49. Like Dew Trickling Down a Leaf
49. Like Dew Trickling Down a Leaf
***
The massive greatsword came crashing down in a trajectory so obvious it was plain to see now.
"..."
The urge to parry kept tugging hard at Serin, but with a faint frown she shook it off immediately.
'Don't think about it.'
She took fighting without skills to include system techniques like parrying as well.
So to deflect the attack once more, she deftly raised her greatsword at a diagonal and lifted her other hand to grip the upper part of the blade.
As a stance for blocking a massive greatsword, it looked reckless at a glance.
Even Kang Hyeok, who had swung a greatsword at least tens of thousands of times, could not understand Serin's peculiar stance.
'She's going to block an attack with a stance like that?'
The moment he struck at his opponent with the greatsword, Kang Hyeok felt it.
"...What the."
Like dew sliding down a leaf.
Screeeeech!
A strange sound, hard to call the clash of steel against steel, rang out as Kang Hyeok's massive greatsword slid swiftly along Serin's blade and then plunged hard toward the empty floor.
Boom!!
Along with the sound of the massive greatsword pounding the ground.
Kang Hyeok, his stance broken, tried to hurriedly lift his greatsword as if sensing danger.
But Serin was a step faster.
If Berserker gained bonuses to Strength and base HP regeneration, Dancer concentrated all of its advantages in Agility—movement itself.
Even tiny movements showed the difference, and Serin's speed had already surpassed Kang Hyeok's expectations.
Step.
With an utterly natural motion, Serin deflected the greatsword, stepped forward, released the hand gripping her own blade, and thrust the sword out in one fluid sequence.
Like a single masterful brushstroke tracing an exquisitely beautiful line.
Following Serin's hand as it extended forward without the slightest waver.
The greatsword traced a perfectly clean arc through the air and shot forward like a beam of light.
Thunk!
She drove the greatsword into the area of her opponent's heart, shoving the blade deep enough that their bodies nearly touched.
Unlike before, when she had stopped after stabbing the sword into his shoulder, this time she meant to draw every ounce of strength in her body and pierce straight through. She intended to run her opponent through completely with her greatsword.
Deflecting the attack and driving the sword into her opponent's heart at the same time. Serin, who had not let out a single breath during that whole sequence, finally exhaled deeply and looked at her opponent.
She saw the user called Gosu staring blankly at her without a word.
His dazed expression made him look literally stunned.
The posturing from moments ago, about teaching her about greatswords, was nowhere to be found now.
Against such a user, she had won with pure skill while wielding a greatsword.
That made her happy for no particular reason.
Beating someone was always new. And the better her opponent was, the more Serin liked it.
The opposing user was a Challenger. Literally a user belonging to the absolute highest ranks.
Although it could not be called their full strength since both had sealed their skills.
Still, the thrill of having beaten a true greatsword user with her own greatsword.
Serin looked at Kang Hyeok from close enough for their breaths to mingle, smiled with exhilaration, and tightened her grip.
Serin thought the duel had ended with that attack, but she still intended to finish it decisively.
She had seen the Berserker Class's absurd regeneration just moments ago, so this time she meant to split her opponent open. She tried to twist and wrench upward the greatsword piercing his heart.
Not content with crushing the heart, she would carve straight upward—
—Victory!
But before she could, a hologram appeared in Serin's view.
Thunk!
With a gruesome sound, the blade slid free of Kang Hyeok's body. Serin smoothed her disheveled silver hair and gave a small grin.
"That was fun."
Kang Hyeok stared at her, momentarily at a loss for words, then looked down at the spot where the blade had pierced his chest.
The moment the duel ended, all wounds were healed, and even the crumpled dent in the armor where the greatsword had punched a hole had vanished.
The way that last impact had seemed to slide away wasn't merely shocking; the principle behind it was beyond Kang Hyeok's understanding.
'It definitely wasn't a skill. Just pure technique...'
Then there was that alien sensation at the end: the blade slipping almost casually into his chest, followed by the final feeling of something twisting inside him. Even knowing it was a game, Kang Hyeok shuddered.
Kang Hyeok slowly smoothed his armor and parted his lips.
"...I think I understand why Plea lost."
He felt something special about the user called Rin, something impossible to explain in words.
A feeling fundamentally different from simply being good.
Unable to find a way to express it, Kang Hyeok simply thought of Rin as a monster.
He had seen the video of Plea losing 2:0, but he had never imagined the opponent would feel like this.
He had thought she used a greatsword like a toy, or just for fun, but his opponent was clearly above him, enough to make that thought embarrassing.
'A wall.'
It brought to mind the two players called geniuses currently dominating the ACK Pro League. No, perhaps this person called Rin might be beyond even them.
At the feeling of facing another insurmountable wall, Kang Hyeok let out a hollow laugh.
Posturing or whatever—the opponent in front of him was too strong for any of that.
He had been acknowledging the user called Rin long before the match was decided.
Setting aside being a greatsword user.
It was the kind of skill that made him admire her naturally as a fellow Another World player.
"Um... can I add you as a friend?"
