Leonard found himself rankling at the caution of his teammates. Their team was easily one of the strongest left, with the exception of whichever team had the dragonborn in it. Even if the rest were useless, an impossibility this late in the training, that man had enough firepower to take down a team on his own.
Leonard’s team was strong though, strong enough that they didn’t need to go scouting out everything as that damnable tank kept insisting. If it wasn’t for her then they might have already gotten some points. Instead Leonard was being forced to scout out for other teams while his own hunkered down and played defensive.
Worse, even when Leonard had discovered a team the wimpy tank had insisted they pass them by, saying they should wait until later in the day. How in the Hel a woman that cowardly managed to get this far in the program was beyond him.
It didn’t matter though, not any more. After that he had decided to take matters into his own hands. Making sure to stay in ear shot he kept scouting around, determined to find another team as quickly as possible. It was pure serendipity when he spied a scout creeping along, the man nervously looking around as he went.
Leonard couldn’t help but wonder at the man, his sneaking skill undoubtedly lower than his own, something that wasn’t helped by the highly visible mop of red hair on the mans head. Leonard grinned, happy with everything that he saw. The man was easy to see, and therefore easy to keep sight of, and visibly nervous. If Leonard were to suddenly yell he had no doubt that the red haired scout would bolt straight back towards his team.
So naturally, Leonard yelled. “HELP, I’M BEING ATTACKED!!”
His unsuspecting victim jumped and looked up, spotting Leonard charging towards him with a crazed look on his face and a pair of daggers in his hands. With no hesitation the man spun around and dashed back the way he came.
Leonard smiled, his previous crazed look vanishing as he began calmly following the scout as he crashed through the undergrowth. He could just about hear his team begin following, the faint curses telling him exactly how they felt about the situation.
It didn’t matter, his plan was already in motion, the outcome inevitable at this point. Even if his team managed to catch up with him they would still have to silence the scout in case he brought the rest of his team this way, and with the way he was running it was highly unlikely. Even Leonard was finding it difficult, every now and then losing sight of his quarry. Not that he needed to keep track of the man, his trail was blindingly obvious to even the most incompetent tracker.
It came as a shock then, when the trail suddenly vanished in the middle of an empty clearing. Leonard immediately stopped dead, his instincts raising alarm bells as he scanned his surroundings. He wasn’t surprised when the large man walked out from a tree, though he was surprised at how calm the man looked as he unclipped the shield from behind his back and slipped his arm into the straps.
Leonard, realizing that he might be outnumbered, attempted to slip back into the trees only to find his feet unmoving. Looking down he was shocked to find his feet covered in roots which seemed to have appeared without warning or sound. Looking up he found the large man slowly walking towards him.
Wasting no time Leonard bent down, slamming his daggers into the roots wrapped around his feet. Sadly he had misunderstood the tanks role in this fight. While the large man was certainly threatening, he was never meant to even reach Leonard.
He was just a distraction.
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Johann watched from his position on a nearby tree branch as Leonard disappeared, portalled out as Johann’s Animal [Mana Bolt] struck his head. The blow would undoubtedly have been fatal if not for the arm band’s intervention, his trait and the use of Animal attuned mana boosting the power of the spell far beyond what was needed to kill someone with ten vitality.
The plan they had was simple. Norman would go out, acting as a nervous scout who would bolt the moment he saw anyone. When another team saw him they would naturally follow his trail, leading them right into an ambush. Hathor was the distraction with Lyra hidden nearby in case Hathor got in trouble. After Hathor got their attention Johann would use his roots to trip up their tank while Cathach used her [Fire Bolt] to harass the healer.
With the tank momentarily rooted and the healer in trouble the natural reaction would be for everyone to focus on Cathach. Since she had plenty of cover the melee or rogue would have to rush her, running directly into a series of traps courtesy of Norman. With everyone focused on Cathach, their ‘ranged attacker’, it would leave the healer wide open for Johann to snipe the healer. At that point the fight was as good as theirs, since by that time Norman would have covered any escape routes in traps. With two ranged attackers, no escape routes and a hidden healer covering a self healing tank the fate of the ambushed was all but inevitable.
Of course, no plan survived first contact with the enemy, but they made sure to have several backup plans to cover as many scenarios as reasonably possible. Everyone had an escape route and a secondary location where they would meet. While they could never say that they were ready for every situation, they were ready for most.
They weren’t ready for a rogue to come charging in without his team. In a way it was nice, they managed to take down an enemy without revealing themselves to the rest, but it meant that Hathor was already visible when the rest of the team came charging in. It was a small change but it meant they weren’t surprised by his entrance and immediately began to look around.
The other surprise was the presence of someone Johann knew; Gloria. Bursting into the clearing along with her was a three others but Johann barely paid any attention to them, his entire focus on his friend.
It was something he had been dreading, coming up against Gloria or Torin. He’d hoped that with the size of the island and how far they had run that there would be little chance of them meeting, but it seemed the gods enjoyed irony.
