126. G1 vs Rin - Attack Stance (4)
126. G1 vs Rin - Attack Stance (4)
***
Swish!!
The blade of the Crescent-Moon Weight gleamed uncannily as it lashed upward, carving a line of blood-red so thin it seemed to slice the empty air itself.
Jinhyeok raised his shield to block the front while hastily lifting his sword.
The Crescent-Moon Weight was striking from directly behind him. That clearly wasn't a skill.
Skills could be used in succession, but using multiple skills simultaneously was systemically impossible.
Pew-pew-pew-bang!!!
Even now, those blood-red stars kept pouring down on his front.
The Crescent-Moon Weight striking from behind was clearly nothing more than a momentary improvisation.
'If I can just knock it away.'
Jinhyeok's sword hand trembled faintly as he blocked the front, and even his gaze, turned to look behind him, kept wavering.
It was almost upon him now.
And yet he couldn't easily predict where that blood-red tip would go.
The faint blood-red aura at its end seemed to keep seducing his eyes.
An opponent who had launched such an irregular attack in an instant.
Right now, at this very moment, it wouldn't have been strange at all if the blood-red trajectory shifted.
'Head!'
Jinhyeok raised his sword swiftly, as if trusting a split-second instinct.
The Crescent-Moon Weight shifted its trajectory at the last moment, as if finally deciding on its target—and the place it aimed for was, as if by fate, exactly where Jinhyeok had raised his sword.
Clang!!
Jinhyeok barely managed to knock the Crescent-Moon Weight away.
His sword hand shook violently from the recoil of the impact, but Jinhyeok felt relief.
A gamble of a prediction, staked on instinct. That gamble had paid off.
......
At that moment, he failed to notice that the aftereffects of the skill hammering his shield had ceased.
—Single Kick.
A snow-white leg that had already closed the distance lashed out violently, suffused with blood-red aura.
Thwack!!
***
Thwack!!
The snow-white leg, wreathed in blood-red aura, traced a crimson line and slammed directly into Jinhyeok's head.
Despite the overwhelming difference in their builds, Jinhyeok's large frame staggered violently for a moment.
"Ugh... crazy. That's insane."
"That was all intentional...?"
In the stands, Minseong and Hajun kept letting out exclamations of admiration.
They were completely absorbed in the match.
Minha, who had been glancing at the two of them, let out a small sigh and moved her lips.
"Even trying to think of another pro... no one comes to mind."
After the first match ended, Minha had taken a seat next to Kang Hyeok. She murmured in a deflated voice as she watched the match in the Colosseum.
"Give it up. What pro even uses a Crescent-Moon Weight?"
Kang Hyeok looked at Minha and chuckled, as if asking whether she was still thinking about that. Minha's expression turned deeply enigmatic.
Because Kang Hyeok's attitude made it seem as though he was saying that this person called Rin was, in and of herself, one of a kind.
Her eyes narrowed faintly.
'Something about this is annoying.'
From the very first moment she faced Serin, Minha had disliked the woman called Rin for no particular reason.
But even so, the more she watched the matches that unfolded after that first direct clash, the more Minha couldn't help but acknowledge that Rin's skill was extraordinary.
Setting aside whether she liked Rin or not... Minha was also a "pro player," so her eyes naturally kept drifting to Serin's movements and split-second responses.
She had roughly known the information from the intel they'd received before the scrim, but there was a clear difference between that and watching the match while facing her directly.
Maybe that was why her gaze kept straying to Kang Hyeok, who had arranged this scrim.
'Where the hell did he find a monster like that?'
According to the written intel, she was someone who did internet broadcasting or something, and it hadn't even been a month since her name first became known.
She'd overheard her name mentioned a few times among the players in passing, but the person called Rin she was now seeing in person was, quite simply...
Like a monster outside all standard parameters.
Because her actions and judgments all far exceeded the range of what could normally be understood.
—Boom!!!
At the sudden massive explosion, Minha shook off her thoughts and focused on the match.
***
Having taken a blow to the head—a vital point—Jinhyeok staggered badly, but instinctively raised his shield and slammed it hard into the ground.
Thud!!
A momentary skill deployment to mitigate the shock of the blow to his head.
It was a skill usable only by shield-bearing Warrior Class players, and one that greatly reduced damage taken in an instant.
It was the decisive move that kept a match that should have ended right there from ending.
