126. G1 vs Rin - Last Breath (9)
126. G1 vs Rin - Last Breath (9)
***
Thwack!!
As the Single Kick carved a flawlessly clean arc and landed square.
Boom!
Hajun's body flew helplessly like a kite with its string cut and slammed into the ground.
The blue eyes beneath the fluttering silver hair followed Hajun's body as it fell, carrying a deep chill.
'Is this... really all he's got?'
He seemed a cut below the pro players she'd faced before. Serin barely managed to keep her brow from furrowing.
It was just too... disappointing.
For the first time today, she felt something like disappointment in a player.
Serin retracted the leg extended from the Single Kick's follow-through and raised her Crescent-Moon Weight to finish it, but quickly changed her expression and threw herself toward a nearby boulder.
Bang!!
Flame erupted from the double-barrel shotgun's massive muzzle as a storm of pellets hammered the ground where Serin had just been standing.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
"Hoo..."
Hajun, adjusting his gray western hat, let out a heavy breath and gripped the double-barrel shotgun with both hands, hurling himself forward without hesitation, unlike before.
His body, which had been frozen by tangled thoughts—fear, tension, helplessness—only cleared once he'd allowed the attack to land, as if the blow had emptied his head of all distractions.
'I got lost in my own head in a crucial match. So I lost like trash.'
Hajun had realized his foolishness—watching the earlier matches, getting scared in advance, playing passively—through the sting of that single hit. In that instant, his attitude flipped 180 degrees.
A gunner with a shotgun always had to act recklessly and stick to the opponent.
He was supposed to keep pressing, intent on turning his opponent into a beehive. But he'd forgotten even that most basic principle and just stood there like an idiot.
With a self-deprecating smirk tugging at his lips, Hajun raised his hand vertically toward the boulder where Serin had hidden.
He aimed the double-barrel shotgun and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!!
Close-range fire from the double-barrel shotgun. Its terrifying destructive power blew the massive boulder apart.
WHIIIIIZZ!!
As if she'd been waiting for it, the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight came hurtling over the shattered boulder at terrifying speed.
The moment a smile curved across Hajun's lips.
—Bullet Time.
The gunner class's trademark skill unfolded.
【Ping】
A strange blue wave pulsed through Hajun and swallowed the world.
The blood-red line that had been streaking through the air now approached in slow motion,
and every other object and figure's movements slowed drastically as well.
In that sensation of time crawling, Hajun tracked where the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight was heading and made his decision instantly.
He switched the shotgun to one hand while his other hand naturally drew the massive Desert Eagle from the holster at his waist.
Bang!!!
Hajun fired the Desert Eagle at the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight the moment he drew it, deflecting its trajectory, then kicked off the ground again.
【Ping】
At that instant, the wave pulsed through Hajun once more, and time began flowing fast again.
After a span of nearly a single breath, Bullet Time ended.
Thud!
As the deflected Crescent-Moon Weight struck the ground, Hajun pressed a point-blank shot at Serin. The double-barrel shotgun belched flame once more.
Bang!!
Serin's body, which had looked momentarily defenseless, swiftly took on a crimson hue.
—Bloodstained Step.
As if she could see the trajectory of the shotgun pellets, Serin twisted her body bizarrely and slipped out of that space in an instant.
Hajun's hand was shoved back by the shotgun's recoil, and he quickly raised his other hand to activate a skill.
—Second Bullet.
A skill usable only immediately after a prior attack. The massive Desert Eagle spat a different kind of flame, firing a huge bullet like a beam of light.
Bang!!!
Serin's brow furrowed deeply as she swiftly grabbed the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight and raised it.
Slither!!!
Serin caught the massive bullet's trajectory with the cord in both hands, her arms shoved back hard as her legs scraped across the Colosseum floor, driving her back about two steps.
Seeing that, Hajun let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Damn..."
Blocking a Desert Eagle's massive bullet with nothing but a cord.
He was briefly awed by Rin's acrobatic play—which was nothing short of insane—but quickly raised his hand. At the same time, Serin yanked her right arm back hard.
Whirr!
The Crescent-Moon Weight that had struck the ground was swiftly reeled in, now steeped in deep crimson. And that wasn't preparation for an attack.
Hajun had already raised his double-barrel shotgun vertically toward Serin. His shotgun was glowing with bright light.
The bane of melee classes. No—seeing the signs of a skill called despair itself, she'd infused herself with blood-red energy to counter it.
—Infinite Blow.
Bright light burst forth, enveloping Hajun's hands, and then he thrust both arms forward like a madman, unleashing a torrent of fire.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-bang!!!!!
