With everyone starting to focus on the player in front of them, Ashfire had the time to look at the player's name floating above his head. "Dreadmeat? Sounds like food that got let out and rotted, couldn't pick a better name for a barbarian?" Ashfire mocked, tossing a grenade over the Demon.
"Like your name is any better," Dreadmeat blocks the grenade with his hammer and uses his skill Lunge, getting triple his movement speed over a short distance.
Berserkers are simple close combat specialists with multiple ways to close in. The simplest class to utilize, with almost every skill being passive. It's for players who want to hit hard and not worry about anything.
Ashfire pops a smoke bomb as the Demon closes in, swinging his hammer through the smoke and striking Ashfire. Despite her best attempts to dodge, the force produced by the hammer managed to hit her despite dodging the weapon itself. The power of the swing also blew away the smoke Ashfire hid in. However, Ashfire left a present at Dreadmeat's feet, a cluster of grenades causing almost as much damage as the Demon's hammer.
This fight was getting ridiculous; every time Dreadmeat did any damage, Ashfire always returned the favour. A specialty class like Machinist should lose in a one-on-one battle, especially at close range. Instead, she adopted the attitude, if I'm going to lose, I'll make it as miserable for you as possible. Even the smoke bomb wasn't for avoiding the attack but making sure Dreadmeat couldn't see the grenades.
Dreadmeat decided to try a different approach, "switch!" He yelled in through a private chat as he charged toward Detrix.
Detrix was fighting a shade with the name Shaed, with the battle mostly in her favour. The assassin couldn't get any good damage as Detrix saw through every attack Shaed did.
Assassins weren't great in single combat as their damage increased from side and back attacks, utilizing multiple short teleportation skills to close in distances before being noticed. Once the assassin attacked, it relied on teammates to fall back or against a slower opponent to slip away.
While hunters have an advantage against certain races, not classes, Detrix took her class seriously and predicated almost every one of Shaed's attacks. "You think I'll let my prey slip away?"
Shaed struck again, closing in with another short teleportation skill, but Detrix saw through it and sidestepped, retaliating with her blade and stabbing through Shaed.
"Got you!" Shaed's eyes glistened under the hoot as he stuck out his hand and allowed the blade to pierce through it before gripping the weapon tightly.
Detrix felt her ribs shatter as Dreadmeat's hammer smashed into her side and sent her skidding across the ground, bouncing a few times before landing. Ashfire attempted to throw a couple of grenades at the two enemy players, but they split up, avoiding the attack.
Detrix slowly got up to her knees; the attack took a large chunk of her health and lowered most of her stats. Berserkers didn't have skills that lower stats, which meant it was the weapon. She was a bit worried now, as she was more of a liability than an asset. She swung her sword up, deflecting an arrow from the fairy Arxion. Even the enemy saw Detrix as the weakest link.
The fairy was an arcane archer, a class that prefers quick instant spells in the form of elemental arrows or using their bow as the medium. Each attack had a short cooldown, so players could cycle through multiple arrow spells, always having something ready to fire. While this made the class incredibly valuable at the beginning of battles, each spell had a limit of 20 before entering a huge cooldown. A player with all the elemental arrows on this large cooldown was useless for the rest of the battle.
With the enemies focusing on Detrix, everyone else was free to intervene in other fights. Cynthes used her magic to attack the Dryad paladin, allowing Doctor0 to fall back towards Detrix to heal. Dreadmeat flew between Detrix and Doctor0 to stop them and swung his hammer at the healer.
Doctor0 jumps back and thrusts the scalpear toward Dreadmeat, as the Demon uses the large hammer as a shield and tackles Doctor0. Shaed also shifts targets, attempting to attack Doctor0 from behind. After all, if they kill the healer, then they've practically won the battle.
With Fluffles' group not facing an uphill battle, Ashfire throws a couple of smoke bombs. Chuckles' party responded by attacking more aggressively, not wanting their opponents to regroup. However, regrouping wasn't their plan as the smoke was to hide Cynthes while she cast Eldritch Call.
