[ROUND 1. FIGHT!]
The countdown concluded, and the second round between Jihyeon and Kanghyuk commenced.
‘Now, I’ll show them the true difference in skill.’
The moment Kanghyuk’s Tsubaki began to move, he anticipated Kagero’s [Phantom Stride] and preemptively widened the distance.
Utilizing the map’s full expanse, he gradually intensified his pressure, preventing Jihyeon from recklessly closing in.
[He’s concentrating harder than in a ranked match.]
[She can’t move in recklessly, lol.]
[Playing seriously really makes a difference.]
Seizing an opening, Tsubaki executed a dash skill, instantly closing the distance to Kagero.
Then, with a swift flick, he unleashed a light attack, the one with the shortest delay.
Clang!
[Mind’s Eye Stack: 0→1]
It was parried with effortless ease.
[Wow, she actually parried it.]
[My Kagero can’t do that; how does she?]
[From now on, Kagero is Tier 1.]
‘Alright, let’s see if she can keep parrying.’
Kanghyuk felt a surge of stubbornness.
He repeatedly unleashed Tsubaki’s light punch.
The intervals between attacks were mere frames; though their reach was short, the speed made continuous reaction seem impossible.
Yet.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang-clang!
[Mind’s Eye Stack: 1→6]
“Insane.”
The raw truth slipped from Kanghyuk’s lips.
Every single light attack, without exception, was perfectly parried.
[????]
[No way, she parried all of that?]
[Kagero is totally broken; I’m going to main them right now.]
[Your hands won’t be able to do that.]
In the middle of his light attack flurry, Kanghyuk abruptly ceased his assault.
He anticipated Jihyeon would instinctively whiff a parry, and seizing that opening, he initiated a grab.
Thwack!
‘This is unbelievable.’
Kanghyuk’s mind went blank.
‘She wasn’t just anticipating the flurry… she was truly watching and reacting to every single one of my attacks?’
He knew it intellectually, but this was clearly beyond human capability.
Driven by instinctive fear, Kanghyuk stumbled backward, desperate to create distance.
Yet, in his panic, his attempted backstep transformed into a soaring back-jump, launching him high into the air.
[What is this guy doing?]
[What hilarious joke did he hear that he’s doing a backflip in mid-air?]
And Jihyeon did not let his mistake go unpunished.
Kagero pushed off the ground, soaring upward.
[Phantom Stride] → [Flash]
Tsubaki, suspended mid-air from the back-jump, was sliced by [Flash] and launched even higher into the sky.
What followed was the perfect aerial combo, one Jihyeon had practiced countless times in the training grounds.
Thwack-thwack-thwack! Crash!
[Tsubaki HP: 100% → 75%]
With the final blow of the combo, Tsubaki plummeted to the ground.
‘Here it comes!’
Just as he predicted, Kagero assumed the drawing stance for [Ilsen].
However, the current [Ilsen] had less than 10 Mind’s Eye stacks.
It was a non-threatening technique, easily guardable.
‘I’ll counter with an anti-air wake-up skill!’
Kanghyuk intended to use [Hwayeonmu], an anti-air wake-up skill with invincibility frames, to counter [Ilsen] just before it connected.
The very instant Tsubaki bounced off the ground and shot skyward.
Kagero, who had been charging with [Ilsen], suddenly stopped.
‘A cancel?!’
Tsubaki, having launched into the air, once again left an an opening.
[Phantom Stride] → [Flash]
[COUNTER HIT!]
[1.5x DAMAGE APPLIED]
[Tsubaki HP: 75% → 30%]
[Falling for the same combo again?]
[Wow, she’s beating Hyuk-bro in a mind game.]
[Damn talent.]
[Hyuk, this isn’t right, is it?]
[MadHorse, damn it, my 300,000 points!!!]
[Fighting game noobs, honestly. It’s obvious that once you lose the mind game in a fighting game, you get beaten like that.]
[Ah, fighting game sensei!!]
Kanghyuk gritted his teeth.
Having taken the combo’s final blow, his Tsubaki was cornered against the wall, in the worst possible situation.
‘It’s not over yet.’
As Tsubaki recovered, Jihyeon’s Kagero relentlessly pressed the attack.
Quick, merciless attacks aimed at finishing off his health.
Tap. Tap. Tap-tap.
But Kanghyuk did not yield easily.
