Whoosh and Thud (2)

The moment Kim Ho and Song Cheon-hye entered the dungeon, Dang Gyu-young, who had been perched beside the goddess statue, rose to meet them.

"Practice? Or the real thing?"

"We'll run it live."

"Good."

Dang Gyu-young sounded genuinely willing about it. This week's defense had cast her as commander, which amounted to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sitting off in a corner and wiggling her fingers now and then. Compared to the sticker PvP assessment, nothing could be easier — but even that only stays fresh for a day or two. Having done it all week long, boredom had been quietly building.

"Signal me when you're ready. We start the moment you do."

"Yes, senior."

Dang Gyu-young kicked lightly off the ground in a leap — and in the next instant had vanished without a trace.

Song Cheon-hye swept her eyes over the spot where she'd stood, tilted her head up at the goddess statue for a moment, then spoke to Kim Ho.

"Shall we take our positions as well?"

"Let's."

The two of them moved to their respective posts, exactly as they had in every run before.

"……"

Standing before the main gate, Song Cheon-hye gazed out at the evening scenery blushing red with sunset as she drew out her gloves and worked them onto both hands. She closed one fist and opened it, and the topazes studded like grains across the leather gave a faint crackle, leaking thin threads of current.

"Kerrulk." "Krek!"

Goblins came marching in, filing into crisp ranks and columns. Song Cheon-hye regarded them with level calm and fed her mana into the ground. A great magic circle was racing toward completion.

- Crack-crackle, crack!

The instant the goblins set foot on the field, sparks burst from their bodies in wild flurries. But the goblins paid it no heed whatsoever. Faithfully executing Dang Gyu-young's orders, they wriggled stubbornly onward regardless.

"……"

Song Cheon-hye, meanwhile, mounted no response worth the name beyond laying down the field. She simply stood with arms crossed, watching the goblins file past her without much interest, raising a mana barrier only when the occasional rock or wooden spear came spinning her way.

"Kerrulk,"

"Kik!"

Just as the goblins were about to shuffle beyond the field's reach, Song Cheon-hye released the spell she had primed in advance.

- KRAKAKAKAK!

A wave of current rippled outward from where Song Cheon-hye stood. The goblins caught in it burned to flecks of black ash in a heartbeat and scattered on the wind — and the next moment, everything within a few meters' radius of her was empty air.

"Kek!"

"Krek."

The goblins pressed on without pause and filled the space again — and once more a Lightning Nova bloomed out from her, sweeping them away all the same.

One truth had been hammered home through repetition after repetition of this defense:

'Defense is about efficiency.'

There was no call for fancy chaining of this spell into that one. All she had to do was pick the two or three most efficient spells and fire them on loop.

With close to a hundred spells under her belt, some trial and error had been unavoidable, but in the end she had narrowed everything down to the Field-and-Nova combination: wait until as many monsters as possible were packed inside Lightning Nova's radius, then erase them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all in one stroke. The two spells covered almost exactly the same ground, which made them a natural fit.

Just as Song Cheon-hye was holding the main gate to perfection, a familiar sound came drifting over her shoulder.

- Rrrrumble,

Any fool could tell it was the side wall caving in, so Song Cheon-hye felt no need to turn her eyes backward. Left alone, Kim Ho would plug that hole perfectly well on his own.

Eyes fixed ahead, Lightning Nova chaining out over and over, she let roughly half the clock burn away.

"Grrrk……"

With the Beheader Goblin's entrance, the real battle began. Clear mana sheened along the cleaver clenched in its fist. The Beheader charged, working up speed with every stride, and the goblins came surging in a mass behind it.

"……"

Song Cheon-hye, on her end, stayed planted at the main gate, watching the oncoming goblins. Violent current crackled and gathered in one of her hands, condensing into a thick bolt of lightning; with her other hand, she assembled the frame of her next spell.

Then cleaver and lightning swung into each other—

- CLAAANG—!

"Grrrk."

The Beheader gave ground, a few steps at a time. Only natural, when Song Cheon-hye was a cut or two above it. It soon came pressing in again, its hostility burning hotter still.

Song Cheon-hye held her position as ever, meeting the assault with unshaken calm. Then, just before the goblins could pour over the main gate, she let loose the Lightning Nova she had pre-cast.

- KRAKAKAKAK!

'I have to stretch the clock.'

Second lesson learned: the Beheader's hide was absurdly tough — felling it in a short window was out of the question. In that case, rather than trying to put it down, it was better to play the long game and pour the weight into defense.

- CLAANG!

Song Cheon-hye and the Beheader closed and broke apart any number of times, and in the gaps she repeated her refrain, scything down the goblins that tried to slip past her with Lightning Nova.

