I couldn't do much level 1; the Barrier-bot managed to negate all of my Frost Missiles with its force-field shields. So instead of focusing on damaging the robots, I helped Hei with killing the enemies' golems. The barrier bot, armed with a crossbow of its own, mirrored me and began to do the same. Not bad.

Hei and I managed to hit level 2 first by a hair. The Archer backed away knowingly, but its Barrier-bot ally stayed behind. I clutched a handful of shredded paper from my pouch and froze them into a pykrete Frost Missile. The Barrier-bot shielded itself in response. With my free hand, I conjured and fired a Vortex Shield to weaken its barrier. Then I launched my Frost Missile. The icy shard shattered the force-field and hit the robot, denting it and freezing it lightly. Hei teleported in to strike the slowed enemy. He unleashed a torrent of thrusts, interwoven with feints that threw off the robot's attempts at dodging. Soon, the Barrier-bot's frame and joints gave way, and it fell apart upon the cobblestone lane. Its battered frame disappeared, leaving behind a broken Death Ward token. Excellent. We managed a small but crucial victory, and without Saber's help.

When the Barrier-bot came back into lane, it played cautiously. It stood so far behind its Archer ally, the Archer was practically facing us 1v2. And even with the Barrier-bot's protection, the Archer's HP quickly fell to half from Hei's and my continuous ranged attacks. When we were one golem kill away from reaching level 3, I aimed a Frost Missile at the Archer. It turned to face me, then it dodged, tracked my aim, and re-dodged. Good. I had its attention. In the meantime, its Barrier-bot partner retreated.

Hei casually snuck in a spear-throw at an enemy golem, finishing it off. That leveled us both up.

Hei Voidstepped behind the Archer and used Graviton Joust to knock it into the midst of our golems. I fired spells at it, one after another, and Hei finished it off with a series of vicious, whipping swipes from his spear. The Archer, too, disappeared and left behind a broken Death Ward. We killed the rest of their minion wave, then Recalled to heal up and spend our earned gold on stats-boosting potions.

"Nice work," I told Hei. I managed a tense smile. As well as we had done thus far, it was too early to celebrate.

When we went back into bottom lane, we found our golems fighting the enemy ones in the midpoint between our towers. Both opponents had reached level 3. For the time being, neither us nor them made significant attacks, besides finishing off golems for the gold bounty.

I checked my notebook. Saber reported, a minute ago, that the enemy jungler was going downriver toward bottom lane, where we were. She included a proposal:

"dont fall back; bait for my countergank"

To "gank" someone meant to ambush them in a lane you weren't stationed in. Usually, the jungler would be the one coming to lanes and ganking them. Proper ganks won games; the numerical advantage from a 2v1, or a 3v2, often led to kills.

You could counter a gank with another gank of your own. Saber called it the "countergank." Those took coordination to pull off. First, someone had to know that a gank was coming our way. Saber already took care of that part.

We saw the enemy jungler at the edge of the river. It was the robot unit known as the Gladiator, who would immobilize its enemies with a thrown net, then close in for the kill with its shortsword. Hei and I turned and ran, feigning retreat. I grinned as the Gladiator and our own bottom lane opponents gave chase and pursued us past our ally golems. We had completed the second step of executing a countergank: Luring them in.

Saber, who had hidden in wait behind the nearby foliage, charged out from behind them. She darted into the middle of their formation and erected a crystal wall, bisecting their forces. The Gladiator and Archer were trapped on our side with Saber, Hei, myself, and our squadron of golems. The straddling Barrier-bot, meanwhile, found itself isolated on the other side of the wall.

That was step three of the countergank: The counterganker makes her appearance, and exploits the opponent's overconfidence to win.

And we did. The Gladiator stood no chance against Saber's blazing Smites combined with Hei's onslaught of thrusts. Soon it fell to 0 HP and disappeared, leaving a broken Death Ward. Meanwhile, I sniped the Archer's head off in a shootout, finishing it off for good. When Saber's crystal wall came down, I saw that the Barrier-bot had already retreated back under its tower.

Now at a 4v5 disadvantage, the enemy team took to riskier plays to regain their chance at winning. The Zombie Giant had just spawned at the bottom river cove, halfway between the mid and bottom lanes. The Gladiator, with the help of the Barrier-bot, decided to battle it.

