When Magia chose Aeipolla, Cheon Dohee thought to herself,
“Is she really this obsessed with shotguns…?”
Unlike other siege-specialized (siege-focused) class characters who at least maintain some balance for team fights, Aeipolla was a pure base-destruction character.
Her body was as fragile as glass, dying after just a few hits. But once she started shooting properly, buildings would explode one after another, earning her the nickname “Glass Cannon.”
To be honest, it was satisfying.
The special motion for demolishing buildings? It’s so cool that once you see it, you can’t get it out of your head.
The problem was that pulling off that one big shot was way too difficult.
What made it even harder was Aeipolla’s combat skill, “Delayed Explosive.”
It was a toggle skill: when activated, attacking buildings would lower Aeipolla’s defense but stack charges on the structure. Once the stacks reached a certain number, she could unleash her ultimate skill, “Total Demolition,” to blow it up.
With more than 10 stacks, she could destroy the outer and inner towers in one shot. At 12 and 16 stacks, she could annihilate the core tower and the main base respectively.
And when she did, the building destruction special motion Magia loved so much would be triggered.
Since other siege characters had to painstakingly attack to destroy buildings, and other classes needed to combine their efforts to take down towers, the community initially cried out, “Isn’t Aeipolla way too overpowered?”
But… her double-barrel reload speed was a bit of an issue.
It took 2 seconds to reload one barrel, so stacking 10 charges took a whopping 20 seconds.
Meanwhile, if you attacked the top or bottom turret at the edge of the battlefield, even the furthest enemy would only take about 15 seconds to run over and stop you.
Given how unique she was, enemies always knew they couldn’t just leave Aeipolla alone. It was common for her glass cannon to shatter before she could even stack all 10 charges.
This made Aeipolla’s difficulty level the highest.
You had to predict when enemies would arrive.
You had to keep refreshing your stacks with a single hit every now and then (since they only lasted 10 seconds).
At the same time, you had to run around avoiding enemies using terrain and vision control.
In short, unless you were a high-level Knight of Legends player capable of near-miraculous gameplay, it was nearly impossible to master her.
Still, thanks to the combination of her aesthetic appeal (cute girl, fallen angel) and the rare charm of dual-barreled gameplay, she gained a cult following. To this day, she continues to contribute to the suffering of newbies.
And that was Aeipolla.
So, the moment Magia declared:
“I’ll keep practicing until I win. That’s fine, right, boss?”
Cheon Dohee’s face darkened as she realized her entire day would now be dedicated to Magia.
“Are you planning to live at the PC café today…?”
“There’s no way we won’t win a single match before going home, right?”
Dohee had been looking forward to spending the day with her.
Her expectations?
About 2–3 hours at the PC café.
A nice dinner together.
A coffee or some dessert as a treat.
Maybe wandering around a shopping mall, or visiting a photo booth to take some cute four-frame pictures…
You know, the fun kind of bonding time girls share.
But a PC café?
For the entire day?
Eating ramen while at it?
Not that Dohee disliked PC cafés.
She loved gaming, and back in her university days, before she started streaming, she’d even spent whole days at PC cafés despite getting scolded by her parents.
There was just one problem.
Unlike back then, Cheon Dohee wasn’t someone who could spend an entire day playing games anymore.
Her mind was constantly occupied with work, and no matter how much she tried to focus, four hours was her absolute limit.
“We have to win somehow…”
She needed to secure a victory quickly and escape from Naore (the endless loop of gaming). Only then could she subtly suggest doing something else.
The issue was that Dohee didn’t know much about Naore either, and her skill level wasn’t much different from Magia’s. Pulling off a solo carry to hand Magia a win? Out of the question.
In other words, even if she played separately from Magia, she wouldn’t be much help in team fights either.
“…Maybe this is the right answer?”
Character selection.
Support class.
A support character that could designate an ally, becoming invincible while following them around. Whether it was harassing enemies, healing allies, or anything else, this character could do it all.
Yet, it was often ridiculed mocked for being too reliant on eating ramen (a joke about being overly passive) or for failing to contribute significantly in team fights.
The tragic mascot of the game, ‘Mascot deployed.’
Magia took charge of offense, while Cheon Dohee focused on harassing and healing. Together, they formed the dynamic duo of Motattui.
* * *
For graduate student Lee, Naore was life.
It wasn’t a statement with some deep or complex meaning.
It was just that Naore was the only game he had been playing consistently since childhood.
But playing for a long time didn’t necessarily mean he got any better at it, and, as luck would have it, his team compositions were consistently terrible.
Thanks to that, being teased as “the guy who’s hopeless at games” had become a routine occurrence among his friends, who all made it to Gold rank every year.
This year was no different.
With just a month left before the 24th season ended, his tier remained stuck at Bronze 1.
The border to Silver was just one promotion match away, yet for days, he had repeatedly fallen short of that threshold.
Unable to endure the relentless stress and pressure, he fled to casual games, hoping for some relief.
