Full-Body Defense

Synthetic formula. Defense.

No.

Why the hell are you telling me that now?!

I glared at the characters floating before my eyes from where I lay face-down on the floor.

Good. I understood the meaning.

It reverses. It returns. It sends back.

The problem was something else entirely.

I was smashed into the ground. My shoulder felt like it was on fire. My fingertips would not even move properly.

"Han Seok-beom!"

The professor's voice reached me. At the edge of the Academy Duel Ground, the blue barrier was shifting. He looked ready to intervene.

But Rayan's voice came first.

"It is not... over yet."

I forced my head up with difficulty. Rayan Erhardt stood there with a deathly pale face. Almost no red mana remained at his fingertips. His breathing was ragged. Anyone could see he was at his limit.

Yet his eyes alone had not gone out.

No. More precisely—they could not go out.

I saw those sentences and cursed inwardly.

Hey. You look like you're about to collapse. Why is only your pride still full of stamina?

"Rayan!"

The professor shouted.

"Stop this! Your formula has already left your control."

"I can control it!!"

"You... cannot."

The professor's voice dropped cold and flat.

"Look at your fingertips."

Rayan's gaze fell to his own hands. Red lines still lingered there. It was no completed formula. Broken strokes. Remnants of flame that had failed to interlock. And floating above them, the sentences:

Rayan's face hardened.

"This is..."

He muttered.

In that instant the red mana detonated. Not one blast. The flames that had scattered from Rayan's fingertips split in every direction. No fixed path. No target. Just torn-apart fireballs.

Red shards sprayed across the entire Academy Duel Ground. Screams erupted from the stands.

"Kyaaaah!"

"Get clear!"

"Out of the barrier!"

The professor's staff moved. Blue light cut across the front of the stands. But it was already too late to cover every direction. One flame slammed into the lower railing of the spectator seats.

Boom!

The wooden rail exploded. Several students toppled backward. Another flame scraped across ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the floor of the duel ground. Stone chips flew.

"Ugh!"

Someone clutched their arm. Blood showed. My heart plummeted.

This was no longer a duel. It was simply an accident. And I was sitting right in the middle of it.

"Rayan, stop!"

The professor roared. Rayan tried to pull his hands back, but the formula had already left him. The remaining mana kept flying regardless of his will.

I clenched my teeth and raised my hand. The characters still floated before my eyes.

Yes. This one. Send the flames back. To where they came from. To Rayan's fingertips. Or anywhere—just not where the students were.

I scraped the air with a breath that tasted of blood.

The moment the character completed, a sentence appeared.

"Oh, come on...!"

One flame skimmed past my face.

Boom...!

I raised my hand again. This time I brought my fingertips to a flame already flying toward me.

"Go back!"

The character was not written in empty air. It overlaid the flame itself.

One of the ricocheting flames suddenly bent.

Good. It bent.

But—where the hell was it going?!

Kwaang!

The flame slammed into the wall of the duel ground instead of the stands. Stone burst. Shards flew.

"Crazy!"

I stretched my hand out again.

"Not that way!"

Another flame twisted its path. This time it shot straight up and detonated in midair.

Boom!

Heat fell like rain. Students in the stands screamed. The professor flung out a blue barrier and blocked most of it. A few embers still slipped through the gaps.

"Aaagh!"

Fire caught on one student's sleeve. I felt my fingertips go ice-cold.

No. This was not working. I was not blocking anything. I was not helping. I was simply making the accident bigger.

"What the hell is a direction condition?!"

I nearly howled the words. Then one flame bounced toward the professor. He was already shielding the stands. He had no room left to protect himself.

"Professor!"

I thrust my hand out on pure reflex.

The flame bent. But too late. It grazed the professor's shoulder.

Sizzle.

The blue robe blackened with scorch marks. The professor's face twisted.

"Do not use it for useless things!"

"Then what am I supposed to do?!"

My voice cracked. The Academy Duel Ground was already a wreck. Rayan stared blankly at his own hands. Students in the stands were still screaming. The professor ignored his injured shoulder and kept throwing barriers over the seats. And I stood trembling in the middle of it all with one hand raised toward empty air.

That was when it happened.

A low bell tone rolled down from the ceiling of the duel ground.

Dong—

Every head turned upward. On the highest black railing—the place called the supervisor's box—one man stood. Black uniform. Silver armband. A long staff gripped in his hand. The Academy Duel Supervisor. His face was set like stone. Injured students. Shattered railings. Scorched floor. And right in the center of it all, Rayan and me.

