Broke For Credits

"It's more of the lack of range formations give. The cooldowns were somewhat fixed through the Masteries. I'm trying to obtain Extension as a unique skill to circumvent this."

"The reduction in effectiveness due to Extension is too harsh to play with Captain.", Nimin's voice rose to provide a counter argument.

Having met up with Carmen Nimin and Sol were heading towards the practice rooms. These rooms provided high spec PCs for players to utilize. Since laptops have some handicaps regarding pure performance this room was provided to give the camp members an industry standard Pro setup. It was mostly the area where the wagers took place as well.

On their way there Carmen was happily explaining his plan regarding his latest Captain build. To his surprise Nimin was quick to understand and provide a separate opinion regarding the class. It wasn't often that other camp members were this familiar with other classes aside from their own. Such a surprise he welcomed and continued to debate with added fervor. 

"That's the thing though, I believe a stacked Mastery bonus can make up for the lack of effectiveness. As long as I could fine tune the right size it should be just fine.", Carmen argued.

"You're overlooking how useful stacked Mastery is with a standard setup. The bonus stats are far more beneficial in a standard format.", Nimin spoke with an experienced tone.

"I'm not looking for the standard. With the maps becoming larger I believe that a constant buff over a large area will be more beneficial than a more focused and powerful one. It's far too common for the enemy team to retreat or push beyond the Captain's formations."

Nimin took the idea and played with it in his mind. There was some truth. A constant buff over a large area would provide an exceptional benefit, especially on certain maps. The constant edge over the competition could be the leading factor in claiming victory. Regardless there was just a single issue with it all.

"You're putting a lot into trying to obtain Extension.", Nimin shook his head at the thought in the end.

Obtaining a specific Unique Skill was a pipe dream. The amount of account rerolls that happened was a key factor in Fractured World's continuous popularity. The odds were equal across the board, but there was simply too many Unique Skills to rely on luck.

"I tried locating an account with Extension already, but the search hasn't been going too well.", Carmen sighed.

Sol continued to silently follow. The conversation was outside of his expertise to comment on. His knowledge regarding the other classes starts and stops at what Skills to avoid. His area of expertise was the Mecha class, and that's it. Despite this he listened and committed what he could to memory. This kind of insight wasn't easy to come across. The guides that are posted mainstream usually cover the basics. After all a Unique Skill could completely change how you played a class. 

Critical Shot was a huge example to this.

Entering the PC room Nimin found his words being cut short to a roar of cheers. Wincing he looked towards the noise and found a group of camp members celebrating.

"She takes another! Where are my credits, I win this bet!"

"Damn! But she's so quiet! How do you play like this?"

Nimin glanced over the various heads and found one familiar. Hearth, one of the top members. She was currently staring at the monitor with a complicated expression as if unable to come to terms with what happened. An odd expression to have considering, from what Nimin was able to tell, she was the winner of the duel.

Raising his eyebrow he moved towards a set of open PCs. Suddenly someone called out, "Any more takers? If you win you get 5 credits! It costs nothing to try!"

With a swiftness that started Sol, Nimin slipped into the crowd, "Free?"

Eyes looked towards Nimin expectantly. Lifting his Account Stick Nimin warned, "I only have level 50 Skills, is this a limited match or am I screwed?"

Someone looked towards Hearth. She shrugged and clicked her mouse a few times. Looking at the monitor the camp member said, "Limited works too! Want to give it a try?"

"I skipped a few classes so I think the credits would be nice."

"Go ahead!"

Carmen raised an eyebrow and asked, "I thought we were grinding?"

"I'm forced to skip classes to make sure I'm not under leveled for the camp rankings. This is free credits so let me give it a try first.", Nimin tossed an apologetic look towards Carmen while explaining.

While shrugging away his concerns Carmen joined the crowd to watch. Sol silently followed behind and didn't speak up instead he anticipated the match. After all this wasn't some average Red Zone player, this was one of the top in the camp! One of the few people who are likely to become Pro! Sol had only seen Nimin face against some above average players and hadn't seen him in action against someone among the top. 

Slipping into the chair Nimin plugged Critical Shot into the usb slot and logged in. Rapidly adjusting the PC's settings he tossed a casual question, "Is this a first to win or a best of?"

Hearth wasn't the one to answer, instead it was the camp member who was hosting this event, "Just a single round! If you want another attempt you'll have to pay a credit."

"Ah."

Nimin joined the room and loaded into the arena. It was the standard open field arena devoid of any obstacles. This was the norm for practice fights among the playerbase. The other popular choices had very few obstacles. In short, ranged classes rarely ever have a map advantage. 

What was odd about this map choice was Hearth's class choice. She was a shinobi. The kind that excelled in dropping into combat, dealing heavy damage, and retreating to recover their cooldowns. Open maps like these didn't have any resources for a proper escape. 

As the match was starting Nimin stretched his fingers performing a standard trick. Critical Shot spun his two berettas and caught them. In order to have his account not be spotted by the Orgs monopolizing the Red Zone, he chose to die by a standard Red Zone mob. This made him drop his colts and a few pieces of standard equipment. A loss he did not cry over, for it was cheap gear to begin with.

