Obsession's Wall
The so-called "obsession thing" ended after the first round. Choi Chang-young's team had lost. After Choi Chang-young went down, the five-on-six disadvantage proved decisive in the teamfight. "…What was that?"
Choi Chang-young merely tilted his head, regardless. He still couldn't understand how the Dark Knight had appeared from the sky. Fortunately, his curiosity was soon satisfied.
【Round 1 Highlights】
The highlight reel played at the end of every round. Naturally, it showed the unarmored Dark Knight. After swiftly dispatching the scout zombies, the Dark Knight scaled the cave wall and reached the ceiling in an instant.
The viewers voiced their confusion. Choi Chang-young had nothing to say either—he felt exactly the same.
A thunderous crash echoed through the footage. From the ceiling, a wall of bones rose at a sharp angle.
"…Ah, that's the Dark Knight's wall skill."
The Dark Knight's second skill, Wailing Wall. Though a tank, the Dark Knight lacked proper crowd control. The first skill, Soul-Binding Chains, came close, but it was noticeably weaker than other tanks' CC. Instead, the Dark Knight's trademark was the ability to erect walls.
"Normally you'd use it to split the enemy team or block their retreat, right?"
While the viewers expressed their disbelief, Lora climbed onto the Wailing Wall. She swung her sword to deliberately drop an icicle, then waited on the ceiling. The moment Choi Chang-young appeared, she launched her aerial ambush.
"Attention, company. This is best of five, correct?"
Choi Chang-young spoke as if reassuring the viewers.
"We lost a round, but now we know how that person plays… I'd say it's not too bad? Just watch the ceiling from now on. We'll win the next one quickly."
After two consecutive losses, the third round arrived. Once again, Choi Chang-young found himself facing the Dark Knight.
"Huuu…"
Choi Chang-young exhaled deeply. Losing two rounds in a row had ignited his fighting spirit. He wasn't usually one to obsess over wins and losses, but the feeling that he could win if he just played well was maddening.
As a Necromancer player, Choi Chang-young knew the matchup against the Dark Knight well. The Necromancer held a slight advantage.
'Right… It's not a complete advantage, just a slight one.'
Many people didn't understand this matchup because they rarely encountered Dark Knights these days. Choi Chang-young had been playing since the early days of Labyrinthos' launch.
At first glance, the Necromancer seemed overwhelmingly favored. The Dark Knight had no real area-of-effect skills—technically the ultimate counted as AoE, but it didn't work on undead. Nor did the Dark Knight possess exceptional mobility. Closing the distance for melee against a Necromancer was difficult.
The real problem was the Dark Knight's passive: Negative Aura, an AoE debuff that reduced stats and movement speed for everything nearby.
'Normally, that aura would make killing the Dark Knight take forever.'
Necromancers won through the strength of the collective, not individual units. Their undead weren't particularly strong on their own, and the aura made it even harder for numbers to overwhelm the target. The Dark Knight could also spec into lifesteal or health regeneration, allowing them to endure prolonged beatings. Eventually the Dark Knight would die, but the Necromancer would suffer heavy losses in the process.
But things were different now. The Dark Knight wasn't wearing armor.
"All units, advance."
Thud, thud, thud. The undead legion marched forward in perfect rhythm. The undead drummer beat the war drum while trumpets blared through the cave. The front line raised their shields. The second line leveled their spears. The rear line loosed arrows, forcing the Dark Knight to dodge frantically.
The undead numbered nearly a hundred. Choi Chang-young had crafted an extraordinary farming route this round, pouring every ounce of his talent into it. He had likely eliminated over half the neutral mobs on the map. It was only possible because his opponent didn't care about farming neutrals.
Regardless, he had brought more numbers than ever before.
Faced with the undead horde, the Dark Knight slowly retreated. Without armor, breaking through this many troops was impossible—the defense simply wouldn't hold. And without stealth like an assassin's, ignoring the legion wasn't an option either.
Choi Chang-young tightened the encirclement. The Dark Knight, still backing away, eventually reached the cave wall. There was nowhere left to run.
'I've won this.'
Choi Chang-young was certain of victory—until the Dark Knight spoke a single phrase.
"Wailing Wall."
The Dark Knight jumped vertically, kicked off the cave wall, and instantly summoned the skill. A wall of intertwined bones erupted from the surface.
The Dark Knight launched forward like a cannonball.
The Dark Knight soared over the heads of countless undead and appeared right in front of Choi Chang-young before he knew it.
"No, what the—!"
Choi Chang-young couldn't react in time. Who would have expected the distance to be closed in such a manner? After being launched by the wall in round two, he had deliberately stayed outside its range. He figured the Necromancer's skills wouldn't reach the Dark Knight anyway, so he planned to simply overwhelm with numbers while keeping himself safe.
As a result, he hadn't prepared any skills. One arm flew off.
"Aaaagh!!"
Choi Chang-young screamed, but he still reached out, hoping to buy time until his undead could return. He didn't even graze the opponent's collar. The Dark Knight's crimson blade appeared right before his eyes—literally one centimeter away.
Then everything went dark. His eyes had been taken.
Even with his eyes gone, the stream chat was still visible. How peculiar. This wasn't how he wanted to learn that.
With a heavy sigh, Choi Chang-young collapsed.
"Good game. Carried by the Dark Knight player."
When the match ended, the paladin who had been cursing in round one was beaming.
"You were really good, Dark Knight. Want to duo sometime?"
"I'll be going now."
I immediately left the lobby. I had no interest in duoing with anyone, and I especially disliked people who changed their attitude so quickly. Returning to the adventurer's tavern, I picked up the menu on the table to check the results screen. I had left early to avoid sitting with the paladin, but since this was my first Gate Attack Mode match, I wanted to review the results at my leisure.
"Not bad for a first game."
I replayed my performance in my head. Nothing stood out as particularly flawed, though it wasn't perfect either. The Necromancer coming to me had been a huge factor. I hadn't expected him to chase me so persistently across three rounds. Thanks to that, the Dark Knight's lack of detection ability was well covered, and I won comfortably.
'But it won't always go this smoothly.'
This was still placement matches, so the MMR wasn't set particularly high. As MMR rose, information warfare would likely intensify. Eventually I'd need to expand my character pool too—the Dark Knight could get banned.
"Hmm?"
While looking at the results, I tilted my head without thinking.
[Necromancer] VTuber_ChoiChangyoung 0K 3D 0A
"So that was the Necromancer VTuber from earlier."
This match might have been broadcast, then. With that thought, I closed the results screen and queued again.