Week 7 Mentoring, PvP (4)
"So you caught a shotgun blast and went down in one hit?"
"......"
Gwak Ji-cheol clamped his mouth shut at Dang Gyu-young's question. By his own reckoning, the whole thing was humiliatingly absurd. He'd been under the impression the match was going reasonably well when, out of nowhere, Seo Ye-in closed the distance and simply cut loose with her shotgun.
He had lost at close range to a Gunner—a dedicated ranged class—despite two full weeks of diligent melee training. Ten mouths wouldn't have been enough to explain that one away.
And yet Dang Gyu-young showed no trace of anger or reproach. She simply kept her questions coming in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Let's hear it, then. What do you think cost you the match?"
Replaying where things had gone wrong was a far more constructive use of the time than burning emotion over what was already done.
Gwak Ji-cheol thought for a moment before answering.
"I'd say things went smoothly right up until I raised my fortress."
Retrieve the crystal quickly, link it to the Sanctuary, throw up earthen walls and dig in for a siege. That had been the best play available to him at the time.
Dang Gyu-young gave a small tilt of the chin, as if to say go on.
"Mm. And then?"
"...The moment the Gunner started closing the gap, I should have sensed something off. But I was so busy scrambling to defend that my response came too late."
Dang Gyu-young nodded.
"Exactly. When an opponent does something unexpected, you have to work to read the intent behind it. People almost never act thoughtlessly, on pure whim."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Listening to the exchange from the side, Hong Yeon-hwa mused, She offers a lot more practical wisdom than I expected.
When the mentoring had first begun, Hong Yeon-hwa's initial impression of Dang Gyu-young had been less than favorable. For one, the woman was a mage, yes—but she belonged to the Guild Coalition rather than any Magic Tower. For another, there was simple prejudice against the thief class. Word had it that thieves were so free-spirited it bordered on lawless, tending to handle everything as their mood took them, and she'd worried the mentoring would be no different: a token effort at first, then boredom, then a half-hearted phone-in.
Yet here they were, three weeks in, and Dang Gyu-young was still teaching the first-years with genuine diligence—and, little by little, drawing out their respect. So that's the caliber it takes to run a club, Hong Yeon-hwa thought.
Dang Gyu-young swept a leisurely gaze across her mentees, Hong Yeon-hwa included.
"That wraps up the feedback. This time, let's switch roles—we're at exactly two and two."
In the first match, Kim Ho and Gwak Ji-cheol had claimed the crystal first, making them the charging-and-defending side, while Hong Yeon-hwa and Song Cheon-hye had been a beat slow to find it and had to fight to wrest it back. This time, they would try it the other way around.
Stepping up onto the teleportation circle, Dang Gyu-young tossed the instruction over her shoulder as if in passing.
"Follow me in, two at a time. First up—Kim Ho and Hong Yeon-hwa."
And with a soft whoosh, she slipped inside.
Hong Yeon-hwa, unable to take in the sudden turn of events, stayed rooted to the spot, blinking.
...I'm sorry—what?
Who with who?
Only after replaying Dang Gyu-young's words several times over did reality sink in. Switching roles. Two at a time. One-on-one. With Kim Ho.
And then her eyes met Kim Ho's, and he was watching her with a perfectly indifferent gaze.
"......"
Hong Yeon-hwa's spirits deflated in an instant.
Granted, her view of Kim Ho had improved considerably of late. She hardly ever crumpled into a cowering mess at the mere sight of him anymore, not like before.
But facing him one-on-one was a separate matter entirely. In her heart of hearts, Kim Ho had long since settled in at final-boss tier. Duel or no duel, crossing weapons with someone she could never beat held precisely zero appeal.
Hong Yeon-hwa sent a silent protest toward Dang Gyu-young, who had already vanished into the arena.
Why him, of all people?
You could've paired me one-on-one with Song Cheon-hye!
Naturally, no answer came back. Instead, it was Kim Ho's voice that reached her.
"Let's go in. She's waiting."
At some point he had already stepped onto the circle and was looking her way.
"......"
"Not coming?"
"I-I'm coming......"
Hong Yeon-hwa started toward him—at a pace far, far slower than her usual. But the moment she registered Gwak Ji-cheol and Song Cheon-hye exchanging dubious looks, she quickened her step, feigning composure as best she could. If those two caught wind of anything between her and Kim Ho, absolutely nothing good would come of it.
The instant the pair stood side by side, the circle flared to life, and the scenery transformed before their eyes. A heartbeat later they were standing in the depths of a forest. The first match had been fought in woodland, so Dang Gyu-young had set the same terrain.
Something came whipping toward her, and Hong Yeon-hwa caught it on pure reflex. Only after the fact did she look down: a crystal about the size of a fist.
Next, Dang Gyu-young tipped her chin toward the Sanctuary.
