Week 12 PvP (4)
I fixed my eyes on Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in standing across from me.
Well, this works out nicely.
Winning was a foregone conclusion — the sub-quest reward had a Copy Slot riding on it, after all. And the winning itself would be as easy as flipping my palm over. Amplify Wind Force to A+, shove them both off the clouds, and that would be that.
But that would be the crude way to do it.
What good would flexing my strength at those two and snatching up a quick victory do me? They already knew everything there was to know about me. What mattered was the process — how one won or lost, and what one learned along the way.
In that respect, Hong Yeon-hwa was the perfect teammate. Go Hyeon-woo had little experience facing a mage who actually fought like one, and Seo Ye-in had only ever won by exploiting the Gunslinger's natural advantage over mages — judged on raw skill alone, both still had a long road ahead. She was a mage of promising-star caliber, and with just a little help from me, I could wake her up to that fact in full.
Which meant this match had to be won while pouring the spotlight squarely onto Hong Yeon-hwa.
"...?"
Hong Yeon-hwa had been sneaking anxious glances at me ever since the match-up was set. With the opposing team being the two people closest to me, she probably had no idea how I intended to play it.
I opened my mouth with perfect composure.
"Hong Yeon-hwa."
"Y-yes...?"
"You're the main dealer this match."
"M-me...?"
"That's right. I'll just be supporting from the side."
"W-will that... be okay...?"
Hong Yeon-hwa looked far from certain she could pull it off. In the last three-way battle in the volcanic zone she had gone up against Seo Ye-in and lost, and now Go Hyeon-woo had been added on top of that. She was known to be quite skilled, even if not quite at the promising-star level, so it was understandable that she couldn't easily picture a win.
I, on the other hand, had a perfect grasp of those two, of Hong Yeon-hwa, and of my own abilities. So I spoke with conviction.
"It'll be fine. You can do this."
"...!"
Of course, I would be the one holding the steering wheel. I began explaining how we would play out this match, and Hong Yeon-hwa listened to every word with shining eyes.
"Well, what are the odds."
A willing smile played on Go Hyeon-woo's lips. Ever since he had first met Kim Ho in the depths of the forest, he had wanted to test his skills against him at least once, victory or defeat be damned. He had requested a spar at every opportunity, but Kim Ho had turned him down time and again with one excuse after another — and now, against all expectation, he was facing him in an official setting.
"..."
Seo Ye-in, meanwhile, was far more interested in the cloud platforms than in the PvP match. She crouched down to poke at the clouds with her fingertips, then curled up and lay down on them. Her face was as expressionless as ever, yet somehow she looked satisfied.
Go Hyeon-woo had been curious himself, so he asked for her impressions.
"How does it feel, lying there?"
"Comfy..."
Seo Ye-in's eyelids began to sink. She looked ready to fall asleep on the spot.
But as her teammate, Go Hyeon-woo had a duty to make the human sloth face reality.
"Regrettable as it is to say, that platform will soon be gone. Didn't they announce the floors would disappear one by one?"
"..."
"I trust falling all the way down there is not something you desire either, Lady Seo."
Apparently skydiving mid-nap wasn't to her taste, because Seo Ye-in slowly dragged herself upright. Even so, her gaze at the cloud platform dripped with lingering regret.
Having at least succeeded in getting her on her feet, Go Hyeon-woo broached the strategy.
"Our opponent is Brother Kim, and I hear Lady Hong's skills are quite formidable as well. Cooperation would serve us best, so if you would hear me out—"
"..."
But throughout the entire explanation, Seo Ye-in only stared off elsewhere with drowsy eyes. He couldn't tell whether a single word had gotten through. A wry smile touched Go Hyeon-woo's lips.
This won't be easy.
Seo Ye-in had never paid much mind to other people. With Go Hyeon-woo, whom she saw often, she at least let the words flow in one ear and out the other; anyone else, she wouldn't have even pretended to listen.
How does Brother Kim get such compliance out of a Lady Seo like that...?
She could be utterly limp one moment, then spring up the instant Kim Ho said a single word. And the scene across from them stirred an odd sense of déjà vu besides.
Hong Yeon-hwa, her gaze locked on Kim Ho the entire time. Ears pricked, as if determined not to miss a single syllable from him.
In Go Hyeon-woo's mind, Hong Yeon-hwa was closer to a fighting dog. Her red hair made her stand out everywhere she went, and whenever passersby stared, she would growl with her eyes: What are you looking at? Never seen a fire mage before?
And yet here was that same Hong Yeon-hwa, wagging her tail with the meekest demeanor in the world in front of Kim Ho...
Truly a wondrous thing...
At the same time, he was curious — what Kim Ho was saying to Hong Yeon-hwa right now, and what tactics he had prepared for this match.
I expect there will be much to learn.
His mood brightening further, Go Hyeon-woo reached for his waist. The golden shaman sword slid smoothly from its sheath, and a faint thread of wind coiled around the blade. Seo Ye-in, not entirely devoid of motivation either, drew her magic pistols, checked them over, and switched to assault rifle mode.
Once both sides had finished preparing, the scoreboard began its countdown.
3
2
1
START!
Even after the match raised its curtain, Kim Ho and Hong Yeon-hwa seemed to stand in place for a moment. Then, the very next instant—
- BOOM!
With the sound of something detonating, the two of them shot rapidly upward. They hadn't simply been standing there — Kim Ho had apparently been compressing the wind all along. They crossed two floors in a single burst, then kept heading higher still. Even moving as one, like a two-man triangle formation, their ascent was blisteringly fast.
