The ruby glowed red, and a magic circle formed.
Even though hardly any words had been exchanged, Hong Yeon-hwa abruptly began chanting a spell, leaving the Sapphire Tower trio with dumbfounded expressions.
However, realizing they couldn’t just stand by, they began preparing for battle in their own ways.
Thud!
A subspace opened, and a huge ice golem dropped down, rising to its feet from a crouched position.
It took position behind the Sapphire trio, holding a longbow as tall as itself.
Another man threw off his robe, revealing a muscular upper body.
Instead of a staff, he wore gauntlets embedded with sapphires on both hands.
As for the charred witch, perhaps having lost her main golem in the previous battle, she seemed to have taken on the role of stacking buffs on her allies.
Meanwhile, in that short moment, Hong Yeon-hwa had already completed a triple set of defensive spells.
[Reverse Curtain]
[Blazing Armor]
[Blaze Shield]
Fwoooosh,
Layers of flame wrapped around her, and a burning shield floated midair, blazing intensely.
Not only did it enhance her defenses, but it also amplified the power of her fire magic.
Without pause, Hong Yeon-hwa began casting her next spell.
Raising one hand above her head, flames gathered into a sphere.
It was Flame Orb, a spell she had used dozens of times in this dungeon.
Just a greeting and a probing attack.
Facing three opponents with clearly different fighting styles, she was likely planning to test their responses before deciding her next move.
Fwoooosh,
As the fireball grew with terrifying intensity, the Sapphire trio’s eyes widened.
“What kind of casting speed is that…?!”
“I told you so!”
The charred witch shouted in frustration.
She must have been scolded for losing to a rookie from the Ruby Tower.
A moment of internal conflict seemed to arise, but it quickly passed, and the three resumed chanting spells to face their common enemy.
The muscular man raised both arms above his head as if in a cheer and spread his palms.
Snowballs began to form in each hand, growing larger in size. Once they were complete, he clapped them together.
Watching this, Seo Ye-in made a brief comment.
“Snowman.”
“Yeah, it’s a snowman.”
Anyone watching might have thought they were messing around, but the man’s expression was dead serious.
“Hup!”
With all his might, he hurled the huge snowman.
At the same time, the other mage controlled the ice golem, nocking an ice arrow onto its bowstring.
The arrow was so large and thick due to the golem’s size that it was nearly as big as a spear.
Once the charred witch finished layering her buffs, the arrow was fired.
The fireball, the snowman, and the enhanced ice arrow collided midair—
Kaboooooom!
A shockwave erupted, canceling everything out.
The power levels were evenly matched.
Looks like fireballs won’t be doing much for a while.
They were bound to get intercepted like this every time.
Next, Hong Yeon-hwa swept her staff in a wide arc.
Red magic circles etched themselves into the ground, and pillars of flame erupted one by one.
Whooooooooosh!
From within them, snakes of fire with multiple heads flicked their tongues.
Hong Yeon-hwa’s signature combo: Fire Pillar and Hydra.
The creatures’ mouths bulged before spitting out over a dozen fireballs.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
In response, the muscular man tore the snowman keychain from his waist and threw it forward.
The tiny keychain transformed into over a dozen small snowmen, forming a wall.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Though they melted away instantly under the barrage of fireballs, they had served their purpose of buying the Sapphire trio enough time.
An ice arrow pierced one of the hydras and exploded on impact.
Screeech—! Boom—!
Another hydra was crushed beneath the snowmen thrown by the muscular man.
“……”
Even after losing all her summoned hydras the moment she brought them out, Hong Yeon-hwa didn’t falter and continued casting without hesitation.
Whooooooosh!
Her mindset was simple: just summon more.
The Sapphire mages also responded swiftly, neutralizing each hydra as it appeared.
Occasionally, when Hong Yeon-hwa hurled a fire arrow or fireball, they intercepted it midair, just like before.
Booooom—!
A fierce back-and-forth unfolded for a while.
Neither side seemed to give an inch.
That’s how it looks on the surface, anyway.
In truth, Hong Yeon-hwa had the upper hand.
She wasn’t even outputting at full power, nor was she using any of her strongest spells.
She was simply cycling through a handful of her usual go-to spells.
In contrast, the Sapphire trio were using every trick in the book. They were maximizing their strengths and taking turns to play their best cards.
They can’t keep that up forever.
Items have limited uses, and powerful skills and traits come with cooldowns.
For example, the muscular man no longer had any snowman keychains at his waist.
If the battle dragged on, the rest of their tools would start running out too.
But waiting for that moment wasn’t necessarily the best choice either.
Hong Yeon-hwa doesn’t have infinite mana, after all.
Since entering the dungeon, she had been fighting almost non-stop, so she probably didn’t have much mana left.
Saving enough for the boss fight would be the smart move.
By now, she should’ve gained quite a bit of rank increase.
The evenly matched battle up to this point had been entirely for the sake of Aqua Flame’s rank progression.
Thanks to that, she was likely very close to her goal: B rank.
Fighting the boss should push her over the line.
With that in mind, I decided to step in at this point.
“Hong Yeon-hwa.”
“Mhmm…?”
“Let’s wrap this up. Use Flame Orb…a big one.”
“Mhmm!”
Although her Flame Orbs had been intercepted time and time again, Hong Yeon-hwa raised her hand without a word of protest.
Whoooosh—
The ball of fire rapidly began to grow in size.
In response, the Old Sapphire mages readied snowmen and ice arrows to shoot it down.
Watching them, I turned to Seo Ye-in and spoke.
“It’s time for a surprise special lecture.”
“Star instructor Kim Ho.”
