Season 2: Chapter 190: Icarus (4)
— Wow, so that’s what happened?
— Luna, sob sob sob…
— Luna sacrificed so much all this time...
— Crazy, sob sob sob..
— I can’t believe this!
If Almond had more time, perhaps he would have thought of a different method. However, he only had a moment when the angel momentarily stopped attacking.
At that moment, Almond had to choose. Ultimately, he chose this path.
Swoosh.
His blade pierced into Luna.
"Ah..."
Luna spat out sticky blood from the corners of her mouth. Almond certainly didn’t hesitate to act, but his expression was different.
"What kind of expression is that?"
"..."
She added with a faint smile, "Just come save me again."
Those were her last words. Blood spurted like a fountain from the gaping wound. It had to be very painful, but Luna didn't even scream or cough.
She died like that and powerlessly went limp. That body no longer had a consciousness. It was no different from an animal's corpse.
Groan.
Almond grasped the inheritance from her in his hand. He received two swords and two skills: Flash and Blade Vitality.
His eyes met the angel again.
A man with black hair and a cold demeanor. He briefly circled Almond with murderous intent in his eyes.
Was he being cautious? Were Almond’s newly acquired weapons and skills truly that fearsome?
— The angel weirdly looks like JeonJaPa. I don’t like it.
— It really looks like JeonJaPa..!
— It’s somehow unpleasantly similar.
The angel stretched out his hand. Space strangely rippled and two weapons identical to Almond's appeared.
— ??
— Is it imitating him?
— It’s absorbing data for real.
Whisk.
He gripped the two swords and assumed the same stance as Almond. Viewers thought he was imitating Almond, but that was only half right.
The cause and effect were reversed. It wasn't so much that he was imitating Almond, but rather that Almond was imitating JeonJaPa. Almond had learned this playstyle from watching videos of JeonJaPa, so it was inevitable.
The two faced off in the same stance as a result.
‘Then...’
If it was as Almond thought, then there was nothing more to see. He could already picture the fight in his head.
Bang!
Almond threw a sword and the angel did the same.
***
OrangeKing's voice filled the stream.
“Finally! A mirror match!? This can be said to be a real battle against JeonJaPa!? Of course, it’s not a real match against JeonJaPa!”
— ??? LOL.
— Real but not real, lol.
— He doesn't know the true meaning of real.
— Wow.
Crackle!
Almond appeared right behind the angel, but the angel also appeared where Almond was.
"Ah! Flashy Blade is commonly seen in mirror matches! They keep swapping places until they suddenly clash!"
Crackle!
Crackle!
Just as OrangeKing said, they swapped places countless times. It simply looked like something flashing back and forth to ordinary people and was hard to follow.
Then…
Clang!
The swords they threw clashed.
“Ah!? The swords are clashing! It’s starting!”
Crackle!
The moment the swords clashed in the air, both of them flashed and exchanged a momentary sword strike.
“Ahhh! Almond! Successfully attacks!”
Blood gushed out from the white angel's skin.
“This is amazing!? Almond isn’t losing at all in close combat!”
— Wow.
— Mirror match??!
— Crazy, so crazy.
Almond only landed one hit, but it meant a lot. It meant he was physically superior in close combat.
However, OrangeKing wasn't the only one who came to that conclusion.
“Ah? What's this!? The angel is flying away!?”
The angel suddenly started flying again.
“He’s taking advantage of this!? It’s a different pattern!? Looks like it's using another player's memories! The face has changed too!”
— Wow, it’s going into the air.
— Sneaky.
— Crazy.
— Usually, it goes up and down in fights.
— Almond has to be wary then.
The angel didn't need to fight close to Almond. Maintaining distance and throwing its blade barrage from the sky would guarantee it an unconditional victory.
“Ah ha. When this pattern comes out, it's standard to just hide somewhere and fight when it comes down again!”
OrangeKing judged that retreating was the correct choice during this pattern. Anyone who played a lot of these types of games would quickly grasp the context. There were quite a few bosses with similar invincible patterns.
“You have to dodge the downpour, Almond! Just wait and then...”
However, Almond had relatively little experience with such games.
