First Disciple
A man sat with a longsword longer than his own body strapped across his back.
Black hair, black eyes, black cap, black clothes.
Aside from the bare skin that showed, he was composed entirely of black—a man who gave off a strangely compelling air.
At a glance he looked like a crow picking at corpses in a field of the dead, yet the outfit suited him so well it drew quiet murmurs of admiration from anyone watching.
In a world of every color, the man dressed wholly in black seemed to inhabit a monochrome world all his own.
That colorless man had only just put a cigarette between his lips when he rose from his seat and immediately swung the longsword.
A slow, deliberate cut followed.
It looked almost pointless, a blade carving empty air—until it perfectly intercepted an attack that came flying in like a ghost.
As if he had already read the path of the strike.
A fist that had torn through the air with a sharp whistle of wind was nullified by that single simple motion.
The man who had thrown the punch bit his lip in frustration and pulled his fist back.
His well-trained fighter’s body, denied the decisive blow it had been waiting for, rebounded with characteristic elasticity and retreated swiftly.
Back to square one.
Neither side had gained or lost anything.
The undertaker with the longsword and the martial artist kept a careful distance, staring each other down—each fully recognizing the other as an enemy.
That taut tension shattered the moment the martial artist spoke.
"This is seriously suffocating. Feels like I’m fighting a wall. Are we going to be okay like this?"
The undertaker lowered his longsword and answered in turn.
"You’re doing more than well enough right now. If you play like this in the tournament, it should be fine."
A clear, pure voice.
It was a voice that did not match the undertaker’s dark appearance or taciturn impression at all.
This was Kayack’s team in the middle of individual practice. With the tournament only a couple of days away, Hangang was drilling against Lenox—Yu-hye’s signature pick on the opposing team.
And the one simulating that matchup was Kayack.
Could Kayack really fill Yu-hye’s role well enough as a practice partner?
At first people had their doubts. Kayack was known as a Camilla one-trick, after all.
And what kind of creatures were one-tricks? Players who main a single hero and, at best, know one more as a backup—people with severely limited champion pools.
Kayack’s current performance was casually smashing that common sense to pieces.
"You’re overselling me. I haven’t even landed a single real hit on you, teacher."
"But they were sharp. I’m blocking them by a paper-thin margin every time… Keep going and I won’t be able to keep stopping them like this forever."
An absolute iron wall.
Kayack’s Lenox, wielding a defensive sword style, was not falling behind Grandmaster Yu-hye’s Lenox in the slightest. At least not to the viewers’ eyes.
Maybe it was only because this was a pure 1v1 drill with Hangang, but in some ways it even looked better.
"Just hanging onto Yu-hye’s pant leg is already a win for us."
"True enough."
Their finals opponents were Yu-hye’s team. Their captain Yu-hye sat at Grandmaster—two full tiers above Diamond-ranked Hangang.
Winning a straight fight against that kind of gap was absurd. Hangang wasn’t hoping for that much.
He only wanted to last a little longer if he ever ended up matched against Yu-hye.
That was exactly why he was training with Kayack in the first place.
"Nixon’s matchup is a bit more favorable. If you just keep poking and disengaging well, you’re already a real pain."
"Poke and disengage, then throw a lucky punch when the angle opens… right?"
"Yeah. Fancy tech won’t work on a high-level player like Yu-hye. And the lucky punch angle probably won’t open cleanly either."
Even while talking, the two never stopped exchanging blows. Of course Kayack’s Lenox still refused to give any easy openings.
Clang— Nixon’s fist was once again stopped dead by the solid longsword. Hangang muttered in mild despair.
"Teacher, you really… look like you only play Camilla, but you’re good on every other hero too."
"Camilla can hold a longsword as well… and more than anything, I’ve been playing a long time."
Kayack swung the longsword once more and added,
"Don’t get too impatient. Among my disciples, Hangang, you’re one of the better ones."
"I’m on the disciple list now too?"
"Yes. Hangang, you’re the third disciple."
Hangang’s voice carried a note of genuine interest and a smile.
"So I’m third… then is Ririyang the first? Who’s the second?"
"Ririyang is the second disciple. And the first disciple…"
Kayack murmured in a meaningful tone.
"I think you’ll be able to meet them soon."
"We’re taking Camilla."
The man’s calm, low voice rang through the Discord room.
As befitting the one who held real authority over the team, he cut straight to the point—and no one could object or even raise a question.
Of course not. In this team, captain and leader Yu-hye was the team itself.
That was also why they had no real comeback when cheeky viewers in chat called them a one-man team.
Bluntly put, it was Yu-hye and the kids. Yu-hye and five hangers-on. There was no arguing the label.
Because it was true. Yu-hye oversaw and directed everything. That was Yu-hye’s team’s main strategy and their identity.
Yet the strategy itself couldn’t be dismissed out of hand—under Yu-hye’s command the team had continuously held its place as a top contender for the championship.
Just look at the semifinals.
Final score 2–0. And calling it 2–0 was generous; people were saying it was more like 2–cake, it had been that one-sided.
They had to win the tournament first. Given the scale of the event, the winners would receive no small amount of spoils.
Prize money, the flood of new viewers the tournament would bring, the title of official tournament champions.
That was why they stayed quiet even when people said the lower-tier players had abandoned their egos or that they were Yu-hye’s puppets.
On top of that, captain Yu-hye was an excellent commander, so there was rarely any opening to push back.
"Nikang will be the one picking Camilla."
"Huh?"
This, however, was something they could not simply accept in silence. Nikang, startled at hearing her own name and at Yu-hye’s words, asked again.
"I… I’m supposed to pick Camilla…?"
"You said you can play Camilla to some extent, Nikang. Didn’t you say you learned from Kayack?"
"Well, I did, but…"
I never thought you’d actually tell me to do it in a tournament— Nikang swallowed the rest of the sentence.
Yu-hye wanted the team’s victory just as much as Nikang did, if not more. There had to be a reason for making this proposal.
"Kayack’s Camilla is definitely a threat. In the semis the first game was basically Camilla carrying the whole thing alone."
Yu-hye continued the explanation.
"Stealing a one-trick’s signature weapon—there’s no more lethal move than that."
"W-well… but Kayack is insanely good on other heroes too."
"Still not as good as Camilla, right? Facing anything else has to be better than facing Camilla."
"That’s true…"
Nikang briefly recalled the past.
Back when she had been grinding ranked and ran into Kayack, she had been slaughtered by that Camilla more times than she could count.
In those games the time she spent staring at a black-and-white screen had far exceeded the time she spent alive. She had died and died again.
Remembering those old days, Nikang shuddered.
"Yeah, you’re right. Camilla… Camilla absolutely cannot be given to them!"
That day’s nightmare must never be allowed to replay. With that thought, Nikang raised her voice.
Yu-hye, who only knew that Nikang had learned Camilla from Kayack and nothing of the deeper circumstances, found the sudden surge of motivation a little odd—but decided good was good and moved on.
"So if the chance comes, no matter what—if we’re first pick or the pick order is early—we steal Camilla and Nikang plays it. And when that happens the rest of you—"
Yu-hye’s briefing continued and the other teammates listened carefully.
Nikang alone was lost in other thoughts.
We can win… right?
Objectively the overall team strength favored Yu-hye’s side, and the viewers were already treating Yu-hye’s team as the heavy favorites to take the title.
Yet for some reason Nikang could not feel certain of victory.
A quiet unease settled over her as she shook her head from side to side.