Placement Exam (2)
Fire Pillar.
A spell that raises a pillar of flame across a designated area. Generally speaking, it sees less use as a direct damaging tool and more as a means of restricting an opponent's movements or setting up the fire magic that follows.
There is one exception, though — when the opponent is dumb enough to stand rooted on top of the magic circle.
Like right now.
- KWAaaaaaah!
The empowered Fire Pillar exceeded even Hong Yeon-hwa's own expectations. The force of the ascending flames was so tremendous that she herself, the caster, was driven stumbling backward a few steps, unable to withstand the violent rush of heat.
The searing blast also kicked up a thick cloud of dust that blotted out every sight within the arena.
For a long while, nothing could be seen at all.
After a time, the Fire Pillar's duration ran out and the flames slowly guttered down, while the dense dust began, little by little, to clear.
The instant her line of sight opened up, the first thing Hong Yeon-hwa checked was the scoreboard.
Kim Ho 100% vs Hong Yeon-hwa 99%
Time Remaining: 1:01
"No way……!"
And after all that, he isn't even scratched?
He really defended against an enhanced Fire Pillar without a single gap?
Anyone would lose their fighting spirit in this situation.
But Hong Yeon-hwa was not 'anyone.'
'I am…… I am the next Master of the Ruby Tower.'
Murmuring those words in her heart, she clenched her teeth.
There was nothing for it now. The trump cards she had been holding in reserve — meant to be brought out only midway through the semester against truly strong opponents — she would spend them all here.
Win she would, whatever it took.
She had just gathered her mana and begun casting her next spell when it happened.
Something small glinted in the dust that had yet to fully settle.
On closer look, it was a hummingbird made of lightning.
- Jjjjjjjik—
'Hummingbird!?'
She hastily chanted a counter spell and tried to swat it out of the air, but the hummingbird weaved erratically this way and that before vanishing entirely from her field of vision.
As she desperately whipped her head around searching for the missing bird, a sharp, tingling pain flared across her shoulder.
- Pajijik!
"Ugh!"
The status effect has been applied.
Gritting her teeth, she barely managed to haul her stiffening body upright before it could topple over.
Even so, she knew. The moment paralysis took hold, her chances of winning had dwindled to almost nothing.
Kim Ho walked slowly out of the dust cloud and stopped in front of her, resting the tip of his long staff against his shoulder.
"Let's stop here."
"……!"
The gaze meeting hers was utterly expressionless.
And came a voice as cold as that impassive stare.
"It'd be better to concede what you should and save your cards, rather than show me everything here. If you're thinking about your remaining matches."
"……!"
Only then did Hong Yeon-hwa understand.
That from start to finish, every single move she had made had been read.
She had been dancing entirely in the palm of this man's hand.
And thinking about it coolly, his words made sense. There was no guarantee that dumping every spell she had left here would actually work. Meanwhile, revealing her hidden cards would sabotage not just her next match, but every PvP bout for the rest of the semester.
Retreating now was the better choice.
Besides, it wasn't as though she had any real say in the matter. His weapon was hovering right at her shoulder, wasn't it? She couldn't know what spell would come flying the instant she rejected the offer, but at this range it would be just as lethal as a point-blank blow.
An image flashed through her mind — herself sprawled gracelessly across the floor. This man was trying, in his own way, to preserve her dignity — to give her the chance to raise the white flag before that could happen.
'I know. I know that, but……!'
However much she understood it in her head, for Hong Yeon-hwa — whose fighting spirit had been blazing until the very last second — admitting defeat was unbearably hard.
For a long while her clenched fists trembled, and at last she lowered her head.
"I… I lose……."
Kim Ho — WIN
Hong Yeon-hwa — LOSS
Until just before the match began, not a single person would have doubted a Ruby Tower victory. All the more so because her opponent had looked like a nobody of no particular note.
And so, as Hong Yeon-hwa shuffled off the stage half in a daze, the spectators each busied themselves murmuring.
Most of the murmuring focused on how I had perfectly defended against that torrent of fire magic.
And that question would linger for quite some time — for Hong Yeon-hwa herself, who had faced me head-on, more than anyone.
Once she learned the truth, she probably wouldn't just be flustered. She might collapse into utter emptiness.
'I never expected her to swallow it all so completely.'
Pretending to use a defensive artifact. Pretending to cast Dispel. Pretending to layer defensive magic.
