Chương 44: Perfect Counter

I drew first; a basic shot, clean and fast. The arrow split the air between us, whistling low. Cyrus lifted his staff without even looking and flicked his wrist.

"Arcane Bolt!" The two projectiles met midair. The collision cracked like glass. Both vanished. We moved almost at the same time, circling opposite sides of the ring, watching, calculating. No wasted motion. No taunts. Just reading each other. Another Arcane Bolt flared from his hand, and started streaking toward me. I countered with another arrow, slightly changing trajectory. It whistled past the magical projectile, but Cyrus effortlessly parried with his staff, while I dodged his Bolt.

He turned slightly, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. That half-grin meant he was starting to enjoy himself. He lifted his free hand.

"Fireball!" I dropped to one knee and fired Piercing Shot. The arrow cut through the heatwave; the explosion met it midair, the blast scattering both in a rain of sparks. Projectile based attacks similar in strength could often cancel each other out.

"Both projectiles detonate! These two are literally intercepting each other's spells!" Shieldbreaker called out.

"You can feel the heat from here, Breaker!" Thorax said. Sand hissed as embers and mana fragments hit the ground around us. Cyrus shifted stance, staff forward. I recognized the setup immediately. It was the casting stance of the uncommon Arcanist skill Flamethrower. He started the slow, circular motion of the skill, but didn't commit in the end; he was trying to bait me into overcomitting. I didn't bite. Instead, I shot low, grazing the sand at his feet to force him back.

He stepped left, fluid, and answered with an unusually fast Arcane Bolt. I had to use Quick Step to dodge it, but to my surprise he used his own Quick Step, mirroring my movements, to keep his angle, and shot another Arcane Bolt to throw me off my rhythm. I decided to take the hit, to measure the damage I had to calculate with, while also comitted myself into a Burning Arrow. Both skills hit; Cyrus clearly didn't expect me to tank the Bolt, and my Burning Arrow caught him mid-cast.

Burning Arrow was definitely superior to a simple Arcane Bolt, however Cyrus' staff must have been insanely good, because it still dealt a significant amount of damage. On the contrary, my Burning Arrow had a good initial hit, but the DoT it applied was mitigated by something, possibly Fire Resistance. It didn't look good from my perspective. I decided to go in, which surprised him. Clearly the ranged advantage was still in my favour, so he was somewhat startled by me decreasing the distance.

I used Leap Attack to land close to him, and chained a quick Fan of Arrows to nuke him. He raised his hand sharply.

"Gust!" A swirl of air tore across the space between us, scattering the arrows mid-flight. The skill didn't even ruffle his robe, the projectiles simply lost all of their velocity, and were shunted aside by invisible pressure.

"That's a new trick, we haven't seen Cyrus use that before!" Virtune kept the commentary up.

"Gust is a skill achievable from an uncommon skill rune dropped by Rock Vultures all across Tidemark, however not many mages are farming it as of now, due to it's very niche appliaction."

"That's true," Thorax continued.

"But that's only because there was no real reason for any mage to face off against a ranger specifically as of yet."

"Indeed," Virtune agreed.

"Gust doesn't deal damage, and it's very weak CC makes it virtually useless against mobs, however it has a unique trait: it perfectly counters any non-elemental based, physical projectile attacks, like arrows or throwing knives."

"Only if you time it correctly," Shieldbreaker added.

"It's a very hard skill to use effectively."

"That doesn't seem to be a problem for Cyrus," Thorax laughed. After my initial surprise wore off, I darted sideways, firing an arrow mid-leap. The shot curved toward his flank, perfect aim.

"Mist Step!" He vanished into vapor, reappearing behind me. A Fireball bloomed at my back. I rolled under it, heat grazing my hair, and let fly a Piercing Shot on the rebound. It clipped his arm and he grunted, the first real sound of strain. Cyrus planted his staff again, and used another Gust, sweeping away smoke and sand together, to form a makeshift smoke screen, dodging my arrows.

"He is denying line of sight entirely! Those Gusts are not just mobile shields against Orion's arrows, they are the perfect tool to blind him as well!" Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Perfect example of how a low level spell can become a devastating force in the right hands," Virtune's voice was full of excitement.

"If Orion can't adapt soon, he's going to run out of clean angles!" I Quick Stepped to dodge an incoming Fireball, then manually jumped an Arcane Bolt, loosing a Burning Arrowt mid-motion. He kept countering my attacks with his own, but I felt his rhythm falter, just a tiny bit of delay between casts, so I pushed.

"Nature's Howl!" Two arrows hit, and the second one applied poison burning along his shoulder seam. He raised his staff again, voice low.

"Let's see you keep up with this! Reverse Haste!" A ripple of violet hit me square in the chest, and I checked the debuff icons quickly: Movement Speed –20% | Attack Speed –20% Everything slowed, the debuff countering the positive effects of Nature's Howl.

"Virtune, it seems like Cyrus was preparing to fight archers exclusively!"Shieldbreaker shouted.

"First Gust, and now Reverse Haste! It's an incredibly powerful, Rare debuff skill."

"I thought the rune for it only dropped in the salt caverns of Oakenlight!" Thorax sounded surprised.

"I had only seen one mage use the spell before; the very mage who lost to Cyrus in the round before, Blue!"

