Once settled, Elzio closed his eyes and let his consciousness slip into the Syrene doppelganger. Its eyes snapped open, and Elzio was off, moving deeper and deeper into the forest. He frequently glanced at his display map, checking in on Syrene in the south, the doppel in the north, and Carlin in the base. Everyone was acting perfectly. Syrene hadn’t taken any damage from Gyrao—staying several feet away from him as was strategic—so there was no way the enemy had identified her as the real one. The Syrene doppel facing Alyssa had taken some damage, but not enough to cast doubt on its potential legitimacy as the real Syrene. As long as it didn’t take so much damage that Alyssa started to wonder why a level 25 mage would be so hurt by a few attacks, the ruse would remain intact.

The reality was, neither Alyssa nor Gyrao wanted to be the first to attack. Until their team had eyes on Elzio and Carlin, it would be too risky. An engagement with two members of the enemy team entirely unaccounted for could lead to a quick kill for your opponent.

Still, the ruse was only half complete. Elzio had to let the enemy know the ‘real’ Syrene was in the woods, either scouting or hunting down easy picks. Giving them false information would start a spiral of uninformed decisions and would open the door for opportunities.

However, before he could make himself known, the Syrene doppel sent a report of significant damage. Elzio looked at his map in time to see its health dramatically diminish as another hero appeared, forcing a 2v1 against a level 3 doppel.

It didn’t stand a chance. Instead of wasting his time helping the clone, Elzio took the chance to scan the enemy hero, the third they’d seen.

~~~

Nolath Vylon: Level 11 Swordsman

Strength: 22

Intelligence: 14

Agility: 21

Fortitude: 14

Hit Points Pool: 300

Endurance Pool: 775

Mana Pool: 300

~~~

There wasn’t time to dip into the eyes of the doppel before it was destroyed. Nolath had cast Quick Dash, that much Elzio could tell from the map, but not much else about his abilities.

But Elzio didn’t need to know abilities to deduce their strategy. They wouldn’t need three heroes roaming the map, searching for Syrene, Elzio, and Carlin. Instead, they would dedicate Nolath to flanking roads, earning mico advantages in the roads. He seemed well kitted for the job—a high agility Swordsman, specialized in leaping from the forest and adding a second combatant to an engagement before his opponent had a chance to run, protect themselves, or even react.

With Nolath forcing exchanges in roads, that left the Level 14 Swordsman and Level 15 Hydromancer—a roaming death squad intended to take out anyone they ran into. Between the two of them, they could probably take down Syrene depending on the individual finesse of the fighters. Syrene, though an accomplished caster, hadn’t exactly been trained in combat. Elzio couldn’t risk that engagement from happening until she was properly buffed.

He needed them to see the scout. But he would also need to summon a new Syrene doppelganger to continue gathering experience in the Northern Road, and to get that copy, he would have to go to her. He couldn’t travel to Syrene and puppet the level 2 scout, but if the a new doppel didn’t appear in the Northern Road soon, the enemy might call the bluff that the southern Syrene was the real one.

Too many tasks, to few of him. He had to make a decision and fast, so he took a bit of a gamble. He planted the Syrene doppel deep in enemy territory, obscured by brush but in a reasonably trafficked place. Anyone who ran from the Southern Road to the north or vice versa would likely find her. If they did, Elzio would drop the spell, giving the illusion she’d either turned invisible or teleported. If they didn’t find her, she would still be reasonably close to make herself known once he was finished replacing the Northern Road doppel.

Once the scout was situated, Elzio leapt from his hiding spot and raced to the Southern Road as fast as he could. As he approached, he saw, on his minimap, Syrene turn his direction. She must have deduced he was coming to make another copy, as she started hugging the top side of the path, giving him the space to approach her without being seen.

As soon as he made it to the route, still hiding in the underbrush to avoid being seen, Syrene slipped into the treeline near him, and he summoned a level 4 copy of her, which he immediately assigned north again. Without missing a beat, she slipped right out, taking up her role attacking the minions.

