Main Stage — Group Stage (1)
Q. Your thoughts on the victory?
A. It was a fairly clean win.
Q. Who do you expect to advance and face you in the winners' bracket?
A. Speculation of that sort is meaningless. Whoever comes up, I am confident I will win.
Q. You brought out your secondary class, Magic Knight. Was there a particular reason?
A. I wanted to demonstrate that while it is not quite on the level of Dark Knight, Magic Knight is a perfectly viable strategy as well. I hope my next opponent comes prepared for both classes.
……
Q. At the group draw ceremony, you received a provocation from player Ga-wol. Anything you'd like to say?
A. Rookie players often pull stunts to gain recognition. It is a common occurrence for me. I consider it a weight one must bear.
However, popularity gained without skill never lasts. She would do well to keep that in mind.
Q. Your thoughts on the victory?
A. I'm glad the preparation seems to have paid off.
Q. You put on an overwhelming performance. How did you prepare?
A. I always approach tournaments the same way — practice and analysis. This time, the scrimmage data proved particularly effective.
Q. Did you prepare with your teammate Sparrow?
A. No. Sparrow is on vacation, so I ran them with Ga-wol. That guy never boots up the game while he's on break.
Q. Was practicing with Ga-wol helpful?
A. Unfortunately, yes.
Q. Tomorrow Ga-wol plays the opening match of Group E. Your prediction?
A. I understand many people expect Rime to win. I may be the first to pick Ga-wol in an official setting. I don't think her odds are bad at all.
Q. Unexpected choice. Any reason?
A. It's a conclusion I reached after facing her myself. Ga-wol might be the most underrated player in this Arena. Of course, that's separate from the controversies surrounding her.
……
Q. Any final words?
A. The Arena is an exhibition tournament. Even so, I want people to know I'm giving it my all as if it were an official competition. I'll do my best to live up to the fans' expectations.
"Sorry to keep you waiting! Day two of the Infinity Arena main stage. This is caster Ho-eun, greeting you from the special stage."
Hang a clock upside down and time still flows on.
"Joining me once again are commentators Haehwa and Hwang Yul for today's broadcast."
"Hello."
The Arena main stage had begun yesterday. Today's schedule covered Groups E through H — and my match was slotted first.
Waiting in the player lounge, I could hear the casters from every country booming through the speakers. The Korean feed was especially loud, but a few tweaks to the options muted the rest.
"Our opening match is Group E — Ga-wol versus Rime."
"Let's take a look at the bracket."
Once my match was over, the remaining two players would face off as well. Depending on the results, I'd know who I was up against next — and I'd get a look at the most recent footage. Ripper in particular still felt under-analyzed; I intended to study him carefully before we met.
"This is a classic counter matchup, isn't it? High defense, wide coverage — a Lancer has everything an Assassin hates."
"But the player herself said she's confident! Ga-wol is the one who brought Rime into this tournament, so I'm looking forward to seeing how she plans to crack him."
"Plenty of history between these two. All eyes are on Ga-wol's solution."
While the casters kept talking, a staff member guided me toward the exit. I followed the path out, the timing falling perfectly into place, and stepped up onto the stage.
"Players entering. Main class Assassin — Ga-wol."
"And now Rime. Main class: Lancer."
My opponent was a massive man — so familiar from all the matches I'd watched that he almost felt ordinary. His real body probably wasn't that size, but Lancers tended to bulk up. The recoil on a gunlance was brutal; you needed the mass to handle it.
Standing in front of him was unpleasant. The size difference was so extreme I had to look up.
Traveler had never been this big.
Even the handshake, done by the book, left a sour taste. His palm dwarfed mine. I felt like a child, and it put me in a foul mood.
One more reason I had to win.
Group E — Match 1
Battlefield: Duelist's Corridor
vs LB Rime (Lancer)
The moment my vision cleared, a fierce heat seared into my lungs. The source was lava, bubbling and churning — the map's most dangerous gimmick, and a tool that could inflict heavy burn damage on contact alone.
Dark red rock formations were scattered across the field, offering plenty of cover… not that it would mean much. A Lancer's bombardment rivaled the burst damage of most mages. One wrong move and I'd go down with the rock I was hiding behind.
Better to deny the long-range fire entirely than gamble on a clumsy ambush.
Found it.
