Chapter 42

The Hero’s Arena map has three engagement inducing systems.

This is to prevent one side from endlessly running away and making the game too lax.

The first of these is the Tower Cap event starting at the 5-minute mark.

At 5 minutes, one of the four towers—northwest, northeast, southeast, or southwest—activates, and at 10 minutes, the team occupying the point receives 500 gold per person and 50% of their current level in Experience Points.

Moreover, during the game, securing vision and supporting fire around the activated tower makes fights at the surrounding four hunting points significantly advantageous.

However, the balance setup is quite intricate.

It’s not something that, if you give it up, guarantees a game loss.

But does that mean you can freely give it away? If an enemy takes it alone while your team of four farms elsewhere…

That one person could earn 2500 gold and 250% experience within a short time, then share it with the team.

Isn’t that absurdly beneficial?

Of course, you shouldn’t just give it away.

If you do give it up, the enemies should at least send people to guard it; letting one or two of them easily eat it would be catastrophic.

Being the first to set up and repel incoming enemies is advantageous.

But going too early means you’ll be sitting on your hands while the enemies farm.

It’s a headache.

Deciding how many people to send and when is key.

The fact that it varies every match is perhaps why this game remains fun despite being played repeatedly.

Therefore, vision and map reading are important.

The more wards you place, the easier it is to grasp enemy movements.

Thus, you can plan and execute your strategy accordingly.

Sol: [Let me scout first.]

This game is a scaled-down version of war.

I took on the role of a scout and set out on the expedition.

The active tower for this game is the Southeast Tower.

The situation wasn’t very satisfying.

Wasn’t the first battle at the Dragon’s Nest in the north?

After driving the enemies away, we naturally focused on clearing the northwest hunting grounds, while the enemies likely settled into the southeast.

And unfortunately, the Southeast Tower activated.

The Northwest is best, followed by Northeast or Southwest, but the Southeast Tower was the worst case.

‘If I play well, it’ll work out.’

It’s not a difference that can’t be overturned.

I just felt a little uneasy.

From the Dragon’s Nest in the north, through the central Arena, we head to the lake in the south.

A warning sound indicating nearby enemies echoed.

Not a ping from the team but a system alert.

I immediately placed a ping marking the enemy’s location.

It’s about sharing the information I’ve gathered with the team.

‘Two in the jungle, two in the southeast. They’re already gathering in large numbers.’

Not precisely at the point yet, but they’ll all rush in once the battle begins.

‘One in the southwest, why is he there? Should I cut him off?’

Regrettably, my current kill score is 0/0/0.

It’s not easy to slaughter several Challengers without any item advantage.

But, this body cannot avoid 1v1s, can it?

Let’s cut off the isolated enemy.

The lone enemy in the Southwest Tower, I’m heading that way.

I’ll kill him before he can join the others in the southeast.

Interestingly,

The lone figure in the southwest was Victory.

Of course, the most confident player would be there separately, right?

It’s common sense that someone who can either escape or win against any enemy would move as an independent detachment.

I quickly check the item situation by tapping a button.

Considering counters.

‘The one who lands more hits wins.’

Both of us are non-targeting skill melee dealers.

Hitting with a skill and dodging is the decisive edge in a sword-to-sword fight.

A battle solely between you and me, with no interference.

[Wow]

[Big moment Season 2 wowwowwow]

[Going for a matchup, are we?]

[Let’s go then]

Ah, there are quite a few spectators.

About 90,000 or so.

Okay, let’s begin.

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump.

I can almost hear my heartbeat.

I summon illusions.

I test with magical arrows.

Since it wasn’t at long range, the opponent walked away to dodge.

Approaching without retreating.

Magical arrows have a relatively short cooldown.

Missing once doesn’t end the fight.

Eyes wide open.

I always have my eyes wide open, but…

I don’t want to miss any of his movements.

I concentrate fully.

Thumpthump.

The Swordsman’s Q skill, Slash.

The skill changes each time you hit an enemy.

A narrow single-hit slash, an even narrower two-hit stab, and after two successful hits, you’re rewarded with a powerful and broad three-hit horizontal slash.

He aimed for the illusion instead of the main body.

Clearly aiming to stack and unleash a powerful horizontal slash on my main body.

But since I can control the illusion’s position…

I dodge with movement.

I didn’t allow the two-hit stab.

That means he has to start with the single-hit slash again.

I get closer.

Into the Swordsman’s domain.

A bit of an ironic character.

An Illusionist.

