The Wound on Her Back Is a Double-Barreled Shame (2)
When Mazia picked Aphora, Cheon Do-hee’s first thought was simple.
Is this kid actually insane about shotguns…?
Unlike other siege-specialized classes that at least tried to maintain some teamfight balance, Aphora was a pure base-destruction machine. Her body was as fragile as glass—take a few hits and she’d die—but once she started firing properly, buildings exploded left and right. People called her the “glass cannon.”
To be honest, it felt refreshing. The special building-demolition motion was so cool that once you saw it, you couldn’t look away. The only problem was how ridiculously difficult it was to land that one big shot.
Contributing heavily to that difficulty was Aphora’s combat skill, Delayed Explosive. It was a toggle. While active, attacking a building lowered Aphora’s own defense but stacked charges on the structure. Once enough stacks built up, she could unleash her ultimate, Total Demolition, and blow it sky-high.
At ten stacks, she could destroy outer and inner towers in one hit. At twelve and sixteen stacks, she could take down the core tower and main base respectively. That was exactly when the spectacular building-destruction animation Mazia so desperately wanted to see would trigger.
Other siege characters had to hammer away until their fingers bled. Other classes needed to pool their power just to scratch a turret. So in the early days of the game, a lot of people cried, “Isn’t Aphora completely broken?”
…Until they realized how long it took to load the double barrels.
Two seconds per barrel meant twenty full seconds to reach ten stacks. Meanwhile, even if enemies rushed from the farthest distance, it only took fifteen seconds to reach the top or bottom lane turrets on the edge of the map.
Because she was such a unique champion, enemies quickly learned they couldn’t leave Aphora alone. It became routine for the glass cannon to shatter before she could even finish stacking. That was why Aphora’s skill ceiling was considered the highest in Night of Legend.
You had to predict when enemies would arrive. You had to slip away at the right moment, then sneak back in to refresh your stacks before they expired (they lasted a maximum of ten seconds). All while using terrain and vision control to kite and survive.
Only true high-level Night of Legend players who could appear and disappear like ghosts could handle her. And yet, this champion—with her contradictory keywords of beautiful girl, fallen angel, and massive chest—had gained a cult following. Even now, she continued to crush new players.
That was Aphora.
So the moment Mazia declared her next move—
—the expression of Cheon Do-hee, who had promised to dedicate the entire day to Mazia, darkened instantly.
“Are you planning to live in the PC bang today…?”
“Surely I won’t go home without winning at least one game?”
Since they had agreed to spend the whole day together, Do-hee had been looking forward to certain things. She imagined playing at the PC bang for two or three hours, then enjoying a delicious dinner, followed by coffee or a drink for dessert. Maybe they could wander around a shopping mall together, stop by a photo booth for some four-panel pictures…
She had been excited about all the fun, girly friendship-building activities they could do.
But now it was a PC bang. And not just for a little while—until they won a game. While eating instant ramen.
Of course, Do-hee didn’t hate PC bangs. She loved games. Back when she was a college student before starting her streams, she had spent entire days there despite getting scolded by her parents.
But unlike back then, the current Cheon Do-hee could no longer play games all day. Her head was filled with work thoughts; no matter how hard she tried to focus, four hours was her absolute limit.
I have to win somehow…
She needed to win quickly and escape the PC bang. Only then could she casually suggest doing something else.
The problem was that Do-hee wasn’t very familiar with Night of Legend, and the skill gap between her and Mazia wasn’t that big. Carrying the game beautifully by herself and handing Mazia a victory was basically impossible.
In other words, even if she roamed separately from Mazia, she wouldn’t be much help in teamfights.
…Is this really the right answer?
She selected her champion. Support class.
A champion that could designate one ally, become invincible, and follow them around. She could harass, heal—there was nothing she couldn’t do. But she was the tragic character who got flamed for “eating too much ramen” and criticized for being unable to pull her weight in teamfights.
Mascot, deploying.
Thus was born the duo of Mazia on offense and Cheon Do-hee on harassment and sustain: Modattui.
* * *
To the graduate student known only as Mr. Lee, Night of Legend was his life.
It wasn’t some profound statement. It simply meant that among all the games he had played since childhood, this was the only one he still stuck with.
But playing for a long time didn’t necessarily mean getting better. And unfortunately, his team luck was abysmal. As a result, every year while his friends climbed to Gold, he was constantly teased for being terrible at the game.
