Chapter 32 - The ICB: Group Mid and a Red Buff
“I am still not seeing anyone.” Palinus whispered into the team chat.
He felt vulnerable standing in the middle lane by himself. He felt like he was waiting for something bad to happen as he carefully collected essentia from the minions as they destroyed each other.
A rustling in the brush beside the lane drew his attention and he flinched as he quickly back peddled towards his tower.
When nothing came out of the brush he shook himself and reassured his anxious mind that he must have imagined the sound. The logical part of him knew that movement in the tall grass beside the lane couldn't be heard from outside it.
“There are clearing the creeps in the forest!” Brucht’s voice startled him as it urgently whispered in his ear. “They are on our side too, towards the top lane!”
“Be ready Rufi!” Seline warned.
“Bahaha, let them come!” Rufian replied.
His predictable arrogance was somewhat warranted with three successful kills and a lane to himself giving Rufian a level advantage he could also use his ars to escape if he targeted a creep or friendly minion rather than an enemy.
With his Saturnine Veil on cooldown Palinus certainly didn't feel as confident of escape and as looked at his options for level one for the 50th time he couldn’t find an answer there either.
Wandslinger
Red Mage
Mage
Ars
Multi-Strike
Fireball
Magic Missiles
Attunement
nil
nil
nil
Cooldown
n/a
60 seconds
30 seconds
Compatibility
n/a
n/a
n/a
Skill Type
Enhancement
Projectile, Area
Projectile
Slot
[Wrist], [Arm]
[Fist, hand, wrist]
[Fist, hand, wrist]
Slot Bonus
n/a
n/a
n/a
Description
Each strike applies effects twice.
Shoot an explosive fireball damaging everything [200] within 2 metres and applying [Burn].
Shoot three bolts of energy doing [50] damage each to up to three targets.
He really needed an escape, but the secondary class options he had were not going to provide that.
With a sigh he selected Fireball. It had seemed like such a cool ars when he had selected it for the first time not that long ago, but it was so underwhelming compared to the amazing abilities he was facing. At least he would be able to do some damage.
Tribune Asterius had said something about his generic ars reaspecting as he acquired a more comprehensive set of calculii when they were talking and Palinus couldn’t wait. He couldn't believe that they had had that conversation only a few hours ago, it felt like weeks had passed.
Palinus was shaken from his meandering thoughts as he suddenly sensed something.
Coming from behind his right shoulder he felt a quick surge and release of essentia.
He turned, but instantly stumbled as his legs tangled in Bakano’s roots.
His stomach turned to ice and he quickly lifted his hand to his ear.
“I’m dead. They are all here… all of them.”
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There was a numb tingle through his body as if it already knew it’s fate and his voice carried with an out of body sense of calm.
Saturnine Veil - 1:22
The minute and twenty two seconds before he could hide in the smoke felt like an eternity. Faced with the full team of five Palinus knew there was nothing he could do, he was too far away from the tower and they could probably dive it with the five of them in anycase.
Several ars quickly followed Bakano’s roots. A debuff struck that felt like his body was eating itself from Marnus. A fireball followed that as Vel contributed, the blast of fire felt hotter than Palinus had ever felt before and left a lingering burn effect.
Palinus 317/630 | Level 1 [Rooted], [Burning]
Smoke Mage / Red Mage
With an ugly sneer on his face Arruns ran straight towards Palinus, blocking his allies ranged attacks heedlessly.
“Lets see you escape this time, twig.” The already scary axeman charged towards Palinus with his massive axe dragging behind him. There was an aura emanating from his axe and body it gave both the weapon and the young man’s eyes a bright red glow the streaked behind him as he moved.
Sensing a chance Palinus prepared to use Arruns’ wide frame to block the enemy team from hitting him with ranged attacks.
Quickly blasting the axeman in the face with a fireball before he could close the full distance, Palinus braced for the axe attack. He almost smiled as he set his legs to absorb the attack and prepare to run as quickly as possible afterwards.
Something was odd about the rest of the 111s movements. They didn’t seem to be paying Palinus any attention at all, Agrippa hadn’t even bothered to move towards him at all and was instead attacking the minions and eyeing off the tower.
A bad feeling began to take root as Palinus considered the buff effect that Arruns was carrying.
The axe came thundering down towards him and it struck with the same overwhelming force. The axe bit into the flesh of his shoulder as he slightly ducked his head aside. It cut through the flash and muscle and crunched instantly through his clavicle before running out of momentum part way through the bone of his shoulder.
The strike again siphoned the debuffs currently afflicting Palinus. The burning affect felt like a fire that had been smoldering was suddenly stoked to an intense blaze that scorched him from the inside in a flash of intense pain. The searing pain of the burn was matched with the intense feeling of wrongness as the reversed healing affect was consumed, the feeling was totally dissimilar to anything Palinus had experienced before. It was as if his body was trying to tear itself apart.
WIth the sensation of savage spikes being thrust through his legs the root effect was also consumed.
Despite the pain in his legs Palinus was quick to start running. Even with the seeming lack of interest from the rest of the 111s he stuck to his plan of running slightly away from the rest of their team to keep Arruns blocking their attacks.
