Dusk (BL Light Novel)

I jumped into the pit and glided down. The chance was slim, but if I got complacent, I could easily lose that 8-point Weight right under my nose without even realizing it.
Because I started moving early enough, I ran into him halfway to the Weight. More precisely, Gang Jaegyung saw me charging in and stopped, eagerly pelting me with DoT skills. God, was there no way to deal with those damn DoTs? At least you could swat a mosquito, but DoTs hit you unconditionally—there was no real counterplay.

In the end, the thought that maybe I could take him down one more time shattered pitifully as I had no choice but to hand my life over to Gang Jaegyung.
The only silver lining was that I died far from the 8-point Weight, meaning he only scored 5 points, and that I had shaved off a decent chunk of his HP while I was still alive, leaving me in an advantageous spot health-wise.
With a better grasp of our damage output now, Gang Jaegyung moved strategically, just like he always did when we fought out in the field. It wasn’t much different from our usual battles.

The problem was that I had to constantly watch out for the unavoidable DoTs and the deadly burst damage from Virus Extraction. One wrong move, and I was dead. And since Virus Extraction was also the only real killing move Gang Jaegyung had against me, both of us spent more time probing and timing each other, waiting for an opening without risking our major cooldowns.
Thanks to successfully canceling one of his Extraction skills once, I managed to snag 5 points without much trouble. Then, losing a psychological battle, I got hit by a six-stack Virus Extraction and gave away another 5 points.
We split the points evenly, circling each other cautiously, until three minutes had passed. Spikes like iron thorns shot up from beneath our feet, restricting movement, and the map changed for Round 2 as we were teleported back to our respawn zones.

The new map was a flat plain where giant walls would rise at random locations every 12 seconds. I wasn’t sure if they appeared according to a fixed pattern or pure RNG, but if you got unlucky, you could easily get blocked mid-skill and suffer massive DPS loss. It was going to be a tricky fight.
Without a long delay, the iron spikes disappeared, and Round 2 started. Coincidentally, a massive wall rose right in the center of the field, blocking the view to the other side. I sprinted forward while carefully skirting around the wall to the right, keeping my eyes peeled for any surprise attacks.
Just as I cleared the center wall, I came face-to-face with Gang Jaegyung. Unlike last round, he hadn’t been idly waiting at his spawn point. Caught off guard, I instinctively hit an attack skill, but Gang Jaegyung calmly used a self-defense skill, as if he had known I'd come this way.

[Combat] Dealt 6,410 damage to Retaking a ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Class with Desperate Sword Qi.
[Combat] Took 8,814 damage from Retaking a Class’s Joint Break.
[Combat] Retaking a Class is now incapacitated by Joint Break.

[Combat] Retaking a Class’s attack speed is reduced by Joint Break.
[Combat] Retaking a Class’s movement speed is reduced by Joint Break.
Goddammit. Attack speed and movement speed reduction, of all things...

I bit my lip and belatedly used an immunity skill.
[Combat] Became immune to status effects using Firmness.
[Combat] Took 6,071 damage from Retaking a Class’s Critical Jab.

[Combat] Resisted the stun effect from Critical Jab.
[Combat] Retaking a Class evaded Desperate Sword Strike with Gap Creation.
I avoided getting stunned, but with my movement speed still nerfed, it was hard to close the distance on Gang Jaegyung after he used Gap Creation. Using a charge skill with reduced attack speed would only leave me wide open, so I decided to wait until the debuffs wore off.
While laying down more DoTs on me, Gang Jaegyung casually sidestepped, inching closer to the Jepa Tribe’s Weight, trying to lure me in.

Pretending to take the bait, I readied a Capture skill. If I could bait out his dodge or immunity skill, great. If not, landing a stun combo would still put me ahead.
As soon as my debuffs cleared, I launched my Capture.
The moment the chains shot toward Gang Jaegyung—

[Combat] Used Enforcer’s Bind.
[Combat] Activation of Enforcer’s Bind canceled.
A wall rose up from below and blocked the chain.

