Chapter 421: Human World [R-18] (59)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 421: Human World [R-18] (59)
—Screeeech!
Jang Hao’s body, forcibly pinned down, scraped against the ground as he struggled to hold on.
“Kugh…!”
Under the crushing gravitational pressure, his knees slowly began to buckle. The force was so powerful it threatened to snap his spine. Gasps of surprise erupted from the audience.
“As expected… it seems a close-quarters fight is disadvantageous against a gravity user…” Im Hwa-yeon murmured.
“No, it’s not over yet,” I replied, my eyes fixed on the arena.
He’s letting his guard down.
Choi Do-yoon seemed to think he had already won. But I could see a flaw in the gravity ability he was using.
“What do you think? Before gravity, all other abilities are useless.”
With a relaxed smile, Choi Do-yoon pointed his finger a little lower.
—Thud!
As the gravity intensified, Jang Hao’s body was pressed deeper into the floor. A spiderweb of cracks spread across the arena floor.
“Ooh! Choi Do-yoon is pushing him back with overwhelming force!” the announcer’s voice trembled with excitement.
The cheers from the Korean side of the audience grew louder.
“Yeah! Just keep it up!”
“Crush those Chinese bastards!”
But at that very moment, the corners of Jang Hao’s mouth, who was being crushed against the ground, slowly curled upward.
“Khahaha… How naive.”
A red light began to bloom from his entire body. Flames shot up his spine and instantly spread across him, blazing fiercely like an enraged dragon.
“—Explode!” Jang Hao yelled, clenching his fist while still pinned by gravity.
—BOOOOM!!
In that instant, red flames erupted and exploded right in front of Choi Do-yoon. A wave of compressed heat and a shockwave slammed into him head-on.
“Gahhh!!”
Choi Do-yoon clutched his face and staggered backward. Exposed directly to the intense flames, he winced and stumbled. The gravitational field wavered for a moment, and the suppressing force was released.
Jang Hao seized the opportunity and shot to his feet. With murder in his eyes, he clenched his flame-wreathed fists and charged straight at Choi Do-yoon.
“Hahaha! People think I’m just some martial artist who uses flames. But—”
Flames flickered at his fingertips.
“They don’t seem to realize that for my flames, distance is irrelevant.”
Jang Hao’s lips twisted into a smirk, and from that moment on, Choi Do-yoon was completely on the defensive.
With his eyes injured, he couldn’t accurately judge the distance, rendering his gravity ability ineffective. He tried to counterattack, stretching out his hands, but he only swiped at empty air.
—Bam! Wham!
Jang Hao’s flaming fists repeatedly struck Choi Do-yoon’s torso. His body was knocked back several steps, losing balance and leaving black scorch marks on the floor.
“Did you really think something like gravity could beat fire?”
Watching Choi Do-yoon being pushed back one-sidedly, I quietly opened my mouth.
“It’s over.”
Im Hye-rin sighed, her eyes cold.
“Indeed. He got careless and lost spectacularly. Should I say that’s just like the Sun Guild? To think that trash is Korea’s number one guild.”
Im Hwa-yeon nodded in agreement at her mother’s words and clicked her tongue.
“It ended so anticlimactically. He relied solely on his firepower, let his guard down, and got completely owned.”
“Hwa-yeon, you’d better not get careless, you hear?”
“Ah, Mom. Do you think I’m like him? Don’t worry.”
Im Hwa-yeon answered confidently, but Im Hye-rin’s expression remained worried.
At that moment—
—Thump!
Jang Hao’s final blow struck Choi Do-yoon squarely in the chest. Choi Do-yoon coughed up blood and fell to his knees, looking as if he had no strength left to stand.
“The first match is decided! The winner is—Jang Hao!”
As Raymond Crowley’s declaration echoed through the arena, the Chinese spectators roared with excitement.
“Jang Hao! Jang Hao!”
In contrast, the Korean side was nearly silent. Some spectators hung their heads, while others let out dejected sighs.
The bloodied Choi Do-yoon was immediately helped off the stage by support staff who had rushed into the arena. He was then brought directly before Lucia Valencia.
She stared at him with a blank expression, then slowly reached out and placed her palm on his forehead.
A faint light began to glow from her fingertips. A pure white energy enveloped Choi Do-yoon’s body, and his burned skin began to heal at a visible rate.
So this is the healing ability of an S-Class user.
