He Is That Guy

“Get inside the West Gate. Now. SseSse, help them too.”
“What? What’s going on?”

“What is it?”
Hearing me, Drink Some Water and SseSseSsehajago both responded with confused voices, but I couldn’t give them a proper answer yet—I had to finish things with MelodyCode first.
[Whisper] I’m So Sleepy: how many

[Whisper] I’m So Sleepy: how many Elementals
[Whisper] MelodyCode: as far as I know, three
[Whisper] MelodyCode: probably hiding separately

[Whisper] MelodyCode: if they’ve been casting their ultimates while avoiding your sight
[Whisper] MelodyCode: then you’ve got less than 30 seconds left
Three of them… It made more sense to start moving with just me, Yu Chae, and SseSseSsehajago the Berserker. I hurriedly pulled up my timer program that displayed the seconds and pinned it to the corner of my screen.

“Three Elemental Mages are hiding and casting their ultimates as we speak.”
“Elementals? Their ultimates?”
“Wait… don’t tell me… Inside the gate?”

The Elemental Mage ultimate was Meteor.
If three mages from Fever Guild dropped Meteors on the West Gate, where over forty people were gathered, the gauge difference would explode. Worst case? Our defenses would break, and we’d lose the central flag.
“They planned this from the start. That’s why they flooded in.”

The West Gate was narrower than any other area, both inside and out. And the dense buildings made for plenty of blind spots to hide in.
While nearly eighty players were busy clashing, they probably snuck inside and hid in the alleys. That must’ve taken around ten minutes. And with Meteor requiring about two minutes to channel, then—just as MelodyCode said—there wasn’t much time left.
“I’ll start looking now.”

“Haereun and I will help search. As for the others…”
“There’s no time to explain to everyone. Kim Yuchae, are you in?”
“Yeah. I’m looking.”
Thankfully, everyone picked up on the situation without needing a detailed explanation and moved fast. I needed to get in there too and sweep the alleys. But first—

[Whisper] I’m So Sleepy: hey
[Whisper] I’m So Sleepy: send me a friend request
There was still a lot I needed to talk about with MelodyCode. Like why she handed over a top-tier weapon so easily. And why she was giving us this information. I needed to hear her reason to settle my mind.

[Whisper] MelodyCode: got it
[Whisper] MelodyCode: take the staff
[Whisper] I’m So Sleepy: cough it up

I hit MelodyCode with an offensive skill without hesitation. Her health was already low, and just as I expected, she took the hit without resisting. Right before collapsing, she dropped the staff intentionally—timing it perfectly—then disappeared into the respawn zone.
I scooped up the staff and equipped it immediately, then burned every movement skill I had to sprint back into the West Gate.
“Hyung, we should split the area up instead of searching blindly. We divide the right side top and bottom, and treat the smaller left zone as one area.”

“I’ll go right with Guild Leader, so Jolrye, can you take the left?”
“Got it.”
I turned away from the right side and sprinted the opposite direction. The left definitely had fewer buildings, but with time running out, it wasn’t going to be easy to search them all.

I quickly racked my brain for the most efficient way to scan the alleys. There wasn’t enough time for thoroughness—I had to gamble.
‘If I were an Elemental Mage trying to cast my ultimate in secret…’
Where would I go? Narrowing it down left me with four likely spots.

Two dead ends on the far east side. Plus the northern and southern outer edges. Think of it like a clock: 12, 2, 4, and 6 o’clock positions.
‘Start sweeping from 12 o’clock clockwise. That should work.’
I reached the north side fast, found nothing, then shifted east. Since pets couldn’t be summoned during the selection match, I had to move manually, which slowed me down.

Chojeonyeok Guild has scored 10 points!
“Hyung, I killed the one at lower right. They were working in pairs, so be careful.”
“Already?”

Yu Chae had headed out first, but still, that was way faster than expected.
“Yeah. Even if it’s an Elemental ult, it’s still got range limits. So I started near the hotspot.”
“Ah, makes sense.”

