334. Dance of the Moon-Demon Rakshasa
334. Dance of the Moon-Demon Rakshasa
***
When Serin's figure vanished in an instant, Sua and Yujeong unconsciously looked at each other.
They had already known that Serin was preparing some kind of skill.
And that was the defining trait of a charging skill.
Because they had seen the look of power being condensed in Serin's form.
So both of them had naturally kept deploying their own skills without pause to draw the Harpy Queen's attention and keep her in check.
But when Serin simply disappeared at the end of it, without any sign at all, Sua and Yujeong couldn't make sense of the situation.
"..."
"..."
After exchanging glances for a moment, they turned their eyes toward the Harpy Queen floating in the air, as if they had made an unspoken agreement.
Whatever skill Serin used, its target was surely the Harpy Queen. Even if she had vanished like this, the place where Serin would reappear could only be there.
And then, just as they fixed their gazes there.
The intelligent Harpy Queen was thinking the same thing. From the moment Serin suddenly concealed herself, the Harpy Queen had been warily scanning her surroundings, her eyes cold and composed.
Even as she carefully observed her surroundings and stayed on guard, she felt nothing.
—!
Then a brilliant moonlight bloomed, ever so faintly, illuminating one part of the cave.
The Crescent-Moon Weight that had suddenly appeared held the moonlight within it and lit up the cave's interior, and the beings inside found their gazes drawn to it as if entranced.
But the woman who should have been holding the Crescent-Moon Weight was nowhere to be seen. With only the weapon floating alone in the empty air, their confusion only deepened.
Sssss...
As the Crescent-Moon Weight, suffused with pure white light, floated in the air, a white cord slowly began to reveal itself.
It looked as though something was newly emerging from empty space.
The white cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight continued to reveal itself. And so the endlessly extending white cord stretched all the way to the empty air where the Harpy Queen hovered.
As Sua and Yujeong blankly followed the cord with their eyes, the Harpy Queen also quickly turned her head along its length.
And what appeared in their vision was a dancer clad in white light armor, fluttering softly.
Since when had she been there? No—could that even be called a dancer?
White light armor. A slender woman wearing an unknown white mask floated in the empty air.
"...How dare you!"
The Harpy Queen, her expression one of great shock, flew into a rage and swiftly swung her hand.
How had this woman gotten so close without her noticing? The fact that she hadn't sensed it deeply offended the Harpy Queen. Casting aside the composure she'd shown until just now, she swung her hand menacingly.
Whoooosh!!
The harpy's two hands carved an enormous arc through the air, unlike anything before.
It was a vicious act, as if she meant to tear the dancer herself to shreds on the spot.
Even her two hands were wrapped in something opaque, as if white wind coiled around them, carrying a ferocious energy.
Whooosh!
Immediately after, a gale swept through the entire cave as if the wind itself was raging, striking the dancer in white light armor head-on.
But like a mirage, the dancer did not move at all.
She showed no movement to block the Harpy Queen's attack.
Nor any small sign of attacking. She simply allowed the Harpy Queen's two hands to reach her.
Whooosh! KRAAASH!
The massive wind that rose along the Harpy Queen's two hands swept over the dancer's form—and then went beyond her, carving a huge scar into the cave wall behind and causing massive destruction.
"..."
And only then did the Harpy Queen realize something was wrong.
'What happened...?'
She had surely torn her apart properly. There had been no small mistake, no human response of any kind.
The strange sensation of having sliced through empty space. The fact that she had felt nothing against her hands stirred a small unease in the Harpy Queen.
As she blankly withdrew her arm and stared at the dancer's form, now blurred and indistinct.
Slowly, the anomaly came into view.
What she had thought she'd torn apart was merely something distorted. The dancer's whole body, visible right now, showed no wounds, no blood, nothing at all.
At the very least, the hem of that white light armor should have been badly torn, but not even a small rip was visible.
A bizarre phenomenon, like something reflected on the surface of a lake warping for a moment before returning to its original shape.
That moment.
Screeeeech!
With the sound of the cord floating in the air being yanked taut in an instant, the masked white dancer twisted her body grotesquely. Her white hand, connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight, was raised, and she twisted her body like a marionette.
"...Wh-what!"
The startled Harpy Queen tried to swing her hand to put distance between them in one motion, but at that moment, Sua and Yujeong on the ground witnessed a single sight.
The masked white dancer existing in the air before the Harpy Queen's gaze.
But behind the Harpy Queen who was facing her—another masked dancer revealing herself.
Swish!
The newly appeared dancer twisted her hand sharply the moment she revealed herself.
