“E-everyone will remember you, Sir Bubblegum...”

Bubblegum shouted as he toppled backward, “What, what are they remembering?!”

Countless shadows crashed down over him.

BOOOOM!

A total of ten champions collided. The ones who had initially targeted Bubblegum instantly switched targets and began fighting each other instead.

“Kill them!”

“Ultimate skill!”

BOOOOOM!

All kinds of ultimate skills exploded at once.

“U-Uwaaa?!” Bubblegum rolled left and right through the chaos, swinging his iron fists.

BAM!

BOOM!

His hits landed better than expected.

— This is insane lol

— Dempsey Roll while lying down lol

— What even is this?!

— If you’re gonna fall anyway, might as well fight lying down

“Gah! W-What is this stuff on the ground?!”

“The ground! Bart is on the ground!”

As the fight spread between different teams, Bubblegum’s survival came down purely to luck. Luck never lasted long.

BOOOOM!

All the firepower began to focus back onto Bubblegum.

[HP: 67%]

Despite being a tank, his health had already dropped close to half.

Instinctively, Bubblegum raised his guard. “Uuugh, hold out!”

— LOL

— Hold out lol

— Harden up!

— Holy hell lol

— This is making me cry

[Iron Body]

[For 3 seconds, gather strength while Immobilized and reduce damage taken by 50%. When the skill ends, dash a distance equal to the damage received.]

For a short time, the damage taken would be heavily reduced. Afterward, Bart could dash based on how much damage he had absorbed. When Bubblegum previously used this skill, no one had hit him at all. He had stopped awkwardly in place.

This time was different. Ten people had piled in, turning everything into a complete brawl. Among those ten, at least four were actively trying to hit Bubblegum.

— It might actually trigger

— Wow, people are actually hitting him for once

— He’s holding on better than I expected

Ratatatat!

Bullets from marksmen slammed into Bubblegum’s guard. Assassins flashed past, their slashes scraping against him. Mages’ ground spells detonated beneath him.

BOOM! BOOM!

[HP: 41%]

Even with his damage reduction and high defense, his health dropped below half.

“That’s it! I’ve got it all!!”

In those three seconds, he had absorbed an enormous amount of damage.

“They’re all dead! I’ll reflect everything back!”

Releasing his guard, Bubblegum swung his fists to return all the damage he’d taken.

‘Reflect it and pop an ultimate skill right away... I’ll be the hero of the team fight.’

He wanted to prove that he could still shine even if his teammates abandoned him. When the time came, he could show something.

However, he had misunderstood Iron Body.

[Dash]

Iron Body wasn’t a reflection skill, but a survival escape skill. His dash distance simply increased based on the damage taken. It wasn’t one of those comic book abilities that stored damage and fired it back.

‘Huh?’

BOOM!

Bubblegum flew into the air.

‘Huh?’

The dash launched forward, but Bubblegum’s forward was toward the sky because he had been lying down.

“...?”

— ?

— ...?

— Why did he dash into the air lol

— What is he doing?!

— “Airborne”

Flop! Thud!

He sprang up like a freshly caught fish.

— Self-inflicted airborne is crazy

— He’s inventing his own CC lol

— Is he live seafood?

— The abyssal shark’s revenge from the stratosphere!

If he had remained on the ground, he would’ve survived a bit longer. Instead, Bubblegum rocketed skyward like a flare. Was there any stronger aggro than this?

All ten pairs of eyes snapped to him at once.

“A big catch!” 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

“What the hell is that guy?!”

Ten champions had no choice but to aim their firepower up.

“Now!”

Almond’s team burst out of hiding.

***

Team Five and Team Six had both come for the Abyss Shark. Both had witnessed Bubblegum recklessly attempting it alone.

‘Huh?’

‘What is that?’

One after another, they rushed in.

‘There are more enemies behind him.’

‘Knew it. There were others.’

At first glance, each side assumed that the other was on Bubblegum’s team. The numbers didn’t quite add up, but LIL was a first-person game. In the rush, they couldn’t possibly identify every champion.

“Now!”

They never imagined that another team would jump in.

“Another one!”

“There’s more?!”

“What... what is this?!”

“Damn it... Three teams are here?”

In Survival mode, more teams clashing only made things worse. When fighting over the Abyss Shark, two teams made for a clean fight and a higher survival chance.

Three teams meant someone would get wiped. The sheer amount of firepower was different. It was a fight with no retreat.

“D-Damn it, another team!”

“Kill them first!”

“How many ultimate skills do we have left?!”

“We’ve used almost all of them!”

Team Five had assumed it was just two teams and had burned nearly every ultimate skill.

“How many do we have left?!”

“Three!”

Team Six still had three ultimates, but not because they had predicted this chaos.

“All the assassins are still up!”

Their team was heavy on assassin champions. Assassins typically entered late and often saved their ultimate skills until the very end of a team fight.

[Fisher — Dodgy]

[Mad Clown — Recoult]

[Pursuer — Emily]

Thanks to this unusual setup with three assassin champions, Team Six instantly gained the upper hand.

Team Five naturally began to fall back.

“F-For now, pull back!”

“You’re not even finishing the rune spirit?!”

“Pull back!”

They retreated without even finishing off Bubblegum’s rune spirit. That alone took time.

“Hey! You guys!” Team Six made a proposal. “Attack the newcomers first!”

Team Five couldn’t refuse. They had no choice.

“O-Okay!”

They needed time for their ultimate skills to recharge. Every gun barrel and blade turned toward Almond’s team.

“Huh?”

“Wait.”

Both teams froze in surprise.

“Who are those hulks?”

“How many tanks are there?!”