At the sight, the silver-haired woman curled up the corners of her lips, retracted her extended leg, and at the same time yanked hard on the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight, immediately widening the distance.
As if she already knew what was about to happen.
Jinhyeok, who had slammed his greatshield into the ground to mitigate the shock, deployed a skill through his blurred vision as if by instinct.
He hurled his sword high into the air, freeing even his sword hand.
Hummm!
As blue light surged fiercely from the greatshield planted in the ground, Jinhyeok clenched both fists and drove them down with all his strength toward the shield embedded in the earth.
Boom!!!
The ground around the planted greatshield sank heavily, and the shield drove even deeper into the earth.
At the same time, the fierce blue light dwelling in the shield surged up and burst outward explosively.
The erupting blue light first enveloped Jinhyeok's body, then the spreading light began to seize control of the entire Colosseum space.
Whoooosh!!!
—Attack Stance.
A skill usable only once per battle, which greatly increased the user's attack power at the cost of reducing their own defense.
Having realized while fighting Serin that "Defensive Stance" was meaningless against her, Jinhyeok had switched stances.
The greatest characteristic of a sword-and-shield Warrior Class was the stance. In other words, the change in posture.
Just as there was the "Defensive Stance" Jinhyeok had relied on until now—a stance focused on blocking attacks with the shield and concentrating on defense—there was also its opposite: the "Attack Stance," a stance solely for offense.
Swoosh.
With a soft sound, the sword Jinhyeok had thrown into the air earlier naturally fell back down.
Snatch!
Jinhyeok caught the sword with both hands. Unlike before, he was now watching Serin, who had widened the distance, with a coldly settled expression.
The stance. If he had chained a skill immediately after the change, the skill's power would have received a major bonus—but Rin hadn't given him the distance to use one.
Jinhyeok even had the feeling that Rin had been watching from afar, as if observing his stance change.
In Attack Stance, allowing even a single hit from the opponent was no different from taking a critical hit, so he had to move far more cautiously than in Defensive Stance.
But even so, in Attack Stance, he had no choice but to relentlessly pressure his opponent.
The moment the initial assault was interrupted, the skill would gradually lose its power. It was a technique with no fallback.
"Hoo..."
Jinhyeok took a breath, then lightly stamped his foot—and the brief standoff shattered.
Bang!
The ground where he stamped caved in with a violent boom, and at the same moment, Jinhyeok transformed into a streak of blue light and charged at Serin.
***
Bang!
The sight of a warrior charging in, his entire body dyed blue.
It was a sight Serin had rarely seen even during her earlier research, so it piqued her interest considerably.
He had planted his massive shield in the ground and gripped his sword with both hands.
Unlike before, when he had maintained balance, this was a declaration of intent to commit purely to offense.
It seemed to suit the name of the skill "Attack Stance."
Jinhyeok's body, charging at Serin like a streak of blue light, suddenly seemed to slow, as if his movement had stopped.
A span of time close to an instant.
—Raging Burst.
Veins bulged fiercely in Jinhyeok's two hands gripping the sword, and he clenched the blade as if trying to crush it.
The blue-tinged sword accelerated sharply and began carving through space like a madman.
Slash!!
No sooner had a blue line been drawn than another blue line was already cutting through the air.
Like a chain reaction that kept exploding as one line connected to the next, an endless feast of blue lines.
Slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash-slash!!!
Faced with countless blue lines, Serin also began swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight rapidly.
Skreeee!!
The black cord wrapped around Serin's right hand pulled taut, and the Crescent-Moon Weight began tracing countless blood-red lines, precisely following the direction in which the blue lines continued.
Where the blue light surged and the sword charged in, blood-red light flickered and clashed savagely, as if to sever the blue light.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!!
The blue light, which seemed for a moment to be pushed back by the fierce blood-red aura, surged up again and heaved violently,
and the blood-red aura also kept flaring up fiercely as the two crashed against each other with savage intensity.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!
Even as she parried the attacks that came without a moment to breathe, Serin found herself smiling without realizing it.
Suddenly, she remembered what her opponent had said at the start of the match: "Let's match our rhythms."
Wasn't this very sight like a sword dance?
And a sword dance, by its nature...
Was meant to end in futility.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!!
Amid the feast of blue light that seemed as though it would continue forever.
—Jeolyeon.
In an instant, a blood-red line split the space apart on a massive scale.
A blood-red line that erupted as if to sever the flow.
Immediately after, the blue light could no longer continue.