Arxion was the only one to notice Cynthes casting as she could see a bit of the spell from above and prepared to interrupt it. Ashfire wouldn't allow it and threw a grenade toward the fairy, knocking the arcane archer back and destroying the arrow she fired.
When the smoke started to clear, the light from Cynthes' spell became more apparent, but it was too late, Eldritch Call activated, and tentacles reached out from the gate, grabbing everyone within reach. Detrix and Doctor0 were aware of the spell beforehand, running out of the casting range while the smoke died down. However, Detrix couldn't escape as the Dryad paladin Synxx altered her arm from a sword to a long spear and stabbed into the hunter. The Druid had her weapon covered in sharp thorns and yanked Detrix back into the range of Eldritch Call.
Players saw paladins as the middle ground between a healer and a fighter, as what better healer is there than one who is hard to kill. Those that choose this class with that line of thinking end up changing to something different, as paladins are an overly complex class. Yes, they can heal others, increase their own stats with auras, and imbue their weapon with holy magic, but their skills are tied together. When one skill is on cooldown, others do as well. Players have called this a shift class, as utilizing attacking skills causes defensive and healing skills to enter a cooldown. Alternatively, when healing, the attacking and defensive skills enter a cooldown.
When Eldritch Call finished thrashing and throwing everyone about, Detrix found herself at low health, with her lowered stats causing Eldritch Call to do almost twice the amount of damage. She was surrounded by her enemies when the spell ended as they gained up on her making her the first casualty of this battle, putting Fluffles' group at a numerical disadvantage. With Detrix gone, Doctor0 noticed both Chuckles and Fluffles weren't outside as their fight took place in the twisted building.
The member with the lowest health on that pig's team was Shaed. Taking a hefty beating from Detrix and now taking a direct hit from Eldritch Call, Ashfire threw grenades to keep Synxx and her target separated. Ashfire's damage output was much higher thanks to Doctor0's buffs during Eldritch Call. Cynthes' used her lightning in pinpoint strikes as Ashfire continued with her area attacks, with another grenade being the end of Shaed.
Seeing the battle turning back against them, Arxion flew out of the tower and started to rapid fire her arrows down upon Doctor0 and Ashfire. Ashfire took each hit and concentrated on keeping the paladin away from her allies, as Dreadmeat was their next target.
Dreadmeat knew he was the next target and decided to confront them head-on. Arxion used an ice arrow to pin Ashfire in place as Dreadmeat charged at Doctor0 and grabbed the healer, smashing her against a wall. Cynthes made every attempt to deplete his health before Doctor0 lost hers. With Arxion assisting Dreadmeat, and Ashfire keeping Synxx from healing the barbarian. Ashfire saw no choice and tossed grenades in Doctor0's direction.
The barbarian was engulfed in the explosion, knocking back him and Doctor0, Cynthes finished Dreadmeat off with one more spell, but Doctor0 was in low health, low enough that a couple of arrows from the fairy finished her off.
At first glance, Ashfire and Cynthes were at a disadvantage without a healer, but Arxion used most of her elemental arrows. She was no better than an annoying fly now, but that annoyance could still prove devastating with no way to heal the chip damage. Cynthes and Ashfire concentrated on Synxx, hoping to bring down the healer before one of them gets killed. The paladin eventually fell along with the fairy, but Cynthes died, and Ashfire had almost no health remaining. The only reason she survived was thanks to Doctor0's buffs and the healing from earlier.
With Ashfire as the only survivor, she ventured into the building in hopes of reaching Fluffles and assisting her. She didn't want their first PvP to end in defeat, doubting she could fight against Chuckles without Fluffles. Upon entering the building, Ashfire realized reaching her proved much harder than expected. With paths going in multiple directions, not even the map was helpful. She knew Fluffles was a few floors above her but did not know which direction to take.