Day 11 Default 5
After having tested out, ranked up, and generally gotten familiar with her new MMA skills, KillPrinsX was ready to take take her skills to a real battle.
She opened up the home page of the School of Elemental Magic and looked up when the next tournament would be.
Perfect! A Level 25-30 Mage’s Tournament coming up today at 1:00 pm. She registered immediately, paying an exorbitant 5000 gold for the entry fee.
It was already 8:00 in the morning, staff were coming in along with a few players, and KillPrinsX was stepping out of the MMA Gymnasium with a determined grin on her face.
She was so excited, she didn’t know where to start. She checked out the stadium to find a few lower level Mages sparring, with a number of players watching. Too boring.
She turned around, and found a nice place to wait and bide her time until the tournament started, she had a good four hours before she had to check in. Nothing like spiking Mana before a battle.
The Mana bar was relatively empty and she took her choice seat way in the back on a nice and squishy booth. She order a blue martini and started rolling through skills.
Surprisingly, there were plenty of Psychic skills she had never gotten around to. Not so surprising after having neglected them entirely and beginning to test out Elemental Magic. She wasn’t complaining, but her interest came up. There were tier 5 Psychic skills in her arsenal she had never tried, Programmer, from her Basic skills. (Analyze being tier 1). There wasn’t even a description of the skill yet, she had never used it.
Psychic Warrior Toggle skill, possibly like Focus but tier 5.
Her Disabling skills had Confuse, Paralyze, Betray, and Kamikaze. A huge miss, she could have successfully used those against the Trolls, and maybe even the Sun Giant!
Her Psychic Attacks like Drain and HP Leech included Knock Back, Demon Fingers, and Instant Kill. Also something that would have been irresistible against any opponent.
Evasive skills included one called Blind Spot, and another called Invisible. Those needed testing, they would have been completely useful, maybe in the Imp caves, sneaking up is one thing, but becoming invisible mid battle is another.
She was thinking about all the skills she could have used now, skills she had never even tried. She’d look like an imbecile trying these out in the tournament. But maybe she could. She doesn’t have to change her fighting style now, but maybe, at a perfect opportunity… she’ll find one.
She started going over tactics, trying to keep it to her Elemental Magic, despite all the interesting Psychic skills.
She remembered the first players she had met, how they had discredited her for being a Psychic. But little did they know now, if only she could start using those skills in her next battle. That is if she won the tournament, but if she lost, it’d take quite a bit before she could unlock those tier 5 skills again. Tier 5 is only available after level 20. If she defaults, she’ll have to suffer using the lower skills… and she’s not going to default in this tournament!
So, back to tactics. She was facing Elemental Magic Mages. The range of skills and Elements is huge. Recalling those MMA charts made her worry about anyone adept in Dark magic. Also wondering about whether or not she could fight against any Mage really adept in any one of the Elements. Maybe some Air Mage who really knew his stuff might just pick her up, send her to round and round, and let her fall to her death, or make it so she’d never be able to cast a proper spell. But no. No one had a Mana bar that high, using Air Manipulation for that long would deplete their Mana in less than ten seconds, and that’s with it full.
Otherwise, she has plenty of skills she can use. Bloodsucker is still a good option, depleting HP fast. Actually that was the key: depleting HP.
It wasn’t how many spells you cast, or how cool they were, it was getting the opponent slain. That’s the hidden key, underneath all the exciting colorful magic, it came down to attack and defense.
This was the end of her train of thought, she knew what skills she could use to take opponent’s HP down, attack by attack. Her purpose was in sight: Win the tournament! Don’t be too flashy. And no matter what, kill the opponent, the faster the better.
So, she knows what skills to use in battle, but preps was another thing. She had to figure out what skills to start with, and they weren’t all that cheap. The Mana Capsule was probably the first, then Buffs, then a Blast attack. As it seemed, they always start with a Blast. Which Blast the other used was entirely up to luck. You don’t always know what skills the other player has. Counting Mana Points, that would be 230 MP on Buffs and 500 MP for the Mana Capsule. Which would leave her with just enough MP for a good Blast.
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She had just over 900 MP to play with. Maybe Evade could take care of that worry over excessive Mana use… and she already forgot about the shield.
100 MP into Shield, then run!
Actually Evade was low cost, and so was Psychic Evade. So she then had a good 100 MP to use with Evading, until the Mana Capsule fermented it’s own MP for future use.
She took a good look at her skills. With her original Psychic Skills, Evasive skills gave her Psychic Dash (tier 2) and wasn’t that bad for Mana cost.
She remembered that she does have her mana reduction with the Buff and her Staff. But even then, the Buff’s 230 MP would drop to 200, but the Shield and Mana Capsule were a nondeductible cost.
