Heavenly Demon Joins the Challenge (2)
The one thing I could say with certainty was that my opponent had fought desperately. Even as every attack he launched was dismantled, he kept trying to land even a single hit on me. At some point, his goal seemed to shift from simply making me take a step to outright breaking my nose, but either way, as long as he was motivated, that was fine. In the end, however, his desperate struggle ended in failure. The match concluded before he could land a successful attack.
Draw
“Good work...”
“Why don’t you come try it yourself! See if you can land a hit on this person!”
I had meant to tell him he’d done well, but he shouted first. It didn’t seem directed at me—probably meant for the stream viewers. They had started out praising him as a challenger craftsman, but midway through began mocking him as all hype and no substance. Of course he was angry. I had only started this to boost the Hwasan applicants who were being criticized, yet here I was creating another unfortunate victim.
“Honestly, none of you are better at archery than I am!”
“Hey!”
“Calm down, child.”
I understood how he felt to some extent, but there was no need to worry. Their unfair criticism would gradually fade. I would personally crush every single person who came to challenge me from now on. Naturally, the narrative would shift from “he was lacking” to “she was simply too strong.” So he could withdraw quietly.
The opponent laughed at my words, said he’d leave it to me, and left.
“Alright. Next person. Come on in.”
Applicants who declared they would make me take a step kept appearing without pause. Some had only come to see my face and weren’t particularly impressive, but others brought bold strategies. The most memorable was the one who chose a ruin site as the battlefield. He tried to use the fact that I couldn’t move to collapse the surrounding ruins and crush me. Since he couldn’t win with his own strength, he attempted to use the environment. It was an excellent strategy—assuming his opponent wasn’t me.
After I sent all the collapsing debris flying with my spear, the look on his face was quite entertaining. It was as if he couldn’t believe even that had failed.
Among the others, someone chose a battlefield where soldiers were fighting. The special feature there was the ability to rally the soldiers present under one’s command. The opponent planned to gather every soldier on the field and overwhelm me with numbers. The count easily exceeded a hundred, a gap that would have been insurmountable for most people. The one who brought that army looked confident, clearly believing victory was his. He didn’t know that no matter how many, grunts were still just grunts. There were plenty of soldiers, but none strong enough to matter. Shattering him in place wasn’t difficult. Watching someone who had trusted in his numbers become alone and despair was rather satisfying.
Besides that, people displayed all sorts of creative strategies. As expected, the one who tried to summon an Outer God was blasted away with my spear before he could complete it. The one who brought a strange robot-like character and tried to self-destruct near me had his neck cut before he could. The one who carried countless bombs and tried to destroy the terrain along with himself despaired upon realizing all his attacks failed to even scratch the ground, let alone harm me. There were also those who challenged me with pure skill, but their results were similarly failures.
Even after roughly an hour, no one had succeeded in making me take a step.
“Next person.”
The new figure that appeared in the empty seat was a familiar face.
“Dekay.”
“Hello! Hwaryeong-nim! It’s been a while!”
“Quite a few people doubt you.”
“That’s because I haven’t shown much!”
Dekay smiled as if it were nothing, even amid the skeptical public opinion. He was clearly used to showing his face to the masses.
“What is your strategy?”
“It won’t be fun if I tell you! Let’s just go!”
“Very well. Let us begin.”
*
Lee Minkee, one of Apis’s battle mage users, was watching Dekay perform in front of Hwaryeong and laughing. Dekay’s chosen strategy was quite decent. He picked a spirit archer and used an earth spirit to move the ground Hwaryeong stood on. By controlling the platform beneath her feet, he intended to break her balance and force her to move. Since the only requirement was making Hwaryeong move her feet, Dekay’s strategy was correct. His misfortune was that his opponent was Hwaryeong. No matter how violently the ground she stood on shook, she showed not the slightest tremor. Even atop the undulating waves of earth, she remained endlessly relaxed. His original intent had been shattered from the start.
Dekay desperately attacked Hwaryeong, then at some point let out a lament, as if enlightenment had struck.
“Logically, this isn’t fair.”
“Do you expect fairness from yourself?”