Still flawless. The breach in the side wall would be holding firm under Kim Ho's watch, too.

'Just a little longer......!'

Hold out just a little longer. Drag the clock out. Every extra second meant less time for the goblins to hammer on the goddess statue if the line finally broke.

"Grrrk?"

At that moment the Beheader faltered, something shifting in its gaze. It had evidently taken fresh orders from Dang Gyu-young. A breath later it was driving forward a full notch more recklessly than before.

Cleaver and lightning collided yet again—

- CLAAANG!

"GRAAAAH—!"

The Beheader gave ground all the same, but its next move was different. Instead of staggering back, it flung its whole body forward, form collapsed and sprawling as it was.

"That's......!"

- Kzzzt-t-t-t!

Even with Song Cheon-hye pouring lightning into it point-blank, it would not yield an inch. She could see the sheer stubbornness in it — to fasten on somehow, to refuse to be torn loose.

"Kerrulk."

"Kek!"

The goblins seized the gap and made a break for the main gate. Song Cheon-hye cast Lightning Nova once more, but—

- KRAKA—kak,

The wave of current that should have fanned out in a wide ring snagged against the Beheader's body, spreading barely halfway before it sputtered out. Its potency, too, had been slashed to a fraction.

Dang Gyu-young's order was, in all likelihood, to smother the spell with its body. Even at the cost of baring its own openings and soaking far more damage, the Beheader had chosen to pin down the Lightning Nova.

And the intent worked disturbingly well.

"Kerrulk."

"Krek!"

One goblin, then two, began punching through the defensive line and stepping into the temple. From here on, there was no one to rely on but Kim Ho. Her own task was to keep her focus locked on putting down the Beheader.

- BOOM!!

A detonation rang out over her shoulder. Louder than usual — but a sound she'd heard plenty of times. Kim Ho, apparently, had compressed a mass of wind and blown it apart.

She was too busy trading blows with the Beheader to spare a glance behind her, but she could sketch out roughly what he was doing: blast the wind to throw the goblins beyond the side wall into chaos, and while they scrambled to collect themselves, slip over to the goddess statue's side. Then guard the statue from whatever goblins slipped past her.

—That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was how it was supposed to go, anyway......

- BOOM! BOOM!

"Skreek!"

"Gwahk!"

The bursts of wind sounded impossibly close — from directly behind her — and the goblins that had just filed past her came sailing back through the air to drop at her feet.

Song Cheon-hye turned to look behind her, mystified,

"……?"

"Surprise~"

Kim Ho, sidling up beside her, offered by way of greeting.

"No — what are you doing here? What about the breach? And the statue—"

Song Cheon-hye demanded, nonplussed. Kim Ho's assigned role was to plug the hole in the side wall, and then, from the moment the main gate's defense gave way, to shift over to the goddess statue and carry the defense on from there. If he had wrecked all of that for the sake of some 'surprise,' she was going to be very cross indeed.

But rather than answer the half question, half scolding, Kim Ho simply flashed a grin and spread both hands open wide.

Now what was this supposed to mean?

And hard on its heels, another question surfaced.

'……Why are his hands empty?'

Where had he left his weapon? Only then did her eyes travel toward the side wall—

- Fwhoooooosh—!

Kim Ho's short spear stood planted there, forlorn and alone. Around it, a fierce wind was howling in full gale.

Because of it, the goblins would squirm their way out of the hole only to be beaten back by the raging wind before they could find their footing, swallowed up again and again.

It was as though the short spear itself were casting Kim Ho's wind magic in his stead.

'But what about Close Combat?'

Separated by this much distance, the Close Combat rule should have clamped down and cut the power by a huge margin — and yet the wind magic was flexing what looked like its full, original force.

The reason for that, too, was not hard to deduce: because the party actually casting the spell was that short spear.

'……But that's a thing you can do?'

Her head understood it more or less; some part of her still couldn't quite believe it. A surprise, without question.

- BOOM!

"Grrrk……"

Right in front of her, compressed air went off, and the Beheader — cleaver barely mid-swing — was knocked stumbling back.

Snapping out of her daze, Song Cheon-hye heard Kim Ho say:

"Quit getting distracted."

"Ah— yes!"

"Use the big one. The big one."

"The...... big one?"

"Yeah. I'll cover you."

Song Cheon-hye caught his meaning instantly. In every attempt before, she had never been granted the breathing room to cast it — he was telling her to gut the Beheader's health now, with the heavy spell she'd never once gotten off.

She drew her mana together on the spot and stilled her mind. Geometric glyphs raced one another, swiftly assembling the frame of the spell. Its size and complexity made the mana drain punishing, but the blue crown floating above Song Cheon-hye's head — arrived there at some point without her noticing — was feeding mana in alongside her own.

