Chapter 163
CHAPTER 163
- Ah lol just call Alpaca already.
- An assassin trying to fight 2v1 like a bruiser.
- What's a bruiser?
- Tanky warriors who still deal tons of damage. Reliable big brothers.
[Shadow Secret Art]
The skill activated instantly.
Shadow engulfed his body in an instant.
At the same time, a clone appeared where Seo Jun stood, making it impossible—whether by sight or system mechanics—to distinguish between the real body and the shadow.
And simultaneously, Seo Jun thrust out his right arm.
Forward.
To the side.
Toward the inside of his body.
Before using the skill, Wave always subtly prepared his posture before unleashing a strike.
Most people wouldn't notice.
The movement was too small.
But habits like that provided excellent clues for Seo Jun.
Of course, habits could also become traps.
If it had been Lee Dong-su, he definitely would've exploited the fact that his opponent was reading those habits.
Then what about Wave?
Was he trying to bait me?
In the brief instant his body moved, Seo Jun asked himself that question.
He thought about Wave's skill level.
His combat instincts.
But traps required preparation.
Something like this couldn't simply appear out of nowhere on the spur of the moment.
This wasn't about combat sense.
It was about preparation.
And if it was Wave...
He said he'd give it his all. Then it's probably a trap.
However—
If it was a trap, Seo Jun could already predict where the real attack would come from.
The problem was that his arm had already moved.
Toward the location where the attack would arrive if it wasn't a trap.
Yet Seo Jun neither panicked nor regretted it.
Because this wasn't spilled water.
Clang!
He had another body.
Wave's stealth broke.
Just as expected, Wave's kama appeared.
And its position proved that it had indeed been a trap.
But at the tip of that kama was an assassin blade.
Not Seo Jun's assassin blade.
The clone's.
Then I'll block both.
Seo Jun met Wave's eyes as the latter emerged from the spinning motion of his kama.
Within those eyes, Seo Jun saw a trace of resignation.
His setup had been stopped.
Yet he also saw determination.
The resolve to continue.
Wave immediately followed up by swinging his kama again.
At that same moment, a jungler appeared behind Wave.
Seo Jun smiled while looking straight ahead.
Whether it worked or not—
Let's just try it.
Seo Jun exhaled deeply.
At the same time, two bodies moved.
And split apart.
People can use both arms simultaneously.
They play instruments.
Type on keyboards.
Perform complex physical movements.
The same goes for legs.
Walking.
Running.
Kicking.
Swimming.
Whether someone is skilled or not, with enough practice those actions become natural.
But for a newborn baby, even moving at all would have been difficult.
Everything became natural only after countless repetitions and accumulated familiarity.
Thus Zen players had once thought:
"If that's the case, wouldn't controlling two bodies become natural too?"
But there was a fundamental limitation.
You only had one field of vision.
One consciousness.
One set of senses.
And moving even a single body was already incredibly complex.
If a person simply had four arms and four legs attached to one body, perhaps those resources could eventually be utilized efficiently.
But two separate bodies?
That was equivalent to fighting on two battlefields.
Even if someone became accustomed to controlling both bodies simultaneously, the human brain simply wasn't built for multitasking at that level.
Your position relative to the enemy.
The clone's position relative to the enemy.
Your position relative to the clone.
Incoming attacks.
Everything.
Against a single opponent, the amount of information to process doubled.
No—tripled.
Quadrupled.
And even after overcoming all those difficulties, the reward wasn't overwhelmingly large.
In most cases, it was simply better to leave the clone behind as an escape route.
Safer.
More reliable.
Of course, controlling both bodies could provide advantages against multiple opponents.
But wasn't that even more impossible?
At that point, there would literally be two battlefields.
Which was why the C-rank jungler 1898, who had somehow made it onto the Mental Team with only five points, snorted when the shadow first separated and approached him.
A pretty loud snort, too.
“So? How is it?”
