One-on-One Duel (4)

My match was over, and Lucy's was up next.

I'd been worried about her fight against Elise, so I figured I ought to go check on her. I headed over to the competitor waiting area where she was sitting.

"Huh? Lee Hoyeon! I saw your match — you were awesome!"

"Thanks. I came to cheer you on."

Of course, even as I said it, I knew Lucy winning would be a long shot. Elise was a broken character who'd stand toe-to-toe with Nam Daeun the moment her mana disorder was cured. And as a magic swordsman, Elise's talent made her absurdly versatile in a fight — which gave her a crushing edge ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in one-on-one combat.

Still, I couldn't let any of that show in front of Lucy. I had to cheer her on.

"Thanks. I'll give it everything I've got!"

"Yeah. It should be starting soon. I'll be in the waiting room. Let's grab lunch after."

"Okay~!"

Good. Even if she lost, her mental state wouldn't take a hit.

It was a little bitter, but it seemed Lucy already understood the gap between them. I saw her off with a smile all the way to the end.

"I figured as much, but still... what a shame."

The match ended, unfortunately, in Lucy's defeat. The fight itself had been a good one, though. She'd put her overwhelming firepower on full display. Elise had simply handled it too well — but Lucy had fought brilliantly, and her evaluation scores would reflect that.

Nam Daeun's match after that was, predictably, a complete stomp. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cut her opponent down three seconds after the starting signal. The other cadet probably never even understood why they'd lost.

With Nam Daeun's match finished, the semifinal matchups were locked in: Lee Hoyeon versus Kim Young-han, and Elise versus Nam Daeun.

I'd already promised Lucy lunch, so I sent her a message and headed to her waiting room.

"Lucy. I'm here."

"Mhm, come in!"

I opened the door and found Rumi sitting inside as well.

"Oh, Rumi's here too?"

Apparently they'd both been waiting after I suggested lunch.

"Hoyeon... you were so cool out there."

"Thanks."

"Rumi. You never said I looked cool. Are you looking down on me just because I lost?"

Lucy latched onto her twin, throwing a full-blown tantrum.

"Hoyeon greeted me at the arena... You didn't greet me at all."

"Ah... sorry. I forgot."

See? The little details really do matter. I'd picked up a nice bit of goodwill over something that small.

"Let's go eat. Where do you two want to go?"

"The student cafeteria's way too packed! Let's eat outside!"

"I don't mind either way."

They'd built in a generous rest period for the finalists on top of lunch, so we had plenty of time.

"Alright. Let's head out, then."

Eating off campus for a change didn't sound half bad.

I came back from lunch outside with the Lucy-Rumi twins. Lucy was trying not to show it, but the loss was clearly still eating at her, so Rumi and I both worked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hard to cheer her up.

We decided to hang around in the waiting room together until my match started.

"You have to make it to the finals and get revenge for me, okay?"

"Don't worry about it."

"If it's you, Hoyeon, I know you can win...!"

I loosened up, chatting idly with the twins. Of course, the odds of me actually facing Elise in the finals were basically zero, so I wouldn't be avenging anyone — but still.

"Looks like it's starting. I should head over to the competitor waiting area."

"Yeah. Fighting! You have to win! I'll be watching every second!"

"Hoyeon, do your best...!"

"Thanks."

Buoyed by Lucy and Rumi's cheers, I made my way to the competitor waiting area. Fighting Kim Young-han... something about it felt off.

"Cadet Lee Hoyeon. Please prepare to enter the arena."

"Yes, understood."

From the semifinals onward, every match mattered, and it showed — the staff were going out of their way to make sure nothing disrupted a competitor's condition. I followed a courteous staff member up onto the arena floor.

"Hey there, handsome."

The moment I stepped onto the arena floor, Kim Young-han was already waiting, calling out to me.

"Why do you keep calling me that lately?"

"Because my friend Lee Hoyeon has gone way too far ahead. Makes me a little sad, you know?"

"Whatever. I'm not going easy on you, so you'd better be ready."

The finals were right around the corner. I couldn't afford some stupid mistake like letting my guard down and losing here. I was going to take him on at full strength.

"Scary..."

Kim Young-han lifted his sword with a wry smile, and I drew up my mana.

The starting signal rang out, and my Combat Sense surged.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

What the hell...

He was stronger than I'd expected. Combat Sense was screaming that Kim Young-han was a far more dangerous opponent than Do Jinhyeok had ever been.

Kim Young-han closed in, swinging that distinctive thorn sword of his — a blade bristling with dark crimson spikes.

A sharp clang rang out as I caught his blade on a Cotton Guard and forced the distance open. Without Acceleration, Kim Young-han was faster than I was. But as long as I read the path of his sword in advance with Insight, I could still deal with him.

He kept charging in, desperate to close the gap. Even when I blocked his strikes and counterattacked — even when his cadet uniform caught fire — he didn't spare his own body a second thought. He just kept coming, attack after attack.

I bought myself a breath with a fireball and another Cotton Guard, then put serious distance between us.

"Why are you coming at me so viciously?"

"Because I want to see what you can really do. You haven't even used the skills you pulled out against Do Jinhyeok yet."

"The situation hasn't called for them."

Acceleration and Spiral weren't skills I could throw around whenever I felt like it. Thanks to my pitiful mana reserves, I could only use them once or twice — which meant I had to save them for exactly the right moment.

"That so...?"

Kim Young-han raised his sword again. He was already covered in shallow cuts, but there wasn't a hint of surrender in him.

Alright. Time to wrap this up.

He charged me again, and we traded blows. I slipped through his assault without taking a scratch, and as he fell back I launched a fireball after him. Once the distance opened up, I could attack him one-sidedly — I couldn't afford to let an opening like that slip.