"You head out first."
"...!"
Hong Yeon-hwa grasped her intent at once. In this duel, she was the one charging and defending the crystal—which meant: go on ahead and set up your position.
"......"
She stole a glance at Kim Ho. He appeared to have pieced together the situation as well, standing quietly and simply watching her. When their eyes met, he gave the faintest of nods, as if to say show me what you've got.
Hong Yeon-hwa drew a small, deep breath and steeled herself.
All right. Let's give it an honest try.
Losing was losing—but as long as she came away having gained something, that would be enough.
A great flame bloomed from the ruby set in her wand, fwoooosh, and the rising fire poured unaltered into her body. With Overheat reinforcing her physical capabilities, she kicked off the ground and shot away.
— Weeeeng—
The moment Hong Yeon-hwa crossed into the Sanctuary's radius, a mysterious radiance came cascading down from the enormous tree, and light began seeping slowly into the crystal.
She didn't stop there. Moving a little deeper in, she swiftly scouted her surroundings.
This spot will do nicely.
She selected the ground best suited to her plan: a place where the vegetation thinned without ever quite opening into a clearing—half forest, half open ground. She took position at its center and began to cast.
— Flash!
The ruby in her wand flared a brilliant red as tiny magic circles took shape on the ground, one after another. Mind locked in, Hong Yeon-hwa steadily multiplied the circles. Her casting speed already dwarfed anyone else's, and so the pace at which they spread across the ground was beyond compare.
Only once the ground was packed tight with the small circles did she finally stop casting. Then she fixed a piercing stare on the presence drawing near through the woods.
— Rustle, rustle.
Kim Ho emerged at his leisure, parting the undergrowth. He moved to step forward, then paused, lowering his gaze for a beat. He had spotted the magic circles blanketing the ground.
At that very moment, Hong Yeon-hwa snapped her fingers, and one of the nearby circles flushed crimson, erupting into a ferocious pillar of fire.
— KWAAAAH—!
Fire Pillar.
In its original form, the circle was enormous, and the spell took an age to cast—but while melting down Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron alloy at the Blacksmith Workshop, she had chanced upon an insight. Refinement after refinement built upon that realization, and the end product was this drastically slimmed-down Fire Pillar. The eruption moments ago had been pure intimidation: a preview of how she meant to put these circles to use, and of what awaited anyone careless enough to approach.
"......"
Kim Ho looked down at the circles with a face that registered precious little sense of danger.
Somehow, Hong Yeon-hwa felt she could read his thoughts.
— Should I just push straight through?
Recall the Placement Exam: this was the man who had taken a fully empowered Fire Pillar square on and come away without so much as a singed hair. A lightened Fire Pillar like these, he could simply ignore and walk straight through.
And yet Hong Yeon-hwa was certain he wouldn't. For one, this was a sparring match held during mentoring, so winning gained him nothing; for another, she had figured out that when it came to training, he met his partner at their own level, in his own way.
Just as she predicted, Kim Ho faced her and gave a measured nod. He meant to accept her war of attrition—the long, careful walk toward her. Even if in truth he would take no damage from her fire magic at all, he would fight the entire match under the assumption that the flames could burn him.
Before long, Kim Ho took his first step and began circling slowly around the outer edge of the circles, feeling for an opening.
It was Hong Yeon-hwa who struck first.
— Fwish! Fwoosh!
She loosed fire arrows one after another, and Kim Ho darted left and right, slipping past every one. Even so, he pressed a step forward—
— KWAAAAH—!
—and the moment a pillar of fire erupted from the circle he'd just stepped on, he pulled his foot back and retreated. He returned to orbiting the perimeter, hunting for an opening anew.
— Fwoooosh!
Knowing full well they wouldn't land, Hong Yeon-hwa nevertheless sent fire arrows flying without pause. The whole point was to keep him pressured, keep him busy. And whenever Kim Ho did venture onto a circle, she instantly triggered its Fire Pillar and drove him back out.
Kim Ho dodged the arrows, orbited her territory, breached it once in a while—and each time, Hong Yeon-hwa chased him out again. The pattern repeated itself.
The circles were steadily disappearing, but she had laid down so many—enough to carpet the entire clearing—that whittling them away one by one had no end in sight. There was no telling how many cycles of step-in-and-retreat Kim Ho would have to repeat before he ever reached her.
And long before that, the odds were far better that the crystal would finish charging first.
A thread of hope, fine as silk, stirred in Hong Yeon-hwa's chest.
If I just keep this up... can I actually win?
True, the conditions had been slanted one-sidedly in her favor—but even so, like this?
Then Kim Ho raised the short spear in his hand and leveled it straight at her.
— Whoooosh—
"Aaaah—!"
The onrushing gale swept Hong Yeon-hwa helplessly sideways.