He wasn’t entirely certain what he’d expected the reactions of his teammates to be upon Quince’s return to lane with what appeared to be a bandolier full of crystal batteries, but it wasn’t for both of his teammates to start celebrating.

“Only one! I was expecting it to take two or three!” Nathaniel said, laughing.

“I doubt it’ll be enough on its own, but at least he has a chance!” Jessica replied. “If he’s figured out the actual counter I’d be surprised, though.”

“Me too, but realizing the change that quickly? Better than I would have expected.”

Jeremy decided to cut in, then. He didn’t mind that they were having fun, but it was starting to grate on him a little to not know what they were talking about. “Mind telling me why that’s a good thing? Aren’t we supposed to be against him right now?”

They were both quiet for a long moment, which made him think that he might have somehow said something wrong, but the reply came soon enough. “I mean, I guess? But it’s more testing him than anything. The quick adaptation is good, but we don’t expect him to suddenly develop the shotcalling chops to win.” Nathaniel said. “As much as he’s adapted, it’s not really the winning adaptation so much as the one that puts him, personally, in the best position.”

“What’s the winning adaptation, then?”

Jessica answered this time. “Using Emma to choke out Nathan and just chilling in mid. Neither of us can move up quickly without help, and she’s a bit better on clear than you, so she could just pop up and slowly give Jade advantage that we’d lose by fighting.”

That thought hadn’t really occurred to him, but now that she laid it out…

He hit the monster in front of him with the spear again, his shields strengthening slightly again. They weren’t all that strong, but having that extra layer made the healing from his strikes that little bit more effective. Still something was bothering him about what she’d said…

“Wait, can’t Nathaniel fight her somewhat on that? I know 1v2 isn’t the best position to be in, but you could at least slow the bleeding on that be enough to let us help.”

“If we were actually fighting for it, maybe.” Nathaniel responded. But that’s not the rules we’re playing on.”

“Speaking of which, Emma’s at the troll. Think you can steal it?”

“Almost definitely, as long as she doesn’t see me coming.”

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“Do that, then. Jer, you’re on Jade annoyance duty again.”

He blew out a breath at that. He would be losing less than Emma was in this trade, but that didn’t mean he was a huge fan of it, either.

Jade was obviously a chaotic and untrained intermediate, but she was also the kind of freakish natural with her weapons that was genuinely confusing­– and potentially dangerous– to deal with.

Really, the only reason that he was able to completely shut her out was the tell she had for throwing, that step back and resetting giving him enough time to pull his guard into the right position.

This time, like last time, she opened the attack with her clone. If Rayne didn’t bring that up, he would, but that didn’t mean he could afford to ignore it, either. With the single throw from the duplicate taking out his shields, and hurting with the knife in his arm. Not exactly ideal, but it was the point, really.

Plus, That single attack meant that the duplicate would be almost useless this fight, and picking out Jade wasn’t that hard.

Unfortunately, her ability to throw him off the bridges meant that getting to her was an endeavor.

In a straight line, he had her beat unequivocally in speed. Up here on the bridges, with her jumping to the occasionally tree and skipping corners much more effectively than he could manage, he was slightly, if at all, faster instead.

But she couldn’t afford to just run away forever, and she knew it. The turn was quick, and, if she hadn’t taken the extra moment to set her feet before throwing, he probably wouldn’t have been able to react.

Instead, he tossed the spear down, letting it clatter forward as he dove forward, and picked it up again as he stood up, spinning to face her.

The strike was quick and well inside where he was effectively able to bring his weapon to bear, but his arms were longer, and he used that to knock the strike to the side enough to step out of the way. Changing to a ridiculously shortened grip as that hand made contact with his weapon again, he hit Jade’s shield a couple of times while she was recovering.

She still hadn’t made contact with the boosted strike, so he left off his healing component for now.

It would just make him an easier target.

Not that that lasted long, because she pulled one of those moves that somehow kept surprising him.

Her shield was already low, so when, instead of retreating on the last hit it could take, she stepped in, he was caught off-guard enough for her to jab him in the abdomen and discharge her passive’s damage.

Not enough to kill him, but closer to it than he preferred.

Two more strikes with the spear, one breaking the shield and the other hitting her in the shoulder while she tried to pull away. This time, healing himself.

It wasn’t a lot– the cut in his side was obviously still painfully there, but not quite as bad, and his shield was up as well.

As she had so many times before, Jade jumped forward and to the side, then activated Jet blast to knock him off the ledge while using Echo Whirlwind to slow down his reaction.

Of course, that assumed he was reacting.

By the time she was in position, he’d already changed his grip and prepared the ability.

From there, it was a simple matter for throwing the spear as he fell, and, instead of letting go, possessing the item.

As before, his awareness opened to a fully-spherical, silent view around the spear as he flew, and his aim had ben true– he popped out of it fully standing on the bridge, while Jade was running away.

The chase was on.

Again.

Hopefully Jessica would call it off before they were too far into enemy territory.