 

 

The Zombie Giant, we learned from town, was a powerful monster camp. It would appear only after an hour had passed. And while stronger players had a shot of defeating it alone without dying, the usual strategy involved sending at least two players to bring it down. The prize for killing the Zombie Giant was a Death Ward, awarded to whoever dealt the finishing blow.

Saber, Hei, and myself waited nearby, crouched among the tall reeds by the river's edge. The Gladiator and Barrier-bot warred fiercely against the giant, and they traded blow after blow, until both sides showed bruising and lacerations. I checked their HP.

Zombie Giant – [HP: 430 / 2200]

Gladiator – [HP: 450/ 980]

Barrier-bot – [HP: 770/ 890]

"Let's do it," Hei whispered to us. Then he charged in.

Saber followed right after. I launched a Cold Grenade into the river cove, at where our enemies were. The magical bead floated on the surface of the water, for an instant, before exploding. The blast encased the Gladiator, the Barrier-bot, and the Zombie Giant in thick ice. My two teammates managed to close the gap and land their first attacks on the robots before my freeze wore off. But instead of fleeing, the robots made a last-ditch attack on Hei, and brought him down to 130 HP before they died. Saber then took out the Zombie Giant with her Smite.

「Green team has slain an enemy.」

「Green team has slain an enemy.」

「Green team has slain the Zombie Giant.」

"Hei!" I shouted. "What the crap, you almost died!"

He wobbled as he stood, leaning on his spear for balance. "It's OK, I'm fine."

"No you're not! You're at a hundred HP!"

"All according to plan," he said.

Ughhhh. If he wasn't already at death's door, I'd have slapped some sense into him. He wasn't even a tank; why was he charging in first?

We Recalled to buy stat-boosting potions, and to heal up.

「Red team has destroyed a mid tower.」

Soon, Jack teleported into our base as well.

"You alright?" I checked.

"My Death Ward's gone," he panted. "Tower down."

"It's alright," Saber said. "Stay here. There's only two of them left. We can handle the rest. If we need you, we'll let you know."

And we did handle the rest. I managed to buy so many Potions of Arcana, my spell combos practically blew up everything in my path. Enemy golems got deleted, the undead in the jungle got deleted, the robots could barely take a spell-combo before they either had to flee or straight up died. Our team grouped in mid lane and mowed down all the towers in our path, then blew up the enemy's Base-Core.

We won the match and teleported together back to the living room of our apartment. All five of us made it back. What was more, we had all reached level 4 out-of-challenge as well.

I sprawled out on the carpet, breathing a deep sigh of relief. Sweet, sweet victory. We had just earned another three months' lifespan for ourselves. This time hadn't even been as bad as Fall Challenge. I had certainly gotten stronger, especially with my higher innate Arcana Point and my new Magus Battlehat. And the others improved in their own ways as well. At the very least, everyone had a better grasp on their level 3 abilities this time around. We still couldn't let our guard down in future challenges, of course. But at this rate, as long as we played our cards right, we had a very real shot at making it to Gold together.

"You're all the best," I told my teammates.

I looked around for any loot. This time, we didn't get any chests. Instead, a flower sat on our dining table, one that hadn't been there before.

It was a tall, healthy sunflower growing inside a clay pot.

 

 

"Oh shoot," I said. "That's pretty nifty. Where's Saber?"

The sunflower tilted around to face Saber, as though she were the sun.

"Where's Waldo?" Jack asked. The sunflower's petals folded together and closed. So cute!

I supposed that was its default response, when it couldn't properly fulfill a prompt.

"Where's the Legend person…Dionysus?" Saber asked. The sunflower remained closed.

I whispered to Hei, "When the Diony is sus." He shook his head in disapproval at my meme.

"Where's Reens?" I asked. "The healer we met back in bronze." The petals opened once again, and the flower pointed to the southeast.

"Oh wow!" I said. "She made it here too. I wonder how she's doing." I wanted to visit her some time, but it'd be a bit creepy if I relied on the Seekflower to find out her location. Wasn't that kinda, like, stalking and doxxing her at the same time?

"Where's that one other Legend?" Jack asked. "The…nemesis to existence, or whatever the cultists talk about? 6E12?"

 

The sunflower tilted. It pointed at somewhere outside our window, showing the way.

 

<END OF PART 2>