Handles Azure Sea Well (2)
Handles Azure Sea Well (2)
Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame was special.
From the very moment of manifestation, its output was worthy of being called the greatest in history. That wasn't just hype. By every objective metric, Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame was extraordinary.
And so the worry followed.
Side effects proportional to that output.
A Calamity Flame too intense could easily devour even its own manifester, spurring on emotion at every turn and goading one toward the wrong choices.
Choi Ji-yeon had never housed the Calamity Flame herself, but she'd spent years at her husband's side watching him wrestle down its impulses.
If her daughter had taken on side effects worse than his, how could she possibly not worry?
She'd scold Yeon-hwa over the rumors that labeled her a mad dog, but Choi Ji-yeon was the one who worried deepest in all the world.
"......"
In the special seating reserved for the relevant parties, Choi Ji-yeon looked down at the arena with a wistful expression. Her field of vision was red. Calamity Flame that had swallowed half the arena writhed and surged.
The Calamity Flame was just as ferocious as ever.
But the savagery that once stood out so starkly no longer dominated. The eerie sense that it might indiscriminately devour everything had grown faint.
That Calamity Flame had a proper leash now. It rampaged only as its master willed.
'...Did my son-in-law do that too?'
These were changes that had come after entering Siyoram and meeting Lee Ha-yul.
And that wasn't all.
Over the past year, according to her sources, Hong Yeon-hwa hadn't caused a single incident—a fact that was both astonishing and hard to believe...
Choi Ji-yeon's face went through a complicated shift as she recalled the past.
Calamity Flame had swallowed half the arena and was roiling there.
The remaining half was a churning mass of sea and ice. The force standing its ground in a direct contest of strength against the Calamity Flame—that was the Azure Sea.
"Huhh..."
Looking down at it made her head throb all over again.
The Calamity Flame Family's son-in-law, himself a manifester of Calamity Flame, was wielding the Azure Sea and facing down Calamity Flame.
Her head hurt from sensory input that was hard to process...
"He isn't using that sword."
An old man's voice came from beside her. Choi Ji-yeon, who'd shut her eyes against the dizziness, answered.
"The tournament restricts equipment other than standard-issue armaments."
"Mm, I see."
Her companion, the Tanhwaju Hwa Byeok-un, nodded and once again gazed steadily down at the arena.
'Even this man came all the way out here...'
Hwa Byeok-un, the Calamity Flame Family's greatest artisan, was famously disinclined to go out. He was a man whose life's work was simply to shut himself up in the forge, hammer iron, and craft armaments.
And yet it was Hwa Byeok-un who had first actively insisted on accompanying Choi Ji-yeon.
The reason didn't require much thought.
- Yeah, the performance is insane. With this, I feel like we might not even need the Beacon Fire Sword... No, wait, isn't this better than the Beacon Fire Sword?
He was talking about the armaments Lee Ha-yul had personally crafted and distributed to those around him lately.
Supposedly similar in form and function to the Winged Garment he himself possessed...
'My son-in-law's ability is too, too outstanding...'
Choi Ji-yeon, recalling Hong Yeon-hwa's phone call, swallowed a sigh and stroked the long wooden case she'd placed beside her chair.
.
.
.
Over the past year, Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame had undergone a great transformation.
There had been abundant experience and the Blessing of Growth. There had also been the Trial of Calamity Flame, but she'd received help from Lee Ha-yul that rivaled or surpassed that.
The results were astonishing.
Like some thug who'd turned over a new leaf after bringing a gentle wife into the house, Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame had grown considerably tamer.
'A shame I left the Winged Garment behind.'
With that correction and assistance, things could have been several times easier right now. Hong Yeon-hwa clicked her tongue and fixed her gaze straight ahead.
Straight ahead was engulfed in Calamity Flame. Behind her and to both sides was the same.
She narrowed her eyes and heightened her senses. She could feel beyond the flames.
Waves and ice were raging. Even the Calamity Flame couldn't easily push them back.
Hong Yeon-hwa's lips jutted out slightly.
'Why the Azure Sea, of all things?'
He had Calamity Flame and Taesan too, so why deliberately use the Azure Sea?
She grumbled inwardly, but she knew the answer.
'Does he mean that because it isn't a proper manifestation, this is easier?'
The Azure Sea he was wielding was strong enough to block Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame. Very few people could raise the Azure Sea's output to that degree.
That was the whole point.
Lee Ha-yul's Calamity Flame was docile and gentle. The flames were closer to orange and yellow than red, beautiful as if the fire were dancing.
Lee Ha-yul's Taesan was elegantly classical. Whenever he casually pulled up rocks and pillars, ornate patterns would appear on their surfaces.
