Chương 155: B3 Chapter 11 - Group Favorites Part Two

Anna admired the camerawork as the five versus five arena was revealed on the large displays. The sunny plains resembled an actual real life battleground, with huts and buildings, ponds, large rocks forming chokeholds within a small woodland area. According to Patrick, this tournament's map pool had a lot more variety with flat maps also included.

"Warmaxx is the first to load in." Tasteful's deep voice had turned more analytical, still echoing across the arena.

"And here we see the reason why this guild has moved from a relatively strong top guild to a recent powerhouse of tournament results. Lapadin's character sheet is truly the result of hours upon hours of work!" Item stats appeared on the screen. Back in Worlds, Anna had just seen items as expensive weapons or pieces of armor, but after playing Wonderwind, she found herself actually looking at the stats as well.

Adamantite Chestplate Item Type: Legendary Crafted Armor, Divine Enchanted Required Character level: 249 Stats: +3500 Armor +400 Elemental Resistances +1400 Attack Force +3 To Holy Spells +4 To Divine Smite Magic Enchantment (Passive): This item has been enchanted with a magic enhancement stone. Base stats reduced by 20% for an additional skill slot. God's Anger (Passive): Divine Smite now creates a lightning chain, hitting up to four additional targets, losing 40% of damage with each target.

If a target is executed, instead increase damage by 40%.

"That's strong," Anna said. She played the paladin class as well. She'd just unlocked [Divine Smite]. The spell was almost impossible to dodge, and it executed enemies if they were low enough. That was the single most powerful spell they used in undead lairs. Its weakness was that it could only execute one target at a time. If instead it could do that to five monsters, Anna could imagine clearing through dungeons with ease.

"Yeah, if it lands on one target, the chain effect is even harder to dodge," Patrick said.

"It's very good."

"The entirety of Warmaxx is above level three hundred, with Pumper and Iphixa at 326," Tasteful was saying.

"Lapadin himself is at level 344. That's a higher level than what FireBrand was at Worlds last year. I'm really starting to think that Warmaxx has a chance to reach far in this tournament. Their opponents are finally loading in. I'm curious to see whether Assassin A and Veyra still remain underleveled, or—" He paused his words when the screen switched to display Aiden's and Veyra's character sheets next to each other.

"Level 379?!" Tasteful blurted out. Cheers followed.

"Assassin A is level three hundred and seventy-nine, and Veyra is even higher than that at 381?" Rebecca grinned next to him, while his mouth hung open.

"The average level of Zenith Protocol's A-team is 345 right now! Where on earth have these two been leveling?" The displays moved to items. Around Anna, many people were on their phones, as the same character sheets were published on the tournament's website, which was easier to read on the phones.

"There has been speculation that Assassin A's sickle was a new legendary item," Rebecca said.

"Those rumors are proven false, as it's a new mythic reveal! And that's not all, as Veyra has not one, but two mythic items, having upgraded her staff!"

"Oh my, look at her boots," Tasteful said like an awed child.

"Three thousand spell power for boots?" Boots Of Tainted Frost Item Type: Mythic Boots Required Character Level: 301 Stats: +3000 Spell Power +150 Defence +15% Cooldown Reduction +5% Dark Damage To All Offensive Spells You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. +5% Frost Damage To All Offensive Spells Abilities: Tainted Heaven (Active): Frost Magic shares affinity with Dark Magic.

Landing Dark or Frost Magic to enemies closer than 50 feet inflicts Heaven's Taint, slowing the target by 10% and lowering elemental resistances by 25% for ten seconds. Tainted Heaven can only be active when Frozen Heaven is inactive. Frozen Heaven (Active): Landing Dark or Frost Magic to enemies closer than 50 feet detonates Heaven's Taint, freezing air particles and dealing 5% of the target's missing health. The spell that causes the detonation fully ignores elemental resistances.

Frozen Heaven can only be active when Tainted Heaven is inactive. The text stayed on the screen for a while, with both casters trying to comprehend its effects.

"That," Tasteful eventually said, "might be one of the most broken pieces of gear I've seen since FireBrand's robe. Good God."

"It seems Solo Mage has absolutely not been slacking!" Rebecca said.

"Both of these players have incredible gearsets, though I am surprised to still see both of them still rocking epics as well. Do you think, Tasteful, the new mythic items are enough to make up for the worse items in their sets and make the difference of three more players in the enemy team?" Tasteful didn't sound nearly as confident in Warmaxx's win anymore.

"I really cannot tell you, Rebecca. Three extra players is a huge advantage. This is not just one extra opponent like Solo Mage had to deal with in Worlds. We're looking at a full roster of expert players facing two players." Anna glanced at Patrick to gauge his reaction. He was smiling, satisfied.

"I think this battle will be a lot closer than we expected," Rebecca said.