‘It’s in the sky again. What do I do now?’
Almond thought hard about a solution. Then, he threw his sword high up.
“What? Almond! You're trying to do something!? It’s a downpour. That's something only newbies do!!”
— Crazy, lol.
— Whoa...
— How does a newbie avoid the downpour? They only get hit by all of it, haha.
— LOL, anyone weak will just buzz off.
Swoosh!
The sword, of course, did not reach the angel. He was too far.
“Ah. This obviously won't reach, right?”
Crack!
Almond flashed to the slowly falling sword.
“No! But he flashed! His body is floating in the air!? The angel won't miss this!”
The angel's index finger immediately pointed toward Almond and he shot his feathers like bullets.
Bang!
“It's impossible even for Almond to dodge while floating in the air!”
Almond couldn't dodge while in the air. He only had one option.
He threw his other sword even higher.
Crack!
[Flash]
And he flashed again.
“Another flash! He gets to dodge once!?”
Bang!
The angel shot more feathers and Almond rose higher again.
“He’s dodging again! He's going too high! If he falls now, it'll be death from falling!!”
Almond had reached a significant height with nothing but air to step on. Falling from here meant death and he no longer had any means to dodge the enemy's attack other than flash.
‘I’ve got no choice.’
Tap.
Almond caught the floating sword and thought of his only option.
“If you can't catch the sword after flashing, you're instantly dead!”
As OrangeKing said, Almond would instantly die if the sword slipped from his hand.
This situation was enough to make anyone’s hands tremble, but Almond didn’t care. Maybe outside the capsule, but his hands didn’t tremble here. He continued to rise higher and higher, dodging the angel's attacks.
Their height was roughly similar now. He could attack the angel with one more throw.
Swoosh!
“He throws a sword at the angel!”
Clang!
The angel parried the sword.
[Flash]
Crack!
Almond moved to the parried sword with no ground to step on. However—
Tap.
— ???
— Wow.
— Crazy!
— What a feat!?
Almond landed on top of the angel's sword.
“Aaaaaah!!! He’s on top of the sword! And he's not even a martial arts master!”
The angel swung the sword hard to shake him off.
Slash!
Almond lost his balance, but didn’t panic.
'I can just flash again.'
Now, the sky was no longer a place to fall from. It was a place to roam freely.
Even as he fell, he slashed down with his sword.
Slash!
He landed a significant hit on the angel's arm.
“Wow! Another effective hit! Almond cuts the flying angel! But he's falling!”
Almond fell.
[Flash]
Crack!
Then, he teleported again in mid-air. As long as he could keep throwing his swords, he had no intention of falling.
“Incredible. It’s just like my stocks! Just when he seems to fall, he rebounds! Again, he rebounds! Almond! Throw the sword again!”
Almond threw the sword.
Swoosh!
It flew over the angel's shoulder. If he flashed now, he would appear behind the angel.
The angel did not let that happen this time.
“The angel swings his sword at the flash location!?”
The angel attacked in advance to where Almond would appear. This was the most appropriate way to counter Flashy Blade.
Even Almond, appearing in mid-air, could not dodge this attack.
“What!? But it didn't hit!? The position is a bit off!?”
At that moment, Almond appeared slightly in a different position.
Crack!
Once again, Almond landed on the Angel’s sword.
"...!?"
The angel was startled and Almond immediately slashed at him.
Slash!
“Again, he’s on the sword!? And it was an effective hit! He lands another hit!” OrangeKing screamed at the top of his lungs.
He finally realized what happened just now.
“Almond is slightly altering the path of the sword in strange ways using the Blade Vitality skill! It’s unpredictable!”
Given the nature of flashing with a sword, it became quite easy to counter if the enemy understood the principle.
Before flashing, Almond applied the Blade Vitality skill to his sword and sent it at a strange angle.
[Flash]
Crack!
He did it again.
“Again! He flashed at a strange angle! And he catches the angel from behind with a slash!”
Slash!
Once again, Almond landed an effective hit. A Flashy Blade manipulating their blades like this could theoretically go anywhere. There was no way that he, who raised the potential of his Flashy Blade over 95%, would fall here.
