Let's Abandon Our Allies
Anna logged back into VR first. Not to play the game, but to screen-share with Lora. Since Labyrinthos ran at five times the speed of real time, watching on a phone or PC made real-time viewing impossible anyway.
'Come to think of it, this is my first time watching Teacher play live.' She had seen the clips that popped up on the forums and the edited videos Leon had made, but that was it. Honestly, even after watching those, she still hadn't fully understood Lora's gameplay. As a complete beginner, Anna couldn't possibly grasp the underlying intentions or decision-making behind every move. All she could tell was that when the play was flashy, it was flashy; when it was delicate, it was delicate; and when it was plain, it was plain. The one thing that had always bothered her was how Lora never seemed to lose that smile.
She had watched pro gamers' matches and streams before, but those people rarely smiled. Maybe they worried it would come across as disrespectful to their opponents, or perhaps they needed to maintain absolute focus and caution at all times. That was why Lora's constant gentle smile had always felt so strange to her.
'She probably practiced smiling like that.' Having met her in person, Anna realized Lora smiled more often than not. She suspected the woman had been trained from a young age to keep a pleasant expression. Was it acting lessons? Or practice for customer service? It didn't feel like either, yet the impact it left was a perfect ten out of ten. Every single gesture and movement of hers stuck in your memory. It was that one quality that had drawn Anna in enough to call her Teacher. In any case, she was no ordinary person.
And that extraordinary person was currently...
"…Teacher, is this really okay?" Anna couldn't help but ask. Even as a Labyrinthos newbie, she knew the basics. If you compared it to an AOS game, this was basically like the marksman saying they were going to jungle instead.
But Lora's voice remained bright and cheerful.
"Actually, the Magic Engineer isn't really suited for solo queue. Your teammates get in the way more often than not."
"Get in the way?"
"The fundamentals of a stealth character are making sure the enemy doesn't discover your position while you're stealthed. But supports sometimes mindlessly throw buffs or shields on you. If the enemy spots your location from the support's casting animation, it's incredibly inconvenient for the stealth character."
"…Teacher, you're not mad, are you?"
"Oh my, why would I be? Where would you find someone as benevolent as me?"
There was definitely something sharp hidden beneath those words… Anyway, Anna got the point. To use the Magic Engineer's Optical Camouflage skill to its full potential without interference, solo play was better—so she would take on the role of deserter.
"You should try deserting too if your marksman spot is taken."
"That might be a bit…"
After all, Anna was a publicly recognized VTuber. If she messed up, she'd get dragged on the forums and mercilessly roasted on social media. She couldn't just troll recklessly.
The game started in earnest, and Lora boldly left the main force to farm neutral monsters. Watching it, though, it actually looked pretty good.
-Ratatatatatata!!!
Gunfire rang out continuously. What appeared on screen was a turret spewing bullets. It was the Magic Engineer's skill, Turret-Type Decoy Deployment. Using the installed turret as cover, Lora poured gunfire into the neutral monsters. The pack of neutrals was shredded by the bullet barrage.
'Her hunting speed is insanely fast.'
Lora continued hunting neutral monsters after that. The more Anna watched, the less she understood. Was it always this fast? Of course, turret placement and kiting seemed important. But if you flipped that around, it meant that with good enough control, the playstyle was incredibly stable. The turret tanked for her, so her HP consumption was almost nonexistent.
Then why didn't people use it as a deserter? Just farming while rotating looked incredibly strong.
"The fundamental reason the Magic Engineer isn't used as a deserter is because its ability to disrupt the enemy main force is low."
It was as if Lora had read her mind. She suddenly offered the explanation.
And hearing it, Anna immediately understood. If a Necromancer showed up leading an undead legion, that would be terrifying. Breaking through it would take forever, and your HP would drain massively. On the other hand, if a Magic Engineer appeared alone? You could just put a tanker in front and focus fire. If it had been an assassin, they might have escaped with their high mobility, but a Magic Engineer couldn't do that. Even if they tried to run using Optical Camouflage, they'd get caught by an archer's detection skill and chased down quickly.
Once she understood that much, a new question popped into Anna's head.
…Then why are you playing deserter as a Magic Engineer?
"That's why the Magic Engineer has to play completely differently from other deserters. Focus solely on charging your ultimate."
Lora's eyes flashed on screen. It was proof that she had activated her ultimate. In Labyrinthos, ultimates didn't have a cooldown; instead, you had to fill a gauge to use them. There were various ways to fill the ultimate gauge, but the basic method was 'hitting or getting hit.' It was similar to filling a super meter in a fighting game. This applied to neutral monsters as well. Taking them down filled the ultimate gauge.
In that brief ten-second window, Lora's mind had probably mapped out the entire structure of the map, the locations of neutral monsters, and where both enemies and allies were. Having grasped the map, she immediately began to run.
After moving for a while, she suddenly stopped and hid behind a pillar. There, the allied teammates she had seen at the start of the game were gathered.
"Archer, could you use your detection skill?"