Ok, say she left out the Mana Capsule, she could definitely parry a Blast, but that would only be wasting Mana if she could Evade properly, saving loads of Mana, then she’d be able to put more into Shield, and even summon Mother for 200 or 300 MP. And then she’d be out of Mana, not taking into account an acceptable safety for what drastic defensive actions she’d have to deal with.
Ugh… numbers!
If she uses the Mana Capsule’s saved MP after Evade, she would have more MP to play with for the moment, leaving 300 in the Mana Capsule. But saving it for a minute since casting, she’d have more than double her MP back.
So, the plan is, Evade for as long as possible, then take MP, summon The Killer Creature and Evade some more while the Mana Capsule regenerates even more MP… then the fight really starts, Blast attacks, come in close for Bloodsucker and Bite. Even the classic Fireball would work well. But if she landed a good hit with Boiling Water Blast the other player would be scalded and probably start taking continual damage from the 2nd degree burn. And follow through with Lightning Bolt or some other Electric attack, they would be down in no time, even with a shield.
Alright, so that sounds like a sturdy plan of action. Despite any defending and evading she has to do, taking into account that she doesn’t get put out of commission, she could do this. And she was pretty fast already, doubting that any other Mage had actually taken their time to grind Sprinting or Sneak like she had.
It’d be some work, but with her speed, her Mana costs lowered and knowledge of MMA, she might even win this tournament.
Just when she was really starting to worry about winning, she got a notification that she had to be at The Stadium for registration.
She ordered one last Blue Martini, the super charged one that gave you a good boost to your existing Mana. And she walked out to check in.
Check-in was boring. They gave you the rules, what skills, items, and beasts you can and can’t use. She was happy to know that all of her skills were in good order, along with her Psychic skills… though the Vampire skill set they had to question. Bite and Enthrall being some sketchy skills in a Mage’s battle. But they sent up a query to their boss, and it came back saying that she could use them, though it was a good question. All’s fair in magic… I guess.
The next step was an interesting one. Sitting behind a window, an NPC lady informed her about storing items. “Would you like to store anything before entering this Life-or-Default Tournament. You will be able to return and pick up any belongings after the battle, no matter if you have defaulted, your Player ID will allow us to know who you are.”
That is something that could make a difference, if she did default. She thought it over, noting how she was preparing to default, one last hint from the universe… No! It won’t happen.
KillPrinsX took a deep breath and told her to get a hold of herself. Whether or not she’ll default now is not the point of storing items… actually it is. But get a grip on yourself, if you put in a bunch of gold and a few good items it will only help later on, and after the tournament, when you win, you’ll be able to just pick it right back up.
She went ahead and deposited the rest of her gold, a few daggers, the short-sword and helm she had looted off of Tirade and Bruno, the sunglasses and one Mana potion. That should be enough to start anew. Nothing she’d need in battle right now.
She looked down at Charlotte, the spider’s black eyes twinkling, cute as ever.
“Can I store my pet?”
“Of course, we have kennels of all sizes, and amenities for most pet’s needs.”
“Then I’d like to register my pet spider, Charlotte.”
She looked into her eyes once more. “I don’t want you hurt out there. It’ll be a crazy series of fights and I don’t want to loose you. I’ll be back afterwards, don’t worry.”
“Alright, I’ll be waiting,” Charlotte replied back. “Just don’t get yourself killed. But I’ll love you as always no matter if you do…” little spider tears filled her eyes.
KillPrinsX too was tearing up. “I’ll be back. For you.”
“That’ll be 5 gold per day.”
“I put some gold in, just take it from there.”
Getting herself back together, she was then sent to sit in room number 6 of 8. It was a solitary type of green room that was somewhat comfortably relaxing. Competitors weren’t allow to associate before the fight, they said it was to make it fair so that players don’t know their opponent’s style before getting onto the battle field. But we all know that it really was so that no fights would break out before the real fight.
Each fight was approximately ten minutes long, and clean up took about five. Players in rooms 1 and 2 fought, then 3 and 4, then 5 and 6; she’d be playing in about half an hour, so she paced back and forth, listening to the incredible bangs and booms outside, trying to catch something of the commentators voice. But nothing good came through.
She scrolled through her skills once more, to make sure she didn’t overlook any… But she did! The Phoenix Skill set.
There was Fireball and Phoenix Skin she used all the time, but she had never looked at the tier 5 skill, Born From Ashes. It seemed to have a peculiar name that hinted at something useful. It was a sort of a Buff skill, it actually indicated itself as a timed passive… couldn’t hurt. She cast it, spent 500 Mana, and got a notification that it would last for one day or until used. But nothing told her how to use it.
Well, one last large Mana potion before the fight…