Gigant Machine Colossus, Hammer Paladin Ulte, and Great Monolith Kutan.... Every single one of them looked massive. No, massive didn’t even begin to cover it.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The Hammer Paladin was barely within human scale. The others were practically three-meter monsters. A composition stacked with tanks usually wasn’t scary, but it looked terrifying to Teams Five and Six right now.

“H-How long would it even take to kill all of them?”

In their current situation, the problem wasn’t strength. It was trust. These teams weren’t in a perfect alliance.

‘Damn it. Something will go wrong mid-fight.’

‘This... this is getting weird.’

Tanks took forever to kill. While they were doing that, who could guarantee that Team Five and Team Six wouldn’t change their minds? Worse, those hulking champions blocked their view. They couldn’t even see Almond and didn’t know who the enemy damage dealer was.

“Are we doing this?”

“Of course, fire!”

Bang!

The fight started with gunfire from Team Six’s rifleman. They avoided committing skills and mostly used basic attacks.

Team Five followed suit and poked cautiously. Their marksman, Terrorist Bonnie, especially held back. She couldn’t deal real damage without chaining skills, yet kept playing it safe.

Pababang!

Four arrows flew in instantly, and flames spread across Team Five.

[Fire Arrow]

Almond shot his fire arrow.

“W-What the hell!?”

“What kind of skill is that?!”

Sori was a relatively new champion, which added to the confusion. Judging from the speed alone, no one could guess it was her.

“Damn it, I can’t see her!”

Sori wasn’t invisible.

“She’s behind those shoulders?!”

She simply fired through the gaps behind the massive tanks.

Team Five’s tanks raised their shields. Their mages fought back desperately.

[Scatter Nails]

MeowMeowPunch’s nails flew in. Dozens of nails scattered forward.

Thunk!

Several pierced the upper body of Team Five’s Shield Warrior, Krave.

“I-It’s Ulte!”

“D-Don’t panic! It’s fine if they don’t get driven in!”

Nails were only dangerous if someone struck them again, driving them deeper. From this distance, that would be impossible.

An arrow instantly flew in, hammering the nail straight into the body.

Thwack!

“Ugh?!”

Bonus damage triggered. Ulte’s HP, which had been worn down, surged back up.

[Paladin’s Nail]

[When an ally strikes a thrown nail and drives it into an enemy’s body, the enemy takes additional damage. Both Ulte and the ally will recover health. If Ulte himself drives the nail in, bonus damage proportional to lost health is dealt along with knockback.]

Hammer Paladin’s passive, Paladin’s Nail, activated. In theory, as long as the nails kept getting driven in, the Paladin simply wouldn’t die. The enemy seemed to realize that and pushed forward even harder, which only made him a bigger target.

BOOM!

Magic and bullets all converged on Ulte.

[HP: 33%]

“Got him! Kill him! As long as we dodge the nails, he’s nothing... Huh?”

Boom!

Bang!

More nails got driven in by the marksman’s support.

[HP: 62%]

Ulte’s health surged back up.

[Fire Arrow ]

Whoooosh!

For good measure, flames spread once more.

Ulte’s health climbed up again.

[HP: 73%]

“What the hell is this?!”

“What is this?!”

For players at this rank, the aim currently on display felt outright cruel.

“T-This bastard is a booster, isn’t he?!”

Team Five panicked. Not just because of the enemy’s aim, but because only they were getting hit.

“W-What the hell? Why is it always us?!”

There was no complicated reason.

‘They look weak.’

Almond instinctively sensed Team Five shrinking back and focused on them relentlessly. That instinct was dead on. The fracture happened instantly.

Team Six quietly peeled off and abandoned Team Five.

Team Five snapped. “Hey! What are you doing?!”

Team Six claimed they had a plan. “We’re assassins! We’re supposed to go in late!”

“Don’t give me that crap!”

Team Five wasn’t buying it. They weren’t even on the same team. Why would one side take hits while the other waited for a clean entry? That just meant handing runes and experience to the enemy.

“You go first! You’ve still got ultimate skills!”

“If we use ours now, you’ll outnumber us!”

“If you’re going to nitpick like that, why even...”

Then, it happened.

“Charge~!”

The team that had only been taking hits suddenly went on the offensive. More precisely, Almond attacked.

— ?

— ??

— Now?!

— No way lol

— Legendary timing

— Feels like some deranged young lord commanding from atop a human palanquin

— This is insane

“C-Charge?!”

Ten enemies were still hostile. Wouldn’t it be better to wait for them to fight each other?

“If you want to live, you’ll die. And if you want to die?”

“You won’t...?”

No more discussion followed.

[Rope Movement]

Almond fired his rope forward.

“Crazy!”

The tanks had no choice but to follow.

[Hooked Blade]

Whoooong!

Gigant Machine hurled his hook forward as well.

“W-What is this?!”

[Stone Shield]

Great Monolith Kutan activated a skill that turned him into a stone shield for allies. His body shattered into stone, clinging to teammates and protecting them. The strength of this skill was that it moved with the ally. Wrapped in stone shields, Almond kept firing fire arrows as he charged straight into Team Five.

BOOOOM!

‘They’re just... coming in?!’

To Team Five, already bristling with nails, it looked like a hellish war chariot was charging them down.

‘We’re... screwed.’

Unexpectedly, Almond’s team charged in at the perfect time.

— They have to follow lol

— CrispyCrispy is a natural-born tank, huh?

— If they win, it’s officially the era of Smart Guy Supremacy

— Didn’t they all say they hated tanking? Why does this fit so well?

— Because there’s only one DPS lol

— With all those runes stacked, the damage is insane

— Damn, I bet on the mission... Bubblegum, hang in there!

— Charge? The smart young man.