129. G1 vs Rin - Blood Flower Kick (血花脚) (11)
129. G1 vs Rin - Blood Flower Kick (血花脚) (11)
***
Kang Hyeok met the massive line of blood rising from the front head-on.
Clang!!
As the greatsword bounced back hard, as if shoved away the instant it met the line of blood, Kang Hyeok spun his body with unnerving naturalness, riding the recoil.
—Prominence Strike.
Kang Hyeok's body rotated, and both hands gripping the greatsword swelled once more. Above the massive blade's red-glowing edge, an even deeper crimson flame surged upward, radiating immense heat.
Kang Hyeok twisted his arms and lowered the greatsword's edge.
Whoosh!
Kang Hyeok shot forward swiftly, tracing a great spiral of flame.
His eyes bloodshot from Blood Frenzy, he never once took his gaze off Rin's arm holding the Crescent-Moon Weight, even in that instant.
The first attack had been a feint. A strike that didn't even use a skill. Rin's movements were still within Kang Hyeok's predicted range.
'She'll definitely parry it.'
Considering Rin's consecutive skill usage and her Stamina Gauge, she wouldn't have enough Stamina Gauge left to use Bloodstained Step again.
This was Rin, of all people. He figured that with her reaction speed and skill, she would surely attempt a parry.
And Kang Hyeok's prediction was exactly right.
—Dark Moon Weight.
Swoosh!
The bloodstained Crescent-Moon Weight surged upward from below and met the greatsword.
Clang!!
The instant the perfect parry success effect burst,
Kang Hyeok's lips curled upward sharply amid the brilliant burst of light.
A chain of movements he had thought through countless times, replaying them over and over.
Even after assuming and predicting this entire situation, Rin had countered so cleanly. He'd thought such movements were only possible in theory, but Rin had made them all reality, and admiration escaped him unbidden.
And even now, the image of a certain woman suddenly overlapped with Rin's figure.
A woman who had swept through the league with overwhelming divine authority in every finals.
As silver hair scattered through the air, embroidering the space white with rough movements, jet-black hair seemed to overlap with it.
Jeanne d'Arc and Rin's movements were clearly different, yet somehow, to Kang Hyeok, their figures overlapped. A woman radiating overwhelming presence, shaking this battlefield.
Unlike the countless times he had sensed he could never win,
now Kang Hyeok felt as though he had glimpsed a small piece after accounting for all those movements.
An opponent he could never defeat through common sense, no matter how he thought about it.
And so.
Kang Hyeok had devised a way to twist the board itself, rather than fight head-on.
......
The dragon-toothed greatsword shot up into the air as if shoved back hard by the line of blood.
"...!?"
Immediately after. Meeting Rin's eyes, which had flown wide open as if startled, Kang Hyeok hurled his body forward.
***
—Dark Moon Weight.
Used at close range, the Dark Moon Weight didn't even skim the ground. The instant it took on the blood-red glow, it surged straight upward.
Clang!!
Through the brilliant effect generated by perfectly timing the parry against the opponent's attack, Serin felt a massive sense of wrongness.
For some reason, the enormous greatsword was being helplessly pushed back along with her Crescent-Moon Weight.
Even a successful parry should only momentarily break the opponent's stance. No matter how I thought about it, it was strange for a greatsword to be pushed away so feebly.
Against a Berserker Class using a greatsword, there should have been enough of a strength gap that I'd need to counter even ordinary attacks with skills...
The greatsword soared high into the air from the blood-red strike that had swept upward from below.
Serin tore her gaze from the greatsword rising into the air and looked urgently at her opponent.
"...!?"
—Charge.
Weaponless. The Berserker clad in jet-black armor was closing in fast.
Realizing it was too late to reel in the Crescent-Moon Weight, I spun quickly and extended my leg.
—Single Kick.
The moment her leg took on the blood-red glow, it collided with Kang Hyeok's massive frame.
Thunk!
Scrape!!
Even after landing a clean hit on his body, I was the one pushed back, skidding across the floor.
As the distance opened from stopping the opponent's charge with the force of Single Kick and being pushed back,
I quickly pulled my hand to reel in the Crescent-Moon Weight, but.
Snatch!
Kang Hyeok, radiating an eerie pressure, grabbed the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight mid-flight.
"What are you...?"
Screech!!
Startled, I yanked the cord with near-full strength, but only a small twitch of my arm followed. The Crescent-Moon Weight wouldn't come back.
Flustered by the sudden situation, I stared at Kang Hyeok.
Beneath the jet-black armor, Kang Hyeok wore a strange smile, as if he had truly become a Berserker.
