Golden Vortex Against the Plague Scythe
With the difficult midterms bearing down on me, I planted my feet firmly on the ground and tensed my legs. Hot mana surged from the base of my butt, swirling violently along the pathway up my spine that connected to Jinny. I steadied my breathing and locked the mana pipeline in place. It wasn't just about forcing the power through—I began fine-tuning the density of the mana to match exactly what Jinny could use best in each moment. Then I shouted at the figure ahead, the one radiating that rotten aura and demanding I hand her over.
"Don't give me that obedient handover crap."
"Oho, are you angry? Your mana tastes much cleaner now."
Jinny erupted from my shoulder in a towering blaze of golden flame. The overwhelming pressure pouring from her body crashed against the Plague Doctor's violet mist, crackling fiercely on impact.
"Well, that's fine with me," the Plague Doctor said, drawing a staff from inside his coat. "The stronger your resistance, the sweeter the pleasure of crushing you beneath my heel."
With a sharp whoosh, he flicked his staff. The violet mist carpeting the floor instantly morphed into dozens of crow shapes that all shot toward us at once. Their beaks glistened with corrosive mana strong enough to melt metal.
"Jinny, straight through the front!"
At my shout Jinny leaped skyward. I clenched my butt muscles tight and explosively redirected the mana output. She snapped her fingers mid-air, converting my power into hundreds of slender golden arrows.
Shoosh— Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
The golden rain falling from above pierced every incoming crow with perfect accuracy. As they dissolved into violet smoke, Jinny dove without pause toward the Plague Doctor's head. A colossal golden fist materialized, compressing the air as it hammered down.
Kwaaaaaang—!
The Plague Doctor raised his staff and blocked it. The moment the violet barrier met the golden fist, a massive shockwave exploded outward, shattering every window in the abandoned factory at once.
"Splendid firepower," he remarked. Sparks kept flying where the two manas collided. "But I am only getting started."
When the Plague Doctor twisted his staff, the violet barrier blocking Jinny's fist transformed into tens of thousands of needle-thin spikes that swarmed over her.
"Danger! This guy's mana property just changed!" Jinny yelled.
I didn't panic. Instead I recalled the theory from Mana Studies 101 I'd studied yesterday. "Spin your mana! Use centrifugal force to fling every needle away!"
It was a technique that rotated mana particles in one direction at ultra-high speed to repel outside interference. I had a gut feeling it would work in real combat. I twisted the mana gushing from my butt into a spiral and released it. Jinny caught my intent instantly and generated a huge golden vortex around herself.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The instant the countless violet needles touched the golden whirl, they flew off course and scattered in every direction. Keeping the vortex's rotation intact, Jinny charged the Plague Doctor like a living spinning top.
"How's this?"
For the first time, genuine surprise flickered behind the Plague Doctor's mask. He hastily retreated, swinging his staff to form a violet scythe, but Jinny's high-speed spinning mass swallowed the scythe's arc and shredded his coat to ribbons.
"Kihihi…"
The Plague Doctor stepped back, his torn coat flapping, and let out a sickening laugh. "I assumed you were nothing more than an ordinary summoner. It appears a variable has entered my calculations."
He slid smoothly back into stance. Violet smoke rose from his coat, knitting the torn fabric back together.
In the tense stalemate I drew ragged breaths and poured strength into my butt once more.
"I shall observe exactly how far you can go."
This time the Plague Doctor drove his staff into the floor. The shadows across the abandoned factory came alive as writhing tentacles that slithered toward my ankles.
"Jinny, forget about me! Target only his real body!"
I held my horse stance and stomped the shadow tentacles to pieces. Jinny used my shoulder as a springboard and rocketed forward again.
"Gangjin, give me more mana!"
This time she didn't make a fist. She clasped both hands and shaped them into a massive golden sword.
"As much as you need!"
I pushed my mana circuit to its limit, feeding her everything I had. The mana-forged golden blade sliced through the air, aimed straight at the Plague Doctor's throat.
"Oho."
He swung his staff, layering shield after shield of violet smoke. Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang—! Each time Jinny's sword shattered a barrier, the Plague Doctor spawned new mist clones to slip into our blind spots. When Jinny attacked from the front, a clone struck from behind me. When I twisted mana into a defensive wall, Jinny immediately countered. Matching the intensity of the mana I supplied, she switched fluidly between offense and defense, neutralizing every grotesque technique the Plague Doctor threw at us.
At the same time, in the central plaza of Gaon High School's main campus.
Crack—!
Lee Chaeyeon swept away the low-grade residues eyeing the school wall with blue lightning that exploded from her toes. Yet her eyes were no longer on the enemies at the gate. They were fixed on the western sky far beyond the campus. Above the peaceful heavens, a bizarre vortex of violet clouds and golden flashes swirled upward.
