Chapter 42: Intense

In the Arena of Heroes map, there are three systems designed to encourage engagement.

These systems were implemented to prevent games from becoming dull due to one side endlessly running away.

The first system is the Tower Capture Event, which begins at the 5-minute mark.

At five minutes, one of the four towers—northwest, northeast, southwest, or southeast—activates. By the 10-minute mark, the team occupying the tower receives 500 gold per player and 50% of their current level’s experience.

Additionally, during that game, the activated tower provides vision and covering fire to its surroundings, granting a significant advantage in the four nearby hunting zones.

However, the balance of this system is quite delicate.

It’s not at a level where losing the tower guarantees losing the game, but it’s not something you can give up for free, either.

If the enemy leaves just one person to claim the tower while the rest of the team farms, that single player could quickly earn 2,500 gold and 250% experience and distribute it to their team.

That’s an absurd advantage, isn’t it?

Obviously, you can’t let it go uncontested.

Even if you decide to give it up, you need to make sure the enemy commits multiple players to guard it. Allowing one or two players to easily claim it would be a huge mistake.

It’s also more advantageous to fight the enemy as they arrive, rather than letting them set up first.

But if you get there too early, you’ll just be stuck waiting while the enemy continues farming elsewhere.

It’s a headache.

How many players should you send? When should you send them?

This dynamic changes every match, which is why it’s hard to get bored of this game.

That’s why vision control and map reading are crucial.

The more wards you place, the easier it is to track enemy movements.

You can also adapt your strategy based on the opponent’s actions.

Legendary Streamer – “Let me scout ahead.”

This game is like a miniature war.

In this match, I took on the role of the scout and went out on an expedition.

The tower activated in this match was the southeast tower.

The situation wasn’t ideal.

The first battle took place at the Dragon’s Nest in the north, right?

After we pushed the enemies out, we naturally cleared hunting zones in the northwest, while the enemies likely regrouped in the southeast.

And, of all places, the southeast tower activated.

The northwest tower would’ve been ideal, the northeast or southwest acceptable, but the southeast tower was the worst-case scenario.

“I just need to perform well.”

It’s not an insurmountable disadvantage.

It just feels a little annoying.

From the Dragon’s Nest in the north, I traversed the central arena to the southern lake.

A warning alarm notified me of nearby enemies.

This wasn’t a ping from my team—it was a system alert.

I immediately pinged the location of the enemies.

Sharing the information I gathered with my team is critical.

“Two in the jungle, two in the southeast. They’re already gathering fast.”

While they hadn’t fully converged at the tower, they’d all rush there if a fight broke out.

“One in the southwest? Why is someone there? Should I pick them off?”

Unfortunately, my current kill score was 0/0/0.

It’s not easy to slaughter challengers without any item advantage.

But, hey, I’m not one to avoid a one-on-one fight.

I decided to eliminate the lone enemy in the southwest before they could join their team.

Conveniently enough, the lone enemy in the southwest was Victory.

Of course, the most skilled player on their team would position themselves in such a way.

It’s common sense: only someone confident in either escaping or winning a fight would roam solo.

I quickly pressed the tab key to check the item situation.

Considering our matchups, I thought, “Whoever lands more hits wins.”

Both of us were fragile, non-targeted skill-based damage dealers.

Landing one skill while dodging another would determine the winner in this blade-versus-blade battle.

This was going to be a duel between just the two of us, where no one else could interfere.

<Wow.>

<Here comes the big moment, Season 2! ᄃᄃᄃᄃᄃ>

<Are we getting a direct duel?>

<Let’s go, Zadd!>

Ah, looks like we have an audience.

About 90,000 viewers, to be exact.

Here we go.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

I could practically hear my heart pounding in my ears.

I summoned an illusion.

I tested the waters with my Magic Arrow.

Since it wasn’t a point-blank attack, Victory dodged it by simply walking.

I didn’t back away, closing the distance instead.

The cooldown for Magic Arrow is relatively short.

Missing once doesn’t mean the fight is over.

I widened my eyes.

My eyes are always open, of course, but I didn’t want to miss even the slightest movement from Victory.

I focused with everything I had.

Ba-dump.

Victory activated their swordsman’s Q-skill, Slash.

This skill changes with every successful hit.

A wide first slash, a narrower second thrust. Land both, and you’re rewarded with a powerful, sweeping third slash.

Victory didn’t aim for my main body but targeted my illusion instead.

They were trying to stack hits to unleash the devastating third slash on my real body.

But since I could control the position of my illusion, I dodged with movement.

I didn’t allow the second thrust to land.

