Chapter 36

We are teleported to the playing field. This time, the map for the battle is in an ancient ruin. A crumbling, ancient heap of stones standing proudly scattered all around us but weathered by time. Moss and ivy cling to its weather-beaten walls, hinting at centuries gone by. It's like nature's claiming it back, reclaiming the land with its green fingers. Broken windows stare out like hollow eyes, letting in streams of sunlight that dance upon the rubble-strewn floors. The air whispers tales of the past, carrying echoes of a history long forgotten. I can almost feel the weight of time as I survey the entire area.

"So, what's the plan?" Renz inquired.

"We stick to what we always practiced, a 1-2-1 play with me and Kat on mid, Ren on top, and Chu on the bot."

All of us nodded before proceeding to go our separate ways, we had already practiced this play many times and it was the best strategy for a team composition like ours.

"Want me to cast haste on you?" I asked Liz while we were on our way to the middle orb.

I had recently equipped the dual-core I got from the Abyss dungeon with help from Raynolds in preparation for the qualifiers. I can now use both healing magic and Chronomancy support spells. I cannot use both haphazardly of course as my mana pool is still too miniscule to manage spamming both orb paths.

"Not this time, I haven't fully mastered it. I'm afraid it will mess up my tempo. Also conserve your mana, casting haste takes a lot of MP, especially for someone of your stats build."

I nodded at her. I already told her all the capabilities and weaknesses of my build so it is no surprise she has already devised countermeasures on how to negate some of it.

As we arrived at the middle orb, two people greeted us. One of them is their team leader RuG while the other is a spellcaster type, a force mage if I were to judge by his orb. An odd combination since a force mage is more of a DPS with few support skills but it could work if they have plenty of experience playing together.

"Hoh? It seems like you girls are lost, there are no kitchens around these parts," RuG mocked.

Okay... that's going too far! You know we are being streamed right?!

I begrudgingly ignored the quick jab and Liz, for her part, was uncharacteristically silent. She seems extremely serious, so much so that I dread it would affect her carefree playstyle.

As RuG was distracting us with his toxic banter, I saw that the mage was chanting a spell, Liz likely saw it too, and proceeded to move. She ran towards them to stop the chant, RuG for his part blocked her to protect his mage. Liz ignored the scimitar user by using her weapon skill to appear behind the enemy spellcaster attacking with a swift thrust to kill him.

"Force Field!" the mage exclaimed.

The mage released his spell, it was not a long-range attack that we had expected, instead a protective shield. Liz's rapier connected with the shield, resulting in a loud clang.

*Ting

"Urk!" Liz exclaimed.

"Ha! Gotcha!" RuG bragged.

Liz was momentarily disoriented by the recoil damage from her own attack hitting the force field.

Lizbeth

HP: 81%

RuG for his part was ready to capitalize on the opportunity granted by his teammate. He used his weapon skill instantly, a very strong and fast skill but with an incredibly long cooldown, an effective trump card for finishing enemies.

"Lightning Rush!"

He became clad in lightning, drastically increasing his movement speed before appearing next to Liz and delivering a strong lightning uppercut slash.

Liz, not being able to dodge due to being disoriented by the force mage, received the full brunt of the attack and was critically hit and sent flying into the air.

"Kyaaa!"

Lizbeth

Hp: 18%

They knew of her weapon skill and predicted her to go on the offensive. Their strategist was also good. They had devised a plan to bait her into going aggressive, then finish her in one go. They likely had many tournament battle experiences as they easily baited Liz into making a mistake.

Their leader was also skilled. He might even be a ranker but he hid it well. Liz clearly underestimated him by taking that unnecessary risk, now she will have to pay the price. Her weapon skill is on cooldown, she is airborne with no chance to dodge and is now extremely susceptible to a follow-up attack after she lands. Her death is set in stone.

"Recall!" I shouted, my emotions running high.

Liz instantly vanished out of thin air after I cast the skill, barely dodging the finishing blow. She then appeared right next to me, safe and sound.

