Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 177

Chapter 177: The Strongest vs. The Black Princess

After two battles with Kuro, I managed to scrape by with a win, though it was close.

When we first met, she could only dodge and attack, but now she’s mastered the techniques I taught her—?Parry?, ?Slash?, and ?Guarding Stance?—to such a high level that when she parried my sword and landed ?Dragon Fang? to my stomach, I thought I was done for.

Honestly, if I hadn’t activated the defensive skill ?Perfect Protect Call?, which nullifies damage once, I would have lost to Kuro for sure.

Her quick thinking was impressive, especially when she threw her sword to close the gap with Arisa, then used her ?Skill United? to fully leverage her ?Martial Artist? profession skills.

Considering she’s only been playing VR for six months, her potential is hard to believe.

Reflecting on it, I recalled Kuro’s background: her mentor is Shino, the five-time world champion in competitive gaming, and her mother is a former pro-gamer who held an even record with Shino.

…Wait, when I think about it calmly, haven’t we accidentally created an unbeatable hybrid here?

Realizing this, I began to break out in a nervous sweat.

“One more match!” she demanded.

“Huh? Can’t we stop for today?”

Most of my high-level skills, including my invincibility one, are in cooldown after those two fights, so if we go again, I’m pretty sure I’d be at a disadvantage—or even lose.

But as I hesitated for once, Arisa, noticing my skill situation, grinned and egged Kuro on.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the strongest adventurer, Sora? You’ve only fought twice, and now you’re too tired to take on Kuro, even after she already battled me?”

“!?”

Hit with the perfect line, I was at a loss for words.

Even the sailors around us started nodding, as if to say she had a point. Realizing there was no escape, I had no choice but to take back my words and prepare for another match.

I positioned myself at a slight distance from Kuro.

“Alright, let’s start.”

“Ready when you are!”

We confirmed with each other, drew our swords, and activated ?Accelerator? instantly.

Sora kicked off the ground, reaching top speed in an instant as she used ?Sonic Sword V?, charging at Kuro with a focused gaze.

“I knew you’d go for that!”

Reacting like lightning, Kuro angled her blade and, though her face showed the strain, parried Sora’s powerful, momentum-filled strike using the defensive techniques she had learned.

Her stance wavered slightly.

Predicting that a kick might follow, Sora quickly sidestepped, barely dodging it by a hair.

“Whoa, close one!”

If she’d moved even a little slower, she would’ve been hit.

Breaking into a cold sweat, Sora held her sword horizontally, generating a green glow.

It was the horizontal double-strike, ?Dual Nail?.

From her accelerated stance, she launched a sharp horizontal slash aimed at Kuro’s torso.

Barely managing to react, Kuro activated ?Sword Guard? on her blade, perfectly blocking the two strikes with the flat of her sword.

She can keep up with this?

Surprised internally, Sora knew she couldn’t hold back. she quickly chose her next move: a triple-strike technique combining ?Triple Stream? with ?Strike Sword? through ?Skill United?.

?Strike Triple Stream?.

Positioning her body slightly to the left, she lowered her stance, aiming her sword directly at Kuro.

Her left hand rested lightly on the blade.

Adding just a hint of killing intent, Sora unleashed a rapid triple-thrust attack with blinding speed.

“Kuh!”

Yet Kuro reacted once more.

With intense focus, she dodged the first strike by leaning to the side, and stepped sharply to avoid the second.

For the final thrust, Kuro timed her move perfectly, deflecting it with a precise swipe, and then planted her foot firmly on the ground.

Using her insight skill, Sora quickly sensed what was coming and backstepped, dodging Kuro’s unique ?Martial Artist? skill, ?Dragon Quake?, which involves stomping hard to create a vibration that immobilizes the opponent.

“Now it’s my turn to strike!”

Kuro’s movements sped up even further. With her ?Battle Spirit Boost? skill enhancing her body and bringing her stats close to those of Sora, who was using ?Accelerator?, she now matched her speed.

They exchanged blows without using any skills, and the sword techniques Kuro had honed over the past few days under her mother, Arisa, were impressive. She was holding her own in their clash.

Occasionally, Kuro used skill effects as feints, making things tricky for Sora. A brief blue effect made Sora wary of ?Strike Sword?, only for her to follow through with a normal slash from the lower right to the upper left.

Judging that dodging wasn’t possible, Sora blocked the attack with her sword, causing them both to be knocked back slightly.

Time to end this.

She checked the duration left on ?Accelerator? for just an instant—and in that very moment, Kuro rushed forward.

“Hah!”

The green glow indicated the familiar horizontal double-strike ?Dual Nail?. Sora prepared to parry and counter Kuro’s sharp slashes.

But then, her side was struck by a third follow-up attack.

It was a kick skill, ?Dragon Kick?, seamlessly woven into her sword moves.

Just before the blow landed, Sora activated the skill on her ?Envy of Darkness Coat?, which consumed 500 MP to trigger ?Envy Scale?, reducing physical attack damage by 20% for 180 seconds. As a result, she only lost about 20% of her HP.

Taking the hit, Sora prepared to finish the match with a powerful downward slash, ?Vertical Slash?, from an overhead stance.

At that moment, Kuro let go of her sword and stepped forward. She gently placed a hand on her chest as if in an embrace.

Realizing the danger, Sora stopped her skill and quickly used ?Sonic Step? to retreat, escaping Kuro’s range just in time.

“That was close…”

Stepping back, she muttered her thoughts aloud. A fraction of a second slower, and she would have been struck by ?Dragon Palm?, her unique ?Martial Artist? skill, and lost.

Just like that moment before, had Sora gone for the win, she would have lost in an instant.

The girl, who had been so close to victory, pursed her lips slightly in disappointment.

“Ugh, so close…”

“No, that was seriously dangerous…”

“But Sora reacted and dodged it… You’re really amazing.”

Kuro beamed happily.

After this exchange, Sora let out a small laugh as well.

Her remaining HP was about 30% from being cut in half. But her opponent was no ordinary girl. She was one of the strongest adventurers, born from two geniuses.

There was no way to win this by holding back now. she had to end it in one decisive strike.

Sora sheathed her sword, lowered her stance, and turned her right shoulder toward Kuro, preparing for a slash.

She chose to use ?Burst Charge?, a skill that could generate immense power after a five-minute charge.

To release a flying slash, ?Storm Fliegen?, which required six wind-element slots to activate.

By uniting these two skills, a higher-level skill was born.

Its name: ?Aerial Fliegen?.

This upper-tier attack skill, named after the wind spirit, could only be wielded by ?Lucifer?, with access to fifteen element slots, beyond the usual five.

Winds swirled around Sora, growing into a storm.

The charge time: about one minute.

As she gathered all the wind and focused it into her blade, a sudden calm, windless state settled around her.

“??Release.”

“Guh??!”

Facing Sora’s newly unleashed skill, Kuro raised her defense with ?Adamant Body? and ?Sword Guard?, but the overwhelming power broke through, and she was sliced by the blade of wind.

With her HP reduced by half, Sora’s victory was secured.