A mage that gets stronger the closer they are.

Q skill: Magical Arrow.

At long range, you can walk to dodge based on the trajectory.

But at close range?

At point-blank, it can’t be dodged with mere movement.

You either use a skill or hope the opponent misses.

The Swordsman’s blade sweeps past my approaching main body.

The first slash is indeed hard to dodge.

But dodging the second stab minimizes the damage.

Not fatal.

I summoned the ultimate illusion.

With my build, my ultimate illusion produces two copies.

A build that decreases the ultimate illusion’s damage by 70% but increases the number of copies to two.

Illusionists are very faithful to their name, using illusions and swapping with the main body as their method of combat.

Illusions can be controlled with shortcuts, but it’s not like controlling a separate character. The entire illusion moves in that direction, not freely.

Detailed control is difficult.

If each illusion could be controlled individually, I could’ve shown something more impressive.

A bit of a disappointment.

If it were Magical Fight, each illusion would definitely be controllable.

This is why Teamfight Arena doesn’t measure up.

In Magical Fight, each illusion would not only be controllable but would likely have its own unique skills.

That’s that kind of game.

Anyhow, arrows shot again.

Can you dodge all four arrows coming from four different trajectories?

The Swordsman’s response is reflection.

The Swordsman’s E skill, Parry, reflects attacks coming from a specific direction.

It requires pressing at the right timing and specifying a direction, but most people just use it as a defense skill.

But this is Victory after all.

He accurately reflected the arrows back at me.

Since I trusted him to throw them my way, I dodged.

Out of four magical arrows, two were deflected, one evaded, but one still managed to strike the Swordsman.

Before I knew it, my character was right beside the Swordsman.

But that also means the Swordsman’s attacks are equally hard to dodge.

Slashes and stabs from the Swordsman are almost instant at close range.

From here on, it’s more about psychological warfare than reaction speed.

There won’t be much time left until the winner is determined.

Now that we’ve closed in, neither side can escape!

The Swordsman’s character crouched.

The motion of the W skill, which increases movement speed, attack speed, and life absorption.

Dodge, hit, and miss—each move brings us closer to the conclusion.

I keep swapping with illusions to confuse the opponent, but Victory isn’t easily deceived.

He follows the main body with irritating precision.

As I must dodge critical attacks, my Blink cooldown ends.

Upon confirming that both my Blink and movement abilities are spent, Victory’s Swordsman uses the ultimate skill.

─”I’ve been defeated by the enemy.”

My Illusionist is dead.

─”I’ve defeated the enemy.”

But Victory’s Swordsman is also dead.

A dash came in and my character died, but Victory’s Swordsman also died just before from the magical arrows I shot before dying.

[Is this scripted? This is real???]

[Even if it was staged, this is too much]

[Loveshot hahahahahaha]

[Yo, how intense is this supposed to be?]

[Is this rivalry?]

<2joon is crying in the corner>

[I was Victory’s rival first!]

[Sounds kinda like an NTR situation]

[This is actually so cool]

[Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend!]

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump.

My heart is racing unusually fast.

How long has it been since I felt like this?

But even though I’m dead, I can’t relax.

Since I can still see our team’s map.

[Aah]

[Why are you shaking the screen even though you’re dead, crazy kid?]

[Can’t you just enjoy the afterglow of victory?]

[I’m shaking because I’m dead]

[Might be a solo-kill ceremony?]

[Mob spawn situation indicates that gathering at the tower by 8:40 will be clean]

[Please align your paths]

You don’t instantly capture the tower by stepping on the point.

You need more headcount than the enemy to step on the area and increase the capture points.

And at the exact 10-minute mark, the side with the higher capture points will secure the tower.

My judgment is that this time, gathering all five members together to engage in a team fight is better.

[Master of the battlefield ㄷㄷ]

[Commander!]

[The mention of a commander reminds me of a protagonist from a certain game]

[Great on reading the situation and giving orders]

[Hmm… Is that it? Gathering at the tower is something Silver could do too?]

[What does Silver know ㅋ]

[Judgment by a challenger is entirely different from mindless gathering, no?]

[What exactly is the difference?]

[If you knew that, it wouldn’t be deep waters, right?]

Since this game requires fifty kills to win, respawn times aren’t that long.

I quickly rejoin the battlefield.

Thumpthump.

I really want to win this battle.

Do my utmost.

Play better than usual.

Just win.

After winning, I’ll type ‘Revenge of the Map’ in the general chat.

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