Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 96
Students thought it was impressive, watching Mugung relentlessly pressure Seung-woo while swinging his sword.
Both were powerhouses who had reached realms the students couldn't yet aspire to.
The fight between the two, who officially bore the title of A-rank Players, was utterly one-sided.
"Mugung TA! Crush him to pieces!"
"Beat him senseless and turn him into fox fur!"
"If even a scratch mars Senior TA Baek Seung-woo's handsome face, I'll curse you every night!"
In their eyes, this match wasn't a duel between TAs or even between A-rank Players. It was a one-sided brawl.
Of course, Seung-woo's swordsmanship and magic weren't bad at all, but compared to Mugung's overwhelming presence, they fell a bit short.
It had started as Namgung Seong-jin's whim, but the duel was having a massive impact on the aspiring students.
A realm we haven't reached yet.
A duel between seniors who had stepped into it first.
The students, suddenly realizing they were frogs in a well, began reflecting on themselves.
Most of that crowd were first-years.
From the second- and third-years on, the reactions were a bit different.
Rather than seeking enlightenment from Mugung and Seung-woo's duel, they were meticulously analyzing it, gathering all sorts of data.
"The Senior TA's sword is as sharp as ever."
"Look at that unique sword path connecting his forms. It's chaotic yet follows a distinct rhythm. How many swings does it take to wield a blade like that?"
"All you see is Mugung TA, huh? That's why brainless muscleheads and martial arts majors are no good. Who do you think is leading this fight right now?"
"Obviously Mugung TA is the one calling the shohuh?"
Their eyes turned to the pool of blood soaking the arena floor.
A glimpse of just how fierce this duel had been.
But tracing the blood back to its source led straight to Mugung.
Seung-woo's blood was mixed in too, but the vast majority staining the ground was his. Contrary to the one-sided flow, it was hard to say who truly had the upper hand.
And then.
Pazzzzt!!
As Seung-woo unleashed a thunderclap in the air to pressure Mugung, the students wore dumbfounded expressions.
The tide of battle hadn't tipped for either side yet.
But the atmosphere enveloping the arena...
That had already begun to lean one way.
* * *
'...He's insane.'
Namgung Seong-jin thought to himself.
Out loud, he was denying any hand in teaching him, but his eyes and the corners of his mouth curved into smiles.
A curiosity he couldn't hide no matter how hard he tried.
He'd known Baek Seung-woo was hiding more than one or two things up his sleeve, but he'd figured it was just some hand trickery at best.
At first glance, it seemed like deadly first-strike techniques or sure-kill moves, but there was something even more profound concealed.
'...Unbelievable talent. If he'd come here as a student, Chilseong would've flipped upside down because of him.'
A genius of a type even the world's top five academies, including Chilseong, had never seen.
Seung-woo's talent wasn't limited to magic.
He thoroughly analyzed and deconstructed martial arts he'd seen for the first time, then recreated them with his own magic.
It wasn't something you could pull off just by being naturally gifted in both magic and swordplay.
If Seung-woo had truly seen Mugung's swordsmanship for the first time and mimicked it with magic, then Namgung might be witnessing a once-in-a-century genius.
'...Or a once-in-a-century con artist, otherwise.'
Either way, this was someone who'd go down in history.
For better or worse.
And those suspicions faded as Seung-woo sequentially mimicked Mugung's successive sword techniques.
Really.
'No student here, but a monster among the TAs.'
If he'd been a student, there would've been real satisfaction in teaching him.
Namgung Seong-jin felt genuine regret.
While the self-appointed referee nursed those thoughts,
I kept deconstructing Mugung's swordsmanship, rebirthing it into magic based on my vast martial knowledge, over and over.
It had been tough at first, but once I got the hang of repeating it, it wasn't so bad.
In fact, now it felt like I'd gotten the knack.
I casually manifested magic in the air and swept over Mugung.
He looked pretty worn out.
Unsurprising, after unleashing sword techniques nonstop.
Unlike me, who was just casting from one spotheadaches from calculations asidehe was in a whole different state.
Right now, with momentum shifting my way,
I took a moment to gauge Mugung's skill.
'He's definitely past A-rank.'
In my estimation, Mugung qualified for the low end of S-rank Players.
Only because it's mewith all my sword path knowledgecould I dodge most of them easily.
Most Players or monsters would fall helplessly to his blade.
'Especially that sword infused with the heavens. That was pretty threatening.'
It paled next to the Namgung clan's Cheongcheon Mugung or their Cangqiong Wuya Swordsmanship, which captured the vastness of the firmament, but
no denying it was a menacing blade.
If it weren't for me, I'd have been done for.
But once I kept nullifying it with magic of equal power, the thrill wore off.
As the duel dragged on, fatigue set in alongside annoyance.
Wanting to end it quickly, my mana unconsciously formed a spiral array. Halfway through, as "Triple Helix" began to take shape,
I snapped out of it and waved it off, canceling the construct.
Whoa, that startled me.
I hadn't planned on using this.
Almost slipped out unconsciously.
'..."Triple Helix" isn't something to use lightly on people.'
A new mana array structure I'd fully mastered through the mental world.
The magic it unleashed had three times the power and efficiency of "Double Helix."
Meaning, with "Triple Helix," I could strike with six times the current force.
Efficiency sixfold tooutterly absurd.
The issue was it was too much for Mugung.
