The entire fight had happened so fast that the engagement between Lin Chian, Brent, and Varenne was still happening. Lin Chian was only at 300 hit points, while Brent was almost full health thanks to Varenne’s healing.
The Tank wouldn’t last long.
Syrene, push. Elzio didn’t really have to tell her, since she was currently blasting away the next wave of minions to make room for hers.
If I get flanked, she said, I die. Do we have eyes on the other enemy heroes?
Harock just left the lane where he was countering Isla and Syrene Doppel’s push, Echo said.
Damnit. Elzio’s thoughts raced. The Deluuth heroes knew that the real Syrene was in the Southern Echo-Deluuth road, meaning only one hero was needed there to contest. Meanwhile, Harock would easily take down Syrene in her road once he got there. Isla, prepare for an attack. Syrene, keep pushing. We need to make something out of this.
Understood, both women said in near synchronization.
Isla was a level 17 utility mage though. Deadly if given the chance to ramp up her poisons, but with her low hit points she wouldn't be enough to survive Poblima, a level 20 attack mage.
But Isla wasn’t alone. She had a level 5 Syrene doppel, which wasn’t going to be much for damage, but damage wasn’t the only thing it brought. It had the same spells as Syrene: [Electroshock, Chain Lightning, Energy Cage, Melting Magma, Seared Steps, Illusionary Blur, and Blizzard.] Echo had spent some extra points, allowing Syrene to pull so many spells in, but it would be worth it here.
Focus on damage, Isla, Elzio said, before slipping directly into the Syrene doppel to take as close of control as possible.
Poblima wasted no time unleashing her first rotations. Elzio had seen the rotation before when it was cast on Syrene, but Isla knew was to expect and managed to dodge one of the five spells. However, the four spells that did hit reduced her low. The full rotation had been enough to half-hit Syrene, who had 200 more hit points than Isla did. As it was, Isla’s hit points fell dangerously low as she was able to respond with a Blinding Dart followed by a Noxious Cloud.
The Syrene doppel, puppeted by Elzio, landed a reasonably weak Electroshock—he couldn’t afford the doppel running too low on mana.
Then they both waited. They didn’t have the raw damage to burst Poblima down. They needed to draw out how long she was in the Noxious Cloud. When the stun was a half second away from wearing off, Isla threw a Sticky Pit down at Poblima’s feet and the Syrene doppel cast Illusionary Blur. The two spells working together were enough to disorient Poblima, who threw out a few poorly aimed basic attacks, staggering as the Sticky Pit clung to her feet.
Poblima was far from out of it though. She continued to fire off her basic attacks in Isla’s direction, attacks which Isla deftly dodged, but each blast was enough to make Elzio’s heart skip. Isla couldn’t take another shot, and another minion wave was already on its way.
So he positioned the Syrene doppel ahead of Isla, to draw attacks from the minions before they had a chance to hit the Venomancer. By the time the Syrene doppel got in position, the blur was about to wear off, so Elzio had it cast Seared Steps, which slowed Poblima and caused her to take damage whenever she moved.
Poblima snorted, not terribly impressed. It made sense given she knew the Syrene was a doppelganger whose spells did rather little. Still, she was double slowed by the Sticky Trap, which meant as she tried to fight her way out of the Noxious Cloud, each step took twice as long, causing the damage on Searing Feet to tick twice.
To keep her in the cloud a few seconds longer, Elzio had the doppel throw up an Energy Cage, which began closing in on her, blocking her exit.
Again, Poblima just snorted and fired a few scattered shots at the Syrene doppel. Elzio dodged them, which immediately broke the channel on the cage. By now, the Seared Steps had worn off as well, but even more concerning, Poblima’s spells were almost off cooldown
The entire fight, both the Syrene doppel and Isla had been throwing basic attacks, but those really had only added up so much with their small amounts of Strength and Physical. Force. The enemy mage had been reduced below half health, which just wasn’t going to matter at this rate.
Get ready to dodge those shots, Elzio commanded. Then he held his breath. None of the doppel’s spells were off cooldown. Isla had to dodge.
But Poblima was an elite combatant. Her high level betrayed more than just high stats—she was a skilled active tactician. The first two spells barely missed Isla, but in dodging them, Isla gave away the trajectory of her dodging.
Poblima’s third and fourth abilities were expertly aimed, leading the Venomancer just enough to land.
Elzio knew she was dead before the last spell even hit her. He pulled the doppelganger back, anything to maintain even the slightest bit of presence in the road. Something to push minions back until Poblima’s spells were up enough to kill it.
Meanwhile, Lin Chian had just fallen as well, overwhelmed by the two heroes on her. Brent and Varenne began a relentless push in the Northern Genyl-Deluuth road, Brent’s artifacts chunking through the tower’s defenses with Varenne’s buffs assisting him.
