Week 4 Dungeon Raid (3)

She had stepped forward brimming with confidence, but two boss-grade trolls were hardly opponents to be taken lightly.

She needed at least a bare-minimum plan before charging in. In a two-on-two setup that was effectively two-on-one, the safest approach would be to whittle them down from a distance, little by little. Considering the creatures' resistance and regeneration, though, that method would likely take all day.

She had to stack enough damage in a short window to bring them down — and to make that possible...

'Close combat.'

It was a thought no ordinary mage would ever dare entertain. But she aspired to be an All-Rounder type of caster, and clumsy as it was, she had learned a few close-combat skills along the way.

The ruby set in her wand flashed a brilliant red.

Faint flames began to smolder and blaze across Hong Yeon-hwa's entire body. And raising her wand to point squarely at one of the trolls became the signal for the battle to begin.

"Kraaaagh!"

Both trolls charged her at once. Hong Yeon-hwa walked straight in to meet them, rapidly assembling a spell in the hand that wasn't holding her wand.

- Whum!

She tilted her body just enough to slip past the swinging club, then immediately fell back out of reach of the twin axes hacking wildly at empty air. It was agility hard to believe from a mage — the effect of [Overheat], a fire-attribute physical enhancement skill.

Even mid-dodge, she held a constant distance: close enough that a melee swing would miss her by a hair, yet near enough that any spell she threw would land dead-on.

Soon a fireball the size of a human head was hovering above Hong Yeon-hwa's palm—

- FWOOM!

The troll's upper body was engulfed in flame. Whether it even felt the heat or not, the creature paid it no mind and kept swinging its club. She evaded, opened a little distance, and looked — a faint burn mark had been left on its upper body, embers still smoldering across it.

At the same moment, the exact same burn mark appeared on the axe-wielding troll's body.

Hong Yeon-hwa's brow furrowed deeply.

'Life Link? Now that's a real dungeon for you...'

Their magic resistance was already shaving her damage down to 90 or 80 before it even landed, and now even that was being cut in half. And whatever they split between them, the trolls' trademark regeneration patched up in no time.

'Did they hate handing out a perfect score that much?'

To think they'd pull such a dirty trick on the final two. Whoever had designed this artificial dungeon, they were truly small-minded, dirty-cheap, and a genuine sea anemone of a—

- Whum!

Her thoughts cut off there as the club came flying at her again. She leapt back and loosed a second Flame Orb.

'Still manageable.'

The disappointing damage just now was partly the [Life Link]'s doing, but the small size of her fireball ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was to blame as well. Shrinking it to shorten the cast time had been fine — except its power had shrunk right along with it. In that case, this time she would simply make it bigger.

- BOOM!

A far larger explosion swallowed the club troll's upper body. If she wanted to check how much damage had actually gone in, she only had to look at the twin-axe troll instead of the club troll busy burning — they shared their pain, after all. The burn marks were spreading fast, so it seemed she had dealt meaningful damage this time.

"Kraaaagh!"

Yet whether the trolls felt no pain or simply converted it wholesale into fury, neither stopped attacking even with their bodies ablaze. The flaming club came whistling down, and in the instant she dodged it, something pale streaked toward her with a shriek of parted air—

- Shreeee!

"!"

Identifying it could wait; dodging came first. Hong Yeon-hwa jerked sideways, and a few strands of hair fluttered away, sheared clean off. Only when she saw the twin-axe troll holding a single axe did she realize what had just flown past her — a hand axe.

"Kraaaagh!"

The axe troll didn't stop there. It sprang into the air and brought its remaining axe crashing down, and in perfect sync the club troll dropped low and swept the ground — a coordinated strike at upper and lower body simultaneously. For monsters, their teamwork was unnervingly good.

Hong Yeon-hwa sharpened her focus. A light kick off the ground carried her into the air as the club swept beneath her feet; the moment she landed she kicked off again, out of the axe's arc. And in between, she hurled the Flame Orb ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she had finished assembling.

- BOOM!

Damage kept piling up. And the trolls kept chaining their coordinated attacks as if nothing had happened.

"!?"

A sense of wrongness made Hong Yeon-hwa freeze for a heartbeat — and in that brief instant, her cool eyes pinned down what it was.

'They flipped the pattern.'

The club was swinging high at her upper body, the axe going low for her legs. Had she responded exactly as before, she would have leapt straight into the club and been hammered into the dirt. But that wasn't all.

- Shreeee!

The whistle of parted air closed in from behind her.

'What the—?'

She flung herself sideways in a hurry, and the hand axe whisked through the space she'd vacated, landing neatly back in the axe troll's grip. It had looped around from a long distance like a boomerang and returned. A thrown weapon enchanted with a [Retrieval]-type spell.

Hong Yeon-hwa was struck dumb.

'Isn't that cheating?'

What kind of artificial dungeon boss carried a [Life Link] and magic items? Even as she thought this was going too far, her stubborn streak only burned hotter.

'Let's see who wins.'

"Kraaagh!"

The battle, which had lulled for a brief moment, resumed as the twin-axe troll hurled one of its axes. The coordinated attacks themselves kept to the same pattern — one high, one low. But the club switched unpredictably between aiming high and aiming low, and that was maddeningly confusing.

As if that weren't enough, she had to dodge the hand axes flying in from front and back in between it all, and Hong Yeon-hwa's footwork grew rapidly frantic. There was hardly any gap to slip a spell into. Left like this, even the damage she'd painstakingly stacked would be healed away.

She needed a breakthrough. The most irritating thing was that boomeranging hand axe, but neutralizing it looked next to impossible.

'...The club.'

Fine, then. She would destroy the club first and figure out the rest after.

