NOVEL NEXT Chapter 113
【#FantasyLeague2024】 Leviathan Assembly! First Team Meeting Stream! 【Hanabane Rui and 6 others】
There were many steps in the process, but I had grown very close to the members of Team Leviathan.
Thus, the awaited first team meeting began.
“Oh, Aurora, you’re here?”
As I stepped into the My Room I had been invited to, Barubara greeted me warmly.
Currently, in the voice channel, it was just me, Sora, Rui, and Barubara. Rui seemed busy, likely setting up for the stream.
“You two came together? Are you seriously dating or something?”
“N-No, we’re not!”
“Sora was feeling nervous, so we came together,” I replied.
Though Sora got along with everyone, it seemed she felt intimidated in front of the senior members.
Rui and Barubara, after all, were VTubers who had been active since 2018.
Considering even the longest-serving members of EYEAI, like Rinco and Ichika, had only started in 2021, these two were true veterans—icons from the early days of VTubing.
“There’s no need to be so tense! Sora! Relax, relax!”
“Y-Yes, okay.”
“Feel free to speak informally and call us by name! Don’t sweat the small stuff! Wahahaha!”
I didn’t know what was so funny, but Barubara let out a hearty laugh.
From my previous collaboration experience with him, I knew Barubara was quite generous. In the last stream, he even donated 20,000 yen, claiming it was “the manly thing to do,” despite not being required to.
“I-I’ll try my best,” Sora said, sounding a bit overwhelmed. It would likely take some time for her to get used to it.
As the broadcast time approached, all the members of Team Leviathan had gathered.
“Nice to meet you all.”
The dry voice came from none other than our team owner, Gaho.
He had the look of a rotting fish, his unshaven face adding to his rugged appearance. Was this just his VR avatar, or did he look like this in real life too?
“I’m Choi Gaho of Steel Genesis. Sorry for the suddenness, but I’ll be going over the team’s operating policy and strategies first. We’ll need to jump into scrims soon.”
It seemed Gaho was pressed for time.
“First and foremost, let’s have fun. Gaming, at its core, is about enjoyment. That’s why I prioritized team atmosphere when selecting members.”
As Gaho spoke, he alternated glances between Rui and me.
He subtly gestured with a nod, signaling us to step forward.
Rui and I followed his cue and moved to the front.
“To be honest, I prioritized the atmosphere so much that some positions overlap. For instance, both Hanabane Rui and Aurora specialize in the same role: Escape Artist.”
Now that he mentioned it, he was right.
While I had experience playing other roles, the one I played most frequently was Escape Artist.
Rui was the same. I vividly recalled when we joined a match with Anna; Rui’s Escape Artist had nearly wiped out the main team.
Indeed, our roles overlapped.
“I’ve drafted the positions as follows. But these aren’t set in stone—they’re more of a tactical suggestion.
If it feels off, you’re free to try position swaps or experiment with different setups like a dual DPS strategy.”
Aurora (Tier 1): Escape Artist
Kaga Mero (Tier 5): Tank
Barubara Rian (Tier 3): Frontline Dealer
Inui Kirin (Tier 4): Nuker
Hanabane Rui (Tier 2): Sustained Dealer
Ayanokouji Sora (Tier 6): Support
“Hmm,” I murmured.
The position assignments seemed straightforward—higher-tier players in DPS roles and lower-tier ones covering other duties.
The only concern was the tank being a lower-tier player. But since Gaho mentioned position swaps were always an option, it wasn’t something to dwell on too much.
What stuck with me more was Gaho’s tone.
It sounded like he was considering our feelings rather than strictly trying to accommodate us.
There’s a subtle difference between the two.
“Our strategy is this: we focus on growing Sora and Mero as players.”
“M-Me?”
Sora, hearing her name, looked startled.
***
I came to an abrupt halt mid-run.
I felt a strange premonition.
When playing as the Dark Knight in the Escape Artist role, making noise was a given. With its low scouting ability, the Dark Knight relied on running around to locate enemies.
Suppressing footsteps wasn’t easy, and frankly, I preferred the enemies to hear my steps and come to me instead.
But something about this game felt off. Acting like that seemed like a bad idea.
“Hmm.”
Tilting my head, I began to move cautiously.
When there was a conflict between theory and instinct, I trusted my instincts more. Feeling an inexplicable sense of danger usually meant something was amiss.
Spotting a bush, I hid and crept forward stealthily. From the other side, I heard a faint buzzing.
“A
Insect noises.
I raised my sword slightly.
Rather than sticking my head out, I used the flat of the blade like a mirror to check the situation.
In the reflection, I saw a cluster of flies moving through the area.
I waited for the swarm to pass before quickly but quietly advancing.
In the distance, I spotted someone.
Crunch!
Crack!
Snap!
Their appearance was grotesque.
A person with an androgynous, undeniably beautiful face, but below the neck, it was enough to make anyone frown.
A gaping hole was visible in their abdomen.
If they were a zombie, their guts would have spilled out. Instead, something else emerged—a massive centipede.
Thicker than a person’s arm, the centipede was crawling out of their body and devouring neutral mobs.
– Ew, gross.
– Bugmancers are always so creepy, lol.
– Wow, someone’s actually playing a Bugmancer.
