Querencia: School for Talented Gamers

Game 2 : Sticks and stones

Naika had spawned in a corner of the map, beside a teammate whom she doesn't know, but of course, wants to get along with. But it seems like he doesn't think the same way as he hurriedly runs into the other corner where their foes had spawned without even using a ping that he'll do so.

[Ping - in this case, instant form of communication]

The battlefield they had warped in looks like the ruins of an ancient temple, with elements of nature scattered everywhere. Pillars that fell over and became part of the land for the grass to grow on and such.

Her teammate, who uses a bow engages with one of their enemies who was using a spear, and so she dashed towards the other one. She has no idea about which element or abilities any of them have.

But she does know that hers are invisibility, wind s***h, and a deflect. Her ultimate is a bladed tornado that follows enemies.

She ran to the other side and starts her own match against her opponent who uses a greatsword.

Her enemy swings the massive sword at her and she dodges but the ground erupts and strikes her from below.

She eats the damage, backflips into the air, slashes a wave of sharp wind at his head as a counterattack, which fails due to a block using his greatsword and gets pushed back.

After he removes the thick blade from his face he realizes Naika was not in sight.

Naika, who was hiding behind a rock, checks on her ally and witnesses him use the flame element well against his opponent's water albeit in common thinking, water should be effective against fire.

He launches three arrows at the same time and in response, the foe spins the polearm in front rapidly to deflect the rushing projectiles and swipes heavily using its tip to launch a wave of water which her teammate punctures through with a flame-coated arrow he cast ahead of time that evaporates the wave from the center outwards.

Spear boy pole-vaults himself forward using the weapon's handle to dodge the burning arrow and to get closer then attempts to s***h at bow person but he dodges backward and they both retreated to recover the stamina they had drained.

Right, depleting your stamina puts your character in an exhausted state during which you could only move slowly, prone to heavy charged attacks or launchers for a full combo.

After a moment, they were dancing around again as if both know what the other is about to do next.

Seeing she was the only one to take damage so far, she thinks to herself, "Are these people really new players, or are they smurfing already?"

[Smurfing - creating a new account to match against newbies after being bored of your high-level account...or other reasons]

Losing your focus in combat is dangerous and Naika was reminded with a critical launcher hitting from behind while she was off-guard.

"Damn it!" She reviles as she helplessly watches her character get harassed.

A launcher attack lifts you up in the air. A launcher can be countered by "guarding", a mechanic that blocks attacks. If an attack is blocked at the exact time it lands, it slows the attacker's action speed by 80%, not enough to be counter-launched, but enough to be striked critically.

While being attacked by the enemy, your character gets "clipped" or suspended in the air. Once the attacking player uses up all their stamina or when they decide to stop, the combo ends.

Once a player fails to keep their enemy suspended and the character hits the ground, the combo also ends, and the downed character is invincible until they get up manually, or if they stay down too long then automatically.

The combo comes in and she was left with around 60% aura after he ended combo. Had he added any more attacks and he would have depleted hus stamina and fall to Naika's counter combo as she would catch him exhausted.

He swiftly ran away from her direction to rest, so she took advantage of this and flanked her other opponent who was still going toe to toe with her ally.

While the foe cast an aqua beam at her ally, she launched him up in the air.

Her ally was hit and knocked down but she was free to deal her combo to the enemy. Her stamina drained from the combo and she was left exhausted.

Her ally continued the combo against their former enemy before it fell.

Exhausted, Naika attempted to retreat. Then a giant rock erupted from the ground, launching her up. Now she's pinched in a combo as well, with her aura lower than any of the others. Her imminent death just might be the first of the match.