This year was no different. With only one month left until Season 24 ended, he was still stuck in Bronze 1. He had been failing his promotion matches to Silver for days now.
He had finally given up and fled to normal games because he could no longer endure the stress and pressure. Bronze? Him? Again?
But perhaps it just wasn’t his day. Normal games were just as bad. He was already on a five-game losing streak. His match history was glowing bright red—he was probably due for at least one shotgun blast within the next few games.
“Ha. Should I really just quit this shitty game…”
The familiar ding of random matchmaking began. Since he had already pre-selected his champion, the loading screen popped up immediately.
Mr. Lee stared blankly at the champion lineup—then his face lit up with joy.
Siege :: Aphora :: TheWoundOnHerBackIsADoubleBarreledShame
Support :: Mascot :: ProudBirdHappyHappy
…
They were complete newbies with only two games played between them. And the champion they picked was the one notorious for shitting the bed spectacularly in ranked—Aphora. The one beginners chose because she was pretty, then quit because her mechanics were garbage.
On top of that, the person queuing with her was the Mascot, famous for being useless in teamfights. And she only had fifteen games played. A newbie among newbies.
“This draft is legendary. If I lose this one, I really should quit the game.”
Mr. Lee could already picture exactly how the match would go. The newbie Aphora would wander between both attack lanes pretending to siege, get caught, and die. The Mascot attached to her would get separated and explode. The rest of the team would get swept up in the mess, leading to a full wipe. They’d lose all the big neutral monsters and fall into a defensive spiral. Then Aphora would wander again, die again. Wipe. Defense. Endless repetition.
In other words, a bright red carpet of dreams and hope had finally been rolled out for Mr. Lee’s future.
At last, he would win a game. With a joyful heart, Mr. Lee dashed toward his lane.
“They basically gift-wrapped a win for me.”
As luck would have it, the enemies in his lane were the newbie Aphora and her Mascot. What kind of insane luck was this? It was a two-on-one, but in Night of Legend, skill decided everything. No matter how many bad players you brought, they couldn’t beat one good one—said the man who was currently Bronze.
Thanks to the game’s patented MMR system, the chance they were smurfs was extremely low. From now on, this lane was Mr. Lee’s personal stage.
“Time to get myself a nice, clean first blood.”
His champion, the Swordmaster Kirine, stood in the middle of the lane and charged straight at the Aphora who was looking around in confusion.
In his head, an entire montage was already playing. He would slip through the allied demolition squad like the wind, parry the enemy’s skills, take down Aphora, then finish off the detached Mascot for a perfect 2/0/0 start.
“Oh, she’s backing off?”
But Aphora showed no interest in fighting. She slowly retreated and hid behind her tower. She seemed like one of those especially timid newbies. This was going to make for a very boring laning phase.
“Hmm. Can’t be helped.”
If she refused to come out, he would just keep pressuring her and chip away at the turret. No matter how scared a newbie was, they usually reacted once their tower started taking damage.
“This is getting annoying…”
A few minutes passed, but Aphora was stubborn. She stayed inside the tower, soaking up experience and last hits. Whenever she took poke damage, the Mascot healed her. It was actually kind of cute how diligent she was for a beginner.
But that was about to end.
Mr. Lee hit level six first. He learned Lightning Flash with his adaptive skill. It was a technique that shot across the battlefield in a straight line, dragging every enemy in its path to the final destination.
Once I hit six, you’ll have to come out, right?
Even in a passive lane, level six always sparked a fight. That was when both sides gained a powerful tool. So if Aphora so much as poked her head out of the tower—
Mr. Lee planned to hide, hook her with Lightning Flash, and beat her senseless. She was a glass cannon, after all. Melting her would be instant.
Thanks to his constant harassment while waiting for level six, the turret Aphora was defending was already down to half health.
She has to come out before the turret falls…!
Right then, Aphora hit level six. Mr. Lee kept his finger hovering over the F key, ready to use Lightning Flash at any moment.
Suddenly, Aphora burst forward and dashed in a straight line toward Mr. Lee’s own turret.
“What?”
He had expected her to creep out cautiously. This was completely different from the behavior she had shown so far, and he missed his window to use Lightning Flash.
But Aphora was pathetically weak against champions. All he had to do was calmly aim and cast again—
Boom.Shhhhhhh.
“Dark Cloud?!”
The moment Aphora reached the front of the turret Mr. Lee was defending, she suddenly spewed out a cloud of black smoke.
