Rift Chaser Lyxia came out after the Cautious Hunter Sori. While Sori had been widely criticized for performance issues at launch, Lyxia had been called OP from day one.
First, her wormhole skill allowed moving through a spatial tunnel. However, the placement was far too free. On top of that, projectiles could pass through too. If the player placed a wormhole in front of them, every incoming attack would enter the wormhole and emerge somewhere else the player had set.
The biggest issue was her Kill Shot skill. This laser-like skill fired in a straight line. It had a fast cooldown and dealt solid damage. Its only drawback was its range, but the wormhole solved that. The player could feed it through a wormhole and fire it instantly wherever.
Once Kill Shot entered a wormhole, its range reset on the other side to its full original range. The maximum number of wormholes that could be placed increased every skill point from three to four to five. What happened when the player started connecting multiple of these in different directions?
Crackle crackle crackle!
Like what the Lyxia player was doing right now, lasers fired in a star pattern defended the space around her. It was genuinely terrifying by any measure.
Strangely, Lyxia was the one screaming in terror. "Auuuuuuugh!"
She was dealing with twenty-eight spirit entities that had suddenly been summoned.
"Why are they dodging everything?!"
The summoned spirit entities dodged her attacks.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
They freely moved their heads like boxers.
— What
— Hm?
— lmaooo just ducking their heads?
— Hm?
— Insane lmaooo
— 28 Pacquiaos
Lyxia's Kill Shot, in combination with the wormhole, had essentially no weaknesses. The one weakness was its narrow hit area, which was about the diameter of a finger. In theory, the tiniest movement was enough to dodge it. In practice, its speed was too fast. The complex routing also made that essentially a pipe dream.
Despite all this, the summoned entities, which weren't even players, were dodging Kill Shot.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
With ten or more spirit entities, everyone knew they all had to move identically. However, these entities were each independently dodging Kill Shot as if they had their own will.
Lyxia felt terrified as the spirit entities slowly advanced and fired again.
'One more time!'
[Kill Shot]
Crackle crackle!
The same result repeated itself. She even tried shooting at the Dumb Young Man, who was controlling all this.
Crackle!
Again, she missed.
Almond tilted his head as if to ask, “Why are you even shooting at me?”
The spirit entities had already closed in on her.
Thud!
A spirit entity, holding a hammer, smashed down on her head.
"Ugh!?"
[HP: 61%]
The Dumb Young Man also had ranged spirit entities, but those were all busy with the other enemies. Every entity that approached Lyxia was a melee type.
Sweet Radish's guidance could be heard. “Lyxia only takes melee damage! Send melee only! Just use the ranged ones to keep the others from getting close!”
Lyxia had a high probability of deflecting or outright reflecting ranged attacks through her wormholes, especially since the spirit entities' ranged attacks were on the slower side.
Sweet Radish made the correct call, though one thing differed from his expectations.
'The opponent's Lyxia mastery is higher than I anticipated.'
Their level of mastery was unexpected. They had laid wormholes all around themselves and created a barrier. One Kill Shot activation and the star-shaped barrier would fire multiple times. In effect, they had an escort drone fleet. Any spirit entity that got close would normally have taken multiple Kill Shots and gone down.
'But the Dumb Young Man is even more absurd!'
Almond showed even more otherworldly control. The spirit entities dodged the laser barrage as if it were nothing and swung their weapons.
Boom!
A hammer connected to her side again.
"Ungh!"
Lyxia was knocked sideways. Once Lyxia started getting hit in close quarters, she couldn’t do much.
"Well~ it was fun~!"
Whoosh.
She tried to escape through a wormhole, but hadn't created one far enough away to escape.
"Hm...?"
She came out of the wormhole to a massive shadow waiting for her.
"I can see you right there."
Smack!
A spirit entity's blunt weapon greeted her the moment she came out. Almond couldn't understand why she'd used the wormhole to move just a few centimeters forward.
‘A mistake...’
She had placed so many wormholes that she got confused. Almond had actually read which portal connected to which better than the actual creator.
— lmaooooooooooooo
— lmaooo Almond just standing there
— So satisfying
— LOL
Thud!
Lyxia collapsed, and spirit entities swarmed over her.
Thwack! Thwack!
— Ganging up LOL
— Getting rolled up in a mat haha
— This is refreshing fr
— So satisfying
— But what even is this??
— Watching Lyxia get beaten up is genuinely cathartic lmaooo
Since launch, Lyxia had cemented herself as the most aggravating character among the player base. She always popped in and out through wormholes and fired Kill Shots from absurd angles. Of course, it was infuriating. Spirit entities were now helplessly beating up that same Lyxia. The catharsis was undeniable.
— Fighting Lyxia with Spirit Sorcerer like this?!
— Whoa lmaooo this actually works?
— Spirit Sorcerer is OP
— Normally it'd be the hardest matchup but lmaooo
Nobody could have predicted this. A fully developed Spirit Sorcerer could effectively command a small army, but that was a slow and heavy-hitting style like a medieval siege rolling forward in formation to overwhelm with sheer presence. Such a champion was beating up the nimble Lyxia decisively.
"Ugghhh!"
Thwack!
Thwack!
Lyxia was still taking hammers, blades, and kicks. The enemies didn't simply give up. This was still one versus five, after all.
Sweet Radish urgently warned, “Bro! Behind!”
Controlling Soul Wave was indeed the core of Spirit Sorcerer, but even mastering that didn't eliminate the main body as the fundamental weakness.
All the power was focused outside the body. The main body itself was slow with no movement skills. Melly was very vulnerable to taking hits.
One enemy had committed their life to forcing through the spirit entities and targeting the back.
The enemy charged forward with a spear. "DIE!"
[Charge]
Actually, they tried to charge.
Thud!
