To Sina in Heaven
A relay broadcast. The chat exploded with laughter.
Narim: “If you cut someone’s hair without permission, it feels like you’ll get cursed, you know?”
Lora: “That does seem rather plausible, doesn’t it?”
Narim: “Exactly. So I’m going to record a video letter right now.”
Narim: “Sina, are you watching us from heaven?”
Lora: “She’s probably spectating in real time, I imagine.”
Narim: “It’s been quite a long time since you left us.”
Narim: “We’ve all been playing games in good health.”
Narim: “We’re about to desecrate a corpse now, but please understand it’s not out of malice. It’s purely a strategic decision.”
Narim: “This isn’t teabagging. We’re doing this because we truly love you.”
Lora: “Love?”
Narim: “I have to say it like this so people only attach the ‘crossed-out love’ meme.”
Narim: “Ah, is the crossed-out love meme okay?”
Lora: “In the community I’m already quite famous as a top player, you know. A few more tags won’t make much difference.”
Narim: “Same here. We’re comrades in arms.”
Narim: “Anyway, I love you, Sina. I won’t forget you… sob sob.”
Lora: “Your crying acting is rather unconvincing, dear.”
Narim: “I’ll send a ton of donations on your birthday stream, so please forgive me for cutting your hair.”
Narim: “It’s not like it’s a real corpse anyway.”
Lora: “When you send donations, do contact me as well.”
Lora: “I’ll send some together with you.”
Lora: “I’ve never sent a single donation until now, you see.”
Narim: “So Sina will be your first time?”
Lora: “It appears so.”
Narim: “Since Miss Lora is giving Sina her first experience, Sina will surely forgive us.”
Narim: “Then shall we cut it here?”
Son Narim focused power at the tip of her left hand. Flames immediately ignited at her fingertips. The fire grew fiercer, slowly consuming her fingers. An intense heat radiated outward, but this was a process she had grown thoroughly accustomed to. Thanks to the pain-dampening system, it didn’t even hurt.
Narim flung off her cloak with her burning hand. Naturally, the flames transferred to the fabric. Her left hand had already turned to ash and vanished. She laid the cloak neatly on the ground, completing the creation of an Undying Bonfire. The price, of course, was the loss of one hand.
This never gets any easier.
Come to think of it, there had never been an easy moment. Perhaps it was because she had chosen the trash-tier Dragon Knight as her main. Dragon Knights possessed the highest value in Labyrinthos. But there was a problem. Their value was overwhelmingly concentrated in their ultimate skill. Every other ability existed merely as support to charge that ultimate gauge.
Skill 1 resonated with a mini-dragon to locate enemies. Skill 2 sacrificed part of the body to create an Undying Bonfire. There wasn’t even a passive. Because the ultimate gauge held such absurd value, the rest of the kit was pathetically weak. And the gauge itself was enormous.
Especially in this match—the enemy tempo was far too fast. The game would likely end before she could fill her ultimate. A Dragon Knight without her ultimate was synonymous with garbage. Still, wasn’t there a saying for this?
It’s not over until it’s over.
Giant has donated 1,000 won.
Let’s give it a shot, shall we?
Narim let out a small chuckle at the donation message and dashed forward. She already knew the enemy positions thanks to her scouting skill. They were clustered together far more than expected. They probably wanted to spread out and search, but couldn’t risk it. They had deliberately grouped up to avoid being picked off one by one. It seemed they had no intention of letting their guard down until the very end.
That was exactly why an illogical move could become a lethal dagger.
Narim grabbed Sina’s severed head and hurled it.
BOOM!
“Uwaaaagh?! Wh-what the hell?!”
The enemies recoiled in shock as a head suddenly rolled among them. While they were distracted, Narim charged straight at them from the front. The only one who kept his cool was the Beast Tamer, who immediately blocked her path.
“Hah!”
A massive wolf lunged at Narim with jaws wide open while the Beast Tamer—Vincent—leaped high, soaring over her head. The spear in his hand slashed toward the back of her neck. A giant wolf in front. A deadly spear from behind. Forced to choose, Narim spun and swung her wooden staff.
CLANG!
The spear blade collided with the wooden staff. A Dragon Knight’s weapon—a humble wooden staff. It was laughably shabby for such a grand class name. It might very well be the least lethal weapon in all of Labyrinthos. Yet this particular staff possessed one unique trait: it would never break.
