54. League of Spirit (5)
[Flame Team vs Level 12 AI]
[The match has begun.]
A quiet message rose into view. Since it wasn’t an important match, there were no special alerts or commentary dubbing, but most of the staff spectator section was already focused on it.
Saturday lunchtime was usually quiet in the staff spectator section, with almost no one coming except a very small number of training coaches.
But today, it was crowded.
“A normal start.”
The coaches slowly examined Flame Team’s positions.
In League of Spirit, the players most confident in one-on-one combat were usually sent to the middle lane and the ascending lane, and those roles had been taken by Ma Yuseong and Baek Yuseol respectively.
“It’s definitely… different from last time.”
The match from a week ago had been a total mess. They hadn’t even had basic radar, so there had been no vision control at all, and their pathing for hunting mini-monsters had been the absolute peak of inefficiency.
But only one week had passed, and they were already moving at about the same level as ordinary trainees.
Grasping the basic meta and flow, and then moving in accordance with it.
“They’re using completely different spells from last time.”
“Mm. That means they’ve clearly figured out what they should be using.”
“Well… spell trees do change from match to match depending on the opponent’s spell combinations and strategy.”
Because there were only seven spells, they were easy to memorize and easy to read and counter, which meant players had no choice but to practice wielding many different spells.
It was hard to survive long in League of Spirit with only one or two combinations.
“Baek Yuseol is still only using Blink.”
Unfortunately, skills like Taeryeong Divine Art were not treated as “magic,” so Baek Yuseol had once again entered the field carrying only Blink.
That was why the staff couldn’t help but wonder.
If he couldn’t use offensive spells, then how exactly was he supposed to damage the other side?
As the answer to that question, Baek Yuseol purchased one of the support items, a [Magic Sword], and gripped it in his hand.
“A magic sword…”
“Is something like that really useful?”
“In reality, it seems he somehow improves and uses magic swords, but he should know that’s impossible in League of Spirit.”
Baek Yuseol’s Teripon Wand, specially modified into a magic sword, showed power on a completely different level from ordinary magic swords.
But in League of Spirit, a magic sword was nothing more than a support item with extremely low attack power, used to pressure enemies at close range. It didn’t possess any truly threatening killing power.
Support items had limits on how much they could be upgraded, so if he used one as his main weapon, it might seem a little unusual in the early phase, but later on he wouldn’t be able to do anything.
“We’ll have to watch and see.”
Baek Yuseol calmly swung his magic sword and hunted monsters.
Because monster movements were rigid and mechanical, Baek Yuseol moved fluidly and swung his blade without being hit even once.
Considering that ordinary mages couldn’t move while casting or had slowed movement speed while doing so, it was a very mobile style of movement, and his “basic attack” power was presumed to be noticeably higher than other mages’ basic attacks, but…
That was all.
Basic attacks—what players called “autos”—ultimately lacked finishing power.
[Combat has broken out.]
Not long after the match began, a fight erupted in the middle lane. Ma Yuseong had been poking at the enemy with a ranged harassing spell that had low power but a short cooldown and could be used often, then the moment he leveled up through monster hunting and learned Power Jump, he immediately charged at the enemy.
In that instant, the players quickly judged Ma Yuseong’s actions.
Flame was on standby in the nearby alley lane, while the enemy team’s alley-laner was currently down in the descending lane giving support.
At that moment, an ordinary middle-lane player would have initiated, dragged the enemy into the allied formation, or stunned them to render them temporarily unable to fight, then waited for backup from the alley lane.
So naturally, they assumed Ma Yuseong would do the same, but…
“Huh?”
Boom!!
Instead of sending the enemy toward his team’s formation, he jumped in with Power Jump and slammed a powerful shockwave straight into the enemy’s solar plexus, knocking them back.
After that, he mixed harassment spells and auto-attacks, steadily shaving away the enemy’s HP, and at that exact moment, Flame succeeded in killing a “special monster,” increasing the team’s resources by one stage. Ma Yuseong immediately bought one more spell and finished the enemy on the spot.
[First casualty has occurred!]
And then, leaving with only the tiniest sliver of HP remaining, Ma Yuseong calmly returned alive.
“What the hell was that…”
“They don’t cooperate?”
Normally, Flame should have gone to help him, but she did nothing but glance at Ma Yuseong and kept diligently clearing alley-lane monsters, whether he fought or not.
And Ma Yuseong’s spell tree also looked like he had built it not to fight together with allies, but to kill enemies by himself.
“It’s not like there was no coordination…”
If you thought about it carefully, the timing of Ma Yuseong’s engagement had lined up perfectly with Flame’s special-monster kill.
Which meant he had engaged while factoring in that he would learn his next spell through Flame’s actions before he had even learned it.
It meant Ma Yuseong had seen the enemy team’s opening, their remaining spell cooldowns, and even the HP of the special monster Flame was hunting—all at once—and judged the timing perfectly.
“The judgment to spot that timing is impressive enough, but the decisiveness to charge in exactly like that is no joke either…”
“Isn’t that not the main issue here? They don’t seem to trust each other at all. The entire team is just playing solo.”
