

  "Okay, okay," Luke ceded. "Suppose they were uimating us. I still don't see the problem, tho."

  "Excuse me?"

  "I mean, yeah, that I and my DK don't deserve all the credit for winning that game,” Luke said. “My brudda Yuel helped me a ton with piloting that DK. He pulled all the strings during the drafting phase, and he gave me lots of good advice during the game itself. Heck, despite how much he trash-talks memes, he sure knows how to meme like a boss! I’m super impressed."

  "Do you think I studied all of that because I wao?" Yuel made a face. "I had to force myself to look through mountains of useless meme information in order to find something actually useful. It was like searg fold in a pile of garbage."

  "Haha, harsh. But hey, ya found some hel solid tech! I'm legit impressed.” Luke nodded. “I always knew you're a genius and stuff, but this is on a whole different level, word!"

  "Yeah, it was sick!" Lars hyped up the topic as well. "Like, I didn't uand even half the tactics shmactics ya used there, but it seemed tight!"

  "Indeed, it was a beautifully orchestrated master pn!” Vi added. “The Chessmaster was stuck with a questionable pie his board, possibly worse than a paw Chessmaster found a way to evolve this pieto something superior to even the Queen!"

  "Well," Yuel said. "I'm gd you at least reize the effort I put into researg all of this. But, don’t get deluded here. None of this ges the fact it was a oime trick. This approach won't work on them again, definitely not against their shot-caller."

  "Oho!" Vi excimed. "So, the Chessmaster expects to see magnifit adaptation from his chess rival!?"

  "He's not my 'rival', but yes, I expect him to adapt. I don't believe I'll be able to win the drafting phase against him that easily again."

  "Then, e up with something new," Luke said pinly.

  "... what?"

  "I mean, you're the genius here, right? I bet you’ve already seen like 14,000,605 futures of how this scrim gonna end, so you must have like a hundred backup pns ready, right? Right?"

  "I don't know what you take me for but I'm not a magi. I 't pull new pns out of thin air on demand."

  "But, that's totally what you always do, tho!"

  "..........."

  "Pft, haha! You totally got that 'Listen here, you little shit' look!"

  "Only because you keep spouting all this nonsense." Yuel sighed. “I know that to others my ideas may sometimes seem as if they came out of thin air, but most of them are based on long and (punctual) preparation. You really think I came up with that lio supplement your Jungler Dark Knight on the spot?”

  “To be ho, I have no idea, haha.” Luke ughed. “If it’s you, anything is possible.”

  “Really.” Yuel made a face. “If that’s what you think, then I’m sorry to disappoint you. I didn’t e up with these game pns just today.”

  “Say what?”

  “I formed most of these ideas back when I was researg your memes. It took me a long time to e up with a semi-viable game pn for your nonsense.”

  “Dang, that sounds like a lot of work.”

  “It sure was. What you saw here today was the fruit of long hours of researd brainst. These weren’t things I came up with on the fly.”

  “Dang, you really researched the topic that much, huh? It makes you sound like a real meme fanatic, haha!”

  “Do you think I enjoyed any of it!?” Yuel ched an angry fist. He very much wao bonk that troublemaker. “I had no choice. It seemed impossible to talk you out of using memes, so I had to find a viable game pn to go along with your dumb picks in case we have to use you today, which I knew was a very likely sario.”

  Seriously, why were this team’s Junglers so cursed? They were two hooligans with tons of problems and there was nobody else to adequately repce them at the moment. This fact was always an endless source of headaches for Yuel. Sigh.

  “Anyway, just so we’re perfectly clear,” Yuel said. “I do NOT have any ood pns for your Dark Knight. It was already difficult enough to e up with the game pn we used in the previous game and it won’t work twi a row. So, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have any good alternatives at hand.”

  Irospect, this could be sidered a blunder on Yuel’s end. He knew better than anybody that it was always best to e prepared with multiple different game pns at hand. That would have given him more strategic flexibility and perhaps he could’ve employed the Dark Knight multiple times today against the enemy.

  But, Yuel didn't have any alternatives at hand. Why? For o was already difficult enough to e up with one semi-funal game pn for this absurd meme. Yuel had to spend so many hours researg ways to turn that absolute o something pyable.

  In a way, it was a miracle that Yuel even mao find as mufo as he did on this topiever before did he imagihat he'll be giving instrus to a memer on how to py their meme. The whole thi like a bad satire.

  I've spent way too much time researg all of that. Yuel shuddered as he recalled the experience. After wasting so much precious time, I didn't have any more strength left to keep searg for more options for this dubious cept...

  It felt like a waste of time, all of it. Even the "useful" tech Yuel found seemed dubious at best and he had little to no opportunity to try it out during club practice. After all, Luke has been keeping his Dark Knight a "secret", which was a big problem in its ht.

  "I'd like to add that keeping your Dark Knight pick a 'secret' from the team was harmful to everybody,” Yuel criticized. “Maybe you thought it'll be a fun surprise, but because of that we didn't have many opportuo practice team ps that included a Dark Knight."

  "Hey, hey," Luke objected. "I’ve picked DK a bunch of times in the past two weeks, didn't I?"

  "Yes, that's how I noticed you were trying very hard to make it work. But, it would have been much better if you just told us that this was your pn, so we could brainstorm about it together and find the best way to work with that abnormal pick."

  "I mean, it's not like I knew for sure whether it'll work out for me, ya know? I was testing out the waters for while with this spicy meme,” Luke said. “I had no idea whether it'll be ready for today, so I didn't wanna make any promises. Imagine if I said ‘I tots gonna use DK, dudes!’, only to bail out at the st moment because it wasn’t actually ready. Super me."

  "That's fair, I suppose." Yuel nodded. "Though, I'm sure you realized it was 'ready' at some point, so you should have told us as soon as the realization hit."

  "Yep, you got a point there," Luke ceded. "I'll keep you posted the ime I e up with another spicy meme."

  "Please do."

  "Tho, I gotta say, you were kinda weird about this whole thing, too. Like, if you knew what I to, why didn’t you expose me yourself?"

  "I was waiting for you to e out and firm it," Yuel expined. "Since you kept quiet about it, I actually started having some doubt about the whole thing. I thought maybe you had no pns of actually bringing the Dark Knight to the stage.”

  “Why not just ask me, then?”

  “I sidered asking but decided against it. I didn't want to give you any funny ideas in case none of it was your iion in the first pce."

  "Haha. You hate my memes that much, huh."

  "I quite dislike them, yes."

  "Yet, you still researched the heck out of them. Talk about being indecisive."

  "What choice do I have?" Yuel sighed. "You insist on using your favorite memes, so I always have to be prepared to utilize them."

  "Wait, you telling me you’ve learned how to make all my memes viable!?"

  "Only some of them. There's no way I'll be able to study that many impractical picks, let alone e up with good tactics for them."

  "But, you still studied a bunch of these memes, right?" Luke snickered. "It sounds like you got the makings of a professional memer yourself!"

  "Over my dead body!" Yuel hissed. "I like expl unventional tactics but that's totally different from memes. Memes are only 'unventional' because they're subpar pared to everything else. I’d never willingly study them unless I had to."

  "Sure, dude."

  "Ugh..." Yuel scowled. His skin crawled from the mere idea of being pared to a memer. He was nothing like these jokers who sacrificed the eeam's ces of winning in order to tell an unfunny joke.

  Either way, so far, the flow of the versation suggested that Luke will be brandishing his Dark Knight once more. Were there really no alternatives in Stratus’s arsenal!?

  DarkestCymore