Grind, grind—
Cha Hyeon-joo glared at us while grinding her teeth.
“Y-You two, ganging up on me like this…….”
But even as she trembled with rage, she couldn’t bring herself to make a decision. Either choice was a one-way ticket to hell.
Song Cheon-hye and I took turns calling out to her.
“Hyeon-joo, this is no time to just stand there!”
“You’re an archer! You should avoid close combat!”
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to duke it out with us up close!”
“I don’t think that would be a good choice!”
But what if she tried to put some distance between us?
The more she moved, the more the concussion effect would kick in.
Eom Jeong-tae was caught in a similar dilemma.
We offered him some friendly advice too.
“Jeong-tae, you’re a melee class! What are you doing?”
“You need to protect the backline!”
“At this rate, Hyeon-joo’s gonna get taken out!”
“You need to hurry up and stop us!”
Surprisingly, Eom Jeong-tae didn’t hesitate for long before kicking off the ground.
“…….”
The more he chased after us, the greater his chances of getting concussed, but if he stayed put, Hyeon-joo would get taken out just like I said.
He must have decided it was better to take the risk than be left on his own.
“Tch.”
Cha Hyeon-joo clicked her tongue under her breath and activated a movement skill, drawing her bowstring as she backstepped.
Tutututung! Tututung!
Magic arrows came spraying toward us.
They became harder to dodge as the distance between us closed, but we kept advancing, threading our way through the trajectories of the incoming arrows.
All while keeping our mouths running.
“Hyeon-joo, you’d better pick up the pace!”
“We’re catching up!”
Cha Hyeon-joo’s face flushed bright red with veins bulging across her forehead.
But just as she tried to put even more speed into her backstep—
“……Ugh!”
She came to an abrupt stop, staggering as she struggled to keep her balance.
Looks like [Mark of Concussion] had finally kicked in.
I glanced back and saw that Eom Jeong-tae had slowed down dramatically as well.
Needless to say, there was no way we were going to let an opening this big slip by.
Song Cheon-hye swiftly closed the remaining distance and unleashed a burst of lightning magic.
Fzzzzzzt—!
Still, as a promising student, Cha Hyeon-joo apparently had no intention of going down that easily. Even as she staggered, she pulled out something resembling a piece of cloth and swung it.
Auxiliary armor.
[Cha Hyeon-joo 100%]
[Cha Hyeon-joo 97%]
It seemed to have absorbed a significant portion of the damage, since she hadn’t taken much despite getting hit point-blank.
That doesn’t mean it’s foolproof, though.
Judging by how she immediately put it away, there seemed to be some kind of usage restriction.
And Song Cheon-hye’s offensive was only just beginning.
Two hummingbirds flew in from different directions, striking Cha Hyeon-joo in the forearm and thigh.
Fzzzt!
She immediately removed the effects with a debuff-cleansing skill, but another wave of cold shot toward her and exploded.
[Frozen Spirit Shot]
Boom!
Meanwhile, I asked Song Cheon-hye,
“Think she can cleanse that or not?”
“I think she can.”
“Let’s see the answer!”
Fwoosh!
Cha Hyeon-joo immediately cast [Purification], but her upper body remained frozen solid.
That was because [Diamond Freeze] had made the effect impossible to remove.
I gave her a look of pity.
“Bzzt. Nope, she can’t.”
“What a shame. I got it wrong.”
Song Cheon-hye put on an equally regretful expression.
But there was an irrepressible smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
How could she not enjoy watching someone else suffer the same thing that had gotten her so worked up?
Meanwhile, Cha Hyeon-joo seemed to be getting angrier by the second in direct proportion to Song Cheon-hye’s enjoyment.
“Quit screwing around with me—!”
“We’re not planning to toy with you. We’ll finish this quickly.”
Fzzzzzt—
Ever since we’d entered close combat, electricity had been steadily gathering above Cha Hyeon-joo’s head, gradually forming a cloud.
I was compressing wind above my hand as well, preparing [Destructive Gale].
Either one would deal devastating damage if it landed.
And if she took both at once?
Cha Hyeon-joo seemed to reach the same conclusion. She hurriedly aimed her bow at us and tried to activate a skill.
Nine times out of ten, it was the trump card she’d been keeping carefully hidden.
Her magic arrow began to glow with dazzling light, only to—
Fizzle……
It simply fizzled out and scattered away.
The [Concussion] effect had canceled it.
And its cooldown had probably been multiplied several times over as well.
“……Uh.”
By this point, Cha Hyeon-joo seemed incapable of even thinking straight.
It was only natural, considering everything she tried to do kept getting blocked or canceled.
Her venomous expression briefly gave way to confusion before she glared at us again, about to let loose another string of curses.
But the moment she opened her mouth, the skills we had prepared activated.
Fzzzzzzzt—
The lightning cloud, which had grown considerably in the meantime, churned violently before sending down a pillar of lightning as thick as a person.
Boooooooom—!
At the same time, I thrust my hand forward, and wind compressed to its absolute limit swept across the area ahead.
Whooooooooooosh—!
Two decisive skills struck one after another.
It was far too much for a squishy archer to endure.
Cha Hyeon-joo was immediately rendered unable to fight and ejected from the arena.
[Cha Hyeon-joo -%]
Song Cheon-hye watched her go with an immensely satisfied look in her eyes.
And understandably so, considering she had just given Cha Hyeon-joo the exact same treatment she herself had received in the first match, from beginning to end.
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
We turned around while dodging the incoming sword energy.
Then we took turns giving Eom Jeong-tae a hard time.
“Jeong-tae, what good is showing up after it’s all over?”
“Now it’s two against one.”
