Analyze and learn, spending as little resources as possible. Do everything you can to overpower them later. That’s the way to go. Only noobs waste everything at the start of the fight.
With renewed vigor, Clara and her teammates resume the assault. A second barrage of attacks falls upon me.
Two consecutive volleys of Magic Missiles work as the core of the assault, followed this time by a Fireball and Phantasmal Weapon. It’s nice to see they’re learning and trying new things as the match goes on. I'd be disappointed if they used Shockwave again, which I can easily nullify by flying upwards.
I wait for the perfect timing to jump to the side, slipping outside the Fireball’s range before it can explode, and avoiding the Phantasmal Weapon. At the same time, I twist my body and use Parry to deal with most of the Magic Missiles.
But before I land on the ground, something grabs my wrist.
From the dispersing fire and smoke caused by the Fireball’s explosion, I see Clara’s dark tentacle. I didn’t expect her to grab me like this.
“Finally got you! Hehehe!” She laughs as her figure becomes clear. “Now you can’t fly away!”
I see. She took the damage from the Fireball knowing I wouldn’t move more than strictly required and used it as a smokescreen to get closer. I was too busy with the other attacks to notice.
Nice job, Clara. I didn’t expect you to surprise me like that. Your sister is proud of you.
Immediately after, lots of DoTs pour onto me and my HP starts falling. They’re the effects of Clara’s on-touch skills.
Alright. It’s time to get serious. I can’t allow her to defeat me like this.
The biggest advantage of catching your opponent is that you can reduce their movement and evasion. But it is never a one-sided effect.
“Don’t lower your guard just because you grabbed your opponent.” I admonish her. “Finish your job while you can or else your enemy can do this!”
I pull my wrist with all my strength. She’s surprised by my action, which sends her flying in my direction. Incapable of defending while in mid-air, she takes my following sword strikes and her HP falls under half.
“Hyaa! This isn’t fair…!”
With a panicked shout, she releases my wrist. She lands head-first on the ground, but quickly stands up.
“What isn’t fair?” I tilt my head to question her. “Didn’t you ask me to take this seriously?”
“Muuu…”
I walk in her direction, my sword ready. Her teammates try to stop me from moving forward, but I keep them in check with a few Flying Slashes.
Flying Slash (Active skill) Cost: 30 EP Deal (2 + 0,5 * STR) physical damage to the first unit hit in a straight line. This skill can only be used if you wield a melee weapon.
“I’ll take care of you later,” I say to them as I close in on Clara.
But another barrage of attacks falls upon me. Tired of their interruptions, after I avoid their attacks as usual, I start casting Divine Wrath. As soon as they see the growing light orb, they run away like mice chased by a cat.
There’s no use wasting the spell on them. Not when they’re clearly prepared for it.
“You taught them well, telling them to hide as soon as I use this skill.” I turn to Clara. “But what are you going to do about this?” I threaten her with the glowing orb instead of her teammates. “I don’t think you’re going to survive this after my previous attacks.”
Clara raises her head to look at me but stays silent. Her Champion has no eyes or mouth, so I can’t be sure, but I could swear she’s smiling at me.
Why isn’t she isn’t scared? Does she think I will hesitate to launch it because I’m near her? She’s wrong then. Divine Wrath doesn’t deal damage to allied units. This is why it’s one of the best AoE skills in the whole game.
The Divine Blood faction does have some of the most broken stuff, and that’s why I love it.
Divine Wrath finishes charging, so I throw it at Clara. The orb flies at a high speed and explodes upon contact, painting everything into the white color…
…or that’s what should have happened. Because instead, everything turns black.
“Darkness…?” That must be the Darkness skill. “How unexpected…”
Darkness (Active skill) Cost: 150 MP, plus 50 MP per second Engulf everything within 5 meters of you in dense darkness. Units inside can’t see, and nothing can be seen from the outside. The darkness stays in the same place until you cancel this skill.
Darkness is an interesting skill because it goes around status resistance. It doesn’t inflict blindness unlike other skills but it simply negates the light around.
No light, no sight.
