Chapter 79: Exchange Match (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: Exchange Match (4)
The students who hadn't been chosen or weren't participating had gathered in small groups, chatting amongst themselves.
Some held popcorn, others drinks, enjoying the rare moment of leisure.
After all, a battle between exceptional students was always a spectacle.
But not everyone was enjoying the show.
“……”
“……”
Two young women stared at the screen so intensely it seemed they might burn a hole through it.
They were Cheon Yeo-wool and Kang A-rin.
The battle between Jung Hae-in and Ha Sion had just begun in earnest on the screen.
-When did Sion even get over there?
-I know, right? She's so fast.
A murmur of admiration rippled through the surrounding students.
“That’s just like you.”
Cheon Yeo-wool muttered coldly under her breath.
There was a reason that bitch, who would normally refuse to participate no matter what, had accepted the position of team leader.
-Whoa!
-They're both so...
Only a few minutes into the fight, the students were captivated by the high-level combat.
But Cheon Yeo-wool and Kang A-rin's attention was fixed on something else entirely.
Jung Hae-in finally broke through the barrage of arrows and pressed into Sion's embrace.
“…!”
Immediately after, he slammed Sion against a tree, completely overpowering her.
He was practically on top of her.
To anyone else, it might have looked like a perfect, textbook takedown, but the two of them were focused on Ha Sion's reaction.
And the result was just as they'd expected.
“Well, well. Why don't you two just get a room?”
Kang A-rin snarked, chewing her popcorn in disbelief.
Unable to take it anymore, Cheon Yeo-wool shot up from her seat.
“Where are you going?”
Kang A-rin asked nonchalantly, watching Cheon Yeo-wool get up.
“Anywhere but here.”
Cheon Yeo-wool spat coldly and turned away. In contrast to her icy glare, the scene on the screen remained heated and precarious.
Just then.
The angle of the flying camera shifted, its view now obscured by the tree.
The two of them slowly disappeared from sight.
“What the—? What's happening?”
Flustered by their sudden disappearance from the screen, Kang A-rin fidgeted impatiently.
It was then that...
Ting.
[Hostile Team Leader Ha Sion Eliminated]
Text appeared in a corner of the screen.
“Nice.”
Kang A-rin let out a short exclamation.
Cheon Yeo-wool also stopped in her tracks and cautiously returned to her seat.
Her expression softened slightly as she murmured quietly.
“That's Hae-in for you.”
Meanwhile.
With the main force.
Team Yu Hana, having destroyed the golem and rapidly approached the civilians' location, received a radio call from Han Iri on the right flank.
-Enemy team contact expected as soon as we round the corner to the right.
On the path to securing the civilians, an encounter with the opposing team was inevitable.
Unless they had broken through at lightning speed, rescuing the civilians without a fight was impossible.
This was the battle structure Gaon had designed from the start.
“What's the plan?”
Kim Dae-hyun asked, looking back for his leader's opinion. He was out of breath from the fierce fighting at the front.
They currently couldn't reach Jung Hae-in.
If their flank had been defeated, advancing recklessly could lead to them being surrounded by the enemy's flankers.
“Advance.”
But Yu Hana's answer was unhesitating.
“Um... isn't this a little risky?”
Go Minjun cautiously offered his opinion.
From his perspective, unaware of Jung Hae-in's true skill, it was a reasonable doubt.
Without looking back, Yu Hana replied.
“It's fine. He won.”
“Um... if you say so, Leader...”
Faced with her firm attitude, Go Minjun nodded and ceased his objections.
He sensed instinctively that changing Yu Hana's mind was impossible.
It was at that moment.
Kssshk.
-Ah, ah, can you hear me?
A familiar voice. Jung Hae-in's voice echoed from Yu Hana's radio.
Yu Hana quickly raised the radio to her lips.
“Yeah, I can h—”
Snatch!
But before she could finish, Yoon Chae-ha reached out from the side and snatched the radio from her.
“We hear you! Are you okay?”
Yu Hana's eyes turned cold.
She quietly approached Yoon Chae-ha and held out her hand.
“Give it.”
An expressionless face, a frigid tone.
But Yoon Chae-ha completely ignored her, her gaze fixed on the radio.
-What? Chae-ha? I'm fine! I just took down the enemy flanker. I'm advancing up the left side now.
It was the best possible news.
Yoon Chae-ha's lips curled up in a satisfied smile. That was Jung Hae-in for you. There was no way he could lose.
“We're about to engage the enemy team just around the corner. Over and out.”
-Oh, really? Alri—
Click.
Yoon Chae-ha cut the transmission as she pleased and carelessly shoved the radio into Yu Hana's hand.
Meeting Yu Hana's icy gaze, Yoon Chae-ha put on a blank expression again and tilted her head.
“Shall we go, Leader?”
Yu Hana took the radio.
“Hah.”
Then she let out a short, incredulous laugh.
*
-BOOM!!!
-BOOM!!!
A series of explosions rocked the air. A fierce battle had already erupted between the main forces.
It was a typical 6-on-6 formation.
Typically, when a squad included mages, the strategy centered around protecting them while they focused their firepower.
The destructive power and efficiency of a mage's attacks were on a completely different level.
Gaon's intention in deliberately mixing students from Gaon and Carlos was to cultivate this kind of cooperation and tactical judgment.
