Even as she was struck by the sudden wind force and sent flying, Cha Hyeon-joo remained calm.
Quickly, she switched out her arrow and fired it.
Whoosh!
The arrow had a hook instead of a tip and a rope attached to its end.
As soon as the hook caught onto a cloud, she grabbed the rope and began climbing up.
She’s definitely a promising student.
Seeing how she easily escaped a situation that would have trapped most people made it clear.
Of course, I wasn’t just going to stand by and watch.
The moment Cha Hyeon-joo finally reached the cloud—
Boom!
Compressed air exploded once again, forcefully pushing her away.
It was a wind force I had prepared from the moment her hooked arrow latched onto the cloud.
“Ugh…!”
Only then did a sense of danger appear on Cha Hyeon-joo’s face.
As she flew through the air, she frantically scanned her surroundings and spotted a floating cloud platform nearby.
Desperately, she stretched out her hand clung to the cloud, and tried to climb up.
“Peekaboo.”
“……!”
But I was already standing there and waiting for her.
I pressed my foot firmly on Cha Hyeon-joo’s hand and spoke.
“I’ll give you one last choice. Do you want to fall, or fight with me?”
Cha Hyeon-joo had already boldly declared her intention to team-kill.
But rather than facing a 3-on-1, it would be better for me to get rid of her early and make it a 2-on-1.
However, if there was even the slightest chance to get the cooperation of a promising student like her, it was worth extending a final offer.
Handling it as a 2-on-2 would be much easier.
Or I could just send her flying right away.
Either way, I had nothing to lose.
Cha Hyeon-joo’s face twisted with anger and humiliation.
Ignoring her reaction, I began the countdown.
“Five, four, three…”
Whoosh—
At the same time, wind gathered and compressed in my hand.
A clear sign that I was ready to send her skydiving whenever I wanted.
Seeing this, Cha Hyeon-joo’s face twitched slightly and she turned her head away before muttering in a low voice.
“…I’ll fight.”
“The wind’s pretty loud up here. I can’t hear you.”
Whoosh—
The wind in my hand swirled even more fiercely.
Cha Hyeon-joo clenched her eyes shut and shouted.
“I’ll fight! I’ll fight with you!”
“Are you going all the way? No backstabbing?”
“Yes!”
No matter how much she resisted, she would helplessly fall down with just a wave of my hand.
It seemed she decided it was better to join forces for now. She would watch me fight before she made her next move.
Of course, she might still stab me in the back later.
Then I won’t hold back either.
I removed my foot from Cha Hyeon-joo’s hand.
She crawled up onto the platform and glared at me with a face full of frustration.
After meeting her gaze for a moment, I gestured to the side with my chin.
“Go.”
There stood Choi Jeong-pil, approaching us with twin axes in his hands.
My gesture held a clear meaning:
Take care of him.
Cha Hyeon-joo seemed to understand; her eyes narrowed as she glared at Choi Jeong-pil with a fierce intensity.
Then, like lightning, she nocked several arrows and fired them.
Whirrrr!
Each shot was filled with emotion, as if she had decided to unleash all the anger she had toward me on him.
“……!”
Caught off guard by the sudden barrage of arrows, Choi Jeong-pil stopped in his tracks and swung his axes at an incredible speed, deflecting most of them.
However, a few managed to graze his forearm and shoulder.
[Choi Jeong-pil: 100%]
[Choi Jeong-pil: 96%]
Choi Jeong-pil immediately prepared to counterattack.
His arm blurred for a moment, then the hand axe spun like a boomerang and went flying toward Cha Hyeon-joo.
She leaped back into the clouds to avoid the axe while continuing her barrage of arrows.
Whirrrr!
I’ll let them play for now.
I turned my attention to tracking the other one.
Jeong Soo-ji had started heading upward as soon as the match began. She likely judged that her combat abilities were relatively weak.
Despite moving first, the distance between us hadn’t grown much.
She needs to exercise.
The first reason was that her own physical capabilities weren’t particularly impressive.
I remembered she was terrible in close combat, and it seemed she still hadn’t fixed that weakness.
Another critical reason was that the distance between platforms was quite far.
If she missed a jump and didn’t reach the next platform, she’d fall straight down, so each leap required her full concentration.
Guess I’ll go after her.
Whoosh—
I kicked off the clouds lightly and created an updraft with Wind Force as I ascended.
I felt my body lift into the air as my vision blurred past, and I quickly reached the next cloud platform.
I kept leaping upward in the same way.
Jeong Soo-ji’s jumping method involved carefully positioning herself, gathering all her strength, and then jumping with everything she had only to stop at the next platform and repeat the process. On the other hand, I lightly hopped from platform to platform as if stepping on stones.
Naturally, the distance between us closed quickly.
“……!”
Jeong Soo-ji who saw me closing in grew flustered.
She tried to send earthen bullets my way in an attempt to hold me off.
However, since she wasn’t using the ground as a base, their power was much weaker.
This much, I can handle.
Whoosh—
A gust of wind wrapped around me and formed a thin barrier.
I just cast the E+-rank Wind Barrier.
Moreover, although I had held back during training, the advantage of wind magic was its ability to combine multiple spells.
The wind swirled with physical force.
As a result, each earthen bullet crumbled into dust the moment it touched the barrier and scattered away.
I didn’t stop jumping as I maintained the barrier, and finally, I managed to catch up to Jeong Soo-ji.
In her panic, she leaped to a higher cloud in an attempt to escape.
“……!”
Whoooosh—
A headwind blew down from above, pressing Jeong Soo-ji downward.
Her upward momentum suddenly slowed.
