Chapter 252. We Were Not Wrong (1)
Chapter 252. We Were Not Wrong (1)
Swish.
Four swords appeared in front of Almond.
'!'
'... Crazy.'
Wind Sword and the Beast hesitated for a moment. They momentarily faced each other in a standoff.
[One Blade Art]
[Remaining Time: 00:08]
Meanwhile, two seconds had passed.
The casters quickly began explaining. They expected a super play from Almond, but still worried about him.
"Almond should also be careful!"
"Right! His health is just a little over 20%!"
Flashy Blade with four blades was also difficult. In less than 0.1 seconds, the player needed to move to a completely different place and immediately find the opponent to slash at. He also needed to include a Spinning Strike for more damage. All the while, his vision would be rapidly changing due to spinning.
Beginners would be lucky if they didn’t vomit in the capsule.
The average intermediate player would randomly swing their blade and not even know where to Flash.
"There's a saying that using Flashy Blade gets most dangerous when using his ultimate skill! Of course, I'm speaking from personal experience!"
Moreover, Flashy Blade already had less than 30% of his health when activating his ultimate skill. The four blades also all moved differently.
Attacking the enemies while flashing once every 0.5 seconds and also mentally controlling the blades without throwing them took incredible skill.
It was a skill that could induce vomiting depending on the player.
"Yes! The nickname for this is Flashy Firefly! You gotta be careful—"
[Remaining Time: 00:06]
With six seconds left, Almond raised his hand.
Bang!
One of the four blades flew away.
"Blade number one has been fired!"
OrangeKing urgently followed Almond.
The floating blade technique was very difficult, so the casters started explaining it with numbers.
"Where is it going! Blade number two was also fired. One each is coming toward the Beast and Wind Sword!"
"SweetRadish deflected it!"
"SweetPotato dodged it!"
"But the blade came back and attacked!"
"Now blade number three and four also joined just now!"
"They’re being attacked!"
At first, they ran or deflected the blades. As one more blade joined, their health started to gradually wear down. More scratches began appearing on their bodies.
[Remaining Time: 00:04]
Four seconds remained.
SweetRadish and SweetPotato executed the countermeasure for the floating blade technique.
“Stick to me! Stick to me!”
“Okay!”
They took each other's backs and fended off the blades as much as possible. They could deflect all of them as long as they didn’t show their backs to the enemy. They just had to hold on for four more seconds.
One...
"Huh? Almond flashed! He flashed to number one!"
Whoosh!
Almond appeared between SweetRadish and SweetPotato.
Whiz!
[Spinning Attack]
Almond rapidly spun and dealt simultaneous damage to both of them.
Zaaaap!
"Nooo! Almond is trying to stop them from having each other's backs, right!?"
"His judgment is crazy!"
"But Almond's health is also low, isn't it!?"
SweetRadish and SweetPotato charged at Almond.
Almond would be dead if they both hit at the same time.
Whoosh!
[Flash]
However, Almond naturally disappeared.
"Almond flashed! He’s above the Beast!"
"His four blades can freely move, so it's hard to know where Almond will Flash to!"
Whish!
With his body turning in the air, Almond appeared and cut off the Beast's head.
Swish!
"That damage was crazy!"
The damage gradually increased as spinning attacks stacked.
The Beast struck hard with his front paw, but…
[Flash]
Bzzzzzt!
Almond appeared at the Wind Sword's lower back this time.
Strike!
Almond cut off his legs with a spinning attack.
SweetRadish and SweetPotato's health dropped even lower than Almond’s now.
[Remaining Time: 00:02]
Bzzzzzzt!
Almond disappeared again, and only his blades remained visible. He attacked like a shadow using Blade Energy.
"He flashed to number one! Number two is still slashing in mid-air!"
"Number three is stabbing while number four flashes!"
"Wait, is that number four? I don't know anymore!"
The casters couldn't keep up with the speed.
[Remaining Time: 00:00]
The duration of the floating blades ended at that moment.
Four blades simultaneously sprang up and red blood sprayed everywhere.
"Both, both of them are falling!"
Both players collapsed onto the ground.
At that very moment…
— Woahhhhh!!!
A resounding scream came from the audience and echoed out.
***
Click.
Ji-Ah saved the clip and said, "Hey, Yeon-Joo. I saved today's highlight. I’ll airdrop it to you."
"Okey-dokey~"
Tap, tap.
The clattering keyboard sounded busy.
"You should cut all the highlights to about five minutes, okay? Make it totally compact."
"Roger that!"
The atmosphere was warm and comfortable, but a strange tension swirled in the air. This was because of the approaching deadline.
"Ji-Ah, when does the finals end today?"
"Probably nine o'clock...? If it's delayed, maybe at ten? We should expect nine though."
"The embargo immediately lifts once the tournament is over, right?"
"Yeah, you can just upload it right away."
Due to tournament rules, they couldn't upload in-game highlights to their personal channel until the game ended. This measure helped to focus the number of views in one place.
Soon, that would be over.
However, they didn't know who would win and who would be the runner-ups.
Ji-Ah turned back to the monitor.
'Still, they won one game.'
She looked at the highlights while editing as the other side of the monitor played the live finals.
Ji-Ah's gaze turned back to the [Winning Interview] folder.
'Which of the two will go up...'
In the folder, she looked at the files [Win - The Real Final] and [Loss - Final].
The first one would be posted with a victory interview if Almond won, and the second would be posted with his pre-recorded past story if he lost.
The two files almost had no differences, but Ji-Ah hoped to upload the first one.
