Chapter 1313 – #14 Sicilian Defense (6)
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1.
It had been a while since Diana and Siwoo played on the position board together.
As the very first step, the two of them each placed three mana sources.
Diana and Siwoo’s mana source placements were similar.
A basic triangular formation.
Two were placed in the front to engage in a power struggle in the center, while one mana source was left in the rear to ensure stability, a textbook formation.
It seemed he had no intention of teasing Diana with cheap tricks like in the old days.
If he had, she would have made him cry his eyes out, but still.
Let me reiterate, the current Diana is not the rookie she once was.
She is a top-tier duelist who has conquered all the high-level players in Gehenna and reached the pinnacle.
-Tap
The opening of the position board, or the early build, is actually almost standardized.
Unless one of them openly starts a fight, it’s a time to steadily build up their foundation, optimizing circuits around the mana sources and securing basic runes, so to speak.
Siwoo and Diana lightly clashed to seize the upper-left rune.
It was as if they were extending their roots to absorb nutrients, only to become entangled with the roots of another tree.
Inevitably, a small land-grabbing fight occurs.
In boxing terms, it’s like lightly exchanging jabs to test the waters.
It may seem insignificant, but it’s important.
It’s a stage to check the opponent’s style, details, and ability to read the board.
“……”
In that first fight, Diana realized it clearly.
She was different from before.
She could see the hidden intentions in his moves, which had seemed meaningless in the past.
She understood why she had found herself ‘naturally losing’ when she played against him.
He never made a meaningless move.
Every move had a purpose and a basis.
Even if it wasn’t flashy, he grasped all the advantages, risks, and losses that could be gained the moment he made a move.
It was a refined move that pushed the details to the extreme.
But that was the same for Diana.
Diana could now see the board at the same level as Shin Siwoo.
“Miss, you’ve really improved a lot.”
“So have you, Duke.”
Honest compliments were exchanged.
Siwoo didn’t expect Diana to be able to do this much.
Diana had vaguely guessed that he would have become stronger, but she didn’t expect him to be this complete.
In the midst of the tense atmosphere, the pressure from both sides focused on a single small rune.
They tried to twist and penetrate the opponent’s firmly locked defense, and they put pressure on the opponent’s area.
A quiet struggle to ruin the opponent’s plan and complete their own in reverse.
Although it was a small-scale skirmish, the tension was as great as the sound of a huge bridge bending.
‘Solid.’
That was Siwoo’s impression of Diana, who had changed completely.
‘She’s not being impulsive like before, she’s calm.’
In the past, Diana tended to have a narrow view.
She often made emotionally impulsive moves.
That was Diana’s weakness.
She had the Gehenna style of play, which emphasized preparation and mid-to-late game potential, but she was swayed by her emotions, causing her upper and lower body to move separately, and she would lose her balance on her own.
But the current Diana had no such weakness.
Rather, the pressure that came like a thick quilt made Siwoo quite perplexed.
-Tap
It was Siwoo who gave up the rune at that point first.
He took a step back.
Diana clenched her fist and celebrated her small victory, then immediately cooled her head.
‘Calm down, calm down. I almost fell into my bad habits again.’
She was happy to have pushed him out of the engagement and taken the rune.
It meant that her new style worked against Siwoo.
However, this engagement did not have a significant impact on the outcome.
At best, Diana had gained about half an advantage.
But Shin Siwoo would not have declared a surrender without any calculation.
It meant that he might have quickly given up because he had calculated that ‘it’s okay to give this much. Instead, I can gain other advantages.’
That prediction was correct.
He immediately made a move to seize another rune.
Thanks to giving up the rune without hesitation in the previous engagement, he was able to move faster than Diana and each of them got one rune.
-Tap
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Engagements to seize each other’s main runes.
Roughly assessing the situation and backing out, or planting a flag.
Optimizing the design for ‘mana cannons’ or ‘shields’ based on the acquired runes.
The early game generally progressed in this flow.
After each of them had half of the runes, Diana took the lead and moved to the center.
‘The number of runes acquired is the same, but… I’m more advantageous.’
The reasons were as follows.
The runes on the position board all have different levels of importance.
Of course, depending on the nature of the engagement, a useless rune can become the key to victory or defeat, and conversely, a normally great rune can become trash, but the current flow of the game was smooth.
In such a smooth flow, the side with more runes that generally have a high expected value is usually more advantageous.
That was Diana right now.
So, she was trying to solidify her relative advantage by moving to the center before the early game dragged on and variables arose.
‘…She’s sharp?’
Siwoo was silent.
If she came out like this, it would inevitably lead to a mid-game engagement.
Diana’s style, which had undergone a great awakening, could be summarized in one sentence.
Flexibility.
