*...*
Luden could only watch in silence as his clanmates got shot down one by one. At this point, he was considering whether Slingshotter was a broken class and whether he should restart his account and switch to Ranged. However, he simply liked daggers too much. On top of that, when it came to aiming at anything far away, Luden was a complete mess.
He had even learned from various players that Slingshotter was most likely the most difficult level 5 class as it was difficult to precisely strike targets with it.
Since its ammo was so small, it was easy to fire errantly. Spells from the Neophyte Mage and faster attacks from the Pitcher were far more reliable.
In addition, the slingshot was just a strange weapon. Since Synergy was hyper-realistic, the combat also resembled realism. It was quite easy to throw something... especially with aid from the in-game system. It was also quite easy to point a wand and shoot a spell with aid from the system.
But the Slingshot mostly relied on pure mechanical skill. And on modern Etmos, no rational person would spend their free time practicing their slingshot skills.
*Except for this person, apparently?*
But Lujen didn't let any of this discourage him.
*>Lujen: I'm also charging in from behind. Just get up close! You should be able to overwhelm her at close range!*
Luden knew a Slingshot had poor attack speed compared to the other classes. He was going to exploit this weakness by closing the distance and overwhelming the Slingshotter with an onslaught of attacks!
---
*-200*
...
*-289*
...
In about 15 seconds, Jisha had killed 6 players. She had been 15 metron away from the center of Shock Collar's formation, yet nobody had caught up to her yet. How was this possible?
One reason was that the "center" of the formation didn't mean melee range. There were still over 15 metron between her and Shock Collar when she decided to start firing.
But the main reason was... kiting!
Kiting was arguably the most important skill any ranged player could possess.
If you were to stand still and attack as a ranged player, it was simple for melees to catch up to you and kill you quickly.
But if one were kiting, it meant that as one was attacking, they were moving. If one could move effectively while attacking, they would basically become untouchable.
*The best defense is just not getting hit!*
And though Jisha made it look simple, kiting in Synergy was massively difficult. After all, aiming a weapon in real life was already difficult enough. But to aim and shoot precisely while also being aware of attacks coming at you and predicting the movement of your enemies plus more... Only someone with the title of "Goddess" in her previous life had complete mastery over this concept!
---
*Wtf, wtf, wtf...!*
Luden had a hard time focusing after witnessing what was happening in front of him as he lost himself in more rage. Though he wasn't too familiar with Synergy mechanics, he could tell that this Slingshotter was extremely skilled. Though he couldn't tell exactly how difficult her techniques were, he could tell that nobody he met in the beta would be capable of such feats.
Even the direction she was running in seemed perfectly calculated since even Luden, who thought he was hidden, had to run to try to catch back up to her.
Logically, he knew he should probably just give up at this point. But his rage told him otherwise.
*>Lujen: Keep following her! All we need is a few hits. Her attack speed is too slow to handle all of us!*
And though Shock Collar didn't want to comply, they had no choice. Luden kept a very strict rule over his subordinates, and only his direct underling was allowed to report matters to him.
The members of Shock Collar silently pleaded for Axis Jack to speak up.
*>Axis Jack: Luden, this player is too skilled. She is also faster than us and can probably kite us endlessly. Let's cut our losses and call off the chase.*
*>Lujen: No. I want her dead, you hear me?*
*>Axis Jack: Everyone, stop chasing and take cover behind something!*
*>Lujen: No! Continue chasing her!*
Shock Collar obviously listened to the more reasonable order. There were enough trees in the sparse forest to take cover behind.
*>Axis Jack: Luden, listen to me. A death in the wild is the loss of a level, an item, plus half the coins in your pouch. Surely you don't want any of these things to happen to you right now?*
*>Lujen: ... Fine. Everyone... Retreat.*
Everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief when this order was given. Since everyone Luden had hired had MMORPG experience, they knew they were basically hired to grind for as many levels as possible. For a level grinder, or "front runner" as they would be called in the future, the loss of a level was devastating. Only to a casual player would the wild's penalty not seem very harsh.
But... this relief wouldn't last very long.
"Which one of you has the dagger?"
An unfamiliar voice spoke from behind them!