Virtual Sword God!

Chapter 77: Split Pushing

Scarlett was just staring back at Alex in disbelief. She had no clue that Alex would spring something on her like this. Although she didn't know what split pushing was, she still knew from Alex's tone, that he had given her an important role.

"Err Scarlett" Alex said as he waved his hand in front of her face. "Are you there, is everything okay?"

Scarlett suddenly snapped out of it.

"Sorry."

"You look like I asked you to fight one on one with a tiger or something, don't worry your job is the easy part."

After hearing these words Scarlett suddenly calmed down a bit.

Alex then continued to explain.

"We know that Hershel likes to group up and fight as one unit. Honestly, if it's us five vs them five I don't think we have a chance of winning this match. That's why instead of going for a Wipeout (when a team kills all the other team's players.) will go for a capture win instead. (when a team captures the flag at the enemy's team base). While the four of us are locked in combat with Hershel, we will try our best to keep them there for as long as possible, while you Scarlett will push either the top or bottom lane."

"Do you think it's a good plan?" Novis asked George and Arthur.

"It's a risky plan," Arthur replied. "The four of you will have to work hard but not only that. Alex is relying on Hershel stubbornness to work as a group. If they figure out that Scarlett is the weak one in the group all they need to do is send one player to deal with her."

After hearing this, Novis raised his hand to ask a question.

"Why don't we send me instead to do the split pushing."

"Hershal team consists of sword and shield warriors, this is the worst matchup for archers as they can easily block incoming shots. We will need our strongest and most effective members to hold Hershal off for as long as possible."

Scarlett was a little saddened by what Alex had said. She felt like she was just being tossed to the side because she wouldn't be effective in the team fight. Alex saw this and came up to Scarlett.

"Don't get me wrong Scarlett we need you. Will try our best to hold them but you have the most important job of us all."

Scarlett smiled back as she was reassured but at the same time now, she felt an immense amount of pressure on her shoulders.

"Well, what are we waiting for? It's time to play some practice games."

The VSW Club then entered in the VR headsets to practise their split pushing idea. The team straight away came across a number of different problems.

It was rare for a team to group up so early on in a game like Hershel. They needed a match that would simulate what they would face against Hershal.

The team tried many tactics to try baiting the team to group together but it didn't really work, all there testing and messing around made the team lose game after game. There were a few wins here and there of course but they came from a Wipeout rather than a flag capture.

"Dammit, this isn't working!" Alex said as he was getting frustrated over the whole thing.

"Maybe we can't get them to group up but why don't we try manning them one on one?" Dan suggested. "We do it all the time in Football. Each person selects someone on the team and they cover them, try to not kill or be killed by the opponent while we let Scarlett push up ahead?"

"It's a good idea but you're missing an important detail out," Alex replied. "With Scarlett pushing they'll be four of us, meaning one of us will have to take on two."

Novis then raised his hand.

"I'll do it, I did it before, I know it will be a bit harder since I have to stop them from going back to base but I want to get better."

The team looked at each other and nodded. Although the whole school thought Dan or Ashley was the strongest members of the team. The VSW members thought differently. After playing many games with Novis they were amazed at his skill. So far in all the matches, they had played where they were trying to delay their opponent without killing them. Novis was the only one to succeed.

The only reason why they lost most of the games was because they were trying to keep the enemy busy for as long as possible without killing them. Then when each member would die Noivs would be left to face 5 on 1.

Over the next few days, the team tried the man on man tactic with Novis taking on two players. Although it wasn't the perfect simulation for their fight against Hershel, it was the next best thing. The problem was Novis now had to deal with two people and make sure they didn't leave his side.

When a tower was destroyed on your team a message would appear notifying everyone. So while Scarlett was destroying towers the team's first instinct would be to go back to their base. This was where the hard part came in for Novis. He needed to do his best to stop the team from running back and killing Scarlett.

It was hard at first as Novis would often let one slip out of his sight. It was easy for a player to just run into the forest once Novis was engaged with another. But after match after match, the team eventually got a capture win.

Scarlett's face was so happy, she herself was having a tough time. She had to come up with the best way to allow the NPC knights to help her take down the tower. At first, her tactics were slow but then game by game she got faster and faster at it.

The team was confident in this new strategy, they played a few more games and they started to get a nice 50/50-win rate in their games.

Finally, the weekend had come and it was time for the match between Hershal and Montem.