41. Hand Crossbow
41. Hand Crossbow
***
Parrying.
In theory, it could block every attack while simultaneously meeting the opponent's weapon head-on.
Because you had to time your own weapon to meet the opponent's attack, it was clearly a difficult technique to pull off.
And when it came to parrying, Serin was confident enough to believe she was better at it than any ranker or pro in Another World.
The reason she had come to rely on parrying was, at first, clearly to survive. But after reaching a certain level, she had come to enjoy parrying itself.
Parrying had its own distinctive feel, so clashing with an opponent was, in itself, a kind of pleasure.
So if you asked for the fundamental reason Serin deliberately chose to parry instead of dodging even when she could dodge, you could say she was addicted to the sensation of that collision, the recoil that came from it.
But now.
Serin was not parrying. She was turning her head, focusing on dodging the opponent's attacks.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
"..."
Even as she predicted the trajectories and dodged, a small sigh escaped her.
The ranked opponent she had matched with this time was a ranged class.
And an Archer, by the look of it.
Thinking back to the Outlaw she had met when she first logged into Another World, whose class had been Archer, she wondered if this was similar. But what this opponent was holding was not a weapon like a massive crossbow.
Hand Crossbow.
A small crossbow mounted on one hand. It looked like a weapon that fired bolts.
A weapon that traded weak destructive power for utility and convenience pushed to the extreme.
On top of that, because of the special nature of games, the fact that ranged weapons had no reload mechanic hit Serin harder than expected.
"What kind of bullshit weapon is this..."
Serin muttered in a voice full of disbelief and quickly moved her feet.
It was fascinating that Another World had so many weapons that hadn't existed in the world of Black Ark.
Sometimes that was a pleasant novelty. But right now, Serin's mood was not particularly good.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
It seemed to be a single-shot skill with weak power but almost no cooldown. As the opponent fired repeatedly, Serin's arms and legs naturally grew busy.
—Whoosh!
She turned her head to dodge an arrow aimed at her skull and stepped forward at the same time.
—Clang! Clang!
Swinging her greatsword, she parried one of the incoming arrows while, in a natural motion, deflecting another off the blade as if letting it flow past.
Immediately afterward, an arrow shot at her leg, and she stopped short for an instant.
—Whoosh!
Then she saw the arrow lodged in the ground where her leg would have been.
[She's dodging that many arrows with pure reflexes?]
[lololol no but watching this is actually insane]
[Is this like absolute defense or absolute evasion or something?]
[The more I watch the less human she seems lololol]
[But how is every single movement so natural?]
[fr if I could do even half those movements I'd hit Diamond easy]
Even as she glanced at the chat window at the edge of her vision, she kept dodging what she could, deflecting a few arrows, and closing the distance.
Honestly, even if she got hit, it wouldn't hurt much, and the damage clearly wouldn't be significant.
But she didn't want to let even that land.
A mere ranged weapon like that.
The idea of letting a user fighting in the Arena with a hand crossbow—not even a massive crossbow or longbow—land a hit on me bothered me.
It didn't sit right with her.
'Why?'
She didn't want to give a cheap, underhanded user like that even a small sense of accomplishment.
Right now, if she used Leap, she could shoot into the air and end the match with Wind Kick.
Rationally, she understood that would be cleaner.
But I deliberately kept approaching head-on, dodging or deflecting the arrows pouring toward me.
The opponent seemed to be trying to keep distance or maintain spacing, but it didn't feel all that natural.
So I could get close enough. That was what I was thinking right then.
Clang! Clang!
It wasn't parrying, just blocking arrows with her greatsword, but there was no system that pushed her back against a ranged weapon like a hand crossbow.
Because then the balance between melee and ranged classes would be absurd.
So even when she deflected arrows with her greatsword like she was letting them flow past, there was no major impact on a melee user.
The only real loss was my stamina, visible on one side of the hologram, being chipped away little by little.
Words like cheap, cowardly, petty.
Negative words like those were used in games as a form of "praise" for the opponent.
Making the opponent feel that way meant you had been meticulous or annoying enough to deny them space.
But what I felt right then was different.
The opponent was genuinely "petty."
It was a barrage of ranged harassment—a nightmare for Melee Class users.
The opponent kept firing ranged skills with almost no cooldown while darting nimbly behind obstacles around the Colosseum like a mouse.
Just watching it felt infuriating.
As someone wielding a greatsword, I absolutely refused to call an opponent like that skilled.
"...If you try to run away by creating a big gap, I'll chase you down with Leap and kill you in one blow."
So I spoke up first and made my intention clear.
I'm coming at you head-on to crush you, so don't run away when I finally reach you.
Fight back.
The opponent just smiled slightly at my words.
Probably, seeing me approach without instantly closing the gap, the opponent thought I was struggling.
No. That wasn't what I was doing.
