Chapter 151
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[Live: Kariri just got owned by NoName~][39]
(NoName Kariri viewer count comparison.jpg)
7,947(NoName) vs 6,650(Kariri Ch.)
Cut down to NoName's level just 30 minutes after starting the stream!
[Comments]
-Kariri's completely deadㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ What did you expect from someone who got popular through brainless collabsㅋㅋ
└ Typical SGall-style about-faceㅋㅋ Back then, you were all making a huge fuss about collabing with celebrities like LK and Kim Woo-joo.
└ When? Back when it was terraformed by the virtual-streamer cultists? That was just SGall's dark age.
-She's really become a has-been.
└ How is 6,000 weekday viewers a has-been?
└ Came running over here just to get triggeredㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-NoName's placement test as the number one in the combat power rankings? This is too good.
-NoName's viewer count just passed 10,000.
└ For real?
-How are you supposed to withstand 130,000 combat power?!
-She could win just by spamming healsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-It's really time to let Kariri go now...
└ Ah, did she finally break?
-This reminds me of a certain Seoul mayor saying, "A high-school senior is better than wild ginseng, and a middle-school senior is better than a high-school senior."
└ Gasp...!
└ Never, ever men.tion. that person.
* * *
A fortress wall originally served to effectively block foreign enemies trying to enter a city and simplify the course of battle.
Especially when walking along a tall fortress wall, one could even feel cut off from the world inside.
Below, the sharp clang of interlocked weapons rang out, mingling at intervals with soldiers' screams until it resembled an endless hell.
That lasted only a moment.
KABOOM-!
A massive explosion intensified the carnage, and the battle grew even fiercer, but the entrenched front showed no sign of moving even an inch.
[dudrhkd: A lone healer on a one-way path? What a lucky break.]
And at the end of the path circling the narrow fortress wall, a knight raised a greatsword high.
The blade, sharp enough to cut even leaves blown by the wind, slowly traced a circle before pointing forward.
The gleaming blade seemed to make a declaration as it cut across the sunlight and sea breeze.
At a distance where no voice could carry, the knight in silver armor and a stylish helmet sent me a message through the chat.
[dudrhkd: Pull out your sub-weapon already. There's no fun in beating you if you just die.]
Ha.
Giving an enemy time to relax was the most forbidden thing for a knight.
I slipped my hand between the geometric bars of the basket hilt and changed my grip, just this once.
Cold wind threaded through the hilt like branches, awakening a numbing chill in my hand.
One wall had completely collapsed, causing the wind to rush particularly strongly this way.
Unusually, this battlefield had a ‘fall death’ mechanic.
Perhaps this was exactly what Nightmare difficulty wanted to teach us players. I remembered the observatory.
I took in the knight's gaze as he charged toward me with my entire body and naturally began walking slowly forward.
His speed didn't slow.
A knight with twice as much health ferociously charging a priest made his intention obvious.
There was no respect whatsoever in his movements.
If the emotion he showed had been awe or fear, I might have thought differently.
“Hyaaaap!”
The route was simple, but a downward strike arriving half a beat faster came rushing in.
A heavy attack at such close range, near enough to touch if I exhaled, was dangerous.
That was why I never took my eyes off the greatsword.
I endured until the final, truly final moment, then swiftly swung the Schiavona diagonally at the very last instant.
Taking it for granted that I would lose if I met his greatsword head-on, my opponent continued attacking to the end; that careless judgment succeeded only in shallowly slicing my shoulder.
Yes, only barely.
“Huh?”
The greatsword veered off course.
Instead, I drove in deeper toward the knight, whose center of gravity had pitched forward.
We were now close enough to see each other's eyelashes.
“Goodbye.”
The Schiavona was a sword with excellent spatial control and freedom of rotation.
The pommel of the slender sword, which spun half a turn in an instant, struck the knight in the solar plexus. I immediately grabbed him by the collar and shoved him toward the cliff right beside us, bidding him farewell.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!”
“I'm not fighting you.”
* * *
-Crazy bitch, insane bitch, crazy bitch, insane bitch
-That guy who keeps charging in is relentlessㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Isn't NoName, who has dropped him seven times, even more relentless?
-At least trade swords with him once!!!!!
The man had only wanted to have a proper duel.
[dudrhkd: Don't knock me off; let's have a proper one-on-one fight.]
Even though he approached carefully so the priest couldn't pull any cheap tricks like the first time, she didn't move a single step from her spot.
An outright dismissal, a truly thorough one—the knight brought his sword down in a short strike.
The priest, who had given up on meeting it head-on as before, nimbly dodged, but the knight charged straight in without giving her an opening.
He did not make the mistake of using a heavy attack.
He swung another short slash—he had lost count of which one—and was just about to marvel at the priest for immediately parrying it.
“Here again. Goodbye.”
“Huh? Huhhhhhhh!”
The priest slipped sideways and swung the Schiavona in a wide horizontal arc.
The man's years-honed masculine instinct moved the greatsword vertically.
Clang-
The sound signaling a successful parry offered anyone who heard it a strange, complete satisfaction.
The priest went flying into the distance and slammed into the wall across from him.
‘Yes, I did it...!’
But there was no ground beneath the knight's feet to support him.
That was the second fall-death ruling.