The instant Hong Yeon-hwa gathered her focus and triggered a skill, one of her hands glowed red-hot clear to the wrist. She slipped past the swinging club, timed the moment of retrieval, and seized it in a crushing grip.

- CRUNCH!

The middle of the club caved in, mashed into kindling. The troll flung away the broken half and came charging in swinging both bare fists instead. And that wasn't all—

- Shreeee!

A hand axe whistled in from behind. Hong Yeon-hwa braced to dodge—

- Shree!

—when another pale blur came streaking in fast from the front. One glance at the axe troll confirmed it: completely empty-handed.

A simple truth dawned on Hong Yeon-hwa all over again.

'Oh. Right.'

If it could throw one hand axe, it could throw two at the same time. This one she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠couldn't dodge...

A hundred thoughts flashed through her mind in that sliver of a second. Would a direct hit mean instant disqualification? What would it feel like to have a hand axe buried in her skull? She was about to find out.

The moment Hong Yeon-hwa hunched down and squeezed her eyes shut—

- CLANG! CLANG—!

—an unfamiliar clash of metal rang out beside her head. She opened her eyes slowly to find Kim Ho standing in front of her, since when exactly? — and the hand axe that had been flying at her lay knocked far, far away.

"...!"

Hong Yeon-hwa's mind tangled itself into an even worse knot. Picking out just two of the thoughts: 'What have you been doing all this time, helping me only NOW?' and 'So you do help after all!'

"Kraaaagh!"

The troll charged headlong, both fists swinging. Kim Ho showed no thought of dodging; he met it head-on right where he stood. Then he took a single step forward and laid a hand around the creature's shoulder—

- THUD—!

—and the massive body swayed and staggered back several full steps. When Kim Ho flicked a sideways glance at her, Hong Yeon-hwa straightened her posture without even realizing it.

Kim Ho's mouth opened.

"Set up the artillery."

"A-artillery? What spell?"

"Fire Pillar."

A spell that raised a pillar of flame inside a designated zone. She had brought it out as her gambit against Kim Ho in the Placement Exam, too — and still carried the painful memory of failing to shave off even 1% of his health. Its raw power was overwhelming, but its weakness was every bit as clear: the moment an enemy stepped outside the area, the spell was useless. Which meant that anyone casting it ought to ask, first and foremost, 'How do I keep the enemies pinned inside?'

But for some reason, that question felt utterly unnecessary to Hong Yeon-hwa. So without a word of protest she took her position and began her incantation. Complex runes carved themselves into the ground, a round magic circle steadily completing itself.

Perhaps sensing something ominous, the trolls tried to bolt from the circle's range—

- WHAM—!

—but Kim Ho orbited the perimeter, cutting them off and shoving them back inside. His hand motions looked like casual little pats, yet every touch sent them helplessly staggering.

"Kraaaagh!"

The axe troll hurled its hand axe. But Kim Ho tapped it aside with something like an iron rod, and with a strange clang it buried itself in the ground. It quivered, straining to fly back to its master's hand, and his foot pressed it firmly down.

- Shreeee!

The second hand axe came flying right behind it. Kim Ho casually reached out, snatched it from the air, and threw it straight back — and at terrifying speed the axe slammed squarely into its owner's shoulder.

"What the—?!"

At that sight, Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes went round as saucers. She very nearly fumbled the spell she had been casting so smoothly, and only a desperate act of concentration prevented exactly that.

'J-just... don't think about it...'

Hong Yeon-hwa resolved to erase what she had just witnessed from her mind. Right now, fulfilling her assigned role was what mattered. Finish the Fire Pillar first; everything else could wait.

With the man before her toying with two trolls like a child with playthings, keeping them penned inside the ring, the magic circle soon flared a vivid red, announcing its completion. Kim Ho punted the last still-rampaging troll back into the center and lightly hopped backward.

The next instant, a pillar of fire roared up and swallowed the creatures whole.

- FWOOOOSH!

As the two of them stood watching the flames for a moment, the results appeared.

It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the highest score obtainable in this week's clearance battle. All that remained was for the two of them to go their separate ways, but—

"U-um, hey."

"..."

Hong Yeon-hwa still had a request pending. She hemmed and hawed in front of Kim Ho for a good long while before finally opening her mouth.

"C-could you... maybe... set the replay to private... p-please?"

In this clearance battle she had flailed and fumbled in ways utterly unlike her usual self — because standing in front of Kim Ho flustered her that badly. Crawling into the burrow had been the prime example. Kim Ho had told her to 'go check it out,' but thinking it over again, she realized there had been no real need to crawl inside at all. She could simply have dumped fire magic into the interior and been done with it. And beyond that, the footage was stuffed to the brim with cringe-worthy black history guaranteed to make her kick her blankets at night... It was a replay that could do her absolutely no good if people watched it.

The problem was that there was precious little in it for Kim Ho to justify giving up his points. Feeling she ought to offer something to balance the scales, Hong Yeon-hwa drew a single ruby from her inventory.

"In exchange, this..."

"Don't need it."

Kim Ho shook his head. Did that mean a bean-sized ruby like this didn't even come close? Hong Yeon-hwa hastily pulled another ruby from her inventory and held it out — one several times larger than the last.

"..."

Kim Ho took it and looked down at it in silence. When nothing came back but quiet, Hong Yeon-hwa kept stealing glances at his face.

'Even this isn't enough? Ugh, this is all I've got.'

The ruby she had just handed over was the most valuable item she currently owned. She watched him with her heart in her throat, and then—

Kim Ho gave a slow nod.

"...Sure. Good work out there."

And with that, he walked straight out of the dungeon. Hong Yeon-hwa blinked, doubting her own ears. She wondered if she had misheard those last words.

"...Good work, he said?"

...Had she just been praised?

[62] The Support Ate It All