Not Just Crazy, But Truly Insane
The girl in white ran through the narrow path.
While the terrain surged up on her left and right, a high-firepower hand cannon prepared to fire right in front of her eyes.
Even if a direct hit wouldn't kill her instantly, the damage was certainly nothing she could laugh off.
What would I do?
Inside the main display room of Blue Serpent, Lee Seul-bi tilted her head to the side as she watched the match.
Two immediate ideas came to mind.
The first, naturally, was to attempt a guard or a parry.
Parrying wouldn't be easy, and neither option would completely absorb the damage, but it was the most textbook approach.
Fortunately, the direction and timing of the opponent's attack were clear enough to read.
With extreme concentration, she could pull it off.
But was that really the best choice?
It was hard to shake the feeling that the risk was simply too high.
A Berserker's guard damage reduction rate was abysmal.
Their guard gauge wasn't high either, meaning it would shatter instantly and let the damage bleed through.
And if she failed the parry, she would take the hit directly to her body. Losing a massive chunk of health right at the start of the engagement would make it awkward to attempt anything else.
Therefore, Seul-bi's choice would have been the second option: using the rising obstacles to her advantage.
Stepping on the rising terrain, zig-zagging left and right to dodge the blast.
If she timed it right, she might even combine it with the first method.
Yu Nabi... chose neither.
Right as the commentators let out gasps of admiration, a similar reaction rippled through the Blue Serpent players.
"Whoa."
"Oh."
"Impressive."
"She's definitely going to be a handful if we meet her in the finals."
It was a single flick of her wrist while running.
The terrain was surging upward from below.
The tip of a stalagmite-like stone pillar made contact with her axe.
She started by tilting the blade downward.
She sliced the stone to her desired size, scooping it onto the flat of her axe blade for easy control.
In the same breath, Nabi's posture shifted dramatically.
Stepping forward with a wide stride, she wound up for a massive swing!
Harnessing her monstrous strength, she hurled the head-sized boulder forward.
The hand cannon's barrel, which had been aiming dead-on, buckled under the impact of the flying stone and jerked toward the sky.
BOOM—!
A thunderous roar echoed, but the shell struck nothing but empty air.
— "Nabi's boulder throw forces the hand cannon shot to miss!"
— "Reload! She needs to reload immediately. The Geomancer still has one stack of Tectonic Shift left."
— "Normally, that's a card you'd want to save for emergencies, but they don't have the luxury right now. They have to throw everything they've got at her."
— "The Rampart class isn't designed to fight one-on-ones on equal footing in the first place. Its strength lies in securing a lead once the board is set in its favor."
— "But her opponent is the ultimate predator of close-quarters combat. And it's not just any player—it's Nabi's Berserker! Allowing her to close the distance at full health is an absolute disaster!"
The Berserker ran.
As if believing that no one in the world could stop her.
Nabi's charge was the spitting image of a wild beast rushing to tear its prey apart.
Every possible measure was deployed to halt the beast.
Earth spiked upward like thorns. Frost magic circles spread openly across the ground to block her path.
From the sky, sharp ice crystals formed and rained down.
But then, was there ever such a thing as an easy hunt?
Just as no lion stops out of fear of obstacles, the harsh storm of spells could not halt Nabi's advance.
The magic support was a bit lacking. I guess they had no choice since they had to pull it together in a hurry.
The frontline wasn't limited to this spot, after all.
Right at that moment, the main forces of Endure and Eunha Gaming's tanks were clashing.
They couldn't afford to provide perfectly tailored magic support on demand.
Mage classes were the representative ranged damage dealers of Infinity Realm.
Mages wielding elements like frost, earth, and fire could deliver devastating performance depending on the battlefield.
With their wide area of effect and raw destructive power, mages possessed the most straightforward strengths of any damage-dealing class.
Yet, where there were powerful advantages, there were always corresponding drawbacks.
While a mage's shackle was the time required for casting, not all skills demanded a lengthy cast time.
As the game's variables multiplied, mages had learned to overcome their innate flaws using techniques like Memorize or Double Casting.
Consequently, pro gamers did not consider casting times to be the true weakness of the mage class.
What truly held the class back was accuracy.
Skills that blanketed a designated area without allowing for fine adjustments quickly revealed their limitations when facing top-tier players.
And Yu Nabi was a player who stood incredibly close to that peak.