Steeling himself Johann cast [Grasping Roots], empowering the spell with Nature mana to give it an extra oomph. He immediately attuned himself to Weather and began firing [Mana Bolt]s as quickly as possible, aiming first for the man in the robes near the back.
It was a complete break from the plan but Johann knew the plan was screwed as soon as Gloria appeared. Gloria was familiar with his spells, she would recognize his roots and realize there were two casters when seeing the [Fire Bolt], making their subterfuge useless.
Johann wasn’t about to leave his teammates wondering what was going on though. They’d made a plan for a situation like this, though the signal was a bit … awkward.
“JOHAANNNN ALLLLLTUUUUD!!” He shouted, his voice piercing through the trees and drawing the four ambushee’s attention as his first [Mana Bolt] followed right behind.
The idea for the plan came from the legendary berserker ‘Leeroy Jenkins’. Leeroy was a warrior in the Hinterhältig army who had a nasty tendency to immediately abandon any plan and run at the enemy while screaming his own name. With Leeroy being the son of a noble the commander couldn’t simply kick him out of the army, so instead he began to plan around him. Whenever the incorrigible Leeroy went charging the commander would take advantage of the distraction to slip spies in amongst the enemy troops. The plan worked so well that Hinterhältig won the next three wars before anyone else even caught on.
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As such, their team knew that, if one of them were to suddenly scream their own name in an exaggerated fashion, then they would be supplying a distraction and letting everyone else take advantage of the confusion.
The first [Mana Bolt] met a sword swinging the other way, Gloria too late to warn their melee not to try disrupt the spell. For most spells the tactic would work, the magic dissipating harmlessly on the steel, but not when it comes to lightning based spells.
As the [Mana Bolt] burst the lightning went coursing through the melee attackers body and making his muscles clench, a small mercy as without it his sword would have been blown from his hand and skewered the person he was trying to save. As it was the healer ended up wide-eyed as the sword’s edge passed inches from their eyes.
The second bolt was already on its way but Gloria was there, her shield steady as the bolt slammed into it. The lightning surged through the shield and into Gloria’s arm, where it stopped dead. As soon as Gloria had identified Johann as her opponent she had changed her arm into that of a Polymerian, a species with rubber skin that were naturally resistant to electricity.
When preparing to enter the Adventurers Guild Gloria had researched a number of species. Polymerians were one of her favorites, their skin naturally resistant to both blunt attacks and lightning which just so happened to be two of the methods favored when attacking a heavily armored warrior.
Johann’s plan, despite having failed to do more than stun a melee attacker, had succeeded in distracting the group. Hathor charged forward, his speed temporarily increasing as he pumped stamina into his legs. With a mighty swing of his shield he batted the jittery melee off to the side and began swinging his ax at the ranged attacker.
The ranged attacker, who was easy to identify while holding a large bow, managed to dodge backwards. Unfortunately he dodged into the path of a [Fire Bolt] that Cathach had launched as she ran. The impact and searing pain was in no way small but, after three months of the Punishment Gauntlet, the archer still managed to roll out of the way of the sword weilding warrior.
Sadly for the archer, Cathach had never been aiming for him, he had simply gotten in the way. With her path now clear Cathach swung her falchion at her original target, the healer. Rule #1 in any conflict; take out the healer first.
Before her blade could land Gloria was there, her shield deflecting the blade even as she swung her mace towards Cathach’s shoulder. Cathach managed to lean back enough to turn the blow into a glancing one but it was still plenty enough to send her stumbling back.
The healer, having realized just how much trouble they were in, began retreating backwards as fast as possible while sending a [Healing Bolt] towards Gloria. Johann chose to let her go, trusting in Norman and his traps to deal with the retreating healer. Instead he focused on interrupting Gloria as much as possible, sending anther [Grasping Roots] her way as he fired off a Weather bolt towards her.
In an incredible display of flexibility and strength Gloria managed to lean backwards almost ninety degrees at the knees to dodge the spell before righting herself, her mace swinging out to bash at Cathach who had to jump backwards to avoid another impact. Lyra hadn’t healed her shoulder yet, choosing to remain hidden until rather than heal minor injuries.
Hathor found himself fending off the attention of the swordsman. Despite his larger size and equal stats Hathor found himself struggling to keep up with the smaller man, his nimbleness and technique allowing him to keep finding the gaps in Hathor’s defense. It didn’t do much, his regeneration was healing any cuts he got within seconds, but it was annoying to find himself so outclassed.
In the meanwhile Johann was currently involved in a sniping contest with the archer. Johann had the benefit of only needing to stick a hand out in order to fire but the archer was much faster than he was, making the two of them roughly even. Neither had managed to hit the other, the trees and other foliage providing plenty of cover.
