Week 5 Mentoring, PvP Assessment (3)
I stepped onto the teleportation magic circle together with Hong Yeon-hwa.
The Circular Colosseum had made an appearance during the Placement Exam as well, and it was terrain we'd be seeing fairly often from here on out. This one, however, had been scaled up considerably, given that three people would be running this PvP assessment at once.
Far across the arena, Dang Gyu-young stood with her arms crossed. Judging by the state Gwak Ji-cheol and Song Cheon-hye had been left in, they'd fought plenty fiercely for the short time they'd managed to last—but on Dang Gyu-young, not a single trace of such a battle could be found. Not one sticker peeled, and her clothes were as immaculate as if nothing had happened at all.
That was how wide the gap was.
Dang Gyu-young looked us over and spoke.
"Get ready, and come in whenever you like."
"..."
Before we began, Hong Yeon-hwa stole a cautious glance at my face. Not a word passed between us, but I'd seen that expression before, so reading what lay behind it was easy.
She'd love it if I fought alongside her, ideally. But asking felt like too much of a burden to put on me. And going it alone, without asking, looked hopeless when the opponent was a 3rd-year. Unable to do either, she just kept dithering—so I decided to grab the steering wheel myself.
"Fight her yourself for now."
"...By myself?"
"..."
When I simply stared back at her in silence, Hong Yeon-hwa's expression cycled through its full palette once again.
You want me to do this alone? Seriously? Her face crumpled—
Sigh. Of course that's how he is... —then resigned itself—
Still, if it gets dangerous like last time, he'll step in... won't he? —and finally settled on a sliver of hope.
Unfortunately for Hong Yeon-hwa, I intended to sit out her first attempt.
She needs to actually learn something.
No matter what quest was riding on this, if I bulldozed through the whole thing myself, Hong Yeon-hwa would walk away with nothing. It would amount to signing up for mentoring and wasting every hour of it. A true veteran, by rights, owes a newbie room to grow.
Just as it had been against the twin trolls in the dungeon clearance, teamwork would be something that came after Hong Yeon-hwa crashed and burned on her own first. In that sense, she was a newbie in exactly the right posture to learn.
Whether I helped or not, she seemed to have resolved to give it everything she had—and her fighting spirit began to burn.
Flash!
The ruby set in her wand glowed red. Fire magic roared to life, was absorbed into her entire body, spread through her, and fed her energy.
[Overheat]
Her physical capabilities had been massively enhanced, but apparently even that didn't give her the confidence to charge straight into close range. The wand flared red once more, and from its tip a thin ribbon of lava came trickling down. Instead of pooling into a puddle on the floor, the lava stayed tethered to the wand and stretched out along the ground like a snake settling into its coils.
When Hong Yeon-hwa gave the wand a slight swirl, it followed the motion, lashing like a whip.
[Lava Whip]
"..."
Dang Gyu-young still hadn't moved a muscle, arms crossed as ever. But at some point—when had she summoned them?—two small shadow butterflies were flitting about the back of her hand and near her shoulder.
With a small tilt of Dang Gyu-young's head as the signal,
"Come at me."
"!"
Hong Yeon-hwa closed the distance in an instant. The moment her opponent entered range, she swung the whip with everything she had. To the eye it looked aimed at Dang Gyu-young's torso, but her real target was surely one of the three stickers.
Whirrrr!
But at the last moment Dang Gyu-young raised her arm, and the whip coiled neatly around it. That was as good as dunking her arm in molten lava, and Dang Gyu-young didn't so much as blink.
Hong Yeon-hwa tried to feed fire magic down the whip's length, but a shadow hand surging up from beneath Dang Gyu-young's feet raked through the lava whip and tore it apart.
"..."
With an air of never having expected anything else, Hong Yeon-hwa smoothly retracted the whip. She gave the halved lava whip a light sweep across the ground, and its length restored itself.
Whish!
She attacked Dang Gyu-young again. As if to say the same trick wouldn't work twice, Dang Gyu-young batted it away with a hand brimming with gathered mana.
Before Hong Yeon-hwa could land a third strike, the shadow butterflies counterattacked. Their limp, fluttering look and looping flight paths made them easy to underestimate, but their speed was startling. One careless moment—like right now—and they were in your face.
"Ugh...!"
Hong Yeon-hwa retreated fast, lashing out with the whip to swat the shadow butterfly down. But the butterfly fluttered this way and that, serenely slipping clear of the whip every time.
Deciding the slender whip wouldn't cut it, Hong Yeon-hwa swiftly moved to her next spell—something with wider coverage. The lava whip swelled into a great mass of flame and incinerated the ground ahead, and at the same instant a fistful of shadow burst from the butterfly, the two colliding midair.