That vibration just now… Could it be coming from Gangjin?
Strength surged through Chaeyeon's legs.
"This energy doesn't feel normal."
While casually dispatching the approaching residues one by one, she couldn't stop worrying about him.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"This is starting to bore me."
When the Plague Doctor lifted his staff high, the surrounding violet mist condensed into the shape of an enormous scythe. This time the aura of death clinging to it was so thick it looked nearly black—nothing like before.
"That one's dangerous." Tension finally crept into Jinny's voice. "The moment it touches you, your mana circuit will rot from the inside."
I forced my shaking legs to stay planted and locked eyes with her.
"It's fine. We're faster."
The fierce battle had dragged on far longer than expected. The mana I once thought was more than enough was now running dangerously low.
"Jinny, pour every ounce of your physical form into this single fist."
Enduring pain that felt like my butt muscles were about to tear apart, I squeezed out even my last drop of source mana. Jinny's entire body scattered into brilliant golden particles before coalescing on my right fist as a colossal giant's gauntlet.
"Haaaaaaaah!!!"
We charged forward in a straight line as if we had truly become one. The Plague Doctor swung his own gigantic scythe and met us head-on. A golden pillar of light and a violet tidal wave of darkness collided violently at the center of the abandoned factory.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—!!!
For an instant every sound in the world vanished. The entire factory trembled with a tremendous quake, and steel beams rained from the ceiling like iron hail. In the thick smoke, golden and violet mana gnawed at each other in a deadlock that looked like pure hell.
"Kihihi… Such powerful mana…!"
The Plague Doctor strolled casually out of the darkness, sounding almost impressed.
"Huk… huk…!"
I realized I'd lost all feeling in my right arm—the one that had been clenched in a fist. My butt muscles convulsed and screamed. Burning pain flooded the mana circuit I'd pushed past its limit. Jinny, back on my shoulder, had grown slightly translucent and was breathing hard.
"That monster… he's on another level…"
The Plague Doctor's coat hung in tatters and one side of his beak mask had cracked, yet that disgusting laugh still leaked from him.
"To endure this much recoil—you truly are an Original spirit."
Then his voice dropped a tone, turning vicious. "But isn't your mana scraping the very bottom now?"
He was right. The vast reserves I'd been so confident about were now almost gone. I possessed an enormous amount of mana, yet I still lacked the skill to wield it freely.
Pshuk—!
"Ugh!"
In a split second of carelessness, a syringe filled with purple liquid stabbed into my thigh. A strange energy slithered into my body.
"Ah, did it land?"
The Plague Doctor advanced one deliberate step at a time.
"It's a mana suppressant. Mana manipulation will be rather difficult for a while."
Jinny used what little mana she had left to block him. Kwaang—! A giant golden hand swatted his staff aside like a toy.
"Useless. Attacks with such half-baked mana are—"
"Damn it!"
Jinny's form was growing fainter by the second. No matter how hard I clenched, no more mana came out. With a trembling hand I yanked the syringe from my thigh. The pathway felt just a tiny bit open. I didn't waste the chance. I poured every last drop of mana I possessed straight into her.
The blur around Jinny sharpened again as light flooded back in.
"Jinny… I'm sorry. It's because I'm not good enough."
I forced strength into my wobbling legs and resumed the horse stance. The pain at the base of my butt had already gone numb.
"Still… I can keep going…!"
But if I stopped now, Jinny would vanish.
"Your mana control is truly pathetic."
I knew that. If I were a genuinely skilled S-class awakener, a mere residue wouldn't be threatening the very existence of my power.
"Because you can't even use half my strength, we have to be pushed around by a small fry like him."
Jinny had been grumbling at me, but when she saw me wringing out mana through the pain, she let out a small sigh. Her eyes softened with trust.
"Still, I can respect that tenacity of yours."
Watching her roll her shoulders to loosen up, I closed my eyes and focused on mana regeneration. As I took slow, deep breaths, it felt like the power inside me was beginning to flow again, little by little.
"A mana release bordering on suicide," the Plague Doctor said, raising his staff high. "All of it is pointless."
Thousands of illusory crows swirled around him, coalescing into another giant scythe.
Jinny absorbed the mana I gave her without waste. White light poured from her body just like it had in the underground waterway.
"I'm going to try one more time. Think you can hold on?"
I steadied my quivering body and gave her a smile.
"I'll go until I can't anymore."
Honestly, I had no idea how long that would be. Yet I had the strange feeling that the enormous mana collision between the Plague Doctor and Jinny wasn't something only we could sense. It might have been enough to wake someone from deep sleep in the shopping district ahead.