From the opponent’s light attacks to low attacks exploiting openings, and even mid attacks designed to break his guard.
His guard was perfect, allowing not a single effective hit.
[Wow, he’s actually holding out.]
[He’s blocking everything – low, mid, high. As expected of MadHorse.]
[Haha, Hyuk-bro’s not dead yet!]
[???: The moment you give up, the match is over.]
[He’s scraping by, lololol.]
However, Jihyeon showed no impatience.
In fact, seeing her opponent demonstrate such a perfect guard, she even found it intriguing.
‘He’s quite good.’
She concluded that conventional attacks wouldn’t break through this tough tortoise shell.
Jihyeon’s gaze shifted to the six-segment universal resource gauge.
Consuming two segments of the gauge, she unleashed another technique she had seen in the tutorial.
[EX Pinwheel Shuriken]
The massive shuriken Kagero hurled flew like a boomerang, pressuring Tsubaki’s mid-section as it slowly returned.
A chill ran down Kanghyuk’s spine.
A dire 50/50 situation.
To block the returning shuriken, he would need to maintain a mid-guard.
But doing so would leave his lower body completely exposed to Kagero’s next attack.
And a rash jump would surely lead to him being shot down again, just like before.
‘I’ll take a gamble!’
Kanghyuk decided to stake everything on his only potential escape route.
He predicted Jihyeon would go for a low attack, and 0.1 seconds before it connected, he jumped forward.
It was a last-ditch effort: to leap over Kagero’s head, switch positions, and corner Kagero against the wall instead.
But.
‘Oh, hell.’
Jihyeon’s Kagero did not initiate a low attack.
The moment Kanghyuk’s Tsubaki reached the apex of his jump, Jihyeon’s Kagero moved.
[Flash]
“Ah.”
Tsubaki, launched into the sky, was once again helplessly caught in an aerial combo.
[Wow, he’s fallen for that three times in a row.]
[If this isn’t a setup, what is it?]
[Tsubaki HP: 30% → 5%]
Tsubaki plummeted to the ground, barely clinging to a sliver of health.
Jihyeon approached him as he attempted to recover, delivering the final blow.
Grab!
Kagero’s grab technique signaled the end of Round 1.
[PERFECT KO!]
[Kagero HP: 100%]
[Tsubaki HP: 0%]
[MadHorse lost with a perfect KO???]
[My 300,000 points, damn it!!!]
[What?! Your points turn into scraps of paper with one bet?!]
[Thumbs up if you bet on the underdog, lololol.]
[???: The moment you give up, the match is over (it ended).]
[No, but she’s seriously too good. Her mind games are insane.]
[MadHorse-bro. It’s okay. You can win Round 2.]
[He was confident he’d win Round 1 too.]
[???: I had a bad cold, so my condition wasn’t good, sob.]
[No one would bet points on MadHorse, who got eliminated early in the preliminaries, right?]
[They’re making such a fuss. As I said before, in high-level play, if you lose one mind game, you get stomped. Haven’t these guys watched pro matches?]
[Does anyone know why this guy is so angry?]
[Seriously, no idea lololol.]
[From now on, this stream belongs to the Unnamed fan club.]
“Haa…”
Kanghyuk’s deep sigh spoke volumes about his feelings.
“I honestly feel like crying.”
[Don’t cry, MadHorse oppa ㅠㅠ (Flapping)]
[The trolls are seizing this chance to tear Hyuk-bro down.]
[Let’s go for Loss-Win-Win!]
****
[ROUND 2. FIGHT!]
Before he could even collect himself, Round 2 began.
Kanghyuk swallowed hard. His mind was in turmoil.
‘How do I win?’
For the very first time since he started playing the game, he entertained such a thought.
All his attacks were being parried.
Even when he tried mind games to initiate a grab, she perfectly countered it.
If he rashly closed the distance, half his health would vanish in a single combo, and if he kept his distance, he’d be toyed with by her zoning tools.
There was no answer.
‘No.’
Kanghyuk shook his head.
‘The only way is to constantly move back and forth, baiting my opponent into making a mistake.’
To make her whiff a parry, or to cause a control error.
He concluded that he had to abandon his strengths—flashy attacks and combos—and fight solely with fundamental movement and mind games.
The dynamic of Round 2 was entirely different from Round 1.
