The moment he raised his sword, parting his lips to begin invoking a skill for himself, no sound rolled off of his tongue before the feminine figure across from him turned into a blur.
"--!"
It was faster than he could react, taken by surprise as the accidental movement of his blade mitigated the unseen strike. A cut was felt against his cheek, like a sharp, scathing wind having dragged against his cheek.
[HP: 32500/35000]
The now once leader of the Black Moon Assassins was behind him, forcing him to turn around as he found Yumeko wielding her peculiar sword, inspecting it as if surprised by its own capabilities herself.
"Not used to speed like that, are you?" Zero asked, touching his cheek as he found a wound inflicted.
"Do you still believe my guild is "trash", as you said? This is their strength," Yumeko asked, running her finger along her own blade.
"If you're still hung up on that, make me swallow my words, Miss Wannabe-Idol," Zero retorted.
In the midst of his enemy's own appreciation for her newfound power, Zero dashed in with a quick burst, thrusting his sword towards her exposed back.
CLANG
Through supremely acute reflexes, the surprise attack was stopped as the platinum-eyed woman placed her sword behind her back, using it as a shield to precisely stop Zero's weapon.
"Letting your stats get to your head? Rookie mistake," Zero cheekily said.
Yumeko seemed unimpressed, "Is it? Weren't you doing the same thing?"
The former guild leader whispered an invocation, causing thorny roots to sprout from the floor around her, prompting Zero to flip back before the shrewd plants could grab hold of him.
Zero couldn't help but smile despite the gap in stats, sliding his boots across the marble, "If that's what you think, you haven't been paying attention, sweetheart."
As expected, his crass response earned a spiteful glare from the woman as she waved her sword, commanding the swarm of monstrous, spiked vines to lash out towards him.
He raised his hand quickly, snapping his fingers–
["Blaze Azure"]
From his quick gesture, a violent torrent of bright-blue flames poured forth, colliding with the plantlife.
"Being the best doesn't come from having the highest stats," Zero said as azure embers fluttered, with the heated winds brushing his snowy tufts, "--But in some cases, the best have the highest stats."
"Are you admitting defeat, then?" Yumeko asked.
Zero's confident smile hadn't faded in the least as he flipped his own sword into the air, locking eyes with the woman, "Who said anything about that? If you think these are my max stats, then I'd look away if I were you–this is about to be a rude awakening."
Amidst his words, they were countered by a swift assault; the sword-wielding woman moved like a bolt of lightning, traversing the courtyard with untraceable speed as Zero pulled out all stops just to defend himself.
["Hyper Reflexes"]
Using his blade to successfully deflect an incoming strike, he watched as Yumeko did a backpedal on the air itself, conjuring an ethereal flower as a stepping stone before she raised her blade.
["Blossoming Death"]
Black roses spiraled into the courtyard, manifesting into the air with colossal size as they surrounded Zero completely. The impromptu garden of giant, deathly roses became claustrophobic for him; they emitted a pollen that came off as a miasma. A single whiff of the rose's secretion into the air filled his lungs with a brisk, chilling frost, smelling sickeningly sweet like a candy shop.
[STATUS: "End Bloom"] [INSTANT DEATH: -RES]
[STATUS: "End Bloom"] [INSTANT DEATH: -RES]
[STATUS: "End Bloom"] [INSTANT DEATH: -RES]
–He watched as the status effect bombarded him, repeatedly attempting to proc as his high resistance stat allowed him to avoid it, though at the aggressiveness it continued at, it seemed inevitable it'd activate.
'Just going to sit back behind the flowers and wait for me to bite it? Fuckin' amateur,' he thought.
[STATUS: "End Bloom"] [INSTANT DEATH: -RES]
Amidst the fight, he quickly used his index finger to swipe open his inventory, quickly sifting through it before tapping on the item he sought.
[STATUS: "End Bloom"] [INSTANT DEATH: -RES]
A transparent sack filled with snow-white seeds manifested atop his hand; he threw his head back, dumping the entirety of the packet into his mouth as he gulped it all down.
["Seeds of The Demi-Gods' Grove" CONSUMED.]
[STATUS: "INSTANT DEATH IMMUNITY" OBTAINED.]
Breathing out, he gathered himself after avoiding the threat of instant death, using the veil of the colossal roses to give himself time for thought.
'Looks like there are still things I don't know about this game. "Moonlit Requiem" seems to have different phases–usually it's just a stat increase, but it seems activating it on an entire guild changed her abilities entirely. A Blade Bard shouldn't have a skill like this,' he thought.
Amidst his thought, the air rapidly cooled as the sound of frost forming grated his ears, forcing him to look up to find a storm of ice hanging over his head.
Yumeko stood on the air itself, waving her hand as she released the ice-cold spell with impunity; the countless spears of frost rained down, chasing the man.
"You're not nearly as invincible as you seemed," Yumeko remarked, "Was your edge really stats this whole time?"
Zero quickly ran his palm over his sword, whispering an incantation–["Azure Burst Infusion"]--as a swirl of majestic, cerulean flames coated his blade before he began deflecting the ice while responding, "You're really not listening, are you? Want me to play your own game?"
"Talk is talk–"
"And my talk is the real deal, sweetheart."
Zero assured his enemy as he slammed his sword into the ground, causing the flaming infusion onto his weapon to dispel into an outward explosion, melting the incoming ice.
The hostile player watched him, seeming unperturbed as the astronomical stats she possessed laxed any fear she once had.
"You wanted to put on a show, didn't you? I'll give everybody one, then," Zero claimed as he kept his blade planted into the crimson marble below, "I wanted to have fun and fight as an underdog for once, but your attitude at the smallest whiff at an advantage kind of pissed me off."
"What're you–?" Yumeko quietly asked under her breath, not knowing what the man was planning.
A quick exhale was pushed from between the snowy-haired player's lips as he squared his boots against the ground, flexing his body as he called upon the [Mythical] rank skill that had been awaiting his usage:
[Transformation: Sin Incarnation: GOETIA]
[Cooldown: 23:59:59]