Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: No. 1 VS No. 152 (3)
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The life of a single flower clinging to a branch.
Blooms once, defying the seasons by a year.
Scattering the trace called fragrance for a long time without fading.
-Swish swish swish.
"......Impossible."
Someone muttered in a daze.
At the center of the arena. From that single point.
The black magnolia blossoms unleashed by the man entangled with each other, forming a single wave.
"Who is that guy...?"
No one could shut their mouths.
The wave raised by the previous petals being pushed aside by the flowers blooming one after another.
The illusion of a lingering fragrance sharply teasing the nose.
It had disrupted the senses of everyone seated in the stands.
"Was there a cadet like that in the academy?"
"What is that...."
How many people here truly knew the name of the man standing right there?
Even those who knew Lee Si-heon probably had no idea of the full extent of his power.
Who could have imagined it?
That the No. 152 cadet, without help from anyone, could exert this level of pressure on the monster that was Jeong Si-woo.
But in the end, he made it happen.
In the short time between enrollment and the exam.
The petals he bloomed fully captured the emotions he never voiced.
The meaning of black mana: resistance and domination.
The nature of the mana he possessed from a life of suppression.
When the man who always laughed frivolously wiped the smile from his face and the buds burst into bloom.
Only then did it reveal its true worth.
Late Bloomer.
Promising sprouts grow slowly.
The black petals Lee Si-heon bloomed were the fruits of his efforts cultivated amid past and death, a resistance against reality.
Here, a nameless tree began to reveal its true form.
Like a single dragon.
Its blackened petals wriggling like scales.
......Everyone watched the sight in bated breath.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ My overheated body prickled with aches.
The mana spreading out from me resembled black paint splattered haphazardly across the sky.
Wider and tougher than I'd anticipated.
"......"
I stripped off the thick padding from my right arm and tossed it aside. Soon after, the sound of scrap metal rolling came from behind me.
I opened my hand. Clenched it into a tight fist.
The surging mana rippled with the movement of my hand. The mana was no different from pure darkness devoid of even a speck of light.
Power overflowed.
I slowly thrust my fist forward, swung my other hand behind my back, and extended one leg firmly ahead.
'Come.'
Within that darkness, I stared straight ahead.
And gauged my opponent.
The pure white radiance that hadn't yet died, right on the verge of devouring me.
──Kwaaaang!
With a deafening roar, the petals split apart.
A straight thrust surged forth like the parting of the Red Sea, poised to cleave right through part of my body.
Jeong Si-woo's full power, something I'd never witnessed before.
I took the full brunt of Si-woo's ability head-on with my entire body—the ability he'd been holding back until now.
-Kwajijik!
My whole body lurched once.
My snapped-back neck wrenched the muscles of my upper body, and my frame was shoved backward.
The chaotic arena floor, littered with petals and mana, cleared in an instant.
"Ah."
An exclamation escaped. As I righted my twisted neck, I adjusted my mask.
The arena's atmosphere was deathly silent.
At a glance, it looked like Si-woo's single strike had swallowed all my mana and pierced my reverse scale. But it hadn't.
Through the mask, I checked my opponent's face. I also assessed my remaining mana and condition.
"......"
"......"
We had both lost our smiles.
-Paak!
We charged at each other. Black and white intertwined as several explosions rang out.
-Kwang!
Once with the sword,
-Kwang!
Once with the fist.
Before the referee could intervene, we pressed the assault at speeds pushed to the limit.
The sword descending in a straight line battered my shoulder. Ignoring it, I barreled forward and slammed my fist into his chest.
-Ppajijik!
His bones cracked. My clavicle crumpled.
This match, laced with killing intent in every blow, took on an entirely different shape from before.
The audience's expressions, which had shifted from surprise to chill, now drowned in shock.
We had no time to register the changing mood—we read only each other's movements.
Jeong Si-woo charged at me.
'Right.'
No—left.
I extended my foot to the opposite side.
The twisted sword strike grazed my neck by a hair's breadth.
The wave of mana shredded my combat uniform, slicing into flesh and splattering blood.
'Below.'
I smashed his abdomen.
The sensation of penetrating muscle and twisting innards thrilled through the space between my middle and index fingers.
The areas we'd allowed to be struck were flushed red, flesh torn open.
Yet we moved at speeds invisible to others, trading blows.
We should have winced around the eyes from the pain at least once.
But neither of us lost our composure to agony for even a moment.
Both he and I had long since survived far worse predicaments.
I'd been stabbed through the body with a sword amid the cult.
There was the time my tendons and neck muscles were severed by a chainsaw.
I'd endured trials akin to torture, trapped in the shackles of the past.
The pain of flesh being carved, the numbing of the body—it was familiar.
Beyond familiar; now it was numb.
Even in death, I probably wouldn't feel myself dying.
'You too.'
This guy surely felt the same.
Merely twenty years old. A guy who'd just begun to sprout in society. And he'd shaken heaven and earth to save a single sibling.
Would a guy like that fear defying the gods?
Would such a reckless fool hesitate to burn his own body?
"Sip—"
A short inhale created a white trail as Jeong Si-woo's swift sword battered my shoulder.
-Kwajik!
The broken practice sword flew into the air.
"...Hoo."
The breath I exhaled. I pulled back my fist and drove it forward to pierce his solar plexus. Jeong Si-woo's body staggered and toppled backward.
"Hup, Kkuk!"
Jeong Si-woo, flung into the wall like a projectile.
I staggered in place, gasping raggedly.
It had long since invaded and shredded the deep mana circuits beyond my pitch-black physique, which had reached the pinnacle.
Yet the match wasn't over.
I limped forward.
"Ughk..."
Pain surged up.
The barely clinging mask fell away. With my face exposed, cool wind brushed my skin.
