Chapter 26 ~ Its just a game...
Within the dark, unlit sanctuary of the grey Stone Dome, Rentarou rose to his feet. He walked with quiet, deliberate steps across the bare earth floor until he reached the curved inner wall. He placed his hands, still clad in the sleek, grey Stone Gauntlets, against its surface.
With a low groan, the solid stone beneath his touch began to crack and spiderweb, as if yielding to his unspoken command. The sound of fracturing rock, sharp and distinct, was followed by the softer, crumbling cascade of smaller stones and dust falling to the ground like a shower of heavy pebbles.
Through the jagged aperture he had created in the dome, the "Blue Hour" greeted him. The pre-dawn sky was a breathtaking canvas of deep indigo and soft violet, the very cusp of morning, with the sun's first fiery kiss upon the horizon imminent. His light grey eyes, mirroring the subtle hues of the nascent day, took in the scene. His own light grey hair, almost silver in this ethereal light, stirred gently. The metallic sheen of the chest plate protecting him caught the faint, ambient glow, making it gleam softly.
He stepped out cautiously, an unconscious breath escaping him as he took in the deceptive calm of the immediate surroundings. Then, a sudden gust of wind, carrying the chill of the departing night, whipped across the plains, making him close his eyes instinctively. His silvered hair danced around his face. He opened his eyes slowly, his gaze sweeping the area, only to widen in stunned disbelief. Far off, on the untouched expanse of grass that the earlier, greater explosion had not reached, a wisp of mist, unlike any natural fog, caught his attention.
It wasn't a stationary cloud. This mist was… moving. Not merely drifting, but flowing with purpose, a cohesive, human-sized silhouette of roiling grey-white vapor, running with uncanny speed, leaving a faint, ethereal trail behind it as it darted across the plains. It was as if a spirit of the fog itself had taken form and joined the fray.
"What is that…?" Rentarou breathed, his voice barely a whisper.
The scene shifted. Yuta, his long black hair a wild, whipping storm around his face, stood as the undisputed epicenter of a ferocious wind vortex. The grassy plains around him bent and swayed violently under the assault of the gale he commanded. His hands, elegant and precise, moved in intricate patterns, clearly manipulating the currents of air. His dark, narrowed eyes tracked the spectral, mist-clad form of Hikari as it circled him relentlessly.
Good, Yuta thought, a grim satisfaction flickering within him. With this level of wind I'm unleashing, he can't get close, nor can he effectively shroud the area in that damned mist, no matter how hard he tries, because I'm constantly dispersing it. However… this isn't a sustainable solution. The remaining duration of my 'Wind's Howl' elixir is perilously short. The moment it expires, that brat will carve his way through to me and defeat me with ease; I'm no match for him in direct, close-quarters combat. In this situation, my only viable option is to bring him down now, before the elixir fails!
He studied the blurring, circular path of the mist-wisp that was Hikari, his mind calculating, predicting the trajectory. He anticipated the precise spot Hikari would reach within the next few crucial seconds. Then, with a sudden, violent surge of power, he thrust his right hand forward, palm open, towards that predicted point.
A ferocious blast of concentrated wind, an invisible battering ram, screamed across the intervening space, hurtling towards the spot where Hikari was about to be. Just as it was about to impact, Hikari seemed to coalesce, bursting forth from the dissipating mist-form. His golden hair blazed under the pre-dawn light, his blue eyes sharp and confident as he faced the howling gale rushing towards him. The Water Fox Fang in his hand was a steady, reassuring presence, its blue light reflected with unwavering certainty in his eyes.
SLASH!!!
With a single, contemptuous upward stroke, Hikari's blade sliced the wind wave cleanly in two. The movement was a blur, leaving a fleeting afterimage of blue light. His golden hair whipped around his face as the bifurcated currents of wind roared harmlessly past him on either side. Instantly, he pivoted, his feet digging into the earth, altering his trajectory. No longer content to merely circle Yuta, he broke from his orbit, dashing with explosive speed directly towards the eye of the storm, towards Yuta himself.
