Chapter 33 - The ICB: Delaying Tactics and Team Fights

The 111s were a formidable team. They moved aggressively with an assertive rhythm that maintained a constant threat from varied sources, like a pack of wolves harassing a herd of deer. Palinus and his three teammates defending the outer tower did what they could. They harassed the 111s as they entered the range of the tower and used their shorter cooldowns to do what damage they could to slow the onslaught and minimised the damage to the tower.

They shared looks of frustration as they waited for their opportunity, but they knew that any chance of victory lay in the slimmest of marginal gains as they balanced their stalling tactics with keeping their arrogant opponents focused on a quick victory.

Turning back again after clearing yet another minion wave and chasing the 111s off as they lingered to pile on damage to the tower, Palinus checked on it’s dwindling health points.

Erulean Empire Outer Tower | 447/15,500

It was on its last legs, and would likely go down in the next wave. The 111s had hard professional looks on their faces, but their eyes flashed with excitement in their darting glances.

There was far less exuberance for the defending team as they whispered encouragement and gripped their weapons tightly in readiness.

The memory of his recent death made Palinus's palms sweat. he looked towards the enemy and the wave of minions behind them and he turned to stand further back in the fight.

As he moved back Seline grabbed him by the tunic and shoved him back towards the front.

“Get back to a forward position.” she whispered firmly.

“But the tower is about to go down?” Palinus questioned.

“We need to keep them-”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off as she roughly shoved him again and pulled her bow up to fire.

Agrippa had stepped into the range of the tower, following the same pattern, but this time was different. He had waited a fraction of a second to allow the tower to target the first melee minion, so he wasn’t yet taking the damage from the towers deadly bolts.

Rather than hovering at the edge of the range, his massive body was somewhat covered behind his enormous shield held up in front of him as he charged towards them. The rest of the 111s were quick on his heels.

With his still developing battle instincts Palinus was fast to ready his whip, but hesitated as he considered his target and his positioning. His body trembled as if it recalled the sensations of his avatars recent death and he took an involuntary step backwards as he blindly lashed out with the whip towards the closest target.

“Focus Arruns!” Seline yelled at the team, but mostly at Palinus who was attacking the heavily shielded Agrippa.

As he switched targets Palinus hesitated again as the 111s closed in. The two melee fighters ignored Bruchts and Palinus retreating slowly as they moved and attacked in the front line as they charged instead straight at the tower.

The tower’s few hundred remaining hit points went down in a handful of moments, its soft stone crumbling in chunks as it crumbled to a pile of rubble and its enormous red calculus exploding in a wash of essentia beads.

Ina blink their enemies transitioned from attacking the tower to attacking the team.

With Bruchts standing closer he was the first in the firing line as the two melee enemies closed on him quickly with flashing ars and heavy blows from vicious weapons.

Their big blonde friend and ally lifted his shield and fought back with his usual natural athleticism. He moved backwards as he fought, keeping his shield up and his sword moving as he tried to keep his shield ready for the big axe and his sword ready to parry the sword darting around Agrippa’s big shield. On top of the melee threats the blasts of two wands and a staff rained down.

“Now!” Seline yelled as she must have sensed the mages beginning to channel essentia just as Palinus did.

He wasn't sure what the order was for exactly but did the only thing he could think of and quickly cast his Saturnine Veil to disrupt the 111s coordination and give his team an edge.

“Fireball on Vel!” Bruchts yelled, he was rooted in place with Bakaon’s thick black tendrils as he yelled back to Palinus and fended off Arruns.

Following the desperate order Palinus was quick to start channeling his ars, even though it didn’t make sense, they hadn’t been targeting Vel so attacking him would be pointless in a fighting retreat unless they could burst him down.

As the heat from the ars surged to his hand and he looked properly at his target the order suddenly made sense. Bruchts had been targeted by a fireball from the red mage, but he hadn’t taken any burst damage and didn’t have the unique [Burning] debuff.