"Place your final predictions now, as the match is about to begin. Team Warmaxx, with Lapadin, Pumper, Iphixa, Zynz, and Opera, against Team Solo Mage with Assassin and Veyra! Three, two, one, go!" The cameraman immediately struggled to keep up as Aiden dashed to the left, into the trees. Warmaxx stayed huddled up, waiting, and Veyra began casting.

"Veyra opens the fight with Frost Storm immediately," Tasteful began, "landing it on all five players of Warmaxx, who seem to have no intention of dodging it! Iphixa casts Sphere Of Frost Resistance with Opera already pushing Spell Disruption, while Lapadin scans the woods for Assassin!"

"But here comes Hex Of Dawnbreak, buffed by Veyra's spirits!" Rebecca said.

"Warmaxx doesn't seem to care about this either, trusting their frost resistance area to keep them safe! Zynz and Pumper combo weapon enhancement to shoot a Homing Arrow at Veyra, while she's casting!" The arrow in question bumped against some barrier lifelessly. Anna had to pay attention to even see it.

"Veyra hardly bats an eye as Elemental Barrier appears immediately for a flawless block! Her casting isn't slowed in the slightest as she quickly approaches the fifth hit of Hex Of Dawnbreak!"

"No, the fifth hit has already happened," Tasteful corrected, "and that's a portal leading right behind Warmaxx's line! This is the exact same combo she used to blow up dozens of players in the Wilderness, and it looks like Warmaxx has prepared a strategy! Lapadin pulls up his shield, activates Titanwall, and everyone hides behind!" His shield grew greatly in size. Anna had also unlocked the same spell, defaulting to it when Patrick or his allies from the Witchgang needed protection from just about anything.

The spell was powerful for holding the line, as it also boosted defence by 20%.

"Veyra dips into the portal and delivers Time Freeze straight against Lapadin's impenetrable—" Tasteful's words were cut off as a loud slash echoed across the arena, making his words fall silent. Lapadin collapsed. Not only him, all of the members behind him fell as well. The armor that they'd just boasted about was knocked out of the tournament in one blow. Anna and the audience shared the confusion, watching in silence, until the first cheer rang.

The volume broke, and everyone joined in with Patrick sitting smugly as he clapped, Anna's heart racing.

"Veyra, you can't do that!" Tasteful shouted, having jumped up from his seat.

"Veyra, my dear god, you just one-shotted five players!"

"That…" Rebecca tried to say.

"Where's Assassin?!" Tasteful yelled over her out of excitement.

"Veyra didn't even need her one ally; she blew everyone up with one clean combo! What?" Whistles and chants of "Veyra, Veyra, Veyra," filled the arena—from the parts of the audience that weren't silent out of shock. Anna lifted her sign, trying her best to fit in. Only when the replay began, people calmed down to watch what had actually happened. It started with a closeup of Veyra's face. Anna's heart skipped a beat.

Her eyes fully in focus, hair fluttering beautifully by the wind, not one bit scared by facing five opponents alone. I've talked to her, Anna thought. She's Aiden's girlfriend. The replay moved to Warmaxx facing her portal. They'd already known Veyra would jump there, and they'd prepared a plan to deal with it.

"For those that don't know," Rebecca said, "Time Freeze requires line of sight for it to deal damage. It can't travel around walls. Warmaxx used Lapadin's gigantic shield to protect themselves, believing that a few casts of a hex couldn't possibly be enough to break through. You can see Pumper was already preparing Thunder Arrows for a counter attack."

"It wasn't the hex," Tasteful said.

"It's Veyra's boots! The effect of Frozen Heaven entirely mitigated Lapadin's resistances. Hex Of Dawnbreak was just what allowed that to go into the negatives. Opera made a huge mistake by spending so much effort on Spell Disruption. He removed Frost Storm, but for what? He and Iphaxa needed to Cleanse Lapadin right in that instant to bring his resistances back up. Only then would they have survived and had a chance for a counter-attack." Patrick laughed at that.

"If they'd started casting a cleanse, Veyra wouldn't have committed into a suicide play. That's when A would have come in."

"So how would Lapadin beat that?" Anna asked.

"His guild would need to be more skilled, first of all." The casters continued gushing over the clip, but Anna focused on Patrick's explanation.

"Iphaxa needs to be their designated cleanse person, that much was correct. He needs to time his cleanse just before Veyra hits the nuke. Pumper needed to use armor piercing arrows to break Elemental Barrier so he could actually disrupt Veyra. Lapadin and Zynz could then team up on A. Opera could easily Spell Disrupt, then help whichever side was struggling. But as I said, I don't think Warmaxx is skilled enough to execute that." He leaned back with a grin and said, "But that's our tickets paid for.

You want something to drink?"

"Um… I'll take a soda? I guess?" She sat with her hands closed in, still nervous about being here at all, and the competition moved onto the next match.