So, for the first time, Kang Hyeok asked Rin if he could add her. He genuinely thought she was someone he could learn from, and building a connection with someone like her during his pro career could be a huge help.
He knew Plea had given the user called Rin various kinds of help, so he wondered if he should also win her favor with pro connections or at least some equipment items.
As Kang Hyeok was counting his chickens and deliberating—
"No."
Serin's indifferent voice reached his ears.
***
[Wow]
[Insane]
[?????]
[No lol you're saying none of that used skills?]
[Gosu lost, what even]
[Did anyone else see Rin smile at the end?]
[I mean I did kinda wonder lololol]
[Fuck, seriously, this is like 100 times more fun than ACK these days]
[Watch the replay of Rin deflecting the greatsword at the end, it's even crazier lololol]
[She feels different from the Dancers I know]
[Fr she's way too different from the other Challenger Dancers]
Sua, checking the rapidly scrolling chat, felt almost the same way.
She could not believe the result before her eyes.
Serin had really won.
And with greatsword against greatsword.
Against that 'Gosu.'
Sua had faced Serin herself, so she knew well how extraordinary Serin's skill was. But no matter how good Serin was, in a greatsword-versus-greatsword matchup, Sua had inwardly wondered whether Serin could beat Gosu.
No, honestly, Sua had thought Serin might lose to Gosu.
The opponent was a user called Gosu who had stuck to the greatsword path for years and maintained Challenger Tier.
So she had been preparing things to say in case Serin lost: don't be too upset, it wasn't your main weapon, sorry for suddenly calling you out, and so on.
And before the duel began, the sudden proposal to fight with skills sealed had seemed to Sua like it might actually be disadvantageous for Serin.
But Sua, who had watched their duel from the position of a 'Colosseum spectator,' only now understood Serin's words.
Serin had never once thought she would lose. She had said that because she had truly overwhelming confidence.
A pure duel without even a single parry, which Sua considered Serin's greatest strength. Thinking of the usual Another World, it might have looked plain or crude without flashy light effects, but Sua's eyes were drawn to it all the more because of that.
The moment the sword pierced his chest, the message that the duel had ended appeared, and she slowly walked toward them, but looking at Gosu's expression made her laugh.
"He's got the face of someone who just felt a wall."
On top of that, the duel had been fought with both sides sealing their skills, so there was truly no excuse to make. He had lost purely on skill, so there was nothing to even bring up.
Thinking of Gosu, whose pride in himself was unusually high, he seemed to have taken quite a shock.
Ding-a-ling!
『Mau donated 100,000 won!』
<Please pass a message to Rin. As a fellow user, I've genuinely fallen for her skill>
"A 100,000 won donation... Mau, thank you so much for the huge donation!! I'll be sure to pass it along to Rin later."
The chat below had suddenly changed topic, as if someone else had started baiting.
[Well Plea lost to Rin too]
[No way, her greatsword is Challenger level too?]
[That was basically a total stomp]
[When Rin got planted in the Colosseum I thought Gosu would win]
[Is Rin secretly a pro's alt or something?]
[How many pros even use greatswords lololol maybe if it were Kang Hyeok]
[Fr wouldn't Kang Hyeok be able to beat Gosu?]
[No Rin is a woman in real life, what Kang Hyeok, you idiots lololol]
[Is there even a female pro who could wreck Gosu like that]
[Why not? There's Jeanne d'Arc]
[She's resting because she's sick, what are you on about lolololol]
[Stop baiting with a player who's on break]
[Stop feeding the trolls]
[The timing of Rin suddenly getting famous is kind of suspicious]
Then, when rumors about Serin being a pro's alt, Jeanne d'Arc's alt, and so on started appearing in chat, Sua was dumbfounded. Having met Serin in person just yesterday, Sua knew Serin was not a pro like Jeanne d'Arc.
And Kang Hyeok and Jeanne d'Arc were both famous ACK pros. Thinking about it now, it was funny.
How high must Gosu and Rin's duel have looked for the names of current pro players to come up in chat?
She had been too focused on the duel to watch chat, but she felt she needed to rein it in now.
"Viewers, you all know you're not supposed to mention pro players, so why are you doing it today of all days? Some of you seem to be new, so I'll say it again: in my stream, mentioning pro players at all is grounds for a ban."
Once mentions of pro players started, it led to comparisons with other players or putting them down, so she had to shut it down from the very start.
[Platinum Scrub]
[lololol]
[Jeanne shhh]
[Kang shhh]
[Chat's losing it again lolol]
[Shhhd'Arc]
[Shhhyeok]
[They're all getting banned from Plea's stream tomorrow anyway lol]
[The manager's gonna be working late and losing sleep lololololol]
'Jeanne d'Arc.'
Still, the name of one player mentioned by a viewer lingered in her mind for no reason.
The pro player she had first felt was a wall she could never overcome, and the current rank 1 in Another World.
......
Sua, who had reached Serin before she knew it, wiped away her thoughts and smiled brightly.
"Congratulations on your win, Rin!! But what are you two talking about right now?"