There wasn’t time for Elzio to go back to his hiding spot. The scout hadn’t been spotted yet, which meant real Syrene was at risk of being identified as the only remaining Syrene on the field. The enemy heroes, all of them, could converge on her any second. Elzio needed to keep them distracted.

So, while only a few paces away from the Southern Road, where Syrene was keeping Gyrao occupied, Elzio slipped back in the mind of his level 2 doppel and began piloting her through the forest. He couldn’t make her reveal obvious, but he already had a plan to maintain subtlety but still get her caught. Judging by the layout of the map, Elzio could tell where the most obvious ward spots would be for the enemy team. Clusters of underbrush near roads, thickets that covered forest trails, stuff like that. He sent Syrene on a winding path through the forest, a path that crossed as many of these ward-location candidates as he could. Every now and then, he’d have the scout pause in a few of the most optimal hiding spots—hiding spots that were almost definitely warded.

They had to know. The enemy had to have seen her. Meanwhile, he had the Syrene doppel—the one heading to the Northern Road to farm minions—drop a few wards in the enemy territory. The ward spots weren’t the most optimal, but he didn’t want the enemy to see her placing them, so he couldn’t risk dropping one where an enemy ward might have already been planted.

After several sweat-inducing minutes of roaming, Elzio finally got a glimpse of action on one of his wards. The blur of movement hadn’t belonged to Nolath—and it wasn’t Gyrao or Alyssa, who were still in their lanes—so it must be one of the roaming heroes. Immediately, Elzio sent the scout their way, moving quick, wind whistling past its ears as its feet pounded the forest floor beneath.

It was just as the scout entered some thick tree cover and whipped around the corner that it ran face first into the two heroes he’d been looking for.

~~~

Jenna Noryn: Level 15 Hydromancer

Strength: 22

Intelligence: 14

Agility: 21

Fortitude: 14

Hit Points Pool: 300

Endurance Pool: 775

Mana Pool: 300

~~~

Erlin Fark: Level 14 Swordsman

Strength: 22

Intelligence: 14

Agility: 21

Fortitude: 14

Hit Points Pool: 300

Endurance Pool: 775

Mana Pool: 300

~~

Faster than he knew he was capable of, Elzio whipped the Syrene doppel away from them and began hurtling through the forest.

“Don’t drag your damn feet, Jenna.” Erlin’s voice was angrier than Elzio expected, and he looked over his shoulder at the two chasing him. Jenna, the Hydromancer, was trailing behind the Swordsman. Elzio couldn’t see her face well as he continued to run, but she too looked angry.

Had the two had a falling out? Or had they just been frustrated at not catching Syrene? Something about how Erlin spoke made it sound as though Elzio was only catching the tail end of an argument.

“Keep up!” Erlin shouted again.

“I’m running as fast as I can. Your speed is higher than mine. I’m always going to fall behind a little bit.” Her words were high pitched, almost panicked, as if she was defending herself. “Maybe keep your eyes off me and on the target.”

“We need to work together, Jenna.” Erlin’s words were all but a snarl.

“I know what’s at stake,” Jenna responded, words venomous. “You’ve all made that abundantly clear. What’s at stake and how little say I have in it.”

With this, she raised a hand, and fired an Ice Shard directly at the Syrene doppel. The clone had been skirting along the side of a large patch of boulders, but it’d finally been forced to snake through a thin passageway, which Jenna had taken advantage of. Unable to dodge, Elzio dropped the doppel, and she melted away before their eyes.

Back near Syrene’s lane, Elzio’s thoughts were racing. The conversation between Erlin and Jenna had been very telling, and Elzio had a pretty good theory as to what they were discussing. He also had a very good theory as to why Ythrel had started with so many fewer points than anticipated.

Jenna had been forced to enter the battle. She hadn’t volunteered, she’d been summoned. Forced into combat.

Had she heard Elzio’s plea and believed in Echo’s cause? Had she frowned on the the way Ythrel had responded with a challenge? Perhaps Tylin or Carlin had spoken to her, convinced her to desert.

