Season 5: Chapter 144. The Knight Order Comes Alive (5)

Tap... tap... tap... tap...

A certain set of fingers on a wheelchair armrest moved rhythmically.

"Fold... spread..." she muttered, not looking at the game screen but at the minimap. "Again..."

She was reading the Knight Order's current movements, their flow of splitting apart and regrouping. For her, this felt like a rhythm.

Games had a set rhythm to what appeared at what minute and second, or what needed to be killed when. Like how a song sounded good when lyrics were placed comfortably on a drumbeat, games were the same.

Tap...!

"Fold."

Her finger moved in rhythm as the Knight Order converged to one point.

[Team Can't Can't Can't Out!]

Even Zelo's team was eliminated.

A smile briefly crossed her consistently firm expression.

"Now they know how to split."

***

"What?"

In the coaches' room, several coaches had gathered to watch. Everyone clicked their tongues.

"What are these guys? Why is their split so perfect?"

"I don't know..."

The Knight Order seemed to have no knack for the split strategy whatsoever. Splits were only possible at the professional level, yet their split had begun to take form.

"Wings folded... spread..." Takoyaki muttered blankly.

Spreading their wings meant splitting apart. They were controlling the entire map with their wings spread out.

"Fold again."

Folding wings meant momentarily converging to one point as the five tackled something together.

"It's completely natural. They're flying."

Only when this movement occurred like a living organism did the split truly have meaning. The Knight Order looked like that right now.

— Knocking them down and lifting them up LOL

— Why are you in admiration when your team is out LOOOL

— Can't Can't Can't! Out!

— Can't Even...

"What! Raina showed up for Almond!?"

Suddenly, a scream came from the coaches of the remaining teams. Takoyaki and Sardine didn't care, but it mattered to the others.

'Raina?'

Takoyaki turned toward the screen.

'Really.'

She seemed to have appeared again after Zelo died.

'But...'

Takoyaki felt it would be a bit disappointing if Almond picked Raina here.

'The split was just coming together. Raina is a completely different thread...'

Picking Raina and demolishing everything would be Almond’s natural instinct.

Tako didn't expect much.

'Hm?'

Almond made a different choice.

[Cautious Hunter: Sori]

"Wow. Really?" Takoyaki smacked his forehead. "That's a perfectly tailored pick for a split. Almond is picking this!?"

It was unbelievable.

"What kind of teaching was done here!?"

— lmaooooooooooo

— LOL

— Was a Lazy Soldier before...

— You're surprised about that part

— What

— Did he actually pick that himself?

— Abandoning Raina!?

— Didn't he just drop her because it's a scrimmage?

***

Raina was waving her hands enthusiastically, but Almond chose someone else.

"This is with the feeling of a difficult sacrifice."

Ding.

[Cautious Hunter: Sori]

— ?

— Stop lying LOL

— Hm?

— Abandoned again???

— Raina...

— lmaooo difficult sacrifice

— Are you saying you'll execute Raina?

Viewers had often seen Almond seemingly look down on Raina regularly, so they reacted slightly different from Takoyaki.

Almond’s teammates were different.

"Hm? You didn't pick Raina?"

"Right."

"You didn't pick her because it's a scrimmage?" Sweet Radish figured that was the reason.

"No." Almond shook his head. "Sori is better for the split."

What could a split possibly mean to Almond? He even restrained the rampaging playstyle that he loved so much.

"Sori has a lot of restrictions though..."

"She's better for splits. Quick to join and good utility."

"Th-that's true."

Watching Almond recite split knowledge like a memorized text, Sweet Radish started feeling slowly frightened.

'The split is non-negotiable...'

Whatever else it was, winning this tournament with a split had been engraved into Almond’s head.

***

The Knights Order, who had taken the Red Turtle, continued winning. Nothing could frighten them after Almond contracted as Sori.

Crackle.

[Sweet Radish: Found a team. 2 teams.]

[Lemon: Should we meet up?]

[Sweet Radish: These two are fighting each other. Hold briefly.]

[Sweet Radish: Going to time the entry. Ready...]

[Dumb Young Man: Now!]

Their opinions on when to meet up and when not to didn’t perfectly synchronize yet.

[Lemon: Oh, oppa!]

[Sweet Radish: Oh, oh... now! Sweet Potato! Quick!]

Kiiiiing!

[Rumble!!]

"Going in~!"

Slight discrepancies didn't matter while following Coach Sa-Rang's advice in choosing picks that made it easy to regroup from a distance.

Crash!

Almond and Lemon drew the enemy's attention until Sweet Potato joined.

[Fire Arrow]

Sori's elemental arrows ravaged the enemies.

Whoooooosh!

The enemies couldn't get their bearings.

[DumbYoungMan Cannot Be Stopped!]

[DumbYoungMan → Kenta]

Whoosh!

[Rope Movement]

Once kills started happening, Almond could literally fly across the battlefield.

[DumbYoungMan Triple Kill!]

[DumbYoungMan is Legendary!]

Most teams couldn't stop him.

Bang!

— DPS going crazy

— They just can't compete anymore

— Refreshing~

— Wow is this genuinely going to be first place??

— Amazing

***

The scrimmage was still ongoing, but the community couldn't help such reactions.

[Are they actually getting first place?]

— fr...

— Genuinely crazy

— Big Sister Yi Sun-Shin!!!!

— Is this happening?

— The Nonghyup team will stop them

— lmaooooooooooooo

— People who were trash-talking the coach: 5 minutes to extinction

└ We still don't know so calp down

└ LOL typing while trembling with typos

└ lmaooo did you actually type that trembling?

└ No subject but still shaking lmaooo

Those who'd been talking trash about the coach had reason to genuinely be trembling.

