Moonlight Domain
I let out a long breath.
“Hmm.”
Gripping the sword with both hands, we continued to probe each other’s openings without pause.
“Then I shall begin!!”
The one whose body burned for combat swung a heavy overhead slash, and the real battle commenced.
Drawing the blade was ordinary enough, but the edge that came screaming in immediately was fast enough that letting my guard down would be fatal.
Shing!!
Ah. A feint.
Craaaaang!!!
“What?!”
The overhead strike had been a lie. The true blade had been aiming for my thigh, so I had already raised my sword to intercept it.
“Hoho! Then what about this…!!”
The follow-up was a lightning-fast thrust aimed at my solar plexus.
Whoooosh!!
However, this sword was no ordinary attack either.
Rather than parrying on the beat, I had to counter half a beat early.
The so-called off-beat pattern.
Craaaaang!!!
“…!!”
“Hehe, it seems you truly have grown old.”
Blocking the attack and then teabagging him was simply a courtesy.
Since the opponent had already launched two moves in a row and lost the initiative, it was my turn now.
Before thrusting out my blade, I stretched one leg back, lowered my upper body, and gripped the hilt with crushing force.
“Haha! So it is iaijutsu!!”
Yet he seemed somewhat familiar with my habits. Even while laughing heartily, he settled into a textbook defensive stance.
“Moon Step.”
“…?!”
He had been deceived.
Flaaaaash!!
It was not iaijutsu at all. Instead I used the movement skill Moon Step to seize his back.
Feints were not a privilege reserved for him alone.
Moon Step had no distinct casting motion, so I could assume the posture for a draw while preparing exactly this kind of trick.
“You truly fight in the dirtiest manner imaginable!!”
“You are no different!!!”
I rushed forward like moonlight itself. Before he could even adjust his stance, while he was still airborne, I unleashed the real technique.
“Iaijutsu—Moon Flash.”
Slaaaaaash!!!
I canceled Moon Step mid-cast, reversed my momentum, and drove straight at his back.
“Quick-draw, counter from behind.”
Thud!!!
Yet the sword path he thrust forward bent in an unexpected direction and blocked the opening at his rear.
Clang-clang-clang!!!
“Ugh?!”
“Come now, back attacks should be used in moderation.”
Our blades collided. Sparks flew and the ring of steel echoed outward.
Thinking about it again, this boss was genuinely insane.
How notorious must he be to claim the undisputed number-one spot in the “Top 10 Shittiest Bosses” ranking, surpassing even the monster hunter’s Bazelgeuse?
If that creature had earned favor through dung-throwing and invasions, this old man simply possessed better control than any player.
“Die.”
Click.
I reset my stance once more, sheathed the sword, drew in a breath, and prepared the form.
The Moon Step and Moon Flash feint had already been read. Repeating that combo now would only invite a counter.
Zzzzzzzzt!!!!
I poured strength into the hilt and drew forth the power of moonlight, ready to sever everything that stood before me.
“Kuk, if it is that technique, I simply need not engage it.”
Sensing the approach of a powerful skill, he felt threatened and merely circled at a distance, testing me.
His intuition told him that a reckless approach would leave him bisected.
“Moon Step.”
Flaaaaaash!!!!
“Hmm?”
If you will not come to me, then I shall come to you!
“Half… Moon Slash!!!”
“What?!”
I stacked the charge for Half-Moon Slash and activated Moon Step to detonate the skill.
Precisely between 0.70 and 0.76 seconds of charge time; I had to trigger the movement skill in that razor-thin window so the ability would not cancel. In that instant I charged and unleashed Half-Moon Slash.
“Magnificent!!”
Yet even though the monster had been caught off guard, he showed no panic whatsoever and prepared to deflect the blade.
BOOOOOOOM!!!!
I detonated the densely compressed moonlight energy the instant before it touched his sword.
“Ugh…!! This is rather difficult!”
The old man muttered as he barely endured Half-Moon Slash with nothing but an ordinary blade.
Of course it was.
It was a lethal move that combined the already formidable damage of a charged skill with the damage buff from Moon Step.
To perfect this technique I had torn the client apart frame by frame and rebuilt the entire setup.
“However, there is no flow that cannot be blocked, and no flow that cannot be read.”
“…!!”
Still…
It seemed Arhan’s patterns had grown even more absurd than they had been in the game.
“Quick-draw, wave counter.”
Craaaaang!!!
“Ugh!”
