On one hand, she did appreciate having a team who appreciated her work and went to specific lengths to help her achieve that.

On the other, the way Jade and Nathaniel went about it had an almost creepy aura of self-assurance, made worse by the fact that they appeared to be right.

Not that it went perfectly– Jade was set back a little bit further than she had said she would be, and that was likely only going to increase when they did the gank that they were working on.

“What’s your read on the abilities?” Jade asked. That wasn’t for her, but the answer would be.

Jeremy made a humming noise before responding. “Definitely Air Bolt, Wall of Wind, and Streamline. I think the passive is Eyewall, and last mainline is Turbulence, but I obviously can’t test that second one without screwing myself over.”

Most of those abilities she recognized, but the passive was new. It took her a few seconds to build up the courage to ask, though. “Um. What’s Eyewall?”

“Air, water, mist slash clouds ability that builds up storm charges by using basic abilities. Using a movement ability pops the charges for a really strong boost to that movement ability and a lesser boost to the abilities that can feed it during that ability’s duration.” Jade answered, in place of Jeremy. “Explains the Streamline, at least. You already got her to pop it, though?”

Jeremy coughed slightly at that, obviously faked, probably as a modesty thing. “Once, and it’s not like she lost too many charges if that is what she has.”

“It’s still a benefit. Incoming in thirty seconds.”

It was definitely enough time for her to get into position.

A quick burn of shields for a headstart was more than enough for her to make that timeline, coming into northlane about evenly forward as the opposing northlaner at the same time as Jade got there.

Jade didn’t even move as Emma ran forward, preparing herself for the fight coming.

A quickly flick of the focus she held was enough to bait out Turbulence, and locked in the gank.

The air caster was already turning to run, which was a little bit out of her expectations. When up against someone ranked in Masters and someone ranked in Ruby, she honestly would have expected most people of her rank to stay and fight.

A quick activation of Null Zone was enough to break that momentum, but two Air Bolts and two Wind Walls were thrown down before Emma even had time to reevaluate, one slowing Jeremy down and the other giving her a tailwind as those Air Bolts knocked into her shields.

It only took a moment of thinking to lay out her plan, using some of her shield strength to keep up while she waited for Turbulence to go down.

And… There!

Firing off Shardbomb wasn’t difficult, exactly, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t punished for it.

Without shields, Air Bolts started hitting her directly. While they were the weakest of the Bolt-class abilities, they still each felt like a fairly strong punch landing wherever they made contact, and Emma had to focus enough to keep her head out of their path.

Especially so when she watched the northlaner activate Streamline, and those punches became painful.

Not in time, though.

Emma’s shields started recharging, the boost that she’d forced into them before using Shardbomb turning its typical regeneration into something that even the boosted Air Bolts couldn’t quite get through for a few seconds.

And with Jeremy out of the Wind Wall, the opposing northlaner on half shields, and Turbulence on cooldown, Jade made her move, throwing one of her daggers out of the tree directly at their target.

Almost instantly, that flash somehow caught her attention, and another cast of Turbulence flung that knife well behind her.

“Charges wand!” Jade yelled, appearing at that knife’s location. “Woulda been nice to know.”

Emma watched as Jade dodged around two casts of Air Bolt by diving to the side, then another Wind Wall appeared, catching the elementalist in the very back on it and pushing directly through Jade.

Streamline plus that tailwind carried her forward faster than Emma had been expecting, and her Spatial Flux was useless almost before she turned it on.

Jade wasn’t in that position, though, and as their target got just a little bit too close, a cast of Jet Blast sent her rocketing forward, stabbing into the remaining shield with all of that momentum and knocking it out.

The followup cast of Echo Whirlwind wasn’t nearly as damaging as it would have been later into the game, but it still served to slow her down.

Just enough for Jeremy to throw his spear, possessing it as he did so. Turbulence expired mid-flight, failing to redirect it. That didn’t stop the northlaner from sidestepping it, even in her slowed state, and hitting Jeremy with two Air Bolts as she did so.

Or, at least one, because she saw the strange twist as he moved a flattened section of the pole into the way of one of them before bringing it to bear, taking her down in just three strikes.

First kill, no deaths. It was a good start, at least. It didn’t really cost her anything, but she knew that Jade might be paying for it. Maybe she could handle the ranger for a little while, get her to catch up?

That would need to be later, though.

She dove back into the mists with a nod to Jeremy, listening in as Quince explained how the diver had just come at him.

Good information, too. She could probably take two of his nests before he got back…