I could see that not only his wounds but also his expression was becoming peaceful. His pained face relaxed as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Once the healing was complete, Lucia Valencia put a cigarette back in her mouth. She let out a sigh and said indifferently, “Take him away.”
“Thank you for your hard work!”
The support staff efficiently placed Choi Do-yoon on a stretcher and carried him out. His body, carried away like a piece of luggage, was shown on the screen.
“Those Chinese guys are tougher than I thought,” Im Hwa-yeon said, clicking her tongue.
“Of course they are. Now that this has blown up into a national competition, they wouldn’t send out scarecrows. So don’t you dare let your guard down.”
“I know! I’m not the same person I used to be. Stop nagging.”
Im Hwa-yeon flashed a confident smile.
“Now! We will begin the second match!”
The announcer’s voice boomed across the stadium, and cheers once again erupted from the crowd.
“China’s second contestant! The Empress of Ice and Snow, Seol-hwa Ri Mei!”
Ri Mei, dressed in an elegant martial arts uniform, made her slow entrance, her snow-white hair fluttering. As her steps brushed the floor, thin ice crystals bloomed. The sight of her walking barefoot on the ice was as dreamlike as a winter spirit.
“And facing her, the representative from Korea is—!”
The announcer paused for a beat before shouting.
“The heir to the Witch of Dreadfire, the Successor of Flame, hailed as the next-generation S-Class ability user—Im Hwa-yeon!”
“Go get ‘em, sweetie.”
Im Hwa-yeon walked onto the stage with a brisk stride. A faint heat began to rise from her body. The ground she stepped on slowly warmed with a red heat, a stark contrast to the ice.
Fire and ice.
The arena was instantly divided by two extreme energies. And then—
“Contestants, are you ready!” Raymond Crowley shouted, raising his hand.
“Ready,” Im Hwa-yeon replied boldly.
“...I am,” Ri Mei responded in a calm but chilly tone.
“Then… begin!”
The moment the announcer gave the signal—
—BOOM!!
Flames and ice collided.
*
Surrounded by a thick cloud of steam, Im Hwa-yeon scanned her surroundings, remaining tense and ready to counterattack at any moment.
Here it comes.
Suddenly, sharply formed lances of ice began to rain down from the sky. The transparent blades glinted in the sunlight as they fell rapidly.
—Fwoooosh!
Flames erupted from her fingertips, spreading out like a wave and swallowing the falling ice lances. With a violent explosion of steam, the ice evaporated into nothing.
“Huhu… an impressive flame user. I didn’t think you could melt them so easily,” Ri Mei said, the corners of her mouth lifting. Even so, a subtle tension flickered in her eyes.
“I’m not an idiot like Choi Do-yoon who got taken out in the first round.”
As she spoke, Im Hwa-yeon thrust her hand forward to attack.
“Flame Surge!”
—FWOOOOSH!!
At Im Hwa-yeon’s gesture, massive pillars of fire shot up in unison. With a violent heat like erupting lava, the flames swept forward like a tidal wave.
Ri Mei didn’t even bat an eyelash, simply spreading her hands.
“Ice Scale Barrier.”
—Krrrrrk!
The moisture in the air instantly froze, forming layers of large ice scales in front of her. Im Hwa-yeon’s flames engulfed the ice barrier, but the head-on clash of heat and cold didn’t produce a clear winner.
“Quite hot.”
Ri Mei smirked and took a step forward. The moment her foot touched the ground, sharp ice spikes shot up from beneath Im Hwa-yeon’s feet.
“Ha, this is a little annoying.”
Im Hwa-yeon twisted her waist and threw herself out of the way. The ice spikes that shot up, just grazing her toes, shattered into sharp, scattered fragments.
Once again, the two women’s gestures crossed. Ice and flame clashed violently, and a powerful shockwave erupted from the center of the arena.
—Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions rang out, creating a battlefield swirling with a mixture of heat and cold.
The fight continued like this for some time, but the tide slowly began to turn against Im Hwa-yeon.
“Hah!”
With Ri Mei’s shout, massive pillars of ice shot up in succession. In an instant, the surroundings began to freeze over like transparent walls.
Im Hwa-yeon twisted her body and reacted swiftly. She managed to create an opening by melting the ice with continuous blasts of fire from both hands.
This isn’t it…
Im Hwa-yeon pictured someone else in front of her, not Ri Mei.
What came to mind was the person who had always walked ahead of her: Im Hye-rin.
