163. Awakening Skill vs Awakening Skill
163. Awakening Skill vs Awakening Skill
***
It didn't take long for Eunwoo to get drawn into Serin's stream.
The bloodstained Crescent-Moon Weight that embroidered the air with every light gesture.
The soft yet composed voice.
And on top of that, the way she occasionally smiled faintly for no particular reason—those little details layered together, until even Eunwoo, who had clicked on the stream to watch Jeanne d'Arc, gradually found his gaze pulled toward Serin.
Having encountered countless celebrities with outstanding looks and charm, Eunwoo had a certain sense for these things. A gut feeling about how people who became stars had risen. So when he sensed that something in Serin's on-screen presence, it even caught him off guard.
"Her movements seem more natural than pro players'."
And the vitality in her small gestures and way of speaking was truly exceptional. He had watched characters controlled by many pro players, but he couldn't imagine any of them moving more naturally than the character Serin was controlling now.
Even the way she spoke softly, even the way she moved swiftly while deploying techniques—it all looked less like a character and more like something actually alive and moving.
Seo Eunwoo, before he knew it, had forgotten he'd clicked on the stream to watch Jeanne d'Arc and was absorbed in Serin's broadcast.
......
Shing. Clack!
The sound of a sword locking into its scabbard. A sound he'd heard so many times now that it was starting to feel familiar.
When the opponent took an unusual stance, lowering their body deeply, Serin looked at them with surprised eyes.
'They still have new techniques left?'
At some point, Serin had become so immersed in the duel that she'd stopped checking the chat and viewers. The opponent hadn't said a single word, but Serin could feel the displeasure in their attitude, so she set aside the lightness she'd had when she first paid attention to the stream and faced the duel seriously.
As she waited for the opponent to deploy another technique, she slowly reorganized what she knew of their skills.
Starting with the first attack that seemed to emit a great burst of light,
then the blue flash in the shape of condensed blue energy bursting outward.
The feast of blue sword energy slashing in from left and right as if crossing.
And just now, the way they'd released sword energy at varying speeds, crossing as it flew.
The opponent kept using a different technique every time, as if matching Rin's rhythm, showing something new each moment.
And each time.
Clang!!
CLANG!!
The twisting effect sounds and a clear, ringing tone continued to decorate the space.
Serin, who hadn't moved a single step from her spot, stood in place with complete composure.
It was as if offense and defense had interlocked and fallen away, as though the two had made some kind of promise.
"......"
When the samurai's assault stopped, an untimely silence settled over the Colosseum.
The sight of them bent forward at the extreme was clearly out of the ordinary.
Creeeak.
Serin tightened her grip on the red cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight, anticipating whatever was coming.
'An Awakening Skill. Or something similar?'
More than ten minutes had passed since the duel began, and the number of techniques she'd countered had already exceeded nine.
That unusual stance, combined with a movement that produced no light at all, gave the impression that something was there in itself.
And then, the moment Serin watched the opponent with full attention.
A brilliant blue light began to gather.
The scabbard emitted a blue light that grew ever more brilliant, like a flower blooming in full at its peak.
—Step.
The opponent took one step forward and immediately straightened their body with disciplined precision.
Shing.
A brilliant blue blade emerged from the scabbard. The hand holding the sword rose slowly, high into the air.
—One Sword of the Azure Sky (靑天一劍).
The sword surged upward toward the sky as it was drawn from the scabbard.
In an upright posture close to perfect form, the opponent now gripped the sword with both hands and slashed straight down in a clean vertical line.
The brilliant blue blade scattered its dazzling blue light through the air in silence, beautifully.
Clack.
Serin watched the sight with keen interest while preparing for whatever would follow.
The motion of raising the sword high and simply drawing one stroke downward was a clean slash with no excess whatsoever.
But that was all she felt.
A clean slash, as if cutting once through empty air.
So for a moment, Serin couldn't help but be puzzled.
'What?'
The opponent, holding the faintly glowing blue blade, was still far away.
There was no sword energy crossing the distance like before, nor any other visible threat.
Even as she tried to prepare, assuming there had to be some meaning to it, there was nothing unusual in what she could see or hear.
Creeeeak!!
Both hands clenched the Crescent-Moon Weight's cord with all their strength, and in that utterly strange moment, Serin stared blankly around her.
In those few short seconds, Serin felt alienated by her own inability to sense any threat.
The opponent had clearly performed an action that looked like deploying a technique.
The unusual stance.
The blade emitting brilliant blue light.
The motion of cutting through empty air.
Her reason was clearly judging every action as an attack.
But right now, she felt no danger, no omen at all.
'Why can't I see anything?'
Then suddenly, Serin recalled the opponent's first movement.
The sword raised high toward the sky.
The scattering blue light.
"...!"
In that instant, she urgently lifted her head and looked up at the sky.
———!!
The sky in Serin's vision was split in half, an impossible phenomenon.
A sight as if the sky had been divided into two along a blue line. More than anything, the massive blue line at the center stood out. A colossal line holding blue light, radiating brilliance.
And yet there was no sound, no pressure, nothing else of note.
'An Awakening Skill.'
The moment she saw it, Serin instantly realized it was a technique corresponding to an Awakening Skill.
