Two towers down, Elzio. Echo sounded both congratulatory and urgent. But be mindful, they have just nearly finished with the wave top. What is our plan?

I’m going to push for more down here, he said. Now that he could sustain the 150 mana/35 seconds, his doppels just tore through the structures. I think I can get to the gate. Then we have a clean shot at the Pyrthet Nexus. It could be over so soon.

Be cautious. They will return to you soon.

Elzio nodded before pushing his doppels on. They were still so slow at taking out the minions with their level 2 Firechains. His own basic attacks dealt more damage, especially with so much battle experience.

An idea twitched in his brain. Why not join the fray? He had at least two minutes until the enemy team reached the Southern Road. He could physically fight for two full minutes. Getting the wave pushing faster would be worth it.

His own basic attacks took the form of small balls of black energy. It was just shapeless magic funneled through the nexus aura, but at this point in the battle, they did a reasonable amount of damage. Between him and the three doppels, they’d soon reached the Southern gate.

“All right,” he said, under his breath. “Do your work.”

The three Nances turned their burning red gazes to the structure and began to chain their spells. Elzio could almost feel the heat radiating off the iron-wrought gate as the magma dripped down it. He could picture in his mind’s eye, Lorath, the Pyrthet Nexus shivering behind it. Was he communicating with its bounded human? Was he wondering where his champions were?

As if in answer to his question, Elzio felt a sharp jab, and turned in time to see Bereth, bow raised, two more shots whistling towards Elzio. They struck hard, triggering the Piercing Bleed at a frighteningly high power level, and Elzio’s hit points dropped dangerously low. Peter stood by Bereth’s side, sword raised high. Of course they were faster than Elzio or Nance, with their agility so high. He had gravely miscalculated. And he had no time to move as Bereth let the ability loose.

If Elzio died here, they’d have no trouble resetting the map. Take out the minions, clear out the doppelgangers, all while Elzio spent several minutes regenerating. He’d lose almost every advantage he had. Yes, he’d have the structures down, but no more tricks up his sleeve to make the best of it.

He only had one ace, as Peter raised his sword, summoning up a Demolishing Charge.

“Peter!” Elzio shouted. “Now!”

Bereth, who’d just prepped a Stunning Bolt, aimed directly at Elzio, hesitated. For half a second, he looked from Elzio to Peter, whose charge was about ready to detonate, and Elzio could see Bereth questioning what he’d wondered earlier…

Could heroes switch sides? Could they hit their own allies? Had he missed something?

Accidental friendly fire was impossible, but intentional friendly fire was permitted when enabled by a nexus. It allowed champions to cast spells that needed hit points to cast magic. Usually only blood mages or certain healer classes took spells like this, but Kia actually had a spell like this. She could borrow hit points from an ally and imbue them into an artifact, multiplying the health buff.

Kia wasn’t here right now. Kia wasn’t even working on an item that required ‘hit point borrowing’ as she called it. But her spell existing meant the Pyrthet heroes always fought with intentional friendly fire enabled.

Judging by the look of rage on Bereth’s face, armor wasn’t top of mind as his Stunning Bolt charged. Peter had just made too many mistakes. Letting the Elzio doppel get past him to Kia and then abandoning her? Avoiding attacks from minions while in the thick of combat? And, of course, Elzio’s earlier claim.

I won this battle before you even stepped foot in the arena.

Did any of them really know Peter?

The thought process evident in the flicker of emotions on Bereth’s face took probably a second. Then he turned and fired the Stunning Bolt directly into Peter.

Bereth’s eyes stayed locked on Peter. The stun only lasted three seconds, but the seconds ticked by, long and hard as the two men locked eyes.

For a moment, Elzio thought Bereth had thought better of it. After all, they did sort of know Peter. He’d been an understudy, one they’d never paid much attention of, but one they’d been aware of. He was a young, enthusiastic hero, trying to prove himself. Truth was on his side.

Truth, however, wouldn’t be enough to save him. Not here. Bereth’s eyes narrowed, and Elzio could see the archer’s calculations worn plainly on his face as his eyes darted from Peter to Elzio to Peter again.

He could take out Elzio alone. Even if Peter wasn’t a turncoat, Bereth didn’t really need him. It was safer to kill him here than risk fighting Elzio with Peter at his back.

Bereth hadn’t noticed that Elzio’s doppels had dropped their attacks on the tower, and now stood, the dazzling red eyes they borrowed from Nance piercing the back of Bereth’s head. Instead, he focused purely on his poor ally, sending a flurry of chained attacks on the young man. The arrows sunk deep, and Peter barely had a tenth of his health left when the stun wore off. Peter leapt out of Bereth’s final ability, using a Quick Dash, a handy mobility skill that sent Bereth’s Headshot sailing by where the fighter had stood a fraction of a second before.

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Of course, Bereth didn’t need the Headshot to land to seal Peter’s fate. Another two basic attacks would do the job. Bereth fired off a volley without hesitation, just as Peter reached the edge of the path. One of the arrows flew wide, but the other two made their mark, and Peter barely had a moment to cry out before his body melted into the ground.

“You did this.” Bereth’s gravelly voice shook with rage. He turned to face Elzio, eyes wide and merciless. It was alarming to see the usually good natured man so enraged, and Elzio wondered just what he felt was at stake. “You did this! You’d better pray that you perish with your worthless echo. If you survive this battle, no pity will be shown to you back in Pyrthet.”

Elzio’s health points were low, which he expected given his general lack of Fortitude. The whole point had been to specialize in mana regen, which had grown rather impressive. Enough that he could keep three level 4 doppels active and still have enough mana to cast Invisibility.