What was clear is that she didn’t want to be here. And as a conscripted hero, as opposed to a volunteer, she’d cost twice as much. That’s why Ythrel hadn’t debuffed them. It all clicked into place.

More importantly, it gave Elzio a weakness to exploit. He hadn’t been planning on making a number of enemy doppels, given how powerful Syrene was, but if he could get close enough to Jenna to copy her, he could wreak some havoc on morale.

His stomach tightened at the idea, remembering poor Peter, how the poor boy had been so viciously attacked by Nance and Bereth. Then he remembered that, as a true, well-leveled nexus battle, there was a high chance the heroes of the losing team would die. Jenna was forced to fight for her life here. And Elzio had to deliver the killing blow. On one hand, using their personal squabblings to cause the destruction of morale was a particularly cruel way to send them to their graves. On the other hand, either way, they would likely have to die.

For the first time since being issued the challenge, Elzio felt sorry for the Ythrel heroes. They’d been lied to, misled and deceived. Even the ones who did volunteer did so under false pretenses. They only saw Elzio as a threat.

Then he thought back to the fish pie vendors, the sellers and buyers, the laughing eyes of the man who’d talked fondly of his family, unaware that he could lose it all in a flash should Elzio fail. No, the decision here was easy, even if it was unfortunate. Elzio could show no mercy.

He had to get close to Jenna.

So he inched back in the bush, praying Syrene would notice his movements and dip in. She did, being as perceptive as she was, and Elzio summoned a level 3 doppel, one who could control its own movements.

“I’m sending it to Carlin,” he said. They were nearing fifteen minutes into the battle, and Carlin had assured him he could finish the Mana Staff by then.

Syrene didn’t respond. She just stepped out of the bush and rejoined her fight.

With the level 4 in the Northern Road and the level 3 running to base, Elzio wasn’t regaining any mana. The staff was necessary for him to get enough high leveled doppels to stand a chance. So while the doppel went to fetch his staff, he ventured back into the woods.

He knew where the two roaming heroes had last been, and no doubt they’d expect Syrene to seek out backup. A level 25 Mage was a force to be reckoned with, but even she would struggle to take down the two of them. As far as they knew, she was invisible, so they would have to get in her head to predict where she was heading. They would have to see the map through her eyes, take into consideration everything Syrene knew.

Nolath had attacked the Northern Road and would likely be heading to the Southern Road next, especially now that he knew the ‘real Syrene’ was in the forest. The road was vulnerable. Syrene would know this, and as a result would likely head north.

At least, if Elzio was in Erlin and Jenna’s shoes, that’s what he’d think. He’d think Syrene would head north to avoid Nolath, so Erlin and Jenna should head up that way. Catch her in her tracks and take her out. Nolath and Gyrao would take out the doppel down south, and all heroes would push their lanes hard.

So that’s where Elzio would go. North.

About halfway up, he intercepted the Syrene doppel, the one that had been running his errand, and picked up the Staff of Mana. He could feel his reserves growing, his regeneration accelerating. Euphoria flooded through his veins as he gripped the crystal staff. Carlin had even made it beautiful.

There wasn’t time to admire the craftsmanship, though. Elzio dismissed the level 3 courier doppel and continued racing to the lane.

He needed Jenna and Erlin to make the sensical call here, not try anything flashy or unusual. And why would they try for anything flashy or unusual? Underestimation was a hell of a weapon. There simply was no reason for the Ythrel heroes to operate suboptimally. The only reason anyone would fight in a suboptimal manner would be to avoid making predictable movements, and the Ythrel heroes had too many advantages to care about predictability.

According to Carlin, no one on their team was a particularly crafty or tactical thinker. Decent fighters, solid grasp on general strategy, but not sneaky. They just thought up the best battle path and followed through. If they continued with that trend, Elzio’s bet would pay off.

And just as Elzio reached the Northern Road, his gamble was rewarded.