Chapter 454

A remark that sounded like she was already declaring victory.

If you thought of the usual Luna, it was a line that was unbelievably hard to understand.

But it showed that much confidence, and the viewers who saw it went wild.

-WHOOOO!!!!!!!!

-Luna just said that?????????????

-Isn’t she normally the type who never gives a firm answer, no matter how confident she is?????????

-That’s f***ing sexy, holy shit.

-So damn cool;;;;;;;;;;

-Please take me, unni, I’m crying!

-Wow, she really is cool.

-Damn, I’ve got chills lol

-Right? lmaoooo

-When someone who’s normally not confident says something like that, it hits different lol

-That means she’s that sure!!!!!!

It definitely looked like provocative trash talk.

But Reaper knew it wasn’t provocation.

Because he’d witnessed Luna’s power while training.

‘So you’re confident.’

Thinking that, Reaper nodded.

If you only compared control, Luna did have a slight edge.

Still, it was the kind of “not a big difference” gap.

Because you could say Luna, Reaper, then Kim Che-geon were the best in control, in that order.

And among the three, Luna’s class had the highest potential.

That was why Reaper didn’t dare take Luna’s words as a provocation.

He knew perfectly well that if Luna said it like that, it was because she genuinely believed she could win.

‘Then I need to be even more careful.’

Right now, in Reaper’s view, Luna was the one in the backup team who understood her own class the best.

He himself still didn’t clearly understand what it meant to be a disciple of the Dark Star, and Kyou still didn’t fully understand what being a Storm Lord really was.

Kim Che-geon had almost gone beyond a normal level of understanding this time by using what Seong had told him.

But he was still lacking.

Which meant Luna was the only one who could be said to have reached the root of her own class.

Reaper couldn’t help but get tense.

“......”

While Reaper tensed up like that—

Luna, on the other hand, started getting ready with deeply sunken eyes.

Lightly loosening up, moving as if she were prepping her joints in advance—flexible, smooth motions.

Reaper was warming up too, but he couldn’t match Luna’s flexibility.

Not much time passed.

Seong raised his hand.

The moment they recognized that the instant that hand dropped, the match would begin—

the two looked straight at each other.

They’d been about a hundred meters apart while preparing.

But distance wasn’t that important.

If they really wanted to, it was a distance they could cross in a single beat.

And as they waited for Seong’s signal—

Seong shouted the start and dropped his hand.

“Begin.”

At that extremely plain signal,?Luna and Reaper moved.

No—more precisely, Reaper tried to move.

But the moment he saw Luna’s face appear right in front of him, his thoughts froze.

Luna had been a hundred meters away just a second ago—why was she in front of him?

The instant that thought formed, something surged up from below and smashed into Reaper’s jaw.

THWOOOOM———!!!

In a sliver of time stretched long like taffy—then split even thinner—

in that instant when Luna appeared and struck Reaper’s jaw,?Reaper forced his body into shadow and reinforced his jaw.

If he hadn’t, his head would’ve burst from a single blow.

BOOOOM——!!!

But he couldn’t block all of the shock.

Reaper shot upward, kicking up a savage dust cloud.

In an instant, it was like a storm had swept through—dirt and dust blooming everywhere.

The moment people saw Reaper get launched, their mouths fell open.

-Are you f***ing kidding me???????

-How did she even do that????

-What was that???????

-Even in slow mode it’s f***ing fast?????????

-How is this even real????????

-I blink and Luna shows up and throws an uppercut??????

-But did you see Reaper defend his jaw in the middle of that??????

-That was almost a one-combo kill, holy shit

Everyone was just as confused, staring at speed that made them freak out.

Honestly, how many people wouldn’t be shocked watching that?

Anyway, with the dust cloud thickly blanketing the area—

in that moment, the dust cloud split and vanished like it was being torn apart.

PAAANG———!!!

With a punch thrown into empty air, the gust from Luna’s fist blew away the entire dust cloud.

Not just the dust—

even the air itself was ripped apart, and for an instant the surroundings became a vacuum with no air, and Reaper noticed the change.

His body trembled from the impact.

But if he failed to respond here, he would lose.

Because he understood that more clearly than anyone, Reaper gripped his twin daggers and used his shadows.

Shadows spread in all directions, staining the sky dark—

and Luna kicked off the ground again.

————————!!!

Because it was a vacuum,?there was no medium to carry sound, so nothing could be heard.