Recall is a light orb-based skill that teleports an ally it was cast on next to the caster. It has a restriction of a 50-meter range and it needs to be pre-cast but is effective in getting your teammates out of sticky situations. Thankfully my gut feeling was on point or Liz would have died back there. As Celeste would constantly say, always be ready for the worst outcome, that is what separates a good support from an average one.

"Liz, let's retreat for now," I suggested.

Startled by the displacement, she took a second to regain her composure.

"B-but the orb!"

"One orb doesn't matter if it costs us the game. You have no HP! We need to regroup and patch you up first."

"What's the matter? Chickening out after that humiliating display? Hahaha, ranker my ass! What a weakling!" RuG continued to taunt.

Liz gritted her teeth, her pride wounded by the enemy's provocation.

I can sort of understand what she's going through, but if we fight now, all it takes is a single hit for her to die and we would be in a tough spot. To make matters worse, the enemy is also good at psychological mind plays and is experienced in trash-talking enemies to get a rise out of them pushing them out of their comfort zone. He knows to hit where it would hurt the most. I had my fair share of enemies like that back then so it doesn't bother me as much as my partner. I am also not their target as they do not register me as a threat, only focusing on Liz.

At the corner of my eyes, I saw the mage chanting a spell while his teammate distracted us. This just proves my theory that they have been fighting as a team for a long time with how synergized they are with their actions. One is adept at provoking the enemy and taking the aggression and focus of their opponents with his taunts while the other capitalizes on it stealthily.

This is bad, we need to get out of here right now!

I grabbed her hand and dragged her to retreat.

"Liz! Don't fall for his goading! Let's go, NOW!" I raised my voice in hopes of dissuading her from fighting again.

"O-okay…" likely noticing the desperation in my voice, she followed my lead and continued with me.

"Are you guys really just gonna' run away like pussies? You guys are putting that name to shame! Paradigm my ass you guys are a joke! A disgrace!" he taunted.

At the corner of my eyes, I saw Liz hang her head in shame. It broke my heart to see her like this.

I almost wanted to turn back and solo those two. But that would do us no good if we show all our cards in the first qualifier match, which I'm sure we can win easily. Our stronger opponents in the future might have countermeasures in store for us if we reveal all our trump cards this early in the qualifiers. This game is being streamed after all and a recording will be available for all to see, our future opponents included.

They did not pursue us, likely prioritizing the orb. They are also not so dumb to split up and let one go after us since it is too risky for them if they fall into a trap.

We ran for a while, both of us downcast. After running for a short while, we found ourselves in a good spot to hide in the ruins. The silence continued as I healed her up to full. She is likely blaming herself in self-deprecation all the while I give myself some time to think about what to do next.

She is pressured into making aggressive moves that even though they have a high reward if accomplished, also pose a high risk that our current skilled team could do without taking.

We are not backed into a corner, on the contrary, we have an overwhelming advantage. She did not have to take those unnecessary risks and if she just played normally, we would win hands-down with our own skills.

Then it occurred to me why she was rushing too much and not playing safe in the slightest. She was always teamed up with Romel and the other boys in important betting matches and her performance dictates whether their team wins or not. If she plays poorly, they lose, if she plays well, they win. That must have conditioned her into thinking she had to do everything or else they would lose. This mindset is completely wrong and has to go.

We are now a team and with equal skills at that. She needs to know that she can rely on us too.

I don't really know what to say, but I have to do something or this will hinder us in the long run.

"S-sorry Kat, I messed up bad there, ha ha..." she spoke awkwardly to break the dreadful silence.

I sighed and steadied my breathing. Here goes nothing. Wish me luck, Tactical.

"Are you stupid?!" I shouted while giving her head a karate chop as hard as I could hoping that she could feel it through the pain receptors to pull her out of her stupor.

Lizbeth

HP: 91%

Her HP goes down by 2%, but it doesn't matter since I am almost done patching her up from the beating she took earlier.

"Bwuuhh?" she made a weird startled sound at my outburst and my friendly fire.

It must have been quite a shock to her since I'm usually silent and composed. A complete 360 change in attitude was almost an impossibility coming from me, but I was just copying what I think Tactical would say in this situation. Besides, a good shock is always the best way to get someone out of their daze.

