A Necessary Misunderstanding
Did she really need to correct this misunderstanding?
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the enemy.
Because of the dense mangrove trees, she couldn't determine their exact numbers at first.
The enemy team had two supporters in this match.
One was a Monk, a class specialized in purification and shields.
The other was a Maestro, specialized in action speed buffs.
Neither class possessed strong individual combat capabilities.
They might be a bit annoying, but killing them both wouldn't be too difficult.
However, as the distance closed, three enemies came into view.
A Temple Knight holding a sword and shield.
Hanul, having brought out his signature class, was waiting for her.
"Wow, I just came over on a whim. Is Na Jia out of her mind? Sending a Berserker to flank in this situation?"
"Should the three of us take her down here? Even if she activates Frenzy, the three of us can easily block her."
"No. If we do that, the main force will be in a three-versus-five fight. If our team fights on this map without a single supporter, they'll all die. The Monk needs to regroup with the main force right now."
Whether it was a stroke of bad luck or good fortune...
It seemed the enemies she had to face here were decided: Hanul and the Maestro.
She couldn't stop the Monk from leaving on her own.
Gripping her battleaxe tightly with both hands, Nabi stared at Hanul's stance.
Holding his kite shield firmly, he slowly closed the distance between them.
"You don't have to be so guarded. I have some pride, you know. Fighting three-on-one is a bit embarrassing."
"..."
"I'd love to go one-on-one, but you must have received all your buffs before coming here, right, Nabi? Let's just call this a handicap."
"Yes..."
"That's the first time I've heard your voice. Excellent."
It felt slightly better than facing a complete stranger.
She had clashed weapons with Hanul a few times already.
She wasn't sure if they were close, but she knew he wasn't a bad person.
The biggest trigger for her social anxiety was 'strangers.'
The less familiar a person was, the greater her fear and tension grew.
Conversely, she could perform at her best in front of someone she had met multiple times.
Nabi was the first to take a step forward.
It was already a disadvantageous two-on-one fight. There was no reason to give up the initiative.
She swung her axe vertically, forcing him to defend.
Hurry. The enemy is faster than me, and they have plenty of time.
The Saint's buffs lasted a relatively long time.
But long did not mean infinite.
Once the buffs expired, her situation would deteriorate rapidly.
Her role was to somehow deal with the two of them before that happened.
To do that, she needed a swift resolution. She had to pour everything she had into ending this quickly.
However, Hanul, wielding his signature class, was no easy opponent.
He didn't block her attacks head-on.
He deflected her downward swings from the side, pressed down on her weapon with his shield and body weight, and launched sharp counterattacks.
A blade grazed past her head, missing by a hair's breadth.
Nabi parried Hanul's flurry of attacks with the blade of her axe and simply absorbed the Maestro's skills with her body.
Taking a hit or two right now wouldn't be fatal.
Since she was fighting in enemy territory, debuffs were a risk she had to bear.
All Attack Power and Defense are reduced by 6%.
Caster: Virtuosa (Maestro)
Hanul's playstyle was defined by fierce counterattacks.
He wasn't proactive in initiating attacks, but he ruthlessly punished any openings in hers.
Thus, she had to choose each strike with utmost care.
...No, wait.
How many times had they clashed?
A sense of incongruity welled up in her mind.
A Temple Knight wasn't supposed to be such a defensive class.
It was easy to mistake them for one because of the kite shield, but a Temple Knight was strictly a Bruiser, not a tank.
They were a melee warrior class with a well-balanced offense and defense, to the point where even the shield was considered a weapon.
If he wanted to focus on defense and counterattacks, he should have chosen a Paladin instead of a Temple Knight.
Furthermore, Hanul was currently buffed by the Maestro, making him much faster.
If it were her, she would have seized the initiative and pressured the opponent long ago.
There was only one reason she could think of for his passive play.
He's trying to delay my Frenzy.
Frenzy was a high-risk, high-reward skill.
A Berserker in a state of Frenzy could temporarily claim to be the strongest in Infinity Realm.
With the Saint's buffs still active, she could easily handle a two-on-one fight.
