Chapter 30 - The ICB: To Gank or be Ganked.
Panic surged through Palinus as he tried to pull at his legs to free them from the deep purple appendages that gripped his leg. Where they gripped the bare flesh of his legs the texture of the long limbs that rooted him in place was rough and almost oily, leaving a viscous dark purple film on his legs that tingled as it chaffed and corroded his skin.
He could feel the ars has a limited timeframe, the root effect gradually losing tangibility but not loosening or letting go.
Swallowing his fear, Palinus forced himself to stand up straight and begin to fire his wand. He grasped for the hope that he could do enough damage to Arruns to slow him.
The behemoth of a boy didn’t blink as the bolts of Palinus’s wand slammed into his face. Jogging unerringly towards him with an expression of blank professionalism that showed his absolute confidence and proficiency. The axeman’s knuckles twitched as he shifted his grip on the gigantic axe. Before he was even in range he was telegraphing an overhead strike, and a flash of essentia from a calculus on his shoulder indicated he had chosen an ars to amplify the strike.
As Palinus eyed off the enormous axe dragging behind its intimidating wielder his face twisted in a grimacing smile. They might have just made a mistake.
“Bloody musclehead!” Bakano yelled at his teammate as they continued to blast Palinus with wand bolts. “You always go for the kill steal.”
The frustration of Palinus’s lane opponent confirmed his suspicions. They knew Arruns skill set, and if he had chosen his overhand finisher he would be able to do significant damage, but it would consume debuffs to do it. Which included the root effect.
In the impending danger there was a glimmer of opportunity, but he would need to take an axe to the face. A very large axe.
Palinus 327/605 | Level 0 [Rooted]
Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage
He was thankful that Bakano’s wand had been stacking damage slowly. There was just a question of how much damage the axe was going to do.
“I am just securing the kill quickly as ordered.” Arruns growled back at his teammate, arrogantly more concerned with bickering with his teammate than focusing on the fight. “Watch me one shot this twig.”
With exaggerated effort the enormous boy with the even bigger axe began his strike.
The moment his foot planted for his swing, Palinus felt his stomach drop. He crouched and tried to cover his head with his stick and hands. A small part of him that still held hope started to channel essentia.
“Eeep.” an involuntary whimper escaped his lips as the heavy crescent blade descended.
*Thunk*
The blow blasted through his guard and felt like a stack of bricks had landed on his head, instantly staggering Palinus. A surge of essentia tugged at the thick limbs that held him in place and they vanished with a tugging pop, letting him tumble to the floor. The hostile essentia pushed through his body and blasted out of a gaping chunk in his skull pushing out a gush of hot red blood that surged from the wound and splattered on the hand he threw out to catch his fall.
He managed to hold his essentia together to trigger his ars as he fell and the lane was wrapped in the blanketing smoke of the Sanguine Veil.
Its darkness provided a small comfort as he gathered his limbs beneath himself to move. His head felt strangely cold, as if a persistent gust of wind blew directly into his brain leaving tiny needles of ice.
“Good acting Pal,” Rufian’s voice came through the party chat in a whisper. “You looked really scared!”
Palinus barely registered the voice as he willed himself to move, lurching towards the tower in a drunken stumble.
“There's no notification! He’s still alive and I can’t see for shit. You’d better ‘secure the kill’ or we’re gonna have a problem.” Bakano yelled at the axeman.
Arruns grunted an acknowledgement as he moved to follow Palinus through the swirling smoke.
Palinus 102/605 | Level 0 [Bleeding]
Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage
A wand bolt missed Palinus as Bakano fired blindly, if Palinus had been moving directly towards the tower the bolt would have hit, but in his disoriented state Palinus had launched himself off course.
Stumbling again before he collected himself, he finally had his feet under him and began to run, the axeman had been closing quickly and didn’t hesitate to swing but with the speed boost from his veil ars Palinus was able to dance away from the massive axe.
Palinus 88/605 | Level 0 [Bleeding]
Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage
The bleed effect was a throbbing reminder of how dangerous the axe was. He needed to maintain his distance and keep moving to avoid the wand strikes. At 7hp every few seconds the bleed effect by itself would take him to precipitously low health, another hit could easily kill his avatar.
Dancing out of range of another wild axe swing, Palinus began to feel a tiny belief in his chance of survival. The speed boost meant that he could easily stay out of range of the axe. With space to breath he lifted his whip and switched tactics to moving and striking as he continued to skirt the edge of his assailant's range, trying to keep the axeman occupied while edging towards the tower and safety.
As he managed a third strike of his whip before he was suddenly struck by an unexpected bolt.
Palinus 43/605 | Level 0 [Bleeding]
Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage
“Wha-” Palinus said in surprise.
He had forgotten about Bakano in the midst of his struggle.
Through the smoke that didn’t obscure his vision as much as it did the dark mage he could see the mage in their black robe robe moving aggressively through the minions. They strode with their wand out high flicking shots off behind them but with an eye out towards Palinus as if trying to sense where he was.
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Behind the mage he could see Rufian, who was trying to pummel the mage and had managed to do some damage already. The Saturnine veils speed boost was helping enormously as Rufian ran beside the mage repeatedly punching them in the kidney.
“Surely they can’t actually see me.” Palinus reassured himself, he hadn’t forgotten about the axeman as he continued to move.
He reassured himself that he just needed to keep moving and Rufian already had Bakano in hand. While he was at incredibly low health, Palinus guessed from the frustration on Arruns’ face that the bleed wouldn’t be doing enough damage.
Sensing an opportunity he struck out with his whip again, maintaining his combo against Arruns who was beginning to take some damage.