“Wh-What, wh-whoooa—?”
She flailed her arms and legs as she plummeted.
Fortunately, there was a platform directly beneath her fall.
Jeong Soo-ji managed to land flat on it and let out a sigh of relief.
But it was too soon to relax.
I landed right behind her.
For a few seconds, we stood on the same platform while facing each other.
“Y-You…!”
That alone seemed to make her lose the will to fight.
She couldn’t defeat me even when it was two against one with Kwak Ji-cheol, so how could she stand a chance now?
Taking a step back, she hastily spoke.
“Wait a second! I’ll just forfeit—”
Boom—!
“Haaaah—!”
Jeong Soo-ji was shot straight down, quickly becoming a tiny dot before disappearing.
[Jeong Soo-ji – %]
One down.
I shifted my attention back to the two people I had left behind.
Looking at the scoreboard,
[Cha Hyeon-joo: 100%]
vs
[Choi Jeong-pil: 72%]
Choi Jeong-pil had been on the receiving end of a one-sided beating.
He wielded two axes and fought an archer at a distance. The outcome was already decided.
On top of that, wasn’t this archer considered a promising student?
Whoosh!
Choi Jeong-pil threw his two hand axes like boomerangs. He then retrieved them as he continued to pursue Cha Hyeon-joo.
But since Cha Hyeon-joo kept leaping backward, the distance between them never closed.
At the same time, she was firing arrows, slowly chipping away at Choi Jeong-pil’s health.
Even just standing by and watching, it was clear this fight would end in Cha Hyeon-joo’s victory.
However, I didn’t want to waste any more time just waiting, so I decided to step in.
This is a team game, after all.
I jumped over the cloud platforms and made my way to the battle.
When I was close enough, I planted myself firmly on a platform and cast wind magic.
[Earth Line]
[Twister]
[Wind Force]
Whooooosh—!
Wind blew in from all directions, forming a whirlwind that grasped Choi Jeong-pil’s body.
He suddenly found himself completely immobilized.
“What—?!”
Choi Jeong-pil’s face was filled with shock.
It wasn’t until he shifted his gaze to the side that he realized I had already intervened, but by then it was far too late.
Even at that moment, Cha Hyeon-joo’s barrage of arrows continued flying.
Thwack thwack thwack!
“Kraaah!!”
[Choi Jeong-pil: 68%]
[Choi Jeong-pil: 52%]
As Choi Jeong-pil took the full brunt of the arrows, he seemed to lose consciousness for a moment.
When his body went limp, I gave him a gentle push with Wind Force and he slipped off the cloud platform before plummeting below.
A defeat not just from the fight but from falling as well.
Soon, the scoreboard was updated.
[Kim Ho, Cha Hyeon-joo Win]
vs
[Jeong Soo-ji, Choi Jeong-pil Lose]
“……”
Despite the easy victory, Cha Hyeon-joo didn’t seem the least bit pleased.
It looked like she wasn’t happy about how closely she had followed my orders.
I opened my mouth to speak with a calm expression on my face,
“You did a good jo—”
Boom!
“—b. Now get lost.”
And I walked out, leaving behind Cha Hyeon-joo who was quickly flying away.
***
Not long after I stepped out of the arena, Cha Hyeon-joo followed behind.
Maybe it was because of that skydiving-like experience at the end, but she was glaring at me and breathing heavily.
I met her gaze and spoke with my eyes.
– So what?
We stared each other down for a moment, but eventually, Cha Hyeon-joo was the first to look away.
Still, she kept glancing over. She was definitely competitive.
I have to give her credit for her fighting spirit.
Cha Hyeon-joo’s strengths: skilled and highly competitive.
Weaknesses: everything else.
With that thought, I scanned my student ID on the terminal.
“……”
Cha Hyeon-joo, who had been sneaking glances at me, quickly scanned her own student ID as well.
She must be hoping we’ll be matched up again.
This time, preferably as opponents.
It’s definitely possible.
There are hundreds of first-year students at the Dragon Slayer Academy.
Of course, not all of them were participating in duel battles at this exact time.
Some might be prioritizing training or club activities and would postpone their duel battles to later in the week or weekend.
So right now, it was likely that less than half of the whole grade was up for matching.
Even within that smaller pool, when divided into score ranges like 300 points, 700 points, and 900 points, the number of participants in each bracket would only be a few dozen at most.
So, the odds of facing the same opponent in consecutive battles became fairly high.
“……!”
But soon, Cha Hyeon-joo checked the scoreboard and frowned.
It seemed, unfortunately, that she was matched with other students.
Grind,
She gave me one last look and gritted her teeth before stepping into the teleportation circle and disappearing.
We’ll probably meet again soon enough.
Since she mainly used a bow as her weapon, her score would continue to rise for a while, and that meant her score would stay more or less in line with mine as I climbed too.
After waiting a bit, I got matched as well.
First, I checked the two opponents:
[Choi Jeong-pil 695 points, Son Hyeong-taek 688 points]
Choi Jeong-pil, whom I had just faced in the previous match.
The other opponent was Son Hyeong-taek, whom I had faced in a duel battle at the volcanic zone.
My teammate was also someone very familiar.
I keep running into this one a lot.
While the odds made it possible, it felt like I encountered her especially often.
I wasn’t sure if that was good luck or bad.
Just then, I felt someone’s gaze and turned my head. Standing there was a bright red head of hair that always stood out.
[Kim Ho 675 points, Hong Yeon-hwa 718 points]
“……!”
Hong Yeon-hwa was looking at me with a bright face.
If she had a tail, it would probably be wagging furiously.
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