But like watching a silent film, the ground shattered to pieces and cracks raced outward, and then the earth sank and collapsed.

And as the ground broke apart, Luna vanished.

Then, in the next instant, Luna appeared right in front of Reaper.

She’d already torn the air apart, so there was no air resistance—making her even faster than before.

Facing that terrifying speed, Reaper used his shadow.

He threw his body toward a shadow that had become smooth like a surface, and as ripples spread, he sank into it.

Like a droplet falling into a calm lake.

A shadow’s surface, rippling.

And from that surface, Reaper burst out again.

But it wasn’t just one.

Sliiide.

Sssshhk.

Countless Reapers appeared—

and in that moment, Luna understood.

Each and every one of them was both the real Reaper and a shadow clone.

Because a shadow can only appear if the essence exists.

If there’s no essence, it can’t form in the first place.

Which meant those shadows could all be substance—could all be the main body.

But Luna didn’t really care.

“Whew.”

She hadn’t been able to rip apart the air near the shadows.

So Luna’s exhale could be heard.

And with a body that looked like it had been drained of air, Luna moved lightly and thrust out a fist.

It looked so slow it was like slow motion—but nothing except Luna’s fist was able to move.

More accurately, it wasn’t that Luna was slow.

She was too fast, so everything else was stuck in a state where it couldn’t move.

In that state, Luna extended her fist, loaded rotation into her arm, and drove it out—and in that instant.

At first the rotation was small, but it swelled into something like a storm’s spin, becoming a sharp, piercing awl that could punch through anything as it swept the area.

KWAAAAA———!!!

A brutal, savage fist wind made every shadow clone—and even the shadow’s surface—waver, fail to endure, and shatter into pieces.

Like glass breaking, the shadows shattered and scattered like a dark mirror exploding.

Shadow surfaces, glittering as they fell in all directions despite being shadows.

Watching that, Luna was dropping down with them toward the ground.

And at that moment—

Sliiide.

Between the shattered fragments of shadow, Reaper slipped out, hidden.

He hadn’t taken so much as a scratch.

Luna’s attack had been terrifyingly powerful, but—

inside the shadow, he could nullify any attack.

Reaper’s utilization was even better than it had been against Kyou.

You could clearly see he was still growing, even now.

-Wait, he’s setting up an assassination in the middle of that?????

-That’s disciple of the Dark Star shit, holy crap

-For real, his split-second judgment is insane

-He feels calmer than earlier?????

-He definitely leveled up, yeah

-He got better in that time? What are these monsters

-But then what the hell is Luna, treating Reaper like that so lightly?

-Seriously;;;;;;

Reaper was impressive, sure.

But everyone was also calling Luna insane—because even though Reaper had grown after that fierce fight with Kyou, she was handling him cleanly, no—she was pushing him back.

As chat flooded with, So this is how good Luna is...

Right at that moment, Reaper moved in silently, about to swing his twin daggers at Luna—

Luna turned her head.

Swiish.

The moment Luna’s eyes shifted, light and darkness tangled inside them, giving off a mysterious glow, and Reaper instinctively realized it was dangerous and tried to dodge.

But it was already too late.

Luna scattered that strange, pale gray gaze and flicked her hand.

In that instant, a pale gray haze rose—and flew straight at Reaper.

Reaper was already using his shadow-form.

So why—

THWOOOOM————!!!

“Guhk!!!”

He couldn’t nullify Luna’s fist wrapped in that pale gray haze, and he took the hit head-on.

Luna’s fist buried into his abdomen.

Reaper’s stomach caved in as if a huge hole were about to be punched through.

And as the recoil tried to fling him away, Luna grabbed Reaper’s left hand and clamped down.

CRUNCH.

“......!!!”

In that moment, Reaper sensed Luna’s intent, felt like his left arm was about to be ripped out, and watched what Luna did next.

Then—

to prepare a follow-up,?Luna grabbed Reaper’s left arm with the right hand that was still buried in his abdomen, and when Reaper saw Luna raising her remaining left hand for another punch, he made a split-second decision.

SLASH!

The best Reaper could do right now.

He knew that even if he tried to attack Luna, her strike would be faster.

So before that—

he cut off his own arm,?and used the impact Luna had created to break free from that spot.

Then—

Luna’s fist swung into the space Reaper had escaped from.

For an instant, space itself wavered and shuddered in tiny fragments.