"According to some intel, Cyrus was heavily prepping against the player Lorrando, one of the members of the future Crimson Court guild," Virtune said.

"My source says the two groups have pretty serious beef with each other."

"That means Orion is just an unfortunate hit in a crossfire this time," Shieldbreaker laughed.

"Let's see how he handles this!" Cyrus surged forward, using Arcane Bolts as decoys. When he decreased the distance enough, he finally cast Flamethrower, engulfing the arena in devastating fire, forcing me back, HP dipping into yellow. I snarled a breath and tried to keep him in check, using my movement abilities to dodge his incoming attacks. There was no reason for me to try attacking as long as the debuff applied, and running was also sort of hard with it, but he left me with no other options.

He used Mist Step agressively, appearing closer to me and used another skill I hadn't seen before.

"Mirror Image!" Five Cyruses surrounded me, each moving perfectly in sync, each channeling.

"That's Mirror Image, folks!" Thorax called excitedly.

"Another Rare skill from the Flame Wizard. Four copies of himself mirroring his every move; the perfect ability to confuse a Ranger." Leap Attack had just come off cooldown before I almost got hit by 5 virtually indistinguishable Fireballs. Only 1 would have dealt damage, but the sheer confusion was enough for me to start looking for another escape plan. I still hadn't used Silk Shot, but it had a longer cooldown and I knew I had to keep it for the finishing act. Then there was also Woe's Last Grasp.

Cyrus didn't know about the skill unless someone from the Woe raid informed him, which was unlikely. It was the ace up my sleeve, but I knew Cyrus had one as well. Flame Hydra. The only way I could survive the fiery hell of that Epic tier spell was Last Grasp, so I couldn't waste it. Still, maybe I don't really have a choice.

I landed from Leap Attack just as Reverse Haste wore off, Quick Stepped away from an incoming Fireball then dashed towards the other side of the arena, constantly firing arrows at what I thought to be the real Cyrus. I kept close attention to the clones, and eventually got used to the differences between real and fakes. I took a hit or two before I could learn the difference, and my HP was down to 26% in the process, however I was confident I knew which one of them was real now.

I faked escape, then turned once they got close to me and released a Fan of Arrows to the center mass of the group, followed up by a quick Piercing Shot at the real one. Piercing Shot was the real threat, Fan of Arrows was the disguise to hide it. It connected. And Cyrus' HP bar didn't even flinch. He had already Mist Stepped next to me.

"Flame Burst!" The explosion hammered the arena, sand blasting upward. My cloak ignited at the hem; I barely rolled out of the danger zone, 20% health remaining. When the haze cleared, I thankfully noticed the incoming Arcane Bolt in time to dodge it. I realized what had happened. I thought Mirror Image made 4 clones, but the truth was, it had made 5. The real Cyrus hid in the shadow of one of the clones, which was absolutely unbelievable.

He pulled it off with such skill, he could have as well been a Rogue using stealth. He then used his real skills, making it seem like the middle clone's attacks were real, and therefore I assumed it's the real body, and when I retaliated, he timed his Mist Step in such a way he completely caught me off guard. If I were half a second slower, Flame Burst would have eaten me alive.

"I'm surprised you dodged that!" he nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'm surprised you pulled that off!" I admitted, and he grinned before sending a Fireball at me. I was low on mana, and even lower on health. His HP was still in the green, over 75%; I haven't had a single clean hit so far. From the outside, this duel looked to be completely one-sided, even the casters were seemingly favoring Cyrus over me. Big mistake. It was true, I was at a disadvantage. However, the gap between us wasn't as big as it looked to be.

With every exchange I got new information, and came to the conclusion that as long as Reverse Haste doesn't come off cooldown, I can still turn things around. If this turned into a war of attrition, I'd definitely lose. The solution? Hit him hard, and avoid getting hit from now on. It wasn't a simple task. It didn't even sound simple. But it was doable, and it was definitely possible for Bow God Zephyr. Mirror Image ran off soon after Fire Burst, and now it was my turn.

I dropped low, kicked sand into Cyrus' face, and fired a basic shot to test the reaction. He parried and an Arcane Bolt screamed past my head. Then another. He was casting preemptively. I sprinted left, spun, fired Fan of Arrows point-blank, and correctly intercepted his offensive Mist Step. The crowd cheered at the level of precognition.

"Whoah, that's a big hit!" Virtune shouted.

"Orion knew Cyrus will follow him to try and finish him off, and didn't hesitate for one milisecond to burn his strongest damaging ability's cooldown. Took at least 30% of Cyrus HP with that precog!" I shot three consecutive arrows at the surprised mage, however the arrows didn't even make it halfway; a wall of compressed air slammed across the sand, scattering every shaft into splinters.

"Gust!" This dance went on for about thirty seconds. Whenever I shot arrows that should have been clean hits, another Gust came Then another. And another. Gust's cooldown and mana usage was incredibly low, and it's animation was almost non-existent. Each cast only took a flick of his wrist, barely a second. He was spamming it, turning the air between us into a barrier that erased my attacks before they could fly properly. I retreated toward the edge of the rope, boots digging into the soft sand.

The heat was climbing, every breath burned. Cyrus wasn't giving me space. Every time I tried to fire, a Gust or a Bolt was waiting.