— "This is looking bad for Eunha Gaming. They aren't getting the return on their investment."
— "Nabi's shield from Blood Covenant has only just worn off. She's been slowly receiving heals, bringing her current health to eighty percent. The healing reduction effect on the battlefield is also very weak right now."
— "And where did those spells come from? They were pulled from the resources meant for the main battle."
— "SnowWitch is fully committed to this engagement. The moment they see even a sliver of an opening, they'll make their move."
— "They know they're at a disadvantage if this drags out. They want to settle this in one decisive blow."
— "They'll need to watch out for the Confusion Geas, though. If this devolves into a chaotic melee..."
The pouring rain of ice crashed against the rocks.
Rocks meant to block her became shields, and ice meant to pierce her shattered those very obstacles.
Stomping off the shattered debris, Nabi launched herself forward like a bullet once more.
Stopping the second hand cannon shot was easier than the first.
She threw a throwing axe—a card she had saved for this exact moment—rendering the shot a useless misfire.
Navigating the enemy-made terrain as if it were her own backyard, the Berserker finally closed the distance to the Rampart.
Her pure white clothes were now stained with blood.
But to a Berserker, injuries of this caliber were less than mere scratches.
At this point, even Lee Seul-bi couldn't help but marvel.
"Wow. How does a girl that soft turn so vicious in-game?"
It was another side of the most harmless friend she had ever known.
Seul-bi's face brightened, not minding this fierce side of her friend one bit.
Once she bit down,
she would never let go.
She swung her heavily extended axe toward the lower guard.
The enemy held their shield at a point roughly sixty-five percent up from the bottom.
Aiming low would maximize the leverage, allowing her to force the shield wide open.
No matter how desperately they resisted, they could not overcome the difference in raw strength.
With a heavy, satisfying impact, the shield was forced back. Before it could return to position, she stepped in to block its path.
Both of their defenses were now wide open.
The blade attached to that hand cannon could swing toward her at any moment.
But of course, her axe could strike the enemy just as easily.
In a trade like that, she would always come out on top.
Since the opponent refused to trade, she forced her axe forward anyway.
Blood splattered as she landed a clean hit.
Restoring a fraction of her health through life steal, she continued to press her opponent.
Whether in terms of raw stats or pure skill, she held a decisive advantage in close-quarters combat.
And then, luck sided with her.
A sharp warning chime rang out as a system message appeared.
The Geas triggers 'AoE Confusion'.
Perspective and depth perception regarding all surrounding characters, except for the one currently targeted, are distorted.
Friend and foe can no longer be distinguished. All characters and environmental elements are displayed as silhouettes, and the battlefield's visual effects are altered.
The weapons of all characters outside a 5-meter radius will not show silhouettes, and certain skill animations will be hidden...
Her vision was dyed crimson.
The gloomy sky turned a violent red, and the grotesquely overgrown mangroves were reduced to pitch-black silhouettes.
The Rampart she had been fighting was now nothing more than a dark shadow.
Confusion was one of the most potent status ailments in the game.
In particular, the variations that did not wrest control of the character away from the player accompanied the most bizarre visual distortions.
While the player's actual mind remained perfectly sound, the distorted information fed to them threw the character's actions into utter chaos.
It shattered depth perception and warped the battlefield environment.
As a result, players could no longer trust the combat layout they had committed to memory.
Weapons vanished from sight, and skill animations and movements were altered.
Consequently, players could not distinguish friend from foe by their gestures, skills, or class compositions.
In an environment where all information was distorted, what was left to trust?
Thinking calmly and logically did not guarantee a favorable outcome.
A silhouette assumed to be an enemy turned out to be an ally. An ally believed to be friendly attacked, thinking the player was the enemy.
In this zone of area-of-effect confusion, anything could happen.
The human body was ultimately ruled by hormones.
Similarly, the Confusion effect in Infinity Realm proved just how heavily human thought relied on sensory input.
It was a testament to how fragile the foundation of reason truly was.
A battlefield of madness where reason held no sway.
If so, the victor of this battlefield would be the one who was the most insane.
Player 'SnowWitch Nabi' has gained the 'True Frenzy' effect.
All damage dealt is increased by 24%, and 8% of damage dealt is recovered as HP. Grants a 70% chance to ignore crowd control effects.
Friend and foe can no longer be distinguished. All communication channels with allies are blocked.
The 'Confusion' effect has been dispelled by a higher-tier status condition.