But the only thing Darkness does is obstruct sight. It doesn’t negate damage. Clara must have taken Divine Wrath head-on. She must still be alive, though. Otherwise, the Darkness would have disappeared immediately.
Darkness can be used in very nasty ways. I’ve fought pro players who like to use it to distract and obstruct, striking when you least expect it. But it’s useless when you know exactly where the opponent is right after activating it.
Being no more than two meters away from her position before the Darkness erupts, I can reach her before she moves.
I make the analysis and decision in less than half a second, swinging my sword at her. But she makes the same decision, maybe even quicker than me, as I feel her tentacle grab my waist.
“Hmph! To make the same mistake twice…”
Instead of attacking, I decide to pull on her tentacle-like before. I’ll pull her in, and when she flies my way, I’ll finish her off with my sword.
“Huh…!?”
But when I pull, I feel no resistance. As if there was nothing attached on the other end.
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Ah, it’s true…! Her Champion can shed off the tentacles to latch on the enemies for a short while.
“Now, everyone! Attack! Use your most powerful skills!” Clara’s voice reaches me from a distance away.
So she ran away instead of fighting! I got fooled by her tentacles! If I had ignored it and followed through with my initial plan, I would have surely finished her off by now.
“Light Beam!”
“Arrow Rain!”
“Boulder Throw!”
I hear the shouts of Clara’s teammates.
It’s customary for players to shout the name of their skills before they activate them. This way, your teammates will know what to do before they get caught in them or something similar.
Only expert players, who’re used to playing with each other, as well as noob players, will omit the names.
Their attacks, unlike the previous AoE barrages, are the type that is relatively easy to avoid or Parry but pack enough of a punch to be dangerous even to me. Usually, I wouldn’t mind them, but being delayed by Clara’s tentacle, I’m still inside the Darkness. I can’t see their attacks, nor can I see the players using them.
They don’t know my exact position either, but they have a good idea. Furthermore, Clara’s Mental Corruption is always connecting the both of us. They must know my general position.
It’s good that they can’t use powerful skills that require targeting, since they can’t see me. If they could use them while I can’t see, they could defeat me. But they can’t, so there’s nothing to worry about.
In a situation like this, the best move is to choose a direction and run towards it instead of taking all the attacks. This way you can avoid most, if not all, of the attacks.
So I decide to run in the direction I last heard Clara’s voice come from. Once I deal with her, the rest of her teammates shouldn’t pose any problem.
As I run, I feel the impact of some spells, mixed with Clara’s tentacle swings.
That’s another one of her tentacles’ advantages: you can swing them widely and they’ll hit your enemy as long as it is in the area you’re attacking, even if you can’t see them.
“Keep attacking! Don’t worry about saving anything for later!” Clara gives instructions to her teammates.
“Alright!”
“Anthemia! How do you like this? Will you recognize our efforts?”
“I hope it’s worth it… If we fail like this it’d be a shame.”
Clara is right. If they want to defeat me, they’ll have to use everything they have.
Two seconds. Two seconds is the time it takes for me to exit the area affected by Darkness. But by then, the damage I’ve taken surpasses the damage I’ve taken during the rest of the fight.
“Haaa…” I exhale, finally being able to see. Clara is waiting with her arms crossed in front of me.
“She survived all that!?” One of her teammates exclaims, but I ignore him.
“You’ve gotta try harder if you want to defeat me.” I raise my sword and rush at her. Wasting time would be the most foolish thing I could do.
“We will see.”
Clara attacks me and I parry her strikes. I close the distance like this and we engage in melee combat.
My sword dances between the tentacles, hitting Clara when she least expects it. Meanwhile, her teammates don’t dare to attack. Any hit from them could kill Clara, their only hope to defeat me.
“This is the end.”
I lower my raised sword, going for the last hit. A powerful slash, capable of severing her in two. Light radiates from my sword.
But before my sword reaches Clara, the space between us suddenly distorts. A large dark gap opens. I feel as if something huge is observing me from the other side of the abyss’ mouth.
My swing stops. I can’t move.