Watching them, Go Hyeon-woo spoke.
"We can't fall behind either. Lady Seo, let's go."
"Okay."
The two of them kicked off the cloud platform and leapt. Their movements were reasonably agile in their own right, but against opponents riding wind magic and soaring freely through the air, they fell short. The gap between the two teams stretched wider and wider.
"Haha, we're already in checkmate, I see."
"Kim Ho fast."
Glancing down, one could see the cloud platforms vanishing one after another from the lowest floor. If Kim Ho and Hong Yeon-hwa kept climbing like this and stretching their lead, the lagging team of Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in might well find themselves caught by the rate at which the platforms were disappearing.
But he won't end it like this.
Knowing Kim Ho's nature as he did, there were surely any number of easier ways to finish the match. The fact that he had deliberately chosen this method could only mean there was more to come.
As expected, Kim Ho and Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been climbing away diligently, abruptly settled onto a single cloud platform. Apparently they had judged the lead sufficient.
Distance is time.
While Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in scrambled to climb and close the gap, their opponents were being handed time to make their preparations at altitude.
- Fwoooosh!
True to form, Hong Yeon-hwa made full use of the time she had been given. Her ruby blazed with dazzling red light as her incantations flowed without pause. Flames wrapped themselves around her body like a suit of armor, and over that she layered yet another barrier.
- Whiiiine—
And on top of it all, Kim Ho layered something that looked like wind magic.
Go Hyeon-woo's eyes gleamed with intrigue.
Three layers of defense, then.
It would be no easy thing to punch through. Judging her foundation sufficiently laid, Hong Yeon-hwa began chaining offensive spells in earnest.
Phoenix Feather
- Fwoosh...
Several feathers materialized above Hong Yeon-hwa's empty hands — palm-sized feathers, blazing merrily away. She snatched them up and flung them straight down.
Go Hyeon-woo drew his shaman sword in an arc, aiming to slice the incoming fire feathers out of the air. But as the feathers drew near their target, they abruptly lost speed and began to flutter and sway erratically, like feathers drifting down on a breeze. The unpredictable movement sent his shaman sword cleaving through empty air.
"Damn it!"
- Fwoosh!
A feather brushed Go Hyeon-woo's body, and flames roared up furiously for an instant.
"What a nuisance."
Go Hyeon-woo — 97%
He had immediately swept it off with wind, so the damage was not severe for the moment. But as he had just experienced firsthand, the erratic movement made the feathers maddeningly tricky to deflect or block.
And the fire feathers did not come one at a time. Each spell Hong Yeon-hwa cast produced several at once, and with her incantations flowing without pause, the feathers rained down without a moment's rest.
- Fwoooosh!
Worse, even when the two of them luckily evaded one, it set the cloud platform beneath their feet alight, leaving them scrambling busily for the next one.
Of course, Seo Ye-in wasn't simply taking it lying down.
- Pop!
A small puffy cloud popped out of her bracelet and went bobbing around Seo Ye-in — then gulped down the incoming fire feathers in one lazy swallow.
Hong Yeon-hwa was so flabbergasted that nothing came out but a hollow laugh.
Every time I see that thing, I can't even...
What rank is that thing supposed to be, anyway?
Still, the counter to that cloud seemed reasonably clear: hurl down more than it could swallow.
Hong Yeon-hwa's casting speed climbed higher and higher. More fire feathers bloomed above her hands, the vast majority of them focused on Seo Ye-in. Seo Ye-in had her cloud swallow some, dodged the rest, and kept hopping across the cloud platforms all the while.
"Jump."
The distance narrowed bit by bit. Hong Yeon-hwa chained her fire spells with mounting desperation, while not a trace of urgency crossed Seo Ye-in's face.
"Hop."
At last, Seo Ye-in came to a stop on the floor directly beneath the platform where Hong Yeon-hwa's team had settled. And for the first time since the match began, she raised her magic rifle and trained it on Hong Yeon-hwa. She had judged that her target had entered effective range.
The moment Hong Yeon-hwa met those gray eyes and that gun barrel, the hair on her head stood straight on end. Memories of what had been done to her in the last PvP flashed swiftly through her mind.
- Ratatatatat!
And so, the instant the magic rifle spat blue fire, she hunched her whole body down as small as it would go.
"Ngh..."
But what was this? Faint impacts did land, but that was all. There was none of the thudding pain of magic bullets striking home.
Hong Yeon-hwa — 99%
She quickly realized why: it was thanks to the layers of defensive magic protecting her. The Blazing Armor, the Backflow Barrier, and even the barrier Kim Ho had cast on top of them all. With three layers of defensive magic stacked up, even the Gunslinger's magic bullets had failed to punch through.
"...!"
Hong Yeon-hwa's face lit up as she looked at Kim Ho. He gave a small nod that seemed to say well done, then added a word.
"Stay focused."
"O-okay..."
Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in, busy hopping from platform to platform to dodge the pouring fire feathers, had nonetheless kept narrowing the distance and reached the floor directly below.
- Ratatatat!
Seo Ye-in kept up her barrage with the magic rifle, while Go Hyeon-woo gathered wind to send sword energy flying.
Naturally, Kim Ho had anticipated this situation, and he had a very simple counter prepared as well.
"Going up again."
- BOOM!
The compressed air detonated, and the two of them shot upward once more. Suddenly cast in the role of the dog chasing the chicken, Go Hyeon-woo and Seo Ye-in stared up at them.
"Hah."
"Not fair."