SkyAviator ignored his brother-in-law's whining. So what if he was ignoring his wife tonight? Nothing beat the thrill of teaming up with Sir Dawnbreaker for PvP! Seeing Kael join the party, SkyAviator scrambled to queue up for the Arena before the legend could change his mind.
The rest of the party barely had time to process the name "Sir Dawnbreaker" on their screens before the battle instance loaded.
The map was [Suspension Bridge]. It was a narrow chokepoint—barely three yards across—flanked by a bottomless abyss. A single slip meant instant death. This terrain heavily favored classes with displacement abilities, like Warriors and Warlocks. One bad angle, and a Warrior's charge could knock a player off the edge to end the fight instantly. A Warlock’s fear spell could easily send a panicked enemy walking right off the precipice.
Kael checked his party's lineup: Mage, Mage, Mage, Mage.
What kind of clown composition is this?
The four mages preened under Kael’s scrutiny. Sir Dawnbreaker is watching us. Time to show off.
SkyAviator rallied his crew. "Look alive! Let's show them what the [Savage Menagerie] guild is made of!"
RiverFin, EarthGrub, and WindPetal cheered in unison. They stepped in front of Kael, eager to flex for the server's undisputed top player. If they could impress him enough to get his backing, their guild would become the next [Crimson Bloom]!
Then they noticed the enemy lineup. It was equally bizarre: five Warriors. And the meatheads were already charging down the bridge.
SkyAviator didn't flinch. "A bunch of brainless Warriors stacked right on top of each other. Let's show them the power of magic!"
He immediately cast Blizzard directly in their path.
-282
-310
…
The other three mages joined the barrage, dropping area-of-effect spells or channeling heavy nukes. But the enemies were high-level—above level 30—with base health pools hovering around 2,500. The mages didn't have the burst damage to drop them in a matter of seconds.
Relying on their massive health bars, the five Warriors completely ignored the magical bombardment. As soon as they stepped into the Blizzard, they activated [Whirlwind]. They weren't using it for damage; they were exploiting the skill's high resistance to mitigate the spell damage and cleanse the slowing effect.
They quickly closed the gap to twenty yards.
Suddenly, the Warriors surged forward in unison.
[Charge]: Dash forward 15 yards.
In a blink, they broke out of the kill zone and were right in the mages' faces. They still had a third of their health left.
The sudden gap-close caught SkyAviator and his crew completely off guard, freezing them mid-cast.
The Warriors sneered. "Worthless spellcasters. Talk tough now!"
"A mage in melee range is nothing but dead meat."
Just as the Warriors raised their two-handed weapons for the execution, a shadow fell over the bridge. They looked up. A massive volley of arrows blotted out the sky.
The Warriors' faces dropped. "What the—"
The arrows rained down.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
-13,578
-14,224
…
Before they could even utter the legend's name, all five collapsed dead.
SkyAviator and his squad stared at the corpses in disbelief. Before they could process what had happened, the match ended, and they were booted out of the Arena.
SkyAviator grimaced. We just embarrassed ourselves in front of Dawnbreaker. He's definitely leaving this trash party. How do I make him stay?
Before he could beg, Kael spoke up. "Queue up. Are you out of attempts?"
Shocked and ecstatic, SkyAviator scrambled to reply. "We have attempts! We have plenty!"
They immediately re-entered the 5v5 Arena.
This time, the map was [City Streets]. Buildings provided ample cover, making it a terrible battleground for mages. Both teams spawned in different alleys, completely breaking line of sight.
SkyAviator didn't dare call the shots this time. He turned to Kael. "Uh... Sir Dawnbreaker, what's the play?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. He scanned the surroundings, recalling the map layout. It was a grid-like map shaped like a four-block square, with the teams starting at opposite corners.
Once he got his bearings, Kael pointed to the central intersection. "Go to the middle. Stand back-to-back."
SkyAviator balked. Four squishy mages standing in the dead center of a city map was a suicide mission. But he didn't dare argue. "Okay, and then?"
"And then, if you see anyone, scream for help."
Without another word, Kael grabbed his bow and vanished into a side street.
SkyAviator swallowed hard. Kael was using them as live bait. But what choice did they have?
The four fragile mages nervously shuffled to the intersection, waiting for an ambush. They faced all four directions, scanning the shadows. Nothing.
Wait, they did see one person. Kael, prowling the streets with his bow.
Kael did a full lap of the map. He put the pieces together. The enemy had a Rogue keeping tabs on his position, and the rest were hiding.
He made another lap. Still no one. Now he was certain: either the enemy team was five Rogues, or a single stealth Rogue was stalking him and feeding his coordinates to the team.
He opened the party chat.
See anyone?
SkyAviator replied instantly.
Nope, just you.
Kael closed the interface. That confirmed it. Five Rogues. They were actively avoiding a fight.
Their strategy was obvious: run down the clock. The 5v5 Arena had a twenty-minute limit, and the winner was decided by total kills. A tie rewarded both teams with two points. For the enemy, that was a massive win. But for Kael, it meant losing three points.
Unacceptable.
Realizing the enemy's team comp, SkyAviator panicked. "Sir Dawnbreaker, what do we do? They're just hiding!"
Kael was unbothered. "Relax. Keep your eyes peeled. I'll flush them out."
In truth, there were plenty of ways to break a stealth stall. He could isolate a mage to bait them out, or have the mages cast Firewall in chokepoints to reveal invisible targets through damage ticks. Kael chose none of those options. He refused to give the enemy a single kill. A Rogue could easily assassinate an isolated mage from behind.
But grouped up, the mages were a nightmare target for stealthers.
The real problem was the Rogue's stealth mechanic itself: low cooldowns and massive durations. Without anti-stealth items, tracking them was like chasing ghosts. Did that make Rogues invincible in the Arena?
Hardly.
Kael knew the Arena imposed a hard cap on Rogue stealth mechanics. Total invisibility time could not exceed ten minutes.
In ten minutes, the tide would roll out, and they would be left completely exposed.