"Do you really think that your team is so useless that you have to do everything yourself?!" I exclaimed.

"No that's not-"

I interrupted her.

"Then why… why don't you put your trust in us more and let us share the burden?" I said solemnly, my voice cracking.

"I-I just..." she stuttered likely knowing that what I said was true.

Heavy silence ensues as I let my statement sink into her. I want to let her realize by herself what error she had been making.

A couple of seconds later, which felt like an eternity, I continued.

"Are you having fun right now?"

"…I, don't know."

"No, of course not, you're too focused on winning, it's not like you. Please just play as your usual carefree self."

She stared at me, contemplating my words.

"Our team is strong and we won't lose that easily… so please… rely on us too as we rely on you," I declared as I stared at her intently.

"And if everything else fails, please have faith… faith in me that I won't let our team lose."

She made an unreadable expression before closing her eyes with a relaxed sigh, relief evident in her body language. As if dropping a heavy weight that she had been carrying for a long time. A moment that seemed like an eternity later, she opened her eyes again.

She beamed at me, a smile brighter than the sun, her usual confident and cheerful smile.

"Hehe he, I'll trust you on that."

As if on cue Renz spoke up into the team chat.

"I just killed my opponent. I'm about to take the top orb, how is it going on your end guys?"

"Killed him already a while back. I got the orb and currently heading to the middle of the map to regroup," Chu replied.

"Tsk! Showoff," Renz irritably voiced out.

I gave Liz the best I told you so look I can.

"How is it on your end you two?" Chu ignored him and posed a question to us.

"We stumbled on a little setback, but nothing we can't handle," I replied confidently.

She giggled at that.

I think she got the message since she is back to her normal happy-go-lucky self. However, there is one last thing I have to do before we go back to the middle orb.

I send a private message to Chu.

Novo: Can you do me favor? Let us handle this by ourselves. Delay your backup for a bit, please.

Liz needs this win to help reinforce her newly acquired positive attitude. It will help us greatly in the long run if she gets the confidence from this victory. I'm also sure we will not lose if Liz plays like her usual self. Like what I preached earlier, I also have faith in my teammates, especially Liz.

NambaWan: I don't know what's up, but sure. If you guys happen to lose, I can just take both of them myself.

Confident as ever, trusting us both to handle our own while reassuring us to not worry about losing. What a kind guy beneath that prickly exterior. A redeeming factor for our resident edge lord.

Novo: Thanks.

I replied before focusing back on Liz.

"Let's go, we can't let our teammates think we are deadweight, right?"

"Yeah! Time for a revenge match!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

We started to backtrack to the middle orb. A little while later, we stumbled upon our opponents. They must have known that both their teammates had already been eliminated so they went after us to even the scales for a 2v2 match. A good decision on their part but that saves us the trouble of finding them ourselves.

"Hoh! Fancy meeting you again, I thought you girls ran back to hide and let your boyfriends fight for you," mocked RuG. "Are you girls gonna' fight this time? Or you gonna' run again with both tails behind your back like last time?" he resumed his taunting to prevent us from escaping without sacrificing our pride.

"I really did mess up last time. Sorry, you guys had to see that. This time though, it will be different," Liz replied with renewed determination.

Our opponents were clearly shocked by her change of demeanor. Having been clearly playing CoA for a long time, these veteran players know when something is up. They instantly readied their stance in response to Liz's predatory stare.

Liz, for her part, glanced at me before giving me a reassuring smile.

"Oh, and Kat, I know that you will always have my back. So can I ask you a favor this time?"

I looked at her questioningly, guessing what she was about to say.

"Let me handle this solo," she stated while giving me a huge grin.

I was momentarily stunned; this was going better than I expected. Not only did she gain her confidence back, but she now even believes that if she somehow messes up, her team will be there to catch her when she falls. Her mental state now is drastically better as she can now play without any worries and just focus on the game.

I returned her grin with an encouraging smile before agreeing to her request.

"The stage is all yours."