Week 7 Mentoring, PvP Assessment (8)

— Kwaaaaaaah!

I lifted my gaze upward. Something like an artificial sun floated in the sky above, sending fireballs raining down without pause.

That thing is not cheap.

What Cha Hyun-ju had unleashed was [Fire Rain], an arrow-rain-type skill boosted through a special catalyst item. Rare as such items were, burning one as a catalyst yielded firepower to rival any respectable mage's — but against me, it was nothing more than a wasted item.

Because every last flame was swallowed whole by my S-rank [Elemental Resistance].

— Kwaaaaaaah!

The rain of fire kept pouring down for a good while yet. Some of the bolts landed near me and went up in fiery explosions; others struck me square on the head. And through it all, I stood in the middle of that sea of fire without so much as a flinch.

Naturally, my health hadn't dropped by even one percent. I simply stood there waiting, and little by little the falling fireballs lost their momentum until the barrage died out completely.

A brief hush. For the assault to stop after not letting up for a single instant, Cha Hyun-ju had to be rattled. The hollow feeling of having burned a rare item with nothing to show for it probably played its part, too.

— Skreeeech!

But she must have snapped her wandering mind back into place quickly, because arrows came streaming at me again. I weaved leisurely from side to side and casually raised my wrist.

The bracelet strapped there looked like a string of black clouds linked together — the Dark Cloud Bracelet I'd picked up in the commercial district.

Might as well take it for a test drive.

— Pop!

A fist-sized smudge of a cloud appeared beside me. It went bobbling forward and collided head-on with an incoming arrow.

— Thud.

The impact sent the dark cloud tumbling backward, while the arrow's trajectory skewed off course and buried itself in a nearby tree. Bobbing all the while, the cloud came drifting back to loiter at my side.

The Fluffy Cloud swallowed and absorbed magic attacks; the Dark Cloud cushioned and deflected physical ones. In short, it worked as a kind of cushion.

And it can be put to use this way, too.

I wound the dark cloud around Root, completing a long, pillowy staff. Then, layering Wind Force and Twister over it, I swung the thing head-on at the arrows streaking toward me.

— Thwack.

The arrow's flight path bent sharply and slammed into the ground. Performance every bit worthy of A-rank.

After batting arrows away like that three or four times, I had a rough bead on where Cha Hyun-ju had dug in.

There she is.

I kicked off the ground and bolted forward.

— Whoosh! Whoosh!

The moment I left the Sanctuary's radius, the link severed and the crystal's charge began to bleed away.

But I ignored the scoreboard and poured everything into the sprint. Only one thing mattered right now: teaching that insolent archer the bitter taste of a true veteran.

— Whoosh! Whoosh!

A few more lurches of scenery, and Cha Hyun-ju came into view. Her eyes went wide at the sight of me.

"……!"

"Did you think I wouldn't come out?"

Anyone else, having charged the crystal that far, would have dug in beside the Sanctuary if only because the progress felt too precious to abandon. I was the exception. Obsessing over charge percentage was strictly amateur behavior — you could always charge again later, once the opponent's harassment had been neutralized. Of course, for Cha Hyun-ju, competing in only her third crystal match ever, such a strategy had to be foreign.

Even caught off guard, she recovered her poise in short order ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and rattled off shot after shot,

— Whoosh!

and the very next instant, I was behind her back. The exact same picture as before — but the gap in specs was so brutal that even knowing what was coming, she'd had no choice but to be caught by it.

"Kgh—!"

Cha Hyun-ju whipped her arrows around like daggers to answer, but that struggle, too, dissolved into froth in moments. After a short close-quarters exchange, I put Root to work like a restraint baton and clamped on a joint lock. Then, with her pinned firmly in place, I pointed at the far edge of the sky.

"Now, this time we'll be going a little farther."

— Whooooosh—!

Perhaps because the gathering wind felt anything but ordinary, Cha Hyun-ju's pupils shook even more wildly than before. Then she blurted out, desperate:

"Wait. I lost. I'm forfeiting."

"Oh? In that case, I'll accept your forfeit—"

— BOOM—!

—is what I did not do, detonating the heavily compressed mass of wind instead.

"—!!"

Cha Hyun-ju shot away like a human cannonball. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠She flew so fast she never even got out the first syllable of son of a bitch.

After a glance at Cha Hyun-ju — now shrunk to a tiny dot — I checked the scoreboard again.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The charge had tumbled into the thirties in the blink of an eye. But there was no need to hurry back to the Sanctuary.

Because Cha Hyun-ju had been ruled incapable of combat.

Now then, time to use the spoils.

I fished [Rank Up (E)] out of my inventory. I'd received it from Cha Hyun-ju as the price of accepting a private rematch, and now that I'd gone and won in a landslide, she couldn't complain no matter how freely I spent it.

The moment I activated the scroll, a radiant light burst forth and poured straight into my body.

