26. Challenger Rank 8, Plea - (4)
26. Challenger Rank 8, Plea - (4)
***
A golden cluster of light.
"...!"
The instant she registered it, her body moved on its own, kicking off the ground as if by instinct.
Using Bloodstained Step to make her movements impossible to track, she closed the distance at speed.
Obviously a ranged skill.
And given the way the light was gathering, possibly an area-of-effect skill.
Or perhaps an instantaneous burst of light that would be difficult to counter. She ran through the possibilities.
Whatever it was, waiting for it was the kind of recklessness only possible when your opponent was clearly beneath you.
In other words, standing still while someone gathered power or aimed at you from range was the stupidest thing you could do.
And she was not that stupid.
Tap-tap.
Tap.
Rin's form kicked off the Colosseum's various obstacles, leaving bloodstained afterimages stitched across the arena as she surged toward Plea at unprecedented speed.
The distance closed in the blink of an eye.
"...Where did this person even come from?"
Plea muttered in disbelief at Rin's impossibly fast response, then thrust her drawn-back rapier forward.
Her opponent's reaction had been too perfect.
If she kept charging at her leisure, she could see herself losing.
In the end, the gauge wasn't even half full.
Even so, the rapier Plea thrust forward erupted with a massive golden burst of light.
———!!
A silent explosion. The moment the golden light burst forth, even Plea's own form staggered slightly from the shockwave.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
The golden cluster shot forward in a straight line, erasing the Colosseum's obstacles from existence.
Rin had been watching it from the start, hurling her body through the air the entire time. Serin's red eyes had not blinked once from beginning to end.
As if the path of the golden light had been etched into Serin's vision before it even fired, she swung her Crescent-Moon Weight first.
—Explosive Spike.
BOOM!!
The Crescent-Moon Weight slammed into the ground directly behind her, and the force of the blast launched Serin's body forward like a ricochet.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!!
As the golden light tore past beside her violently whipping silver hair, Rin watched it pass with utter indifference and kept flying forward without a moment's hesitation.
As if she had predicted it, Rin evaded the ranged skill with an improvised maneuver while using the explosive propulsion from her own weapon to arrive directly in front of Plea's face.
"Insane..."
As if she had never imagined Rin would not only dodge her skill but close the distance this fast, Plea belatedly tried to move at the sight of Rin before her.
But in that instant, Serin's form began to emanate an explosive blood-red aura.
—Ghost Dance.
The moment the Crescent-Moon Weight began weaving through the air, Serin's form became nearly impossible for Plea's eyes to track as she swung the weapon in all directions like a madwoman.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!
Chilling detonations rang out without pause, as if space itself were bursting apart.
She was not consciously swinging the weapon.
It did not even feel as though the system was helping her activate a skill.
Trapped within the storm of the weight lashing out in every direction, Plea struggled to right herself.
She thrust her rapier out, trying to defend somehow, but her posture kept breaking, preventing any skill from activating.
In the end, watching her HP being whittled away while completely exposed, she found herself staring at her own rapier.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!
She was definitely not the one moving it.
Her rapier was vibrating madly, as if constantly making contact with something.
Without even realizing it, she had been instinctively parrying at least some of the Crescent-Moon Weight's onslaught from all directions.
But... that was the extent of it.
Plea could only watch helplessly as her HP gauge continued to drain.
Whoosh!
Serin, who had been swinging the Crescent-Moon Weight like a madwoman and bursting space apart, suddenly pulled the weapon back.
And believing the skill had ended, Plea quickly kicked off the ground, attempting to use a skill to escape.
—One Mist.
She tried to activate One Mist, the skill that would turn her into a wisp of smoke and make her vanish from sight.
But Plea's body suddenly lifted into the air.
An unnatural phenomenon. Plea felt her vision invert in a daze.
"...Huh?"
Then she realized she had been yanked into the air by a black cord wrapped around her leg, and bit her lip.
It was humiliating.
Aware of her body being slammed toward the ground, Plea looked down at Serin staring up at her from directly below.
Her HP gauge was already at barely 20%. She had no idea what skill she had been hit with, but the moment she hit the floor, her defeat was all but certain.
And in that split second, she made her decision.
Still suspended awkwardly in the air, she gathered all her strength into the hand gripping her rapier and activated a skill simultaneously.
—Extreme Flash.
As Plea's body plummeted toward the floor, her rapier shot out at an abnormal speed.
As if it would pierce straight through Rin's head the moment she landed.
......
BOOM!!!
An unprecedented explosion rang out as Plea's body slammed into the ground.
"..."
Watching it happen, Serin absently touched her own cheek. A phantom sensation, as if feeling a long gash.
But what her hand felt was smooth skin.
—Victory.
The familiar text filled her vision as she blinked and collected her thoughts.
'Was it... a matter of inches?'
She hadn't been certain she would dodge in time, and for a moment thought she had lost.
No matter how much damage Ghost Dance had already dealt, the instant a rapier pierced her head, her defeat was guaranteed.
Tap.
She saw Plea slowly getting to her feet in front of her.
"Wow... I really didn't think I'd lose."
She muttered with a dazed expression, as if unable to believe her own defeat.
"Want to go again right away?"
Serin said, watching her.
Her hands were tingling.
Having a worthy opponent. That single fact alone felt like it breathed life into her.
Just having an opponent like this gave her one more reason to reach Challenger Tier.
She had won, but ultimately it came down to a difference in experience. If they kept fighting, the matches might get even more intense.
And more than anything, Serin was looking forward to that.
"Ah. No. Let's rest about ten minutes and then go again."
Plea burst into laughter at Serin's eagerness for an immediate rematch, shaking her head slightly as she made the request.
That single duel had given her too much to think about, and she needed time to sort through it.
"Sure. Then."
Serin went along with Plea's request without complaint.
As she walked to the opposite side of the Colosseum, Plea kept letting out hollow laughs while watching her.
The fact that she had lost.
That in itself wasn't particularly surprising.
She was constantly fighting rankers in the Challenger top 20 in the Arena, so losing wasn't exactly rare for her.
But that didn't mean she lost to just anyone.
She had acknowledged it in her heart, but actually losing still felt strange.
"Anyway... I feel drained."
That single duel had already left her feeling exhausted.
There was no physical pain, and no problem moving her body.
But her mind was strangely tired. A peculiar feeling, as if her common sense had been shattered.
The duel had lasted maybe ten minutes at most.
The way the user called Rin had dodged her Riposte with incomprehensible movement, and the way she had closed in without hesitation the moment Plea tried to use a ranged skill.
Looking back, every single moment had been extraordinary. There had surely been opportunities to score if she had responded differently.
But in the end, she shook her head and cleared her thoughts.
The Colosseum's structures had been reconstructed the moment the duel ended. Sitting down against one of them, Plea absently opened the chat window.
She was on stream right now, after all, so she needed to keep checking chat and communicating.
And honestly, she was curious about the chat's reaction.
[Wow...]
[fr what is this]
[Plea lost?]
[Nah didn't Plea just go easy on her?]
[lol Plea has never gone easy on anyone in a duel what are you talking about lololol]
[I'm watching and I still don't get it lololol]
[fr same is this what they call the celestial realm or whatever?]
Most of the chat agreed on one thing: the result was hard to believe.
The viewers couldn't easily accept Rin's skill even after seeing it.
She would have to check later how it looked on stream, but she wondered if the duel had been too fast to broadcast properly.
As Plea watched the chat reactions and gathered her thoughts on what to say.
"Your Awakening Skill and Emergency Evasion. Why didn't you use them?"
Serin's voice suddenly rang out.