The ploy, vanishing before Bereth’s eyes, was a weak one. Not one that would allow Elzio to escape. But escape wasn’t the plan. He just needed to buy time for the Nance doppels to regain mana. They would need to chain their spells with deadly speed in order for Elzio to escape this.

“You think you can just disappear?” Bereth shouted. “You’ve leveled up once. You’re an illusionist now, I saw it. Invisibility won’t save you. I know where you are.” With this last statement, Bereth pulled back his bow, leveling it directly at where Elzio stood.

Of course, Bereth was right. The thing he really lacked in this situation wasn’t accuracy. It was awareness.

The three Melting Magma spells hit him just as he let loose a basic attack. Bereth wheeled around, realizing his mistake, but not before the three Lava Cracks affected him, adding a 2x modifier to the spell’s base damage with each cast, and lowering Bereth’s physical and magical resistances. To Bereth’s credit, he managed to get off two basic attacks before the three Firechains hit him. It was enough to almost eliminate one of the doppels. His next attack, triggering Piercing Bleed, was more than enough, and one of the Nance doppels shimmered and vanished. With his significant Fortitude, Bereth was far from out. He lined up a stun at one of the surviving Nance doppels as they both launched basic attacks at him. At their level, the attacks barely tickled, but Bereth couldn’t afford to lose much health points, not with how fast his points were melting away.

He stunned the second doppel before turning to the third, firing three shots into it. As with the first, this was enough to kill the doppel, and it shimmered away after just a second. Health dwindling, Bereth pulled an arrow from his quiver.

One shot down. Elzio’s final doppelganger shuddered, still stunned, as the attack landed. But that was the last free shot Bereth got, as the stun faded from the Nance doppel. It stepped back, preparing another spell, one that would double the damage per second of the Melting Magma. If it didn’t get it off, the spell wouldn’t be enough to take out Bereth.

Bereth got two shots off, reducing the doppel to only a few hitpoints. Even without the Piercing Bleed that would occur on the last shot, it wouldn’t survive another basic attack.

The doppel raised its hands and fired.

Bereth’s third arrow passed by the doppel’s spell mid air. With a thud, the last arrow embedded itself in the doppel’s chest, and it fell, face blank.

Across from it, across from Elzio, Bereth’s face was anything but blank. His eyes bugged as the fire spell hit him, and the flames engulfing his body intensified. He turned, face warped with rage, towards Elzio, but the last tic of the spell saw him reduced to ash before he could fire his arrow.

Elzio wanted nothing more than to lean against a tree and exhaled, give his pounding heart a moment to reset, cool his head. But there was no moment to be had. Kia and Nance would be there soon. If Kia had finished her staff, Nance would be significantly more powerful than Elzio’s three doppels. She’d hit a power spike, one that Elzio couldn’t think his way around.

So instead, he hurried towards the gate, the one the clones had almost entirely burned through.

You need to return to me, Echo said. She sounded concerned. Elzio. Your health is poor. I can restore it. You need—

To beat down this gate. Elzio fired basic attacks, basic, useless bolts of energy against it. It’s hopeless if we don’t break this down now. Nance and Kia will be here any minute.

If Kia has finished the staff, Nance will kill you and your minions in a heartbeat. Then you will be powerless to stop her as she pushes wave after wave up this route, into my base.

If I go back, she’ll do that anyway. Elzio shifted his focus, as more enemy minions showed up, to fighting the little monsters so his minions could take down the gate. It was at a scant 400 health points. It was almost down. Nance will kill me in a heartbeat regardless of my health points. It’s do or die. If I can’t push this here, we lose. We die.

Use your talents. Your abilities. You can do more than just brainlessly push!

This gave him pause. Kia and Nance were watching him right now. The entire fight had occurred in front of an enemy structure, so they had vision. They knew what he was doing. He couldn’t just create a doppel of himself. Even if Nance was busy racing towards him, Kia could just be watching her map. He could run into a bush, make a copy, and then have it rush out, but what good would that do?

He could summon more Nance doppels to burn down the structure, but the actual Nance would extinguish them with her empowered spells. Even a high level doppel would melt before her.

But doppelgangers weren’t the only thing he could summon. Back before betraying Pyrthet, Elzio had won battles without creating a single other doppel. He’d kept that ace in his pocket for future fights against enemies who may have scouted out his previous battles. They’d know Elzio could summon minions and monsters, like most summoners, and wouldn’t prepare themselves for the psychological warfare that came with bringing doppels.

Elzio hadn’t summoned a minion the entire battle. There just hadn’t been need to. Minions were tankier but brought so much less utility. Right now, though, Elzio needed tanks.

With the doppels gone and invisibility dropped, Elzio had the mana he needed. He summoned up four stone minions. Normally Nance wouldn’t even bother with them, but right now, she was going to need to give them all her attention. They were moments from killing the gate, and then there would be nothing defending Lorath.

I’m coming home, Echo. Elzio sprinted off the path, racing into the jungle to find a waypoint. There were six across the map, stones that would teleport the user back to their nexus. Nance would probably head straight for the gate, take out the stone minions. But he couldn’t be sure. Maybe she’d follow him off the path. Maybe she’d follow him right to the waypoint.

He couldn’t rule it out.

As the runes on the stone activated, Elzio looked at his map. It had been less than fifteen seconds since he’d abandoned the path, and Nance’s icon was already there. He couldn’t quite tell what she was doing, but the fact that her icon hovered directly over Elzio’s stone minions, he could only assume she was battling them

Thank God, he thought, as the final rune activated, sending him to the nexus.