One of the three perks granted when I accepted the reincarnation quest. Its true worth hadn't fully come to light yet, but it was a powerful trait that gave up little even next to [Copy] and [Amplification].

The first effect of [Sovereign] was strong resistance to mind-type magic — illusions, bewitchment, and the like. The second was a "special authority" possessed by a Sovereign alone. Just as I had slipped straight through the Feathered Serpent Temple's barrier without the slightest hindrance when I copied the [Priest] trait, there were things in this world only a Sovereign could do. Those two effects alone made it plenty useful, and as the rank climbed higher, more functions would unlock down the road.

A long-term investment. Excellent.

With that settled, I rode the teleportation circle out of the arena.

"You fought Cha Hyun-ju again?"

Dang Gyu-young asked, startled.

"That's how it came about."

"When? How did that even happen?"

"Just now. She came looking for me. Said she'd pick a fight if I didn't take the rematch."

Dang Gyu-young's brow creased; she whipped her head around and glared at some corner of the arena — presumably wherever Cha Hyun-ju's mentor would be sitting.

"Honestly, that girl cannot be supervised. Never once thinks about the trouble she dumps on other people."

Then she swung her head back to me.

"Did you discipline her? Cha Hyun-ju."

"I gave her a very thorough lesson."

"Hehehe, that's right. No way our junior who graduated from No. 200 could lose."

Dang Gyu-young, in high spirits, slapped my shoulders again and again. Then, once the excitement ebbed, she offered advice with a touch more gravity.

"Still, watch yourself. Cha Hyun-ju has a stubborn, obsessive streak. I'd wager she keeps picking fights with you from here on out."

"Looks that way."

Cha Hyun-ju's eyes had carried a quiet, settled menace even in the moment she declared her surrender. That was exactly why I hadn't accepted it and had blasted her away instead. Just as Dang Gyu-young said, she looked vicious and relentless — sooner or later, we were bound to cross paths again.

— Grrrrnd.

Cha Hyun-ju ground her teeth hard enough to crack a molar. Her two clenched fists trembled. She sat in a corner of the Arena, replaying her second match against Kim Ho in her head.

— Grrrrrnd.

The more she recalled, the more every single moment stoked the fire, and not grinding her teeth was simply not an option. Kim Ho's playful taunts kept circling her head.

"Show some sincerity. The match fee."

"Off we go, toot toot~"

"Now, this time we'll be going a little farther!"

"……!!"

Unable to swallow her rage, Cha Hyun-ju cocked her fist back to smash the spectator seats — but her mentor, who had been watching her with anxious eyes, hastily cut in.

"H-Hyun-ju. Let's just calm down a little. Just a little."

"……"

Cha Hyun-ju lowered her fist, took a long, slow breath, and began replaying the match all over again.

— Grrrrnd.

And, naturally enough, her teeth ground together once more.

That emotional streak aside, she was dissecting every element of the match with a fairly objective eye. In the randomly drawn first bout, she had drawn her bow far too late, and the match had ended before she could show even a sliver of her real skill. That lingering unease was the decisive reason she had demanded a rematch with Kim Ho — she was certain that if she bared everything from the very start in a private match, defeat was simply not on the table.

Except once the revenge match actually began, it turned out she hadn't been the only one hiding her strength.

He felt like a completely different person.

Kim Ho, fighting at full power, moved so fast that even her archer's eyes struggled to track him. If she couldn't even catch him in her sights, her arrows were never going to land. In the end, she could do nothing until he was right on top of her, and once he closed in, she was pinned in a flash before she could mount any real resistance.

Twice, no less.

It was a perfect gap in skill, without an inch of room for excuses.

And that wasn't all. Even when she unleashed her trump card, [Fire Rain], that infuriating man hadn't moved a single step from where he stood — practically flaunting the fact that such things didn't work on him. Afterward he'd summoned some black cloud ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and swatted her attacks aside as lightly as if humoring a child. And last of all, there was the sheer nerve and audacity of abandoning the crystal charge entirely to gamble everything on the kill.

Haa... Fine. Credit where credit's due.

By any measure, it had been her utter defeat. But she was far from the type to sink into despair or dejection over a few losses. If anything, her eyes blazed hotter than ever with competitive fire.

I have to get stronger.

Far stronger than I am now. She would grow until the gap between her and Kim Ho was overwhelming — and only then throw down the gauntlet again. And this time she would trample him into the dirt.

For that, every last thing she had needed to go into her bow. Wasting time on daggers for the sake of concealing her skill could only slow her growth.

...I'm throwing it away.

She had her own reasons for hiding her strength here at Dragon Slayer Academy — goals of her own she meant to achieve. But right now, none of that mattered.

Cha Hyun-ju declared to her mentor:

"I... from today on, I'm just going to use my bow."

[124] The Support Ate it All