Even grotesque undead, perhaps thanks to his energy, didn't look purely unsightly.
All of those were distinctive traits of Lee Ha-yul's own Calamity Flame and Taesan.
'And the Azure Sea?'
The water was free and could take on healing properties. The ice was cold and lethal. The conversion between the two was swift and rapid.
That was it. Just the Azure Sea.
As for the sheer chill output... it was similar to Baek A-rin's Azure Sea.
'Is he planning to reshape that one in his own way, too?'
She could guess his intent without having to ask.
'Ahh, well. Guess I'll help him out.'
And in return, she'd conveniently grab a Wish Ticket while she was at it.
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a heavy sigh and stepped forward. The Calamity Flame blazed up more fiercely and surged. The Azure Sea fell back several paces.
At that signal, Lee Ha-yul reached a hand toward the sky.
Droplets beaded above his pure-white fingertips, drinking in the water energy that had spread all around, coalescing into a Water Mirror Orb the size of a soccer ball.
Not just one.
Dozens of smaller Water Mirror Orbs circled it like satellites, and at Lee Ha-yul's gesture, they moved.
Boom! The Water Mirror Orb slammed into the Calamity Flame and exploded. The compressed cold energy within drove deep into the flames like icicles.
The flames froze crack-crack-crack from the inside, then were swept away and swallowed by the waves.
Three steps forward. Pushed back about one.
And that wasn't all.
Thwump! Spines of ice embedded themselves thickly into the outer reaches of the Calamity Flame some distance away. The infiltrating cold energy froze the Calamity Flame, and the waves surged in.
Space was being nibbled away and devoured.
Hong Yeon-hwa furrowed her brow.
Lee Ha-yul's Azure Sea was similar to Baek A-rin's.
Baek A-rin, though not to Lee Ha-yul's extent, was highly resourceful in her own right.
So the dizzyingly shifting flow was similar, but the combat method was a little different.
Surging water energy converted to cold energy, and cold energy converted back to water energy, pressuring the space. But the shape was different.
'Spines.'
Spines rose from the water.
From those spines, more spines grew. Like tree branches, countless spreading spines penetrated the Calamity Flame and froze it from within.
Such attacks were occurring in every direction. Wherever there was water, a chain reaction of spines began.
On top of that, magic employing water energy and cold energy rained down in showers, so even an attempt to overwhelm with sheer output couldn't push any of it back.
'Damn nuisance.'
Calamity Flame couldn't be manipulated with the same precision as the Azure Sea. In a contest of spatial occupation like this, she couldn't overpower him.
She found her answer quickly. Hong Yeon-hwa raised her sword. Whoom! The embers blazed up sharply.
'Flame Bloom.'
The Calamity Flame surged upward as if exploding. The aftermath alone made the waves seethe and boil, the ice bluntly melting away.
A pillar of flame that melted the ceiling came crashing down. Whaaash! The waves caught in its trajectory were helplessly shoved aside and evaporated.
'As I thought, raw output is tough.'
And this was an imitated Azure Sea on top of that. He was supplementing it with magic, but without a proper expansion ability, holding out against Calamity Flame on output alone was impossible.
Lee Ha-yul nodded to himself and drew his right arm back.
Cold energy seeped into the whirlpool coiled around his forearm.
Vortex Water Palm.
Crashhh! The unleashed whirlpool clashed with the Calamity Flame. Ice spines mixed into the whirlpool bored into the Calamity Flame.
The single strike lessened the firepower a little, then evaporated.
A whirlpool coiled around his left arm—he unleashed the second volley. The whirlpool blocked the Calamity Flame. This time it held out longer than the first.
Third volley.
He thrust out the whirlpool coiled around his right arm again. The third whirlpool wrapped around the still-resisting second and swelled.
At last, the Calamity Flame was checked.
The fierceness of the Calamity Flame, so savage moments before, diminished, and the waves pouring in from both flanks swallowed the weakened flames.
- Whoom!
But for a single moment, a path opened. Hong Yeon-hwa plunged through that path.
The Calamity Flame enveloping Hong Yeon-hwa compressed and subsided. It was the expansion ability Flame Advance. The speed of the switch from Flame Bloom to Flame Advance was blistering.
'She plans to settle this in close quarters?'
Lee Ha-yul sharply exhaled. Pure-white breath froze over. With a hand already coated in frost, he snapped his fingers.
Crack-crick! Spines stabbed in from every direction. Hong Yeon-hwa slashed them aside. The shattered spines melted away into the Calamity Flame scattered along with them.
'Ah, shit.'
Time was dragging. She hadn't been able to close the gap in one go. Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes swept the surroundings in an instant.
