Legends Rise - Chapter 30 A Surprising Spea

“…”

“…”

“…”

“So what you’re saying is, you met the pro player Mato from the Seoul Gladiators…” Ken asked Li Ming to reconfirm as.

“And she led you to her team’s hotel for some food…” Kaori followed up, still trying to process the story.

“And the captain of the Seoul Gladiators, Resonance, discussed a strategy with you that you then brought with you to some tryouts…” Hanzo muttered in disbelief as he nearly tripped over a tree branch.

“And because of that character, you got recruited to the newly restarted team, the Osaka Phoenixes?” Hatori said in a voice dripping with envy.

“Yup, that’s about it~!” Li Ming confirmed as he led the party towards the south gate, “Anyways, lets pick up the pace, we’re about to get to the gate. Maybe we can set up an ambush if we get there early.”

“Wow… that’s pretty amazing though,” Ken remarked, “How much do you get paid? Don’t pro players normally get paid by their position?”

“So since he’s a frontliner, Li Ming makes around $250,000?” Hanzo thought aloud, “That’s not too shabby, eh?”

“Isn’t he playing a special role though?” Hatori reasoned, “It seems like he cover the role of a tank that draws aggro, and assassin that targets their backline, a mage that disrupts the flow of the combat, and a frontline dps that can whittle away at tank’s!”

“If he’s paid by the role he plays, and he covers 4 different roles, wouldn’t he receive the combined total of all 4 role’s worth of pay?” Kaori pondered, “So if a frontliner makes $250,000, an assassin makes $150,000, a mage makes 220,000, and a tank makes about $300,000…”

“!!!”

“!!!”

“!!!”

“That’s nearly one million dollars!” the four exclaimed in unison.

‘Well, they got pretty close to the actual amount,’ Li Ming thought as he scratched the back of his head anxiously, “That’s a group of esports geeks for you…”

“What’s your class called anyways?” Ken inquired further.

“It seems that its called ‘Swordmage’ by the general public.” Li Ming clarified, “Kinda weird though, since I use a spear…”

“That’s true. Didn’t you use to play a swordsman type character when you were younger?” Hanzo pushed on, “Why did you suddenly change over to a spear anyways? If you stayed with a sword, you wouldn’t have the weird name of Swordmage while using a spear.”

“That’s true,” Kaori lamented, “Can’t you rename it something cuter?”

“I’m not sure if I can,” Li Ming said regretfully,” Unfortunately, they’ve written ‘Swordmage’ for my class and ‘Frontliner/DPS’ for my role on the contract.”

“Heads up guys!” Ken alerted the party, “We’re arriving at the south gate!”

“It doesn’t seem like anyone has arrived yet,” Li Ming noticed, “Should we try to set up an ambush?”

“Maybe over by that tree then?” Kaori gestured over to one of the massive trees towering over the gate, “Seems like there should be decent cover there.”

Ken led the party over to the tree to inspect it as cover to be used for ambush.

‘Hmm, it should be wide enough…’ Ken thought to himself…

*CLANG!* *THUD*

Ken jumped up in surprise at the sudden sound.

“Wow, your spearman is really good!” Qio, a berserker, exclaimed, “Deflecting the force of an axe even after I’ve jumped from the tree. Nee-sama was right, maybe targeting the cleric was better.”

“Thanks for the saving me!” Hanzo exclaimed, “Damn! It looks like they got here first!”

“Quick, Ken, use your [Team Sanctuary] to shield us, disregard the heal! Hanzo, throw your [Smoke Bomb] up at the tree” Li Ming started directing the team, “Kaori, use your [Berserker’s Howl] on that berserker and hold him for a bit! Hanzo! Use your [Frost Bullets] and [Enchant: Static] to slow that Berserker!”

“”””On It!””””

“Ken, give me a [Ghost’s Speed] for a bit too! I need the dodge and speed buff!” Li Ming continued as he stabbed his spear into the tree to vault up through the [Smoke Bomb]. “Make sure to watch out for the Cleric and the Mage hiding in the bush near the gate!”

“”!!!””

Realizing they had been discovered, a mage and a cleric quickly dodged the incoming bullets Hanzo quickly shot at them.

“How did they find us here?” the Cleric asked, “Did the [Ghost Steps] fail?”

“Focus, captain! Looks like their spearman found our swordmage!” the mage exclaimed.

“Sh*t! Who are these guys? To be able to guess our locations so well.” the cleric cursed,

“We don’t have time, Kikyo, can you interrupt the Paladin Knight?”

“Already on my way!” the female spearman shouted as she charged speartip side first towards Kaori.

“Kaori!” Ken shouted as he cast [Dragon’s Heart] on her, “Spearman incoming from the gate side!”

[Dragon’s Heart], an uncommon spell that was rarely seen in Legends Rise. It buffed the target(s) with +10% damage output, halved all incoming physical damage, and made the target(s) immune to magic damage and enemy status effects. This buff lasted for 20 seconds.

However, despite these great stat buffs, this ability came with a strong downside as well. As soon as the user receives this buff, their movement speed is reduced by 90%, meaning they wouldn’t be able to move. Not only that, after the buff was over, the target(s) would receive a 50% debuff to all stats and would be unable to use abilities for 10 seconds.

This ability belonged to the Dark Knight’s skill tree, where they used [Dragon’s Heart] in the meta strategy for Dark Knights to temporarily disable the enemy’s frontline with a taunt, then follow up with this buff to stall precious seconds for his team to take down the enemy’s backline.

With this type of buff on her, Kaori easily received the incoming spearman and the berserker with ease. As a Paladin Knight, Kaori had an option of carrying either a sword, a lance, a spear, or a shield as her backup weapon. This was thanks to the passive ability [Holy Inventory] which allowed most Paladin type players to have an extra weapon at hand.

Kaori, who loved the idea of becoming immovable mountain, had chosen to equip a shield as her backup weapon. In this situation where she was getting charged by two characters that dealt a lot of damage, Kaori put away her Paladin’s sword and equipped another shield, giving her two massive Mythril Tower Shields.

“Hello~!” Kaori jubilantly exclaimed as she received her new guests.

“Sh*t! Nee-sama, I’m taunted right now!” the berserker cried.

“I’ll handle it!” the female spearman, Kikyo responded hastily.

As she hadn’t been taunted yet, she deftly jumped in the air and activated her [Enchant: Mana] on her spear. As she reached the apex of her jump, the bullets fired from Hanzo had arrived. However, she struck down every last bullet fired at them before landing.
for visiting.

“Captain, give us a buff!” She called for help. “Qio is getting overpowered by their Paladin Knight!”

“Hold on for just a bit longer! I want to use it when Johnny arrives!” the Cleric responded.

“Too late for that~!” Li Ming surprised the Cleric and the Mage with his [Shunpo] before executing a full rotation of his skills in under a second.

The mage, brought down to a critical 5% health, had his passive [Grand Mana Shield] activate just in time to block the last attacks that would have ended him.

“How interesting of your party to have a Swordmage!” Li Ming exclaimed, “Not that he was very good though!”

All of a sudden:

*BOOM!*

“AHHHHHH!!!” Kaori screamed as her shield was forcefully disarmed.

“?!?!?” Li Ming stared at the spearman in surprise.

‘It couldn’t be…” Li Ming thought in disbelief.

“Dragon’s Breath?”