Only to get knocked back.
Even with low damage, Soul Wave had a guaranteed knockback. This forced targets back unconditionally, which nullified charge abilities.
'When did...?'
Almond had already read the enemy’s intention to target the back. Strangely, there hadn’t been any visible animation for firing the Soul Wave.
'When did he even shoot...'
Boom!
Another wave connected to the enemy’s face, whose head snapped back. Only then did the realization dawn on him.
'What...?!'
Countless green Soul Waves circled through the air like crows waiting for a dying animal.
'He's controlling all of these...?!'
Soul Wave had a very long duration once fired. Almond had been preloading them, keeping them in rotation, and deploying them when needed. Only a master-tier Melly player could execute this. Even masters made mistakes when managing spirit entities simultaneously.
Boom!
"Ungh!"
The Soul Waves that Almond controlled made no mistakes.
Boom!
Boom!
He precisely struck the enemy attempting an ambush and knocked them back. Two spirit entities followed up immediately.
"Whaaat!?"
Slaaaaaash!
They split left and right simultaneously. The spear-wielder's health plummeted.
[DumbYoungMan has eliminated an enemy!]
[DumbYoungMan → Caroro]
This was the first death in this one-versus-five. After that, it was a cascade.
Boom!
Ranged spirit entities started taking out the uncontracted enemies one by one.
[DumbYoungMan Double Kill!]
[DumbYoungMan → Toke]
— What
— Whoa
— Is he actually going to win this?
— One versus five?? lmaooo
Even if only one enemy was contracted and the rest weren't, one versus five was an absolute dilemma.
However, Almond kept adding kills.
[DumbYoungMan Triple Kill!]
Three enemies died.
[DumbYoungMan Quadra Kill!]
Four died.
"Ungh!" Lyxia kept fleeing.
Ultimately, a pursuing Soul Wave caught her.
[DumbYoungMan PENTA KILL!]
— What a humiliating death fr
— lmaooooooooooooo
— Whoa
— This is insane fr
— What the?!
After a long absence, Almond's Spirit Sorcerer reappeared with an overwhelming performance.
[DumbYoungMan is DOMINATING the battlefield!]
After defeating every enemy, Almond's reaction was notably unusual. He didn’t say, “The calls?”
'Why did that work?'
He tilted his head.
Sweet Radish was thinking the same thing.
'Why did that work?'
Two people, with completely different brains, thought the same thing. Afterward, the teammates who had become rune spirits all revived.
Boom!
They came running to Almond and cheered.
"YEAAAAH!"
"I believed in you! Dummy!"
"I only ever trusted Dummy~!"
— Dummy lmaooooooooooo
— LOL Lemon
— DUMMY lmaooooo
— lmaooooo insane
The Knight Order consumed the Turtle buff, the enemy rune box, and snowballed the game at an impressive speed.
"Let's go this way. No team has momentum like ours right now. Anyone we meet, we chase down and finish."
Sweet Radish was absolutely seasoned at converting a winning position into a definitive win. He knew precisely how strong his team was in any given moment and when they were vulnerable.
'He knows exactly who to fight and when to win...'
Even Almond, who watched this confident decision-making, felt impressed.
[1st Place]
The first evaluation match under Sweet Radish's solo calling ended in first place.
"YEAAAAH!"
"We won!"
"This is it!"
Every Knight Order member cheered because they had been last place in the previous game. One person had an ambiguous expression. He was cheering, but there was something hollow about it.
'This isn't how it was supposed to go.'
Almond had trusted that going along with Sweet Radish would eventually land Sweet Radish in the truth room too. He'd resolved to never make his own judgments and only follow Sweet Radish's words. Ironically, Almond had delivered their first-place finish with his own hands and felt confused about it.
[RubySword has donated 30,000 won.]
[Almond slowly realizing he's the frog sous vide! Upvote if you agree~]
— Sous vide LOL
— Sweet Radish is turning up the heat
— lmaooo fr
— Hahaha
— Sweet Radish is cooking~
— By the third game the water's going to boil? LOL
— Oh Princess RubySword is spitting facts
Ding.
[EggPlant has donated 2,000 won.]
[Actually you're already at medium rare~]
His longtime viewers apparently found the Dumb Young Man's endpoint all too predictable.
— LOL
— lmaooo
— Already cooked
— I mean Smart Young Man is already dead
— Hahaha
— EggPlant’s back
— EggPlant stealing the younger sibling's steak too?
— Loooool
"... Ahem." Almond cleared his throat and countered with facts. "I did get one first place too, everyone."
— LOL
— The unbreakable spirit
— That's true!
— Fr hahaha
"We’re going lose-win-win from here."
— lmaooooooooo
— lose-win-win???
— You just won though? Teacher?
— LOL
— Now he's openly announcing a loss haha
— His brain is just cooked fr
Almond's words had come out wrong. "Ah... No, I meant win-lose-lose."
— That's also a problem
— lmaooooo
— Why are you going for lose-lose?
— Because you're frog sous vide, is that why you're going to lose-lose?
Even after correcting himself, it was equally bad.
'However I say it, it sounds like trolling.'
Almond realized that he'd somehow ended up cornered. Perhaps the frog in the boiling water was him.
'I need to WIN...!'
He went into the next game with wide eyes and serious focus.
[1st Place]
[1st Place]
Both matches finished in first place.
"..."
— LOL
— lmaooooooo
— Hahahaha
— So this is Lose-Lose-Lose then?
— Insane
— Impressively good
— Dummy Carry (means Dumb Young Man carry, absolutely not meant as dumb carry)
"YEAAAAAAH!"
Sweet Radish threw both arms wide to celebrate their liberation, and so did the Knight Order.
"FREEDOM!"
It was a moment of genuine liberation from the Smart Young Man Era.
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