Immediately after, a white cord wrapped itself around the harpy's hand as she tried to recoil.
"...!?"
As the Harpy Queen urgently whipped her head around, the formless white dancer positioned in front of her twisted her body bizarrely and swung the connected Crescent-Moon Weight without mercy.
The Crescent-Moon Weight surged toward the Harpy Queen's upper body, restrained by the dancer who had appeared behind her, and drew a white line.
SPLAAASH!
Blood sprayed from the harpy's deeply slashed upper body. At the same time, Serin, having released the skill, tried to grab the blade of the Crescent-Moon Weight that had reached right in front of her.
'I can kill her in one blow.'
No matter if she was a Named Monster or a special variant, it was possible as long as she could strike a vital point in a single instant.
The moment she released the skill, the other dancer's form scattered immediately, and the white mask over my face—the one who had been restraining the Harpy Queen's movements from behind with the cord—also slowly faded away.
Just as I seized the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade directly and thrust toward the harpy's neck in one breath, a massive blood-red mist suddenly burst from the harpy's body as if exploding.
————!!
Failing to pierce the harpy's neck in a single stroke, I was flung back helplessly in that instant, like a severed thread.
Thwack!
I slammed hard into the cave wall and fell, forcing myself upright while unconsciously scowling. It wasn't just the unexpected damage. It was because I realized what the change that had just burst over the Harpy Queen's body meant.
'...Demonic Release.'
Watching my HP gauge sink to the bottom in an instant, I pushed myself up.
"Serin!"
"Rin, are you okay!?"
As I watched the two of them call out to me and approach, a pang of regret rose.
'If I had told them about the skill beforehand... could we have ended it just now?'
Since it was a special skill I was using for the first time, I hadn't expected to use it at this timing either. But it was hard to deny that the timing just now had been too perfect.
'If the two of them had been able to cooperate at that moment...'
My thoughts continued in regret, but I soon shook my head.
The Harpy Queen had attacked while looking at the Moon-Demon Rakshasa's clone. Taking advantage of that opening to attack had been like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not a situation I had entered with certainty.
Besides, to the two of them, the sight of me using Dance of the Moon-Demon Rakshasa would have been unexpected and hard to predict.
"...I'm okay."
As I slowly rose, I could see the Harpy Queen engulfed in red mist.
Even her form seemed submerged in blood, thickly shrouded in mist.
"I'm sorry, Serin. I should have backed you up properly."
"Really... it's such a shame. Looking at the situation, shouldn't one of us use an Awakening Skill? It doesn't seem like fighting her from here on will be easy at all."
Sua spoke with an apologetic look, and Yujeong spoke as if anticipating the Harpy Queen's full strength from here on.
Using an Awakening Skill. It was a reasonable point.
"And I'll use mine first."
When Yujeong volunteered to use her Awakening Skill, I unconsciously looked at Sua.
"That seems fine."
When even Sua seemed to accept Yujeong's words, I nodded as well.
"All right."
Of the five total phases in the Zervallua Raid, we were currently in Phase 2.
Having someone use an Awakening Skill already might be too early. But there was no telling how strong the Harpy Queen would be after opening her demonic power.
Whoosh!
The blood-red mist surrounding the Harpy Queen rapidly dispersed, revealing a Harpy Queen dyed not in her original white feathers but in brilliant red feathers.
At the same time, blood surged out and wrapped around Yujeong's entire body.
...
The moment she felt that Rin had driven the Harpy Queen to the brink of death, Yujeong had unconsciously clenched her hand. But afterward, Rin had shown an extremely calm and composed attitude.
She wore an odd expression, as if regretting that she hadn't been able to finish it. But as she kept Rin in her sights, Yujeong unconsciously felt relieved.
'Not becoming an Outlaw was the right choice.'
Watching that just now, where exactly was Rin's limit? She couldn't even begin to guess.
She had some sense of what kind of skill it was, but more than the skill itself, Rin's movements at the end had been astonishing.
The moment she released the skill to finish it, Rin had immediately seized the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade.
The sight of her thrusting straight at the Harpy Queen's neck in one motion...
Whoosh!
As the red mist surrounding the Harpy Queen vanished and her form was revealed, I kept my eyes fixed on Rin.
'I have to prove my worth.'
I didn't want to stay by Rin's side simply because of Craving for True Blood, that one skill alone. At the very least, I wanted to stand at the same height as her—to properly imprint my existence onto Rin. That overwhelming desire seized my heart.
Then, with Yujeong's lips moving faintly, she activated her Awakening Skill.
—Bloody Rose.
As deep blood-red gore wrapped around Yujeong, her vision was dyed crimson.