“Hahaha, you are a bit more resilient than most Red Mages.” Arruns chuckled as he followed.
Something felt wrong, as if he was running through water and Palinus struggled to get away.
“You should know your place and accept your death.” Arruns said from uncomfortably close.
The Axeman tapped Palinus with his axe, leaving a shallow gash on his leg.
Palinus 57/630 | Level 1 [Slowed]
Smoke Mage / Red Mage
The red aura was buffing Arruns’ attacks. It felt like he was doing a bit more damage and the slowing affect was also damaging Palinus slightly. The savage wound on his shoulder and the gash on his leg both burned as if infected.
“You should never have made me look bad.” Arruns almost whispered. "I will keep coming for you. I will even find you in the overworld."
Palinus was futilely focused on running. He tried with all his strength to get away, but the slowing debuff was making him too slow.
The axe blow came from his side. He was almost grateful he didn't see it but he certainly felt it. The heavy blade of the axe carved a cavernous slice through his flesh biting in an slightly upward path under his ribs and into his body.
It was only as the blade stopped, it's savage edge biting into his spine, that he lost consciousness.
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Not having a body was a weird feeling.
The instant loss of sensation was amplified by instantly cutting off the pain of his avatar’s death. Absently he tried to touch himself where the axe had struck on his shoulder but Palinus realised that he didn’t have a body to touch, or a hand to touch with.
He wasn’t quite sure where he was and he couldn’t see anything. He laughed as he realised that of course he couldn’t see anything, he didn’t have eyes, but of course he couldn’t laugh without a mouth.
Existential dread suddenly quashed the humour he found in his situation.
There was a sense that did work for Palinus as he inventoried himself. He could sense essentia all around him. Pulses of essentia flooded the space where his body should be and surged around him as if he lay in a womb being repeatedly flooded with amniotic fluid.
As he grounded himself focusing on the process, Palinus could see a body begin to form in the space. It took multiple cycles and what seemed like a vast amount of essentia and he started to feel normal sensations of having a body. He felt the warm rush of the essentia against his flesh and a deep itch as his skin began to cover the form of his new avatar.
He patted his shoulder again and was relieved to feel that the flesh of his shoulder was smooth and completely healed. He felt another wave of relief as he realised that his hand was fully formed and that he had the ability to touch and control his body.
It was challenging to judge the passage of time as his body reformed. As the panic of dying and losing his body wore off, Palinus began to feel a sense of guilt and frustration, mostly at himself for being caught so far up the lane. He relived his final moment multiple times, but there was nothing he could have done differently except not be standing where he was.
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As it felt like the process of forming his body was nearly complete Palinus prepared himself to return to the battle and apologise to his team.
Just like the previous instances of joining a rift a small hole appeared in front of him as the familiar pillar began to open up in front of him to let him out. The hole rapidly widened and Palinus was able to hop out a few moments later.
“I am back in, sorry for getting caught.” Palinus apologised as he ran back up the lane.
“Not much you could have done, ya big feeder.” Rufian quipped.
“Hurry back to mid lane, they are pushing hard!” Seline instructed.
“Be careful Arruns has some sort of buff that give him extra damage and a slow effect.” Palinus said, trying to warn the teams he ran quickly back to the mid lane.
“Yeah we can see that, it looks like it is a creep buff.” Seline replied in person as he arrived at the middle tower, she stood with Bruchts and Vesuvia. “They didn't take any chances ganking you the second time.”
They had all taken a bit of damage and the tower was nearly destroyed already.
“They are making quick work of the tower.” Palinus commented wryly.
He saw on the next wave how they were able to do so much damage.
As the minions marched to meet eachother in the middle of the lane Agrippa and Arruns intentionally too the damage of the minions as they stood in front of their own minions. They swiftly dismantled the wave of minions before they marched towards the tower.
Agrippa strode in front of their minions, as he stepped within the range of the tower he cast his shielding ars as the rest of the team got into position to attack the tower.
Seline and Vesuvia began to attack, Agrippa and Palinus rushed to join the counter attack, they did minimal damage and it was only the tower bolt that seemed to do significant damage to the defenders enormous health pool. As the second bolt from the tower flew towards the big guy he started to back away. Seline was quick to cast her ars and root him in place.
Marnus cast a quick ars that bathed Agrippa in a white light and the rooting effect instantly vanished and the man retreated before the tower could strike for a third time.
“Take out the minions as quick as you can, that’s all we can do to slow them until they commit.” Seline sighed as she spoke to Palinus.
He cast a fireball which he aimed near perfectly to hit almost all the minions of the enemy wave. It hurried their demis from the tower as he and the team smashed the enemy minions to bits while the 111s maintained their fire on the tower.
As the wave of minions was destroyed Arruns stepped under the tower’s attacks. He let the bolts of the tower hit him twice before the whole team walked calmly back down the lane to wait for the next wave. Agrippa was already healed significantly and it seemed like they could keep up this attack pattern forever.
Erulean Empire Outer Tower | 6281/15,500
They had taken the tower down by nearly 2500 health points. It wouldn’t take them long to finish this tower off at all.
“We can only slow them,” Bruchts commented, “and hope that Rufi will be faster.”