Boom!
But Dang Gyu-young had summoned two shadow butterflies. The second was still glued to Hong Yeon-hwa's tail. And at some point yet another had been called in behind her, so the number of butterflies in the air remained two.
Watching Hong Yeon-hwa stumble backward again and again, I thought:
She's getting completely rolled up in this.
Hong Yeon-hwa was so busy dodging the butterfly in front of her that she'd forgotten something. What's the easiest thing for a Shadow Weaver to exert influence over? Shadows themselves. So when you face a Shadow Weaver, where do you need to watch most carefully?
Your own two feet.
"...!"
Hong Yeon-hwa froze, then dropped her gaze. A shadow hand rising from below had her leg locked in a crushing grip. She strained to shake it off, but it didn't budge an inch. And all the while, two butterflies closed in from every direction.
Hong Yeon-hwa desperately hurled out a fireball.
Boom!
She managed to burn one down, but the other swelled into a massive shadow fist and slammed into her.
WHAM!
Despite the dull thud, Hong Yeon-hwa's body sailed backward gently and touched down without a sound. She turned her head toward me and shot me a look tangled up in mixed feelings. Gratitude, if anything—because in the instant she took the hit, I'd used [Wind Force] to soften the blow.
I tipped my chin: keep going.
"..."
Wearing a face that couldn't decide whether to be thankful or annoyed, Hong Yeon-hwa reset her stance and began chanting again. But halfway through the incantation she kicked off the ground and abandoned her spot. The next moment, shadow hands snatched at the empty air where she'd stood.
After being caught once, she never let her guard down at her feet again. The key was to keep moving, never lingering in one place.
So far, so good.
Keeping that mobility up, Hong Yeon-hwa reached for her next card.
[Flame Arrow]
Fwoosh!
Flames bloomed up from her wand and shaped themselves into a bow. Running as she dodged the pursuing butterflies and the hands grasping for her ankles, she took aim at Dang Gyu-young and loosed the string.
Whizz!
Dang Gyu-young stayed exactly where she was, arms still folded. Instead, a shadow butterfly flapping nearby flung itself diligently in front of the fire arrow.
Boom!
A fairly sizable explosion of flame bloomed. Before it had even cleared, a second arrow came streaking in. The shadow butterfly blocked that one with its body too—and then a third came flying.
Watching this, she really is a promising prospect.
Most mages need a long stretch of concentration just to form a single arrow, but for Hong Yeon-hwa, the next fire arrow was complete almost the instant she released the string. She was firing faster than the shadow butterflies could be replenished.
Eventually a few arrows punched through the screen and shot straight at Dang Gyu-young, and at last she uncrossed her arms and, as though the whole thing were a chore, swept her arms and knocked the fire arrows out of the air.
Hong Yeon-hwa kept orbiting at a fixed distance, circling in a wide ring while she continued to pour out fire arrows.
I see what she's going for...
Keep up the ranged pressure, then dive in the moment an opening showed itself. The pity was that the gap between the two was so vast that no opening ever came. Dang Gyu-young batted away yet another fire arrow and, starting to look bored, asked Hong Yeon-hwa:
"When are you planning to come in?"
After all, Dang Gyu-young had graciously accepted a whole stack of handicaps, and here was Hong Yeon-hwa, peeling not a single sticker and slinging spells from way out.
When Hong Yeon-hwa still showed no intention of closing in, Dang Gyu-young took her first step.
"If you won't come, I will."
And she shot forward at a frightening speed. Her movement was fast yet smooth as gliding—Thief's Step layered with the distinctive footwork of a Shadow Weaver. Even with the bracelet capping her rank, both were C-Rank.
Hong Yeon-hwa had reinforced her body with Overheat, but against two C-Rank movement skills she came up short, and the distance between them collapsed in a heartbeat.
One more trait of the Shadow Weaver: the closer the shadow, the faster and harder it could strike. When Hong Yeon-hwa had been fleeing at range, the grasping hands had always been a beat slow. Now they were only a few steps apart.
Dang Gyu-young thrust a fist into empty air, and the shadow beneath Hong Yeon-hwa's feet abruptly swelled into a huge fist and hammered into her. Hong Yeon-hwa hastily threw up a wall of fire to block it, but a giant foot followed up and punted the barrier apart. The wall scattered, and the rattled Hong Yeon-hwa staggered.
This time, rigid shadow palms rose on either side of her and closed in on each other like a clap.
CLAP!
"Ack!"
Hong Yeon-hwa tumbled backward with a short cry. That was because, a hair before she'd have been caught in the shadow clap, I'd yanked her clear with Wind Force. The situation had been urgent enough that I'd pulled hard, so she rolled across the floor several times before finally coming to a stop.