Countless spines flying at her. Waves she hadn't finished evaporating. Icicles unleashing rays of cold energy.
Beyond all that, on the walls, the floor, and the empty air, ice pillars had sprouted in thick clusters, laden with mana—
- Shing!
She deflected the ice spear that had flown in with its presence concealed. Clang-crash! Her sword swung in succession, shattering the spears.
Shrrk! Abruptly, spines that had grown from the spears cut through her aura. A bluish aura flickered at the tips of the spines.
The cold energy that minutely seeped in caused her body to stiffen slightly.
'Those damned spines...'
- Shhhhrrk!
In the instant her body went just slightly stiff, while she was parrying a spear aimed at her head, chains of ice coiled around her wrist.
The chains were already linked to the icicles that had grown all around.
- Wooooong!
Her body grew heavy. The icicles were acting as the axes of a formation, directly applying a reverse correction.
'I need to melt—'
- Clang!
She blocked a spine aimed at her throat. She deflected several strands of chain that had exploited the opening. Chains she couldn't fully repel coiled around her remaining wrist, her ankle, her waist.
All of it had happened in a flash. Hong Yeon-hwa's response had been quick, but her opponent's movements were too fast, too swift.
'Ah, screw this.'
Just like in sparring matches of the past, she'd been completely tied up. She'd probably started getting tangled the very moment she first closed in.
At that point, Hong Yeon-hwa stopped her sword.
And with that, the hurtling spines, the spears, the chains—all of them stopped as well.
"I concede."
A declaration of surrender. Not something she particularly liked doing, but she had no choice right now.
She glanced around.
Hundreds of icicles, laden with cold energy, were moments from being unleashed.
Behind them, spines and spears were on standby, ready to fire, and from every direction she could sense the precursors of interwoven magic.
The instant all of that came crashing down at once, it would be a match lost without a fight.
'In a match already lost... I need to think of Ha-yul, too.'
Because soft-hearted Lee Ha-yul hesitated to stab Hong Yeon-hwa even in a painless spar. Once, long ago, when a few drops of blood had appeared due to Hong Yeon-hwa's own mistake, he'd been on the verge of tears.
A voice carried through, and the judgment was rendered.
Cheers followed a match that had been a spectacle. Hong Yeon-hwa shrugged and faced forward.
The Calamity Flame subsided, and the waves and ice receded as well. Thanks to that, Lee Ha-yul, standing a little way off, was clearly visible.
"Hm."
As always, an unearthly, dreamlike appearance, as if he belonged to another world.
But somewhere in it, his expression was cold. Frost had settled on his fair cheeks and hands, and the breath he exhaled misted white. The gray eyes he kept open were rather devoid of emotion, too.
His emotions had been suppressed by the Azure Sea's backlash.
'This is kind of...'
Couldn't he neutralize that reaction with Calamity Flame? But even before that, another thought had surfaced.
'This is kind of doing it for me.'
The usual Lee Ha-yul was like a puppy. Whenever he saw Hong Yeon-hwa, he'd beam, and with his Winged Garment gently rustling, he'd act spoiled.
But the Lee Ha-yul right now... thanks to the Azure Sea's side effects, his impression was quite haughty.
It was similar to how Lee Ha-yul treated fairies or spirits.
A way of speaking like a noble addressing those below. Yet the feeling wasn't unpleasant, because it was gentle and warm.
Looking at Lee Ha-yul in that elegant atmosphere, all sorts of shady imaginings came to her.
Like wanting to hold Lee Ha-yul, pretending to be so elegant, in her arms and torment him...
Wanting to pin Lee Ha-yul, pretending to be so haughty, beneath her and watch that frozen expression melt away...
- Yeon-hwa, hug me.
Lee Ha-yul, unaware of such shady imaginings, came trotting over and promptly stretched out both arms.
His impression had turned haughty, but it seemed the way he acted hadn't changed.
"Cold?"
- Yes.
Hong Yeon-hwa set down her sword and opened her arms to ask. Lee Ha-yul gave a short reply and nestled into her embrace.
He buried his face in her chest, pressing his body flush against her without a gap. Those slender arms wrapped around her waist.
Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes went round at the cold energy rising from within her arms.
"Whoa, look how cold you are. Why didn't you warm yourself up with your Calamity Flame?"
- I like Yeon-hwa's body heat.
"...Keum, well, can't be helped then."
His tone grew a little flat as his emotions froze, but it was just as endearing regardless.
Hong Yeon-hwa cleared her throat with a hmm-hmm, paid no mind to the gazes on them, and held Lee Ha-yul tight.
* * *
【Unique Ability ｢Az(?)｣ grows】