As all this happened, the battle raged on in other roads. Poblima and Isla were dancing circles around each other. Isla’s spells hadn’t done much damage to the other caster, but between blinds, obscuring fogs, slows, disorients, and that ever lingering Noxious Cloud, Poblima had been trapped, slowly taking damage while trying to escape Isla’s smothering attacks. She didn’t cast any spells, since her lack of vision and clear movement meant it would likely be a waste, so Ilsa only had to worry about minions attacking her. The minions were… doing their best, but Isla had taken so little damage, she shrugged off their tiny sticks and rocks.

Syrene reached Isla’s side once Harock was done with, and cast a low level Melting Magma. “Good work,” she said. “Any eyes on anyone else?”

Isla squinted at the unexpected praise, but nodded back at Syrene. “Not on our maps.”

Poblima was still shrieking obscenities at the two, but she couldn’t escape Isla’s toxic swamp, and Syrene’s occasional ping with a fire spell saw the magma’s continue to mount. After just under a minute, Poblima screamed her last insult and melted away.

Syrene, I want you back in the base, Elzio said. Your health and mana are low. I’m going to pull back your doppel as well. Once you get back, I’ll send you to the road with Athin and your doppel to join Isla. Keep them wondering which is you and which is the copy. It’ll make them less likely to attack unless they have at least three, which gives us the freedom to shove other roads.

I’m on it, Syrene said.

Elzio’s eyes returned to his map, just in time to see an enemy briefly dart into the Southern Genyl-Deluuth Road, where Ilshe and Martin had taken up position.

Who was that? Martin asked. I didn’t catch their stats.

I didn’t either, Ilshe said.

Elzio grit his teeth, upset at how slow he’d been, but then Echo spoke up.

It was Zalyth Skoe, she said. The Night Specter. With this, she sent Elzio the stats on the hero.

Zalyth Skoe: Level 25 Night Specter

Strength: 20

Intelligence: 56

Agility: 20

Fortitude: 10

Hit Points Pool: 200

Endurance Pool: 700

Mana Pool: 1350

Speed: 200

Magic Resist: 66

Physical Resist: 30

Physical Force: 60

Magical Force: 96

That’s some disparity between stats, Elzio said.

A Night Specter’s spells grow in power as their total percent health drains, Echo said. This man wants a few hits from a minion to appreciably lower his hit point total so that he can cast empowered spells.

Interesting. Elzio appraised the stats for a moment, before smiling. With Zalyth’s stats, you’re right, a few minion hits could reduce his hit points to 75%, giving him a 25% increase on his skills.

Correct, Echo said. And that increases exponentially as he gets lower. Of course, he cannot risk getting too low, since his respawn time would be punishing.

Of course, of course. Elzio began summoning a new doppelganger. But my constructs have reduced stats. I could throw three doppels at an enemy, three with a hit point pool of 50 health each, and one basic attack on each would do enough damage to triple their damage.

Low level, so they cost less for you, Echo said. Her tone was quiet, thoughtful, but it was also impressed and excited. We can use this to our advantage.

I’ve just got to see where the best position for them is, Elzio said. His eyes fell back on his map. Everyone now was in their lanes. Lin Chian in the Northern Genyl-Deluuth Road, Martin and Ilshe in the Southern Genyl-Deluuth Road, Athin and Syrene in the Northern Echo-Deluuth Road, and Isla with a Syrene doppel in the Southern Echo-Deluuth Road.

We’ve got company, Athin reported.

Before Elzio even zoomed in on the map, Syrene hit him with the stats of their two new opponents.

Brent McCalsh: Level 26 Crossbowman

Strength: 30

Intelligence: 19

Agility: 40

Fortitude: 20

Hit Points Pool: 250

Endurance Pool: 950

Mana Pool: 425

Speed: 400

Magic Resist: 39

Physical Resist: 50

Physical Force: 70

Magical Force: 59

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Varenne Weelk: Level 15 Healer

Level 10 Blood Mage

Strength: 15

Intelligence: 38

Agility: 15

Fortitude: 38

Hit Points Pool: 900

Endurance Pool: 325

Mana Pool: 90

Speed: 150

Magic Resist: 76

Physical Resist: 53

Physical Force: 55

Magical Force: 78

Elzio grinned. Thanks Echo. God he was happy they had a Blood Mage. The Night Specter could pack a punch, but the Blood Mage meant something even more important.