However, to trigger Frenzy, her health had to drop below 60%.
The Cursed Mangrove was a battlefield that periodically drained health.
And she was on a solo detachment mission without any support from her allies.
In this situation, her health was an incredibly precious resource—but was it as precious as time?
Once she made up her mind, there was no reason to hesitate.
Taking a step back, Nabi drew her axe across her collarbone.
Hot, crimson blood spilled down her chest.
Blood Covenant
Consumes 30% of current HP. Grants a shield equal to 33.3% of the consumed HP, and restores HP by 8% of damage dealt.
Remaining Duration: 176.01 sec
True Frenzy
All damage dealt increases by 24%, and restores HP by 8% of damage dealt...
Can't use Frenzy because my health is too high?
Then I'll just lower it myself.
Immediately after Yu Nabi forcibly activated Frenzy.
The Challenger's Cup chat window began to explode.
Recently, memes like "dopamine addict" or "pure madness" had attached themselves to Nabi.
No matter how much she denied it, a label once stuck was not easily removed.
Combined with Na Jia's runaway train mode, the situation had escalated beyond control.
An image established this strongly inevitably created a branding effect.
No matter what Nabi did, people would misunderstand and think, She's doing that because she's crazy.
In truth, Yu Nabi hadn't done anything crazy; she had simply made a necessary decision.
Indeed, Hanul's reaction in-game was along the lines of *Here it comes.*
The commentators had also realized that a quick, decisive battle was necessary.
But... did this misunderstanding really need to be corrected?
The commentator pondered.
Throwing cold water on the hype by clearing up the misunderstanding versus praising it as a badass decision.
If he chose the latter, it wasn't technically wrong, and wouldn't it be much more entertaining for the viewers?
The hesitation didn't last long.
The commentator began to shout with burning passion.
As if he had just witnessed an incredibly thrilling spectacle.
By nature, the Berserker class possessed many high-risk, high-reward skills.
They were truly unrivaled when it came to sacrificing survivability for attack power.
The game even granted them a precious life-steal attribute to encourage aggressive play.
And Yu Nabi's build was designed to push this aggression to its absolute limit.
Suppressing the enemy with firepower akin to an asymmetric weapon, while securing a baseline of stability through her character's innate stats.
Strictly speaking, it was a rather 'clever' build that actively exploited loopholes in the game's balancing.
Unfortunately, the general public was unaware of such details.
What was immediately visible to the audience was the Berserker's steadily depleting health.
The falling health bar rose, fell again, and rose once more.
If she didn't fight, she would die.
To survive, she had to fight.
Throwing herself into the fray with a resolve of 'those who seek to live will die, and those who seek to die will live,' Yu Nabi looked like a demon on camera.
A tiny, silver-haired girl.
A doll-like madwoman swung her battleaxe vertically.
The shield, which had been screaming under the pressure, was flung away, leaving a crater in the shattered earth.
The onslaught did not stop for even a second.
Even without her axe, her monstrous strength turned everything into a weapon.
Her slender leg kicked a stone off the ground.
The fist-sized rock shot forward like a bullet.
While the Maestro coughed up blood from the unexpected projectile, her tiny hand grabbed the edge of Hanul's shield.
The sight of the muscular man being dragged forward by sheer force was nothing short of shocking.
Realizing it was hopeless, Hanul abandoned his shield.
The decisive gamble was made.
Hanul plunged his sword into Nabi's heart, but in exchange, an axe cleaved into his head.
It was a mutual fatal blow. However, Yu Nabi possessed life steal.
Hanul's death bought Nabi a fleeting moment of borrowed time.
Yu Nabi thought.
The distance between herself and the Maestro was too great.
It was impossible to catch up to the Maestro with her remaining health.
Throwing her massive battleaxe that far was also unrealistic.
But there was one thing. She had one weapon left.
It was Hanul's sword.
The sword, pulled from her own heart, flew through the air.
With that final throw, the Berserker's life flickered out.
The Maestro barely survived the impact, but the toxicity of the battlefield would not leave him be.
Three corpses remained in the isolated swamp.