The potent ars had been reflected.

Vel 351/622 | Level 1 [Burning+]

Red Mage - Wandslinger / Mage

The surprise was mirrored on Vel’s face as Palinus’s hand shook with a wave of adrenaline and he almost lost control of his fireball. He wasn’t sure how much damage he would be able to do with it, but he knew from their discussions before the battle that Vels special burning debuff would trigger significantly more damage when its target was struck with a [Burning] attack.

The ball of fire sprung from Palinus’s hand and through the obscuring smoke of the Saturnine Veil the talented red mage must have sensed the impending strike as he yelled an order to Marnus.

“Heal me you shit stain!!”

The fireball travelled as if in slow motion as Palinus watched it’s flight.

He shook his head in frustration as he considered it, there was no way that it was going to do enough damage. His Fireball did a base 200 damage, and a burning effect would do somewhere around 150 damage, but it would be spaced over a few seconds. If there was a heal incoming then the damage over time of the [Burning] effect would be neutralised. Even with a small boost from his attributes it wasn’t going to kill the enemy captain.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

With a fiery splash and sizzle the fireball struck. It did slightly more than 200 damage and instantly triggered additional burn damage.

Vel 87/622 | Level 1 [Burning+]

Red Mage - Wandslinger / Mage

Marnus had turned and was beginning to channel an ars to heal the damage. His ars was slower that Vesuvia’s, it looked like it involved a bit of additional movement to direct it.

Before Palinus could consider taking a step towards their target to try to dive through the enemy team to finish the Red mage off, an arrow thumped into the Vel’s chest.

It didn’t do enough damage to kill him either, but a fraction of a second later Marnus had still not finished his cast and a flash of fire triggered from Vels chest as a gout of bright white flame surged from his chest and out of his mouth. A fiery belch that burnt his face and twisted his snarling features in a grimace of pain and frustration.

The medicus’s healing ars failed as Vel’s avatar disappeared in a splash of essential beads.

*An enemy has been slain*

In the swirling smoke Marnus had a stunned expression. He waved his hand through the smoke as if trying to find Vel to disprove the sudden death.

“Good job Pal!” Seline encouraged.

“Nice healing dumb dumb.” Vesuvia taunted her cousin. The juvenile stab instantly enraged the 111s healer known for his composure and studiousness. With his vision obscured by the smoke he could do nothing but wildly shoot off blasts from his staff.

“You silly little girl! You… You are the dumb one!” Marnus yelled.

Vesuvia and the team laughed uproariously at his impotent rage, but they couldn't stop yet.

Despite the unexpected turn around kill they were still under threat and the 111s were still committed to the attack.

In the commotion of the fight Seline had the foresight to root Agrippa who had been left behind by the others in his team. Palinus and his allies were currently focusing the other melee fighter and the biggest burst damage threat of Arruns and his debuff consuming axe.

As they fired and moved backwards under the speed buff of the Saturnine Veil they were quickly stacking damage on the enraged axeman as he charged after Bruchts who had also taken significant damage before Vesuvia had managed to cleanse the root effect.

With the obscured vision of the smoke he kept within Arruns vision but didn’t let himself get within range of the wicked two handed axe. The axeman was yelling nearly incoherently with rage.

As he swung again at Bruchts, frustrated with being unable to close the distance, Arruns finally began to realise his predicament.

Bruchts had cleverly kept him on the hook until they had reached the steps up to the next tower and the Nexus plateau.

“Marnus you worm! Heal me!” He yelled imperiously to the healer who had been blindly running down the lane and was still just in range despite fallen behind to shoot off furious blast of his staff at Vesuvia who continued to giggle evilly as she taunted him.

“Uh uh uh!” She chided, “You know I can debuff him faster than you can land your epic poem of an ars.”

“We’ll see about that, you witch!” He yelled, not finishing his sentence before he started casting his healing ars.