Friendly fire was enabled for the Deluuth heroes. Elzio could turn them against each other. It wasn’t outright his primary method of attack, since turning them against each other often took inside information on their personalities he didn’t have, but it gave him more options.

All right, he said, both to his team coms and to the Genyl heroes’ psychic link. I’m going to send out some reinforcements to lanes. They haven’t figured out we’ve got the doppelgangers yet, so I’m going to stick to just copies of you all. Keep them guessing at which lane has real heroes and which has copies. Lin Chian, you’re first. Sending you a copy of Isla. Tactically a utility mage like Isla synergized well with a brawler like Lin Chian, moreso than anyone else on the team would. Then I’m sending a Martin doppel to Athin and Syrene.

You are not sending them a healer? Echo’s question was sent directly to Elzio as he began to summon the doppels. That Night Specter could hurt them both pretty quickly. A low level fighting doppel is less useful than a low level healing doppel, since the healer could still provide sustain and buffs.

It could, Elzio agreed, sending the Isla doppel up to Lin Chian’s lane. But Night Specters are all about fast burst. He can’t survive an extended fight because so much of his skills surround getting low and killing fast. If he goes all in, the fight will last a few seconds. Against a hero meant to whittle down an opponent, Healers are invaluable. But against someone who’s just going to destroy them if he lands his spells? It won’t help.

Understood. Echo didn’t sound at all upset at being wrong, and Elzio smiled. She liked learning as much as he did. Hopefully they’d both live to learn another day.

Bad news out here. Lin Chian’s thoughts were strained, and Elzio pulled up the map to see the burly woman found herself face-to-face with Brent and Varenne, the Crossbowman and Healer Blood Mage. They’re gonna jump me.

Play under your tower and stay safe, Elzio said. He grimaced, before making a snap decision. Instead of creating the Martin doppel he’d planned on sending to Syrene and Athin, he pulled up an Ilshe clone and sent it to Lin Chian. I’m sending you tools to survive an attack. Utility and sustain. Even with two doppels, do not take a fight if you can avoid it. Let the Isla doppel take down minions too far for you, and let the Ilshe doppel heal you up. If they strike, your primary prerogative is to disengage. If we keep two of them there, and we know the Night Spectre is with Athin and Syrene, it means they’ve only got two allies left. Once we have eyes on them, we can start pushing out lanes.

Sounds good to me, Lin Chian said. Just make it snappy.

Doing my best. Deep down, though, Elzio had a sinking feeling he wouldn’t get there in time. The Deluuth heroes knew where every other hero on the map was right now, so they knew that no one could come to Lin Chian’s rescue in time. They weren’t there just to oppose her, soak minion experience, grow in power. They were there to fight.

Varenne, the Blood Mage Healer, cast a high level Sanguine Touch on Brent. Instantly, the Support’s health began to dwindle, her blood pouring power into the Crossbowman’s bolts. Brent wasted no time firing off an Oppressive Volley at Lin Chian.

The woman did her best to dodge the attack, but it was a chain of abilities meant specifically for her. She was slow, with only 16 agility, and though she normally made up for this with her great hit point pool, blood magic did %health damage. They were the exact pair to take down a Tank.

As the first shots began to land, the Sanguine Touch triggered, leeching damage from Lin Chian’s total health pool and siphoning back a portion of this health to Varenne. Elzio wanted to shout at Lin Chian, tell her that she needed to avoid the spells because as long as the blows hit, the Support was being healed, and would continue to channel Sanguine Touch. If Lin Chian could avoid enough blows, the cost to Varenne’s health would be too great and she would have to abort the spell.

But yelling would make no difference here. Firstly, Lin Chian knew this. She knew how the spell worked. Second, even if she didn’t, yelling at someone to ‘Dodge!’ was almost offensively stupid. Lin Chian didn’t get to level level 16 by not knowing how to dodge. It was just incredibly difficult here. It was meant to be. Oppressive Volley wasn’t called oppressive for nothing.