– It’s a good character, but the controls are so clunky.
– Decent stats, but no one uses it because of the design, haha.
The Bugmancer.
A character class that fought by commanding insects.
And in my opinion, the Bugmancer was the most versatile character in Labyrinthos.
“It’ll depend heavily on the opponent’s skill.”
If the Bugmancer had a weakness, it would be that its bugs were vulnerable to fire. Characters who used fire-based weapons typically served as the Bugmancer’s hard counter.
But aside from that, there wasn’t much the Bugmancer lacked in terms of stats.
Its damage output wasn’t bad, it had crowd-control abilities, scouting capabilities, mobility, solid defense, decent melee combat, ranged harassment skills, consistent damage over time, and collective combat power from fighting alongside its bugs. The only area it lacked was high burst damage.
It was a highly versatile character, so the skill of its pilot was of paramount importance.
I dashed straight toward the back of the Bugmancer.
-Crunch!
Just as I leaped in to swing my sword, the Bugmancer’s shoulder tore open.
Emerging from the ripped flesh was the foreleg of a spider.
The leg, several meters long, burst out from the Bugmancer’s skin and swung toward me.
I had intended to launch a surprise attack, but the Bugmancer reacted first.
Even though this wasn’t a ranked game, it seemed the MMR matchmaking had paired me with a reasonably skilled player. Their ability to respond was impressive.
I had no choice but to retreat, dodging the spider leg.
The Bugmancer swiftly turned to face me, swinging its arm wide.
This time, its palm tore open, and a centipede shot out from within.
-Slash!
I severed the centipede’s head with my sword as it lunged at me, jaws agape.
The Bugmancer’s skillset was quite unique—it didn’t have an ultimate ability.
To be precise, most characters in Labyrinthos had “one passive skill, two normal skills, and one ultimate ability.” In contrast, the Bugmancer had no ultimate and instead possessed “four normal skills.”
The skills were:
-Bzzzzzzzz
The sound of buzzing grew louder as a swarm of flies closed in on me.
It seemed the Bugmancer intended to use the flies to trap me while the spider leg extended to block my escape.
-Whoosh!
The enormous spider leg, reaching several meters in length, shot toward me in an instant.
It was a thrusting attack.
Thrusts had faster attack speed than large, sweeping strikes. However, thrusts were also easier to dodge if you could predict the attack trajectory. Perhaps the Bugmancer assumed I wouldn’t react in time.
I dodged the thrust and quickly closed the gap.
“Left: flies. Right: centipede.”
I carefully observed the incoming insects as I reduced the distance.
In a matchup between the Dark Knight and the Bugmancer, the Bugmancer held a slight advantage.
The fight was similar to battling a Necromancer, which also relied on swarming tactics. Like the Necromancer’s undead minions, the Bugmancer’s insects were affected by the Dark Knight’s passive ability,
Even though I wasn’t wearing armor today, the Bugmancer’s attacks weren’t strong enough to kill me in one hit.
-Buzz!
The swarm of flies swarmed my body, biting into my flesh, while the Cannibal Centipede sank its jaws into my shoulder.
But I didn’t care. I leapt forward, driving my sword into the Bugmancer’s torso.
“Ugh?!”
Perhaps the Bugmancer didn’t expect me to go this far. Its eyes widened in shock.
The Bugmancer was a versatile character, but in PvP games like this one, such characters were rarely top-tier.
Its damage output wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t on par with a Technomancer’s DPS.
Its melee combat was decent, but its kill potential lagged behind a Dual Swordsman.
It had mobility, but it was slower than an Assassin.
It had defense, but it wasn’t as tanky as a Heavy Armored Warrior.
In short, while the Bugmancer could do many things, it didn’t excel in any one area.
Thus, it was inevitable that the Bugmancer would falter in any specific area where its opponent’s strengths outweighed its own.
The Dark Knight’s strength was in “muddying the waters with disruptive skills.”
By lowering the enemy’s attack power and mobility through debuffs, and using
The Bugmancer’s damage was concentrated in its
By dragging the fight into a messy, prolonged battle, I could expose the limitations of even the most versatile character—and the skill gap of its pilot.
This became a battle of mental endurance, skill, and experience.
The Bugmancer’s pilot clearly wasn’t accustomed to fighting a Dark Knight in this kind of prolonged skirmish, while I had plenty of experience in drawn-out engagements.
In a clash where both sides chipped away at each other, the experience gap tilted the matchup in my favor.
As such, it was only natural that my blade found its way to the Bugmancer’s neck.
-Stab!
【Your Dark Knight has slain the enemy Bugmancer.】
“This is Aurora. I’ve taken down their Escape Artist.”
[Oh! Nice~!]
[Well done, Aurora!]
“What’s your status?”
[Hmm! Over here…]
【The enemy Mage has slain your Cavalryman.】
【The enemy Dual Swordsman has slain your Puppeteer.】
【The enemy Beast Tamer has slain your Battle Priest.】
【The enemy Dual Swordsman has slain your Spearman.】
【The enemy Beast Tamer has slain your Pyromancer.】
[We’re screwed!]
Barubara announced in a cheery voice.
Despite my best efforts, the enemy managed to defeat the boss, and we lost.
The road ahead looks challenging.