Why did my face feel wet?
......Ah, right. I'd taken a hit to the head.
I raised my hand and wiped my burning eyes once. It came away soaked in bright red blood.
-Hooook, hooook.
My breathing sounded like it wasn't my own. I furrowed my brow slightly.
Meanwhile, Jeong Si-woo had risen. He looked at my face, then staggered to his feet and gripped the broken sword once more.
His handsome face was a bloody mess. I could barely make out its features. Probably the same for me.
Yet the match wasn't over. As if to prove it, mana began to flicker along the blade of Si-woo's sword.
-Uung ung!
Pure white mana extended along the broken sword's tip.
I too drew out my remaining mana and wrapped it around my body.
It felt like a black serpent crawling up my form, only to scatter as falling petals, slowly sinking to the floor.
Into my clogged eardrums came Jeong Si-woo's low murmur.
"......Black Shadow"
Flash—
The white mana turned pitch black in an instant.
My ankles sank into the floor. The entire arena's tile floor was dyed black like a black hole.
The sensation of my lower body squeezed tight like sinking into a swamp.
A fierce light began to creep into Jeong Si-woo's sharp eyes.
"Town."
The air trembled. A whistle sounded, but even its vibrations felt faint.
The mana blanketing this place glowed, bearing down on me with lethal force.
I glanced around once, then stepped forward into the swamp.
I sliced through the shadows layered in the darkness, binding my feet.
The restraints shed in an instant. Jeong Si-woo, still clutching his sword, kept his eyes locked on my movements.
"Soul Severing."
His hand moved up and down once.
A single strike so razor-sharp it felt like death if it connected.
The technique called a secret art unfolded before my eyes.
-Flash!
Dozens of streaks slicing between heaven and earth.
A delusion that the world itself had split.
Mana swirled chaotically. I bit down hard on my tongue.
The acrid stench of blood filled my nostrils, snapping me back to focus.
'If I don't move from here.'
My lips parted, blood trickling down.
'The referee or the chairman will come and end it.'
Techniques far exceeding an opponent's skill level are prohibited. That's why the match had paused briefly when Si-woo and I first clashed.
A cadet's death isn't taken lightly—they've probably already mobilized.
......Though we'd crossed that line long ago for a cadet match.
-Kkwaak.
I clenched my right fist heavily.
'Still.'
I couldn't back down here.
From my elbow, the black petals coiled like a vortex began to slowly dye pure white.
A color reversal somehow. I assumed my stance, drew in a breath, and gritted my teeth.
Bloom fully.
"The blooming of white flowers—"
The magnolia blossom at my fist's tip pushed back the space eroded by darkness.
I could do it now.
"......One (一)"
Pure yet unyielding vivid petals fluttered in fine scattering.
"White Peach"
I met the oncoming black flash head-on.
My continued fist strike locked with his sword strike.
-Kwagagagaga!
Our techniques tumbled and entangled.
Thread-like mana splashed everywhere, petals crumbled, and floor tiles shattered.
The flash spreading across the entire arena triggered the dormant barrier.
-Jikeun.
A crack ran through the barrier at the same moment.
A massive explosion erupted.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ -Master
In the VIP seats reserved for S-rank hunters.
At the arena's pinnacle, gazing down at the battle, Cheondo propped her chin and sneered at her disciple.
-If—just if, that is. Consider it idle chatter and answer if you would.
The fight between the two men was astonishing, bordering on pitiable.
Whether Jeong Si-woo or Lee Si-heon—it didn't matter.
Every spectator here was already overwhelmed by them.
-Even if they lose in the first round, if they show that kind of power, could they be selected as a Forest Keeper?
Cheondo had no idea what worries Lee Si-heon harbored during his talk with Jeong Si-woo.
She knew Si-woo was a candidate husband for the World Tree, but that was the extent of her knowledge—and her interest.
-Weak talk now? Not like you.
-No, it's not weak... Just answer the question.
It was possible.
After showing a match with that kind of impact, what couldn't they achieve?
Even in an evil faction, the one who reaches the peak becomes a legend in that instant.
If a single cadet could prove their innate talent as a cadet, the Forest Keeper selection committee would take notice.
-Is that so?
Why ask something like that all of a sudden?
Cheondo chuckled at the sight of Si-heon standing there half-dead.
His eyes weren't dead yet, and he had plenty of fight left.
-But why the sudden concern?
-No...... Well. Love for my classmates, love for my country.
Lee Si-heon's standing body slowly toppled backward.
-Nothing major.
To anyone else, he looked utterly exhausted, but that wasn't how it appeared to Cheondo.
On the contrary... In the eyes of the Heavenly Demon, Si-heon's body looked far less wrecked than Jeong Si-woo's.
'Doesn't matter who stirred whose emotions.'
The one still standing here was the top-ranked Jeong Si-woo.
'Took White Peach straight on—gonna suffer for it.'
Cheondo clicked her tongue at the sight of Jeong Si-woo's utterly shattered mana circuits.
Medics rushed toward the two fallen cadets.
The stands heated up, the noise shaking even the VIP room.
[Cheondo, what happened in that match?]
"Didn't you see it with your own eyes?"
[But I don't get it... Need a judgment call.]
"Normally, the first to fall loses."
[Hing....... Our little dongsaeng tried so hard....]
At Hwando's whimper, Cheondo slyly smiled.
She turned her head and snapped her fingers. The mask discarded in the arena flew into the space between them.
-Hoo.
She blew on it once to clean it, then tucked the mask at her waist before slowly stepping forward.
'Time to fetch my disciple.'
He'd disobeyed his master, so a little scolding wouldn't hurt.
'What punishment to give.'
Yet she didn't resent him for it.
Quite the opposite—she wanted to pull him into a tight embrace.