Wasting time hunting for the perfect entry angle was the worst option. If someone as mobile as me wasn't fully set, there was no way his preparation was perfect either.
I gripped both daggers tight and launched myself skyward. An attack loaded with strength and mana came crashing down on the enemy.
KRRAAASH—!
The barrier in my path shattered in a single blow, and the strike landed clean on his right shoulder blade.
A good start.
"Ghk—!"
Ambush successful. Additional damage applied.
Enhanced Paralysis Poison applied to the enemy.
System messages flickered in the corner of the screen — but the Lancer's shield came thrusting out faster still. I raised my own guard and absorbed the impact.
It was just a shield bash, and yet my guard gauge plummeted nearly to empty. An Assassin's thin defenses were part of it, but the real problem was the sheer, stupid mass behind the blow.
I ducked low under a thrusting spearpoint, sliding across the ground to nick his ankle — and in that instant the Lancer stomped, sending a shockwave through the earth.
"Hah…"
Attack failed. The impact shoved me back; I couldn't close the distance. But a thin thread of satisfaction lit up in my mind.
It had worked. I'd known that if he failed to shake me off, this skill would be the first thing out of his kit.
Through the rising dust, a single dagger tumbled among the scattered stones in the distance. I stretched a hand toward it — and my viewpoint snapped, the dagger settling into my grip.
A human's defense is weakest mid-attack — or in the instant after. The closest target was the chainmail protecting his nape instead of plate. A clean stab to the throat would have been ideal, but the moment he tucked his head, the helmet covered it. Shoulder to nape was the best I could manage.
The dagger punched through the chain with a satisfying weight. Too hard and heavy to feel like human flesh — a skill I recognized immediately. I hadn't landed a killing blow, but I'd stripped him of one of his primary survival tools.
A fair trade.
And my turn wasn't over.
"You block well. Pros really are different, huh?"
"Ghk—!"
"But are you sure you should be looking this way?"
A black chain came slamming down from above. Rime raised his shield to catch it, and the depleted guard gauge converted into the fire roaring inside his gunlance.
I could already picture the technique he'd use here. A reduced-power blast, fired from the hip without shouldering the weapon — trading accuracy to shove the enemy off and buy time.
The gunlance braced against his armor swung toward me and spat its fury. At this angle, this range, even I couldn't dodge it.
More precisely — I couldn't dodge it with my body.
Receiving the effect of Blessing of the Ashen Moon.
For up to 10 seconds, melt into shadows within 7.5 m of the player…
A Lancer's bombardment came with deafening noise and a blast of smoke — enough to effectively blind and deafen for a critical instant. In that window, Rime did what habit demanded: protect himself first. Clearing the smoke could wait; restoring his stance came first. Shield up to cover his body, one foot planted for a solid base. Only then did he sweep the spear to clear the haze.
Check the surroundings — front first. Then the right side, where holding the spear left his defense thin. The left, safe behind the shield. Last, the sky, where anything falling would take time to arrive.
"Too obvious!"
Rime ignored the clone on his right. An Assassin dropping a decoy at this timing was textbook. Even a solid clone would only cost him minor damage — nothing fatal. And the odds of that were low anyway.
Without hesitation, he thrust the spear skyward and unleashed a torrent of flame. This time his firing stance was stable, and he held nothing back on the power. No Assassin could dodge a bombardment midair.
Blessing of the Ashen Moon forcibly canceled.
"Hey."
"……!"
"Was this obvious too?"
An Assassin had two skills that could create clones. Most players only invested in one decoy for point efficiency — but I'd taken both specifically for this mind game.
I stepped out of the shadow and pinned his shield down with my hand. I'd meant to end it then and there — rejected. The moment he realized his mistake, the Lancer activated Fortification: the signature max-defense buff of the knight-class line. Meanwhile, I'd sacrificed some attack power to fit the clones into my build. Finishing the match on the spot was impossible.
But I had a plan for exactly this situation.
A Lancer's gunlance was a tough weapon with a fragile drive mechanism — a weakness usually hidden behind the lance's handguard. In a position like this, though, there was nothing stopping me from going for it.
The instant my dagger punched into the gunlance's cylinder, something mechanical died with a hideous crunch. Once wasn't enough, so I did it again.
Confirming the system message announcing the weapon break, I took a few steps back.