The woman known as the Witch of Dreadfire would have evaporated ice like this with a single gesture. She knew better than anyone that they were on completely different levels.
Mom was never this weak.
The label had followed her since birth. ‘The daughter of the Witch of Dreadfire.’ The expectations and gazes of those around her.
It had always been a heavy burden. Moreover, her naturally low amount of aether had driven her to despair. At some point, her vow to surpass her mother had become an empty echo, and she had lost her confidence, shrinking away and going astray.
Then, Jin Seo-yun changed everything. Her aether had increased explosively, and her lacking skills had grown at a dazzling rate.
Once again, she could dream.
—With the resolve to surpass the Witch of Dreadfire.
I can’t be the only one left behind.
Im Hwa-yeon remembered.
She remembered the day when, as a child, she watched Im Hye-rin fight on a monitor, her eyes sparkling. And she remembered herself back then, quietly clenching her fists, wanting to be just like her.
That memory, that desire, set her heart ablaze.
—Vwooooom…!
In an instant, all the aether in her body began to gather like a massive vortex.
“I’ll show you real firepower.”
Im Hwa-yeon slowly closed her eyes. Then she raised her right hand high.
“Ha, closing your eyes in a situation like this… just how much are you looking down on me?!” Ri Mei’s furious shout erupted. Instantly, an intense cold exploded from her body. A sub-zero chill swept across the entire arena, and the moisture in the air froze in an instant, falling like sparkling diamond dust.
“Absolute Ice Domain!”
As if the ground were cracking, ice spread across the floor like a spiderweb. In a flash, the entire arena was frozen white. And from its center, hundreds of sharp ice lances shot up, glinting.
The blade-like, sharp tips were all aimed at Im Hwa-yeon.
“Die!”
With Ri Mei’s cry, the ice lances flew forward all at once like a storm.
But Im Hwa-yeon still didn’t open her eyes. As if everything had slowed down, she calmly regulated her breathing.
In a sensation where time seemed to have stopped, she once again thought of Im Hye-rin.
Remembering the back of the woman called the Witch of Dreadfire, who melted her enemies with overwhelming power, Im Hwa-yeon slowly opened her eyes.
A blue flame flickered in her pupils.
Her lips slowly parted. Then, with a blank expression like a judge, she declared:
“Cheongyeomjinhwa.”
—Wooooooong!
A bluish flame erupted explosively from her body. It wasn’t a simple red flame, but a blue one that burned like the core of a star.
The moment the incoming ice lances touched the flame, they evaporated without a trace. Not even steam was left behind; they were completely gone.
Ri Mei stumbled backward, her eyes wide with shock.
“No way… My, my ice…!”
The ice of her Absolute Ice Domain was disappearing before the blue flames as if it were snow.
“Burn.”
As Im Hwa-yeon extended her hand forward, the blue flames surged toward Ri Mei like a great wave.
“No!”
Ri Mei desperately brought her hands together to create a final defensive wall.
A thick wall of ice rose before her. But when the blue flame touched it, it instantly melted and evaporated.
“Kyaaak!”
Ri Mei screamed as she was engulfed in flames. But she wasn't burned. Im Hwa-yeon had controlled the firepower at the last moment.
—Thud!
Ri Mei fell to her knees on the ground.
“The winner of the second match is Im Hwa-yeon!”
With the announcer’s declaration, the stadium was filled with cheers.
Im Hwa-yeon slowly lowered her hand. The blue flames that had enveloped her body subsided, and the blue fire in her eyes gradually faded.
As she caught her breath and bent her knees, the tension that had gripped her entire body released, and her strength drained away.
Phew… The aether consumption is no joke. From now on, I’ll have to monopolize Seo-yun’s dick to increase my aether.
The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. The battle was clearly over, but another thought was already crossing her mind.
Im Hwa-yeon looked past the arena to the two people sitting in the highest seats. Im Hye-rin, who was clapping with a quiet smile on her face next to Jin Seo-yun.
She looked strangely serene. No, rather than serene, it was closer to a certainty, a belief.
Mom knew I would win.
Im Hwa-yeon smiled quietly and slowly raised her arm.
At that simple gesture—
—Waaaaaaaaaaah!!
The cheers and applause that filled the stadium erupted like an explosion. People chanted her name, their voices raised in joy and excitement.
Now it was one win, one loss. Everything depended on the final match.
Bonus