His expressionless face twitched for a moment, but he still refused to say a word and simply swung his sword.
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
“Let’s finish him off quickly too.”
“Sounds good.”
We both shot forward at the same time.
***
Eom Jeong-tae had been someone Song Cheon-hye could defeat on her own to begin with.
He was a warrior class, yet he was getting pushed back by a mage in close combat.
He seemed skilled enough to reach 900 points, but he fell somewhat short of the level of the promising students and disciplinary committee members.
And once the two of us started pounding away at him together, the match ended even faster.
[Kim Ho Song Cheon-hye Win]
vs
[Eom Jeong-tae Cha Hyeon-joo Lose]
I glanced over the scoreboard, then looked at Song Cheon-hye. She had a hand over her mouth, her shoulders trembling slightly.
Apparently, the more she thought back on what had just happened, the harder it was to hold back her laughter.
So I commented,
“Looks like you had fun.”
“……I did not.”
“You were totally in full-on ‘just enjoy it’ mode.”
“I was simply doing my best, as usual.”
“Give it up and admit it. You had fun.”
At my coaxing tone, the corners of Song Cheon-hye’s mouth twitched.
She cleared her throat a few times, then gave a slight nod.
“It was a little fun. And I suppose……it did feel somewhat soothing.”
“See? Isn’t it nice to just be honest? Good work.”
“You too.”
Song Cheon-hye replied with a rare smile.
Then, after seeming to mull something over for a moment, she called out to me as I headed toward the teleportation circle.
“Um, you know.”
“What?”
“Well…….”
Song Cheon-hye hesitated again before finally working up the courage to continue.
“Do you want to……keep pairing up?”
“You mean play another match?”
“Yes. I feel like we actually work pretty well together as a team……and like I just said, it was fun too.”
Personally, I didn’t care who I played my three matches with as long as they could handle the basics.
The problem was that because of the Super-Duper Challenge ordeal, I could no longer pair up with Hong Yeon-hwa or Song Cheon-hye.
So I tried to let her down gently.
“Sorry, but I can’t this time. I promised Seo Ye-in I’d play the third match with her.”
“Ah……It can’t be helped. You should keep your promises.”
Despite her matter-of-fact tone, Song Cheon-hye looked deeply disappointed.
Normally, she would’ve snapped her head away and said something like, “I was just asking, okay?” The fact that she didn’t suggested she’d actually been looking forward to it quite a bit.
So I offered her a few sincere words of my own.
“Let’s team up more often. We’ll have plenty of chances in the future, whether it’s duel battles or dungeon raids.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to say nice things just to make me feel better.”
“I think we work pretty well together too. And it’s fun.”
“……Really?”
“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
Song Cheon-hye looked at me in surprise.
Then, still looking a little taken aback, she spoke.
“Then……. Next time, ask me first.”
“Sure, why not.”
“Ah, and what about our training……?”
“We’ll get back to that soon too. For now, send me a message after you finish your third match.”
“Okay, I will.”
A smile returned to Song Cheon-hye’s lips.
***
As I left the arena, I spotted someone in the stands waving in my direction.
“Kim-hyung!”
It was none other than Go Hyeon-woo, Han So-mi, and Seo Ye-in.
I’d sent them a message beforehand with a brief explanation of the challenge.
Since we inevitably had to play two matches separately, I’d told the three of them to take turns pairing up.
I waved back and headed toward the stands.
“How’d you guys do?”
“We won them all!”
Han So-mi answered with a bright, innocent smile.
In stark contrast, Seo Ye-in looked like she was about to collapse at any moment.
“……So tired.”
“What happened?”
“……She drained me.”
Apparently, playing a match with Han So-mi had taken quite a toll on her.
I could more or less imagine what had happened.
The moment the match started, Han So-mi probably dashed off and started flying all over the place, while Seo Ye-in sluggishly tried to keep up with her.
I gave a wry smile and asked,
“If you’re that tired, want to rest a bit before the third match?”
– Shake, shake.
To my surprise, Seo Ye-in shook her head.
Then she slowly rose from her seat.
“Quick and decisive.”
“Well, that’s a surprise. I thought you’d jump at the chance to use the Kim Ho pillow.”
“Rest all at once.”
Since she was already at the arena, she wanted to get everything over with and then relax without anything hanging over her head.
I gave a satisfied nod.
“Now that’s the right attitude. Shall we get going, then?”
“Yes.”
Before long, we took turns scanning our student IDs at the terminal.
[Kim Ho 930 Points Seo Ye-in 904 Points]
As we waited while watching the arena, I spoke up.
“Actually, I got stuck with a pretty brutal challenge.”
“Brutal?”
“Yeah, it’s called the Super-Duper Challenge.”
“……Super-Duper.”
Her gray eyes widened slightly.
Then she casually started inching away while pretending not to, apparently worried she might get caught in the crossfire.
And not just any crossfire, but Super-Duper crossfire.
I grabbed Seo Ye-in by the arm before she could get any farther.
“Don’t worry, I’m not saying I’m going to use it on you. At least not right now.”
“……? Okay.”
“Anyway, like I was saying, the Super-Duper Challenge put ten locks on me.”
“……Ten.”
Seo Ye-in’s eyes widened again in surprise.
I played it up, acting like I was barely hanging on.
“That means I’ve gotten a lot weaker. If I fought like this, I feel like I’d even lose to Byeong-cheol.”
“…….”
“So I’m hoping you’ll do a little extra work for me.”
Seo Ye-in stared silently at my face for a moment before giving a small nod.
Then light projected into the air, and a holographic Chattering Sloth appeared. The two of them took turns speaking.
“……Consider it done.”
– I’ll make sure you won’t have to lift a finger.
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