This forced them to start over from the first slash.

I closed in further, stepping into the swordsman’s range.

The Illusionist is a rather peculiar character.

For a mage, they grow stronger the closer they are to the target.

The Q-skill, Magic Arrow, is central to that.

From long distances, you can see the trajectory and dodge by walking.

But at close range?

When you’re up close, dodging isn’t possible through movement alone.

You either have to use a skill or pray your opponent misses.

As I closed in, Victory’s sword grazed my body.

Dodging the first slash is always tricky.

However, avoiding the second thrust ensures it isn’t fatal.

Not entirely fatal.

I summoned my ultimate illusion.

Thanks to a talent I selected, my ultimate generates two illusions instead of one.

This talent reduces the damage of the ultimate illusions to 70%, but increases their number to two.

As the Illusionist, my combat style revolves around summoning illusions and swapping places with them.

Although you can control the illusions using hotkeys, you don’t move each individually but instead control the “entire group” in a specific direction.

This limits their precision.

If I could control each illusion separately, I could pull off some truly spectacular maneuvers.

A small regret.

In a game like Magical Fight, individual control of each illusion would undoubtedly be possible.

That’s why Teamfight Arena has its shortcomings, right?

In Magical Fight, not only could you control each illusion, but each would also have its own set of skills.

That’s the kind of game it is.

Anyway, I shot my Magic Arrows again.

Fired in four directions with four trajectories, dodging them all would be nearly impossible.

Victory’s response was parry.

The swordsman’s E-skill, Deflect, reflects incoming attacks from a specific direction.

Timing must be perfect, and the direction must be specified, so most players use it as a defensive skill.

But Victory is Victory.

They reflected the arrows precisely toward me.

Expecting this, I dodged the reflected arrows.

Out of the four arrows I fired, Victory deflected two and dodged one.

But the last arrow hit its mark, piercing Victory’s body.

By then, my character was right next to the swordsman.

At such close range, dodging the swordsman’s slashes and thrusts was just as difficult as dodging Magic Arrows.

From this point on, the battle wasn’t about reaction speed—it was a mind game.

The fight wouldn’t last much longer now.

Once we were locked this close, neither of us could escape.

Victory’s character crouched.

That’s the motion for their W-skill, which increases movement speed, attack speed, and lifesteal.

Dodging, landing hits, missing attacks, and landing them again—it was a journey toward the final outcome, one strike at a time.

I swapped places with my illusions repeatedly to confuse my opponent, but Victory wasn’t easily deceived.

They stuck to my real body with frustrating persistence.

I had to use my Flash to avoid a critical attack.

Seeing that I had exhausted both my Flash and mobility skills, Victory activated their ultimate.

“You’ve been slain.”

My Illusionist was dead.

“Enemy slain.”

But so was Victory’s swordsman.

Their dashing strike killed my character, but just before I died, I fired one last Magic Arrow, which took out Victory.

<Is this scripted? Is this real?>

<Even if it were staged, it wouldn’t be this perfect.>

<Love shot! ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ>

<How far are you two going to take this intensity?>

<Is this what being rivals looks like?>

<I was Victory’s rival first!>

<Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend! Legend!>

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

My heart was pounding abnormally fast.

It had been so long since I felt this way.

But I couldn’t let my guard down just because I was dead.

I could still see the map for my team.

<Aaagh!>

<Why are you shaking the screen even while dead, you maniac?>

<Can’t we enjoy the afterglow of victory for a moment?>

<You can only shake the screen because you’re dead.>

<It’s like a solo-kill ceremony.>

Legendary Streamer – “Judging by the monster spawn cycle, gathering near the tower by 8:40 would be best.”

Legendary Streamer – “Please adjust your routes accordingly.”

Standing on the capture point doesn’t immediately secure the tower.

Your team must outnumber the enemy in the area to build capture progress.

At exactly the 10-minute mark, the side with higher capture progress claims the tower.

This time, I determined it would be best for all five members of the team to gather for a fight.

<The maestro of the battlefield ᄃᄃ.>

<Commander!>

<Hearing “commander” reminds me of the protagonist from a certain game.>

<Hmm… is it really that impressive? Telling everyone to gather at the tower is something even Silver players can do.>

<What would a Silver know? ᄏ>

<What’s so different?>

<If you understood that, you wouldn’t be stuck in low ranks.>

Since this game required 50 kills to win, respawn times weren’t too long.

I quickly returned to the battlefield.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

I desperately wanted to win this match.

I had to give it my all.

Do better than usual.

Win, no matter what.

After winning, I was planning to type in the all-chat: “This is Mage’s revenge.”