Home Run
I've been had.
Do-yun thought as much while staring up at the crimson rain that filled the sky.
He had never imagined Lunia's Nightmare would fix him as its target.
A Nightmare took shape from the unconscious of whoever stood nearest, and for that very reason it always prioritized the one who had given it form. After the sacred light fell on Do-yun, however, everything changed.
Lunia uses Baptism of Radiance (F).
The skill's name alone made it clear: it was a buff. And not a minor one. It sharply heightened physical ability, accelerated mana recovery, and allowed extra damage against evil-attribute foes — an excellent buff by any measure.
Even a buff, though, could turn to poison depending on when it was used.
Fwaaah.
The eye-searing radiance still pouring from Do-yun's body was doing a perfect job of drawing the vampire's gaze. He had been an outsider the creature hadn't even bothered to notice — until Lunia's buff made him one more enemy it had to kill.
"This is seriously screwed."
Do-yun gripped his sword hilt as he watched the blood droplets rain down. An attack that wide was impossible to dodge, so he chose not to try. What he chose instead was a frontal breakthrough.
Bash (F)
Steel sang as the blade left its sheath and came around with a thunderous roar. The swing, packed with overwhelming force, shoved the air aside and raised a storm-like wind; the aftershock swept every blood droplet that had been pouring toward him cleanly out of the way.
Kwagwagwagwa!
The severed rain of blood crashed to either side with a vicious sound, but Do-yun didn't spare it a glance as he burst forward.
Neutralizing the vampire was simple enough.
I just have to get closer to the Nightmare than Lunia is.
He recalled the way other Nightmares had melted like wax the moment another challenger drew near. The vampire in front of him would be no different. Nightmares reshaped themselves according to the unconscious of whoever stood closest; if he closed the gap past Lunia, this one would change form as well. Whatever he feared would take its place instead — but anything was better than a vampire receiving a near-endless supply of blood from Lunia's heals.
Sasak.
The vampire, however, had no intention of letting him approach so easily. Blood droplets already carpeting the ground in his path sharpened into spikes and stabbed for the soles of his boots.
"You think this is going to stop me?"
Do-yun charged straight down the field of thorns. His steel-plated combat boots weren't pierced at all; instead they snapped every spike that reached for them.
Kwajik.
The broken spikes collapsed back into liquid and left the ground slick and glossy, yet Do-yun never lost his balance on the slippery surface.
Combat boots issued to Imperial infantry.
Movement speed +10%.
Forced March — Terrain has no effect while moving.
It was the item's effect that let him ignore terrain. Do-yun kept his pace as if he were running on open ground and drove straight ahead.
"Didn't see that coming, did you?"
Watching every obstacle get neutralized as he closed in, the vampire frantically swept its hand. Blood behind Do-yun raced back toward the creature's palm — but Do-yun was closing the distance far faster.
Taak.
He kicked off hard and was a single stretch of the arm from the vampire when a milky veil sprang up in front of him on the heels of a system alert.
Lunia uses Veil of Sacred Light (F).
There was no way to stop a body already airborne. With a dull impact he slammed into the veil and rebounded off it.
"Kh!"
The instant he hit the ground and scrambled up, spears of blood erupted from the floor.
Pagak.
He smashed the rising spears with a sweep of his blade, then looked toward Lunia.
She was still tucked inside the hemispherical barrier that had never once dropped since the fight began. He had no idea how she was reading the outside through that opaque shell, but interference this perfectly timed meant she could see out just fine.
"Hoo."
Do-yun measured the distance that had opened again between him and the vampire. One leap would have been enough — and Lunia would interfere again just the same. As long as he left her alone, reaching the vampire would stay forever out of reach.
I only need to make one opening.
He glared at the barrier sealed airtight around Lunia's body. One gap wide enough for Shadow Step and he could close the distance in a blink. While he was still turning over how to drop the shield, a single clever solution surfaced.
Scorching Sword (C)
Flame bloomed along his blade and warped the air with heat. That alone made the blood scattered around him hiss into steam and vanish in an instant.
"What happens if I evaporate every drop of blood in the area?"
A vampire grew stronger the more blood it commanded. Which meant that without blood to command, it would become extremely weak. For Lunia, who had been pouring heals over and over to copy and multiply the vampire's blood, that was the last situation she would want.