She thought about how to respond, but no suitable answer came to mind.
In a situation where she had to block a massive blue attack from between what looked like a collapsing sky, the thought of parrying erased itself naturally.
The attack had far too enormous a volume.
She couldn't even tell which part she'd need to strike to get an accurate parry judgment.
And so, within a few seconds, the Colosseum was being covered in real time by the colossal blue light, until even the rocks and the ground all took on a blue glow.
'Did I get too caught up in countering techniques?'
Maybe she'd tried too hard to counter every technique. Unlike scrims, Solo Queue was a ranked match where Awakening Skills and Emergency Evasion existed, so there were many variables.
In the end, Serin made her decision quickly.
Emergency Evasion lasted only one second.
She didn't think that massive attack would all finish within that window.
So the remaining option was naturally just one.
Awakening Skill.
The dancer's final dance.
—Final Performance.
In a split second, as the thought connected, she deployed the technique without hesitation.
—The 'Final Performance' skill resonates with the 'Madness' trait and changes to 'Divine-Blood Dancer.'
A hologram blocking her vision announced the activation of the Awakening Skill.
Whooosh!
A thick energy burst from beneath Serin's feet like an explosion and wrapped around her entire body in an instant. The blood-red energy stained her whole body as if rapidly encroaching, and at the end, it even dyed her blue eyes crimson before seeping into her as if being tucked away.
Immediately after, Serin clenched the cord slightly.
Creeeeeeak!!!
The cord stretched to its limit and let out a scream, and the Crescent-Moon Weight connected to the red cord began vibrating madly as if resonating, emitting a bizarre sound.
Riiiiiiing!!!
***
Seo Eunwoo couldn't understand.
"Why?"
Even though the opponent was taking the distinctive stance for using an Awakening Skill, the character called Rin wasn't moving at all.
In the end, she gave the opponent an absurd amount of time. Enough to let them charge a charging-type Awakening Skill to its limit.
They'd been exchanging blows so well up until now, and now it seemed like it was going to end this anticlimactically.
"...What a hollow ending."
The match Eunwoo had watched was a constant assault by the opponent and the character called Rin countering those techniques, but even from that fragmentary view, it was clear that Rin had the upper hand.
She had the skill to leisurely counter the attacks of a user employing sword-energy iaijutsu, and it was obvious even to Eunwoo's eyes that if she closed the distance and fought up close, the match would be decided in a short time.
He couldn't play often due to his packed schedule, but Eunwoo, who still poured most of his rest days into Another World, had a decent eye for these things.
And so, just as the Colosseum turned blue and he thought it was about to end.
——Fwoosh!!
The sight of Rin on screen underwent a sudden change, and Eunwoo's gaze was drawn involuntarily.
Even her silver hair, which had only ever given the impression of pure white, now carried a faint red tint as her entire body was dyed red. At the end, even her blue eyes took on red pupils, and he felt an indescribable eeriness.
Riiiiiiing!!!
The weapon called the Crescent-Moon Weight trembled ceaselessly, producing a strange resonance, like some kind of signal, or an omen of something about to burst.
"An Awakening Skill?"
Eunwoo, unfamiliar with the Crescent-Moon Weight, guessed as much, though he wasn't sure.
But he questioned whether it was possible to respond to the brilliant blue light that had already reached close range.
Charging a charging-type Awakening Skill to its limit meant its power held destructive force more than double that of other Awakening Skills, and it was established wisdom that a body-enhancement-type Awakening Skill couldn't overcome it.
——!!
As Rin's form, bursting with blood-red energy, moved swiftly, a crimson line of blood began to fill the screen.
Along with the blood-red cord fluttering through the air, the Crescent-Moon Weight slashing rapidly through empty space began carving out blood-red lines indiscriminately.
Slash-slash-slash-slash!!!
Dozens to hundreds of blood-red lines embroidered the empty air, surging toward the sky as if to tear it apart, and Eunwoo couldn't believe his eyes.
"...No way."
***
Beneath the two skies that seemed split apart, a colossal blue flash descended.
Watching that shape, as if passing judgment on Serin, Eunha suddenly wondered—if I were in Serin's situation, what would I do?
And the answer came to Eunha relatively easily.
Rather than meeting a power-storing-type Awakening Skill head-on with force, it was better to strike the main body itself.
The massive attack descending from the sky was threatening in itself. But conversely, it was at some distance from the main body. If she gave it everything, she thought it would be possible to strike the opponent before the Awakening Skill reached her.
But Rin's body was being dyed red, and she showed no sign of thinking that way.
The manifestation of Rin's distinctive Awakening Skill that she'd seen on NewTube.
She'd already guessed from Serin's earlier actions that she intended to counter all of the opponent's techniques, but even so, she didn't think Serin's current action was the answer.
"..."
Eunha hesitated over her lips for a moment, then simply closed them.
'Serin can do it.'
She thought Serin was acting that way because she could.
The Rin that Eunha imagined was not someone below her.
And Eunha's thinking was correct.
As hundreds of blood-red lines surged toward the sky following Serin's movements, they soon began striking the blue light mercilessly, as if to tear the sky apart.