"One moment. Ah, there's a detection response. It looks like the enemy main force is heading this way."
"Seems like the enemy main force. Should we fight here?"
"Let's do it."
"Cavalry, please initiate."
"Got it."
Lora's allies were having that conversation. But Lora didn't join the main force. She didn't participate in the chat, simply using the pillar as a backrest in a relaxed manner. It seemed she didn't care whether her allied party members set up an ambush or not.
Soon enough, just as her allies had said, the enemies revealed themselves. Among the enemy party was a character with a detection skill. So gathering in one place like this was a natural outcome. Both sides wanted a team fight.
The enemy party advanced cautiously. Seeing that, the cavalry immediately initiated.
"Ah, that was a bit too fast."
Lora, who had been secretly watching, muttered. It was a common occurrence. Initiators starting a fight without considering their team's situation. This was exactly that kind of moment. The allied cavalry's mobility was so good that they had initiated from outside their team's attack range. Naturally, the allies who had been preparing skills couldn't follow up. Their attacks couldn't reach, and they didn't have excellent mobility skills like the cavalry, so they couldn't stick with them.
"What the fuck! I initiated, why aren't you following up??"
The panicked cavalry shouted, but that didn't change reality. The pulled-in cavalry began getting beaten by the enemy barbarian warrior, and the enemy bard followed up with crowd control, leaving the cavalry completely immobilized. Eight-second cut. That was how long it took for the isolated cavalry to become a corpse.
"Ugh, fuck. Can't initiate for shit…."
The allied martial artist spat out curses. With the cavalry dead, the enemies began advancing. Lora's team was now down to four after losing the cavalry, but the enemies were all still alive at five. Since they had the numbers advantage, the enemies probably thought continuing the team fight like this would be fine.
And in reality, it was. The tank's basic role was to hold the frontline. Blocking the enemy's advance and acting as a 'wall' so damage didn't reach their allies—that was the tank's job. Originally, the cavalry should have fulfilled that role, but that was no longer the case. The low-intelligence allied party had no choice but to allow the enemy to push in. They were helplessly pushed back. The martial artist was desperately trying to hold on, but a martial artist was a damage-tank hybrid, not a pure tanker. There was no way they could hold when they were already outnumbered.
'…Wait, but why is Teacher just standing there?'
While her allies were getting miserably crushed, Lora was simply watching with a relaxed expression. Was she really just going to accept defeat like this…?
Fortunately, that wasn't the case. Only after the martial artist died did Lora begin to move.
"Anna, are you watching?"
"Ah, yes…. I'm watching."
"Whatever else you forget, remember this one thing. The Magic Engineer is a character that shines by treating their party members as disposable sacrifices."
"…Huh?"
She didn't understand what that meant, but Lora didn't say anything more. She simply activated Optical Camouflage quietly.
Once Optical Camouflage was active, Lora became invisible to both allies and enemies. She smoothly circled around to the enemy's rear.
-Click.
Lora quickly deployed a turret. Then she leisurely raised her gun. The barrel was aimed directly at the enemy bard.
-Ratatatata!!
Lora's gun spat fire. Her recoil control was perfectly relaxed, and her aim was flawless as bullets poured toward the enemy bard's head. The Magic Engineer had always been a character with strong basic attack damage, and on top of that, she had farmed neutral monsters to gain some levels. It was already a headshot, and the target was a bard. Since bards were support characters by nature, they had no business being tanky.
Allied Magic Engineer has killed an enemy Bard.
"? What the hell?"
"Behind! There's a Magic Engineer behind us!"
"Wait, when did she get there?"
"Tanker!! Tanker, get over here and block her! We have to stop her!"
The enemies realized Lora's presence too late, but it didn't matter much. The enemy party's frontline characters were already committed forward. That made sense—Lora's team's cavalry and martial artist were dead, so only the damage dealers and supports remained. Cutting down the damage dealers would secure the win this round. No one would hold back skills when such an obvious fact was right in front of them. As a result, the enemies had already burned all their movement skills, including their ultimates.
With all the enemy frontline's skills on cooldown, there was no one who could deal with Lora now that she had found a free damage angle. Moreover, she had gotten behind them. In other words, from Lora's perspective, the enemy had exposed their backline, and the characters standing in the backline were damage dealers with low defense.
-Clack.
Lora aimed her gun at the enemy damage dealers and pulled the trigger.
The people who had called Lora a troll at the beginning of the game had regained their humility. Overwhelming power had that kind of effect, after all.
"I'm going to desert again next round."
"I'll trust you one more time, even if I get fooled."
"It seems like marksman would be better than deserting~? But if that's what you want, I won't stop you~."
"Hah, if you play marksman, I can really protect you well."
Still, people didn't like the idea of deserting from the marksman position. As Anna watched with a small smile, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
'…But earlier, didn't Teacher call me Anna?'
That was strange. She had only told her that she was a streamer. She didn't think she had ever mentioned being a VTuber. Had she ever introduced herself as Shiroki Anna? Maybe she had misheard…?