14 Sealed Widow Dungeon (4)

"Slash from the right! Dodge it and cut her arm off!"

SLICE—!

Cutting the arm of the widow off, her black blood splashed on Noir's face, as the smell of iron filled the air.

"How…how dare you—!"

With narrowed eyes, the widow leapt back, creating some distance between her and Noir, as a black ink-like liquid sprung out of her arm.

Like a spider web, the ink-like liquid spun back into an arm's form, growing back as if it had never been detached in the first place.

Of course, I didn't let such a chance pass.

It was the situation we'd been building up to, so there was no way I would let such a chance slip by.

The widow, who had been overpowering us only a few minutes ago, was now being pushed to the defensive like a cornered rat.

While her movement and attacks at the beginning seemed skilled enough to consider her a competent fighter, she gradually began to get sloppy.

She threw her attacks out like a panicked beginner, swinging her arms around in vain like an uncontrolled whip.

Her attacks had neither meaning nor effect, as all she did was aimlessly thrust her spear around.

"Get away from me!"

Her distorted voice carried a tone of terror, trembling with every word she spoke.

"Noir! Don't let her get away! Close the gap!"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And don't call me Ma'am!"

Watching as Noir bridged the distance between them in an instant, I got shortly distracted by the throbbing pain in my eyes, which gradually got stronger the closer my mana was to complete depletion.

Mana: 123/6500

Fuck.

It hurts.

It hurts so fucking much.

It felt like I was fucking dying. But this time, compared to my almost instant death in my past life, I could feel the pain of slowly getting killed.

Gritting my teeth, I ignored the tears forming in my eyes as I yelled out my following commands.

My eyes felt like they were about to burst out of my eye socket, but it was just something I had to endure.

Only a few more seconds.

A few more seconds and this fight will end.

"Use a skill!"

"[Judgement Cut]!"

==============

[Judgement Cut (active) {Unique}]

(This skill rises in strength the more the user loses their humanity.)

Envelope your blade in an overwhelming amount of mana and slash at your enemy, suffocating them in a fiery wall of mana.

==============

A system window popped up in my view, as he used his Judgement Cut again.

However, the skill description wasn't the same as it was before. While the skill's effect was the same, the requirements for a boost in power had changed.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I watched as Noir used his skill again. Instead of black mana enveloping his sword, it was an angelic white one this time.

The complete opposite of what his mana colour previously was.

Unconsciously, I tried to do that what I always do, when seeing a new interesting skill. Namely, copying it, but I quickly threw that thought away at the arrival of new system messages.

[You cannot copy both versions of the skill!]

[Attribute [Duality] is required to use both versions!]

I didn't have any more time to ponder about what it could mean, as a colossal bang occurred only a few seconds after the windows appeared.

BOOM—!

Noir's second version of [Judgement Cut] was much more destructive than the first one, destroying parts of the village with its use, as an enormous cloud of smoke filled the entire area.

Only a few seconds later, the smoke cloud cleared itself, revealing an injured boss on the ground and a ruined village surrounding her.

Seeing that, I quickly deactivated [Reading], as I let out a sigh of relief. The painful throbbing in my eyes instantly got weaker as I did so.

"It's done! Finish her now, Noir!"

However, Noir didn't respond and just kept dwelling in his combat stance, carefully observing the boss of the dungeon.

No, rather than just observing, he seemed to tense up.

"Our home..."

The voice of the widow sounded weak as she turned her head to her now destroyed house.

"...I won't let you get away with this. No, I definitely won't."

Then, an explosive surge of cursed energy was released from her body, draining all the colour in the atmosphere.

I could feel my heart dropping at the sight of the next message.

[Boss 'Widow' now goes into her second phase!]

The black hair of the widow grew longer, covering her body in an armour-like manner, as the strands of her hair branched out, digging into the ground to lift her up.

"I won't let you get away with this..."

Her voice now didn't even sound like a voice, but more like a mix of unidentifiable sounds, that could somehow be understood by our minds.

It sounded just like what I imagined an eldritch being to sound like.

"I'll kill you."

[Boss 'Widow' is now consumed with cursed energy!]

