Chapter 220: 12th Week Duel Battle Part 3

When the match was set and Kim Ho’s name appeared on the scoreboard, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a silent scream.

Huwaaa!

…But when she took a closer look, she realized that she and Kim Ho were on the same team.

She had been through so much at his hands before that just seeing the name “Kim Ho” had instinctively filled her with fear.

Once she understood they were on the same side, the feeling that washed over her was a strange excitement.

It was like receiving an unexpected gift.

In the previous three-way duel battle at the volcanic zone, she had suffered through absurd and unfair pairings.

One round was against the monster Kim Ho, and the next was against Seo Ye-in, a monster trained by none other than Kim Ho.

The result of finishing second in both matches? A mere 11 points.

When she thought about how she had pushed herself to the limit, it felt like an empty achievement.

But this time…!

That monster Kim Ho was on her side.

Even just seeing his name on the scoreboard filled her with a sense of reassurance.

Hong Yeon-hwa scanned the crowd of waiting students and immediately spotted Kim Ho.

He didn’t look particularly special, so why was it that he stood out so much?

Perhaps he felt her gaze as he turned to look her way.

“……”

Maybe it was because they were playing this match together,

But somehow, it didn’t feel as scary as before.

The two exchanged brief greetings, and Kim Ho gestured toward the arena with his eyes.

“Let’s go in.”

“Mhmm.”

Hong Yeon-hwa followed closely behind Kim Ho as he led the way.

As soon as they stepped onto the teleportation magic circle, their surroundings shifted in an instant, and the next moment, they were standing on a wide cloud platform high up in the endless sky.

Similar platforms were floating at a certain distance everywhere in their field of vision, and Hong Yeon Hwa glanced down to see what was below.

I absolutely can’t fall. No matter what.

She repeated the thought firmly in her mind.

Next, she checked the opposing team, who had appeared on the opposite side.

From Hong Yeon-hwa’s perspective, she didn’t know Choi Jeong-pil at all, and she had only briefly seen Son Hyeong-taek’s face during the 4-on-4 mentoring match.

Still, she could confirm that the former was a dual-axe warrior and the latter a martial artist. At least she knew that much.

This is starting off well.

Not only was she lucky to be teamed up with the monster Kim Ho, but both opponents were close-range classes.

Considering the terrain favored long-range combat, they were already starting off with an advantage.

But… do they know each other?

Just as Hong Yeon-hwa suspected, the other three had met before.

In a bad way.

As soon as Son Hyeong-taek and Choi Jeong-pil saw Kim Ho’s face, they both grimaced at the same time.

Then, after checking each other’s expressions, they spoke at the same time.

“Did he get you too?”

“You too?”

Wind magic victims A and B.

Especially Choi Jeong-pil, who had just been humiliated by Kim Ho in the previous match.

His direct opponent had been Cha Hyeon-ju, but since Kim Ho had interfered at the crucial moment, his anger toward Kim Ho was far greater than toward Cha Hyeon-ju.

Choi Jeong-pil gritted his teeth.

“…No matter what it takes, I’m going to make sure that guy is eliminated.”

“We want the same thing. But you should be careful. That guy’s wind magic is no joke.”

“I know that.”

Kim Ho used tactics that either pushed his opponents from various angles or trapped them in place with whirlwinds.

And his timing was annoyingly perfect.

On terrain like this, with unstable footing, they’d have to be even more cautious.

Still locking his gaze on Kim Ho, Son Hyeong-taek made a suggestion.

“So how about we take him out as soon as the match starts?”

“Focus all our attacks on Kim Ho?”

“Yeah. You’ve got at least one ranged attack up your sleeve, right?”

It was true that Son Hyeong-taek had his wind fists, and Choi Jeong-pil had the option of throwing his hand axes.

But then Choi Jeong-pil thought of another problem.

“What about Hong Yeon-hwa?”

“……”

A promising student that anyone at the Dragon Slayer Academy would know.

Would she really just stand by and watch while they focused their attacks on Kim Ho, her own teammate?

Even if they were lucky enough to take him down, by then she would have prepared all sorts of magic to meet them head-on.

However, in the next moment, the two of them exchanged a glance and came to a silent agreement.

“…We’ll deal with that later.”

“…Yeah.”

Even if they lost the match, they still wanted to land at least one blow on that annoying guy.

Kim Ho calmly watched as the two opponents’ faces twisted, relaxed, whispered to each other, and then twisted again.

Then, he suddenly threw a question at Hong Yeon-hwa.

“What do you want to do?”

“Huh, uh…? Strategy…?”

Kim Ho gave a slight nod of his chin.

