A Scuffle in the Darkness

Darkness engulfed the area around Kai, rendering everything pitch black. However, the darkness only affected Winner because it was caused by a Warlock's Eldritch Nightmare.

[Okay, here goes!] Kai rolled away as soon as the darkness emerged. This was a crucial step, for otherwise, Winner would simply cut her down in a couple of hits without the need to actually see her.

Now that there was some distance between them, Winner could no longer continue his offense. After all, he couldn't tell where his opponent was right now.

Nonetheless, the Lionfolk still unleashed a slash amidst the darkness, hoping to hit Kai. But, he clawed nothing but empty air. Kai was outside his reach at this point.

Not only that, but she was going to turn the tables on him now! Kai had to place just one more Magia Orb to unleash a triple resonance on that bastard!

She had already lured the guy into the perfect spot for the operation and her Magia Orb skill was about to come off cooldown in 2 seconds. The end was nigh!

But, Winner had no intention of taking the beating lying down. Despite the unexpected development, he didn't falter.

[Hmph. I see.] Willaim's entire reaction to this unforeseeable development was no more than a brief frown.

The enemy sure did a good job pulling the rug from under him, but that didn't mean William's dominance came to an end. Though the darkness made it impossible for him to see his foe, he still had an overwhelming HP advantage here.

[An advantage I'll instantly lose if I get hit by her ult in a bad way.] William wasn't a fool, he knew exactly what Beat had planned throughout the fight. The way she placed her Magia Orbs and lured William in between them made it clear that she was staking everything on her ult.

Beat had already executed a clean counter like this against StormMonster in the previous scrim, so she was plenty capable. However, to cause truly critical damage to William, Beat must land a triple resonance. In other words, she still had to place her third Magia Orb.

[I was sure I'll kill her before then.] William thought. [This darkness definitely wasn't in the plans…]

Now, William was at the mercy of his opponent's orb positioning. Even with the defense buff from The King's Dominion, a Resonance Ignition with three orbs will still delete most of his HP in a blink of an eye.

[I have to minimize the resonance to two orbs at most.] To achieve that, William rolled away from the orb that was already the farthest from him. He couldn't see where exactly it was positioned in this darkness, so he had to trust his memory and sense of direction.

The enemy must've realized his intent, that's why she hasn't placed her third orb yet.

"Tch, he's out of range...!" Kai gritted her teeth. Victory was right within her grasp but Winner slipped through her fingers at the very last moment.

"He escaped my triple resonance setup," Kai informed in haste. "Can I drag this out a little longer to create a new setup?"

"Unfortunately, no," Yuel said. "My HP won't hold much longer. Besides, he might escape while you work on it."

"Fair enough." Kai conceded With no other choice left, Kai summoned the third Magia Orb, placing it right ahead of the rolling enemy. Then, she unleashed Resonance Ignition.

BAM! All three orbs exploded but only two of the explosions reached Winner. The two shockwaves converged, multiplying the total damage up to 4 times that of a single explosion.

40% of Winner's HP vanished without a trace. It was sizable damage, but unfortunately, it was nowhere near as devastating as it could've been with a triple resonance, which could've probably deleted about 90%. Even now, Winner still held an overwhelming HP lead over Kai.

[But, I still have a chance to even the odds.] Kai fired a basic attack at the blind lion. [It's not much damage but it'll add up if I keep hitting him. Besides, Yuel is clawing his way into the arena, too.]

While the fight inside the lion cage was ongoing, Yuel was in the process of killing one of the lions standing guard. The only way to take down these lions was via basic attacks, but the lions retaliated against any offender who dared to come close to them, so it was often tricky to drill a hole in this prison's wall.

Fortunately, Yuel was playing a mage, so his attacks were ranged. The poor lion had no way to fight back, it could only express its dissatisfaction with groans and roars.

In the meantime, the enemy was rapidly adapting to the situation at hand. Though said adaptation was also, in a way, part of the grand scheme...