At the boundary between the Azure Star Sea and the Ascension Sea.
An isolated island, once deserted save for seabirds, now rang with voices.
Players gathered in vast numbers, and the various vehicles moored along the shallows packed the already small island to bursting.
Excitement and greed filled the air.
Messages cascaded through the regional channel:
"Professional kill-stealing squad recruiting three Assassin Builds with Composite Life Soul levels of 85+. No freeloaders. Follow the leader's positioning throughout. No idiots."
"Tomb Raider Squad, four looking for one. Need an Assassin Build brother with the Duskshadow trait socketed. Professional battlefield kill-stealing, guaranteed fair distribution." "Amplification squad offering all kinds of buffs throughout your run. Double the combat power and double the fun on your kill-stealing trip, all at fair prices. Squads and teams in need, contact us now. Head to the battlefield at your strongest."
Without exception, those who came here were vulture-like players drawn by the three-way war at sea.
Neither their team sizes nor their individual strength was enough to participate directly in the war.
Yet they had developed countless "kill-stealing" techniques, repeatedly taking a share of the spoils through gaps in the struggle between the three giants.
Their Star Meridian setups centered on four Life Souls.
Duskshadow, for faster stealth.
Extreme Speed, for improved mobility.
Star Shift, for changing positions at critical moments and swiftly closing in on low-health targets.
And the core of the tactic known as trapping a dog before beating it: oath space.
These four Life Souls allowed Assassin Build players to move comfortably through stealth in the seas engulfed by the three-way conflict, seeking targets and easily finishing them off when an opportunity arose.
This was also one of the more popular playstyles lately.
The other two options at roughly the same combat-power tier were