“You remember what I said about the timing of Spatial Fold? That when you use it is what really matters.”
“I remember.”
“Let me show you why.”
Moving from 4 to 6, or from 8 to 10…what’s the difference?
Either way, you’re shaving off 2 units of movement distance.
But that’s not all there is to it.
The movement reduction is certainly a powerful effect, but on its own, it’s not quite enough to be called “endgame-tier”.
The real value of Spatial Fold lies elsewhere.
I intended to demonstrate that with this next move.
Soon, the fireball that was now the size of a person left Hong Yeon-hwa’s hand, and the large snowmen and enhanced ice arrows were fired.
Just as the projectiles arced through the air, about to collide—
[Spatial Fold]
The fireball vanished in a flash only to reappear right above the heads of the Sapphire trio.
The charred witch’s mouth opened slightly,
“Wha—”
Boom—!
She didn’t even get the chance to finish her sentence before the explosion engulfed them.
Meanwhile, the snowmen and ice arrows had completely missed, cutting through empty air.
I exchanged a glance with Seo Ye-in.
“With the right timing, you can pull off stuff like this.”
“Timing…!”
Her gray pupils widened slightly.
Just like Blink allows you to bypass obstacles, Spatial Fold does the same.
It lets you ignore the enemy’s defenses and land a direct hit.
Whoooosh!
The match was decided with a single effective blow.
The area was engulfed in flames, making it nearly impossible to form new snowmen, and the ice golem was already half-melted.
There was no way for them to continue the fight.
“Guh…”
“To think… twice now…”
In the end, all the trio could do was swallow their frustration and retreat.
***
The trump card that the Sapphire Magic Tower had prepared so confidently was now in ruins.
At last, we reached the core of the mobile fortress: the main power core.
The space was nearly as large as an auditorium, packed with all sorts of machines.
In one corner sat a huge water tank. So huge that the tanks we saw in the auxiliary power cores looked tiny by comparison.
Even the turtle inside was nearly dinosaur-sized.
However, the entire tank was frozen solid, and the turtle could do nothing but blink its eyes, unable to move an inch.
A middle-aged man in a navy suit stood watching the scene. Then, sensing our presence, he slowly turned around.
“Do you have any idea how much effort I put into this plan?”
I exchanged a glance with Seo Ye-in and answered in turn.
“We don’t really need to know, right?”
“Don’t care.”
The middle-aged man’s forehead twitched.
“…Three years. A full three years. And you brats turned it all to nothing.”
“You should’ve done a better job, then. Honestly, if it had been five or ten years, you might’ve pulled it off.”
The dungeon rank might’ve even been B or A.
Another vein bulged on the man’s forehead.
“So bold, after interfering in someone else’s affairs.”
“You keep acting like the victim, but you’re the one who broke into someone else’s place, aren’t you?”
Seo Ye-in chimed in again.
“A bad intruder.”
The veins on his forehead swelled even more. Then, all at once, his expression went blank, as if it had never happened.
He must’ve decided it was all pointless.
“Enough. What use is there in trying to explain? Even if you understood, we’ve come too far.”
With that, he reached into his coat and pulled out a water bottle.
When he uncapped it and tilted it toward the ground, what looked like an ordinary bottle began to pour out water in a torrent.
Instead of spreading outward, the water gathered in one spot, taking on a humanoid form. It was the water spirit Undine.
“…At this point, I’ll at least make you pay the price. With everything I have.”
Spreading his arms wide, the middle-aged man began to chant softly.
His body gradually broke down, turning into ice.
Crackle.
Then Undine wrapped its entire body around him and absorbed him whole.
He transformed into a being made of both water and ice.
He offered himself as a sacrifice.
Perhaps in honor of its master’s final wish, the spirit now glared at us with unmistakable hostility.
Facing the spirit, I said to Hong Yeon-hwa,
“We’ll just support for now.”
“Mhmm, that sounds good.”
She nodded and began casting.
In response, Undine glided forward with a fluid motion before stretching out one hand.
An all-rounder type.
While the spirit was confident in any form of combat, it seemed to judge that close quarters would be the most effective approach against a battery-type opponent.
But the one who responded in close combat wasn’t Hong Yeon-hwa…it was me.
A hand imbued with freezing energy clashed with one packed with compressed wind.
Boom!
In the next moment, Undine was pushed back like the receding tide, and from the spot it had just occupied, a pillar of flame erupted.
Whooooooooosh—!
When a Hydra was summoned right after, Undine surged forward again like a rising tide.
It created waves that swept the Hydra away.
But by then, Hong Yeon-hwa had already finished casting her next spell.
Her staff unleashed fire like a flamethrower.
Whooooooooosh—!
Undine pulled back once more like the ebbing tide, only to return with another crashing wave.
The spirit repeated this cycle of retreating and advancing, but it wasn’t random.
Advance and retreat in turns.
A trait of the water element….each cycle of back-and-forth doubles the power of its skills.
Whoooooooooooooosh—!
A wave even larger than before came crashing down on us.
Hong Yeon-hwa countered with fire magic.
But signs of strain were beginning to show.
Sensing this, Undine grew bolder and continued its assault with renewed fervor.
The spirit pulled back, then surged in again with a snowstorm.
Whoooooooooooooosh—!
Just then, Hong Yeon-hwa who had been frowning in effort suddenly opened her eyes wide with a spark.
“……!”
“It’s gone up.”
“Mhmm.”
[The rank of ‘Aqua Flame’ has been increased. (C → B)]
Whoooooooooooooooosh—!
The flames roared forth, pushing back the blizzard with overwhelming force.
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