Chance! Nia swung her kunai across the target's back! And, who was the target in question? None other than Theorist, of course!
The unsuspecting prey was on her way toward the darkness surrounding the lion cage, so for once, she wasn’t paying as much attention to her surroundings. This gave Nia a rare opportunity to strike!
Ok, next! Nia followed up on her slash with Izuna Drop. She wrapped her arms around the Aeromancer and leaped high into the air! This one was going to hurt. A lot.
At this point, Nia had finished building a Lv. 3 Imperial Spear, which boosted the damage of the next skill shortly after landing a basic attack. Furthermore, the damage buff was percentage-based, so it had awesome synergy with burst damage skills like Izuna Drop.
Phew, it worked! Nia sighed in relief as she watched her Ninja spinning through the air along with the captured Theorist.
It was scary to use this setup. Nia admitted. I was sure everybody in the Leopards is superhuman like Lars with godlike reaction speed. But, Yuel was right. Theorist isn't all that.
In Nia’s experience, players with superb reaction speed like Lars’s could dodge this setup about 7 times out of 10. There was just enough time to plug in a Dodge Roll between Ninja’s basic attack and the Izuna Drop follow-up, but only those blessed with superhuman reaction speed could do it consistently.
Still, it's always scary. Nia thought. It means the setup is never 100% guaranteed.
This realization shattered Nia's world at the time. She realized that her entire life was a lie up until that point.
Imperial Spear + Izuna Drop was her bread and butter back then, and pretty much every guide in existence fervently recommended it. Some even claimed it was a “guaranteed setup”. It was lies, All lies.
So, after she exposed this grand conspiracy, Nia tried to rely less and less on this “fake” setup. Sure, this made her life as a Ninja much harder, but it was far better than relying on bad habits. Or, so Nia thought.
On the other hand, Yuel insisted that Nia should keep using this setup. He claimed that players like Lars were an exception to the rule and that the majority of players couldn't counter this setup.
And indeed, Yuel was right. He forced Nia to build Imperial Spear in this game despite her worries about the Leopards' skill level, and it finally paid off!
I thought all of them were going to be monsters. Nia admitted. But, maybe they're not that scary, after all! I can do this!
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Nia slammed her helpless prey into the ground, erasing 70% of the Theorist’s HP! Yes, 70%! Poof. Gone. Just like that.
Imperial Spear OP. Nia thought. But, I'm not complaining.
Aeromancer was squishy like any mage, so even a regular Izuna Drop would have probably erased about 50% of Theorist’s HP. But, the passive of Imperial Spear cranked it up to 70%! That's how awesome this thing was!
I can get this kill! Nia followed up with a slash on her downed prey! She was going to draw First Blood!
Was there anything her opponent could do to turn this situation around? Anything at all?
I can't believe this...! Sonya gritted her teeth. How could I forget about her in this critical moment!?
Actually, it was backward, wasn't it? It's because this was such a critical moment that Vanishing's existence momentarily disappeared from everybody's minds.
Sonya wouldn’t normally commit such an amateurish mistake, but the tense situation in Mid occupied all her attention. On top of that, a ward recently showed Vanishing heading toward Bot, so Sonya's mind was at ease. But, what the ward revealed was clearly just a clone and Sonya should’ve suspected that possibility all the way back then.
"Y-You irritating little...!" Sonya was shaking with anger, which was very unlike her. But, who was she actually angry at? At Vanishing for being such an anomaly of a player? Or, at herself for failing to properly keep track of this phantom?
I won't let you get this kill...! Sonya didn’t have any good tools for fighting at point-blank, but she had no intention of letting her opponent get away with all of this! She would have accepted her fate more calmly against anybody else, but not against Vanishing, not against this unreasonable existence that defied logic...!
And so, Sonya unleashed the only burst spell the Aeromancer had access to: Squall. She summoned a sudden gust of wind, shooting it straight at the phantom's face!
But, just as Squall fired off - Vanishing disappeared! The gust of wind ended up slicing through empty air. And, a moment later, a dagger slashed Sonya again, this time from the side.
She sidestepped it!? Sonya gasped but soon realized she shouldn’t even be surprised. Yes, of course she can sidestep it. The startup animation is just slow enough for skilled players to react to. And, from this range...
In retrospect, this outcome was only natural. From point-blank, it was easy to move to Sonya’s side with a single step. And, as frustrating as it was to admit, it seemed Vanishing had sufficient mechanical skill to pull this off against Squall.
I suppose she is... not that bad, I have to admit. Sonya bit her lip. As much as she wanted to reject everything about this anomaly called VanishingFlower, this phantom insisted on defying expectations. And now, this walking anomaly was going to take Sonya’s life...
"Sonya, my dear," Cato called out. "Place your ward, at least."
"Oh, right!" Sonya jumped. I might be a goner, but there's still one thing I can do...!
Sonya turned her back to the assassin and rolled toward the dark area ahead of her. With less than 5% HP left, on the very brink of death, she successfully delivered a Stealth Ward to the scene, and then...
『You have been killed!』
『FIRST BLOOD!』