While making flawless moves, her judgment of the situation was very quick, like ‘either this or that.’
Instead of sticking to one victory plan and narrowing her view, she derived the most rational judgment for the situation.
Even in the situation just now, if Diana had not been confident in her advantage and had just hesitated for a moment, there would have been several ways for Siwoo to catch up, but she did not give him even a moment’s gap.
In order to properly utilize the ‘snowball’ style that Siwoo had newly acquired, he had to gain an advantage in the early stages.
He had to gradually widen the gap without ever closing the slight gap.
But Diana, who had taken the initiative, did not give up even that slight advantage, and rather gained an advantage of more than one move.
It had been a while.
The feeling of his head getting hot.
It seemed like it was the first time since the battle with Rosie, where he had narrowly lost by half a move, that he had such a tough engagement.
“Hoo….”
“Hmm….”
The mid-game had begun.
Diana began to launch mana cannons in earnest, launching a tight offensive.
Siwoo held up his shield, waiting for a chance to counter with mana cannons, and kept his feet firmly planted to avoid being pushed out of the center, waiting for an opportunity.
There is a truth that applies not only to the position board but also to actual magic battles.
The attacking side inevitably reveals a weakness.
Their consciousness is focused on the attack, their defense becomes weak, their movements become larger, and their once solid guard loosens.
That was the case with Diana right now.
Although she was adjusting the intensity of her mana cannons and focusing on rapid fire instead, a so-called attack without weight, there were gaps in between each mana cannon shot.
If Siwoo had been a mediocre player, he would have tried to shove a counter into that gap.
The reason he was only raising his guard was simple.
‘Is it a trap?’
Those gaps looked like Diana’s beckoning.
As if telling him not to hold back and jump in, saying, ‘Here’s my gap, try to grab it.’
It was as if she was seducing him with a gentle voice.
And that was actually the case.
Diana, who used to only know honest moves, had become cunning and shrewd.
She had set a trap and planned to crush the arm of anyone who tried to enter rashly.
‘Welcome. I’ll be waiting.’
Diana glared at the position board with fierce eyes.
But as expected of Shin Siwoo?
‘Did he notice?’
It was a trap that had a honey pot placed on top, mud rubbed on it to hide the metallic smell, and several layers of leaves covering it.
But he was like a suspicious bear, only smelling it from afar, and showed no sign of approaching at all.
‘If not, then keep getting hit there.’
But it didn’t matter.
There was no need to be impatient.
Diana was still on the offensive, and he was only holding up his guard to avoid being pushed out of the center.
The gap would not narrow just by smelling it from afar.
Diana had already gained momentum.
Someday, the bear would have no choice but to stick its snout into the honey pot on the trap.
Even if it knew it was dangerous and suspicious, it wouldn’t want to starve to death.
“……”
Siwoo’s unusually long deliberation.
The hourglass timer on the position board, which automatically turned, was almost empty.
Was it now?
Was he going to come in now?
If so, she would welcome him with open arms.
Diana was prepared to give a grand welcome to the hungry bear.
Victory was just around the corner.
Siwoo raised both hands.
Diana thought for a moment that it was a declaration of surrender, and her heart skipped a beat.
“I guess not. This feels awkward.”
“Is it a surrender?”
“No.”
He had tried to imitate Rosie Allu for a moment, but it was something he couldn’t do.
People should wear clothes that fit them.
A style is bound to resemble a person’s philosophy of victory.
If it had been Rosie, she would have clung to this sticky central fight, willingly stepping onto the battlefield that Diana wanted, and tried to find victory within it.
She would have believed in her own meticulous and perfect calculation skills.
But Siwoo’s philosophy of victory had always been one thing.
Victory is not about getting what you want.
It’s about taking away what the opponent wants to do.
If Diana wanted a central fight….
“What are you doing?”
Diana frowned at Siwoo’s move, which had casually given up the center.
It was a perfect self-inflicted wound.
It was practically a declaration of surrender.
“Take the center.”
But she realized that it was just a misunderstanding.
Siwoo, who had boldly given up the center, which was no exaggeration to say that the one who occupied it would win.
He split the turn he gained thanks to that, and a fierce attack rushed like a sharp hook, bypassing the center and heading towards Diana’s mana source.
-Bang!
It felt like she actually heard an explosion in her ear.
Diana’s hastily raised shield blocked the attack, but Diana felt a chill run down her spine.
His style, which had been calm until just now, had changed with a single move.
A truly wild move, like a mad dog that had thrown off its polite mask.
Shin Siwoo, who had even changed the aura rippling behind him, was smiling boldly.
“I’m taking this game.”
This was the real deal.
This was the real Shin Siwoo.
Diana felt a strange sense of joy and trembled, and smiled back.
“Try it.”
