Chapter 143: A Harsh Lesson (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 143: A Harsh Lesson (2)
“Hoo.”
The furious energy that seemed ready to erupt from Baek Ji-hoon subsided with a single, short breath.
One of the most important conditions for victory when fighting intelligent beings, especially humans, is emotional control.
After all, it's hard to find an opponent easier to pick apart than one who falls for a taunt and gets swept up in their emotions.
In that sense, Baek Ji-hoon is clearly a very capable asset.
Wiping the expression from your face with a single breath is harder than it looks.
Of course, I was sure he was still seething like a volcano on the inside, but for someone his age, that level of emotional control deserved high marks. Yes, indeed.
“Hup!”
The battle, which had fallen into a lull, resumed.
I’d thrown out some taunts to get under his skin, but his combat sense was also a cut above the rest.
He knew exactly what his strengths were and what he needed to do to win.
He probably would have easily claimed victory in a one-on-one match against anyone else.
If his opponent hadn't been me.
Clang!
Kang!
Sccrrrape!
The sound of his dagger striking the wall repeatedly hit my ears.
He used his high mobility to its fullest, aiming for gaps from the back, the side, diagonally—everywhere… but it was useless.
That's because the magic I manifested a step ahead of his arrival completely blocked his attack routes.
“Kuk! What kind of magic is…!”
A crack formed on his calm expression as he continued his assault.
He seemed quite upset by the rock wall that blocked him no matter where he attacked.
While he retreated to catch his breath, I examined the scars on the rock wall.
Most of the marks were concentrated on the upper part.
If I substitute my body for the wall… a rather dangerous conclusion emerges.
“Every single one was aimed at a deadly spot.”
Neck, heart, lungs.
Fatal areas that could instantly kill an opponent with a single stab.
Once or twice might have been a coincidence, but he aimed for the same spots again and again.
From this, I could deduce two things.
One, he hated me enough to want to kill me.
And the other…
“That bastard has killed people before.”
That Baek Ji-hoon was a murderer with experience.
He was just an aspirant, so there was no way he was an assassin for the Association or the government… It was highly likely he was a low-level agent for a hitman agency on the Black Market, killing for money.
Either that, or he was a psychopath who killed anyone he didn't like.
“So that’s why I had a bad feeling about him.”
I thought I disliked him simply because he was hovering around Shin Yu-jeong, but it seems that wasn't the only reason.
But well… it had nothing to do with me.
Whether he was an assassin or a psychopathic killer.
It's not like I had the authority to just lop his head off.
And even if I went to a professor and said, ‘That guy’s an assassin!’, who would believe me without any proof?
In the past, I would have dug in relentlessly and bulldozed not only him but his entire hitman agency. Now, however, I didn't have the slightest desire to live like that.
Whatever life Baek Ji-hoon lived was entirely his own business.
There was just one thing he needed to understand: he couldn't be loitering around me.
And from this moment on, I was going to engrave that into his head.
“Hmm… what would be good?”
I pondered for a moment.
What magic could I use to leave a proper warning?
Then, a good idea came to mind.
If I overwhelmed him with just 「Magic Missile」, the most basic of basic attack spells that you learn when you first start magic, wouldn't he get a sense of the difference in our class?
“Ha… What do you think you’re doing?”
“Hm? What about?”
“You’re going to attack me with that pathetic basic spell?”
“Yeah.”
Baek Ji-hoon’s face was a mask of disbelief.
Well, I could understand his reaction.
Despite its name, Magic Missile is truly unimpressive.
It looks like nothing more than a lump of blue mana, compressed to the size of a ping-pong ball, and its power is only about the level of a full-force punch from an adult male.
If a Hunter, whose body is tougher than a normal person's, gets hit, it'll just leave the spot feeling sore.
So, of course, he'd be dumbfounded that I pulled out such a spell as my attack card.
However.
「Magic Missile.」 x50
“I think this changes things, don't you think?”
“……”
Look at that.
The smile was completely wiped from his face when he saw the fifty Magic Missiles surrounding me.
“Here I go.”
Dozens of ping-pong-sized Magic Missiles poured toward him.