Harock would be on Syrene soon, but she’d whittled down her tower quite substantially and had amassed a weighty wave of minions. So that would be close to a stalemate.
On the sole positive note, Ilshe and Martin had been absolutely destroying their tower. With Deluuth forcing action against the other lanes, they’d been forced to leave one open, and that tower was now close to going down.
Elzio needed to work proactively here. He couldn’t just keep reacting.
With the slash of his hand, he dissolved all active doppels. He needed mana.
Syrene, he said, I want you to die the moment you see Harock.
You’re sure? she asked. He’s here, you want me to—
Yes, now!
Syrene didn’t wait for another urge, and leapt into his very first ability, dying instantly.
All the heroes had the same respawn timers. They had all died within 10 seconds of each other, which meant they would all spawn within 10 seconds of each other. Elzio had the perfect chance to own the narrative of who was where on the field.
I’m resetting the board here, he said to all parties. Ilshe, Martin, you two keep pushing. Poblima’s too low to take you on, and so is Varenne. Brent and Harock look like they’re going to try to get a good push on their respective roads, so I predict Poblima and Varenne will recall and try to match you two in your road. I don’t know where Zalyth will go—he’s the wild card.
Elzio’s eyes dropped to his mana bar. Almost full.
“Your Staff of Mana is done.”
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Elzio jumped. He’d almost forgotten Carlin was with him in the base, and yet when he blinked back to reality, he saw the massive man holding out the beautiful artifact.
“Thank you.” Elzio took it and pulled up the first of his doppelgangers, a level 3 Athin.
It was time to overwhelm Deluuth with numbers.
He didn’t need stats, he needed board control. Level 3 doppels cost 160 mana, so he could cast 6 on a full mana pool. Mana flowed back into him as the staff empowered his regeneration, making cooldown the only limiting factor. But at this rate, he’d be done just as everyone had respawned.
Next was a level 3 Isla. Then a Level 3 Lin Chian and another Isla. As soon as each was up, he sent them down to the Genyl base.
Once they’re up, tell them to stay in their base, Elzio said.
We’re losing pressure in our lanes. Ilshe’s voice pulsed in Elzio’s head, as if it came directly from his brain stem. We don’t have the time.
If this goes right, we’ll make up for it. Elzio grit his teeth. This had to go well.
The final two he summoned were two Syrene doppels, the last of which appeared just as Syrene spawned.
Okay, Elzio said, listen up. We need to press our advantage. I’m sending doppels to each road. The Northern Genyl-Deluuth road will have a Syrene and Lin Chian doppel. The Southern Genyl-Deluuth still has Martin and Ilshe, so we’re good there. The Northern Echo-Deluuth road will have a Syrene and Athin doppel, and the Southern Echo-Deluuth will have a Syrene and Isla doppel. As he spoke, he sent the doppels out to their assigned lane. That’s why I needed Syrene to die as soon as possible. We need them guessing which is the real one. All of those are low levels, but Deluuth can’t risk taking a losing battle, so they’re going to have to pick one to risk a fight in.
They’ll be able to defeat any of them with just one hero, Athin said.
But they won’t know that. The grin was audible in Martin’s thoughts. They won’t put a single hero in 1v2 combat until they know for sure. Which means they have to either figure it out or risk moving in pairs, and we’ll out-push them. The glee in Martin’s tone as he pieced together Elzio’s plan sent a surge of confidence through the Summoner. Where is everyone else going?
Elzio smiled. I’m sending the real Syrene to Martin and Ilshe. Deluuth will probably assume it’s a doppel meant to help bolster them against Poblima and Varenne. Syrene, I need you to play safe and throw low-level utility spells to keep up that guise. Lin Chian, Athin, Isla, I want you all in the Southern Echo-Deluuth road. Syrene’s pushed it low, so it’ll fall fast. Stay sneaky and stick to fog of war until you’re all ready to pounce.
At this point, the Northern Echo-Deluuth road and the Northern Genyl-Deluuth road were pushing in Deluuth’s favor, with the Genyl-Deluuth tower whittled dangerously low. Meanwhile the Southern Genyl-Deluuth road was pushing heavily in Elzio’s favor, and the Southern Echo-Deluuth road was reasonably even. But if Elzio managed this, the three heroes in the Southern Echo-Deluuth road would be so oppressive, Deluuth wouldn’t have any choice but to pull back their pushing heroes to contest it. Elzio’s low level doppels could stop the minion waves in those roads.
