225. Are You Selling This?
225. Are You Selling This?
***
Having bought herself some breathing room with Moonlit Mirror of All Under Heaven, Serin threw herself forward without hesitation.
—Moon Princess's Step.
The instant her legs took on a pure white glow, Serin vanished from the temple cavity.
Then, as white moonlight carved itself across the great cavity, Serin surged toward the Death Knight like a beam of light.
The Death Knight swung its sword wide to answer her at once, but Serin slipped through the attack with acrobatic movement and reached point-blank range.
Staring at the Death Knight's exposed body, she unfolded her skill.
—New Moon.
Following her hand as it struck straight upward from below, the white Crescent-Moon Weight dyed the space pure white, and then a small burst of moonlight shot toward the Death Knight's entire body.
Crunch!
The skill landed on the Death Knight's waist, and again that distinctive sound of shattering metal rang out.
'Twelve more.'
As the Death Knight, having taken the hit, spun its body and swung its sword, Serin rotated lightly and unfolded another skill.
—Moon Kick.
At a glance, it looked as though she were extending a defenseless leg toward the oncoming sword.
Clang!
But her leg, wreathed in moonlight, met the Death Knight's power-laden sword head-on.
To knock aside an opponent's blow with sheer force. Rin was showing a clearly different combat style from before.
Originally, she had neutralized opponents with nimble movements like parrying, deflecting, and dodging. Now, she was simply meeting her opponent with raw power.
Her current state, Moon Princess, was like another Dancer with the trait of "strength" maximized.
She still possessed the Dancer's greatest asset, agility, but she could no longer chain through Single Kick or use Swift to display a flashy combat style of extreme movement.
In the Moon Princess state, she could no longer use skills that emitted bloodlight, so chain-like movements were also no longer possible.
When the Death Knight swung its darkness-wreathed sword ferociously, Serin held her ground and met it with the moonlit Crescent-Moon Weight.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
She no longer tried to shift positions or bewilder her opponent with lively movement.
Like a beautiful flower blooming on a cliff, simply and loftily displaying its beauty.
She was now fully recalling Daji's movements and holding her ground.
The lofty Dancer who had always held her position, no matter when—the combat style of another Dancer, near-perfect through the Grandmaster trait.
She was trying to graft that onto herself exactly as it was.
From then on, the exchange between Serin and the Death Knight tilted increasingly one-sided. The Death Knight kept unfolding skills, but Serin, gradually adapting to the situation, continued landing hits across the Death Knight's entire body even as they traded blows.
Crunch! Crunch!
Eleven.
Eight.
Four.
The number of hits landing across the Death Knight's body climbed rapidly, and before long, with only four death-count hits remaining, Serin noticed the Death Knight's behavior change.
—Randel Imperial Swordsmanship, Eighth Form: Great Destruction.
Gripping its sword with both hands, the Death Knight slammed a heavy blow seething with darkness into the temple floor.
Boom!
The temple floor burst apart under the strike, which exploded with immense force, and immediately after, the Death Knight's form could be seen hurling itself backward.
At a glance, it looked like fleeing, but Serin watched and did not bother to chase.
The Death Knight's act of widening the distance was just it pulling back to prepare a skill, so there was no need to pursue.
And then, thinking of the stream, her lips moved.
"Only four left now, everyone. You're watching closely, right?"
[Yes!]
[Already down to four?]
[Rin, you're so pretty!!]
[Is this really a Dancer...?]
[This isn't the Rin I know lololol]
[Is this a Dancer or a Berserker? Rin's fighting style suddenly seems different]
[I think it's different too]
[Is there a Dancer who trades blows with a Death Knight in melee?]
[Is she really using skills with zero proficiency...? Why does it look so natural]
[Another World talent is seriously insane, you can just feel it watching Rin]
[She's a Dancer, so why is she trading blows so cleanly]
[Her mechanics alone are absolutely crazy]
Serin, who had been glancing at the chat window to gauge reactions, swept back her slightly disheveled hair.
Once the silver hair that had been partially blocking her view was tidied, she could see the Death Knight, which had widened the distance, even more clearly.
It held its darkness-stained sword in both hands and slowly drew the sword back behind it in an unusual posture.
In a way, it looked like it was preparing a massive horizontal slash.
And because she knew what that Death Knight posture meant, Serin slowly let the Crescent-Moon Weight hang in the air.
Swoosh.
The white Crescent-Moon Weight circled through the air along its pure white cord.
"The rest is going to end more anticlimactically than you'd think. So please watch even more closely."
She said it outright in advance. That this ending would surely be anticlimactic.
As she watched the Death Knight now, she felt as though she could see the ending itself, as if she had future sight.
Originally, the monster called a Death Knight received fairly special treatment.