The thickest fighting was right in front of the gate—6 o’clock. That made 2 or 4 o’clock the most likely next spots.
Chojeonyeok Guild has scored 10 points!
“We got one too!”

“Jolrye, we’re running out of time.”
Just then, Drink Some Water and SseSseSsehajago gave a status update. Hearing that, I sprinted toward 2 o’clock.
“The magic circle was nearly complete. I think there’s less than a minute left.”

If the mages had all begun casting around the same time, then—just like SseSseSsehajago said—we had less than 60 seconds to kill the final two.
“I’m on my way.”
Yu Chae jumped in to assist, but he was on the opposite end. If I didn’t find and handle this fast, we wouldn’t be able to stop the cast in time. Clicking my tongue, I turned into the alleyway I had marked earlier.

‘There…!’
An Elemental Mage and a Lancer stood in plain sight. The moment they saw me, the Lancer raised his glowing gold spear.
They’d already lost two teams. They had to know their plan was blown.

The mage’s magic circle was about 70% complete. I dodged the Lancer’s charge with good movement. The timer ticked forward on my screen. Roughly 30 seconds remained.
‘No way I can kill the Lancer and stop the cast.’
If it had been a support-type class, maybe. But Lancers were too standard and reliable. I scrambled to compare his and my skillsets for an efficient approach.

My dodge skill, used earlier for movement, still had 5 seconds of cooldown left. Meanwhile, the Lancer had his evade and had just used one of his two charge skills.
‘Charge cooldowns are usually 3 seconds, so assuming that…’
Having figured out the likely window, I kept my distance to avoid getting hit.

There wasn’t much time, but charging in blindly would just get me killed. I had to stay calm.
“Hyung! Where are you?!”
I ducked under a wide horizontal slash from the Lancer and responded.

“Two o’clock.”
While dodging and tanking hits, I kept baiting him into burning his skills. PvP was a mind game—a battle of nerves and reads.
This Lancer had just watched both his allies die. He was probably mentally cornered. And if backup came, it’d be over. He had to finish it now.

So he was rushing. Getting sloppy. Spamming whatever came to mind. As long as I kept a certain distance, it was easy to avoid.
‘Come on…!’
I bit my lip and silently begged. Take the bait, take it.

Seeing me hold my ground despite taking damage, the Lancer got desperate. He hesitated, then spun his spear in a full 360° arc. A red glow surged down the shaft.
His ultimate.
It reflected all melee attacks and boosted his damage and speed. Clearly, he was going for the kill.

With the ult active, the Lancer lunged at me again. But this was what I’d been waiting for.
I finally popped my dodge skill and slipped past him—rushing straight toward the Elemental Mage behind him. In an instant, our positions reversed.
My heart pounded. Adrenaline surged through my body. The magic circle beneath the mage was nearly complete. Without hesitation, my fingers moved.

Since mages can’t move while channeling, I skipped the snare and went full burst. W-skill, then Q-R-4-1. One second pause, cooldown reset, then another W-Q-R.
I could do this. It was possible.
The mage’s health plummeted as the magic circle accelerated toward completion.

The timer ticked on. Five, four, three, two…
One.
Chojeonyeok Guild has scored 10 points!

The mage collapsed to the ground, staff raised mid-cast as the magic circle hit 100%. A kill log appeared in the center of the screen.
“Haah…”
We stopped it. I killed the mage with one second left on the clock.

Relief rose from deep inside and escaped as a long exhale.
[All] aoko: Ah f*ck
[All] RareHunter: ;;

As the failed caster raged in chat, the Lancer charged at me without missing a beat.
‘I’m dead.’
Unlike me, the Lancer was still full health. My position sucked, and my dodge was on cooldown—I had no way out.

Looks like I’ll die here and head back to respawn. Still, I completed the objective: killed the mage, stopped «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» Fever’s plan. That was enough.
Even so, I hated to go down without doing something. I raised my hand to cast one last—
Clink! A golden chain shot out from behind the Lancer, wrapping around him and yanking him backward. In just two or three quick hits, the Lancer dropped dead.

“Hyung.”
Yu Chae appeared in front of me—just as I was about to go down swinging.