It was less that I was struggling and more that irritation was surging up. But even so, I deliberately kept approaching head-on.
Every Melee Class user who had to fight ranged opponents.
I wanted to fight on their behalf.
I wanted to show myself approaching head-on and punishing a cheap user who relied on a cowardly hand crossbow.
I glanced at the stream window at the edge of my vision.
Chat was scrolling fast even now, but more than that, I checked the viewer count below it.
24,215 viewers.
Even I couldn't believe the viewer count. But I figured that if they were watching my stream, the majority were Another World players.
Then naturally, a lot of those viewers would be Melee Class users.
Melee Class users had to deal with plenty of stress against ranged opponents, and part of me, as a streamer, wanted to put on a show for them by crushing one head-on.
And beyond that thought, I wanted to smash that user to pieces.
At that moment.
The user raised their hand crossbow toward the Colosseum sky. The sleek black weapon, like a product of modern technology, began changing shape in a bizarre way.
—Click. Clack. Clatter.
Even the white light gathering around the hand crossbow looked ominous.
Probably a sign that they were about to use a major skill.
I gripped my greatsword and watched.
The sweet temptation to use Leap right now and smash the opponent immediately seized me.
Clack!
But in the end, I didn't use Leap. I sprinted across the ground.
My plan of giving the opponent time to use their skill, then crushing them head-on and ending it, was still in effect.
Clatter. Clack!
TZZZT!!
After taking several moments to transform with a series of mechanical noises, the opponent finished the transformation and aimed what had been a hand crossbow—now a massive weapon—at Serin.
"Ha."
Serin, who had been steadily approaching while watching the whole thing, let out a hollow laugh at the result.
Even for a game, even as a skill, did this really make any sense?
The weapon that had been a hand crossbow had now transformed into a single massive weapon.
'Ballista.'
It was a large siege weapon—a ballista.
In the world of Black Ark, ballistae were anti-large-monster siege weapons installed in every sizable city.
She knew its destructive power well; she'd seen it fired up close several times and experienced it on the battlefield herself.
FWOOSH!
A massive bolt shot out at a speed on an entirely different level.
She urgently twisted her head and threw her body to the side.
At that instant, Serin's silver hair fluttered brilliantly through the air.
BOOM!!!
When she turned her head, she saw the massive bolt lodged in the ground, creating a huge crater.
It couldn't even be compared to the light rain of bolts from the hand crossbow before.
[This is ridiculous lolololololol]
[Rin dodging that at that range is even more ridiculous lolololololololol]
[That's an Awakening Skill, holy shit lolololololol]
[No but I'm more amazed Rin waited for that Archer to use their Awakening Skill]
[Isn't that like a sealed Awakening Skill for those cheap-ass hand crossbow archers?]
[Never thought I'd see someone use that openly lolololololol]
[The ballista is lowkey one of the dream skills for cheap-ass archers lololololol]
I minimized the chat window that had been in my view for a moment and kicked off the ground hard.
I had clearly said it to mean "don't run, fight back," but I hadn't expected the opponent to fight back like this.
I tightened my grip on the greatsword while keeping the ballista's aim fully in my sight.
It was aiming precisely, as if targeting my heart.
Watching it, I raised my focus to the limit and prepared to parry.
It was reckless—absurd, even—but I wanted too badly to wipe that smile off the opponent's face as they prepared the ballista shot.
The Archer's Awakening Skill.
If I broke the opponent's most powerful skill—
Would they still be smiling like they were now?
FWOOSH!
The ballista's massive bolt fired again.
It was far faster than I had thought, too fast to parry with a simple swing.
It was rushing at me with the momentum to pierce straight through me.
Even so, I saw it.
The moment I perceived it, I immediately deployed my skills.
—Charge.
—Judgment.
I deployed the two skills in succession, timing my movement for the exact moment the ballista bolt reached me. Then I swung the claymore in both hands in a wide arc.
Charge, a skill for quickly moving a short distance.
Judgment, a wide horizontal slash of about 180 degrees with the greatsword.
Serin threw her body toward the ballista's massive bolt as if walking straight into death, and as she unleashed a huge horizontal slash that seemed to carve through the empty air with her claymore—
—Clang!
A startlingly clear metallic ring echoed out as a brilliant burst of light erupted.
Clack!
"You're insane...!"
Clack!
By the time she heard the Archer's cry of disbelief and shock—
Serin had already kicked off the Colosseum obstacles and reached point-blank range of the Archer.
As if belatedly realizing the danger, the Archer made a small gesture with a panicked expression, and a small explosion burst from beneath the Archer's feet where a trap had been set in advance.
Clang!
Serin raised her greatsword in front of herself to minimize the blast damage, her expression turning cold.
The Archer, having escaped to a great distance, was about to let out a relieved breath.
Her crimson lips parted.
"...Leap."