Just like during the mentoring match, he was signaling that he would follow her lead.

In that case, what would be the best approach in this environment?

After a brief moment of consideration, Hong Yeon-hwa cautiously explained her strategy.

After listening to her plan, Kim Ho responded.

“So you’re saying I need to buy us time. A two-on-one.”

“Well, it’s not that you need to stall for too long… maybe…?”

Hong Yeon-hwa felt a bit uneasy about having her teammate face a two-on-one situation, but Kim Ho unexpectedly agreed without hesitation.

“Okay.”

Soon, the countdown began.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Start!]

[Kim Ho 100%, Hong Yeon-hwa 100%]

vs

[Choi Jeong-pil 100%, Son Hyeong-taek 100%]

Thud!

Choi Jeong-pil and Son Hyeong-taek immediately launched themselves forward and charged toward them.

Hong Yeon-hwa cast her fire magic and absorbed it with Overheat.

She could clearly feel her physical abilities being enhanced and there was a noticeable improvement because her skill’s rank had recently risen to C through training.

The next step in her plan was to jump to the highest point and secure her position.

But then,

Whooosh—!

A fierce wind gathered and compressed in Kim Ho’s hand.

“I’ll throw you.”

“Me, me…?”

“You said you’re going up. This would be faster, right?”

“That’s true… but…?”

“Don’t like it?”

Kim Ho’s eyes flashed.

To Hong Yeon-hwa, it seemed as if his words carried a deeper meaning.

– After explaining the whole strategy to me …

– You don’t actually want to go up quickly?

– Were you not planning to take this seriously from the start?

– Then I guess I’ll have to throw you down instead!

Hong Yeon-hwa’s face turned pale.

Her only options were up or down.

Forcing the corners of her trembling lips into a smile, she managed to respond.

“Th-That definitely seems faster! Go ahead, th-throw me…?”

At that, Kim Ho lightly grabbed her arm and launched her upward with a push.

Hong Yeon-hwa felt her body gently float into the air.

Huh, this isn’t so…

Just as she thought it wasn’t so scary—

Boom!

—compressed air exploded behind her, rocketing her body upward like a missile.

“Aaaaah—! Ack!”

She slammed into a cloud platform above her.

Fortunately, the platform was quite soft, almost like it was really made of clouds.

Hong Yeon-hwa sat up and rubbed her nose.

When she looked down, she saw that Kim Ho wasn’t even checking to see how she was doing. He was simply staring straight ahead.

Meanwhile, Choi Jeong-pil and Son Hyeong-taek were steadily closing the distance toward him.

This isn’t the time to be sitting around.

Hong Yeon-hwa calmed herself and began chanting her spell.

The ruby embedded in her wand flashed a vivid red.

[Blazing Armor]

Fwoosh,

Flames rose from beneath her feet and they formed armor that enveloped her.

This was the second defensive spell she had mastered after the Reverse Curtain, the Blazing Armor.

Its defense was similar to other armor-type spells, but Blazing Armor had an advantage. It boosted the effect of any fire-type magic cast connected to it.

Although the spell had a long casting time, that was of no concern to Hong Yeon-hwa.

She smoothly connected her spells one after another.

A dome of flames surrounded her.

And on each cloud platform floating around, a magic circle appeared.

In addition, she prepared ranged spells like fire arrows, ready to be launched at any moment.

When she looked down again, Kim Ho was still running and trying to evade the pursuit of the opposing team.

He leaped across the platforms like they were stepping stones, and dodged the incoming fists of wind and hand axes with slight shifts of his body.

“Hurry up, will you? Why are you moving so slowly?”

“You punk!”

Occasionally, they exchanged rough words with each other, but in some way, it almost seemed like they were having fun.

…Are they actually friends?

Thanks to the time Kim Ho had bought for her, Hong Yeon-hwa was able to complete all her preparations.

She began to fully engage in the battlefield.

A fire arrow left her hand and shot forward,

Boom!

It hit the platform Son Hyeong-taek was about to land on.

The cloud was instantly consumed by the flames and scattered into the air as if it were made of cotton.

Son Hyeong-taek and Choi Jeong-pil froze the moment they saw this.

“This won’t work at this rate.”

“…Seems that way.”

Their original plan was to focus their attacks and take down Kim Ho first, but that slippery guy was far more agile than expected.

Not a single attack had landed on him and he was so good at dodging that they couldn’t close the distance at all.

And now, Hong Yeon-hwa had started supporting him with long-range attacks.

It was clear their strategy had to change.

“We’ll take down Hong Yeon-hwa first.”

