The afternoon already felt like a lifetime of battle, but there was far more to do before they could claim victory. They marched towards Ravensdam under the cover of a shield wall that their legionnaire comrades had to maintain constantly. Palinus felt almost guilty as he entered the rifts; the brutal struggle against the enemy avatars felt like a welcome respite compared to the constant barrage of projectiles.

They soon found out what the magic user the scouts had spotted was doing as the trees dotted around the pastoral lands they crossed would come alive and lash their ancient limbs against the Erulean formation. In the surprise of the first attack, several of their formation had been injured. Fortunately, the rift team had been overworld to assist with the response as Rufian and Palinus made quick work of the animated tree, and Vesuvia assisted with the wounded. After that incident, Rolmnus had steered the group on a more circuitous path to avoid the larger trees. The group of young legionnaires showed impressive professionalism as they maneuvered for hours under constant fire.

Each Rift felt different as the Cinderborn dove relentlessly into each rift as they formed. The enemy team tried several different formations to counter them. When Palinus found himself fighting against Reinvar in their third rift battle, he found that the savage young man's regeneration and aggression countered the constant damage Palinus could apply from [Burning]. While his lane had been an armwrestle, with Reinvar killing Palinus several times when the spearman came to gank him, Seline had completely dominated the slinger paired with the stone witch in the bottom lane.

The rift had hung on a knife's edge until Rufian managed to catch Reinvar roaming to the bottom lane. With Rufian's help, slowing Reinvar Seline had managed to counter the attack. It gave Palinus enough breathing room to catch up in the lane and push the middle tower down. The Cinderborn took the opportunity to push through the middle lane and took a second victory.

The formation of the fourth rift alarmed Vesuvia as she called for a halt. The team huddled under the cover of a shield wall as they discussed it.

"The rift is forming right under the wall!?" She said, her tone confused.

"Great. What is the problem?" Rufian replied, happy to be advancing.

"We haven't progressed that far in the battle yet," Seline answered for Vesuvia, thinking through the implications. "They might have artificially planted the rift seed closer to the walls to pressure our protection… or they are bringing in a ringer…"

With a grimace, Vesuvia confirmed Seline's suspicion of a potentially massive problem, "The two teams were relatively balanced, if anything, theirs was higher powered with the stone witch at least Tier three, and I suspect the swordsman is the same. But this rift is offering more resources… it might sustain a tier five or higher… if they have one, there is a chance we would be facing one or two much stronger avatars."

"Can we ask Felusian or Servius to fight with us?" Bruchts suggested.

As Seline considered the option, the two men appeared again out of nowhere. This time the team was half expecting it, and no one was surprised when Centurion Felusian replied with a laugh, "The rift would need to be twice as powerful to sustain our avatars."

"Your assessment is correct," Servius confirmed Seline's thinking. "They do have a higher-powered rift delver with them."

The way he phrased it tuned Palinus in to some sort of deeper rules of this conflict, he found it strange that the two men just watched when this was apparently an important nexus to secure.

"It is the druid, isn't it?" Palinus guessed, fishing for information that he suspected his father wouldn't or couldn't provide. The blank stare he got in return was sufficient for Seline to treat as confirmation.

"That makes sense, their team was disbalanced as it was, convenient for bullying less skilled teams, but we had the better composition. I guess the question is who do they drop, what ars do we think he will bring, and how do we counter?"

The only clues they had were the possessed trees that littered the battlefield, and Seline suspected that that ability would be the biggest impact on the rift. If the man could animate trees at key spots in the forest, it would hinder Rufian's ability to move effectively around the rift. They theorised what his loadout would be; druids were known for their versatility, and he could have a range of ars that could allow for almost anything from changing forms as a melee brawler to healing as a support.

They brainstormed several plans as they marched, but as the steady rain of stones and arrows got even harder the closer they got to the wall, they knew that the rift was not going to be easy.

"Man, this is the life! A whole lane to myself!" Rufian joked from up the top lane.

Sitting in the tall grass beside the middle lane, the rest of the team waited patiently to see who the opposition fielded in the middle lane for confirmation of their lane assignments.

"I think he is frustrated to be missing out." Palinus speculated.

"Mmm," Bruchts agreed, "he has been enjoying the roaming role."

They had placed Rufian in the top lane, suspecting that the enemy objective would likely be trying to isolate the lanes by controlling the forest. When they spotted a man with antlers poking out from a mane of mossy green hair they immediately started moving. The key information they waited on being confirmed with the man's gnarled staff casting a bright green light.

"Good luck, Su," Seline cheered as they left Vesuvia to try to counter the druid they suspected was a control mage. Their placing the man in the middle lane meant that they believed he would counter Palinus a strong indication that he had a sustain ability and some additional control ars like roots. They didn't expect Vesuvia to win, but she was likely the safest choice.

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"Let's do this, Sel!" Palinus cheered as they left Bruchts to roam the forest. In this rift he would be playing more of a supporting role, and it was a pleasant reprieve from the isolation in the middle lane.

The slinger's face when he saw Palinus appear in the bottom lane completely validated the strategy in his mind, and they quickly capitalised on the matchup. As the waves of minions clashed, Palinus's job was simply to apply constant [Burning] to the opposition avatars and then hide in the tall grass.