Arruns 479/688 | Level 0
Bleeding Axe - Axeman / Bleeding Axe / Bruiser
Palinus was surprised to learn that Arruns’ moniker the bleeding axe was also his class. A flash of jealousy interrupted the intensity of the fight, it was a pretty cool sounding class and he wondered if just how close they were to the same aspect if he had chosen that path.
The line of thought was cut off as a slap of pain shot across his face.
As the bolt struck Palinus looked up to see Bakano standing amongst the minions with a triumphant expression.
Palinus 3/605 | Level 0
Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage
“Yess-! Oh.”
“Got yo-, bloody shit.” Bakano’s celebration was briefly joined by Arruns before they realised that the bleed had dropped off.
The mage winced as Rufian punched them in the kidney again.
Bakano 410/595 | Level 0
Tyrian Gastropod Magus - Wandslinger / Tyrian Gastropod Magus / Control Mage
The cold feeling of his wound sharpened his sense of focus as Pallinus reached a grim realisation of how close he was to death. The knowledge that his avatar would be revived did nothing to dull the intensity of the moment
“They must be sensing the essentia of my whip,” he whispered to himself as he realised how the dark mage was able to hit him with the wand.
The realisation flooded him with a sense of relief.
That relief was short-lived.
“Got you now.” Arruns yelled.
Palinus had been moving across the lane rather than under the tower’s range to keep the axeman targeting him. As he stepped away from Arruns instinctively and brushed against a tree he realised what his opponent meant, he hadn’t noticed that he had run out of lane to manoeuvre in.
To change direction to go under the turret he would need to step into the axeman’s range.
With panic rising again Palinus looked for another escape. He could go around the stand of trees beside the lane and through the forest, but as his eyes darted in that direction he confirmed what he already knew. Bakano had been moving to cut off the escape.
“Get ready to run past!” Rufian yelled.
The instruction didn’t make sense, trying to go past the axeman would mean certain death.
To emphasise the point Arruns had stepped further into Palinus’s escape path. The axeman was now under the tower and it was already humming with power as it targeted him.
There was a tingle of essentia down the lane as an ars was channeled.
“Ak!” Bakano made an odd sound of surprise.
From the corner of Palinus’s eye he saw Rufian flying towards Arruns and knew that this was his moment.
He ran towards the tower.
A wicked grin lit up Arruns’ face as he began to swing his axe to meet Palinus’s charge.
It felt as if the moment stretched for minutes as Palinus ran towards the blade of the biggest axe he had ever seen.
The blade moved fast, but Rufian moved faster.
With his ars blasting him forwards Rufian’s fist flew into Arruns sternum. The power of the blow made the big boy fold around the fist and knocked him up into the air. The arm holding the axe carried its momentum still and spun the boy's body around like a rag doll.
The blade of the axe, still dangerous in its uncontrolled flight barely missed Palinus as he ran as quickly as he could towards the tower.
“Hngh.” A grunt of effort from Arruns made Palinus flinch away as he felt the air moved by the giant axe missing him by a tiny margin.
“AAARrrgghHH, I WILL DESTROY YOU!” He turned to watch the scream of rage as Arruns was hit again by a bolt from the tower.
Seeing Bakano well out of range and still just within the edge of the veil, Palinus felt confident to strike again at Arruns.
Arruns 152/688 | Level 0
Bleeding Axe - Axeman / Bleeding Axe / Bruiser
“Run you meathead!” Bakano yelled.
But Arruns was not paying attention, rather than exiting the range of the tower and potentially saving himself he was furiously trying to attack Rufian.
“You…”
The axe flew at Rufian, who waited till the last moment to dart out of range.
“Are...”
Arruns expertly stepped towards Rufian and reversed the axe, swinging the giant blade back in a wide arc. He again missed by a tiny margin, though he barely seemed to notice as his face contorted with rage.
“Nothing!”
The third strike punctuated the yell and rather than dodge this strike Rufian stepped in. He moved in close, too close for Arruns to pull the blade back to bite and the handle of the giant axe struck Rufian in the shoulder.
Rufian shrugged off the blow and threw a lightning fast left jab into Arruns face. It snapped the big boy’s head backwards and left a gash above his left eyebrow.
With impressive composure Rufian didn’t bother to watch the expression of disbelief that crossed Arruns face and instead began to run after Bakano who had taken their own advice to retreat rather than commit to the fight.
“-An enemy has been slain!-”
A bolt from the tower finished their work as Arruns’ avatar popped into a wave of essentia beads.
“Follow and clear the minions if you can!” Rufian yelled back to Palinus.
“Wait, you can’t-” Palinus tried to warn his friend, but as he charged towards their enemy he picked up several beads of essentia earning a flash that indicated he had leveled up. Palinus had to accept that Rufi was going to follow through regardless and he rushed to take out the minion wave in support.
Bakano 188/595 | Level 0
Tyrian Gastropod Magus - Wandslinger / Tyrian Gastropod Magus / Control Mage
The dark mage had taken significant damage from Rufian and minions already, but had a lead on Rufian as they ran directly towards their tower.
Rufian’s charge ars had a long cooldown, so there was no way he would be able to use that. The Saturnine Veil speed buff would let him get in range, it was a question of whether Bakano’s root ars would come off cooldown, if Rufian could do enough damage and the question that weighed most heavily on Palinus mind.
Would Rufian take his Bruiser ars that would stagger opponents and secure the kill or would he stick to the Deep Fist plan and take his fighter build?
A flash of essentia indicated that he had made a decision, but Palinus couldn’t tell yet what it was.
He did know that one kill was a good start to the rift, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tables. A second kill would make a significant difference, but it wasn’t a sure thing and Rufian could easily die under the tower giving away the advantage they had taken.
Pushing down his concerns, Palinus could only watch and hope.
The chase was on.