The two turned and leaped upward,

They started heading for the cloud platforms closer to Hong Yeon-hwa.

“Hmph.”

Hong Yeon-hwa gazed at them with cold eyes.

In a normal situation, she might have felt a bit nervous about facing a sudden two-on-one scenario, but not this time.

She had already made all the necessary preparations.

With a small gesture of her wand, the magic circles she had etched into the cloud platforms glowed red.

Just as Son Hyeong-taek landed on one of the platforms,

Whoooooooooosh!

A pillar of fire erupted.

“What the—?!”

Son Hyeong-taek instinctively kicked off the cloud and flung himself backward, managing to return to the previous platform in time.

Choi Jeong-pil, however, wasn’t as quick to react.

The moment he touched the cloud platform, a pillar of fire shot up and engulfed him.

Boooom—!

“Aaaargh!”

Choi Jeong-pil flailed desperately as the flames swallowed him whole.

However, his pain didn’t last long, as the cloud platform also burned and scattered.

Choi Jeong-pil plummeted below and soon turned into a small dot before disappearing completely.

[Choi Jeong-pil – %]

“Damn…!”

Only then did Son Hyeong-taek carefully survey his surroundings and realize that the platforms etched with magic circles outnumbered the ones without.

He had stepped right into the mage’s domain without even knowing it.

Whoosh!

Fire arrows shot toward him as if they didn’t intend to give him any time to rest.

They targeted both him and the cloud platforms at the same time.

In other words, even if he dodged, the platform would burn and disappear.

The only thing he could do was keep moving.

As he landed on the next platform, a pillar of fire erupted right beneath him.

In a panic, he blindly leaped to the next visible platform.

While doing so, he sent a wind fist flying as a counter attack,

Bang!

But the wind fist couldn’t even penetrate the barrier.

Hong Yeon-hwa fired her fire arrows without so much as a flinch.

Damn it…!

He had completely fallen into her pace.

For now, all he could do was frantically leap around every time Hong Yeon-hwa moved her hand.

Then, the continuous flow of her fire magic abruptly stopped.

Son Hyeong-taek felt something was off, stopped in his tracks, and stared at her.

At first, he thought Hong Yeon-hwa was looking at him, but soon realized that wasn’t the case.

Her gaze was slightly off to the side.

And when he turned his head in that direction…

“Welcome back.”

“Kim—!”

Boom!

Compressed air exploded, sending Son Hyeong-taek’s body hurtling downward at great speed.

“Hwoooaaaah—!”

[Son Hyeong-taek – %]

Hong Yeon-hwa’s strategy was for Kim Ho to buy time while she secured control of the platforms.

The plan had worked almost perfectly and allowed them to get rid of Choi Jeong-pil with relative ease.

Though the final part deviated slightly from the original plan, as Son Hyeong-taek frantically evaded the fire arrows and pillars of flame, Kim Ho closed in and knocked him down.

“……”

Kim Ho glanced at Hong Yeon-hwa and gave her a slight nod of his chin.

Though they were quite far apart, Hong Yeon-hwa felt like she knew exactly what he had said.

– Well done.

A bright smile spread across Hong Yeon-hwa’s face.

***

Hong Yeon-hwa moved outside the arena.

She quickly glanced around and soon spotted Kim Ho.

He was scanning his student ID at the terminal and got ready to queue for the next match.

Should I… do it too?

She hesitated for a moment.

What if she queued up after him and ended up facing Kim Ho as her opponent?

Wouldn’t all the points she had worked so hard to earn be reset?

…No, I’ll do it.

She couldn’t quite explain why, but today felt like a day where things would go her way.

It wouldn’t be like the forced matchups from the last duel battle week.

With that baseless confidence, Hong Yeon-hwa scanned her student ID.

Her heart began to race, and she had to hold her chest to calm herself down.

It’s not, right? It won’t happen, right?

Was she being reckless?

Should she cancel while she still could?

But what about her pride?

Would pride protect her points?

A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind.

And finally, when the match was set, Hong Yeon-hwa’s face brightened again.

[Kim Ho 710 points, Hong Yeon-hwa 741 points]

Yes!

She had ended up on the same team as the monster Kim Ho for two consecutive matches!

Today was definitely her lucky day.

However.

When she checked the names of the two students on the opposing team, she couldn’t help but be taken aback.

…Huh?

[Go Hyeon-woo 803 points, Seo Ye-in 761 points]

Hong Yeon-hwa cautiously shifted her eyes to gauge Kim Ho’s reaction.

The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward and his face became more and more sinister.

Hong Yeon-hwa shuddered.