Season 3: Chapter 337. The Last of the Last (3)

Joseon’s commander continued cutting down enemies on the front lines.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

"DAE—HAN—MIN—GUK!!"

The cheers from the Korean audience constantly grew louder. At some point, chants for Rome vanished entirely.

"Rome must be at a complete loss right now!"

They weren’t in any mental state to continue cheering. If they lost this game, the series would be over and the tournament would come to a close.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

And yet, even in that situation, Commander Best Yi Sun-Shin and her army pushed forward through the enemy ranks.

The Roman troops became completely disoriented. They no longer knew where to defend or whether to still focus on the enemy commander. Their command structure had fully collapsed. Even Anto began to falter in his judgment. The correct play was to go all in and eliminate Best Yi Sun-Shin, but she kept holding them off.

"Joseon is actually acting more like a real army despite not receiving direct orders!"

Joseon functioned with much tighter cohesion since their commander directly led them on the battlefield.

"In

Civil Empire

, every unit is a real person! That’s why impossible things sometimes happen in this game!"

"But this is just so impossibly impossible!"

***

"This can’t be happening..." one man muttered blankly to himself in the Korean stands amid the cheers, "JeonJaPa..."

Cosmic, the former ADC, had once been teammates with Choi Sa-Rang. Without realizing it, he said her old username out loud. He hadn’t dared to utter that name in over three years. She had disappeared in disgrace. At least, Cosmic always believed that.

‘JeonJaPa has come back.’

And yet, here she was. Her name was gone, but she stood once again with honor. She fought at the very front, boldly presenting herself as the target for all the enemies. She was the war itself.

Joseon was still at a heavy disadvantage. Rationally and objectively that was true, but Cosmic felt certain that Rome could not win this. What was happening at Joseon’s main base began as just a large skirmish for Rome. For Joseon, it was war because their commander stood at the front. Losing here meant losing everything.

Ironically, Rome stood to lose everything. However, the Joseon troops believed they were also in that position because their commander in front of them was the heart of this war.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

Rome’s lines were breaking. It didn’t matter even though reinforcements continued to pour in and Joseon’s production facilities had long been offline. Not a single spectator pointed that out. The madness swept up everyone and one person triggered all of it.

‘She came back stronger...’

Cosmic could tell even if it was a different game and the skills didn’t transfer over. JeonJaPa had returned stronger than before. Cosmic’s eyes trembled. He realized it now. There hadn’t been a single day when she didn’t dream of returning. That was the only way she could be this good in a completely different genre.

MOBA and RTS games were as different as table tennis and baseball, yet she had improved because she never stopped being a pro gamer. She always meant to return, so JeonJaPa had never abandoned the team.

"... We were the ones who abandoned her."

The team hadn’t been disbanded. They had left.

Only Cosmic sat down again while everyone else stood and craned their necks to watch the game. He buried his face in his hands and trembled. He couldn’t get up for a long time.

"I was the one who left her..."

***

"While the main base is in an all-out war—!!"

The broadcast screen split into two. Too many critical events were happening at once.

"W-What!? How did Almond and Latte get there!?"

Almond and Latte were now sprinting toward Rome’s multi-base headquarters. All the forces blocking them had nearly vanished.

"T-The bodies behind them... they really took them all out!?"

The camera zoomed in on Almond’s face as the replay played. He had simply rushed forward and destroyed everything in his path.

"Th-This was a fight between armored soldiers and an archer!? Who would’ve thought!?"

— OMG!

— This is insane...

— What the heck??

— Is Joseon seriously winning this??

— Look at him go!!

— Mechanics on another level...

"H-He made it possible!?"

Everyone who watched Almond’s performance reacted the same. They couldn’t believe such a thing was possible. If it was, why had Joseon been losing?

First, only Almond could pull it off. Second, he could only do it under specific conditions.

‘Ah...’

OrangeKing felt like something struck him in the head. He finally understood why Best Yi Sun-Shin always structured their attacks as small-scale skirmishes. Was it because Joseon had fewer troops?

No, they possessed more troops than Rome at first. However, they couldn’t properly hold off Rome’s advance and their numbers dwindled fast. A large number gap was needed just to block Rome. That was how overwhelming Rome’s units were, especially their first-string players.

Meanwhile, the attacking units were Joseon’s first-string players. And what kind of battle did those frontline archers excel at best?

"In large-scale battles, players like Almond can’t shine! It’s a whole different story in small-scale skirmishes!"

Almond thrived in small-scale duels.

"Best Yi Sun-Shin deliberately crafted battlefields where Joseon could shine brightest!"

— Wow!!

— No way...

— That explains it!

— So that’s why it kept happening....

— She seriously believed in him, huh...

Just as Anto had planned out this situation starting from the missing scouting hawk, Best Yi Sun-Shin also used the hawk early because she was focused on something entirely different than Anto.

She never intended to win with large-scale battles. Even if Anto came to the main base, she would hold him off with numbers while small elite squads launched the real attack. That was Joseon’s victory plan.

Of course, Rome’s combat strength turned out to be more monstrous than expected. That part had gone off the rails, but the overall strategy was still working.

"Right now, it looks like both sides each got the outcome they wanted!"

This situation was exactly what both sides wanted.

"Which means one of them was drawing the wrong picture!"

Now, Almond and Pierre finally met. This would likely be the moment of truth where they would find out whose strategy had been right.

