Jinn cursed and shouted, "It's a trap! Regather!"
Uol quickly sent some long ranged heals towards Nouva as they gathered around Jinn.
Jinn held up his greatsword, "Nouva, Ricky, explain what happened."
Ricky quickly spoke, "I went to stab the priest in the heart, only to find Nouva appearing in front of me!"
Nouva added, "I found myself on top of the hill in a heartbeat. No idea what's going on."
Jinn's mind turned, "Might be a swapping skill, it should have a long cooldown. So now is our opportunity. Cream, freeze them in place. Ricky you keep an eye on them. Ywill you are with me, we shall end them here."
Ywill nodded, "Of course!"
Jinn and Ywill charged forward as Cream chanted. Ice encased the Priest, preventing them from moving.
Jinn shouted, "We do the double cleave!"
Ywill shouted in response, "Aye!"
They swung in the air in front of them, two red crescent slashes zoomed towards the Priest. During the small trip the slashes hit each other. However they did not clash and disappear, instead they fused and created a much larger and stronger attack.
This was a new technique discovered by the players! Skills with relatively the same properties were capable of fusing together to create a much stronger attack. This process was quickly called Sync among the player base.
Yet there was a catch, not only do the skills have to be incredibly similar. But the player themselves have to sync with their partner. Both in startup and in action.
In short Sync was something that was difficult to pull off in even a controlled environment. Much less in actual combat!
Yielya watched through the ice as an attack sped towards her. By simply the looks of the skill she assumed the damage would not be light. The only choice was who to switch with...
She made her choice quickly.
Tring~
Jinn's eyes widened, such a skill surely had a long cooldown right?!
The ice shattered from the impact and a Priest was sent tumbling into a tree.
Ywill shouted, "Uol!"
Cream turned her head as she retreated to the side. If Uol was over there, that could only mean-!
Her steps were frozen into place, and she found herself unable to move. She saw as the Priest swung their staff towards her.
Thwonk-
The blow was far stronger than anticipated. How could a Priest be so strong?! The blow did a decent part of her HP, and even sent her stumbling to the side!
Ricky appeared above the Priest as he fell he swung downwards, his dagger leaving a dark shadowy mark in its path!
[Plummeting Laceration]!
Tring~
'That sound-!'
Ricky saw as Cream faced the wrath of his own skill. A deep gash forming on her back.
"Cream!"
~ ~ ~
"Hmm... do you have any sevens?"
"Go fish."
"Darn-"
BOOM-!!
A shockwave sent the cards flying into the forest, Akiol's hand hovering above where the stack once was.
He sighed, "Can she keep it down? My cards!"
Jarvis looked at his hand, "So does that mean I win?"
"There isn't much to win! There isn't a game!"
~ ~ ~
Jinn grit his teeth, everything was falling apart. Since his teammates were going to get hit with whatever he sent out anyway, might as well hit everyone!
He swung his greatsword towards the ground whilst shouting, "[Collapsing Star]!"
Ywill looked in shock, "Jinn-?!"
BOOM-!!
A brilliant white enshrouded the area, destroying anything it touched. If one were to look from a distance, they would see that the explosion was in the shape of a diamond. It's size covering a good fourth of the entire area.
Jinn himself was immune to his own skill, a part of its ability. While he felt bad for his teammates, they needed something to snap them out of their confusion. Uol would be able to heal them back with no trouble anyway.
'I would like to see how you deal with this!' He thought to himself.
Yielya's vision was enshrouded with white and her HP dropped incredibly quickly. As she watched it fall she wondered how the enemy team was going to deal with this.
To her surprise the damage stopped at exactly a third of her total HP, even though the white continued to persist.
She cast a minor heal on herself and watched as her newly gained HP was quickly taken away.
As the white began to fade she quickly planned her next move.
The white faded completely and Jinn shouted, "Uol! Heal everyone!"
Tring~
His heart skipped a beat, every time he heard that sound something bad happened!
He looked over to Uol, only for them not to be there! Turning his head he looked over to where the enemy Priest was.
Uol was currently getting beat by the enemy Priest.
Yielya had forgotten, due to not only her unique class, but also her War Sight, her stats were far above the average player. Meaning as a Priest she was able to deal a decent amount of damage hitting players.
"Stop them!"
Yielya heard someone shout, but everyone hesitated. After all any of their attacks can be used against them!
Yielya knew the moment their Priest died the game was settled, she could easily avoid them for thirty minutes. They had almost no way to heal themselves, after all potions were banned.
The Subduer charged forward, Yielya kept an eye on their movements. As they swung she immediately deduced their intention: Bait her into switching and change the directory of the attack.
However there was immediately two ways she could turn this around. First, her War Sight technically had no cooldown, so she could easily switch back. Secondly, and the more optimal choice, she could simply not switch.
The Subduer's sword slashed cleanly through their Priest, and they dissolved into white light.
To prevent issues, corpses were not left in the competition, unless a player's class or skill can use one.