***
The casters exclaimed while watching replays of the highlights.
"He was literally flashing from east to west! Almond was really flashing! Not Tako, I'm talking about Almond!"
"That's right. I didn't expect this level of play. Wow..."
"Amazing! He played like that at such a moment?"
They mostly exclaimed about it because there wasn’t anything more to say.
"I can't say anything else, but wow. There’s nothing more to say! If it were me, I would just ban Almond right now!"
The angle of the Flash had been perfect. His way of dealing damage also seemed to be measured precisely.
"It really looks like Flashy Blade is OP when you watch this," OrangeKing said as if he recalled something funny.
"If any of you think that Flashy Blade is actually OP, I recommend watching this video."
Ting!
OrangeKing placed a link above his hand.
On the thumbnail, Bubblegum’s large round face appeared.
"What is this?"
"It's Flashy Blade highlights by Bubblegum. Also known as a fail montage, you know?"
— LMAO.
— Just hearing it makes me laugh already.
— That's a really famous one!
— It's gonna be like the Iron Ball, but just spinning vertically
— Is this really a highlight? LOL.
— It's Bubblegum's fail montage, LOL.
"This is really entertaining. I felt like I was against a wall after watching it."
"A wall?"
"Yes, a cliff and I took a sharp dive in MMR."
The caster burst into laughter at OrangeKing's response.
"No way!"
— MMR cliff LOL.
— LOL.
— Almond can't ever follow up to that insane talent.
— This wall is a cliff too, LOL.
“You'll realize that Flashy Blade isn't actually OP as you see here.”
"Ah-ha, that's right. Everyone, please watch the video that made OrangeKing, the ex-professional player, speechless! We will come back soon when the second round’s ban-pick phase begins!"
***
"Nice!" Ju-Hyeok shouted and punched the air.
"He won! Woah!"
The game was difficult, but they won with Flashy Blade hard carrying them.
"There must be different views on Flashy Blade now."
Although many praised Almond, the public never fully acknowledged Almond when he debuted in LIL due to the nature of the league with countless professionals.
Such reactions were expected, but Ju-Hyeok felt different this time.
Almond had used his hidden card, Flashy Blade, and carried hard in this match.
Ju-Hyeok believed that everyone’s perception of Almond would change by the end of today, not even before the second round began.
'Let's see.'
Ju-Hyeok guessed that there would be new posts on BigPro by now and checked the latest one.
[??? Hey, JeonJaPa. What are you doing?]
The post had such a title. A humorous picture of the top laner, Popcorn, appeared when Ju-Hyeok clicked it. Popcorn was an old colleague of JeonJaPa.
[JeonJaPa! Can't you hear me?]
Such comments appeared below. There was a gif of JeonJaPa momentarily closing his eyes and getting up below the post.
[Ah... Briefly... I went to help.]
— Hahaha, literally.
— He really helped out after a long time, haha
— By the way, why did JeonJaPa retire? Why did he go MIA without saying anything... He was a legend.
— If you were going to help, help our Bubblegum bro.
└ Would you like to reincarnate into a chubby older man, leaving behind Almond, who has 387 ex-girlfriends?
└ 387 ex-GFs, hahaha, crazy. That means you meet them more than once per day.
└ Why is the number so specific? Haha
└ Fact: Walnut can't remember that many people. So this is a lie.
└ Gum bro is cute too!
— Upload this
— Today, Almond was just like JeonJaPa.
— OrangeKing said at least 0.8 JeonJaPa today.
└ Really?
└ No, it's a lie
└ Are you an idiot?
That meant someone had reincarnated as JeonJaPa and showed a great play. It usually only appeared in professional games, but the meme was also used for today's game. Almond had shown quite an impressive match today.
In fact, it was the highest compliment an LIL player could receive.
"Ooh!"
Ju-Hyeok felt excited and looked at the other posts too.
The next one had a title that read:
[???: Almond!!!]
It also had a large picture of JeonJaPa with his arms crossed.
Written in large, bold font was:
[Today only.]
This was a meme that meant JeonJaPa gave Almond permission to use his name. It was proof of people properly praising Almond in LIL now.
— Haha, JeonJaPa is very active today
— Almond is world class now. He’s getting compared to JeonJaPa!
— To be honest, today is 1.0 JeonJaPa for sure.
— Just now, Almond played the first set just like JeonJaPa.
Almost no comments like 'That's not it' or 'That’s crossing the line,' ever appeared.
"He truly proved himself today."
Ju-Hyeok proudly smiled. He knew best how much effort Almond put in for Flashy Blade.
Not only in the capsule, but Almond even practiced his movements in the yard and swung around something like a pole with his trembling, pitiful arms.
At first, Ju-Hyeok couldn’t understand why he would do so much for a non-professional game, but now he knew.
For Almond, the stage wasn’t important. What mattered was winning, proving himself, and being recognized.
It was the same for Ju-Hyeok too. Whether the stage was at a company or being someone's manager, all that mattered was for him to prove himself and get recognized.
It wasn’t about how flashy the stage was, but how much one shined.
'By the way, Flashy Blade is really going to get banned now. What a waste.'
Showing off such plays would definitely get Flashy Blade banned.
It was regrettable since Almond had prepared that hidden card for days. Now, they would simply ban the champion.
Ju-Hyeok looked at the second game’s ban picks.
'...?'
Strangely enough, Flashy Blade appeared again and no one else took him. It was Almond's Flashy Blade.
'They didn't ban Flashy Blade?'