“There are barely any spells in their spell trees that link with each other either. Everyone’s acting like they’ll just handle things on their own.”
“What on earth are they thinking…?”
League of Spirit was a five-versus-five team sport. It was absolutely not a sport for acting alone.
And yet even when five minutes passed, and then ten minutes passed, Flame Team did not show a single proper cooperative play.
Each of them killed enemies on their own in their own lane, and if it looked like multiple enemies were gathering, they abandoned their position without hesitation and ran.
Then, about fifteen minutes into the match, someone suddenly exclaimed upon seeing Baek Yuseol, whom they had almost forgotten while watching players like Ma Yuseong.
“Huh? What item is that?”
Even in League of Spirit there were trends and metas, so people always used the same items, while discarded items never appeared in matches.
There were countless items, but in the end only certain ones were used.
That was why the item Baek Yuseol had brought out—[Obsession Crystal Pendant]—was bound to look unfamiliar.
Because no one had ever seen it in a match before.
- Required Mana: 2,700 MP
- Equip Effect: Attack Power +90
Attack Speed +7% - Special Effect: When ‘basic attacks’ hit 10 times, the final hit triggers the spell ‘Obsession Break,’ dealing damage equal to 274% of attack power.
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Just from the description, it was hard to make sense of.
Most items that consumed 2,700 MP raised stats by around 200 each, but this one only raised attack power by a mere 90.
And what was that special effect supposed to be? Not a spell, but requiring you to land ten basic attacks?
“274% is definitely enormous.”
“There’s never been an item that raises an attack coefficient that absurdly high.”
“But when in the middle of combat would anyone ever have time to land ten basic attacks?”
“And Baek Yuseol’s basic attacks are with a sword. Not even ranged magic.”
“The cooldown is way too long too. A full sixty seconds.”
“Oh, but that item…”
And yet the item Baek Yuseol had just purchased next also stood out considerably.
- Required Mana: 2,700 MP
- Equip Effect: Movement Speed +125
Attack Speed +12%
Mana Recovery +70 - Special Effect: On hitting an enemy, the cooldown of ‘special effect items’ is reduced by 3 seconds.
That, too, was an item none of them had ever seen before.
“It reduces the cooldown of special items the more you hit…”
Only then did the staff roughly understand the intention.
“Through that item, he’s planning to keep reducing the pendant’s cooldown and stack cumulative damage onto the enemy…”
They understood the theory, but whether it was actually possible in practice was still another matter.
At that moment, as if on cue, the enemy team’s ascending-laner and alley-laner sprang out from the alley, creating a one-versus-two situation.
Normally, he should have run away, but because he could still only use Blink up to three times in a row, there was a high risk that the enemy’s mobility would catch him.
And yet Baek Yuseol did something strange. Instead of running with all his might, he kept tapping mini-monsters once each in the middle of fleeing, stealing the last hits.
No matter how valuable remaining mana was, it felt like he was being far too greedy. The enemy team was right on his heels.
“He’s done for.”
At the moment the enemy’s charge spell was about to reach him, Baek Yuseol suddenly turned around and Blinked straight into the enemy’s arms.
“He’s going to fight that?”
A difficulty level 12 AI could not be thought of like ordinary players. They had much better items thanks to their overwhelming growth.
…And yet those thoughts instantly lost all meaning, because Baek Yuseol dove toward the alley-laner chasing from behind with two consecutive Blinks and cut his throat in an instant.
[Obsession Break is activated!]
At once, a straight line of white light seemed to slice through the air, and the enemy player staggered and dropped to his knees.
A powerful stagger effect!
“H-how?”
“That’s impossible!”
Baek Yuseol had clearly only attacked once, so how could the special effect possibly have activated?
Baek Yuseol didn’t stop there. He performed a large backflip and scattered a flame grenade onto the ground.
It was a consumable item that created a powerful field of fire on the floor for three seconds, but because it cost too much mana, few people used it. You had to land the full three seconds for it to matter, and that was difficult.
But the enemy struck by Obsession Break had been inflicted with a stun and couldn’t move, so he took the full fire damage and burned to death.
Then Baek Yuseol freely used Blink to evade every spell from the one remaining enemy, swung his sword twenty times, alternately cutting down mini-monsters and the player, and finally another pure-white flash slashed through the air.
[Obsession Break is activated!]
Then the second enemy fell.
After killing two enemies in the blink of an eye, Baek Yuseol destroyed the enemy team’s tower with a sticky bomb item and calmly returned just as the enemy players were about to respawn.
“I see… The count for those basic attacks didn’t say you had to hit the same enemy ten times. That means the effect also triggers if you hit mini-monsters ten times and then strike an enemy.”
“I-is that right?”
“So you can manage the stacks like that…”
“It’s interesting, but…”
Thinking of it that way, it did seem like a good item after all, but it was still hard to say for sure.
Rather than painstakingly managing stacks through mini-monsters, it would usually be better to simply raise your spell power and land powerful spells properly.
“Still, it is impressive. I’ve never seen a player use consumable special items to that extent.”
“And this is supposedly only his second day of practice?”