He was having a lot of fun, and his work quickly paid dividends as he ground down the enemy avatars who didn't have any heals to sustain them in the lane. The stone witch had tried to dispel the [Burning] effect a few times with her raven, but Seline had punished her when it was on cooldown by rooting her or the slinger out of position, and both she and Palinus attacking.

Each wave of minions without a death ratcheted up the tension as Palinus waited for someone to die. They knew the pressure was on their lane to win decisively to cover the likely losses in the other lanes. He was thankful that Rufian and Vesuvia were both managing to avoid compounding their disadvantage by losing first blood.

As the fourth wave came up the lane, Palinus prepared himself. This was the wave where they would level up, and it was going to be make or break. He could see from the hard look in the stone witch's eye as she spoke to her team that they were ready, too.

"I suspect the roamer is incoming to the bottom lane," Palinus reported. "Have we got eyes on whether it is the spearman yet?"

A quick chorus of negative responses came from the rest of the team, and Palinus met Seline's eyes. Sharing a nod, they committed to aggression.

As soon as the minions came into range, Palinus and Seline sprang into action. They attacked the minions as quickly as they could racing to hit the next level first so they could bring an additional ars to the incoming fight. Palinus cast Wick Lash on a range minion to deal as much damage to the wave as possible.

Their opposition hesitated with the change of pace, discussing their response before they too began to go all out. The delay and the difference of Palinus's attack power compared to the stone witch's paid dividends as they streaked ahead on damage and inched closer to the pivotal essentia difference.

As the second melee minion went down, and the critical moment approached, they spotted a figure emerging from the forest. The wickedly barbed axes Reinvar carried promised violence, yet as Palinus lashed out at the minion for a final time, his ribs felt grateful not to be facing off against the spearman.

Moving towards the incoming threat, Palinus wound up his vitis dramatically, whirling the lash of essentia to make it whistle through the air. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the slinger and the stone witch step forward as they entered his target zone he doubled back to cast his Wick Lash ars again and splash most of the remaining minions as well as both the stone witch and the slinger with [Burning]. Their avatars were sitting at around half health, and the additional damage was stacking up against them, though from the savage grins on their faces, they didn't consider themselves to be in danger.

Seline had begun to target Reinvar as she baited the man to run towards her with arrows to the face. As she did so, Palinus attacked the stone witch, smiling as he baited the slinger to attack him.

*Thunk*

Palinus tried to tell himself that the momentary loss of consciousness felt good as he cast his Saturnine Veil, plunging the lane into thick smoke. He stepped backwards into the tall grass to shed the attention he was getting from the ranged minions as Seline initiated the next step of the plan.

Hobbling with a savage wound from the axe Reinvar had thrown, Seline pulled the man through the smoke towards the tower, as he started to close in she cast her rooting ars. Firmly stuck in place, the man called out through the smoke to the stone witch as Palinus joined the tussle and began to lash at him. The raven flew through the obscuring smoke, and soon after, the axeman was freed.

Reinvar was disoriented as he struggled to figure out where Seline had run to through the obscuring smoke. The man kept running towards the Erulean tower, and Palinus let him go as he slunk back into the tall grass.

The voices speaking in the harsh stoneman tongue seemed confused as the slinger and the stonewitch joined the pursuit.

"I am coming in!" Bruchts called through the team chat, and Palinus saw him emerge from the brush towards the forest a moment later.

Stepping out from the brush, Seline and Palinus targeted the beleaguered slinger. His voice rose an octave as his shouts of confusion turned to fear as he noticed he had been cut off from the safety of his tower. He ran towards the forest to escape and screamed again as he found Bruchts instead of safety. His already reduced health points were rapidly exhausted by the attacks from the three friends.

*An Enemy has been Slain*

But the fight wasn't over as Reinvar realised they had circled behind him and charged towards them. As soon as his run took him close to the stone witch, Palinus punished their proximity with another Wick Lash, bouncing the burning effect to Reinvar as he lashed him continuously.

Seline joined the attack and added another ars to the mix, her attack crating a vine that lashed the two enemy avatars together. It damaged both the stone witch as she tried to retreat and Reinvar as he charged towards them. They were already so damaged Bruchts withheld his runic circle ars as he savaged the stone witch, not allowing Reinvar to engage with him and bring his self healing ars into play.

*An Enemy has been Slain*

*An Enemy has been Slain*

Reinvar's defences were still formidable, as it took them a while to finish him off. The stone witch fell a moment later.

"Good job, Bruchts!" Palinus cheered.

"You barely needed me!" He complained with a laugh as he ran off into the forest.

Once they secured the next level advantage, Seline was able to hold the lane by hersel,f letting Palinus roam to clear out the annoying trees that attacked them on the bottom side of the map. As soon as these were cleared u,p Bruchts and Palinus were able to gank the druid in the middle lane and give Vesuvia enough of an advantage to win her lane.

The enemy did not make the victory easy, as the druid added significantly more control ability to their team's fighting capabilities. But eventually, the advantage in the bottom lane snowballed to a victory.

As they emerged from the rift flushed with victory, they found themselves within a shield wall that was getting beyond tired.

"What happens now?" Palinus asked as he stared at the ten-foot village wall.

"Under, over, or through?" Rolmnus asked Seline for orders.

"Surprise me," she laughed tiredly.

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