Lin Chian managed to avoid the second half of the bolts, dodging behind her minions and allowing them to take the blows. It did significantly less flat damage to them, since their hit point pools were so low, so significantly less health was returned to Varenne, whose spell had now drained half her hit points. Once her health hit 50%, Varenne canceled the spell and began channeling a Viscous Trap on the ground—a spell that slowed any enemy who stepped in it and increased the caster’s mana and hit point regeneration for every enemy hero stuck inside.

With a grin, Lin Chian activated her Stone Shroud ability, which reduced the incapacitation while increasing her magical and physical resist. She then took three great strides, pulling her feet up from the tar-like blood that bubbled around her ankles, making it almost all the way to Brent, who began charging a Stunning Bolt.

Instead of hitting Brent, however, she turned on a gaggle of enemy minions and threw a level 12 Minion Hurl at them. Brent canceled his channel, ducking as the wave went flying. But he wasn’t Lin Chian’s target. The minions’ little bodies slammed through the air, hurtling right towards where Varenne was channeling her spell.

She canceled it as fast as she can, but couldn’t avoid all of the minions. Two crashed into her, binding them all together and chaining them to the ground. It was a root, not a stun, but while they were linked, her regens and resistance stats were reduced.

Elzio had never seen the spell in action, and though it pained him to see Lin Chian struggling how she had, he had to admit, the spell was gratifying to watch.

Varenne, being a Blood Mage, could attack her own allies. She immediately began blasting them with her basic attacks, likely trying to conserve mana. At first, Elzio thought Lin Chian had made a mistake, binding Varenne to the minions instead of Brent. Brent wouldn’t have been able to free himself as easily, and would have had to wait for the spell to wear off.

But then, as Lin Chian clenched her huge fists, Elzio realized why she’d targeted the Support.

For just a few seconds, Varenne went from fully focused on Lin Chian and Brent to fully focused on fighting her own minions. Had the fight lasted another ten seconds, she would have realized that she was distracted, but for just a moment, her attention had been split.

Lin Chian turned back to Brent, who was still on the ground having ducked her spell. She balled up her fists and they glowed a vibrant blue as she raised them up in the air.

It really was a show of cockiness from the Deluuth heroes that they’d ever let a brawler Tank get that close to a fragile Crossbowman. They’d known their lead would have made this an easy battle, and they were playing with that unearned confidence.

Syrene, Athin, Elzio said. Push in on the Night Spectre. I’m not sure if Lin Chian is going to win this, and we need to be making gains across the map if they’re going to double commit here.

On it. Without any further warning, Syrene threw a high level Chain Lightning at the wave of minions, immediately melting them. As she had fired her shot, Athin leapt forward with a Angel’s Slash, a high damage melee ability that was part dash, part attack. The spell hit the first target, but with the wave gone, there was no target except Zalyth.

The Night Spectre was fast though, and he knew Athin’s spells well. He threw up a powerful shield, which absorbed much of the attack. His hit point pool was so low, however, that it still managed to reduce him to half of his health—something Elzio knew had been the plan.

Syrene and Zalyth cast their spells at the exact same moment. Syrene’s, an Electroshock, shot straight towards her enemy, but not before Zalyth’s Avenwarp cast, sending a shudder through the area around them. Athin, who’d been much closer, lost all but 200 points of his health. Syrene too was reduced to a similar number, spared only because of her distance. Distance couldn’t save their minions, however, who evaporated.

Zalyth Void Warped away, retreating under his tower and leaving an empty hole in the space where he’d been standing. The rift dealt passive damage a second’s worth of damage over time to Athin, who’d still been beside him.

But Athin had anticipated the retreat and Quick Dashed in the exact direction Zalyth had teleported.

Syrene pressed her fingers to her temple, attaching a level 1 Blizzard. It was a far cry from the level 9 version Jenna had cast, way back in Ythrel, but it was a more strategic play. As soon as Athin landed next to Zalyth, the Night Spectre Suppressed him.

The tower locked in on Athin and fired. A hair before the bolt hit, Syrene released her charged spell. Zalyth’s shield was on cooldown, and he couldn’t move without breaking the suppress. At such a low level, the Blizzard barely did any damage, but Zalyth barely had any health.

It was just enough.

Athin and Zalyth disappeared almost simultaneously, leaving Syrene at just over 150 hit points.