Lunia uses Veil of Sacred Light (F).
True to form, the moment he started boiling the blood away, Lunia reacted sharply. She spread a wide veil that cut off the heat pouring from his sword.
Pababak.
The new barrier blocked the vampire's attacks aimed at him as well, but those attacks hadn't been doing him meaningful harm even before it appeared, so it hardly mattered.
"So she means to stall for time."
Looking at the broad veil, Do-yun guessed at Lunia's reasoning. The vampire only grew stronger as time passed and its blood was replenished; simply holding out cost her nothing.
"Only if she can hold out."
He sheathed his sword and poured mana into it until it thrummed — the posture of a man about to smash the veil in front of him with raw force. Lunia seemed to read it the same way; the veil before his eyes grew denser still.
But Do-yun had never intended a crude contest of strength from the start.
"Might as well do this efficiently."
His eyes, while he held the blade down, had been fixed on one place the entire time.
Shadow Step (F)
His vision snapped sideways. In the same instant the sword, still charged to the brim with mana, flashed from its sheath like a bolt of light. A strike swung at a speed no one could answer.
Jjeoeoeong.
Do-yun frowned at the odd feel that came back through his fingertips. It was like striking a solid crystal; a heavy rebound climbed his wrist.
"My, did you truly believe a barrier raised by a specialist in defense and recovery like myself would break so easily?"
Lunia's voice reached his ear, her eyes bright with confidence, as if even a thinned barrier could turn his sword aside without effort.
"And while I may be passive, it isn't as though I have no means of attack at all."
The rebound surged back out of the milky veil and slammed up his arm. Watching the limb whip violently, Do-yun stepped back on instinct and bled off the force.
-46 HP
Even after he bled it off, a vicious damage notice still floated before his eyes. Without the HP system, his arm might have folded the wrong way outright.
He lifted his head and looked at the woman smiling sweetly down at him.
"Yeah. I might've underestimated you a little."
She was a survivor who had climbed the Tower of Trials without a single offensive skill. Using monsters to make her rivals kill one another couldn't possibly be her only method. She would have more than one way of her own to put an opponent down. A barrier with rebound was only one of them.
Change the approach.
A Nightmare reshaped itself from the unconscious of the nearest being. So instead of Do-yun getting closer than Lunia, what if he put Lunia farther away than himself? That would produce the same result.
Launch the whole barrier, shield and all.
Breaking the barrier would be hard. Even if he succeeded, the shock would scour everything nearby. But if the goal shifted from shattering it to simply sending it flying, it might actually be easier.
Fwaaah.
Lunia's buff was still circulating through his body — a top-tier buff that jacked his stats and amplified skill power. She knew that dropping it would make the vampire stop targeting him, which was exactly why she kept it up. Thanks to that, Do-yun could do something he never could have managed on his own.
Kwaak.
Under Lunia's gaze, which seemed to dare him to try something, he adjusted his grip. This time it wasn't a cutting stance. It was a batting stance, like holding a baseball bat, meant to strike with the broad face of the blade.
Bash (F)
The flat of the blade swept low, as if skimming the ground, and smashed into the lower edge of the barrier.
Kuuuung.
A heavy vibration rolled through the shield wrapping Lunia, making it shudder and heave. Do-yun was already certain it wasn't fixed to the floor — the vampire had been launching attacks up through the ground earlier.
So the barrier is a full sphere that wraps all the way under her feet!
As if to prove him right, the shuddering barrier lifted a fraction off the earth. In the same breath, the impact he had driven into it flipped into rebound and projected the force the other way.
Kwaaaaaang!
Turned into a projectile, the barrier rocketed skyward with Lunia still inside. She arced high through the air and slammed into the ground far away, raising a massive cloud of dust.
Teok.
Having launched Lunia as cleanly as a home run, Do-yun staggered a step, then raised his sword at once and cut through the neck of the vampire whose form was already starting to collapse.
"What a damn headache."
Ally or not, he wanted nothing more than to drag himself back to the Sanctuary Room and rest — but a fierce pull of guidance on the back of his hand, as if he were almost there, made him turn his head.
Elysee.
The golden-haired elf who had proposed a contract to him was standing not far away.