But right before the fireball left my hand, Combat Sense suddenly screamed a warning.

My heart hammered harder than it had facing two ogres at once. A deep, wrong sense of unease crawled through my chest, and I threw my body to the right without a second thought. I couldn't ignore a feeling I had no words for. I trusted my gut.

A vicious, tearing sound ripped through my ears, and something grazed my cheek.

"Whoa... nobody's ever dodged that on the first try. You really are a monster."

Kim Young-han was staring at me with his mouth open, one hand still pressed to the floor. And in the spot where I'd been standing a heartbeat ago, a dark crimson thorn over three meters tall had erupted from the ground.

"...What the hell is that."

My cheek burned. I wiped it with the back of my hand, and red liquid came away on my skin.

"...Blood?"

Of course, we were inside a mana field, so it wasn't a real wound. Just one of the systems designed to make you feel pain and sharpen your live-combat instincts. But an attack sharp enough to draw blood on me was the real deal.

That was close. If I'd reacted even a fraction of a second later, I almost certainly would have lost. That thorn would have punched straight through my body and triggered the safety settings.

"That was my trump card... I can't believe it failed."

Kim Young-han muttered it like he genuinely meant it.

"...Hey. That's the kind of thing you're supposed to save for the finals. You scared the hell out of me."

"That was the plan. But what was I supposed to do when you're this strong? I have to win the semifinal before I can even get to the finals."

Unbelievable. The thorn jutting up behind me was, by any measure, not cadet-level. I'd never even heard of an ability that could exert that much physical force in an instant. And it had erupted while completely ignoring both my Insight and my Mana Sensitivity — which meant it wasn't a mana skill at all. It was an innate authority. I never imagined he'd been sitting on a hidden weapon like that.

"Haa. I wanted to close out this one-on-one tournament with a championship nobody saw coming from rookie Kim Young-han. And then you went and ruined it."

"...If it's any consolation, even if you'd saved that and made the finals, you still wouldn't have beaten Nam Daeun."

Nam Daeun had won in the original story too, so his plan would have fallen apart either way. Her authority, Spatial Dominion. The space around her was already her territory. There was no way she wouldn't notice a giant thorn being summoned like that.

"You know that kind of talk hurts a guy's pride. Well, whatever. Since that got stopped, I'm forfeiting. Referee! I forfeit!"

Kim Young-han accepted his loss without a fuss. Summoning that massive thorn probably wasn't the end of what he could do, and he still looked like he had plenty left in the tank — but maybe he just didn't want to reveal any more of his ability.

The mana barrier dissolved, and I walked over to Kim Young-han, who was smiling a bitter little smile.

"Hey. You're not gonna sulk just 'cause you lost, are you? What kind of man does that?"

"Of course not. I've gotta stay on handsome's good side if I want to pick up even the crumbs that fall off his table."

Thankfully, he didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

"After that match, you're gonna have a real headache on your hands too. Heh."

Kim Young-han was good-looking in his own right — not on my level, but enough — and now that he'd revealed a hidden ability on top of it, the hangers-on were going to swarm him.

"Well, it's not a bad thing when you're picking where to work after graduation."

A lie. Nobody knew it yet, but Kim Young-han was the heir to a major guild. The problem was that he was the kind of lunatic who'd enrolled in the academy determined to prove himself without leaning on the guild's name at all.

"Right. Good work out there."

"You too. You beat me to get here, so you'd better win the whole thing."

"Mm. I'll give it a shot."

Kim Young-han turned on his heel and headed down from the arena. I climbed down after him, waving hard at the spectators the whole way.

"Shame. But that last surprise attack was really something."

Lim Sol, who'd been watching Hoyeon's match, smiled at his victory.

"I know, right? How did he even dodge that? What's our young master supposed to do now."

"What was that?"

"No, no — I mean, dodging that? Cadet Lee Hoyeon is incredible. I'm going to run to the restroom for a second."

Min Yeji gathered her things, stood up, and slipped out of the spectator seats. Checking her smartwatch, she arrived at the meeting spot to find Kim Young-han already waiting.

"Young Master. You worked hard. That really was a shame. Who would've thought that ambush would get stopped."

"I know... You saw it too, right, Yeji? That Hoyeon kid is a monster. You said you were in contact with him about recruitment, didn't you? How's that going?"

Kim Young-han greeted Min Yeji with a gravity that was nothing like his usual self.

"Ah... well, it's going fine. But Cadet Lee Hoyeon doesn't seem interested in getting involved with any guild. And that's with me — he won't even take calls from the others. You know that, right?"

"Of course I know how good you are, Yeji. That's why we pay you so much. Anyway, keep at it. If we can just bring Hoyeon in, the Iron Blood Guild taking the number one spot in Korea isn't a dream."

Kim Young-han didn't advertise it publicly, but internally he had already been named the successor to the Iron Blood Guild. He'd planned to reveal it with pride if he won this one-on-one tournament. Unfortunately, that plan had just gone up in smoke.

"Yes, yes, of course. Come to think of it, you've gotten pretty close with Cadet Lee Hoyeon yourself, Young Master. Were you buttering him up in advance so you could recruit him later? That's impressive~."

If Hoyeon came to the Iron Blood Guild, of course he'd be welcome ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— but that wasn't why they'd become friends.

"That's not it. Hoyeon's just a friend. He's fun to watch from up close."

Match over, I headed back to the waiting room to watch Elise versus Nam Daeun. The medical team had already come by after my fight and fully restored both my stamina and my mana. They had to keep every finalist in peak condition heading into the next round, after all.

The moment I cracked open one of the drink cans waiting in the room, a system window appeared in front of my eyes.

"...Huh?"

A sub quest I absolutely could not afford to miss had just dropped into my lap.