336. Swift - Ghost Dance
336. Swift - Ghost Dance
***
Sua was the first to unleash her skill.
She drew the hand holding her rapier back against her chest, then in an instant kicked off the ground like an arrow leaving a bowstring.
—Platina Lumia.
Her hand, gripping the rapier now dyed golden, accelerated sharply as it traced a trail of gold through the air.
The golden arc carved in a straight line seemed about to pierce straight through the Harpy Queen's head. At that moment, the Harpy Queen's eyes flew wide open.
"...How dare you! This insolence!"
Shrieking in fury, the Harpy Queen unleashed a massive surge of Demonic Energy even with her entire body bound by countless blood threads.
Tudududuk!
As Demonic Energy erupted explosively around the Harpy Queen—the countless blood threads binding her began to blacken all at once. When one of the relatively thin threads snapped feebly, the golden arc merely grazed past the Harpy Queen's hair by a hair's breadth.
"Kgh!"
Even Yujeong, who had been gripping the blood threads with both hands as if binding the Harpy Queen herself, staggered badly and struggled to keep her footing. Even so, Yujeong never loosened her grip on the threads.
Right now, she had the Harpy Queen's entire body bound at close enough range for their breaths to touch. She could never let this go.
Countless blood threads spread out from her two hands, seizing the space like a spiderweb and constraining the Harpy Queen's movements, but Yujeong knew this situation would not last long.
'I absolutely cannot let go.'
Originally, this was a skill powerful enough that she should have finished it herself. But considering the Harpy Queen's martial might, merely concentrating on keeping her bound was already taking everything Yujeong had.
And Yujeong's gaze was not fixed on the Harpy Queen, who was twisting her face in fury and struggling to break free. Beyond the Harpy Queen, she saw only the figure of a woman rising into the air.
'She can finish this.'
She believed Rin could do it.
Like a master artisan renowned for her skill laying down a single stroke of calligraphy on pure white cloth—the sight of the dancer in red light armor kicking off the ground and rising into the air was breathtakingly beautiful.
Then, following her rapidly spinning body, a red aura shimmering across her form rippled and brilliantly manifested its melody.
Would it look like that if hundreds of red threads were released into the air all at once?
Watching the silver hair fan out beautifully, watching the gaze of the woman with cold blue eyes land on the Harpy Queen, Yujeong put even more strength into her hands.
"You worthless humans dare...! Release me this instant!!"
With the Harpy Queen's ear-splitting shriek, her struggles to break free of Rose Madness grew even more violent,
tudududuk!
and the number of snapping blood threads continued to climb rapidly.
Even so, when Yujeong's gaze turned toward Serin—
"..."
Serin, too, shifted her gaze from the Harpy Queen to Yujeong.
The moment their eyes met, Serin smiled faintly and slowly curled the corners of her lips.
As if making sure Yujeong could see her smile. As if putting on deliberate composure so Yujeong could feel reassured—even while doing so, Serin unleashed her skill.
—Swift - Single Kick.
While still in the Swift state, she rose and spun her body as she used Single Kick.
Her body spun fiercely, as if completely ignoring the constraints of space, and the instant she felt herself kick through the air—with a violent gust of wind—she was already leaping toward the Harpy Queen in a single bound.
'I have to end this, no matter what.'
Even within that utterly extraordinary speed, she thought it like a resolution.
When the Harpy Queen's head belatedly turned toward me and our eyes met, I clenched the hand holding the Crescent-Moon Weight until it felt like it would shatter. Putting strength into it, I thought of a single skill.
'Swift - Ghost Dance.'
Ghost Dance used in the Swift state—even I wasn't sure right now whether I could control that speed.
Because I still hadn't fully completed it.
But the blood threads binding the Harpy Queen already looked like they had reached their limit, and seeing the Harpy Queen radiating dense Demonic Energy, I had to end it now.
Even as I thought, I could already see the Harpy Queen's form growing rapidly larger.
And even at that moment, I could see golden lines constraining the Harpy Queen's movements.
From the instant I used Swift, Sua had been performing that role without exchanging a single word.
Tududuk!
Along with the sound of dozens of threads snapping at once, I saw the Harpy Queen's movement.
One arm came free, and the Harpy Queen immediately slashed sharply through the air. Even the sight of Yujeong recoiling in surprise and hastily pulling back—
All of it entered my vision at once. Then I unleashed the skill.
—Swift - Ghost Dance.
In that instant, the hand gripping the Crescent-Moon Weight slipped completely beyond my control.
————!!
Immediately, a brilliant feast of blood-red color embroidered the space, surging up as if to fill my entire field of vision,
KABOOM!!
and the noise of space bursting countless times hammered violently into my ears.
As if all control had been released, my hand swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight was carving through space at a speed far beyond my thoughts.
I could see the Harpy Queen, now freed from her restraints, desperately trying to block the skill with black wind. But it no longer felt fast.
Unlike before, when the Harpy Queen's movements had seemed so fast they blurred, now they entered my eyes with perfect clarity.