The spear scraped and ground against the staff, but it refused to bend or snap. Of course, no matter how sturdy, it was still just a wooden staff. It could never truly overcome a spear. Narim simply let the thrust slide off.
In that instant, the giant wolf bit down on her from the side.
SHRRK!
Narim twisted away with a nimble evasion, but her left arm was torn clean off. She didn’t seem particularly bothered. She had already lost her left hand earlier, so losing anything more didn’t change much. Giving up an arm to dodge an attack was actually a cheap price.
To Narim, fighting as a Dragon Knight felt strangely philosophical. In a life that could only be lived once, what would you lose, and what would you seize? A continuous series of such choices—that was the true nature of a Dragon Knight’s battle.
Leaving the giant wolf and Vincent behind, Narim pushed deeper into enemy lines.
“Cavalry, I need CC on the Knight. Mages, use your crowd control too. We have to lock her down and melt her,” Vincent ordered as he watched Narim slip away.
Yet even as he gave the command, an unshakable sense of unease clung to him. Narim had appeared far too boldly, drawing all the aggro. Then where was Aurora?
A diversion…!
Vincent instantly made the call and moved. His timing was perfect. In truth, Aurora had already activated Ghost Step and was closing in on the mage.
“Hup!”
The moment Vincent spotted her, he hurled his spear. That alone was enough to force Lora to stop. A successful ambush required the enemy to remain unaware. Once detected, the ambush had already failed. Vincent’s throw had been precise, providing more than enough suppression. Lora retreated for now, tossing a poisoned dart as she withdrew.
THUNK!
The dart sank perfectly into the mage’s neck. It was one of the items she had looted from Masina.
“Ugh…!”
The mage collapsed, paralyzed by the toxin. Vincent clicked his tongue at the sight.
…It’s still okay.
He had been caught off guard, but he maintained his composure. They had taken a hit, yet the mage was merely paralyzed, not dead. As long as she wasn’t dead, the Phantom’s skill cooldowns wouldn’t reset. In other words, the Phantom couldn’t run wild yet. That was fortunate for now.
Vincent retrieved his thrown spear and continued to harass Aurora, preventing her from advancing further. Aurora responded in kind. She gave a small nod and maintained distance, as if content to observe the situation for the time being.
Vincent and Aurora were now locked in a standoff.
On the other side, Narim was single-handedly taking on both the cavalryman and the dual-wielder at once.
“What kind of movement is that…” the dual-wielder muttered, swallowing hard.
His opponent was one-armed, wielding nothing but a wooden staff, and was facing a two-on-one disadvantage. He had underestimated her, yet she refused to fall or yield ground. The more they exchanged blows, the more he felt like he was the one being tied down. No matter how he swung, his blades never quite reached the Dragon Knight. Even the cavalryman’s lance was dodged by the narrowest margin, as if slipping through the gap of a single sheet of paper.
A Dragon Knight without her ultimate was a trash character. That was one of Labyrinthos’ few universal truths. What other character was this weak in the early game? On top of that, the match tempo was extremely fast. It was easy to predict the game would end long before she could charge her ultimate gauge.
That was why the dual-wielder and cavalryman had let their guard down. She had no dash, no crowd control, no proper damage skills—how could she possibly break a two-on-one? They had lazily assumed she would collapse soon.
But there was one thing they didn’t know.
Son Narim was a player who had mained the Dragon Knight for a very long time.
Choosing the Dragon Knight as a main meant mastering how to survive its abysmal early game.
Having perfectly dodged every one of the cavalryman’s attacks, Narim suddenly wrapped her arm around the dual-wielder’s waist.
“Huh?”
By the time he noticed, it was already too late. She had closed the distance.
Narim was a VTuber whose main content was challenge runs. Her favorite genre was souls-like games, but she also tackled jar-collecting games, platformers, and the Magic Village series. Her specialty was endlessly retrying difficult games, and she took quiet pride in her concentration and tenacity.
While the dual-wielder had been secretly looking down on the “mere Dragon Knight,” Narim had never once lost focus.
I just need to get close once.
If she could close the distance even once, she could make it work. In this fight, that was Narim’s only goal.
Squeeze.
She tightened her grip around the dual-wielder even harder. Then she activated her skill.
Fwoooosh!
Her entire body burst into flames.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!!”
The sudden inferno made the dual-wielder scream in agony.