The sword he drew in a serene posture instead struck upward against the massive current.
A tidal wave is powerful, yet the moment its force is spent and blocked, its momentum collapses instantly.
“Quick-draw, world of silence.”
Shing.
“This…”
Arhan uttered something, but his voice did not travel anywhere.
Not to my ears, not through the air, not anywhere in this space.
Slice.
The blade simply parted the flow in silence.
CRAAAAAASH!!!!!
“Ugh?!”
Yet its aftermath was anything but quiet.
The old man’s small silence… sliced through the air, the mana drifting in the void, my own body, the building behind me, and every tree in sight.
Rumble!!!
Crack.
Swooooosh…
The building collapsed. The tree snapped.
The severed atmospheric layer whipped the wind into a frenzy.
“Ugh…!!”
Slaaaaash!!!
It even split the fragile skin of a young girl.
Blood sprayed from my chest and scattered across the ground.
Drip.
“Khak… haa…”
I gasped from the searing pain, clutching the wound and coughing up blood.
The first sword wound I had received since arriving in this world was by no means painless.
I felt, more keenly than ever, that this was reality and not a game.
“Kuhuhu…”
“Has she finally lost her mind?”
Yet the old man’s face twisted when he saw that I, despite sustaining heavy injuries, refused to fall and instead laughed like a madwoman.
I was simply laughing because it was too enjoyable.
I just laughed.
Reason? There was none. The situation itself was simply fun.
“To snatch victory away from an enemy who believed it was already theirs… is truly a delightful thing.”
“Hah, victory? You dare speak of victory in that state?”
As he said, my condition was far from normal.
The leotard covering my chest had been torn open, exposing raw, lacerated flesh and flowing blood for all to see.
But what of it?
“This very moment is truly, incredibly fun!!!!”
Hormones and chemicals flooded my brain in a mad rush.
Not pain, but ecstasy.
Not helplessness, but an unbearable craving.
“Unique skill.”
“…!!”
That was why I did not collapse even as blood poured from me.
I had not yet revealed my full strength.
Until I displayed everything I possessed, I would never lose.
“Well, if you can block this, I shall concede defeat.”
“It cannot be…”
Half-Moon Slash.
Full-Moon Slash.
And finally… the third-stage charging technique.
This blade could only be used when filled with the heat of moonlight and the fervor of battle.
A unique skill even more demanding to activate than an ultimate ability.
"Moonlight Domain"
Whooooong!!!
“…?!”
What I drew from the scabbard in that instant was…
“A sword…?”
“Precisely. A banquet of swords.”
Clatterclatterclatter!!!
Countless blades scattered into the air. Every one of them was an unremarkable, ordinary sword.
Yet they drifted along the flow of battle…
Thud!!
“What is this? Why have these swords appeared? And why do they float in the air?”
“Because… all of them shall become my blades.”
Step!!
Bloodied from head to toe, I still offered him a bright smile.
“Moon Flash.”
Boooom!!!
“What?!”
I moved my legs.
I advanced.
Yet the place I reached was the sword hilt floating at the upper right.
Zaaaap!!!
I appeared in the blink of an eye, drew the blade instantly, and charged toward him.
Craaaaang!!!
“Kh… I see!! The swords floating in the air are markers, and you appear like light at whichever marker you choose!!”
Arhan blocked my first strike and spoke. He was quick on the uptake.
Unfortunately for him, even if one understood the principle behind this technique, there was no counter.
“Moon Flash.”
“…!!!”
The moment he parried my sword, I activated the skill again.
This time I appeared at the lower-left sword hilt.
Shiiiing!!!
The instant I leaped I drew the floating blade and assaulted him once more.
Slaaaaash!!!
“What… what manner of bizarre swordsmanship is this!!”
Though visibly shaken, Arhan used a quick-draw to deflect the blow.
“Moon Flash.”
“It is not over yet?!”
The maximum number of leaps granted by the third-stage unique skill Moonlight Domain was…
“Nine.”
“…!!”
Flash!!
I appeared from yet another position.
The fourth time I manifested at the highest sword hilt and, for the first time, landed a shallow cut on Arhan.
“Ugh?!”
The fifth was at the bottom-right.
I severed his leg.
“Magnificent. Beautiful. It is like… a blade forged through the highest refinement.”
The sixth was at the center.
I cut his arm.
“Is that so? The hatred you harbor toward the organization is what sharpened this sword.”
