PVP (3)
"Hahh... hahh..."
Choi Suho sucked in ragged breaths. Black blood trickled down from his abdomen.
What the hell is this?
He couldn't make sense of what was happening. Everything the guy had done so far amounted to blocking attacks. Aside from swinging his sword exactly once a moment ago, he hadn't done a single thing — and yet that one strike had split his abdomen with surgical precision.
Was I too careless...?
Choi Suho hauled himself upright and swung his blade once more. The strike flew for the neck. The man didn't even react — didn't move at all. It was certain to land. Then, CLANG! A greatsword that had appeared out of nowhere turned the blade aside.
Why won't anything hit him?!
He thrust his shield next. CLANG!! KRA-KOOM — Woobin's body was driven backward. From behind the greatsword that had stopped the attack as if it were nothing, the man simply stared out at him.
Krrk—
His teeth ground together. At first he'd assumed the blocks were pure luck, but the longer the exchange dragged on, the more certain it became.
He's reacting to everything.
Was guarding the guy's specialty? Choi Suho was a defense-focused tank himself. Sure, he was lacking on the offensive side, but he wasn't so pathetic that some bastard could stuff everything he threw at him.
I've been sloppy. Time to do this properly.
Forcing his scattered focus back into order, he lowered his stance. He'd wanted to set up his doping buffs and PVP-exclusive skill cards first, but there was no time for that. Which left him no choice but to make do with this.
Ring—
You have used the Fire Magician's Soul Stone.
Fssshh—
Light scattered, and a figure burst forth: a mage in pristine robes, a long staff in hand.
FWOOSH—
The mage swept its staff, and a blazing sphere of fire shot out.
BOOM!!!
A massive impact drove Woobin's body backward. The moment he skidded to a stop, a magic circle bloomed across the ground beneath him — BOOM!!!! A pillar of flame erupted skyward.
The Fire Magician was a summon that boasted the finest damage output among all A-rank soul stones. True to that reputation, its firepower surpassed even Choi Suho's own attacks — and as if to prove the point, Woobin was battered helplessly about, knocked flying this way and that.
Huh. There's nothing special about him after all.
The lower-body armor Woobin wore crumbled away in pieces, and wounds spread across the man's body one after another. Choi Suho had figured there was something more to him, blocking every attack like that — but apparently that was all there was. To think he'd be thrown around so helplessly by a mere A-rank summon.
This can't be how it ends.
But he couldn't just let things finish here. His pride wouldn't allow it — Choi Suho's sword hadn't so much as nicked the man's collar yet.
"How long are you planning to just block? You wanna end this beaten to a pulp?"
Choi Suho taunted him, curling his lips into a sneer. So long as the man didn't turtle up behind his defense, he was confident he could take this.
"I was going to attack anyway. I'm done adapting."
As if accepting the bait, Woobin dropped his guard and sank low — a motion that plainly announced an incoming attack!
Come on, then!
Choi Suho raised his shield and lowered his stance. Whatever attack came, he had the confidence to stop it.
He certainly had been.
"Huh?!"
Woobin's figure blurred — and then, SHING— a spine-chilling burst of speed erupted from behind him.
"Wh-what the—?!"
He whipped his head around to find the spirit's upper body sheared clean away, its remains scattering into motes of light.
"Huh?!"
His thoughts were still scrambling to catch up with reality when — THUD! An impact shuddered through the ground beneath his feet. Woobin had somehow closed the distance to point-blank range, one hand braced against the earth, his sword already sweeping around — WHOOSH.
He's fast!
CLANG!!!
A crushing weight slammed into the shield he'd thrown up on pure instinct. A follow-up kick BANGED!!! against it a heartbeat later. A numbing shock rode along the shield and coiled around his entire body — it felt, if he had to put it into words, like his brain was being rattled loose inside his skull.
A destruction property...?
By the time he came to his senses, he was already on his knees. Woobin didn't miss the opening.
SHING— swish—
A clean, sweeping arc carved through Choi Suho's body.
WHOOSH—
Woobin swung the Demonic Sword in a light, easy arc. The blade traced a curve across Choi Suho's chest; the armor split and blood came gushing out. The next cut was aimed at his thigh.
Swish—
The instant the edge bit into his thigh, bundles of muscle fiber lay bared and red.
"Argh!"
Choi Suho shrieked and rolled across the floor. The feel of swinging a sword was familiar, yet strangely foreign.
Without skills, it definitely feels awkward.
Back before he'd been sealed in the dungeon, Woobin had fought like any high-rank martial artist, leaning on swordsmanship skill cards. But just as equipping a skill card never made anyone a master of the blade, losing his skill cards hadn't erased his ability either. Woobin had spent a good ten years of his life with a sword in hand — his skills hadn't rusted to the point of losing to a greenhorn hero like this one.
