Ali knew from practice that his levitating sheet metals were too narrow to achieve what he needed to do. The 1 meter by 0.5 meter sheet metal had to be broken up into two parallel strips if he wanted this to work. The strips had to be wide enough for the foe’s feet to have sufficient contact but, if they were too wide, then they lacked the length to change the foe’s trajectory. Under pressure, he had a very difficult execution, especially when he could barely keep up with his opponent's speed during the charge. Tian's absence was also an issue as the air serpent could improve his odds of executing his ability perfectly.
Here goes nothing…
When the foe was a couple of meters away, the teenager activated his defensive ability. He had hid his shield slightly below the surface with constant adjustment up to the point he raised them to form a ramp. Once the ramp was ready, he readied himself to dodge the attack. His MP was exhausted with the use of the shields and he wouldn’t get another attack off before that. The charging enemy then stepped onto one of the metal strips.
Damn it! I misaligned the strip and his foot…
When he thought all was lost, Ali let out a sign when the man lost his footing and slid on the ground. While the man was down, everyone in the group unleashed their attacks to devastating effects. None of them let up and, as soon as Ali recovered enough MP, he also chipped into the attack. In this scenario, summoned creatures proved to be the most useful as they could continuously attack without the worry of running out of MP. Therefore, Belen’s ice monkey was among the big contributors to the battle. Against a foe who was down helpless on the ground, it could attack with impunity. The creature was also agile enough to dodge friendly attacks and maintain the pressure.
“We’re almost there,” said one of the group members. “Keep it up!”
Several minutes later, the man was finally dead. Ali, despite not getting the killing blow, still felt pretty good with the victory. He needed to work on my defensive ability more but it did save their life. In addition, he also got a lot of precious XP for his air slash which he got to spam a lot over the several minutes.
<
Air Slash Level has leveled up to Level 5!
Ability info updated…
[
Ability: Air Slash
Level: 5 ( 1 / 90 XP to Level Up)
Level Up Requirements: Inflict damage or kill foes of equal or higher level
Type: Attacking (Blade)
Description:
A blade forms in a hand and is released where the hand is aiming.
Cost: 2 MP per use
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Cooldown: None
Damage: 4 (+2)
]
Air slash ability leveled up.
( 33 / 50 XP to Level Up)
Air slash has reached level 5 and is eligible for an ability boost.
Ability boosts occur whenever an ability reaches certain levels. Unlike normal levels where ability damage/defense, cost and other factors are changed at a set amount, ability boost levels allow the individual to have more customization over the ability by picking from three options. These options have their pros and cons but they are generally much bigger boosts than what one may acquire through normal means. Be careful when making the choice as the option would affect what options show up in future ability boosts. The first ability boost is commonly seen as the main specialization picked for an ability.
Loading ability boost options….
Air Slash Option #1 (Debuff):
[
Description:
A blade forms in a hand and is released where the hand is aiming. Targets harmed by five consecutive blades suffer a -1 defense debuff for 5 min.
Cost: 3 MP per use
Damage: 5 (+2)
]
Air Slash Option #2 (Offensive):
[
Description:
A blade forms in a hand and is released where the hand is aiming. Every tenth attack does double base damage.
Cost: 3 MP per use
Damage: 7 (+2)
]
Air Slash Option #3 (Healing):
[
Description:
A blade forms in a hand and is released where the hand is aiming. Allies hit by the ability are healed the same amount as the damage value of the ability.
Cost: 4 MP per use
Damage: 3 (+2)
]
You have 5 minutes to make your decision...
>
Ali used the opportunity to look at his abilities. His current strongest ability was air serpent because Tian was so versatile. Serpent’s wing was a support ability for Tian so he grouped that ability with the air serpent ability. His flame blast and wind blast were both situational but they were still good abilities, especially once he learned how to get the synergy of using them together. Defensively, he had levitating walls and magnetic repulsion. The former had a high learning curve and great potential while the latter was extremely situational. His trap setup was sealed and, until he found a way to unseal it, he couldn’t count on it. With trap setup unavailable, abilities like trap versatility and indirect fire were worthless. Having looked at his abilities in detail, he realized how limited his arsenal really was.
Assuming that I cannot get trap setup unsealed, what role do I see myself?
The teenager had initially envisioned himself as an offense focused caster. However, his abilities steadily pivoted him away from a full offense focus. Tian had been excelling in scouting and assassination roles so his air serpent wasn’t stellar at direct confrontation. Even his skills weren’t great in direct confrontation as he lacked the survivability Kamis possessed. His MP pool was low enough that he couldn’t spam his abilities, making the offensive option a very expensive and risky choice.
Will the healing option make me a good enough healer?
Ali lacked a good understanding of what made a strong healer. There were healers among his group but they had healing as a secondary skill. Even the prompt warned him to make his choices cautiously and it didn’t seem like he was given time to ponder on the matter much.
Maybe the debuff one is better? It has a good balance of damage and weakening enemies…