- BOOM! BA-BOOM!

All the while, Kim Ho shoved back everything that tried to approach with wind magic, buying her the cleanest of windows. The Beheader attempted to muscle in with its body, same as it had before — but when the whole of you is being shoved away, there is little to be done.

And when Song Cheon-hye's spell stood all but complete,

- Whreeeee—

"Kerrulk?"

"Kek?"

"Grrrk?"

The wind that had blown only forward now spun up into a whirlpool, dragging the Beheader and the goblins together into a single heap. And onto the heart of that vortex, Song Cheon-hye's large-scale spell came falling.

- RRRUMBLE! KWA-KWA-KWAANG!

Massive bolts of lightning hammered down in wild succession, turning the whole area inside out.

In its natural form the spell dealt damage across a broad field, but Song Cheon-hye had adjusted the formula slightly, so that every bolt would converge on the vortex's center alone.

Engineered to fall on precisely one point: the crown of the Beheader's skull.

In moments the ground before the main gate vanished beneath a thick pall of churned earth, and nothing could be seen at all. When the last of the bolts had ceased to fall, Kim Ho stirred up a wind and swept the dust clear.

"Grrr... rk......"

The goblins caught in the vortex had already been deleted, clean and total, and the Beheader itself was swaying on its feet, all but sunk into a groggy daze.

Kim Ho spared it a single glance, then turned his back without the least lingering attachment.

"Finish it. I'm going back to plug that hole."

Song Cheon-hye flicked a glance at the side wall. The wind was tapering off bit by bit, and goblins were trickling out of the breach one by one.

Even magic channeled through the short spear, it seemed, ran on a timer. Well — an unlimited duration would have defied all sense.

"GRAAAH—!"

Even in this desperate state, the Beheader refused to surrender its fighting spirit and swung its cleaver all the same. But the shock carried up its arm each time the blade crossed lightning head-on was markedly duller than before — the large-scale spell had plainly gouged a great deal out of its health.

Before long, without so much as a handful of proper exchanges,

"KRAAAAH—!"

the Beheader loosed a tremendous roar and drew its cleaver arm back behind it.

At the sight, Song Cheon-hye's eyes lit up like sparks. She had read it instantly — the wind-up motion of a throw.

'A swish—'

She kicked off the ground and hurled herself at the Beheader, loosing a bolt of lightning with every last scrap of strength she owned, straight at the swinging cleaver.

"—THUNK—!!"

- CLAAANG—!!

The cleaver, having barely left the Beheader's hand, crashed into the lightning and its line of flight bent violently sideways. Tumbling end over end, it sailed far from the goddess statue to some entirely unrelated spot, spent its force, and bit into the ground with a thud.

"Gruk......"

And with that, the Beheader Goblin seemed to have wrung out its very last reserves — it crumbled of its own accord into gray ash and scattered on the wind.

Song Cheon-hye clenched her fist tight.

Swish, then thunk — success!

'HP?'

She hastily pulled up the scoreboard—

'That much is still left......?'

Song Cheon-hye's mouth hung slightly open. This was practically the territory of having allowed no hits at all. Even so, vigilance could not lapse until the very end — a fair number of stragglers remained, and some stray flung rock could just as well find its way to the goddess statue.

Song Cheon-hye sprinted toward the statue to lend Kim Ho a hand.

Reading over the settled score, Song Cheon-hye was thoroughly pleased.

It would scarcely be an exaggeration to call it near the top score of the entire first year. Hong Yeon-hwa's pride, too, could be smoothed flat without the slightest effort. And so her tone, in turn, came out a good deal gentler than usual.

"I honestly thought it was impossible, but you really did clear it. Ninety percent. I must have been the one who was wrong."

"……"

"I'd worried over how you would even put that weapon to use, and then you turned it to a use I could never have imagined. That one genuinely surprised me."

"……"

"Your judgment in linking up with me to land burst damage on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Beheader was excellent as well. You had the pattern read in no time."

"……"

Yet Kim Ho only kept beaming at Song Cheon-hye, easy and unhurried.

Ordinarily he would have managed at least a line or two by this point, but strangely, his mouth stayed closed.

"……?"

As Song Cheon-hye tilted her head at him, Kim Ho slowly raised one hand and lifted his index finger upward.

What now? Was he telling her to look up? She lifted her gaze, but there was nothing there. Dropping her eyes back to Kim Ho, she found the smile at the corner of his mouth a shade deeper than before.

Then, slowly unfurling two more fingers, he mouthed the words.

W. i. s. h. T. i. c. k. e. t. s. T. h. r. e. e.

"Ah."

[109] The Support Ate It All