This is Unfathomable Gaze. A skill only allowed to Champions and one of the Abyss faction’s exclusive skills. The most powerful crowd control skill in DMA as long as it doesn’t backfire.
Unfathomable Gaze (Active skill) Cost: 200 EP, 200 MP Immobilize a single unit for the next 5 seconds. While immobilized like this, that unit can’t attack or activate skills. This skill can’t be avoided, it ignores all resistances, and can’t be removed by any means. There’s a 10% chance this skill will affect you instead of your target. This skill can only be used once per Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle.
“Unfathomable Gaze… I didn’t expect you to have this skill.” I say. “You really wanted to use everything to defeat me, huh? You prepared even this.”
Clara nods. “Of course I did. I was serious the whole time. Everyone, it’s time to kill her. This is our only chance!”
Her teammates come close, surrounding me. This is the first time they got so close. At the same time, the four of them start using their strongest single-target damage skills. Clara grabs me with her tentacles for the third time, knowing I have no means to defend myself.
“Hehehe! This is easy! If only you could stay immobile like this all the fight…”
“She isn’t that scary isn’t she?” One of Clara’s teammates comments.
“Don’t say that you fool! You don’t want to make a pro player angry at you!”
Thanks to Unfathomable Gaze, I can only observe them as my HP drops. Unable to evade, parry, or counterattack, I feel impotent.
“I got you this time! It was a trap all along!” Clara pats her chest, proud. “You never imagined it, right? That everything we did was for this exact moment.”
She’s right. I never could have imagined she would prepare such a meticulous plan, making me waste time and resources in the early battle and take damage so that they could finish me off like this.
I solemnly nod. “You’re right. I didn’t expect it.”
They prepared everything to counter me. It was a perfect plan that even took into account how I would react to my opponents.
“Hehehe! I won! The student defeated the master! Hehehe!”
“But…” When I continue speaking, she shuts up. I can see, even if she doesn’t have a face, the anxiety that suddenly fills her. “...but, it’s a shame… It’s a shame it won’t work.”
“What…!?”
“I’m a pro player. I’m the one who wrecks the rankings and smashes anyone in my path. Did you really expect you’d defeat me with just this?”
Clara looks bewildered. “But you’re defeated! We’ll kill you before Unfathomable Gaze’s effect disappears!”
“Are you sure about it?”
Always have a last resort skill that can save your life in a predicament. A predicament like this.
As soon as my HP falls to 1, a thin light film covers my whole body. It’s the effect of God’s Intervention.
God’s Intervention (Triggered skill) If you would be killed, you are reduced to 1 HP instead and ignore all damage and status effects for the next 5 seconds. This skill can only trigger once per Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle.
Clara opens her mouth wide and points her finger at me. “W-why? You never told me you had such a skill…!”
“A woman should always keep one or two secrets.” I chuckle. “Alright. Since you were all so kind to come close to me, I’ll happily oblige. It’s time for some cleanup.”
Right on time, the effect of Unfathomable Gaze disappears and I can move again.
I don’t waste any time and start the attacks against Clara and her teammates. Now that they got so close, it’s easy to keep them in check. I will defeat them in less than ten seconds.
“Noooooo! My perfect plan!” Clara shouts.
Less than a minute later, I stand observing the corpses of Clara and her three teammates.
“Haaaah… I didn’t expect to struggle this much against anyone in this Mystery Event…”
Not only that. They managed to trigger God’s Intervention. I won’t be able to depend on it for the rest of the Mystery Event since it’s a single-time use skill.
Now I’ll have to go to one of the domains controlled by a Calamity to heal back up. It’d take too long otherwise. It’s a good thing Calamities have such a cheat option.
I believe Indomitable’s domain is the closest one. But I don’t want to see his face… Maybe I’ll take a detour to avoid him.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, dear brother. I might have been delayed, but I’ll eventually find you and make you pay.”
I clench my fist and start walking.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“The top ranks are called like that because they’re in a league of their own. You can’t hope to match against them in equal circumstances. Hell, I’ve seen a top player face ten other players at the same time and emerge victorious!”
- Excerpt of an interview with a random DMA player.