Chapter 53: The Battle of Wits and Flames

The urban core position is essentially designed for support, assassination, information gathering, late-game dealing, and playmaking.

However, as you’ll learn from playing the game, winning doesn’t necessarily require sticking strictly to the fundamentals.

Because of this, urban core players have recently shifted away from focusing on playmaking and instead now reliably take charge of support, assassination, and late-game dealing.

Of course, this is only true in solo rank games where communication isn’t possible.

In tournaments, urban core players are still expected to handle everything.

Anyway,

As Arina entered the urban core, she gripped the sword’s hilt tightly.

‘Amano Yukiko.’

Arina’s main character, commonly classified as a sword character.

Sword characters are high-risk, high-reward.

If they fail to grow, their performance in team fights suffers.

It was an unusual pick for a female player.

Typically, aggressive characters like this were played by men.

This was something else Arina and Han Yurim had in common.

If you looked closely, ‘Thierry’ was capable of active play from the start (although it was extremely difficult), while ‘Amano Yukiko’ was passive until fully developed, making them quite different.

But generally, people didn’t care for those details.

Both played high-carry potential characters, right?

Both were sword character players, that’s all most people thought.

Arina knew Han Yurim’s playstyle very well.

Even if she didn’t want to, she couldn’t avoid knowing it thanks to recent YouTube algorithm recommendations and video donations.

On top of that, she had also watched Han Yurim’s streams for some time.

She was practically a fan.

Han Yurim favored aggressive plays.

‘Is it really okay to play so aggressively with Thierry?’ This was the kind of abnormal play she made, so aggressive it made people wonder.

From level 3, Han Yurim would pressure objectives with Thierry.

From level 3, she’d start playmaking in 3-tier objective team fights.

Sometimes, she’d even employ a stalking strategy with a strong early character.

Each character and position has a defined role.

If you just perform that role well, you can take the victory trophy in Eternal World.

Thierry’s role was to carry in the mid-to-late game.

She was never meant to gather resources or gain an advantage early on.

It’s great if she does, but trying to do something she’s not meant to do could cause the game to break down.

For example, if the main carry starts playmaking, the game would likely fall apart.

But there’s usually a reason why certain things shouldn’t be done.

The difficulty level is too high.

Failure leads to the game falling apart in reverse.

However, Han Yurim didn’t care.

She continued to play aggressively every time, mechanically so.

When she first started making unconventional plays, people didn’t think much of it.

The reason why fundamentals are the best is that they provide the highest chance of winning.

Such reckless plays were bound to be countered and stopped eventually.

In fact, as soon as Han Yurim became famous, people expected that someone would eventually stop her playstyle.

And yet,

Even after becoming a target of countless players, Han Yurim continued to play in her unconventional style.

Arina was a Eternal World Challenger. To become one of the top 100 players in the game, you had to understand the game deeply.

Now, Arina understood.

What Han Yurim was doing wasn’t reckless play.

It wasn’t even high-level play.

It was simply something she could do.

There was no deeper meaning behind it.

Level 3 pressure with Thierry? For Han Yurim, it was a play with a high chance of success.

Level 6 playmaking with Thierry? For Han Yurim, it was also a high-success play.

Fundamentals are the plays with the highest win rate.

In that sense, the plays Han Yurim had shown until now were no different from fundamentals in her perspective.

To beat Han Yurim, several conditions needed to be met.

First, you couldn’t afford to fall behind in growth.

Han Yurim was powerful in early farming fights, but in team fights, she was almost a disaster level threat.

In order to close off Han Yurim’s creative playmaking angles, they needed to match her in strength.

In truth, this was essentially telling the opponent to use their crowd control abilities at unavoidable angles.

Anyone can say it, but executing it is difficult, and success requires thorough planning.

Arina called the Guardian to the urban core at dangerous moments.

There was no need to keep doing this. She only needed to manage until ‘Amano Yukiko’ reached level 6.

From there, even without support, Arina could match Han Yurim in terms of growth.

As expected, Han Yurim refrained from aggressively pushing into the enemy core once the Guardian appeared.

Arina reached level 6 and released the Guardian.

Keeping it any longer would risk a growth gap between the Guardians that would be impossible to manage.

One minute later. The 3-tier objective team fight.

Han Yurim played quite well, but not as well as usual.

After all, Thierry was a late-game character.

Without the necessary strength, there were fewer plays to make.

The kill exchange at the 3-tier objective was 3:3.

Due to the delay in the growth of the allied Guardian, the 3-tier objective was taken, but all three kills went to Arina.

With that, the game was nearly decided.

No matter how skilled Han Yurim was, it was impossible to deal with a late-game character like Amano Yukiko, who had eaten up all the kills.

Arina relentlessly infiltrated the enemy core to suppress Han Yurim’s growth.

Although Han Yurim managed to escape and didn’t give up any kills, Arina achieved significant progress.

The momentum of the game had tilted in their favor.

14 minutes in. A [rift] opened in the center of the urban core.

The effect of this rift was always different, but this time, it granted gold to the team that captured it.

In Eternal World, gold held immense value.

Knowing this, even the usually slow-moving solo players from the outskirts began to gather towards the core.

A 6v6 full-strength team fight was about to break out before the 2-tier objective spawned. This was a rare sight in solo rank.

Arina cheered inwardly as her team’s main carry’s long-range skills relentlessly chipped away at the enemy’s health.

It was happening.

Han Yurim, the superior version of Arina? Was Arina now outdated?

With every foolish thought she had, Arina pressured the enemy.