Yuta's dark eyes widened fractionally. He was waiting for me to commit to that attack, he realized with a jolt, waiting for an opening to close the distance! No matter. All I need to do is re-establish the full power of my defensive wind vortex!
The Water Fox Fang in Hikari's hand flared with an intense azure light. The sound of rushing water swelled as visible streams of liquid energy began to flow and coil fantastically around the blade. While still sprinting forward, Hikari unleashed a rapid-fire sequence of three slashes, sending three distinct, cutting water waves hurtling towards Yuta.
Yuta's black eyes narrowed in concentration. He roared, unleashing the full fury of his remaining wind power against the incoming aquatic assaults. The air shrieked with the violent collision of wind and water. The impact was deafening. The three cutting waves, met by the overwhelming force of the gale, shattered spectacularly, atomizing into a glittering cloud of a million tiny droplets that hung suspended in the turbulent air for a breathtaking moment before being swept away.
Damn it! Yuta thought, a surge of frustration coursing through him. I can't maintain focus on creating the protective vortex while fending off these relentless attacks!
Hikari's eyes, narrowed and focused, glinted. His blade pulsed again, ready for another series of strikes. This isn't over yet, he thought, his mind a whirlwind of calculations. A single direct hit from his wind attacks is sufficient to kill me. One solid punch would do the same. I must analyze every single step with meticulous care. More statistics, more calculations, more critical thinking!
His brow furrowed in concentration. With a surge of will, the Mist Flood erupted from him once more, an even denser, more potent cloud than before. It instantly engulfed the immediate area, swallowing Yuta completely in its disorienting grey-white embrace. Yuta gritted his teeth, his fists clenching, a furious snarl twisting his lips. Damn it all! I have to, at the very least, protect myself!
A tall, tight vortex of wind suddenly coalesced around Yuta, a rapidly spinning shield barely two meters in diameter, designed solely for his personal protection. The vortex, however, was not clear; it was a churning, greyish-white column, a result of his wind element forcefully mixing with Hikari's pervasive mist, a fascinating if unintended consequence of the game's environmental physics.
Yuta's black eyes darted around from within his rapidly spinning sanctuary, his long hair whipping around his face. The roar of his personal vortex was deafening. Damn it, he thought, a fresh wave of anxiety gripping him. I can't see anything beyond this wind screen now that it's merged with his blasted mist! He struggled to control his ragged breathing. Calm down. I just need one clean hit to win. Just determine which direction he'll emerge from when his elixir effect fades and this vortex dissipates. For now… for now, I am safe…
High above him, unseen, unheard, Hikari was falling. His simple brown adventurer's clothes and his golden hair billowed and whipped around him in the silent descent. He was falling headfirst, inverted, yet his expression was unnervingly calm, his features relaxed, almost serene. The Water Fox Fang in his hand still held a faint, subdued glow. Below, Yuta remained entirely focused on maintaining his swirling, opaque defense, oblivious to the silent threat from above.
SLASH!!
Yuta felt an icy coldness, impossibly sharp, slide across his neck. His eyes, wide with sudden, uncomprehending shock, registered a bizarre, tilting sensation. Why… he wondered, a strange detachment settling over him, why is my vision suddenly tumbling towards the earth? Why is the world turning upside down?
Digital sparks, azure and ephemeral, erupted from the line across his throat and began to spread across his entire body. As his form started to disintegrate, a final, bewildered thought echoed in his fading consciousness: Did I… lose too? But how did this happen…? Damn it…
He vanished completely from existence in a final, silent cascade of blue digital particles. The greyish-white, misty vortex, its creator now gone, dissipated fantastically, swirling away into nothingness.
Hikari landed on his feet with preternatural quietness, his stance perfectly balanced.
At that exact moment, a single, brilliant glimmer of light pierced the eastern horizon. Then, with a majestic surge, the sun finally broke free, its golden rays spilling across the sky, chasing away the last vestiges of the night. The warm light streamed across the ravaged grasslands, touching Hikari's face, and in an instant, his hair was restored to its full, vibrant golden glory.