I'd like to see what a real fight at full power feels like.
Woobin hadn't come close to using his actual strength. He hadn't shifted the Demonic Sword's form, hadn't even drawn on its true demonic power. All he'd verified so far was how his insanely inflated skill levels translated into actual combat — nothing more than an experiment.
"You bastard! Who are you looking down on?! The sheer arrogance!!!"
Wailing like a man in his death throes, Choi Suho forced himself upright. CRUNCH— blood geysered from the thigh braced against the earth. It was a feat no ordinary willpower could have managed.
He's got guts, I'll give him that.
WHOOSH—
Choi Suho's sword swept horizontally for his neck. Did the kid simply lack a proper swordsmanship skill card, or was he talentless with a blade? Either way, the movements were riddled with holes. Woobin stepped back a single light pace — WHOOSH — and the sword sliced through empty air. He reached out and gave the wide-open flank a light tap with his fist.
Ring—
Ultra Vibration
"Hahk—!"
Choi Suho crumpled to his knees, unable to draw breath.
Type: Skill Card
Grade:Legendary (L)
Level: 1
Form: Passive
Effect: Destroys the target with intense vibrations upon every strike.
Maybe that was what being L-rank meant — the performance was undeniable. The skill was only level 1, yet its effect had burst clean through to the far side of a shield. His one small gripe was that, unlike Fist Strike, it wasn't an active skill whose use he could control; it was a passive that fired whether he wanted it to or not.
"You bastard!!"
Squelch—
He carved through the shoulder of the still-flailing Choi Suho.
"Argh!!"
A fountain of blood erupted from the severed shoulder. One more stroke at the neck, and the PVP would end by force. It was liable to finish on a somewhat anticlimactic note, but it had been, in its own way, a satisfying stretch of proving himself.
And so Woobin raised the greatsword high — WHOOSH — and was about to bring it down on Choi Suho's head when a stray flicker of curiosity surfaced.
What would happen if I hit him with Fist Strike?
PVP was a system that existed for the sake of player growth. Inside the PVP field, whether an arm was severed or a head torn clean off, everything was restored the moment the system ended the match. So what about Fist Strike? This was the skill that had shattered even Chronos's Temple despite its protection under the system — wouldn't it do something different here?
Snick— The corners of Woobin's mouth curled upward, sly and vicious. The Demonic Sword scraped past Choi Suho and slammed into the floor — CLANG!!! — burying itself deep, and in that instant Woobin's fist shot out.
"Argh!!!"
Choi Suho screamed. Searing pain flooded from his severed shoulder and swallowed his whole body. He had never taken an injury this severe in his life. Even sparring with his seniors in PVP, he'd never been hurt this badly. Even the dreaded level 150 raid monster hadn't managed to punch through his shield. So why — why was that bastard's attacks the one thing he couldn't stop?
It hurts!
Just as the pain was grinding his thoughts to a halt—
CLANG!!!!
A crisp metallic ring burst out beside his leg, and his pain-fogged mind snapped wide awake.
Fuck!
Fury boiled up from his gut. Had he really been weak enough to lose to trash like that?
What the hell am I doing?!
He'd let his guard down far too much. He hadn't even used his trait — the very thing that defined a hero. Woobin's fist sliced through empty air. Just how pathetic must he have looked, for the man to be reduced to throwing punches?
Clank—
Choi Suho heaved up his one surviving hand with everything he had.
It's not over yet!
Choi Suho's trait was special.
Ring—
Type:Trait
Grade:S
Effect: Accumulates damage upon a successful Perfect Guard. Grants special effects according to the accumulated value.
Current Accumulated Damage:91,032
(Accumulated damage decreases by 100 per second.)
[Additional Effects]
⊳ Defense +100%
⊳ Defense +150 upon Perfect Guard
⊳ All Stats +5
........
.....
....
So long as he could land a guard, his growth would never end. This single trait was what had gotten him into Savers — what let him hold his own, performance-wise, even against the 10th-batch heroes. But in this PVP, he had failed to put it to proper use. He didn't know what the man was doing, but damage kept punching straight through his shield, again and again. Every bit of it was the fruit of his own carelessness.
There's no way I can't block an attack like that!
Clank—
Choi Suho tucked his body behind the shield. Punches like that? He could block them a thousand times over. Ten thousand. That was what he believed.
Thud—
A pitiful little thump popped against the far side of the shield.
Not enough.
Damage far too paltry to stack his trait. That was how it should have been.
CRUNCH—
"Huh?!"
In an instant shorter than a single second, Choi Suho saw it all.
KRRRK—
The shield seemed to detonate on the spot — and then, BOOM!!!! came the horrific spectacle of his own body bursting apart.
Ring—
PVP has ended.
Winner:Kang Woobin
A victory prize will be granted to Hero Kang Woobin.