[DumbYoungMan at 8+ kills LOOL]

Almond's kill count had exceeded 8. The typical runaway Almond carry pattern was appearing.

On top of this, Lemon had picked Shieldbearer and was faithfully playing a full support role.

Black Tea, true to being a Challenger, was handling the mage role reasonably well too. She'd picked Solia to regroup with Sweet Potato's Iron Ball. They matched up reasonably well.

Sweet Radish had become Lance Mistress, riding a mechanical horse to match the team's pace.

[Knight Order composition is insane]

[True to being the Knight Order. Their mobility is wild]

[NOW it feels like a Knight Order lmaooo]

Community users were delighted that a high-mobility composition had appeared like actual knights riding horses. After everyone had contracted, the speed of them spreading and folding their wings was nearly impossible to keep up with.

[Wow, controlling the entire map...]

[Lemon's vision wards are insane]

[Will they actually win first place?]

Those hoping for the Knight Order's victory grew more excited.

[Knight Order getting ahead of themselves lmaooo]

[Nonghyup is in insane form right now so good luck gg]

[No matter how many kills Almond gets, one wrong step into the shadow and it's over in survival mode~]

Those for whom the Knight Order's loss would be a relief talked up every doom scenario.

***

Thud!

"AGHHHH! Y-you'll regret this Knight Orderrrrr!!!" Someone screamed as they got stabbed by Sweet Radish's spear.

[SweetRadish → Onion]

It was Onion. With his death, the Villainess team was eliminated.

[Team Villainess Out!]

— Onion lmaooooo

— Understandable reaction

— True villain

[Remaining Teams 2/10]

Now, only two teams remained.

"Scatter."

"Yes, sir!"

Even this close to the end, Almond and Lemon went hunting separately again. They were trying to squeeze out every last bit of remaining prey. Thanks to this, Almond and Lemon were a whopping two levels ahead of the enemies.

A two-level gap in LIL was a significant advantage, three levels was nearly unwinnable, and four levels essentially meant game over. Maintaining a two-level gap this late meant they had leveled up extremely well.

Sweet Potato muttered in relief, "Phew. Almost there."

After all, this was effectively the best scrimmage result the Knight Order had produced so far.

"Even second place is great!" he said to soothe his own trembling heart.

Sweet Radish said firmly, "Almost there... don't jinx it. Second place is the same as not winning at all."

"Then you've never been a professional gamer?"

— lmaooooooooo

— Sweet Potato...

— LOL

— Oh no...

— What the

— Zero pro career lmaooooo

"Have you ever even been born!?"

Stab! Stab!

Sweet Radish's spear jabbed repeatedly at Sweet Potato's back.

"Ow, hey! Stop goofing around! We barely have anywhere to move anymore!"

Black Tea smacked both of them simultaneously. She was right.

The Abyss Shadow had descended so much that the available area was now about 20k square feet. If a house were 20k square feet, it would be an enormous mansion. It felt a bit tight for ten superhumans fighting with their lives on the line.

[The Abyss Shadow descends!]

The area grew narrower.

"This means splits are basically useless now..." Sweet Radish muttered while looking at the map.

'Damn. Haven't gotten this far in a scrimmage much. My feel for this situation is a bit weak.'

He'd never run a split in such a narrow situation.

Rustle.

"Let's hide for now. We have a good position."

"Okay."

They spotted some bushes and hid there.

"But who's the remaining team?"

"Um... not sure."

They didn’t know which team was still alive, only that one more team remained.

Rustle...!

Someone was coming from the other side, but they weren't alarmed since they saw from the minimap.

"We have nowhere to go."

It was Almond and Lemon.

— lmaooooooooo too narrow

— Can't go anywhere LOL

— Just merge now

The time for splitting was over. Even Almond, the split expert, had never gotten this far in a scrimmage. He wasn't certain either. Either way, the five Knight Order members finally merged.

'If it's like this, what's the point of the mobility composition...'

Sweet Radish had an ominous feeling.

"Ran." Black Tea called out and threw herself sideways.

CRASHHHHH!

Sweet Radish, Sweet Potato, and Lemon were hit. That wasn't all.

Lemon called out, "Oh no!? There's a ward here!"

With support items, she could illuminate the surrounding area to detect wards when needed. Sure enough, a ward had been placed there.

"Hm? What?"

Sweet Radish's eyes went wide. Even the enemies couldn't have known through a ward.

'They already came through here?'

The enemies had already swept through this location. They were watching everything clearly.

'We completely misread the situation.'

The enemy’s movement path was completely different.

"We can't stay here..."

They had to get out of here.

“I'll burn it as bright as blood red,” Ignite chanted.

[Ultimate Skill: Volcanic Zone]

CRASHHHHH!

Lava erupted along their escape routes.

"It’s Ignite’s ultimate! Watch out!"

Ironically, Black Tea dodged first after taking a direct hit.

"Oh...!"

Black Tea had sensed the enemies taking the initiative in this team fight.

'We're done.'

Bang!

Ran's ultimate skill, plus Ignite's follow-up attack, and Valkyrie suddenly swooped down from above.

[An Ally Has Fallen!]

[GreenTea → BlackTea]

Sweet Radish and Sweet Potato were also shocked.

'Valkyrie!?'

The enemies had completely read them from the start. They hadn't even known there was a Valkyrie above. Most of all, they were shocked at who was playing Valkyrie.

[The Firm Wing: Valkyrie]

[Donuts]

"Muhaha! Feel the power of a veteran! Knight Order...!"

It was Nonghyup's Donuts. The very man who had a major conflict with the Knight Order during Survival Craft.

— Wow

— Insane

— Donuts lmaooo

— Being old means... you survived.

— Looks like it's time for another potato illusion

— Oh... isn't this team the first-place team?

— This is rough...