Once Lin Chian, Athin, and Isla showed in the southern road, Martin, Ilshe, and Syrene would fight Poblima and Varenne, who would be overwhelmed, thinking they were facing two heroes and a doppel but instead were facing three heroes. Even if Poblima and Varenne forced a stalemate, Elzio’s allies could chase them down, preventing them from moving to help their teamates.
It would all come together.
The moment Elzio had given the commands, the team moved like clockwork to follow them—each hero moving to their allocated road. His team was starting to outscale the Deluuth heroes as well, since every time someone respawned, Carlin had a new artifact for them. It wasn’t enough to make up for the level gap yet, but they were getting there.
I’m in position, Syrene reported. I’m doing the best doppel impersonation I can. She was selling it rather well, with jerky movements, stilted steps, and a blank face. She was a perfect replica of a doppelganger trying to look like Syrene.
Across the road from her, Poblima and Varenne exchanged a look. Elzio could only assume some very rapid strategizing was going on between the women’s cold eyes. Then, suddenly, Poblima’s eyes grew wide, and her neck snapped to Syrene.
They have noticed the other doppels, Echo said, directly to Elzio. They see the other Syrenes.
Good, Elzio said, a smile crossing his face.
Back in the road, Varenne nodded sharply before raising her hands. Her health dropped dramatically as her spell cast, but before any of the allied heroes could take advantage of her newfound weakness, she turned and fled the road, moving at an unexpectedly swift speed. Poblima, who remained in the lane, took up a defensive stance.
Then an alert went across his map as one of his doppels reported damage. Elzio looked to see the Syrene doppel sharing a road with an Isla doppel, suddenly lose half her health to a surprise attack from Harock. The Isla doppel put up a defensive spell, which Harock hit once before disappearing back into the fog of war.
Almost immediately after he left, Elzio saw another hit. This time it was the Syrene doppel fighting alongside the Lin Chian doppel. Zalyth had darted through their road, throwing out a wave of dark, cursed mist that took a significant chunk of health from Syrene’s health pool. The Lin Chian doppel turned, slowly, as if moving through water to respond, but Zalyth was gone a second later, before either could really react.
They are deducing where your doppelgangers are, Echo said. They can see the doppels’ health bars, and they can tell when their attacks are doing more damage than they should against a level 25 Mage.
How’s our push coming down in the Southern Echo-Deluuth road? Elzio asked, tone urgent. The higher-leveled Deluuth heroes could move faster from lane to lane—it seemed almost all of them had some degree of mobility-enhancing abilities. Once the ruse was up, they would respond to the main push, which would have a deadly outcome.
We’re just about there. Athin pinged his location on Elzio’s map. Give us another minute.
It is possible they deduce our strategy before long. Echo’s tone was grim. They already know that both Isla and Lin Chian were doppels. If they assume everyone visible on the map are doppelgangers, they will expect something.
You’re right. But even if they do, they’re all clustered around the wrong side of the arena. We’ll get something from this. Elzio sounded bolder than he felt, though. He had misjudged how fast the Deluuth heroes would move.
Poblima will hit us next, Ilshe said. I can already see her stance change. She’s seen the others are doppels and assumes we are as well.
Was that possible? Had Deluuth lost vision of Martin and Ilshe for long enough to assume a swap could have occurred? Perhaps. Ilshe was right about Poblima’s stance change.
Should we move now? Martin asked. Take her out?
No. The word flitted from Elzio’s mind almost before the full plan clicked into place. No, stay where you are. Harock and Zalyth both targeted their primary spells at Syrene. They’ve figured out that I’m pairing doppels with doppels. If we can convince Poblima that you three are all doppelgangers, she’ll peel off the fight, same as her teammates did in the other lanes.
Brilliant! Martin said.
How is that brilliant? Echo asked. Deluuth’s heroes are looking at the health bars. Once Poblima hits the real Syrene, she will see her health bar only reduce marginally. Poblima will know Syrene is real. This charade will not work.
Echo’s analysis came through at the speed of thought, flooding Elzio’s brain much faster than the words spoken would have. She was right, but she was missing something.
When damage is reported back to a combatant, it takes the form of a small number rising off the target’s body. After that, the projected health bar decreases, Elzio said. Both that number and the health bar appear in the same location for every hero. The number is above them, slightly to the left, and the health bar is a few inches above their heads. Syrene, I trust you know exactly where each icon appears?
Precisely seven and a half inches above their heads. Syrene’s voice was light, but convinced. Given I was the one who taught you about damage reports, I assure you, I know where they will be. And I know how to make sure Poblima sees exactly what I need her to see.
You are an illusionist. Echo sounded annoyed with herself. Were she mortal and in possession of hands, Elzio was sure she would be smacking her nonexistent forehead. Of course. All right then. This plan should work in ideal circumstances.