Just before she had nearly surrounded them, her team’s Guardian and support poured out their area-of-effect crowd control abilities on the enemy.

At the same time, Han Yurim charged at Arina.

Arina assumed her position. Clank.

Her sword connected with its sheath more powerfully, gathering strength.

Amano Yukiko, a character whose growth potential was top-tier in the game, sometimes even surpassing the main carry in carry power.

That was who Arina was playing.

She wasn’t about to lose.

Arina lifted her head.

Boom! At Han Yurim’s gesture, a wall of earth erupted, cleverly blocking the support from her team.

Did Han Yurim want to fight just 1v1?

That was exactly what Arina wanted.

Han Yurim approached quickly. 3, 2, 1. As soon as she entered skill range, Arina drew her sword.

[Superfast Draw]

This was Amano Yukiko’s first basic skill.

The moment Arina thought she had hit, Han Yurim’s body was surrounded by light.

It was Thierry’s second derived skill from the light element.

The casting time was long, and the activation was canceled if the target was hit, making it difficult to use effectively in combat unless the timing was perfect.

Yet, Han Yurim used it effortlessly, causing Arina to chuckle.

Still, it was fine.

Thierry wasn’t a character with strong individual skill performance.

In terms of trade damage, Arina was the one gaining the advantage.

There was no need to panic; she just had to repeat what she had just done.

Arina put her sword back into its scabbard. [Swordsmanship] was Amano Yukiko’s passive skill.

Han Yurim summoned many water soldiers.

If any other Thierry player had done that, they would have been ridiculed, but Arina had already watched Han Yurim’s summon battle against Lumen via video donation.

Not even a twitch of a smile appeared on her face.

So, she was trying to get into a drawn-out, muddy fight?

That was not a favorable situation for Arina.

The balance between Arina’s team and Han Yurim’s team was roughly like this:

Outer solo: Han Yurim’s team advantage
Scouts: Han Yurim’s team advantage
Guardians: Han Yurim’s team advantage
Main carry: Arina’s team advantage
Support: Arina’s team advantage
Urban core: Arina’s advantage

In this situation, Arina, who was growing stronger, was going to clash with Han Yurim?

That would only benefit the enemy.

But if she turned her back, she would just get caught.

Ultimately, there was only one answer.

A quick, decisive fight to take down Han Yurim and then join her team.

Crack! Powerful lightning gathered in the sword firmly connected to its scabbard.

Arina lunged forward. Han Yurim did the same.

A bright yellow light leaked from Arina’s sword scabbard.

It was the signal for Amano Yukiko’s ultimate, [Song of the Kirin], to activate.

At the same time, the earthen wall that had been blocking the vision between her and her team collapsed.

“01?”

Arina was startled.

She hadn’t imagined it would be this close to her team.

Thierry was a character that could freely use 32 skills derived from 8 elements: water, wind, fire, earth, lightning, ice, darkness, and light.

Each of these elements had a different role.

Water: Summoning
Wind: Buffing
Earth: Area control
Lightning: Single target damage
Ice: Debuffing
Darkness: Hard crowd control
Light: Purification and healing

And fire?

It was responsible for wide-area damage.

Thierry was a melee damage dealer, so while wide-area damage was possible, it came with difficult conditions and challenging activation.

But…

Therefore, the return when it succeeded was significant.

Whoosh. The flames roared.

Han Yurim gripped a sword made of pure flame.

The sword made of pure fire was called [Leviathan].

It was the ultimate skill derived from the fire element, and its damage increased by the number of enemies hit.

It was Thierry’s most powerful wide-area damage skill.

Whoooosh!

Before anyone knew how their formation had broken down, the flames of demise dropped right into the center of Arina’s team.

[Defeat]

Arina closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

It was a matchup she absolutely couldn’t lose, but she had lost.

Anxiety crept in.

What if her viewers started dropping off because of this?

She quickly glanced at the chat window.

Han Yurim is crazy.

Her teamfight design skills are on another level, aren’t they?

Is she seeing the future?

The chat was filled with compliments for Han Yurim.

Arina, in that moment, had the urge to just turn off the broadcast.

Maybe, if she stuck to her concept, she could just brush off being called a villain?

Then, a video donation came in.

<InfinityZero donated 11,000 KRW>
-(A video of Han Yurim playing Amano Yukiko when Thierry was banned)

Arina, with your physical skills, you could play more aggressively, but it seems like you’re being too passive. I’ve attached an example video.

This guy may not be great with logic since he’s a middle school graduate, but his physical skills are insane.

As the chat mood shifted back to praising her, Arina exhaled in relief and reacted.

“…Han Yurim really is amazing.”

<InfinityZero donated 2,700 KRW>
-(A video of Han Yurim eating BBQ with AR filters on)
Arina, do you want to try this too?

“I’ll try it someday.”

With new donations flooding in from this unfamiliar username, Arina regained her composure.

Right. People come and go.

She shouldn’t get too worked up over every little thing.

<InfinityZero donated 3,600 KRW>
-(A video of Han Yurim using the Bunnyrun avatar and acting crazy)
Try this too.

…She seemed a bit odd, but still, a viewer.

Arina reacted coolly and started the next game.

She secretly hoped to meet Han Yurim again.

“She really is a rabbit, isn’t she? So fast.”

I didn’t nap in the race for nothing, haha.

As soon as I hit Master, I opened Bunnyrun’s stream, but as soon as I typed in the chat, she changed the broadcast title to [Screaming] and ended the stream.

What can I do? I’ll just have to educate that arrogant rabbit next time.

I opened the ranking page and checked my defeat count.

Rank 82?

Just wait.