“You play this game like a fucking asshole.”
“...”
The user was no ordinary swordsman. This time, having thoroughly assessed himself, the knight instead threw away his sword.
He intended to sacrifice his health and rely on hand-to-hand combat.
“Goodbye.”
“Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy!”
In an instant, his body floated up; the sky became the ground and the ground became the sky.
Without ever imagining that the heavy character could be lifted so easily, he continued challenging her.
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
“Can't you understand Korean? Goodbye.”
“Oh—au revoir(Au revoir).”
“Damn it!”
That made seven fall-death rulings.
At this point, the game's win or loss no longer mattered.
Not only did she refuse to fight, she didn't even seem willing to cross swords with him.
0/7/0.
It was so brutal that it was hard to believe those stats had been achieved only ten minutes into the game.
Meanwhile, the woman had apparently picked up some kills along the way, because she had recorded more than ten kills.
The woman never returned to base.
If she had bought items and increased her stats, she would have given up breaking through the wall and attacked the stronghold via an alternate route.
But this passage had become a test of the man's pride.
He wasn't trying to learn how to say only “goodbye” in several languages.
“Phew...”
Rather, he felt his head cooling as he became too excited.
The knight slowly walked toward the woman, then raised his greatsword high into the sky,
BANG!
He dropped its massive weight at the woman's feet.
The greatsword driven deep into the ground split the floor of the sturdy fortress wall.
Steadying his breath, the knight placed his left hand on the sword's hilt and his right hand near his heart, declaring his resolve.
“Goodbye? No, I'm coming back here again. Until I defeat you here.”
Having already died seven times, the knight knew he had become useless to this game.
Even if he devoted the next ten minutes solely to growing stronger, he might remain useless until the game ended.
But he had experienced countless victories and defeats in World of Arseria.
His many experiences had taught him that no matter how many times one lost, the victor of the final battle could always savor the sweet fruit of a comeback victory.
“Do you think I'll give up like this?”
Besides, the anger that had flared after seven fall deaths would not easily go out.
No matter how many more times he had to fall to his death, he would make this bastard fight properly with a sword.
Having made that resolve, the knight threw even his helmet to the ground and drew his greatsword.
“Welcome back.”
“...?”
The woman drew her sword forward.
Lowering her center of gravity, she pushed a little dirt aside with her back foot, which was planted firmly on the ground.
“Ha, now you're finally going to fight me properly, fuck.”
“It's only because you've finally gotten into position. That's all.”
“You meant your stance as in your state of mind?”
Through leveling up, the healer's health and attack power had already risen to the knight's level.
This was now truly an even match.
The resolute knight held his breath, his eyes bloodshot.
The blades swung by the two swordsmen crossed and collided, creating a fierce ringing of clashing metal.
This time, neither one broke nor bounced away.
A strike aimed at piercing the knight's right thigh was blocked.
The greatsword aimed at cleaving the priest's left upper body lost direction and bounced away.
Their swords, quickly pulled back toward their bodies, swiftly prepared their next moves.
Kkang-!
And again, the two swords met dead center.
Then they entered a contest of strength, their forces trying to devour each other with an energy like sparks flying between them.
Neither could catch their breath or blink.
It was a battle hurtling toward its climax, with every nerve fixed on the other amid a rapidly changing tide.
Once they had properly started crossing swords and his breath was coming up to his throat, the knight finally realized.
Every movement was already being read.
The one-handed sword on the priest's side should have been much faster than the knight's greatsword, but the woman, monstrously persistent, didn't recklessly extend her arm. She was hoping he would collapse on his own.
The knight exhaled all the breath he had held throughout the fierce battle.
“Huaa... hahah... Aaaaaa! WoA is fucking fun, seriously! This is why I can't quit!”
Name remained unscathed as she listened to that laughter.
The knight planted his foot forcefully and hurriedly pulled his greatsword back.
A head-on fight working would be a miscalculation, but the woman was even excellent at hand-to-hand combat.
He had no choice but to somehow bait the opponent into a false parry and knock her sword away from her body.
As soon as he confirmed that the priest's pupils were fixed firmly on his arm and shoulder, the knight's body hunched like a turtle before he swung his arm wide.
A simple heavy attack. For the priest, it was an execution move that could end her if it merely grazed her once, but this fearless woman would parry as before.
The knight's eyes, expecting to seize the initiative by canceling the attack at the very last moment, soon filled with confusion.
‘She's not moving?’
Contrary to the knight's expectations, the priest took no action whatsoever.
If he had changed his mind and thrust the greatsword straight through, he could have taken the lovely woman's neck, but she didn't move a muscle.
‘Could she have read this far ahead?’
Yet the plan already imprinted through repeated mental simulations couldn't be canceled.
Whoosh-
When he voluntarily canceled the heavy attack, the greatsword swept through empty air, and the sharp Schiavona shot forth like an arrow, brutally tearing open the knight's abdomen.
Spitting blood, the knight dropped to his knees, planted both hands on the ground, and finally smashed his head against the hard, cold bricks.
His heart pounded violently, but not because he had fallen from a height.
It came from the anticipation that he could have another fierce yet satisfying battle like this.
“Hahaha, you're fucking good. I'll be back, so wait right here.”