Full body [Illusions], at least in bat, Natalie had found too unwieldy to be useful sihey became more difficult to trol based on the size, plexity, and strength of their deception. However, [Empower] as an ability raised the potency of a skill. In this case, that meant those same factors.

  A sed full-body version of herself shimmered ience, ing to life just ahead of Natalie, charging for the chieftain just like she was. al Energy sagged out of her alongside a signifit portion of her mana, draining her in an indescribable way. But she couldn't afford not to spend everything she had. Against a monster like this, ohat could sp away her hammer blows, a single proper attack could kill her, much less a more fragile teammate like Jordan. If Natalie didn't use everything in her kit, she wouldn't ever five herself if somethi wrong.

  Both she and her illusion yelled at the top of their voice as they charged forward, and in the racket they created, they grabbed the chieftain's attention, pulling the hulki away from a growing-harried Malice. She was limping by that point, even only having to weather the chieftain for a short time. Natalie hadn't seen how she'd been hurt. She had to fight down the spike of , seeing the injury. And almost more importantly, the thrill of ahat went through her. Passion could help in a fight, but it could as easily be a person's downfall.

  [Empower], at its current rank, amplified an ability by a factor of two and a half. With that upgrade, her illusion was all but identical to herself, and not just that, supernaturally imbued to draw the chieftain's focus. Still, she saw the huge, muscled creature hesitate as its eyes flicked betweewo Natalies, trying to decide which was real. Like the Raid Leader, this thing was intelligent: she could tell that at a ghere was some level of sapience behind its eyes, though they certainly wouldn't be having a versation—if they even shared a nguage.

  Oalie we, the ht. The chieftain chose incorrectly, influenced by the deceptive nature of the skill. Natalie didn't want to reveal that it had chosen wrong, though, so she mentally influenced her illusion to dodge areventing the chieftain's grasping hands from passing straight through it. Unlike her lelication of an empowered illusion, this e had to be manually trolled. It wasn't as difficult as piloting a sed body, though it did take a fair amount of mental overhead.

  The huge goblin backpedaled, keeping both Natalies in its vision. She couldn't move fast enough to stop that. But after a series of exges, with Malid Jordan finding careful openings, Natalie saw her own opportunity. With a two-handed sideways swing, she smmed a blow into the beast's thigh. It didn't even make the creature stagger: in faatalie sent a spike of agony into her own injured shoulder more than she hurt it.

  But that wasn't the point. One side of her hammer had scored an attaow she had to nd a sed ter [Valentine]'s stun. Then she could execute her pn.

  Maliatural batant as she was, sensed Natalie's iion—or at least she saw that she was going for her stun. She paid for the sed opening, going on an abrupt frenzied aggression. The hail of kicks and punches ihe goblin to overextend itself: but just as Natalie's sed attack took advantage of that opening, the beast itself took advantage of Malice's aggression. Its fist seared toward Malice, and though the wolfgirl brought up crossed forearms to absorb the blow—with dodging not a viable option—the defense crumpled against a monster s. Bones snapped as her arms bent inward, and Malice was thrown backward, tumbling head-over-heels.

  Natalie forced herself to stay focused, though it was hard. Malice had paid to create an opening for Natalie; she wouldn't waste it. Her hammer ected, g a sed strike of alternative faces, and so [Valentine]'s effect triggered. Though none of their attacks had seemed to hurt the hulking monster so far, nor did this attack seem to, the chieftain staggered two heavy steps back, then, after swaying, fell forward, fating into the dirt—a magically imbued stun.

  She didn't waste time, eling an [Empowered] [Smite] even as she began staggering forward. It was extremely difficult to move while eling the ability, but not, she found, impossible. al Energy siphoned away, and the vibrating ball of pink lightning gathering at her hammer's tip was nothing like the first. Two and a half times more potent, she knew. Even a level four champion of Greed wouldn't be able to walk this off if she could nd it.

  "You don't have time," Jordan cried out.

  That would be true under normal circumstances. Stunning effects were proportional to the target they were delivered onto. [Valentine]'s owerful, but against a mohis durable? Only two seds in, the monster was already stirring, the effect expiring.

  Which was why Natalie pnted a foot on its back, leveled her hammer a few inches from the monster's skull, and activated an [Empowered] [Hunker Down].

  Her defensive ability was an active skill, after all, and thus a viable target for [Empower]. There just weren't many reasons tthen [Hunker Down] si made her 'invulnerable to most attacks,' and generally, she only needed a brief duration of high resistance.

  Sihe skills 'potency' y in its duration, that was what [Empower] would enhawo and a half seds into [Smite]'s el, [Valentine]'s stunning effect broke. The chieftain began to thrash wildly. But a firmly pnted boot kept it pio the ground. Natalie was invulnerable and immovable to anythiely inside her level bracket: and this thing was, ultimately, only a level four. It filed impotently, fttened into the ground by Natalie's foot, crushed by a mountain as far as physics was ed.

  All while a crag ball of energy gathered at her hammer tip, pointed for the chieftain's skull, increasing in strength by the sed.

  Natalie couldn't even move her eyes: her entire body was locked in pce during [Hunker Down]'s effect. She watched with a mad sort of excitement as seds ticked by, both impossibly fast and slow. [Smite] grew in power. The crag bolts of pink lightning made her teeth ache, burned lines into her vision.

  Six seds. The full duration. Even against the Raid Leader, she'd only gotten five. And that one hadn't been [Empowered].

  The el cluded just as [Hunker Down] expired. A bomb of energy exploded straight into the chieftain's skull, engulfing it and blinding her.

  And, no longer invulnerable—and [Hunker Down] only grantiao physical attacks, anyway—the explosion also ed her.

  She went flying backward, losing sciousness immediately.