202. Second Only to One, Above Ten Thousand (一人之下 萬人之上) - (4)
202. Second Only to One, Above Ten Thousand (一人之下 萬人之上) - (4)
***
Humans were naturally prone to losing focus or becoming distracted by even small sounds.
Let alone a chat full of messages.
Paying attention to the stream while fighting someone was only possible when the opponent was weaker than you.
The fact that Serin had been able to duel opponents while still minding the stream, even managing to toss out a remark here and there while fighting the Grim Reaper—
All of it had been proof of a certain confidence and composure.
And from the moment Daji first made a move, Serin had not been able to spare the stream a single thought.
Recognizing the uncertainty of victory, Serin simply focused on the situation at hand.
Serin raised the blade of the Crescent-Moon Weight she had slowly lowered, then took a peculiar stance.
Creeeeak!
Serin's upper body dropped low toward the ground as her left hand gripped the white cord of the Crescent-Moon Weight in her right hand and pulled it taut.
With the white cord drawn tight, the right hand gripping the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade pointed straight ahead.
Serin's form, upper body lowered, pouring every ounce of strength into the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Fwoosh.
Since Swift was still active, a bleak red haze rippled and coiled around Serin's body, and that alone exuded something like a sense of pressure.
She had recognized the reality that an enormous gap existed between the destructive power of her techniques and her opponent's.
It was to adopt an extreme offense, and from this point on, she took a stance with broken balance that disregarded any means of defense.
Scenes from Black Ark, of facing enemies far stronger than herself countless times, flickered past Serin's eyes.
The moments when she could only win by facing them in a one-strike-kill battle stance.
She was showing that stance for the first time in Another World.
Her clear blue eyes sank with utter indifference, carrying a bitingly cold killing intent.
"Quite an intriguing stance, is it not?"
As she took a special stance completely different from before, Daji's red eyes sparkled as she let out an exclamation of admiration.
The dancer visible in her sight now was a dancer, yet she did not look like a dancer at all.
Lovely features, beautiful attire, the unusual weapon called the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Every aspect of her appearance marked her as a dancer.
But the stance she had taken was a peculiar one that felt disconnected from anything a dancer would assume, and her clear blue eyes, carrying unmistakable intent, looked markedly different from before.
The thick killing intent she gave off belonged to eyes that no ordinary person could possibly possess.
Just as Daji was watching Serin with interest.
Serin moved.
—Swift - Bloodstained Step.
The moment her blood-wreathed legs moved, a red line was drawn in an instant,
and the distance between her and Daji was closed in a single breath.
Serin's right hand lashed out as if whipping the Crescent-Moon Weight upward, and at the same time she kicked hard off the ground and leaped into the air.
As the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight shot out like light and then curved sharply through its connected cord, it flew at a bizarre angle.
Clang!
But the blood-red light that had traced a mysterious arc was soon knocked away futilely by a black light that shot out belatedly.
"..."
At the end of it, Daji held her ground like a noble flower.
She merely extended a pure white hand to meet Serin's offense.
She did not deploy any particular technique.
As if she were merely moving in response to Serin's attacks, she did not even seem to have the will to counterattack.
Daji's red eyes were still tracking Serin's form floating in the air.
"..."
The objective difference in power that could be confirmed through the system was overwhelming.
Even Daji herself felt it.
The fact that the trait Phoenix Strike had not activated alone showed that her opponent's level was not low at all.
Yet this situation, of fighting a decisive battle with such a massive gap in equipment and traits, did not sit well with her.
That was why Daji had handed over Moonlight and destroyed several advantages she possessed.
'Rin, what move will you throw at me?'
The dancer's form, filled with clear resolve, shone brilliantly in its own right.
And then.
After three exchanges had passed without Daji taking a single hit, the activation condition for the technique Serin intended was fulfilled.
—!
In an instant, blood-red light burst from Serin's form as if flickering.
Her pure white body immediately began to stain red, and her deeply sunken blue eyes carried a massive killing intent that seemed ready to tear apart Daji, who held her ground with noble poise.
—Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts.
As the full moon's light dimly illuminated Serin's form floating in the air, Serin moved strangely, as if shot through the blood-red light that burst out like an explosion.
Serin's form descended rapidly as if stamping down onto the ground, then charged straight at Daji. The moment the white Crescent-Moon Weight in her hand shot forward, a fiercely rippling blood-red aura settled over it.
Immediately after, she began generating countless intense blood-red lines as if to erase not the woman called Daji, but space itself.
As countless blood-red trajectories filled the air and threatened her, Daji, unlike before, did not deploy the same technique Serin had used.
—Full Moon Dance.
No more black light burst from the Crescent-Moon Weight in her hand.
Fwoooosh!
Light that seemed as if it would illuminate the world burst forth, and Daji's hands began to embroider the space magnificently.
