ia swung her kunai across the target's back! And, who was the target iion? her than Theorist, of course!

  The unsuspeg prey was on her way toward the darkness surrounding the lion cage, so for once, she wasn’t paying as much attention to her surroundings. This gave Nia a rare opportunity to strike!

  Ok, ! Nia followed up on her ssh with Izuna Drop. She ed her arms around the Aeromancer and leaped high into the air! This one was going to hurt. A lot.

  At this point, Nia had finished building a Lv. 3 Imperial Spear, which boosted the damage of the skill shortly after nding a basic attack. Furthermore, the damage buff ertage-based, so it had awesome synergy with burst damage skills like Izuna Drop.

  Phew, it worked! Nia sighed in relief as she watched her Ninja spinning through the air along with the captured Theorist.

  It was scary to use this setup. Nia admitted. I was sure everybody in the Leopards is superhuman like Lars with godlike rea speed. But, Yuel was right. Theorist isn't all that.

  In Nia’s experience, pyers with superb rea speed like Lars’s could dodge this setup about 7 times out of 10. There was just enough time to plug in a Dodge Roll between Ninja’s basic attad the Izuna Drop follow-up, but only those blessed with superhumaion speed could do it sistently.

  Still, it's always scary. Nia thought. It means the setup is never 100% guaranteed.

  This realization shattered Nia's world at the time. She realized that her entire life was a lie up until that point.

  Imperial Spear + Izuna Drop was her bread and butter back then, and pretty much every guide ience fervently ree. Some even cimed it was a “guaranteed setup”. It was lies, All lies.

  So, after she exposed this grand spiraia tried to rely less and less on this “fake” setup. Sure, this made her life as a Ninja much harder, but it was far better than relying on bad habits. Or, so Nia thought.

  Oher hand, Yuel insisted that Nia should keep using this setup. He cimed that pyers like Lars were an exception to the rule and that the majority of pyers couldn't ter this setup.

  And indeed, Yuel was right. He foria to build Imperial Spear in this game despite her worries about the Leopards' skill level, and it finally paid off!

  I thought all of them were going to be monsters. Nia admitted. But, maybe they're not that scary, after all! I do this!

  Nia smmed her helpless prey into the ground, erasing 70% of the Theorist’s HP! Yes, 70%! Poof. Gone. Just like that.

  Imperial Spear OP. Nia thought. But, I'm not pining.

  Aeromancer was squishy like any mage, so even a regur Izuna Drop would have probably erased about 50% of Theorist’s HP. But, the passive of Imperial Spear ked it up to 70%! That's how awesome this thing was!

  I get this kill! Nia followed up with a ssh on her downed prey! She was going to draw First Blood!

  Was there anything her oppo could do to turn this situation around? Anything at all?

  I 't believe this...! Sonya gritted her teeth. How could I fet about her in this critical moment!?

  Actually, it was backward, wasn't it? It's because this was such a critical moment that Vanishing's existenentarily disappeared from everybody's minds.

  Sonya wouldn’t normally it su amateurish mistake, but the teuation in Mid occupied all her attention. On top of that, a ward retly showed Vanishing heading toward Bot, so Sonya's mind was at ease. But, what the ward revealed was clearly just a e and Sonya should’ve suspected that possibility all the way back then.

  "Y-You irritating little...!" Sonya was shaking with anger, which was very unlike her. But, who was she actually angry at? At Vanishing for being su anomaly of a pyer? Or, at herself for failing to properly keep track of this phantom?

  I won't let you get this kill...! Sonya didn’t have any good tools fhting at point-bnk, but she had no iion of letting her oppo get away with all of this! She would have accepted her fate more calmly against anybody else, but not against Vanishing, not against this unreasonable existehat defied logic...!

  And so, Sonya unleashed the only burst spell the Aeromancer had access to: Squall. She summoned a sudden gust of wind, shooting it straight at the phantom's face!

  But, just as Squall fired off - Vanishing disappeared! The gust of wind ended up slig through empty air. And, a moment ter, a dagger sshed Sonya again, this time from the side.

  She sidestepped it!? Sonya gasped but soon realized she shouldn’t even be surprised. Yes, of course she sidestep it. The startup animation is just slow enough for skilled pyers to react to. And, from this range...

  Irospect, this oute was only natural. From point-bnk, it was easy to move to Sonya’s side with a siep. And, as frustrating as it was to admit, it seemed Vanishing had suffit meical skill to pull this off against Squall.

  I suppose she is... not that bad, I have to admit. Sonya bit her lip. As much as she wao reject everything about this anomaly called VanishingFlower, this phantom insisted on defying expectations. And now, this walking anomaly was going to take Sonya’s life...

  "Sonya, my dear," Cato called out. "Pce your ward, at least."

  "ht!" Sonya jumped. I might be a goner, but there's still ohing I do...!

  Sonya turned her back to the assassin and rolled toward the dark area ahead of her. With less than 5% HP left, on the very brink of death, she successfully delivered a Stealth Ward to the se, and then...

  You have been killed!

  FIRST BLOOD!

  DarkestCymore