Bronze again. Am I really stuck in Bronze again?!
But perhaps it just wasn’t his day.
Even in casual games, things weren’t going well.
Five consecutive losses.
His match history was glowing red-hot with defeats, and at this rate, it felt like he might rage quit in just a few more games.
“Ugh. Should I just quit this stupid game already…?”
A faint “ching” sound signaled a random match was starting.
After locking in his pick, the game launched, and the loading screen appeared.
Lee stared blankly at the champion lineup until a look of hope lit up his face.
{{Top :: Aeipolla :: The Scars on My Back Are a Shameful Badge of Cowardice}}
{{Support :: Mascot :: DodoBirdHeeHee}}
…
…
They were complete newbies, having only played two matches in total.
And as if that wasn’t enough, the champion chosen was Aeipolla, a notorious pick in ranked games.
Beginners often chose her because she looked cool, only to quickly drop her when they realized how awful she was to play.
On top of that, the person duo-queuing with Aeipolla had picked the equally infamous “Ramencoat,” a champion widely known for being useless in team fights.
Their stats? Just 15 games played. Absolute rookie level.
“This comp is a disaster. If I lose this one, I’m really quitting the game for good,” Lee muttered.
The entire game already played out in his mind.
The newbie Aeipolla would wander around both lanes under the pretense of sieging and get picked off, triggering a team fight.
The attached Mascot would be blown away, the mess spilling over onto the rest of the team, leading to a total wipe.
And so, the large monsters were handed over entirely to the enemy, forcing Lee’s team into a defensive position.
Once again, Aeipolla would skitter around, get caught, the team would be wiped, and they’d be back on the defensive.
It was easy to predict an endless cycle of this.
In short, Lee’s future was practically rolling out a red carpet of despair, complete with shattered dreams and hopes.
But this time, things seemed different.
Feeling an unusual sense of optimism, Lee charged down the lane, thrilled at the thought of finally winning a game.
“They’ve basically set this up for me to win.”
His lane opponents? None other than the newbie duo of Aeipolla and Mascot.
What were the odds of this?
Although it was a 1v2, Naore was a game where skill levels dictated everything.
Even with two incompetent players, they couldn’t possibly defeat a single skilled one or so Lee thought, even as a Bronze-tier player himself.
And thanks to Naore’s famously airtight MMR system, the likelihood of smurf accounts was slim.
This lane was Lee’s stage, his domain.
“Alright, time to grab an early kill.”
Lee’s champion, Kirin the Blade Master, sprinted straight toward Aeipolla, who was idly wandering in the middle of the lane.
In Lee’s mind, an entire montage was already playing out:
Dashing like the wind through allied demolishers, deflecting enemy skills with parries, taking down Aeipolla, and then finishing off Mascot for a clean 2/0/0 scoreline.
“Ugh, dodging this?”
But Aeipolla, seemingly uninterested in fighting, cautiously retreated behind her tower.
She seemed to be the timid sort, even among newbies.
At this rate, it was shaping up to be a painfully dull laning phase.
“Hm, fine. If you won’t come out, I’ll just keep pressuring and chip away at your tower.”
Even the most timid newbie would eventually react once their precious tower started taking damage, wouldn’t they?
“Man, persistent little thing…”
Minutes passed, yet Aeipolla held firm.
She stayed safe under the tower, farming minions and securing last hits, while any chip damage was immediately healed by Mascot.
It was almost endearing to see a newbie playing so methodically.
But this was the end of the line.
Lee hit level 6 first and unlocked his special ability, Thunderous Slash, an adaptive skill that allowed him to slash across the battlefield in a straight line, dragging any enemies caught in its path to his final position.
‘Once you hit level 6, you’ll have to come out.’
Even the most passive lanes inevitably saw action at level 6.
After all, both sides gained access to their champions’ defining abilities, setting the stage for unique strategies.
If Aeipolla so much as stepped out of her tower’s range, Lee was ready to ambush her, unleash his ultimate, and deliver a satisfying beatdown.
She was a glass cannon; melting her would take mere moments.
By the time Lee reached level 6, the enemy tower Aeipolla was defending had been whittled down to half health.
‘You’ll have to come out at least once before it falls…!’
Right on cue, Aeipolla hit level 6 as well.
Lee placed his fingers firmly on the F key, ready to unleash Thunderous Slash at a moment’s notice.
Suddenly, Aeipolla dashed out of the tower’s safety straight toward Lee’s turret in a direct, unwavering line.
“…What the ?!”
I expected them to act a bit more cautiously, but what in the world is this?
The sudden action, completely unlike the behavior shown so far, caused Yi to miss the timing to use Lightning Slash.
However, Aeipolla was utterly ineffective against champions.
In other words, all Yi had to do was calmly aim and use Lightning Slash again.
Bang.
Fwoosh.
“Clouds?!”
Aeipolla, who had reached the turret Yi was defending, suddenly released a black cloud.
Stopping at the edge of the dark fog, Yi muttered.
“No way. They must be a total newbie.”