“Teehehehe,” Vesuvia tittered as she flicked out her hand to cast the promised debuff on Arruns.

His face red with rage was suddenly tainted with tendrils of black as her reverse healing effect took hold. It felt like a significant amount of time passed before the heal landed from Marnus. Even with his tremendous healing power and the complexity of the ars the effect of the debuff reduced the heal to half it’s normal potency.

Vesuvia doubled over in mocking laughter as her cousin spluttered.

The lacklustre heal suddenly drove home to Arruns that he was in danger again. To his credit he only glanced towards Marnus in rage as he turned towards the forest to flee the fight.

He still had a few hundred health points and the gap on the forest was conveniently placed for his escape. The team needed to make a quick decision to commit to the kill on Arruns, or target Marnus with the chance to pick off Agrippa or Bakano.

Looking towards the normally decisive Seline, Palinus could see her struggling with the choice.

A powerful surge of essentia from Bruchts put an additional timer on the decision, as he channeled his runic circle ars. He had his eyes focused not on the options of targets but towards Seline.

“Arruns!” Palinus said with a confidence he didn’t feel, “... and we are pivoting to full Deep Fist.”

The moment the name was said Bruchts took the instruction and cast his circle of turquoise stone into the forest to cut off the fleeing axeman’s retreat.

“But what if they counter-” Seline questioned as she too followed the retreating axeman and fired as she moved.

“Vel will respawn and see what Rufi is doing anyway, we need to commit.” Palinus yelled as he charged towards the edge of the forest.

The retreating axeman hadn’t hesitated as he continued to run towards the ars effect on the ground. He crashed into the tall grass that stood above the runic circle and his giant form was instantly obscured.

The team continued to fire at where they thought he might be but they needed to follow him into the obscuring brush to finish him off.

With Bruchts so damaged he did the smart thing and held back, but that left Palinus to take the lead as he ran in with his whip held ready.

As he plunged into the tall grass he was instantly greeted with an axeblade to the face.

The 111s were an experienced team, and despite Arrun's rage he was a clever fighter. As the axeman had run into cover he had instantly stepped to the side and accepted the rooting effect of the ars.

This meant he hadn’t been hit by attacks fired at his retreating form, and he was perfectly positioned to swing his big axe at Palinus as he entered the brush.

As he felt the axe again pierce his skull Palinus was grateful for the reduced sensation of being an avatar in a rift. The blow was shocking and it hurt, but he was able to react and lash out a moment later with his whip.

The close range of the fight in the brush felt savage and uncomfortable for both the fighters as they choked up on their weapons and focused on hitting each other as quickly as possible.

*Crack*

*Crack* The whip flicked out twice, it’s essentia charged lash doing moderate damage, but quickly stacking up additional combination damage against the already wounded Arruns.

*Thunk* Another axe blow landed, this time smashing into Palinus’s arm and feeling like it had broken the bone, leaving his left arm tingling.

*Crack* Grunting with pain, Palinus managed another blow, recovering quickly but reeling in pain.

*Thunk* The axe struck at Palinus’s hip it was doing significant damage and the jarring of hitting the bone and socket nearly made him collapse.

*Crack* A desperate strike of the whip flashed out as Palinus desperately flailed. All of a sudden he was somehow one more blow from death as the vicious axeman did his work. A sense of panic began to overtake him.

*Crack* An weak lash of the whip flicked forward, but all Palinus could see was the head of the axe swinging around Arruns big body, coming straight for his head.

*An enemy has been slain*

The axe didnt arrive.

“Ugh,” with a gulping gasp of breath, Palinus sunk to the ground.

“Good jo-” Seline began to say as she joined him in the brush. Before noticing his desperate condition, “What happened?”

“He is just really scary.” Palinus admitted with a chuckle as he gingerly touched his scalp that had been split by the giant axe yet again.

“No time for a rest Pal!” She helped him to his feet. “It's time to Deep Fist!