94. A Battle of Pros - (4)
94. A Battle of Pros - (4)
***
In an instant, Minseong's dagger vanished as though swallowed by darkness and began to trace a strange shadow.
—Ssswish!
All five arrows, like rays of light, reached the spots they had aimed for—but struck only the innocent floor of the Colosseum.
Rat-tat!
Minseong had already concealed himself within the deep darkness.
Baekya frowned, her delicate features tightening. She gripped her longbow and kicked off the ground, trying to move from her position.
Tap!
The Archer class, with its "Sniping" trait, existed to support the team from extreme range and land a blow that was difficult to counter by targeting the enemy. The moment she moved like this, her purpose as an Archer vanished.
But Baekya had no choice.
The instant she gave up distance to an Assassin, she could no longer maintain a sniping-style attack pattern.
And Baekya was one of the few Archers proficient at long range, mid range, and close range alike.
Baekya herself preferred the sniping combat style most of all, but that did not mean she was weak in melee.
—!
Baekya sensed a subtle ripple at close range.
She whipped her head around, gripped her massive longbow with both hands, and swung it upward through empty air where nothing existed.
Clang!!
Minseong pressed down with a dagger steeped in a chill blue light, as if to cleave straight through the pure-white longbow. But Baekya, as though she had expected it, blocked the attack and simultaneously raised her leg through the folds of her white cloth garments, lashing out fiercely at Minseong.
Thwack!
This was why she was called BS's ace, and why she could put on such a dominant performance in the third-game Gauntlet Match.
Even when she conceded distance to a melee class, she possessed a strength in close combat that set her apart from other Archers.
Minseong staggered from Baekya's natural defense and unexpected strike. Before he could recover, Baekya brought her longbow—now wreathed in a white glow—crashing down on him.
A Sniper Archer sacrificed mobility and agility, but in exchange gained strength that did not fall behind even melee classes.
She could sustain close combat through pure martial skill and the basic techniques enveloping her longbow alone.
Baekya's movements flowed together like a single dance. Minseong desperately swung his dagger once more, conjuring darkness to evade the attack.
BOOM!
A tremendous boom erupted from the massive longbow smashing into the ground where Minseong had vanished.
The moment her strike missed, Baekya kicked off the ground again without a second thought.
Tap!
Clang!
Clang-clang-clang!!
Minseong continued to vanish and reappear like darkness itself. Baekya shifted positions, blocking every attack with her longbow raised.
Even under Minseong's relentless assault, Baekya steadily watched for a chance to counterattack.
Swoosh!
Just as Baekya's white leg was about to strike Minseong again, his body abruptly vanished like mist.
Whoosh!
Baekya's leg lashed through empty air.
"...Seriously."
Baekya sighed heavily and muttered, then turned her gaze to her teammates inside the Colosseum.
In that moment, another teammate turned to light and vanished.
Baekya watched them disappear into light after taking a direct hit from Kang Hyeok's greatsword, and felt the momentum slip away completely.
When Kang Hyeok, standing far across the Colosseum, tilted his greatsword and looked at her, Baekya recalled the first game and let out a hollow laugh.
Then she adjusted her stance—not to swing the longbow with both hands, but to draw the bowstring straight and true.
The momentum was already gone anyway.
Just as Kang Hyeok had tried to land a blow on her at the end of the first set, when everything was already decided.
Baekya was thinking of that now, too.
The third-set Gauntlet Match.
She was thinking ahead to the 1-on-1 Gauntlet Match, refusing to let her spirit be broken.
Even as she felt a chill settle on her neck, Baekya used her signature technique.
—White Night.
The arrow nocked on her white longbow fired like a colossal beam of light, and she vanished, transformed into a single streak of light.
Jinhyeok watched the massive beam of light trace its trajectory and moved first, raising his shield to block for Kang Hyeok.
But Kang Hyeok was a step faster.
The moment he confirmed Minseong had finished off Baekya, Kang Hyeok stomped the ground hard and laughed.
—Earthshaker.
BOOOOM!!!
The ground cratered around Kang Hyeok. The white sniper shot, knocked off course, tore through Kang Hyeok's left arm.