The sun had risen. The long, arduous battle, fought under the fading stars and the watchful crescent moon, had finally, irrevocably, ended. Rentarou, standing a few meters away, had witnessed it all.
A familiar system interface materialized before Hikari:
[ Level Up. ]
[ From Level 10 → To Level 12. ]
Immediately following this, his profile statistics window appeared:
[ Name: Rising Star(Displayed in Crimson Red) ]
[ Level: 12 ]
[ HP: 1200 / 1200 ]
[ XP: 0 / 1300 ]
The window faded as quietly as it had appeared, just as Rentarou, his expression a mixture of awe and relief, began to approach with calm, steady steps.
Hikari stood quietly, his gaze fixed on the grassy patch where Yuta had digitally dissolved, leaving no trace, no equipment behind. The first rays of the sun, now fully risen, painted the trampled grass in hues of gold and orange. The air, crisp with the morning chill, carried the faint, lingering scent of ozone from the earlier battle.
The grass, a vibrant emerald green just moments ago, now swayed gently in the morning breeze, its blades catching the sunlight. It moved with a soft, rhythmic sigh, as if nature itself was exhaling after the conflict. Hikari's own silver-streaked blond hair, reaching just past his earlobes with its softly chaotic texture, danced with this same breeze. His simple, earth-brown adventurer's garb, though remarkably intact, bore the subtle marks of the recent confrontation – a smudge of dirt here, a near-imperceptible tear there.
Rentarou finally approached, his silver cuirass gleaming brightly under the full light of the new day. A wide, joyful smile stretched across his face, his grey eyes crinkling at the corners.
"Hikari!" he exclaimed, his voice brimming with unrestrained joy. "Man, you did it! You actually won!"
Hikari slowly turned his ocean-blue eyes to meet Rentarou's. His expression remained cool, almost distant. "Rentarou…" he began, his voice even, "this is just a game, right..?"
The joyous light in Rentarou's silver eyes wavered, a flicker of uncertainty clouding their depths. His smile faltered. The silver strands of his hair, mirroring the color of his eyes, seemed to catch the morning light with a sudden, sharp glint as the joyous energy around him dissipated. Silence descended, thick and heavy, broken only by the distant chirping of unseen birds. Then, as if cued by the abrupt shift in mood, the soft, melancholic notes of the post-battle orchestral score began to weave through the air – a gentle, poignant melody that spoke of resolutions and lingering questions.
Rentarou remained silent, his gaze searching Hikari's. In that quiet moment, the voice of Seniora, Hikari's artificial companion, echoed clearly in his mind, her tone laced with a familiar, almost playful curiosity.
"Well, well, Rising Star… Are you feeling a touch of remorse now? As you companion, let me say that this was unexpected from you."
Rentarou, perhaps sensing the internal dialogue or simply driven by his own relief and admiration, stepped forward and clapped a firm, reassuring hand on Hikari's shoulder. "Yeah, it is!" he affirmed, his voice regaining some of its earlier cheer, though now softer, more thoughtful. "And you looked absolutely amazing doing it!"
For a fleeting instant, Hikari's blue eyes seemed to tremble, a subtle tremor that sent ripples across their calm surface. A spark, a mere flicker of life, returned to their depths. He looked at Rentarou, truly looked at him. Rentarou's cheeks were flushed a rosy pink, his words tumbling out in an unstoppable stream of excited chatter. Hikari, lost in his own thoughts, didn't truly hear the words, but the genuine warmth and relief in Rentarou's voice were unmistakable.
What just happened to me…? Hikari mused, a silent whirlwind of introspection stirring within him. My emotions… they got pulled into the game a little too deeply there… I almost lost my composure.
Slowly, the torrent of Rentarou's excited voice began to penetrate the fog of Hikari's thoughts. He felt the warmth of the newly risen sun on his face, saw the golden light glinting in his friend's silver hair, and heard the genuine joy in his ongoing monologue.
For the first time… Hikari felt the game blend with his own emotions, just a little…