Because of its strength, it often appeared as a boss depending on the dungeon, and when it appeared alone as it did now, it had a single pattern.
With four death-count hits remaining, Death Knights all displayed a distinctive behavior.
As if the soul of the Death Knight, once a knight, were burning its final flame, it would unfold the ultimate technique of the swordsmanship it had mastered.
So the Death Knight she was facing now would also try to use the ultimate technique of Randel Imperial Swordsmanship.
Serin decided to meet it head-on and finish things in one blow.
Clank!
The Death Knight's armor let out a heavy sound as it carefully took its stance.
Before, it had simply swung its sword recklessly to use skills, but now it took an exquisitely precise stance, as if it were alive.
"..."
Watching that contradictory sight, Serin found her lips twisting without realizing it.
A being that was nothing more than a vengeful ghost, pretending to be a noble knight, preparing a technique as if its soul were untainted—the sight always left a foul taste in her mouth.
No matter that this was a game now, to her, who had actually faced countless Death Knights, that appearance was revolting.
Then, having drawn its sword back behind its waist with both hands, the Death Knight's body suddenly swelled as if exerting immense power.
The manifestation of that enormous presence alone seemed to carry a kind of oppressive weight, and the air churned and rippled violently under the Death Knight's unleashed force.
Those signs all heralded the start of the technique.
—Randel Imperial Swordsmanship, Eleventh Form: Great Severance.
As it swung the two-handed sword in a great horizontal slash, a massive line of darkness shot from the blade and began cutting through space itself.
The line of darkness came flying, splitting the temple's many pillars and walls in a single stroke.
Watching it, Serin unfolded her own skill.
—Moonlight Heaven-Breaking.
The instant her Crescent-Moon Weight emitted bright moonlight again, Serin swung it directly in front of herself and burst that moonlight outward.
The scattered moonlight fluttered as if dispersing, then suddenly gathered thickly before her, forming a sphere of pure white moonlight.
Even as she watched the line of darkness come flying, cutting through everything in the temple, Serin was utterly composed.
Staring at the line of darkness that looked ready to pierce the sphere of light before her at any moment, she held a conviction close to certainty.
The duel between Daji and the Heavenly Demon that had come to mind late last night.
In that memory, the skill Daji had used against the Heavenly Demon Cheon Ryuhwa's Heavenly Demon Great Annihilation Calamity—Moonlight Heaven-Breaking—was an immensely powerful and destructive technique.
It was only because Daji had not known that Heavenly Demon Great Annihilation Calamity devoured the opponent's power in return that the matchup had worked out that way.
Swoosh!
Then the single massive line of darkness passed through her in an instant.
Boom!!
The temple pillars around Serin were cut down and collapsed, and obstacles were erased as if bursting apart.
But Serin calmly stepped forward.
Light, in and of itself, contains infinite power. In that sense, this skill called Moonlight Heaven-Breaking was truly absurd beyond measure.
A preposterous, enormous destructive force befitting a skill name meaning to break the heavens with moonlight.
When Serin glanced aside,
she saw the line of darkness that had passed her collapsing.
From the moment it passed through the sphere of light right in front of her, the line of darkness had advanced through space with its center severed.
So naturally, Serin had taken not a single point of damage.
Afterward, the Death Knight in view, having unfolded its ultimate technique, was utterly defenseless.
Serin launched herself lightly, using no skill at all, and simply embroidered the air with the moonlit Crescent-Moon Weight to declare the end of the duel.
Crunch! Crunch!
The sound of shattering metal rang out in succession, and moments later, the Death Knight's entire body crumbled into a handful of dust.
Ding!
*
————
Acquired 'High Knight's Crystal'.
- Description: The soul of a high-ranking knight of the Randel Empire, crystallized by the Arch Lich's magic. An exceedingly scarce and rare material for top-grade alchemy.
- Alchemy Workshop sale price: 10 million silver coins.
- If donated to the Randel Empire, 5 million silver coins and increased favor with the Imperial Knight Order.
————
*
Serin, who had been checking the completely unexpected item notification, laughed as if amazed.
"Everyone, do you usually sell this?"
Maybe it was because this was a high-level hunting ground, but she felt the reward from the very start was big.
[...Is this a game?]
[Streamer Rin, we need to investigate her ties to Another World...]
[lolol is it real that she got a Knight's Crystal from the first mob? No, what kind of flex even is this;]
[I can hear the cash-farming parties grinding for a single Knight's Crystal malding from here lolol]
[Usually if you're basing out of the Randel Empire, you donate it; otherwise selling is right]
[Most people just sell it because it's a hassle, right?]
[She came to the hunting ground to show off hidden class skills and not long after she's earning 10 million silver, what even...]
[fr I'm not watching to see flexing!!]
[Whoa, and since she's not in a party, Rin gets all 10 million to herself, that's insane lololol]