262. Knights of Charlemagne vs Rin - Yellow Dragon Heaven-Ascending Strike (黃龍進天擊) (11)
262. Knights of Charlemagne vs Rin - Yellow Dragon Heaven-Ascending Strike (黃龍進天擊) (11)
***
Seoyun and Sua were watching Serin's match.
When the smoke on the screen cleared and Serin's badly wounded figure appeared.
"...!"
Seoyun instinctively held her breath.
Her left arm was soaked in blood and looked utterly gruesome.
Yet even so, Serin slowly straightened her posture and raised that left arm, and Seoyun, her face gone pale, blankly covered her mouth.
Seeing her sister actually wounded, Seoyun was far more startled than she had expected and couldn't sit still.
"Sua! My sister isn't hurt or anything, right...? She's really okay, right?"
As she kept asking Sua beside her whether Serin was okay, Sua watched the screen with a slightly surprised expression and nodded.
"She's really okay, so you don't have to be that shocked. Pain is completely blocked in Another World."
In reality, no matter how severe the wounds or injuries in Another World, all a user actually felt was a faint tap-tap. Just a barely perceptible sensation, nothing more.
Moreover, the Another World connection capsule had not one but several overlapping safety mechanisms, and if even one of those safety systems developed the slightest problem, the connection was forcibly terminated, so there was no possibility of a user actually feeling pain.
"Still... it's too cruel."
Even after hearing Sua's answer, Seoyun kept saying she was worried, and Sua repeatedly reassured her that Serin was fine.
Her sister had an appearance that looked especially real compared to other characters, and Sua knew Seoyun didn't play Another World herself, so while she understood why Seoyun was making such a fuss, she also privately found it curious.
'What in the world did she see that made her think her sister was in danger?'
She suddenly found it strange that Seoyun had said her sister was in danger before she was even wounded.
It was surprising enough that Serin had actually been badly wounded, but Seoyun had spoken as if she had predicted it.
But her puzzlement didn't last long.
When Serin's expression turned indifferent and she quickly threw herself forward, there was no room for other thoughts while focusing on the match.
***
Serin raised her ruined, blood-soaked left arm and gripped the golden cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight.
CREEEAK!
The taut golden cord let out a sound, and the blood flowing down her left hand gradually drained it of its bright color.
"..."
Her blue eyes calmly watched her opponent as she registered what had just happened.
A feint.
Now that she had allowed an attack through it, Serin approached the game in earnest.
Then a blood-red aura rippled and settled over Serin's legs, and she immediately activated a skill and threw herself forward.
—Bloodstained Step.
As Serin's form surged toward Astolfo, drawing a red afterimage, Astolfo, who had been watching tensely, also activated a skill.
—Tip of the Spearblade.
Thrusting the spearblade forward as if stabbing, Astolfo gripped the spear shaft with both hands and held his ground.
It was a stance for attacking the instant the opponent entered effective range, and at the same time a kind of defensive posture.
Serin's lips curled upward, and she released all at once the strength she had been putting into her blood-soaked left hand.
The moment she let go of the cord she had been gripping, the blood-tinged Crescent-Moon Weight shot out in a massive arc like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
WHOOSH!
The Crescent-Moon Weight tore through the air, hurtling ferociously toward Astolfo.
"...!"
Her attack wasn't any particular skill, merely her own technique, but to Astolfo watching, it looked like a skill he had never seen before.
Astolfo's eyes twitched faintly as he reached out his hand.
'Her movements changed.'
Just moments ago they had been fiercely exchanging blows within effective range, but now the opponent was suddenly attacking from outside that range.
And with a technique that seemed to dare a spear knight to fight at distance.
WHOOSH!!
Astolfo's spear, radiating brilliant light, shot toward a specific point, and the trajectory of its tip was uncannily following the curve along which the Crescent-Moon Weight bent.
Serin, who hadn't missed a single one of Astolfo's movements, twisted her outstretched right hand minutely in that instant.
What unfolded next was bizarre.
WHOOSH!
The spearblade that had extended a beat later pierced the empty air even faster, while the Crescent-Moon Weight, which had been hurtling forward and tearing through space, suddenly twisted off its trajectory in midair and slowed.
"...!"
Astolfo's eyes flew wide open and he twisted his body belatedly, but—
Swish!
He could only feel the sensation of the Crescent-Moon Weight grazing his cheek.
Facing that, Serin deepened the smile at her lips and twisted the cord-connected right hand as if snaring it, then yanked hard.
Whirr!
As the Crescent-Moon Weight that had grazed his cheek was swiftly reeled back in, Astolfo felt as though a blood-red trajectory had traced line after line right before his eyes.
Between the strands of his disheveled pale-blue hair as he instinctively twisted his head, Astolfo, having avoided the direct hit, hardened his expression and kicked off the ground without hesitation, watching the blood-red trajectory being reeled in.
The opponent was pulling off incomprehensible techniques just beyond the subtle reach of his spearblade.
Realizing at once that he was at a disadvantage in range, he judged that he couldn't afford to give her time.