For a moment her temper seemed to snap, and as she scrambled up she started shouting at me—
"MURDERER!!! ...I mean... be a little gentler..."
—but the moment her eyes met mine, her head seemed to cool right back down, and the volume dropped off a cliff. She kept darting glances at me as if worried I'd hold her outburst against her, but I let it slide.
That wasn't what mattered.
I'd say this round's about done.
For this attempt, Hong Yeon-hwa peeling off a sticker was, realistically, impossible. So, since it was impossible anyway—
"Try close combat."
"...?"
Hong Yeon-hwa's face clouded over with sheer bewilderment. She hadn't even managed to get close this whole time, and now I wanted her to fight at arm's length? Dang Gyu-young, on the other hand, looked quite taken with the suggestion, a pleased smile spreading across her face.
"Good idea. Losing's fine—what matters is that you try."
Now Hong Yeon-hwa looked a little aggrieved. Decoding her expression, it went roughly like this:
I'm the one who's been fighting my guts out this whole time—why is he the one getting praised?
But she quickly decided there was nothing for it, heaved a deep sigh, steeled herself, and her eyes lit up with fighting spirit once more.
This time, Hong Yeon-hwa took much longer to cast. For the fastest caster of any mage I'd seen so far to burn that much time, it had to be a fairly high-tier spell. The physical boost from [Overheat] scaled with the power of the fire magic absorbed—so her plan was to absorb the most devastating spell she could manage and multiply her body along with it.
Before long, vivid flames blazed from every inch of Hong Yeon-hwa's body. She took a deep breath—hoo—then kicked off the ground without a second's hesitation.
Dang Gyu-young waited for her to come, hands hanging loose at her sides. Closing right up to her, Hong Yeon-hwa feinted a punch—then shot her hand for Dang Gyu-young's waist. She hadn't forgotten that in this PvP assessment, the goal wasn't to take your opponent down but to peel a sticker.
Granted, with the fine print attached: while blocking or slipping Dang Gyu-young's close-range attacks.
Reinforced by Overheat, Hong Yeon-hwa's attacks were undeniably blistering now. The trouble was that her lines of movement were still simple, easy to read. As if a 3rd-year who'd been through it all would fail to predict that.
Dang Gyu-young caught Hong Yeon-hwa's wrist and yanked hard, and her balance shattered. She snapped her stance back and reached out again. Just as her fingertips seemed about to graze a sticker, Dang Gyu-young whirled in a full spin and ended up behind her back. One light shove, and Hong Yeon-hwa went sprawling gracelessly onto the floor.
"Hup."
She didn't even get the chance to be annoyed. Hong Yeon-hwa yelped and rolled hastily sideways—and even that wasn't enough, because she kept rolling several more turns. A colossal shadow fist came down without mercy on the spot she'd just vacated.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
By the time she'd barely scrambled upright, Dang Gyu-young was already bearing down right in front of her. And from there on, it was closer to a one-sided beating.
She's still got a long way to go.
Watching Dang Gyu-young gleefully punt Hong Yeon-hwa across the arena while Hong Yeon-hwa rolled around like a ball, I clicked my tongue. I figured this was about where I should call it. If she just kept getting pounded senseless without managing any real resistance, she wouldn't learn a thing—her trauma would only deepen.
I walked up to the two of them, slipped neatly between them, and held out my hand. The instant Dang Gyu-young moved to slap it away, my hand flipped and closed around her wrist. Dang Gyu-young didn't bother pulling free; she leaned in closer instead and swung a fist. I answered by gathering Wind Force in my other palm.
Fist met palm—
BANG!
With a crack of bursting wind, the two of us blew apart to an even distance. Behind me, Hong Yeon-hwa had only just managed to steady herself, still swaying.
I told her,
"Let's stop here."
And I tipped my head lightly toward the teleportation magic circle. Meaning: go and sit this out.
Hong Yeon-hwa put up a halfhearted protest.
"I can... still keep going, though..."
"..."
I shook my head slowly. Truthfully, Hong Yeon-hwa had to feel it herself. She'd thrown every trick she had at Dang Gyu-young and hadn't been a match for her—and even getting that far had only been possible because I'd pulled her out of danger three separate times.
It was the same even factoring in the two-on-one. Even if there had been two Hong Yeon-hwas, the result wouldn't have changed. Paired with me, it might have been possible—but there was no way she didn't know that, in the end, she'd been nothing but dead weight.
"Okay..."
In the end, Hong Yeon-hwa trudged out of the arena, leaving just the two of us—Dang Gyu-young and me.
Dang Gyu-young flashed me a smile.
"Now then—shall we see what our junior here can do?"
[81] The Support Ate It All