This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1240 Divine Game: Divine Instruction 54

The clock hand beside the elf’s ear stopped moving. The ticking above the clock arena vanished. Only the golden second hand beneath their feet inside the deep blue arena continued turning stubbornly.

During the first minute of Lightchaser’s silent contemplation, Rita waited patiently.

During the second minute, Rita frowned up at the sky, tapping the ground lightly with the tip of her foot.

During the third minute, Rita clasped her hands behind her back and paced in a small circle. She began to suspect Lightchaser might be messing with her. But then again, this was Lightchaser. Surely she would not stoop to that.

During the fourth minute, Rita noticed that Unchanged Fate was about to expire. She leaned forward slightly and whispered in the smallest possible voice.

"Lightchaser. Wake up. It’s morning."

The only response was silence.

Maybe Lightchaser really was in the middle of some breakthrough.

After all, realizing that the word you believed summarized your entire life suddenly no longer applied would shake anyone.

Rita’s expression turned serious and she quieted again.

She did want to win. Of course she did.

But compared to Lightchaser rediscovering her divine talent word, the outcome of a single match suddenly felt less important.

Besides, only if Lightchaser successfully reignited her divine talent and used it on Rita could Wildfire Reignite trigger its second phase.

Five minutes passed.

Unchanged Fate ended.

Rita let out a silent sigh with her hands still behind her back.

At that exact moment, Lightchaser opened her eyes.

The elf rubbed the corner of her eye and complained.

"Why didn’t you wake me up?"

Rita stared at her.

"...You’ve got to be kidding."

Lightchaser twirled the dagger between her fingers in a neat flourish and smiled.

"Student, today’s lesson. Never let what you think you know about someone influence how you fight them."

Rita was still processing the shock of Lightchaser pulling such a childish trick.

"Whoever you are," she said slowly, "please climb down from Lightchaser’s body."

Lightchaser barked out a laugh.

Teasing her student clearly put her in a good mood.

"Let’s continue."

The elf rushed forward with her dagger.

Time began spinning rapidly again beside her ear. Lightchaser reentered her accelerated state.

Rita retreated quickly.

With a flick of her right hand, the white petal dagger shot into the sky and exploded into a rain of flowers.

Flower Crown Murder.

Threads of lightning stretched between the falling petals.

In the blink of an eye, a dense web of lightning filled the entire clock arena. Crackling arcs of electricity formed a glowing net, trapping both Lightchaser and Rita inside.

After the Funeral.

Lightchaser halted instantly, but her earlier momentum had been too fast. Most of her body collided with the delicate lightning web.

Dozens of brilliant golden strands wrapped around the elf at once. Each strand connected two white petals.

Strangle and drain.

Her health dropped rapidly by dozens of points.

A frost ring exploded outward.

The lightning net did not move.

Lightchaser stopped resisting. She vanished.

One moment she was tangled in the web.

The next she was gone from the arena entirely.

Rita let her arms hang loosely at her sides, standing quietly inside the lightning net as she waited for the ambush she knew was coming.

She listened to every sound around her and spoke softly.

"Back in Binast, I was the one who hid in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to strike."

"You were always impatient. But during training matches you could stand there forever without getting annoyed."

"Waiting for your opponent to make the first move felt like something only the strong had the right to do."

"Every time I saw you standing there calmly waiting for me to attack, I thought that someday I’d become stronger than you."

"And then I’d be the one standing still, waiting for your attack to come."

Her voice echoed faintly across the arena.

There were still plenty of spectators on the stands.

But Rita could not stop the emotions rising in her chest.

She had flipped countless coins just to revisit those memories. To see Binast again. To see Nivalis and B80 again.

No matter how many times she replayed them, they never got old.

"One time I was taking a class in Trash Street. You stepped out for a while."

"The teacher asked me if I was working so hard because I had some grand dream."

"I told him my dream was to defeat Lightchaser."

"He told me to pick another one. Said that dream was too common and had basically zero chance of success."

"At the time I didn’t understand what he meant."

"Later I found out that one of his students had been in the same class as you."

"During those years every student’s dream somehow involved you."

Rita flexed her fingers.

Lightning and petals reformed into two swords in her hands.

"Teachers in Trash Street loved asking young people about their dreams."

"Later someone asked me again."

"So I gave a less popular answer."

"I said I wanted to recreate the Lightchaser moment."

"They still frowned."

"So I told them my previous dream had been defeating Lightchaser."

"And after that, the conversation usually ended."

"In the eyes of people who knew you, beating you sounded even more unrealistic than recreating the Lightchaser moment."

"In fact, even after I beat you on Cat’s Ideal, it didn’t feel like my dream had come true."

"Because I knew one loss would never stop you."

A golden sword crossed paths with a dagger shaped like a clock hand beside Rita’s ear.

Lightchaser’s voice appeared behind her.

"So you finally decided to use swords?"

"You found your divine talent word, didn’t you?" Rita said firmly.

Lightchaser might skip a fight if both sides were effectively wasting time due to special conditions.

But she would say it directly.

She would not pretend to sleep.

She had definitely realized something.

So why had she not activated it?

Sword and dagger clashed nearly a hundred times in seconds.

Lightchaser’s speed was terrifying.

Rita could only block by predicting her attack paths ahead of time.

She looked hurried and messy.

But every single strike was stopped.

Every collision rang out with thunder and the echo of a ticking clock.

Rita had already adapted to the rhythm of Lightchaser’s attacks.

Lightchaser was a genius.

But so was she.

Only the golden sword remained in Rita’s hand now.

Flower Crown Murder had completely dispersed, petals floating around her.

Whenever an attack slipped past her guard, nearby petals would whip over like they were caught in a sudden gust and deflect the strike.

Defensive combat skill.

Crown of Flowers.

Lightchaser did not deny Rita’s guess.

Instead she smiled with interest.

"So what do you think my divine talent word is?"

"Lightchaser," Rita answered without hesitation.

Nothing else summarized her life better than her own name.

Just like Lynx Duke had named the final fairy tale of his life after himself.

Lightchaser’s divine talent word should be herself.

Whenever Rita walked into Trash Street and people spoke about Lightchaser, their voices carried a focus they did not even realize they had.

Lightchaser represented an entire era.

Love her or hate her, no one who had heard her name could ever forget it.

"Yes. There’s no other choice besides my name."

Lightchaser’s dagger spun faster and faster as she spoke lightly.

"Then why don’t you use it?" Rita asked.

"Because I’m waiting for your divine talent word."

Lightchaser’s voice carried a teasing smile.

"Waiting is a privilege reserved for the strong."