"Rome left Pierre there!?"

"Yes! That just shows how aware they were!"

Instead of deploying Pierre at the final assault on Joseon’s base, Anto had placed their ace in a defensive role. That alone showed how much he feared Almond in small-scale skirmishes.

"Wha-What!?"

Was it because of that?

"Rome is pulling back!? Wow...!"

Anto ordered the remaining units to retreat. Even now, he tried to bring the fight to a more favorable location.

"This is brutal! Anto is trying to force the fight into the headquarters! He wants to make them fight inside the building!"

"Ah... but doesn’t this give the archers an opening to just shoot!? He’s literally creating distance for them!"

It felt strange to see melee troops backing away from archers, but OrangeKing shook his head.

"If Almond and Latte take one more step forward, they’ll have to fight inside the range of the HQ’s defense system! They need to shoot now! But... they’ll need to use Pyeonjeon."

Pyeonjeon were short, sharp arrows. They weren’t good for curved shots and couldn’t be easily angled around enemy shields.

"The problem is those shields! The three Roman soldiers can basically just camp if they enter the HQ and sit there. It’s going to be too much for two archers to handle!"

The HQ’s interior was extremely narrow. If shields completely blocked the passage, arrows would not be able to break through.

"They have to stop the Romans before that!"

"But can they even do that!?"

— What now, just pull out a sword!

— No way out of this...

— T_T

— Cowardly tactics...

***

Almond stopped pursuing as the enemy retreated toward the headquarters. Instead, he quietly loaded a Tonga onto his bow.

Creak...

He drew the string tight.

"Hoo."

After a deep exhale, even the slight tremor in his right hand stilled and a soft white glow gathered.

‘Three.’

Only three enemies remained. All three were backing away with their shields up. If they all made it into the HQ, killing the enemy commander would become nearly impossible.

Almond glanced at Latte. Their eyes met briefly.

"Left first. Together."

Almond gave the orders himself since their commander couldn’t reach them. Latte nodded.

"Roger."

"Now."

Thwip—!

Almond let his arrow fly. A thin, fast Pyeonjeon streaked out, nearly invisible. Even a trained soldier would struggle to block it, but the Roman frontline troops were different.

Thunk!

The leftmost soldier adjusted his shield and successfully blocked it. However—

"!?"

Thunk!!

A second arrow struck, and a white light burst from the soldier’s head as the impact echoed out.

Thud.

The soldier collapsed instantly. The first arrow he blocked came from Latte. Almond’s arrow travelled a nearly identical trajectory and subtly curved to the soldier’s temple. It was a flawless tag-team play. Striking separate body parts at once made blocking with a single shield impossible.

"Right side."

"Got it!"

They both aimed again at the rightmost soldier this time. They had to eliminate the side targets first, where it was easiest to land curved shots. The soldier seemed to notice he was the next target and already began adjusting his shield.

‘Just covering the head?’

He raised his shield to protect only his head and retreated faster than before. His plan was obvious. He wanted to block the kill shot while quickly heading to the HQ where the priests waiting inside could heal him.

Zzzzt—

Almond gave the order after their three seconds of charge time passed.

"Legs."

"L-Legs! Got it!"

Thunk!

Two clean shots pierced both of the soldier’s legs.

"!"

Thud.

The soldier’s knees buckled instantly. With his legs gone, he could no longer move. Even though it wasn’t a headshot, two fully charged Pyeonjeon were enough to wipe out most of his health. He collapsed with his head fully exposed.

"Focus on the center."

"Got it!"

Without waiting to fully charge, Almond fired again and finished off the fallen soldier on the right.

Thunk!

Now, only Pierre remained.

Thunk!

Pierre blocked Latte’s arrow and sprinted at full speed toward the HQ.

[Movement Speed Boost]

A cleric had reached the entrance and cast a buff on him. Pierre turned his back and ran. Even while retreating, he kept his shield angled to cover his torso and head.

‘Ugh...’

Almond tried to line up a shot, but Pierre was getting farther away.

‘Not enough time. I’ll take the shot anyway.’

Almost in frustration, Almond shot one more arrow before he also took off running.

"Let’s go too!"

"Yes!"

Thunk!

Almond’s arrow struck Pierre in the ankle, which slowed Pierre down for just a moment.

[Heal]

But the priest’s healing brought him back to full speed.

"Shoot the cleric!"

"I-I think dodging comes first!?"

Whoosh—!

‘Uh-oh.’

They had entered the HQ defense system’s range.

"!"

Fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh—!

Latte and Almond quickly separated from each other to dodge the hail of arrows.

"H-Hahh... Hahh!" Latte panted as he resumed running forward, but he had lost too much ground. The evasive maneuvers cost him too much.

"Huh? Why aren’t you dodging better?!" Almond turned and shouted at Latte, who was far behind.

"You think I’m you, hyung!?"

"You dodged just fine earlier!"

"That was because Best Yi Sun-Shin was pinging every shot for me!"

"Wait... seriously?"

That was it?

"S-Stop giving me that look!"

"Incoming."

"Aaaaaagh!"

Fwoosh!

Latte somehow managed to dodge again, but the distance between them widened with each dodge.

"G-Go ahead! I’ll try to—oh, he’s already gone."

Almond had already sprinted far ahead as Pierre slipped inside the HQ.