Child of Destiny

The members of God’s Paradise did not dare to lower their guard even after seeing that the barrage of attacks finally stopped.

These elemental dragons might have failed to shake the magical barrier set up by Keir completely, but everyone knew that it was nothing but a bunch of probing attacks.

“What’s next?” asked Kallavan, quite eager to spring into action as soon as possible.

Ashura slightly frowned, his brows issuing his commands. “They must have found our location with that probing attack. Let’s just move for now and avoid confronting them under the traps that they have set up ahead of time.”

The rest then quickly nodded before swiftly moving while maintaining their formation.

…

In the meantime, Alice just finished her initial attacks and quickly reported. “Found them! There is the eastern side of the map. Slightly at the Northeast, to be exact.”

Shin then nodded and ordered. “Move according to the plan. We are taking the strategic path while continuing to harass them.”

“Just don’t let this round end with them getting bombarded by our attacks,” said Arthur as he quickly moved ahead, leading the group in a certain direction.

Hearing that, Cloe rolled her eyes and refuted. “As if you don’t know how this map works! Our attacks will not be able to travel that far before they have exhausted their powers.”

“Alice’s spells are just a bit special because of the unique features of her Elemental Spirit Possessed, as well as those Ancient Elven Runes. That is the reason why the momentum and power of her spells don’t get affected despite traveling far and passing through multiple void gates,” she added as she buffed everyone within the team with a speed-enhancing blessing.

Arthur rolled his eyes as he knew about it as well. “As if you need to be reminded of such a simple mechanic. Of course, I know about it!”

“Can you just tell that I am doing this just to ease up the atmosphere?” he added with a slightly aggrieved tone.

While the group was moving, Shin suddenly said to Alice. “Three o’clock, middle gate. Eleven o’clock, right gate.”

Alice did not even hesitate after hearing those instructions and swiftly sent another group of elemental dragons to each gate, respectively.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Immediately after, the elemental dragons flew across the map. They passed through multiple gates until they found the opposing team once again.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“They have found us again?” mumbled Keir after blocking the elemental dragons for another time.

“The first may be a coincidence, but the second one somewhat proved our initial guess. They may have found a way to utilize these void gates,” commented Ashura with a slight frown.

“Can we just use the same method?” asked Susanoo.

“I doubt that it will work that well,” responded Keir before quickly explaining. “The mana coming from those elemental dragons is somewhat special. If I am not mistaken, then Charlotte must have used her unique Elemental Spirit Possession.”

“Fusing her elemental spirits with her elven magic, turning her spells ‘alive’. This let her spells pass through the gates multiple times without losing their momentum and power,” he added, trying to decipher the methods of the opposing party.

As a magician himself, he was very familiar with different magical methods. He might be following and researching the path of dark magic, but he was still aware of the theories and methods of other magical paths within the game.

“This is going to be much more troublesome than what we have expected,” said Lia, feeling the pressure coming from their opponents.

“Should we go divide ourselves and look for them separately?” suggested Susanoo before quickly continuing. “This will also make it a little harder for them to find our exact location.”

“One side can play as the decoy while the other will actively look for the signs of those guys,” he added.

Lia fell into deep thought, considering the suggestion, before turning to Ashura. “It is plausible. But we have to be careful as well.”

“My choice is to let Susanoo and Kallavan move alone since they can at least hold their ground or escape against those guys with their respective means,” she added.

“They can also at least give us enough time to reach and rescue them that way,” she was slightly hesitant with this plan since it also had a lot of risks, which could compromise their chances of winning this round altogether.

“We can also use our reflexes and mobility to avoid the elemental dragons and prevent the opposing side from finding us,” added Susanoo, fully supportive of the idea.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

While they were discussing, another group of elemental dragons suddenly came out of the nearby void gates, starting their barrage of attacks once again.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

In response, the group swiftly adjusted its formation to face each side.

Kallavan raised his fist, gathering a huge amount of mana into it, before throwing a powerful and destructive punch forward that obliterated the incoming elemental dragons on his side.

Boom!

Susanoo positioned himself before the incoming elemental dragons, assuming a sword-drawing stance, before suddenly unleashing a series of sword slashes that cut down the incoming attacks.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ashura, on the other hand, seemed to have casually swung his ruler sword horizontally and sent a powerful energy crescent that annihilated the incoming elemental dragons on his side.

Boom!

“Tsk! Tsk! This is getting annoying. We can’t just let them harass us this way,” cursed Kallavan, clearly getting annoyed by the repeated ‘ambushes’ from the elemental dragons.

“Will this waste a lot of mana for Charlotte? Continuously attacking us and keeping this pace will surely burn quite a lot of her mana pool, don’t you think?” said Susanoo as he swiftly returned his position.

“It is. But the same can be said of us. After all, such ambushes will also put quite a lot of mental burden on our side since we have to always keep our guards up all the time to guard against them,” refuted Lia, shaking her head along with a bitter smile. “Our concentration will be burned quite quickly if they keep this up.”

They were clearly in a passive state, which was not good for their current pace. If they let this continue, then the situation would only get worse later.

“What’s worse, Charlotte is the only one who keeps on harassing us. The rest of their members will be fully ready to take us on with their peak condition,” said Ashura while continuing to analyze the strategy of the opposing side.

“If that is the case, then we will be f*cked if they go straight to the summoning altar to swap one of their members!” said Lia, realizing something.

“Then, if they swapped Charlotte with Diablo later after she has over-exhausted herself with these continuous and repeated attacks, then they will have an extra person with the peak combat strength against us,” she added, further making her expression grimmer.

The rest of the team had also realized this, making their expressions darker as well.

It was at this moment that they had realized that the tactics of the opposing side were as devious as they had expected – or even worse.

With that thought in mind, they could not help but turn to Ashura and wait for his instructions.

Seeing that, Ashura could only frown a little before listing out their possible course of action. “The first solution that I can think of right now is to try moving randomly, hoping that we can dodge the ‘detection’ methods of our opponents.”

“Since they can find us and predict our movements through these elemental dragons and void gates, we can only try looking for the most ideal and safest route while advancing.”

“The second is to go with Lia and Sasunoo’s suggestion and move separately. It may have quite a few risks involved, but we can at least deal with it and minimize our losses.”

“Then with these solutions, we can try looking for the summoning altar in both cases and prevent them from swapping Charlotte out of the field with Diablo.”

He then paused for a moment, thinking about something, before continuing. “But since they are more familiar with this map, there is a high chance that they will reach that place first.”

“When that happens, we have no choice but to retreat. We must avoid fighting them near the altar to avoid being played with the ‘Backup Ploy’.”

Backup Ploy was a famous strategy that was usually used in team competitions. It was a tactic where one of the teams would camp on the summoning altar or any other places meant for switching their members to keep swapping their players for a ‘false’ sixth member on the field while fighting.

When it was first introduced by certain strategists and analysts, many teams had abused it during their competitive battles.

Although it has become less famous these days, as such a ploy would be nothing in comparison to absolute strength, this shameless strategy was still quite well-known to almost everyone.

Given how devious the strategist of the opposing side was, the members of God’s Paradise would not believe that the guy would be aware of such a tactic.

“Which choice do you think you will perform well? We will go with it all the way once we have agreed to it unanimously.”

……