Mr. Lee, who had been following right behind her, stopped at the edge of the cloud and muttered,
“No way. Is she actually a total beginner?”
Aphora’s adaptive skills had two truly valuable options. Type I let her trade her building-specific stacks and special demolition for champion-specific stacks. It allowed the siege-class Aphora to go wild like a damage dealer and sometimes pull off unexpected wins in teamfights.
Type II reduced reload time from two seconds to 1.5 seconds—a full 25% faster—and maximized her demolition speed. In games with frequent teamfights, it often led to towers being destroyed before defenders could even arrive.
But Type III—Dark Cloud—was the one everyone said they didn’t understand why it even existed. Night of Legend already had plenty of area-of-effect abilities, and Aphora already had a paper-thin body. People joked that it was basically telling her to hide in the cloud and get beaten to death.
In other words, only a real beginner who knew absolutely nothing would ever pick Type III.
Mr. Lee let out a small chuckle and aimed Lightning Flash into the middle of the smoke screen. If she was this much of a newbie, she was probably panicking over picking the wrong skill.
With a dramatic preparatory motion, his Kirine muttered in a cool voice—
“Hekireki… Sen!”
Crash!
Kirine shot forward like lightning, slicing straight through the black cloud.
“………Huh?”
But there was nothing at the tip of Kirine’s blade. Just as Mr. Lee wondered if he had mispredicted her position—
Clang. Clang!
A sharp metallic sound rang out. Aphora’s demolition stacks had landed on the allied turret.
“What the—when did she get out?”
When Aphora entered or exited the smoke, she gained a very brief stealth effect. It seemed that the exact moment she dashed out of the cloud, Mr. Lee had coincidentally sliced through to the other side.
“Ugh. Wasted the skill.”
Still, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme. Stacking the turret meant she was greedy for demolition. The cloud wouldn’t last forever, and it was practically useless against area attacks anyway.
When Aphora reloaded and slipped back into the cloud, Mr. Lee deliberately danced around its edges. He used basic attacks and his combat skill, Fan Slash, constantly testing her.
The newbie would probably feel bullied and sad, but what could she do? In this game, the weak simply lost. That was the natural order.
However—
“…Why am I not hitting her?”
No matter how much he swung his sword inside the cloud, there was no impact sound. It really felt like he was just cutting through smoke.
Right then—clang, clang!—the slug bullet icon on the turret reached four stacks.
“What?”
When Mr. Lee hurriedly jumped out of the cloud, Aphora was already standing in front of the turret again. Startled, he rushed after her and landed basic attacks and combat skills, but the attached Mascot recovered half the damage with her sustain ability.
And then Aphora slipped back into the cloud.
“Damn it. This is getting annoying. Has the Dark Cloud duration always been this long?”
As Mr. Lee spun around the cloud in confusion, Aphora used his blind spots to pop out again. He chased and hit her, she healed again. A little later she popped out once more, stacking her passive again.
Before he knew it, she had eight stacks.
“When the hell is this cloud going away?!”
The moment he said it, thirty seconds passed and the Dark Cloud finally dissipated.
But Aphora had slipped out right before it vanished, maximizing the brief stealth effect.
“…?”
Mr. Lee, who had been expecting her to appear in the center of the cloud, looked around. He only spotted Aphora about two seconds later—directly behind him, right in front of the turret he was supposed to protect.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
He had been steadily dealing damage, so Aphora’s health was below half. If his blade could reach her, his skill combo would kill her instantly. But since he had already used Lightning Flash, he had no way to close the gap in one go.
Clang. Clang.
At ten stacks, the border of the slug bullet icon changed from red to green. Aphora immediately activated her ultimate.
Both double barrels aimed at the turret’s head as if by agreement. The wings on her back spread wide, scattering pitch-black feathers that grew larger. A halo of light shot down, illuminating both barrels—
————Pew.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
A deafening roar and scattering light, like a fireworks show. Chain explosions shook the entire area.
The announcer cried out first.
FIRST DESTROY!
With the collapsing turret as her backdrop, Aphora walked boldly toward Mr. Lee and said:
Mr. Lee finally arrived and swung his sword, landing his full ultimate combo. But a free kill like this couldn’t erase the sting of defeat.
FIRST BLOOD!
Mr. Lee displayed a crying emote and muttered to himself.
His teammates, who had been watching the top lane situation on the minimap from the beginning, were completely dumbfounded.