The seventh was directly above his front.
I sliced through his hair.
“I cannot see it, even though I called myself a master of the quick-draw.”
The eighth was a downward strike from above.
I carved a deep wound across his chest.
“A quick-draw is merely fast… yet it remained bound by time and space.”
The final strike.
“Cough…!!”
I pierced his heart.
Hot blood gushed wildly. A wet, heavy sensation filled my hand.
“The swordsmanship you wield has surpassed all speeds. A blade that no longer clings to mere velocity…”
Slaaaaash!!!
I withdrew the sword embedded in the old man’s frail body.
“Haa… haa…”
Only then did I release the breath I had been holding back.
My lungs, heart, and brain—pushed to their absolute limit—craved oxygen.
Trickle.
Blood began to flow from my nose.
“Truly magnificent.”
Slaaaaash…
Even as he bled an enormous amount of life force, he spoke with clear joy.
“If someone like you had existed long ago… perhaps both I and my nation could have endured.”
“…”
Sensing the approach of death, Arhan summoned memories of the past.
“I… I stood against the Dragon Empire and protected the kingdom. Even within the alliance, I defended the small nation of Ailes with nothing but this single sword and earned the title of hero.”
Thud.
He collapsed to his knees and continued in a voice thick with regret.
“I protected my homeland… and in exchange for the wounds I would carry for life, I received medical fees and a mansion… However.”
On the verge of death, Arhan muttered words that no longer held meaning.
“The royal house changed. They forged peace with the Dragon Empire. And they branded those of us who opposed them as traitors.”
“…”
As my final act of mercy, I did not end his life but listened in silence.
“The subsidies were cut. The mansion was seized. All that remained… was a single sword and a handful of empty medals.”
“I had been a hero. Yet soon, by the very people I had protected, I was declared the chief culprit who ruined friendship between the two nations! How absurd a tale is this!!”
He laughed like a madman.
“Shall I tell you what is even more amusing?! My homeland Ailes was destroyed! Betrayed by the Dragon Empire they had called their closest ally! The country cast out every hero it possessed, and before those heroes could even fight, the nation itself had already fallen!! How hilarious a story is this!!”
He laughed, yet at the same time he wept.
“I fought for my country!!! Yet… my country did not fight for us! And so it perished! Is this tale merely amusing to you?! Ryushia!!”
“…And so?”
“Yes. Ailes is gone. The Dragon Empire was too mighty for me to oppose alone. The war… is already over.”
The old man’s voice grew heavy with sorrow.
“Tell me, where should a weapon of war go in an age where war has ended? Must it simply rust away, never to be used, and crumble into nothing?! Where are we supposed to die?!”
“Now… there is no longer any homeland left to protect…”
The old man who had offered everything for his country spoke with deep sadness, having gained nothing in return.
“That is why… I came here. I came to the organization so that I might rust and break apart. Yet even now I do not know the path. Ryushia… do you know it?”
“I do not.”
I answered honestly.
“You do not know… kuh… you do not know.”
Even while coughing blood, the old man smiled.
“How fortunate. You are the same as us after all. Since even you have no answer… it means I was not alone. Truly… that is truly a relief.”
“Please die now.”
Listening to any more of his words had become unbearably unpleasant.
What? A relief?
That I was in the same situation as people like him? Absolutely not. I was simply an ordinary gamer.
“I… am far too different from all of you. In the past, in the present, and in the future…”
“Kuku, that remains to be seen.”
Even in his final moments he managed to irritate me.
“I am coming.”
“Yes.”
As though the conversation had reached its end, we both prepared our final strikes.
“Quick-draw, numb twilight.”
“Strike-Kill.”
Slaaaaaash!!!
The two swordsmen collided at the final curtain of their battle.
Trickle.
…The outcome was decided in an instant.
“How joyful. The final moment of a rusted weapon… was not the scrapyard, but the battlefield.”
Thud.
Arhan’s upper body was completely severed by the final blow. He collapsed to the ground, drawing his last breath.
“Haa… haa… I’m… sorry…”
I somehow remained standing until the very end, yet I was far from whole.
I could not move a single finger.
I truly felt sorry for the newbies. Well… it could not be helped now that things had come to this.
Grow strong, newbies.
Thud.
With that, my vision faded to black.
*
“Hehe, what a truly… magnificent soul.”
By now the moon had risen full in the night sky.
A white-haired angel sat atop a roof, murmuring with clear delight.