— Crazy, wow.
— Wow, he survived again?
— Insane..
— Tightrope walking legend.
— Rebound machine, lol.
Afterward, Almond continued to dazzle the angel by flashing back and forth in the air. The one who could fly freely was supposed to be the angel, but...
“What!? Almond is landing more hits!?”
Slash!
Slash!
As time passed, it was Almond who landed more hits.
“Ah ha! There must hardly be any data on getting attacked while flying! Something seems strange now!”
The angel's once swift and sharp movements became noticeably slower.
— Broken AlphaGo.
— Really??
— Something's gotten weird.
Almond also noticed something strange.
'In that case, this could work.'
Almond had only been attempting small attacks with minimal movements and now committed to larger movements.
Swoosh.
“What!?”
The moment he raised his sword, OrangeKing already sensed it and screamed.
[Blade Vitality]
Wooooom!
A sword wrapped in blue energy finally slashed the angel's neck.
Slash!!!
“Aaaaaah! He beheaded him!!!”
A crimson line appeared across the angel’s neck. Eventually, the head completely separated from the body.
“Dumbass... Argh!!”
— Crazy!
— Whoa~
— Wow, as clean as a Blue Club execution!
— Is it over!?
— Beheaded, LOL.
The fallen head quickly plummeted.
Thump!
Due to falling from such a height, it was smashed without a trace.
“Wow! The boss really died! It's dead!”
Following that, the angel's body also fell.
Fssssss...
The angel's body and head turned into black ash and disappeared without a trace. What remained were the numerous blade feathers it used as weapons.
Crack!
Almond reappeared on the ground with a flash. He took a moment to catch his breath.
"Haah... Haah..."
After a while, he touched a message box that popped up in the corner of his vision.
"OrangeKing and IFailedMath, thank you for the mission."
Ba-bam!
Almond received the mission payout.
“Nooooo! My money!!”
The money came in along with OrangeKing's scream.
[Mission. Kill the Final Boss. Success!]
[500,000 Won]
— Wow 500,000!
— Woah..
— Congrats, congrats, congrats!
— OrangeKing, LMAO.
— Successfully reclaimed Orange Juice!
"I’ll get the reward for never dying later."
After saying that, Almond headed to where the bird's corpse had been.
'Feathers...'
The bird's corpse had already turned into black ash and disappeared. However, his weapons remained. Ownership of them was passed to Almond.
[Blade Vitality]
He tried using the skill at the scattered blades.
Wooooom...!
The blades danced in the air as they floated. Everything was almost automated. The blades quickly formed a shape, turned into wings, and settled on Almond's back.
— Ah. So this is how you leave.
— Killed the bird and escaped with its wings.
— Oooooh!!
— What about Luna?
Almond looked at the sky. This corridor was dug deep from the ground up. He could see the roots, stems, and leaves all at once.
Inside the well, Almond kicked off the ground and tried to flap his wings.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
The wings gradually created wind and lifted his body. He began to feel weightless and the ground started to distance itself.
He unwittingly looked at where Luna lay.
'She hasn't disappeared.'
He noticed that her corpse didn't turn into black ash or disappear. If one disappeared into the abyss, they usually turned into black ash and vanished. Among those who died in the sanctuary, all corpses remained except for the bird.
They came back to life eventually.
“Just come save me again.”
Luna's last words were actually possible. She would start again from the first floor after having lost her memory.
Almond could go and save her. There was hope. He was supposed to feel hopeful, but he didn’t.
'It’s already...'
He didn't know why. It was just a gut feeling. He only just realized that he was initially there to save Luna. He failed, and he would continue to fail.
[Icarus (★★★) Clear!]
***
[Beginner Tip: Did you know? There was a time when many of the celestial realm's administrators were corrupt. Since the celestial realm introduced a new system of adjudication through reports by contract jurors, such incidents have disappeared. So please enjoy the battlefield with ease.]
Yenmazing's Thoughts
I hope you guys have been watching the Olympics! The South Korean national team performed really well this year as well. As I was watching the South Korean team compete in archery, I kept getting reminded of GAS!