—Thunderstroke Halberd Flash.
As Astolfo kicked off the ground and his hand shot out like lightning, radiating light, countless points connected in an instant and became a line—a single bolt of lightning.
Astolfo's attack came flying at nearly the same speed as the Crescent-Moon Weight being reeled back.
At a glance, she already looked too late to counter with the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Serin, who had been reeling in the Crescent-Moon Weight, stepped back and spun her body quickly.
One of the Dancer's foot techniques Daji had shown before.
—Heavenly Kick.
As if demonstrating the movement Daji had perfectly countered with, she answered head-on, radiating a blood-red light unlike Daji's pure white glow.
BOOOOM!!
A sound that made it impossible to believe a spearblade wreathed in light and a human leg had collided rang out.
From the shockwave, the light-wreathed spear shaft soared high into the air, and Serin's body, which had met the force, was also hurled backward.
Just then, as the Crescent-Moon Weight was reeled in, Serin hurled it high into the air and activated a skill.
—Dark Moon Weight.
The blood-red trajectory that had shot up along her hand suddenly bent at a right angle at one point, as if dropping vertically toward the ground, and began embroidering the air with blood-red light.
SWISH!
The blood-red trajectory shot out, snapping its angle like a snake slithering through underbrush.
Astolfo, watching that bizarre attack, made a split-second judgment.
'I'll turn it back on her.'
Rin's movements were growing increasingly bizarre.
To the point that the variable was now far exceeding his expectations.
Having resolved to allow the attack, Astolfo instead gripped the spear shaft with force and shot toward Rin again.
—Yellow Dragon Heaven-Ascending Strike.
The already-shining spear took on an even more dazzling golden light, the entire shaft and blade radiating brilliance, and even as the blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight came flying, Astolfo countered by unleashing a killing blow toward Serin.
SWISH!
As Astolfo, his entire body dyed gold along with the spearblade, embroidered countless lines in the air and surged forward like a dragon, the Dark Moon Weight landed its attack cleanly.
Thunk!
The blood-red Crescent-Moon Weight surged up bizarrely and struck directly into a part of his armor as if embedding itself, and Astolfo's form flinched minutely.
Even so, Astolfo thrust his spear toward Rin, who was now right in front of him.
'I've won.'
Astolfo sensed victory.
The spear tip was already within reach; there was no way to block the attack, and it was too late for her to escape.
The moment Astolfo thought that, ironically, Serin twisted her lips.
—Wail of the Dead.
From the Crescent-Moon Weight embedded in Astolfo's armor, blood-red energy burst out as if exploding.
Serin's right hand gripped the connected cord tightly with a deft gesture.
CREEEEAK!
The cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight pulled taut, and the golden trajectory that had been shooting toward her veered sharply off course.
Swish!
Watching the gold-dyed spear graze past her cheek, Serin met the eyes of Astolfo, who was right in front of her.
Then the face of her opponent, passing by as if skimming past, turned toward the ground with an expression of incomprehension.
Thud!
Astolfo's form, which had been shooting forward like light, crumpled and slammed into the ground right beside her.
BOOOOM!!
The gold-dyed spear that had left his hand struck pointlessly, causing destruction—a bizarre sight.
Wail of the Dead.
Just as Serin had once used it against monsters in the Cave of Trials, in PvP it didn't erupt with an explosive roar or display massive destructive power.
Instead, in a duel, it had the overwhelming additional ability to completely paralyze the opponent's body.
Although it had an extremely demanding condition—the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade had to be embedded in the opponent after wounding them, or the Crescent-Moon Weight had to remain in direct contact with the opponent—
The opponent had overlooked that just now.
Serin looked down at the pale-blue-haired knight lying on the ground, his body twitching faintly, and pulled hard on the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Then, as the Crescent-Moon Weight was pulled free from the armor with a small scrape, Serin calmly gripped it and activated another skill.
—Heavy Spike.
The pure white blade of the Crescent-Moon Weight took on a vivid, intense blood-red light, flamboyantly displaying the destructive power of the skill it carried.
"That was fun."
Serin looked down at Astolfo sprawled on the ground and spoke leisurely.
"..."
Astolfo, lying on the ground, tried to say something, but his paralyzed body wouldn't let him speak.
Immediately after, Serin drove an intense blood-red line toward Astolfo's chest.
CRUNCH!
Astolfo's armor crumpled completely with a gruesome metallic shriek, and as if that weren't enough, the Crescent-Moon Weight struck the ground with tremendous force.
BOOOOM!!
Centered on the fallen Astolfo, even the Colosseum floor collapsed and caved in.
Fwoosh...
Watching Astolfo turn into light and fade away, Serin absently thought that she was glad.
—Victory!
The victory message filling one side of her vision—and the fact that she had won—honestly didn't matter much to her right now.
More than that, she was glad she hadn't driven the Crescent-Moon Weight into her opponent's head at the end.
'The kids are probably watching.'
If that thought hadn't briefly crossed her mind at the last moment, she would certainly have driven the Crescent-Moon Weight into Astolfo's head, not his chest.