An explosion of terrifying firepower.
Exposed to a barrage of gunfire that seemed impossible to answer, Serin activated the skill she'd prepared as if she'd been waiting.
—Ghost Dance.
The blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight began to embroider the entire space, as if it would dominate the very air itself.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-bang!!!
This wasn't an attack swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight for any specific purpose.
It was a dance of pure destruction, unleashed to scorch every inch of surrounding space.
Amid the relentless gunfire, the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight carved savage lines and began to answer.
***
"I figured he'd lose like a dumbass. What's gotten into Hajun?"
Minha sneered as she watched the match, and Kang Hyeok frowned.
"Hajun's... he's trying to change too."
"The guy who always cried like a coward in every finals is changing now? Yeah, sure he is."
"Hey. Kwon Minha."
Kang Hyeok's voice dropped low and sharp. Minha let out a short laugh and shook her head.
"Fine. I'll stop."
Minha didn't look kindly on Hajun.
Every league season, G1 achieved the remarkable feat of reaching the finals.
Five finals.
And the result: five runner-up finishes.
Those results had seeped into the players' minds like poison, breeding negative emotions.
Minha believed Hajun bore no small share of the blame for those runner-up finishes, and the rift between them had deepened considerably over time.
And that wasn't just Minha's problem.
Kang Hyeok, Minseong, Jinhyeok, Minha, Hajun.
G1's players had been piling up their hunger for a championship for a long time now.
And no wonder—they'd reached the finals a full five times.
Ironically, the fact that they'd failed to win even once in those five finals had itself become a wound for the players.
For a pro, the championship was the obvious goal.
Every time, they reached a position where it seemed within their grasp, but in the end, they never touched it.
So their hunger for the championship, though never shown outwardly, had piled up endlessly inside them.
The grueling, bitter battles against TSJ had always ended in G1's defeat.
The ones smiling in the finals were always TSJ, and the ones tasting defeat in every finals were G1.
And in one of those five finals, after a 2:2 deadlock, they'd even reached a fifth match—a golden opportunity.
Minha still remembered that day vividly.
The fifth match.
That day, when each of them burned with more fighting spirit for the championship than ever before.
The moment the match began, Hajun froze in fear against Jeanne d'Arc.
As if he'd sensed defeat before it even started, Hajun moved sluggishly and was the first to turn into light and vanish.
Minha couldn't forget it no matter how hard she tried.
If only he'd done a little better back then.
If only.
"Hey. Kwon Minha... stop thinking about it."
Kang Hyeok looked at Minha, lost in thought, and sighed quietly.
"What...? What was I thinking about?"
"It's obvious what you're thinking about. Every time you see Hajun, you think about that day."
"......"
Minha let out a hollow laugh and turned her gaze back to the Colosseum without answering.
Bang!!
As the massive shotgun's muzzle spat fire, Rin surged forward, carving afterimages with her Bloodstained Step.
In all the matches so far, Rin hadn't allowed a single hit. The moment his eyes caught that a bullet had pierced her clothes and dealt damage—
the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight slashed down through the air in a massive vertical arc, as if cleaving space itself.
Giving flesh to take bone. Rin had landed a critical blow.
'Is it over?'
He was watching that scene and thinking exactly that when—
Hajun's smirk beneath his gray western hat caught his eye.
The moment his gaze landed there, even as the massive blood-red line split Hajun's body apart, Hajun fired one last shot.
—Last Breath.
A massive light exploded from the Desert Eagle, and a single bullet of light shot forth.
——!!
Minha hadn't seen the bullet.
The direction the muzzle was pointing.
As a gunner class who handled sniper rifles, Minha instinctively realized where Hajun had aimed in that final moment.
That the muzzle was pointed at Rin's head.
Just as he turned his gaze to watch the outcome, dazed—
Rin's body spun at a speed beyond perception, and the blood-red line once more embroidered the air in a great arc.
Clang!!
Immediately after, an enormous burst of light exploded. Minha's mouth fell open.
"Holy shit..."
Alongside Minha's voice, thick with disbelief, Kang Hyeok also let out a dumbfounded laugh.
The instantaneous firing speed of Last Breath was known to be several times faster than a sniper shot, which was already considered difficult to react to.
So parrying Last Breath meant...
Even watching it with his own eyes, it was a sight he could hardly believe.
"Kang Hyeok. Can't we just find some way to bring that Rin person onto our team?"
Minha muttered blankly, thinking to herself.
If we did, the championship...
might actually be possible.