This meant that currently Critical Shot was running his best setup! The rare gear was immediately spotted by a few veteran players. Pointing it out and whispering among each other as not to disturb the match. It was at this point the countdown finished and the match began. Both Hearth and Nimin acted immediately to take advantage of the open arena. A bullet rang out while a shuriken curved through the air.

Directing a beretta to the side Critical Shot fired and shot down the flying shuriken. Hearth's Shinobi rolled forward to dodge a bullet and threw forward three shurikens. Nimin praised this internally. Throwable objects could be stacked, he was capable of doing the same with his grenades even, but each additional object made it significantly harder to be accurate with the throw. Hearth not only threw three shurikens, but they each curved in their own directions towards him. A show of heavy practice.

Pang-pang-pang-!

Three bullets shot forward and destroyed the shurikens. Metal fragments fell to the ground before disappearing. Hearth's shinobi performed another roll and the air around them began to shimmer. Warping together Hearth's shinobi then disappeared.

{Illusion Charm}!

Performing similarly to a smokescreen the {Illusion Charm} would hide the shinobi! However there was a way to get around this! Nimin tossed a grenade towards the illusion. As long as he could destroy the charm responsible for the illusion he could dispel it! Through the illusion a shuriken flew out towards the grenade. A bullet rang out and the grenade seemed to hop over the shuriken.

Hearth's eyes widened and the crowd suddenly got hyped. This was redirection! To be able to gently redirect a grenade to perform such a tight movement was something only the top players could do! Nimin on the other hand was sweating from the reaction, and dared not to say he was actually aiming for the shuriken and not his own grenade. 

Falling into the illusion the grenade exploded which destroyed the charm. With her shinobi now revealed Hearth opted to perform several rolls to cover more ground. Nimin found his mouth opening to speak about this maneuver before he could stop himself, "Rolling more than once makes your moves easier to read."

Suddenly Hearth's shinobi was filled with bullet holes. Critical Shot's assault rifle fired dealing heavy damage as a majority of the bullets landed. Several spectators pointed out the absurd weapon swap time. Nimin answered these concerns simply, "Unique Skill: Quick Swap."

"Why did you want a limited match then??"

"Because it's an old account! Quick Swap was permanently removed from the game years ago, this thing hit max level back when the max was fifty.", Nimin shook his head.

It was at this moment Critical Shot got hit by a shuriken. A small explosion formed at the top of his head and knocked Critical Shot's gaze downward. Almost startled by this Nimin refocused on the match. Only a moment passed before he could understand what just occurred. During the short few moments the Illusion Charm was active Hearth had tossed a shuriken upwards with a Firework

Charm. 

Voted as the most useful move in a Shinobi's kit, the Firework Charm! It was quick, had a relatively low cooldown, and was cheap in terms of SP cost. In return the damage was low, but it's true usefulness lay in its ability to break through a lot of priority in moves! Priority was an important aspect as a player received more moves in their kits. When certain Skills were able to defeat others, it was something you needed to know about if you wished to become Pro. 

One Skill that ignored this was the Firework Charm. Upon exploding it could cancel a large amount of moves that would normally win in the exchange. In a team battle a Shinobi that scurried across the battlefield was an incredibly challenging and annoying enemy to deal with. The moment you let your attention move to a different player you would find your moves suddenly being canceled by a Firework Charm!

The small knockback it provided when not breaking a priority move was almost useless. Very rarely did it ever come in handy. This was the first time Nimin personally experienced this knockback being used in such a manner. In a Pro competition it would rarely land like this due to Charms having a low but noticeable sound to them. He had entirely missed it due to the audience, which made it an incredible move to play!

Nimin didn't blame anything but his own lack of focus. Yet despite his small frustration he already praised the move, "Nice! Incredible aim."

Closing the distance in this short moment his view wasn't focusing on her Hearth's Shinobi pulled out a scroll and unfurled it. Water surged out and splashed upon the ground forming a lotus. Quickly this water surrounded Critical Shot and trapped him in a bubble. 

{Water Lotus}!

A trapping tool with the Shinobis! The stun this Skill had was migraine inducing, but came with a caveat that the bubble it trapped a player in could pop via any form of damage. Usually in a Pro format it was used to section a player away and seal them in a location for the duration of the Skill. This could be ignored by simply attacking your teammate that was sealed so this strategy was uncommon to see pulled off.

Even in a 1v1 format there was another way to escape the bubble as well.

BOOM-!

A grenade exploded sending Hearth's shinobi tumbling back. Critical Shot flew into the air and pulled out the Godwit. Although its damage at this range wasn't worth utilizing, the critical damage of a sniper rifle made up for its low base damage! A gunshot rang out and the bullet flew at an abnormally slow pace for a sniper.

Hearth immediately recovered and snap dodged out of instinct. Turning her character to look towards Critical Shot she was stunned to see the bullet right in front of her!