I had merely performed convincingly — and Hong Yeon-hwa had taken the bait hook, line, and sinker, agreeing to a head-on showdown.
She must have calculated that when it came to raw firepower, the Ruby Tower reigned supreme, so a straight slugfest was a guaranteed win.
Except—
'Elemental Resistance was outside her calculations.'
To so much as scratch someone bearing the S-rank Elemental Resistance with elemental magic, you need at least B-rank spells.
Or a debuff that lowers the target's resistance alongside it.
With neither, you could rain magic down for a hundred days and my HP would never drop below 100%.
If Hong Yeon-hwa had kept a cooler head and observed more carefully, she might have pieced together the existence of Elemental Resistance and prepared a countermeasure. But her lack of practical experience and a time limit of barely five minutes had made her anxious — and that anxiety had led, in the end, to defeat.
Magic circles blossomed into existence across every corner of the arena, restoring the burned and broken sections to pristine condition. At the same time, a gathering of light lifted me off the stage.
I was just about to head back to the stands when Lee Sudok's voice stopped me in my tracks.
"Kim Ho. Song Cheon-hye."
My next Placement Exam match had been scheduled on the spot.
The stands stirred once more.
A celebrity whose name alone commanded every student's attention. Yet the woman herself showed not the slightest concern for the flood of interest.
Song Cheon-hye walked straight toward me and met my eyes.
"You're lucky. There was something I wanted to test."
Judging by how she said it, she'd apparently spectated my match against Hong Yeon-hwa. As a lightning mage, there was no way my final Hummingbird hadn't caught her interest.
Song Cheon-hye was burning with resolve, promising to give it her all — but in truth, her claim that I was lucky was wrong.
"Sorry about that. That'll have to wait until next time."
"What do you mean……?"
Because this match had been impossible from the very start.
Raising one hand toward Lee Sudok, I spoke up.
"I forfeit."
"……Excuse me?"
Song Cheon-hye stood frozen, eyes wide.
Lee Sudok, too, seemed to be encountering a situation like this for the first time; he furrowed his brow lightly and asked,
"Why."
"My condition is terrible. I don't think I can manage another PvP match. Please mark the third match as a forfeit as well."
"Even in poor condition, banking another win is far easier than earning another 300 points some other way. And you're still forfeiting?"
"Yes. That's just how it is."
"……Fine. I'll process it as a loss."
My cavalier attitude toward wins and losses clearly struck Lee Sudok as suspicious, but he offered no further objections and respected my choice.
That meant starting from a far lower ranking, and having to fight through more PvP matches to reach whatever rank I wanted — but the losses were mine to bear, after all.
I was turning to leave when—
"Hold on."
Song Cheon-hye called me back.
"What?"
"Are you really giving up for that reason? Because you're not in good condition?"
"Yep. Why, is that not allowed?"
For the briefest moment, Song Cheon-hye closed her eyes, as if swallowing down a surge of anger. Then she spoke in a lecturing tone.
"Always strive for complete preparation in any contest. Give your utmost even when you are not at your peak. Only those who seize victory even from disadvantage may ascend to the highest place — so it has been said."
"That doesn't sound like something you just made up. Words of some wise master?"
"My grandfather."
Come to think of it, her grandfather was the Thunder Lord. A hero who had climbed to the very summit of his field — so words attributed to the Thunder Lord were the kind of advice any aspiring hero should carve into their heart.
……Though actually putting that advice into action was a separate matter entirely.
I had no intention of revising a plan already set in motion.
And so I deployed the supreme evasion technique of all arguments: 'You're absolutely right.'
"Right, I suppose I'm just hopeless. Let's call it your win."
"……How disappointing. I feel like a fool for having expected anything of you, even a little."
Song Cheon-hye's eyes now carried something beyond disappointment — a faint edge of contempt.
If a favorability meter had been visible, it would surely have hovered as close to zero as zero could be.
She turned away, muttering that I'd wasted her time — and this time it was I who called her back.
"Oh, right."
"……What now."
"The dessert coupon. You said you'd send it over."
"You're thinking about dessert now?"
"Honestly, I could go for something sweet."
"Ha. I genuinely cannot believe what I'm hearing."
"You can't just forget about it. The dessert coupon."
"……."
Song Cheon-hye disregarded me completely and strode off with sharp, clipped steps.