Flames even an S-rank demonkin like Dorudojo, with fire resistance, couldn't withstand.
If I used that on Mugung, could he survive?
'No way in hell.'
One shot would end it, obviously. It half-shattered Dorudojo's demonic armor made of magi. What chance does soft human flesh have?
So I was stumped.
How to make him lose without risking real harm.
No easy answer came.
That's why I, with enough spare capacity to dissect his techniques one by one, reweave them into magic, and cancel with equal power, still hadn't settled the match.
'Go too light, and I give him a counter chance. Go too hard, and it's not a duel anymore.'
Might end up at a funeral if I mess up.
Not wanting the backlash, I kept matching his sword strikes with equal magic while pondering in my head.
That's when it happened.
"...Hm?"
The quality and quantity of mana dominating the area shifted.
Not mine. My channels were too narrow for that kind of waste.
Which meant Mugung's doing, but
it looked strangely off for that.
"GRAAAAAAAH!!"
Mugung's beastly roar shook the arena's barrier hard. A massive shockwave spread outward.
Evoking a lion's roar, it was unmistakably a sound-based technique.
BOOM! Crunch!
The moment he unleashed it, cracks spiderwebbed across his skin.
Bursting from his pale flesh was something pitch-black. So murky it was unnaturally so.
Even the professors debated intervening, thinking he might be demonkin, as they raised their mana.
'Not demonkin or magi.'
Mugung hadn't fallen.
No trace of that repulsive demonkin sensation.
But somehow, a comparable unease lingered.
The black something emerging from his splitting skin soon engulfed him, forming massive armor.
An armor shape I recognized.
"...Shadow Soldier."
One of Chilseong's Seven Wonders.
The shadows crawling up from the canyon depths.
Now manifesting through Mugung's body.
What did this mean?
Nothing good, that much was certain.
Unlike the stunned professors and students wondering what was happening,
Demon Eye
I could see his acupoints and qi flows rapidly expanding. Especially the flows toward his heart and headthey were abnormal.
A pattern I knew from experience.
"...Berserk mode."
A real pain to deal with.
In that state, he sees nothing but the enemy, ignores pain and wounds, and thrashes his body wildly. Turns into a flesh-shredding, bone-crushing mad beast.
Does he think he's some berserker?
I was about to add that when
Boom!
Mugung kicked off the ground and charged.
His hulking armor suggested sluggishness, but contrary to appearances, his speed had more than doubled.
And it packed a heavy punch.
One solid hit might shatter bones.
I hurried to dodge and prep the next spell, but
in the blink of an eye, he was upon me.
Pazzzzzzt!!!
He swung a sword brimming with even greater lightning.
The flashing thunderbolts lit up the arena, blinding everyone momentarily.
By the time they rubbed their eyes and regained vision, I was gone from my spot.
Boom!
BOOM!!
CRASH!!!
Far off.
A blood-soaked lump of meat slammed into the wall.
Bones shattered, jagged shards like ribs piercing through the flesh, revealing its mangled form. A brutally wrecked human shape.
Yet the chest heaved rhythmicallyit was still alive.
"P-Pro-Professor!"
A student watching closely from the observer seats.
The blonde girl, Leona, tugged frantically at her professor's sleeve.
"Aren't you going to save him? He might die like that!"
"From that?"
"Sweetie, humans don't die that easily."
"Especially if it's a Chilseong TA."
"Exactly. We didn't survive that murderous schedule for nothing."
Responding weren't the professors, but the TAs lined up beside them.
Dark circles rimmed the eyes of TAs enduring grueling daily shifts.
A peek into their workload.
"If he's a real-deal TA, he'll be fine."
"You think Professor Namgung Seong-jin, the referee, would let him die? He'd lop off limbs from his own Senior TA without hesitation if needed."
"You'll get it in third year. That's nothing."
Most academy TAs were alumni who'd graduated from here. They'd been through it all, in their own ways,
and built their own worldviews and mindsets as powerhouses.
They answered Leona's questions earnestly from experience. Even as screams erupted from the stands later,
the professors and TAs who'd roughly grasped the situation below stayed put.
Only the thousands of students and the beast bereft of reason couldn't analyze it properly.
"M-My victoryyyyy!!!"
A howl celebrating his win.
That sound technique became a gale, blasting even the stands.
Dust clouds followed the shock, forcing most spectators to close or rub their eyes.
In that moment.
"...You."
Baek Seung-woo, with his violet eyes, trudged forward.
Startled students glanced at where that 'former human' had beennow just a matted clump of fur, like a cat toy, brushed tail fur bundled up.
The fur ball looked burst open from the impact.
Unlike that, my right hand bore no wound.
As if it'd reverted to before the injury.
Noas if I'd never been hit at all.
"You'll have to tell me where you got that armor."
No more holding back.
Time to beat him till he's on death's door, for real.
Because of this sudden change, I'd pulled out a jutsu I had zero intention of using. "Cicada Shell," turning hair or flesh into shed skin, and "Switcheroo," swapping it with my body.
Two already.
And in front of this huge crowd, no less.
Meanwhile, the stands fell silent.
No clue how Baek Seung-woo returned unscathed, and they'd only glimpsed fragments of an unfamiliar jutsu.
As everyone held their breath,
professors and TAs began murmuring.
They recognized it.
What I'd just unleashed.
A jutsu lost to distant history.
Leaping across a millennium, revealing its full form in this moment.