“He’s barely even played a few matches, and he’s already made his own item tree and build…”
At last, they understood how Baek Yuseol fought, but it still didn’t make them feel at ease.
Because it was a method that no one else could copy.
The match had already passed the midpoint and entered the late game, and Flame Team was still completely uncoordinated, each doing their own thing. Hae Wonryang stuck tightly to Eizel and killed enemies two or three at a time. Baek Yuseol toppled the ascending lane alone the same way as before.
Needless to say, Ma Yuseong pushed the middle lane all the way to the edge of the enemy formation, and Flame constantly roamed the alley lane, collecting all of her own monsters while also killing the enemy alley player and stealing theirs, slowly narrowing the resource gap against the level 12 AI.
And then, finally—
[The Guardian of Chaos has appeared!]
The “Guardian” that appeared during the match granted an enormous buff to the team that killed it, tilting the balance of victory, and because the Guardian of Chaos appeared in the late game, it was usually when the final full teamfight broke out.
In other words, a battle that could not be avoided.
No matter how much they had avoided five-versus-five combat until now, if they lost the Guardian buff here, they would have no chance of winning.
How are they planning to handle this?
The spectators watched with their hearts in their throats.
[Blue Team has destroyed an enemy tower.]
Baek Yuseol, as if the ascending lane had been smeared with honey, showed no sign of coming out and just kept hitting the tower, while Flame seized the chance to sweep through the enemy alley and steal monsters.
Hae Wonryang and Eizel at least looked as if they might face off over the Guardian, but then the pair seemed to lose interest and moved off together to another lane to do something else.
“What are they… doing?”
The Guardian of Chaos gave a buff that was practically invincible in the late game, so it absolutely had to be secured.
“Don’t tell me they don’t know that?”
There was no way.
Unlike a week ago, when they had been complete beginners who knew nothing, this match clearly showed they had properly grasped the meta.
Which meant—
“Are they saying they don’t need the Guardian buff to win…?”
Just as that thought arose, Baek Yuseol—who had almost completely shoved the ascending lane—suddenly used the item ‘Jump Gear.’
It was an item that let you place a marker somewhere in advance and then jump to it later. If the enemy team found the marker and removed it, it became useless, but if you hid it well, it could bring a strategic advantage.
It was fine that he had hidden it well enough that the enemy team hadn’t found it, but now, at this stage, fighting alone was impossible.
“…He’s forcing it.”
“He’s finished.”
The coaches shook their heads.
What Baek Yuseol was doing was an obvious beginner’s tactic: when your team was losing, you recklessly ran at the enemy team while they were trying to kill the Guardian, dumped all your magic on them, and died in a suicidal gamble.
In low-level matches, that kind of gamble sometimes worked.
But against experts, it never did.
Completely sealing off the entrance route, and perfectly controlling damage output so the Guardian wouldn’t die to the enemy attack.
And yet there was one thing they had briefly forgotten.
Baek Yuseol possessed special items that could deal powerful damage instantly with no start-up delay—
and he had Blink, mobility beyond even Power Jump.
“Don’t tell me…?”
The AI team discovered Baek Yuseol and responded with lightning-fast reaction speed, but like a ghost, he burrowed into their midst with consecutive Blinks and swung his sword.
[Obsession Break is activated.]
[Final Attack activates, granting an additional strike.]
[Attack Crusher activates. The next attack is guaranteed to deal critical damage.]
[Strong vs. Weak activates, dealing an additional 30% damage to enemies below 10% HP.]
He wrapped his whole body in items that would normally never be used, but which only Baek Yuseol—who mainly fought with auto-attacks—could make use of, and when he slashed his sword toward the Guardian, a long trail of light remained—
and it died instantly.
[Blue Team has defeated the Guardian of Chaos!]
[Baek Yuseol has died!]
In the next instant, Baek Yuseol was killed by focused fire from the enemy team, but just then the rest of Flame Team rushed in and surrounded them, and the AI team was wiped out as well.
There was still no coordination to speak of, but with the Guardian buff, their item specs had become similar to those of the level 12 AI, and they simply crushed them with overwhelming mechanics and rapid-fire spell usage.
By now, their use of magic had already far surpassed that of the level 12 AI.
Even though they had still played only three practice matches in total.
“…It’s over.”
Right up until the final, final moment, the match ended in solo play and reckless individual gambles with almost no practical team coordination at all—
and it closed with an easy victory for Flame Team.
“It’s impressive, but…”
“I don’t even know how to describe this…”
A festival of absurd strategies that would never appear in pro matches.
As a match unlike anything they had ever seen unfolded before them, the officials remained speechless for a while. Then they regained their composure and coldly analyzed the match.
“It’s all for show.”
If they could make even a single one of those things work in a real match against experts, they might have applauded.
But the opponent had been AI.
“Beating a level 12 AI in one week is impressive. But that can absolutely never be used in real matches.”
“Right. Stella’s player trainees are already skilled enough to go out and play in the amateur league. Would absurd strategies and gambling plays like that really work against them too?”
“I acknowledge that they’re impressive… but their growth limit is obvious.”
That was the conclusion the experts arrived at.
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