Truth be told, I did want to fight her. The circumstances just weren't right.
'I've already drawn too much attention as it is.'
Getting Hong Yeon-hwa to surrender in my first match had stuck me with the label of 'an unknown heavyweight who crushed the Ruby Tower.' That alone was bound to cause no small amount of hassle going forward — and now I'd beat the Thunder Lord's granddaughter on top of it?
A superstar born in the first week of the semester.
Fame is a double-edged sword. And more often than not, the negative edge is the sharper one.
The better known my name became, the more eyes would study and analyze my every move.
S-rank Elemental Resistance is a monstrous trait that not only the students of Dragon Slayer Academy but even its instructors would struggle to pierce.
But right now, Elemental Resistance was the only S-rank thing about me. Everything else remained unremarkable. If word of that leaked, every future PvP match would become an enormous headache.
Which was precisely why facing Song Cheon-hye now was the worst option among bad options.
The handful of people who had watched my match against Hong Yeon-hwa would already have started nursing their doubts, and if I used the same trick two or three more times, those doubts would harden into certainty.
An information war was in full swing. Until I had other means in hand, I needed to keep my cards hidden as much as possible.
Naturally, the crowd had no way of grasping my true motives.
The gazes that had once carried the curiosity of 'Who even is that guy?' transformed in an instant into ones laced with 'Figures.' — mockery and scorn in equal measure.
A nobody who'd beaten the Ruby Tower on sheer luck. Then, the moment he was matched against the Topaz Tower, a coward who tucked his tail and bolted.
'Perfect. Absolutely perfect.'
That was precisely the assessment I had intended to cultivate.
Letting the jeers from somewhere in the crowd wash right past me, I returned to the stands.
Perhaps because the Placement Exam was already halfway through, the stands were actually rather sparse — students simply waited near the stage since their next match would be called before long anyway.
Shin Byung-cheol was one of the few students who'd claimed a seat. He was furiously scribbling something into a notepad, eyes locked on the stage. Being a fellow who traded in information, he was diligent at times like these.
As I sat down, he asked,
"Looks like you're all done? How many wins?"
"One win, two losses. You?"
"Same."
A wordless understanding formed between Shin Byung-cheol and me.
We clasped hands firmly.
Song Cheon-hye's next opponent turned out to be a male student armed with a spear. He seemed to be making some bold declaration before the match began, but all Song Cheon-hye gave him in return was an icy stare.
Watching the two face off, Shin Byung-cheol asked,
"Y'know, I was kinda hoping I'd get matched against you or her. Why'd you forfeit?"
"Dunno. Didn't think I could win."
"Yeah, fair enough. Against Song Cheon-hye, what can you do."
As a past victim of her lightning magic, Shin Byung-cheol seemed to sympathize deeply with my decision. It was a losing battle anyway — better to forfeit early than to writhe pathetically on the floor, paralyzed from head to toe. Aesthetically superior, he meant.
It was an interpretation wildly removed from my actual intentions, but if that's what he wanted to think, it suited me fine.
[3]
[2]
[1]
[START!]
The moment the match began, the spear-wielding student — who had charged in swinging — suddenly lost his speed and stumbled.
He'd been careless enough to take the Hummingbird dead-on right at the opening.
Clutching his buckling knees and struggling desperately, he barely recovered his stance.
But the next thing that entered his vision was Song Cheon-hye — calling down a lightning bolt the size of a person's body, aimed straight at him.
- Kurrurung!! Kwang!!
A thunderclap split the air and shook the arena to its foundations.
"……I think she's mad."
"Seems like it."
Snorting, Song Cheon-hye swept her gaze across the stands until it found me. She shot me a glare sharp enough to draw blood, then rode a teleportation circle out of the arena.
As for the spear-wielding student, his fate was to be carried off on a stretcher.
Shin Byung-cheol clicked his tongue.
"Aigoo. That guy hadn't even done his third match — now he's taking a loss without even getting to fight. Poor bastard. Poor, poor guy."
"He's not the only one. Song Cheon-hye hasn't done her third match either, has she?"
"Oh, huh, you're right? Who's next?"
Song Cheon-hye's Placement Exam — who would be her final sacrificial lamb?
As if to answer Shin Byung-cheol's question, Lee Sudok put two names to his lips.
"Song Cheon-hye."
And then,
"Seo Ye-in."