Maybe that was why.
The shadow blocking his attacks suddenly spoke.
Gulp.
1898 swallowed.
Not because he was intimidated by some overwhelming aura.
What kind of aura would a shadow have?
No.
The problem was—
This is the real body, right? The clone can talk too, though...
He wasn't sure.
1898 considered using a skill.
If it was only a clone, there was no need.
It would disappear on its own eventually.
There was no reason to waste skills on a clone in a favorable 2v1 situation.
Especially because his current hero and skill setup had been prepared specifically to deal with Zen.
Which meant—
If he became certain the shadow before him was Seo Jun's real body, he would immediately commit.
The problem was that he still wasn't sure.
“Stop coming closer!”
He drew his bow.
Mana flowed through it as though it were flowing through the bow's frame itself.
Then he released an arrow.
Night Hunter Pier.
A ranged jungle hero who fought using a bow and arrows made of mana.
Fwoosh!
A smooth arrow composed of pure white mana shot forward.
And—
The shadow knocked it away with an assassin blade.
Once.
Fwoosh!
A second arrow.
Blocked.
A third arrow.
Blocked again.
The distance steadily shrank.
No matter how I look at it, that's the real body!
A quick glance showed Wave fighting the other shadow.
Apparently anticipating a position swap, Wave wasn't coming over here.
From afar, it looked like they were engaged in combat.
Would the clone die soon?
If so—
Then I need to land this while he's still close to me!
He activated a skill and released the bowstring.
Though... it felt like I made eye contact with that other shadow earlier. Must've imagined it.
[Fear Arrow]
The instant the arrow left the bowstring, it split into five separate arrows.
If struck by them, a magical tether would connect Pier to the target through the arrows embedded in the victim's body.
And if the distance between them became too great—
If the tether snapped—
The target would enter a state of Fear.
Of course, if the target continued staying close, then Pier's arrows would start firing in groups of five just like when the skill was activated.
That was why, with proper timing, it was an excellent skill for pinning down Zen.
If Zen tried to escape, the Fear effect became guaranteed.
It wasn't enough to be called a hard counter.
But claiming it wasn't picked with Zen in mind would be a lie.
Like a fishing net spreading through the air, one of the five arrows struck the shadow in the thigh.
At this distance, there was no way all five arrows could have been blocked or dodged.
If the shadow had switched places with the main body earlier, it could have avoided it.
Yet the shadow approaching him had never once looked behind.
Not toward Wave.
Not toward the clone.
Which means he doesn't know what's happening behind him, so he can't casually switch bodies...
Wait.
Something was wrong.
The hand that had been preparing another arrow while wearing a triumphant smile suddenly froze.
And then—
The shadow stabbed him.
If that's the real body and the other one is the clone, then the clone should've been destroyed long ago and the skill should've ended already...
The shadow in front of him had never looked back even once.
And yet it was now naturally lifting its weapon and trying to slash his throat.
There was no way Wave hadn't already finished off a clone that supposedly couldn't even properly move.
Which meant—
The only remaining possibility was—
He accidentally released the arrow.
That was the clone?
He instinctively tried to check Wave's situation.
But—
Slash!
The clone he had mistaken for the real body drew a horizontal line through the air with its blade, stopping him.
“Focus on me properly!”
The kama dominated the space around them, attacking Seo Jun like a pack of wolves trying to tear apart prey.
Sometimes hanging from its cord.
Sometimes held directly in Wave's hand.
Its range changed freely, making it difficult to defend against.
But—
“Why do you keep getting distracted?!”
Every attack was effortlessly dismantled by Seo Jun.
Even more easily than before.
Instead, the assassin blades continued targeting Wave's legs and torso.
And Seo Jun—
No.
The shadow—
Wasn't fully focused on Wave.
Its gaze seemed to linger somewhere behind him.
That irritated Wave immensely.
Yet he couldn't afford to look behind himself.