"How about we fight without weapons, just once?"
No... what kind of crazy nonsense is that?
Clang!! Clang!
The greatsword that had floated high in the air came down late on one side of the Colosseum, creating a huge noise.
As if mocking my thought that he would immediately go retrieve the greatsword, Kang Hyeok didn't budge from the spot.
He suddenly exuded an eerie aura and grabbed the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight with both hands. Without realizing it, I gripped the cord wrapped around my right hand.
Snap!
At the sight of him yanking hard on the cord, I had no choice but to immediately loosen the cord tied around my right arm.
Whirrrr!!
Had I reacted even a little slower, I would have been dragged along by the connected cord.
As even the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight all flowed toward Kang Hyeok's feet, I let out a blank sigh and opened my mouth.
"Kang Hyeok... are you seriously suggesting we have a bare-handed brawl right now?"
I could clearly see the intent, but I couldn't believe it.
I'd asked in disbelief at the sight of him grabbing someone else's weapon without even thinking of picking up his own fallen weapon.
Kang Hyeok nodded with a crazed expression.
"In a 1v1 situation, isn't this kind of scenario possible?"
With that, Kang Hyeok immediately released the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight and kicked the weapon as it slowly fell to the ground.
Clang!
The Crescent-Moon Weight rolled all the way to the vicinity of the greatsword that had fallen earlier.
The black cord connected to it spread out wide, creating a bizarre scene where strange black lines were painted across the heavily damaged floor of the Colosseum.
"...Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped me at the absurdity.
What kind of lunatic throws away his own weapon to have a bare-handed brawl...
I could accept momentarily releasing his weapon to ignore the parry's recoil as an improvised response, but I had never expected him to snatch the Crescent-Moon Weight and disarm me.
"Don't you think this is too ridiculous?"
I asked, glancing at the weapons lying on the ground, but Kang Hyeok shook his head.
"If you think of it as real combat, it's not a completely impossible situation, is it?"
He seemed to be asking whether there were rules about how far one could go to win a match. At that, I let out a short laugh.
And what was truly funny... even amid the absurdity, I liked that brazen mindset.
He seemed to have judged that he had better odds in a bare-handed brawl than in a frontal fight.
If so, the fact that he had snatched the Crescent-Moon Weight mid-fight wasn't a coincidence but intentional, and that was a little surprising.
Freed from the weight of the Crescent-Moon Weight, which had felt so familiar it was like part of my own body, I flexed my now-lighter right arm slightly and nodded.
"Well. If that's what you want, fine. If you want a bare-handed brawl, there's no reason I can't give you one."
It had turned into an unexpected bare-handed brawl, but I was curious what confidence was behind those words.
Even without the Crescent-Moon Weight, there were still Dancer techniques I could use.
For example, the technique I'd used most often.
Single Kick.
There were techniques like Single Kick, with endless uses—increasing the power of other techniques, momentary direction changes, and striking the opponent as fast as possible.
Conversely, there were also techniques meant to strike the opponent.
I simply hadn't used them because their destructive power was lower compared to techniques used with the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Kang Hyeok grinned at my answer and stomped hard on the ground.
Boom!
The ground shattered again, and his entire body dyed red, he charged forward swiftly.
A movement with power that looked too high for me to counter with Single Kick.
Watching it, I let out a short laugh, shook out both hands, and spun my body quickly to activate a technique.
—Lotus Chain Kick.
Her pale legs were engulfed in blood-red energy once more as she spun rapidly and began extending her legs in quick succession.
Swish! Swish! Swish-swish-swish!
Along her legs kicking rapidly through the air, blood-red energy stretched out like viscous blood, tracing eerie lines of crimson.
And then, at the end of it, she met the strike of Kang Hyeok, who had closed in with his body dyed red.
Boom!!
A rough sound rang out, like striking a boulder with a chunk of iron. Serin calmly raised her pale leg high as it bounced back.
Kang Hyeok also raised both hands immediately to activate a technique, but Serin's technique activation was a step faster.
Unlike before, perhaps because this was an attack he hadn't anticipated, Kang Hyeok's response looked noticeably slower to Serin's eyes than before.
—Blood Flower Kick.
Along her pale leg raised high at a 90-degree angle, blood-red energy exploded brilliantly, as if converging.
Boom!!
Kang Hyeok, who had allowed the attack just before he could activate his technique, was sent flying helplessly.
Standing in place to recover her Stamina Gauge, Serin watched Kang Hyeok rolling across the floor, wiggled her leg, and parted her lips.
"You are confident in bare-handed fighting, right?"