The flashy exchanges were gone, replaced by a tense staring contest as the two characters maintained their distance.
When Kanghyuk’s Tsubaki took a step forward, Jihyeon’s Kagero mirrored it.
When Tsubaki retreated, Kagero also retreated in kind.
A breathtaking battle of wits, like looking into a mirror.
[The atmosphere is brutal.]
[Hyuk-bro is totally scared, lolololol, he can’t attack.]
[He’s not scared, he’s being cautious.]
[After getting beat up like that, he has no choice but to be scared, yeah.]
[Why isn’t Tsubaki doing any long-range zoning?]
[There’s no reason to give Kagero free Mind’s Eye stacks.]
As if to prove the debate in the chat, it was Kanghyuk who first broke the tense silence.
Unable to endure it any longer, he finally threw his last remaining offensive option: a flame shuriken.
Whoosh-!
But the outcome was obvious.
Clang!
[Mind’s Eye Stack: 0→1]
Above Kagero’s head, who had lightly parried the incoming shuriken, a [Mind’s Eye Stack] accumulated.
Kanghyuk had aimed for this.
He dashed inward to exploit the parry’s brief recovery frames, then launched a low attack.
Clang!
Even that was perfectly blocked.
‘Damn it.’
Tsubaki feigned an attack from the front, then jumped to get behind and strike, but….
Clang! Clang! Clang! CLANG-!
Whether coming from the front, the back, or the air.
Every single one of Kanghyuk’s attacks, without a single exception, was parried.
[Mind’s Eye Stack: 10]
“Noooo!!! How is this even possible, seriouslyyyy!!!”
Ultimately, a scream bordering on a shriek burst from Kanghyuk’s lips.
The chat, on the other hand, was a cauldron of celebration.
[Lololololol.]
[MadHorse-bro’s scream, lolololol.]
[Don’t mess around. Unnamed is a god and I am invincible. My points will multiply today.]
[No, it doesn’t seem like she’s predicting, but just reacting. Her reaction speed is insane.]
[Today is legendary, lololol.]
[Point multiplication is sweet.]
[Let’s cuckoo~ (TL Note: ‘Ppeokkugi’ is a Korean slang term, used here to mean taking over or broadcasting news of the event, similar to how a cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird’s nest. In this context, it implies spreading the news of Unnamed’s victory.)]
[Don’t cuckoo.]
[Anyway, it’ll spread across all communities soon, everyone will know lololol.]
[Nerf Kagero, seriously. Didn’t Gong Jiseop increase the parry frames with every patch?]
[Kagero’s fan club is definitely Jiseop-bro.]
[Ilsen]
As Kagero assumed the drawing stance, Kanghyuk reacted reflexively.
Since it was a linear attack, if used so straightforwardly, he could evade it with a jump.
‘I dodged it!’
Kanghyuk felt a wave of relief as he watched [Ilsen]’s sword energy graze past his feet.
Jihyeon looked up at Tsubaki, who was suspended in the air, as if she had been waiting for this moment, and consumed two segments of her accumulated mana gauge.
[Special Move: Wind God]
“Ah.”
A short gasp escaped Kanghyuk’s lips.
Perfectly, everything had been read.
Kagero, enveloped in a blue current of wind, surged upward, unleashing a merciless flurry of attacks on Tsubaki, who was still suspended in mid-air.
Thwack-thwack-thwack! Wham-wham-wham-wham!
[Tsubaki HP: 100% → 60%]
As he plummeted to the ground from the special move’s final blow, Kanghyuk’s mental fortitude shattered alongside him.
He couldn’t win.
Attacks, defense, mind games—nothing worked.
‘What should I do?’
His mind went blank.
As he recovered, he anticipated Kagero would attempt a grab and instinctively reached out to break it.
But Kagero merely took a slight step back.
This technique, known as ‘shimmy,’ involves taking a small step backward to bait the opponent into whiffing a grab-break, creating an opening.
It was none other than Kanghyuk’s own favorite mind-game tactic.
Crash!
[Tsubaki HP: 60% → 40%]
Completely outmaneuvered in the mind game, Kanghyuk’s resolve broke, and the match concluded with a series of consecutive grabs.
[PERFECT KO!]
[WINNER – Kagero]
[It’s over….]
[MadHorse’s spiritual pressure has vanished??]
[Damn it!!! My points!!]