[Her life force will be drained for the next 60 seconds!]

[Survive.]

Then, like tentacles, her hair begins to charge toward us, branching into thousands of smaller strands, as the web of hair strands descended onto us.

Activating [Reading], I tried to pass on the information I saw to Noir, but was stopped by a sudden pain in my eyes.

"Urgh—!"

"Weiss!"

Drop— Drop— Drop—

Burying my face onto the ground, I could see droplets of blood dropping to the ground, flowing straight out of my eyes.

Mana: 32/6500

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts!

I was barely hanging on to consciousness, as a feeling of despair settled inside my body.

I am basically out of mana.

There was no way that we win now.

Raising my head one last time, I looked at the descending attack with my blurry vision, accepting our defeat.

"What are you doing, Weiss? Give me commands already!"

Widening my eyes, I snapped back to reality, as I turned my head to Noir, who was ready to defend himself with everything he got.

That's right.

I was pathetic.

Even though I acted so confident, I couldn't even overcome a single burden.

"Fuck this. Let's go all out."

Gritting my teeth, I activated [Reading] again, analyzing the incoming attack while ignoring the throbbing pain.

My mana was gradually getting closer to zero, as I kept reinforcing my mana in my eyes.

But that was alright.

It's only 60 seconds.

We only had to survive for 60 seconds.

However, looking at the thousands — no, millions of hair strands speeding toward us with the force of a meteor each, I knew that just telling him commands wouldn't be fast enough.

No, we had to communicate in a way that was instant.

Instead of only hearing my orders, he had to see what I see and hear what I hear.

Vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Everything had to match.

Blending out everything that didn't matter, I began to feel a sensation that I often felt in my past life.

[You gained a new skill!]

[Hyperfocus]

ADHD made my life harder than it had to be, but sometimes it came in quite handy.

Hyperfocus is a state in which one gains an intense fixation for an extended period.

And while I couldn't get into that state intentionally, when it does activate, it can sometimes come in pretty handy, blocking the world around them and only focusing on the activity.

With the information about his mana structure I had gathered with [Reading], I unconsciously matched my mana wave length with his, connecting our senses with each other.

There were only three things here that mattered.

Me, Noir and her.

[Synchronizing Mana wavelength with that of the target.]

[Done!]

For a second, my view distorted, turning into a blurry image of something unidentifiable, as I got a headache, causing me to close my eyes.

Soon, the pain was gone and when I opened my eyes again, the view — no, everything was different.

Vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Everything matched.

It was like I possessed two consciousnesses at the same time and without even having to utter a command, Noir rushed forward.

While we both couldn't exactly comprehend what was happening, we didn't have to.

Without understanding what was going on, Noir and I communicated with each other as if we were lifelong partners.

No, something even deeper than that.

Almost as if we were one, but not quite the same person.

I couldn't exactly describe what I was seeing or feeling, but what I knew was that in our current state, there was nothing that could stop us.

I was his 'Vision' while he was my 'touch'.

CLING—!

With small and quick movements, Noir parried all the hair strands, creating a knot inside her hair, as he then used it as a bridge to dash to the boss.

Other strands of her hair extended like tentacles, trying to pierce him, but he smoothly avoided them by the slightest movements by using my 'vision'.

I could feel the sensation of the air brushing against my face, when Noir picked up on speed, also pumping the last of his mana into this last attack.

While I knew that she would die if we only stalled for time until her life force was fully depleted by the cursed energy, I didn't want to win in such a way.

I didn't know if it was my or Noir's wishes, but we both silently agreed, that we would finish this battle in our own way.

Then, as Noir was only a few meters away from the widow, he extended his sword, narrowing his eyes, as he used a skill with all his remaining mana.

"[Judgement Cut]!"

However, at the last moment, our connection cut off and my consciousness suddenly faded into pure nothingness.

Right before I fully lost consciousness, I glanced over to the display of my remaining mana, having a suspicion why I suddenly lost the connection.

Mana: 0/6500

"Tsk."

How bothersome.

[You killed the boss 'Widow'!]

[You've gained 215.040 exp by killing the boss 'Widow'!]