At the same time, I created and loaded twice as many missiles as I had just fired.
“Hup…!”
The guy couldn't get his bearings, overwhelmed by the number of missiles that just kept increasing the more he dodged.
He was already a little tired, and now trying to tap dance his way out of this had sweat streaming down his body.
Fire, load, fire, load.
By the time I'd fired about eighty missiles…
Thwack!
Thwump!
“Kuk…!”
Finally, the Magic Missiles started to connect with his body.
One, two, three.
From the moment he was hit, he was as good as stuck in a swamp.
The pain slows his movements, and more missiles pour onto his sluggish body.
As this repeats, his once-quick feet stop moving, and his body is reduced to a giant sandbag.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
Just like now.
“Keuk!”
It must be hell for him.
It's frustrating enough to lose one-on-one to a mage, but he couldn't even land a single hit, and on top of that, he was getting the crap beaten out of him by Magic Missile, the most basic of basic spells.
If I were him, I wouldn't be able to show my face at school for a few days.
I slowly approached him as he curled up, taking the full brunt of the missile barrage with his body to minimize the damage.
As I got closer, his eyes suddenly flashed open, and he uncurled his body to charge at me.
“Die…!”
The blunt tip of the dagger came straight for my neck, aiming precisely for the carotid artery.
No matter how blunt the tip, a dagger thrust with a Hunter's strength can easily pierce a neck.
In other words, this move meant he was fully intent on killing me.
“This bastard still doesn't get it.”
Looks like he was waiting for what he thought was his finishing blow.
He must have forgotten that his body was far too sluggish to move as quickly as he wanted.
“There we go.”
I easily dodged his attack, gave the despair-filled guy a smirk, and slammed a Magic Missile straight into his wide-open body.
“Keo-heok!”
Baek Ji-hoon coughed and collapsed to the ground as the Magic Missiles struck him repeatedly in the solar plexus.
Just then, an announcement came.
[That's enough. The duel is over. The winner is Kim Do-jin.]
They must have decided there was no reason to watch any longer.
I moved close to his face, which was contorted with pain, anger, and shame, and whispered quietly.
“Ji-hoon. I don't give a damn if you go around killing people or chasing after girls. But.”
He flinched, his body trembling at my tone, which implied I knew something. I grabbed his hair, forced his head up to meet my eyes, and continued.
“If I catch you loitering around me, and especially around Yu-jeong, with that body of yours reeking of blood, you hear me?”
To engrave a warning so strong into his mind and body that he would never dare defy my words, even if he broke every law in the world, I let my killing intent flow as I spoke.
“Then you die.”
“Ah… Ugh, uwaaah…!”
The moment I let go of his hair, he fell backward with a thud and began scrambling desperately on the floor to put distance between us.
After managing to flip over, he crawled out of the dueling area. I watched his retreating back for a moment before turning away.
That should be enough for him to get the message.
As soon as I stepped out of the dueling area, Shin Yu-jeong held a water bottle out to me.
“Have some water.”
“Thanks.”
I wasn't particularly thirsty, but there was no need to refuse her kindness.
I took a moderate sip, closed the bottle, and spoke to her.
“From now on, don't hang around Baek Ji-hoon.”
Her eyes went wide as she asked back.
“Suddenly?”
Then she grinned and started poking me in the side.
“What's this, what's this? Are you jealous right now? Huh? Huh?”
“Yeah, I'm jealous.”
It was better to say I was jealous than to explain that the friend she was getting close to was actually an assassin.
At my blunt reply, her face suddenly turned bright red. She reached out and pulled my head into her chest.
What is she doing with all these people around?
“Why are you so cute these days? Huh? Are you doing this on purpose or what!”
“Mmph, mmmph…!”
My nose was buried in her bouncy chest, and I could barely breathe.
I managed to twist my face away and open my mouth.
“I-I can't breathe…!”
“Kya-ha-hat! Don't talk into my chest, it's so ticklish!”
Then let me go, you brat…
As I struggled to gasp for air, a truly random thought popped into my head.
If I were to die right here, buried in a woman's breasts, would that be considered a good death or not? A truly trivial question.
Personally, I'd call that a good death.