The supervisor's gaze locked onto me.

"Duel Ground Safety Regulation Violation!"

The cold voice boomed across the entire arena.

What?

The supervisor raised his staff. Black characters began to spread from its tip. The white patterns engraved around the outer ring of the duel ground turned black one by one. I read the sentences.

Dangerous individual?

I stopped breathing. The black characters spun in midair. Then a single name rose.

"Why me!!!"

I shouted without thinking. The one who just played with fire is over there!

But the duel ground formula did not listen to my protest.

The professor's face went rigid.

"No..."

He raised his staff at once.

"Halt the supervision formula! I order this by authority of the supervising professor."

Blue characters rose from the tip of his staff.

But the black characters above the duel ground did not stop.

The professor's eyes sharpened. A long sentence began to write itself across the sky. One character. Two. Three. No—far more than that. Longer than any formula I had ever seen.

The moment I read the final character, my breath stopped.

Crush. Press and shatter. That was not a suppression tool. No—it was closer to an elimination tool.

Another sentence floated beneath it.

Rayan's fireball had been output 2. The rampaging chain formula just now had been output overload. This was output 10. There was no comparison.

Above the duel ground a gigantic black spear took shape. Spear? Pillar? Or a punishment falling from the sky itself? The stands fell silent. Even the students who had been screaming moments earlier clamped their mouths shut. It was the pressure. The formula had not even dropped yet and already breathing was hard. My knees shook.

The professor shouted.

"Han Seok-beom, dodge!"

Dodge. Nice word. The problem was that my body already refused to move properly. I was down on one knee, head barely lifted. My shoulder still burned. My fingertips trembled. My legs had already given out.

I could not dodge. I could not send it back either. Return had failed. Without a direction it simply bounced anywhere.

Then I had to block it.

I raised my hand into empty air. My fingertips shook. Even so, I wrote.

A thin membrane spread in front of me. I knew. It was not enough. That thing was not a fireball flying from the front. It was a suppression formula dropping from above. Blocking the front would do nothing. My body would simply be crushed flat.

I gritted my teeth.

<Protect>

I felt that I needed that second character. Block. Wrap. Guard. But I did not know the character. I could not write it. The only thing my hand could produce was Defend.

The suppression formula began to fall. The floor of the duel ground rumbled first. Students in the stands curled in on themselves. Rayan watched me with a bloodless face. The professor tried to throw a barrier, but the distance was far too great.

I sucked in a breath. And I shouted.

"Defense!"

The character for Defend wavered.

"Defense! Defense! Defense!"

My throat felt like it was tearing.

"Block it!!!"

The character distorted. The black spear was already dropping onto my head. I screamed almost like a shriek.

"With my whole body!!!"

The strokes of Defend spread.

"Block everything!"

In that instant my voice stuck to the character.

My eyes flew wide.

What?

The suppression formula fell. There was never any speed that could dodge it. The black pillar dropped.

In that instant sound vanished. The professor's voice. Rayan's ragged breathing. The screams from the stands. Everything was crushed into silence in a single heartbeat.

And the next moment the world came down.

KWAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

With a deafening roar the floor of the Academy Duel Ground caved ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a perfect circle. The white circular barrier shattered into fragments. The stone floor heaved like a wave. Pressure exploded outward in every direction and students were shoved backward still in their chairs. Dust erupted like a bomb.

I closed my eyes.

It's over...

That was what I thought.

But it did not hurt. There was no sensation of bones breaking. I was still alive.

I opened my eyes slowly. A round membrane was spread around me. Not a thin wall. A transparent shell. Like an egg. A defensive barrier that wrapped my entire body. The black suppression formula was shattering to pieces across its surface. Nothing entered inside.

I stared at it blankly.

Ah.

The moment I read the last sentence my head felt ready to split open. Vision flipped. There was not a single wound on my body. Yet someone seemed to be hammering the inside of my skull.

I toppled sideways exactly as I was.

Thud...

The Academy Duel Ground went quiet. No one spoke.

The professor muttered in confusion.

"Incantation... chant...?"

I wanted to answer. No. What is that. What the hell is that! Seriously. I wanted to say exactly that. But my mouth would not move.

Instead another sentence rose before my eyes.

I stared at those characters through my fading vision.

Automatic report...? What is this now......

That thought was the last.

Consciousness cut out.