Minkee empathized with Dekay through the screen. No matter how he looked at it, Dekay hadn’t done anything wrong. His strategy was good, and his execution was solid. It was only because Hwaryeong was an irregular existence that his preparations had been destroyed. Watching a strategy get crushed by raw power was enough to bring tears. Having experienced something similar, Minkee felt sorry for the wryly smiling Dekay.
“...Damn it.”
After that, Dekay charged at Hwaryeong as if making one last desperate struggle, but a struggle was all it was. Not long after, the battle time ended, and he met defeat amid the viewers’ sympathy. The moment Dekay left, Minkee frantically searched private rooms for Hwaryeong’s room. He had been waiting with the single-minded determination to get chicken from Hwaryeong for over an hour and a half! Not knowing when she would end the event, Minkee was desperate.
Found it! Let me in. Let me in! Please don’t let someone else enter first! Please!
The instant he madly tapped to enter the room, the surrounding scenery suddenly changed, and the face he had just been watching on stream appeared before him.
“Welcome.”
It was Hwaryeong.
“Yesssssss!!!”
He had succeeded in entering the room after beating countless competitors! It was worth abandoning everything else to watch only Hwaryeong’s stream!
Hwaryeong looked at Minkee, who was cheering at the sight of her, with a somewhat disgusted expression.
“Child. Was entering this room truly so difficult?”
“It’s seriously insanely competitive! I don’t even know how many competitors there were!”
“Judging from what the other children are saying, you seem to be quite a famous person.”
“I’m in the top tier among civilian battle mage users!”
Minkee knew his place. As someone lingering in the lower-mid ranks of the pro league, he had met several active pros. Facing them naturally made one realize a single fact: the gap between pros and civilians was endlessly vast. That was why Minkee always emphasized that he was a civilian.
“Hmm. Well then. Shall we begin right away?”
“Yes! I’ve been waiting for this moment!”
“I hope you’ve prepared something interesting.”
Once the game started, Minkee chose the battlefield. A lake. Aside from legs submerged in water, it was an unremarkable location. Hwaryeong checked the battlefield and openly displayed her disappointment.
“Do you believe you can defeat me without any variables?”
“Aren’t there plenty of variables? It’s a lake.”
“Hmm?”
“This is my best battlefield.”
You probably haven’t met a proper battle mage user yet. In that case, it made sense you’d think that way. Minkee inwardly cheered at the fact that Hwaryeong didn’t know much about battle mages. That meant there was a chance she wouldn’t be able to respond to what he was about to do. Of course, that chance was a monstrous gacha of about 0.0003%, but still, it existed.
3
2
1
Game Start
The moment the game began, Minkee drew a spell. After more than ten years of using magic since the establishment of VR-era magic, the language of spells was more familiar to him than English. Therefore, inscribing those words in the air was as easy as breathing. What he chose was Water Current Manipulation. A simple spell that let one control water by chanting. The place where Minkee and Hwaryeong stood was a lake, and Hwaryeong’s legs were submerged in it. If the lake water struck her in this situation, what would happen!
Minkee saw a possibility of victory when Hwaryeong didn’t interrupt his chant. This would work! No matter how much of a monster Hwaryeong was...!
But at that moment, Hwaryeong raised an eyebrow, smiled, and poured strength into the hand gripping her spear.
“You’re attempting something strange. Trying to manipulate the water?”
“It’s too late even if you noticed!”
“No. It is not too late.”
Hwaryeong declared this and swung her spear horizontally. The lake water around her was pushed away, revealing the ground where she stood. Ha. Insane. Thanks to that, Minkee’s plan to sweep her away starting from her position was shattered from the very beginning.
“Right?”
It was still fine. He had expected his first move to be seen through. He hadn’t thought the monster called Hwaryeong would fall at this level. This lake was still advantageous to him, so there was no problem. Minkee cast several enhancement spells on himself, drew the sword at his waist, and charged forward.
“You intend to engage in close combat?”
“This is my style!”
He knew it was madness. He had seen everyone who attempted close combat against Hwaryeong so far meet disastrous ends. Even so, Minkee refused to abandon his style. The previous challengers had already shown that attacking from long range was meaningless. Therefore, he would do what he did best. By mixing magic and swordsmanship at close range and overwhelming her, he would seize victory!
“Hmm. This one is rather fresh.”
Hwaryeong smiled as she watched Minkee charging toward her.