Aeipolla’s adaptive skills shine in Type I and Type II.
Type I trades Aeipolla’s building-specific stacks and special demolition abilities for champion-specific stacks.
This allows Aeipolla, normally a siege-class unit, to act like a damage dealer, sometimes delivering unexpected victories during team fights.
And Type II?
It reduces reload time from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds a whopping 25% maximizing Aeipolla’s demolition speed.
Thanks to this, towers often fell before defenders could even arrive in games with frequent team fights.
But Type III, the Dark Cloud?
It’s infamous for being nearly useless.
In a game filled with AoE attacks like this, and with Aeipolla being so fragile, some joked it was like asking to die hiding in a cloud.
In short, no one but a complete newbie would ever pick Type III.
Yi, stifling a laugh, aimed Lightning Slash at the center of the smoke.
With this level of inexperience, they’d probably panic after accidentally picking the wrong skill.
As he prepared the move, Yi spoke his Kirine incantation in a stylish tone.
— Hekireki, Sen.
Crash!
Like a bolt of lightning, Kirine slashed through the black fog.
“…Huh?”
But there was nothing caught at the tip of Kirine’s blade.
For a moment, Yi wondered if he had miscalculated the target’s position.
Then it happened.
Clang, clang!
The sharp sound of metal striking metal rang out.
Aeipolla’s demolition stacks were building up on the allied turret.
“What the—? When did they get out?”
Aeipolla gains a very brief stealth effect when moving in and out of the Dark Cloud.
Apparently, as Aeipolla dashed out of the fog, Yi had coincidentally charged through it in the opposite direction, missing them entirely.
“Agh, wasted a skill.”
Still, it wasn’t a big deal.
Building stacks on the tower only revealed their greed for demolition, and Dark Cloud didn’t last forever—it was practically useless against AoE skills.
As Aeipolla reloaded and reentered the fog, Yi deliberately weaved in and out of the cloud, using basic attacks and his combat skill, Fan Slash, to test the waters.
Sure, the newbie might cry about being toyed with, but what could be done?
The rule of this game is simple: if you’re weak, you lose.
However.
“…Why isn’t it hitting?”
No matter how much Yi swung his sword through the cloud, there was no sound of impact.
It was as if he was slicing through air.
Just then—clang, clang!
The slug-round icons on the turret increased to four.
“What the ?”
Yi hurriedly dashed out of the dark cloud, only to see Aeipolla standing at the turret once again.
Panicking, Yi chased after Aeipolla and unleashed basic attacks and combat skills, but Aeipolla’s attached mascot quickly restored half the damage through battle recovery.
And once more, Aeipolla slipped back into the dark cloud.
“Ugh, what the heck? Was the duration of Dark Cloud always this long?”
As Yi circled around the cloud in frustration, Aeipolla used a blind spot to dart out once more.
Yi gave chase and attacked again, only for Aeipolla to recover and slip back into the cloud.
Moments later, Aeipolla emerged again, stacking passives before retreating once more.
By now, the stack count had climbed to eight.
“When is this stupid cloud going to disappear?!”
As if answering Yi’s complaint, the cloud finally dissipated after its 30-second duration.
But Aeipolla, exploiting the brief stealth effect right before the cloud faded, made their move.
“…?”
Expecting the enemy to appear in the center of the dissipating cloud, Yi scanned the area, confused.
Two seconds later, he found Aeipolla directly behind him, at the turret he was supposed to defend.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
With Aeipolla’s health whittled down to less than half, a single skill combo from Yi would finish them off.
But without Lightning Slash, Yi had no way to close the distance quickly.
Clang, clang.
The slug-round icons hit 10 stacks, their borders shifting from red to green.
Aeipolla immediately activated her ultimate ability.
Both barrels of her double-barrel guns locked onto the turret as if in perfect synchronization.
The black feathers of her wings flared out, growing larger, and the radiance from the halo above illuminated her weapons.
——————— Phew.
BOOM!
A deafening roar, like a fireworks display, echoed as light scattered across the area.
The chain explosions shook the surroundings violently.
The announcer’s voice came first.
First Destroy!
{{ScarOnTheBackIsADishonorToShotguns >> Outer Turret (Top Lane)}}
With the collapsing turret as her backdrop, Aeipolla confidently strode toward Yi and spoke.
[All Chat] ScarOnTheBackIsADishonorToShotguns: That was so dull I felt like dying.
By the time Yi finally reached her, his sword and ultimate skill combo landed perfectly, taking her down.
First Blood!
{{IDontWantToBeBronze >> ScarOnTheBackIsADishonorToShotguns}}
But even as the free kill registered, Yi couldn’t shake the bitter taste of defeat.
Tearing up with an emote, Yi muttered.
[All Chat] IDontWantToBeBronze: Sigh… I lost.
Meanwhile, Yi’s teammates, who had been watching the top lane through the minimap, could only react in disbelief.
[All Chat] KillThemAllThenStealth: What the heck are you guys doing?