This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1234 Divine Game: Divine Instruction 48

Flower Crown Murder scattered completely, drifting across the clock arena. Any petal Dawn Cicada touched would trigger its draining effect.

In most situations, that tiny drain would not matter.

But under this game’s special rules, where every point of damage counted, the tactic was nearly unbeatable.

Still, Dawn Cicada had ruled the Vineborne and bathed Dawn in blood. She was not someone without ability.

This duel was very different from the one during Player Relic. Back then she carried few skills, and The Mechanoids had seized half her body, crippling her combat ability.

Now the game banned equipment, items, and attribute advantages.

But it did not ban skills.

Dawn Cicada raised her hand.

Her five fingers moved in sequence, making a light sweeping motion, as if brushing dust from the air.

All the scattered Flower Crown Murder petals instantly gathered into a single Vine and flew back to BS Rita. It wrapped around her arm and fell completely still, like something asleep.

The effect was terrifying.

Yet Dawn Cicada frowned slightly, as if dissatisfied.

Beacon Cicada.

This was the skill she had awakened when she slaughtered Dawn and wiped out every alien player who had once descended upon Beacon. The moment she took the throne of Dawn, she gained this skill that bore her own name.

Its effect was simple.

Control every Vine belonging to the Vineborne.

It had only ever failed once before.

Against Deceitful Bloom.

And now there was a second exception.

BS Rita.

She could force Rita’s Vine into dormancy, but she could not control Flower Crown Murder.

Not a good start.

Lightning was sealed.

The Vine was sealed.

That meant techniques like Caged Bird and After the Funeral were effectively locked away.

Yet Rita’s expression did not change.

She had never underestimated Dawn Cicada just because she once devoured her Vine.

She focused with the same seriousness she once used against Mountain Isles Rita.

The moment she raised her sword, she appeared at Dawn Cicada’s side.

The blade flashed.

The whip coiled around it and deflected the strike.

Even though their strength and agility had been equalized, Rita’s swordsmanship was viciously unpredictable. Her transitions were fast and her angles sharp. Dawn Cicada struggled to keep up.

Spring Scenery and Flowers.

As the two moved across the arena, flowers began blooming everywhere. Each one granted Rita a buff.

Then suddenly no more flowers appeared.

Instead, all the flowers began to wither.

Within seconds they were gone.

But the buffs did not vanish.

They transferred to Dawn Cicada.

She laughed.

"You’re using flowers in front of a Vineborne?"

Rita tried to cancel the skill, but it was too late. She had not expected Dawn Cicada could even steal flowers created by someone else’s ability.

The Wind Says Nothing.

"It grants the user the buffs currently possessed by the nearest one thousand targets. Due to loss in the wind, each buff only retains thirty percent of its effect."

With that many buffs in play, even thirty percent was worth taking.

Rita thought Dawn Cicada was troublesome.

Dawn Cicada thought the same about Rita.

The sword techniques were vicious and unpredictable. Sometimes Rita even used dagger-like movements with her longsword. It was impossible to guard against everything.

And worst of all was the guaranteed damage reflection.

It was already hard enough to deal with her swordplay. Adding unavoidable counterdamage made every attack painful.

Dawn Cicada soon fell behind.

486 to 427.

She suddenly asked, "Do you know my divine talent word?"

Rita snorted.

"Do people really have to open their hearts in the middle of a fight? If I don’t say it, will you just not use it? Fine. Then I’m definitely not saying it."

Dawn Cicada said nothing.

A few silent flowers burst open along her Vine.

Rita sighed.

"Not Flower Soil, right?"

Otherwise she would not have asked.

The tension in Dawn Cicada’s expression eased slightly.

Then she spoke in a strangely distant tone.

"Beacon. The word I found... is Beacon."

The word she hated most.

The world she hated most.

Yet the skill she awakened when she reached the peak of her life was called Beacon Cicada.

And the divine talent word she resonated with most was Beacon.

Red brilliance lit up in the sky.

Every fragment of light took the shape of a flower that existed only in Beacon.

When Beacon activated, she could borrow the ability of any flower she knew.

The flowers filled the sky for only five seconds.

But that was enough.

Before Beacon faded again, one Vine flickered.

Then Rita realized something.

Her Absurd Story had been stolen.

Only when the guaranteed damage reflection turned against her did she fully realize how disgusting it was.

Rita groaned.

"Building your happiness on Beacon’s suffering. Are you sure that’s appropriate?"

"You don’t need to provoke me," Dawn Cicada replied with a smile. "Right now my happiness clearly comes from your suffering."

Rita summoned a massive surge of seawater.

Then amid the roar of waves she activated Pirate Entrance and snatched Absurd Story back.

Dawn Cicada’s face turned dark.

Rita immediately resumed attacking.

Less than ten minutes later, Dawn Cicada lost.

Congratulations. Player BS Rita wins.

Of course Rita did not execute the Vineborne.

Nor did she force Dawn Cicada and the Vineborne to join BS.

BS had already escaped the danger of invasion. She did not need them.

Light fell over Dawn Cicada and restored her.

The two walked back toward the stands, still arguing. Dawn Cicada spent the entire walk complaining about how disgusting Rita’s fighting style was.

On the stands, Mistblade tapped the tip of her blood mist blade against the ground.

Her fingers drummed lightly on the hilt.

Maple Syrup noticed and asked casually, "In a hurry?"

Mistblade did not deny it.

"Yes. I just don’t know how many matches are left before I fight her."

Maple Syrup paused.

Rita and Dawn Cicada returned to the stands. New matchups flashed across the arena.

One fight after another.

Prayer versus Cinders.

Queque versus Cicada.

Cicada versus Lightchaser.

Rita versus NightFury.

Each time the moon icon and that ridiculous stick figure appeared above the arena, Mistblade’s grip tightened.

If the opponent was not the fox tail, she impatiently tapped the hilt.

Maple Syrup kept watching that hand from the corner of her eye.

Finally, the fox tail and stick figure appeared together.

Mistblade did not even want to wait for the teleport.

She stepped forward, ready to jump down.

But before she could move, a hand grabbed her wrist.

Maple Syrup’s cold voice echoed across the stands.

"You aimed for a draw with me earlier. Not just because I was the only one here who might execute the Moon Foxes, and the only one who could help you awaken Prisoner."

She tightened her grip slightly.

"But also because even if something went wrong, losing to me was still within the range you could accept. Right?"