The enemy team froze in shock, seemingly unwilling that their Priest had died so easily.
"Fine then!"
Ywill dashed forward at incredible speed. In front of his chest a floating hollow white circle was shown.
Ywill was the only player in the party who had a Berserk Skill. Even then, it's bonuses were around mid tier.
Jinn was adamant about keeping it as a trump card, for it could easily change the tides if used right.
However this battle was progressing terribly for them, nothing was working! So Ywill came to the conclusion that he must use the Skill if they were to win.
The Priest looked towards him as he charged forward. Ywill was confident, at their current distance they wouldn't be able to swap before he could hit them!
His sword began to glow and as he swung he shouted his most powerful skill, "[Radiant Tear]!"
A three colored trail followed his sword, green, purple, with traces of red. This Skill did the most damage in a single hit!
Tring~
'No!'
The person facing his slash was not the Priest, but rather Cream!
A deep gash formed horizontally across her stomach. The trail solidified into a solid purple color, forming a line across the wound.
This light faded quickly, showing the deadly wound to Ywill. A moment passed, then Ywill watched as Cream faded into light.
Ywill dropped to his knees, "Cream!"
"Focus Ywill! The fight isn't over yet!"
Ywill looked over to the voice, Jinn held his greatsword and was watching his surroundings as he continued, "I have a strategy! Group in twos! If they try to switch they will have to switch with one of us! Then we can attack them then!"
Yielya heard the strategy, it wasn't bad for something made quickly. Yet it wasn't great either, she already knew what to do.
She retreated up the hill. If their plan was to attack her when she switched, then she wouldn't switch.
The enemy team grouped up with newfound confidence. With the seemingly foolproof plan Nouva shot an arrow towards Yielya.
They were prepared for any of them to swap, ready to attack the moment she did, or block the arrow.
Yielya moved out of its way and continued to watch them. The trajectory was obvious, she did not need to use her War Sight in a situation like this.
The Subduer spoke, "Just do it Nouva."
The Archer pulled the bow string and fired. Instead of shooting forward the arrow traveled slowly, as if time slowed. The arrow rotated and a sound was made, like an energy weapon charging up.
The arrow began to glow, its radiance glowing stronger as the sound increased.
Two seconds was all that it needed, it shot forward at a blinding speed. A clear trail following its path.
The speed of the arrow was incredible, but Yielya had long since moved away. The two second charge up provided more than sufficient time for the task.
However that was not all!
Tring~
Nouva's expression changed immediately, for her own arrow had pierced her heart!
Yielya's War Sight was not restricted to people! She had only swapped the players to give them this false belief. Yielya's War Sight allowed her to switch the placement of anything!
The explosion from the Subduer's Skill had caused quite a bit of rubble to form. Loose dirt and rocks scattered the field, ruining the peaceful look.
Yielya had switched the arrow with a chunk of dirt in the right location, making the arrow pierce Nuova!
The damage from the explosion had left everyone missing at least a third of their HP. The critical strike on Nouva's heart should have their HP in critical condition!
And there it was, Yielya saw an opportunity to end the battle now. Despair in their expressions.
Yielya walked towards them and began to speak, "The battle is as good as over. There will be no shame in quitting a battle you cannot win."
The warrior shouted, "We will never give up!"
"Do you want to kill your other teammates? Just like you did to the sorcerer?"
"That's your fault! Not mine!"
"My fault? Who swung the sword? Who was the one who dealt the final blow?"
The Subduer sighed, "Ywill, calm yourself. We clearly are not prepared for this. We all agreed that we could be participating in something beyond our league. It's a shame it ends this early."
Ywill looked over in shock, "Quit?! We haven't quit before! It isn't over yet?"
Yielya sighed, "It is, it has been. I could have ended this battle easily from the start."
"Lies!"
Yielya picked up a stone and tossed it into the air, using her staff like a bat she sent it flying to the sky.
"It's the truth."
Tring~
Ywill found themselves falling from the sky, players had just about no way to prevent fall damage at this stage of the game. Only a lucky few.
Yielya had every opportunity to do this from the start, but that wouldn't be very sporty of her. So she gave them a chance.
Truthfully she wished to see how other players would react to her War Sight. It turned out almost as expected.
The Subduer rushed over and held out their arms. Aiming to catch the falling Ywill.
Yielya shook her head, "Pointless."
Tring~
Just as Ywill was about to fall into their arms, the Subduer suddenly found themself slightly more forward than they were.
A sickening crunch was heard and they looked behind them. There Ywill was fading into light, unwilling to accept such a defeat.
The Subduer closed their eyes, fighting some inner turmoil before coming to a conclusion, "We surrender, it's obvious how unmatched we are. It was a good fight."
"It was." Yielya responded out of courtesy.
The three remaining players pressed something in front of them, and quickly faded into light.
Yielya let out a breath, "And that's that! Now I don't have to work for a bit!"