"You crazy bastard, you didn't have to take that hit."
Jinhyeok muttered in disbelief, but grinned along with Kang Hyeok anyway.
—Victory!!
Soon after, a golden notification appeared in the corner of the G1 players' vision.
Kang Hyeok confirmed the notification and slammed his greatsword hard into the Colosseum floor.
BOOM!
Following his lead, Jinhyeok slammed the ground with his shield.
Thud!
Minseong, watching from where he had landed, laughed in delight and stabbed his dagger into the floor with force.
It was G1's signature victory performance.
***
The actual match time was only about ten minutes, but the impact of the second game felt different.
The more Serin watched, the more restless she felt.
Watching players clash and match each other's rhythm made her heart race just from spectating, and watching such a high-level match made her want to play the game herself.
Unlike the first game, the second game was one-sided, dominated by the player Minseong—but it still had a different kind of appeal.
In a sense, both the first and second games had a player from each team get cut down, sharply swinging the momentum to one side. Yet it was still entertaining, because the players never gave up.
Their movements revealed struggle and fighting spirit, and her eyes kept being drawn to the players.
Unlike the hazy memories of Black Ark, pro players now clearly seemed like something different.
In the world of Black Ark, a duel with someone was nothing more than a name for killing each other.
It wasn't about testing each other's skill—it was thrashing desperately, consumed by malice, trying to kill the other by any means.
So Serin knew well that there was no romance in fighting the strong.
In reality, there was only ever a dirty fight.
It was a matter of life and death from the start. Considering the advantages tied to combat, personal circumstances, regional conflicts—when Serin fought people in the world of Black Ark, only filthy memories remained.
On the battlefield, ambushes and surprise attacks were the norm. Opponents would turn and flee the moment the situation turned against them. A fair 1-on-1 duel simply didn't exist.
Those memories played a large part in why Serin spent years hunting only monsters after finishing the main story.
But the match she was watching now—regardless of whether the situation was unfavorable, the pros went beyond doing their best. Even in a losing position, they showed fierce fighting spirit.
"I'm not the only one feeling like playing right now, am I?"
She muttered, and even so, she found herself wanting to face the pros.
Enough that she was looking forward to the scrim still on the schedule.
[Honestly, watching the match makes me want to boot up Another World lol]
[Pros aren't pros for nothing. And both teams today are fun to watch fight]
[The weapons and skills the pros use are so cool, makes me want to copy them]
[Baekya's White Night is so damn cool lol]
[But when you actually try using the skills in-game, it comes out weird as hell]
[Wait, but what about Rin, who has a scrim scheduled with pros like that?]
[Lol if I were Rin I'd log in right now and swing my weapon around to warm up]
Watching the chat, she felt like she understood why pro tournaments existed.
They made you want to play just by watching. The pros' matches were, in the truest sense, battles between ideal strong opponents.
They displayed their full skill and clashed with their opponents at full power without hesitation.
What she liked most of all was that there was none of the behavior she'd seen before—no one holding back out of concern for their own life, no one making excuses to avoid a duel.
In the first game, the greatsword user Kang Hyeok had taken a hail of arrows and still unleashed a massive technique.
In the second game, the female player Baekya, even at the moment a dagger was slicing her throat, aimed her bowstring at Kang Hyeok and used a technique. There was a kind of fighting spirit in that sight.
In that moment when defeat loomed, reading the situation and choosing to fight to the very end to break the opponent's momentum for the next match—that in itself was impressive.
"And they're all so bold about it. I like that."
[Both teams today are bold, for real]
[Watching Kang Hyeok in game 1, even Baekya seems swept up in the romance of it lol]
[This is G1, clean and refreshing]
[Thinking about Minseong finishing off two people, my chest swells with pride fr]
[Lol all the haters disappeared real quick, didn't they?]
[Looking at this, G1 really dominates in raw class weight]
[Watching BS, it just feels like Baekya is carrying alone]
[Still, if it goes to the game 3 Gauntlet Match, BS might win?]
[Nah, G1 wins lol]
She watched the chat grow even livelier after G1's victory and spoke up.