Stab.
If he relaxed even slightly, he got hit.
Just like that.
He could roughly guess what Seo Jun was doing.
Even if his head understood it, there were some things that were impossible to accept emotionally.
Don't tell me he's actually fighting the jungler with the clone at the same time?
That was absurd.
Completely absurd.
At first, when the shadow had been sent away, Wave hadn't understood what was happening.
But Seo Jun immediately launched an offensive, leaving him no room to think about it.
Yet the jungler still wasn't here.
There was only one explanation.
Surely he hadn't suddenly gotten hungry like Dokkaebi and abandoned the gank.
The shadow that had gone ahead first.
Seo Jun's clone.
That clone was holding the jungler back.
And despite that—
Wave was still getting overwhelmed by Seo Jun.
“You're more impatient than before.”
The shadow's mouth opened.
At this point it was obvious.
This one was the real body.
The one that had moved away earlier was the clone.
Wave couldn't see what was happening behind him, but the shifting gaze gave it away.
Clang!
Their weapons collided.
Clang!
Wave swung his other kama.
The attack was blocked as well.
Naturally.
His opponent also wielded two weapons.
And throughout it all, Seo Jun's eyes still weren't fully focused on him.
They looked beyond him.
Toward the battlefield behind.
No.
It felt even broader than that.
As though he was taking in the entire field at once.
That feeling was deeply unpleasant.
It felt like a blatant demonstration of the gap between them.
Wave knew he was weaker.
But he had never imagined the difference was this large.
Acknowledging someone was better than you was one thing.
This was something else entirely.
Grinding his teeth, Wave sought a way to reverse the situation.
While fighting, he activated a skill on nearby minions that had been marked by his kama.
Once I turn invisible, he'll have to focus on me.
[Mark Pursuit]
And at that moment—
The shadow flickered.
Seo Jun switched positions.
Is the jungler about to die?
Wave hurriedly turned around.
In the brief instant of the swap, he had seen Pier's arrow embedded in the shadow's leg, so he wasn't overly worried.
The skill is about to end anyway.
The remaining duration would likely leave the clone trapped in Fear.
And his ultimate wasn't far away either.
They had started fighting shortly after reaching level five.
Once Wave reached level six, the situation could completely change.
Seo Jun would hit level six first, but Zen's ultimate simply granted another clone.
An ultimate that used the enemy's shadow instead of his own, silently summoning a clone behind the target.
Exactly.
Like this.
The moment Wave's gaze reached the battlefield where the jungler stood—
He felt a blade touch his back.
Stab.
His health bar dropped.
“How?”
While Wave turned around again in shock, the jungler shouted:
“The moment he switched bodies, he stopped fighting me and started hitting minions!”
He had only needed one more minion for level six.
That had been the goal all along.
Switch positions.
Instantly reach level six.
Immediately activate the ultimate.
Boom!
At the same time, the shadow Seo Jun had been using earlier expired.
The mark on Wave detonated, dealing additional damage.
Wave's health was already low.
And now it dropped even further.
Seo Jun smiled.
“This time, try fighting my clone instead. Welcome to Phase 2.”
Now Wave was facing Seo Jun's clone.
“Phase 2? How many phases are there?”
Wave's voice carried a slight tremble despite the joking tone.
He hadn't confirmed it himself.
But if Seo Jun could truly control his clone as well as his main body—
Then Wave was in serious trouble.
- PHASE 2 LOLLLLL
- Wait, so THIS one is the clone? Then before this the real body was here while the clone was fighting over there??? AT THE SAME TIME???
- What the hell is even happening lololol
- I checked Seo Jun's stream and I still can't tell what's going on lol
- Just watch the official broadcast at this point lol
- Wave, if you lose to the clone that's genuinely embarrassing. Fight back!
- Don't tell me he's actually getting completely destroyed?
- Hurry up and get Tali's ultimate already!