Some members became shields to protect the mages, while the rest engaged their own opponents to hold the line.
However, despite having asymmetrical powerhouses like Yoon Chae-ha and Yu Hana, the battlefield was surprisingly tense.
The reason lay in the nature of magic.
Magic is heavily dependent on attributes and their counters.
Unless there was an overwhelming difference in skill, the side with the attribute advantage was unconditionally favored.
“This is going to be tough for her.”
In the distance, I could see Yoon Chae-ha panting, her breathing ragged.
The attribute Yoon Chae-ha handled most skillfully was, after all, Fire.
The problem was that both mages on the enemy team used the Water attribute.
Jo Yu-ri's Ice attribute magic wasn't much help either.
Of course, with Yoon Chae-ha's skill, she could have easily deployed a different attribute to subdue the enemy...
But right now, she seemed to have no intention of considering such an option.
-Sssssshhh!
Flames erupted fiercely from the red magic circle Yoon Chae-ha deployed, clashing head-on with the enemy's torrent of blue water.
The intense collision of mana filled the air with thick, hot steam.
A drop of water splashed onto Yoon Chae-ha's sweaty forehead.
This was the fourth time. It seemed Yoon Chae-ha's characteristic stubbornness had kicked in.
A tenacious insistence on piercing that persistent wall of water with the Fire attribute, no matter what it took.
“Yoon Chae-ha. This isn't going to work.”
I muttered quietly.
If it were just one opponent, she might have broken through with pure skill, but there were two of them.
It wasn't easy when two people were deploying the same attribute simultaneously.
With a Fireball, it's too difficult.
-Groooaaan...
I was behind the main force, clearing out the monsters swarming in from the flank.
I wanted to keep an eye on the main force's situation, and more importantly, if I just left these things alone, they would easily throw our ranks into chaos.
Ah, yes. Just like that.
A golem had just reached the rear of the enemy's main force.
The moment the vanguard's attention was momentarily drawn to the golem.
“—!”
Yoon Chae-ha fired a powerful Fireball with a short chant.
As if she'd been waiting for it, the flames struck an enemy warrior dead-on.
“Kuhk!”
The opponent's form blurred as they let out a pained groan.
Their figure gradually faded. Elimination.
“Keuh...”
But immediately after, Kim Dae-hyun, who had been holding the front line, also took a spear strike from an enemy student.
His opponent was a high-ranking Gaon student.
And just like that, it was a tense 5-on-5 again.
But another disaster struck.
Someone who had been concealing their presence on the right flank shot out toward our main force.
'Joo Han-kang.'
The winner on the opposite flank was from the enemy team.
Instead of defending his own main force's rear, he chose to attack ours.
I immediately twisted my body to its limit. My muscles pulled taut, and mana condensed sharply at the tip of my spear.
And from that stance, I threw the spear.
-Fwoooosh!
The thrown spear shot out in a sharp, straight line and pierced right through Joo Han-kang's body.
“Gak!”
With a small gasp, his form blurred and slowly faded away.
Yoon Chae-ha whipped her head around to look in the direction the spear had come from.
For a moment, her pupils trembled slightly, then slowly began to gleam a deep crimson.
I brought the radio to my mouth and whispered lowly.
“Time to show me what you've learned.”
I hoped she would hear and understand my words.
The moment she heard my voice, Yoon Chae-ha's lips stopped moving.
She paused her chant and slowly turned her head in my direction.
A few seconds passed like that.
Soon, she turned back and stretched her hand high toward the sky.
Her crimson eyes blazed with a mad light.
Along with a chant much longer than before, huge, overlapping red magic circles formed in the air above her head.
“—————————!!”
'The same thing won't work.'
I muttered to myself.
Then, the magic circles began to rotate in unison, growing larger and larger.
And finally, the magic activated.
-Fwoosh.
What emerged from the magic circles was no mere Fireball.
From their centers appeared countless spears.
Dozens of spears made of pure flame.
"What the hell is that!?"
The enemy mages panicked, hastily throwing up a curtain of water.
The sky was densely packed with burning spears.
This scene, this formation... I'd seen it somewhere before.
'Catenaccio.'
Yoon Chae-ha had perfectly reinterpreted and manifested the technique I had once displayed before her, but in her own unique way.
“It was worth showing her.”
I smiled.
-Fwoooosh!
-Fwoooosh!
-Fwoosh!
The crimson spears rained down from the sky all at once.
A downpour of fire hammered against the wall of water, tearing the barrier apart with a furious explosion.
-KRA-KA-KOOM!
As the flame spears pierced through like paper, a massive explosion erupted.
The enemy's main force was completely engulfed in the inferno.
When the massive clouds of dust and smoke cleared, not even a trace of the enemy remained.
Even the golem that had been attacking the rear had been reduced to ash.
The mark of a true game-changer, flipping the tides of battle in a single instant.
As I thought, my judgment hadn't been wrong.
-Hah... hah...
Yoon Chae-ha stood there, head bowed, breathing raggedly.
Her panting leaked through the radio.
I brought the radio to my lips again and said.
“Well done.”
I was proud of her.
I wonder if she heard me.
Though she was still gasping for breath, Yoon Chae-ha paused for a moment, and then a radiant smile slowly blossomed on her lips.
Joy seemed to spread from the upturned corners of her mouth.