...Lucky bastard. Muttering to myself, I had no choice but to sprint toward his side. As I passed the damn wall that blocked my chain, I spotted Gang Jaegyung setting up from a distance.
I preemptively popped a survival skill and used a charge skill to close the gap. He patiently waited, casting DoTs, and just before the charge landed, he dodged and widened the gap again. Still, since my Shield Slam combo also functioned as a gap closer, it didn’t matter.
[Combat] Dealt 7,611 damage to Retaking a Class with Shield Slam.

[Combat] Retaking a Class is now taunted by Shield Slam.
I shrank the distance again, calculating the timing for a crowd control follow-up. Since Gang Jaegyung would likely save his Calm Mind skill for Virus Extraction rather than waste it now, as long as I didn’t clash with his Quick Disruption, I'd have a clean shot.
Soon enough, Gang Jaegyung used Quick Disruption. I happened to be using a non-crowd-control skill at that moment. Maybe I lost the psychological battle a little—but whatever, it was still a win for me. Grinning, I immediately hit him with a stun skill right after he used his disruption.

[Combat] Dealt 4,006 damage to Retaking a Class with Noble Execution.
[Combat] Retaking a Class resisted the effect of Noble Execution with Calm Mind.
"..."

You used Calm Mind now?
Why?
There weren’t even that many DoTs stacked on him yet, and no mutated viruses at all. Using both Quick Disruption and Calm Mind now, when he couldn’t even trigger a Virus Extraction chain, made zero sense. Once Calm Mind expired, he’d have to tank everything until Quick Disruption came off cooldown.
Even I was thrown off. Still, my hands moved automatically, hammering in skills to chip away at his HP. Whatever. Winning was winning.

While I was still wondering what the hell he was planning, as Calm Mind’s duration neared its end, a speech bubble popped up above his character’s head.
[General] Retaking a Class: ^^)/
What the hell was that. Like he was telling me to chop off his head and arm with an emoticon.

While I glared at the mocking emoticon in disbelief, Gang Jaegyung’s character suddenly launched upward right in front of me.
For a second, I couldn’t process it. Instead of the familiar character model in front of me, there was now a thick, hard wall rising up.
I frantically tilted my aim upward. Above the wall, Gang Jaegyung was calmly casting skills without any interruptions. Seeing that made my brain feel like it was being scrambled.

First, the Capture skill that had been blocked perfectly by a rising wall. Then, him laughing and riding another wall to soar into the sky.
[Combat] Took 2,142 damage from Retaking a Class’s Stealth Virus.
There was no way this was just a coincidence. The back of my neck prickled with realization.

That bastard had already memorized exactly when and where the walls would spawn.
Like a dog staring up at the roof after chasing a chicken, except—well, I managed to catch the chicken eventually.
[Combat] Shediers killed Retaking a Class with Desperate Strike.

[System] You have proven 5 points of worth to the god Evebria.
[System] Your HP has been slightly restored by divine blessing.
[18:25]

The score was utter trash, though.
Gang Jaegyung was flying circles around me. I'd throw a skill, only for a wall to block it. Barely manage to catch up to him, and he'd leap onto another wall.
Try to climb up after him, and I'd get knocked off with a knockback skill. If I somehow got up there, he'd still slip away and continue casting from safety.
It wasn't like this was the first time walls appeared during Arena matches, but previously, it had been random and messy—not this systematic, deliberate wall-dancing Gang Jaegyung was pulling now.

He didn’t just run away either. From unreachable heights, he'd rain down skills on me, carefully timing his glides to land just as walls were coming down, refreshing his cast windows, and stacking DoTs all over me. When I saw him casually hop from one wall to another using Leap Skills during a glide, I almost lost my mind. Capture skills couldn’t even hit him—Dusk’s Z-axis skill range was too shallow.
This map was perfectly optimized for Gang Jaegyung's strategy: dodging around while stacking DoTs and finishing me off with Extraction.
Proof? He racked up 15 points on this map alone.

I could practically picture Gang Jaegyung's smug-ass grin floating over his character’s respawn point after he finished laughing himself sick. Must be nice, you asshole. I gritted my teeth silently, reminded that we were live on broadcast and I couldn’t swear out loud.
At least there was some good news: Round 2 was about to end, and the map was about to change.