As the white Crescent-Moon Weight surged fiercely, embroidering blood-red light with deeply concentrated killing intent,
the black Crescent-Moon Weight began to emit pure white light as if to illuminate the world, erasing the blood-red killing intent.
As Crescent-Moon Weight clashed against Crescent-Moon Weight, bearing completely opposite colors, not a single sound rang out. Only the soft rustle of fine silk clothing could be heard as the two women exchanged dozens of blows in an instant.
When blood-red trajectories filled the air and surged forward, white light rose and erased those blood-red trajectories without a trace.
An even match.
Daji, who had not yielded a single step, moved her body smoothly yet without the smallest opening. All the while, she took in the sight of Serin pressing a one-sided offensive.
'In the end, you chose to cast aside the beauty you possessed.'
She felt a deep sense of regret at the actions of the one called Rin.
Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts.
It was certainly a powerful technique, and considering the circumstances so far, it was one of the techniques she had vaguely recalled as usable.
However, Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts—the moment the technique is used, the dancer's body stains red as she becomes a slaughtering ghost and performs a dance meant to kill her opponent.
It possessed destructive power surpassing Ghost Dance, but in the end, it caused the user to lose herself as a dancer.
The innate beauty she once possessed, even her noble reason, would vanish, leaving her to pursue nothing but slaughter.
Just like the dancer before her now...
"...!"
Daji, who had been radiating white light, suddenly stepped back and spun her body urgently.
—Heavenly Kick.
BOOM!!
White light burst from Daji's extended leg, striking Serin's body hard and putting a great distance between them.
"...Did you not become a slaughtering ghost?"
Daji muttered blankly, looking down at her waist.
The black silk garment was torn, and inside it, a single white line of blood had been drawn.
She had certainly been aware of it.
The movements of Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts, the trajectories of the Crescent-Moon Weight embroidering the air—none of it should have missed.
Yet the things that should not have missed were missing by a wide margin.
As Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts neared its end, her reddened skin gradually returned to its original color. As the technique's destructive power faded along with it, Daji thought it would soon be over.
But the white Crescent-Moon Weight was still dancing a blood-red dance, and when it shot out from its end along an unexpected trajectory, she could not react in time.
That was why, for the first time, the noble flower called Daji showed that change.
But as she looked at Daji, Serin blankly covered her face and sighed.
"...How could a dancer become a slaughtering ghost?"
Seeing Daji ask inwardly whether she had become a slaughtering ghost, Serin felt certain that she was no ordinary character.
Even granting that she knew the technique's effects and destructive power, as befitting the description of a Legendary Dancer, her way of speaking, as if she even knew the effects from Black Ark, felt jarring.
So much so that for a moment she could not distinguish between Black Ark and Another World.
—Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts.
A dance performed with the souls of slaughtering ghosts, and a technique that had been akin to a taboo even in Black Ark.
Because it was a dance performed with the souls of all the slaughtering ghosts in the world, the more the technique was used, the harder it became for the user to maintain her sanity.
In Another World, that had been changed to taking continuous damage.
So how was it that Daji spoke as if seeing through something other than the damage?
Although the mental influence was supposedly almost nonexistent compared to Black Ark, Serin felt a subtle unease.
When she glanced at her own condition, nearly her entire body was stained bright red.
'Am I on the verge of death?'
Her red-stained skin had long since returned to its original color, but as if blood were spreading over her skin, her whole body was dyed red.
She barely managed to swallow the deep sigh that tried to escape.
The dozens of exchanges that had seemed like an even match had never been even at all.
Dance of the Heaven-Filling Slaughtering Ghosts, in which each and every strike had danced with lethal intent,
had only managed to inflict a single wound.
But in comparison, her own body was covered in lines of blood, and those wounds would never heal until the duel ended.
She had instinctively deactivated the technique midway because if she had not stopped, she would have destroyed herself.
***
"Didn't Rin just use her Awakening Skill?"
Minha blinked as she watched the screen.
At the end of a fierce battle so intense it was hard to look away for even a moment, as the two separated, the screen entered a lull with a peculiar atmosphere that left a strange aftertaste.
"No. The Awakening Skill stains the body even redder than that, and the distinctive sound the Crescent-Moon Weight makes when the Awakening Skill is used didn't ring out."
When Minseong answered as if to say it wasn't, Minha let out a laugh.
"...With that kind of destructive power?"
She hadn't noticed because no great sound had rung out, but the grand banquet hall on the screen was in a state of massive devastation.
The ground where Rin and Daji had just clashed was deeply caved in as if a meteor had fallen, showing the aftermath of that destructive power.
At that moment, Daji on the screen made an incomprehensible movement.
She grasped at the air and pulled something out.
—This lady wishes to enjoy this moment a little longer.