After several seconds of back and forth Johann finally had his chance when the archer managed to step on a trap. Norman had, with nothing more than some sticks and a bit of twine, managed to rig up a trap that would fling several needle sharp spikes at groin height from three different directions. The archer managed to escape most of the spikes, one barely grazing his thigh, but ended up taking a [Mana Bolt] to the chest. The next bolt transported him back to the compound the fast way.
With Johann no longer occupied the fight went quick. A bolt to Gloria’s back interrupted her movements enough for Cathach to land the winning blow. The swordsman, seeing his teammates fall, took off into the trees. Less than three seconds later he ended up leaving the competition with large holes in various parts of his body; the Punishment Gauntlet had given Norman a lot of ideas.
The four of them grouped up, Norman joining them a few seconds later after confirming that no teams were nearby.
“Alright, I think that went about as well as can be expected.” Cathach said. Turning towards Johann she asked “Johann, why did you go all ‘Jenkins’ back there? Not saying it wasn’t the right call, just curious why.”
Johann sighed. “One of the girls, the tank, is my friend Gloria. She knows my spells well enough that she would have immediately recognized me. Your distraction wouldn’t have worked on her, so I figured I would use myself as the distraction. Didn’t seem to work that well though.”
Cathach shook her head. “Yes and no. While it’s true that we didn’t manage to immediately take out the healer, your bolt did take out the swordsman, albeit temporarily, and I almost managed to take out the healer in a sneak attack. Your friend has some serious skills, any idea how she managed to ignore your attack?”
“Yes, though I won’t be telling you.” Johann said. “No offense, but I won’t be telling my best friends secrets to a temporary teammate, especially now that she’s out of this fight.”
Cathach nodded. “I understand, no offense taken. Norman, was the healer taken out by your traps?”
Norman shook his head, surprising everyone. “The healer must have been paying attention in the gauntlet as she managed to dodge or avoid quite a few traps. I managed to sneak up on her and slit her throat though.”
Everyone looked at him in even more surprise. When they were talking about their skills Norman had mentioned that his class had no attacking related skills, something he said he preferred as he hated fighting.
Norman shrugged. “Just because I don’t like getting my hands dirty doesn’t mean I won’t get blood on them if I need to. The healer was getting away, you guys were busy and I didn’t want her bringing attention to us before I reset the traps.”
Cathach smiled. “Good to know we can rely on you if we need to, though hopefully we won’t need to in future. Alright, while Norman resets the traps lets discuss what else went wrong, what went right and what we could change to get more of the latter in future. Once Norman’s ready we’ll get in position and he can bring us more prey.”
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In the end they spent another two hours waiting before Norman managed to attract another team. This time the plan started more the way they had planned. Norman ran through the clearing before vanishing, off to lay traps and pen the targets in.
Johann used his [Grasping Roots] spell to immobilize the tank as Cathach launched her [Fire Bolt] at the healer. Watching as the healer dodged the spell and the team turned towards Cathach’s direction Johann decided to switch his attunement to Animal before launching his [Mana Bolt]. The Animal infused spell would actively track its target, making dodging far more difficult.
It turned out to be the right move as, even though no one was looking at him and everyone was distractd by the dual threats of Cathach and Hathor, the healer still attempted to dodge. The spell still struck, changing trajectories at the last moment to strike the healer in the face. Or, it would have, had the healer not been teleported out an instant before.
With the healer taken out and the tank rooted, it seemed they would have the fight in the bag. When they managed to take out the rogue, a small man wielding a pair of daggers dipped in poison, their victory seemed all but certain.
Which is why Johann was quite surprised when an arrow came out of nowhere to skewer Hathor through the throat. The wound wouldn’t have been fatal to the man, his regeneration laughing off most arrow wounds, if not for the fact that the arrow was still in there. Hathor was busy fighting a broadsword wielding warrior, one he could not disengage from long enough to rip the arrow out. After three seconds he was teleported out, the blood drowning his lungs getting bad enough to trigger the teleport on his arm band.
Not that Johann saw any of that. As soon as the arrow sprouted from Hathors neck a rather large shard of ice nearly cut him in half It was only thanks to the reflexes he had honed in the gauntlet that he managed to escape with nothing more than a scratch. He did have to abandon his position however, leaping from the branch he had been standing in he dove to the ground in a forwards roll that ended with him taking cover from the mage behind a tree.
Sadly, even though he was safe from the mage, he very much wasn’t from the ax swinging woman that came up behind him. Once again he leapt forwards and rolled, this time ending up on his feet as he tried to get as far away from the ax wielder as possible while preparing a cast of [Mana Bolt].
He never saw the arrow that ended him. He might have, if he hadn’t been preoccupied, but as it was he found himself in the arena before he even realized what was happening. The sudden shift ended disorientated him so much he ended up tripping over his own legs and sprawling over the dusty floor.
A few chuckles sounded out around him as Johann’s brain finally came to a sad realization; he had lost.