Black wind pressure kept rising along her hands as she tried to follow the blood-tinged trajectory of the Crescent-Moon Weight.
But her movements now seemed slow to me.
...
The instant the Harpy Queen completely broke free of Rose Madness's restraints—the space where she stood was engulfed in a massive upheaval.
KABOOM!!
The deafening roar of space itself bursting over and over rang out madly, and as if someone had released thousands of threads into the air all at once, the massive blood-red color began dyeing the space in its own hue in an instant.
At the sight unfolding before her eyes, Sua stopped mid-motion as she moved to provide support, and Yujeong likewise halted as she tried to help despite the aftereffects of her Awakening Skill being released.
"..."
"..."
The two women were momentarily speechless, simply staring at the upheaval unfolding before them.
Space continued to be scorched to ruin amid the enormous roar.
The ground burst apart countless times, and shockwave after shockwave rippled through the air, resonating loudly again and again.
Within it, the dancer in red light armor embroidered her attacks as if completely dominating the space. The Harpy Queen's movements as she swung her arms to resist had also reached something beyond common sense.
Peopeopeopeopeong!
As colossal forces collided and shockwaves spread out in great ripples, Yujeong and Sua flinched and stepped back—only then did the belated sonic boom slam into their ears.
As the exchange of blows, more phantasm than speed, continued—the result did not even take a minute to manifest.
Swish.
The great silver hair scattered, and the Crescent-Moon Weight that had been tracing a blood-red arc gradually lost its force. As the dancer slowly descended to the ground, someone began to fade away.
The Harpy Queen's form collapsed wretchedly, brutally slashed to pieces, and fell. Serin, who had been staring blankly at the sight, staggered the moment she landed.
Unable to steady herself for a moment as if about to collapse, Serin dropped to one knee and grimaced.
"Serin!"
"Rin!"
As soon as the result appeared, Sua and Yujeong cried out and threw themselves toward Serin.
-0:02.
-0:01.
And the timer that had been steadily ticking down stopped, as if by fate, at the final second.
***
Ding!
*
————
[Phase 2: Hall of Pandemonium Cleared!!]
Hall of Pandemonium clear rewards have been generated!
【Special Entity Defeated!】
You have subjugated the 'Demon-Corrupted Harpy Queen,' so bonus rewards will be applied!
Continue to the next phase?
[Y / N]
————
*
Along with the message blocking her view, the two figures had already come to her side. Serin closed the hologram and turned her gaze to them.
"Serin! Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?"
"Rin! That was so beautiful at the end!"
While Sua asked with a worried expression, Yujeong, her hands trembling, expressed her admiration with her whole body.
'...These two really think very differently.'
She thought that absently, and a small laugh escaped her. Even so, she tried to get up right away.
Grab.
She didn't refuse the kindness of the two as they each took one of her arms and helped her up. Once on her feet, she slowly parted her lips.
"I'm fine. My vision just got a little dizzy from using that skill."
She had steeled herself before unleashing Ghost Dance in the Swift state, but the aftereffects were not insignificant.
Even now her head was spinning, and her mind felt so hazy that she could barely string her thoughts together.
"Well, that's a relief. But I was really shocked too. You know how I couldn't even see the trajectory of the Crescent-Moon Weight you were swinging?"
"I only learned today, from watching you, Rin, that the Harpy Queen can be beaten with speed!"
With the two of them praising me so highly, I let out a hollow laugh and quickened my pace.
Before I knew it, the cave's darkness had vanished completely, and I could see what looked like an exit at the far end. When I spotted the safe zone surrounded by a green circle, I headed toward it and thought back on what had just happened.
'An instant—really, just a few seconds at most... that's probably what it was.'
I'd only been able to use 'Swift - Ghost Dance' because of the opening Yujeong and Sua had created, and even now I felt I couldn't use it without circumstances that favorable.
There was a good reason I'd never used it before.
It lay in the peculiar nature of the Crescent-Moon Weight as a weapon.
The Crescent-Moon Weight returns to its user after being swung, and it had the strange property that even the user could be harmed by it.
And with a technique like Ghost Dance, which struck an overwhelming number of times, that drawback was amplified even further. One wrong move and I could end up destroying myself.
Moreover, I still couldn't properly control the skill. I'd only been able to use it because the Harpy Queen was immobilized. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been strange if I'd destroyed myself.
As she slowly made her way toward the safe zone—
"Plea-lings! I'm really fine, so how about you go donate in Serin's channel instead?"
I saw Sua running her stream. I knew I should pay attention to my own stream too, but my heart wasn't in it.
Maybe because I'd moved so much in such a short time, my mind was hazy, and I hesitated, worried I might misspeak.
Just as I was gathering myself to speak—
"Would you like to check the rewards once we're inside the safe zone? The Harpy Queen was a special entity, so the rewards should definitely be good."
At Yujeong's excited voice, I simply nodded.
"Rewards sound good."
She wondered if they could even be checked right now, but honestly, did it matter?