Week 5 Mentoring, PvP Assessment (14)

Among the many fire spells Hong Yeon-hwa had learned, Fire Pillar sat firmly in the upper tier of destructive power. Which meant that when absorbed through Overheat, the boost it gave her physical abilities was substantial as well.

Of course, raising her physical parameters was only the most basic of basics. She still needed more preparation.

As Hong Yeon-hwa chanted spells one after another, molten lava trickled down from the wand in her hand and wound itself into a whip. At the same moment, a massive sphere of flame was taking shape in her other palm.

Finally, with a low roar of flame, she layered one more enchantment onto the blazing fireball and hurled it with all her strength at Dang Gyu-young.

"……."

Even with a mass of fire bigger than a grown person hurtling her way, Dang Gyu-young remained the picture of composure. When the Flame Orb had closed to a certain distance, she drew a slender, elongated shadow longsword smoothly up from beneath her feet, raised it above her head, and swept it lightly down — and the sphere split cleanly in half.

- KABOOM!

Fierce explosions erupted on either side of Dang Gyu-young, turning the entire area into a sea of fire. It was the effect of Outburst, the enchantment Hong Yeon-hwa had quietly layered onto the Flame Orb.

Dealing direct damage to Dang Gyu-young with the fireball itself had been impossible from the start, so the intent was to blanket as wide an area as possible in flame before the real fight began. The more influence Hong Yeon-hwa exerted over the terrain, the less of it remained for Dang Gyu-young — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the harder it became for her to control her shadows. In other words, Hong Yeon-hwa had laid her groundwork.

Dang Gyu-young was surely not unaware of this, yet her attitude said it made no difference at all. And in a way, a certain gladness showed through — the quiet pleasure of watching a junior close in on the right answer.

With a faint smile, she posed the question.

"You're coming in now, aren't you?"

"Coming."

With that curt reply, Hong Yeon-hwa took her first step. Kicking hard off the ground, she shot forward.

- Whoosh! Whoosh!

The distance to Dang Gyu-young collapsed in a flash, and in moments she was right in front of her. The two swung at each other simultaneously — lava whip against shadow longsword — the whip coiling around the blade as the strikes canceled out.

Hong Yeon-hwa stretched her free hand out, and Dang Gyu-young reached to meet it, moving to snatch her wrist. But this, too, was exactly what Hong Yeon-hwa had been aiming for. Before hand could touch hand, the lava whip coiled around Dang Gyu-young's wrist and pulled taut — and Hong Yeon-hwa reached for the sticker once more.

Then, the very next instant, a sharp sense of wrongness struck her.

'……?'

A feeling that things were resolving far too ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠easily for a battle that had only just begun. Trusting that instinct, Hong Yeon-hwa recalled everything at once and retreated a good distance.

- BOOM!

By a hair's breadth, a black butterfly detonated, and a mass of shadow clamped down over the spot where Hong Yeon-hwa had stood only moments before. It was a butterfly that had been covertly maneuvered closer all along, feigning an opening on purpose. Had she kept pressing the attack, she could easily have paid dearly for it.

Three shadow butterflies fluttered in pursuit of Hong Yeon-hwa. Small as they were, they could spawn every manner of variable, which meant she needed to intercept them before re-entering close combat.

'Stay calm. One at a time.'

The lava whip lashed out at the lead butterfly, but it slipped aside with a supple twist. She retracted the whip instantly and swung again — and this time the butterfly burned apart and scattered. In the meantime, the second and third had drawn in even closer. Hong Yeon-hwa wove away from them with quick, nimble footwork and began casting her next spell.

- Whooosh—

Then a stream of wind blew in from somewhere, and the second butterfly shuddered violently in midair, all on its own, before scattering into nothing.

'That's…….'

That was unmistakably Kim Ho's mysterious wind magic — the one he always used. Just as they had agreed before the PvP assessment began, he was tracking her movements and supporting her from behind.

'Nice.'

This took a considerable weight off her shoulders. She unleashed the spell she had originally prepared for the second butterfly on the last one instead.

- KABOOM—!

Flames gushed forward and swallowed the shadow butterfly whole. With the nuisances cleared away, it was time to return to the original target. The moment Hong Yeon-hwa leveled her wand at Dang Gyu-young, the flames that had been dying down roared back up with renewed ferocity.

Even so, Dang Gyu-young still stood at her ease amid the blaze, doing nothing more than smile.

"Good. Keep coming."

- Whoosh!

Hong Yeon-hwa bored in again, and the close-quarters battle resumed. She attacked Dang Gyu-young with her free hand, the lava whip lending support, seizing every chance in between to go for the sticker. Dang Gyu-young deflected the incoming attacks with practiced ease, slapping away each hand that reached for the sticker.

Then—

— Whooosh—

A stream of wind swept past, wrapping itself around Dang Gyu-young. The physical force carried within it made her movements stutter and break in unnatural jerks. Her irritated gaze flicked briefly past Hong Yeon-hwa's shoulder, toward where Kim Ho stood.

'There he goes again.'

She had weathered countless enemies and skills on her way to third year, but when it came to sheer annoyance, that wind magic ranked among the very worst. Where on earth had he even learned something like that?

For Hong Yeon-hwa, on the other hand, this situation was a golden opportunity. The more irritated and harried Dang Gyu-young felt, the more her focus scattered — and the more openings she would expose. Hong Yeon-hwa darted in swiftly and pressed her offensive.

"Tch."

Dang Gyu-young clicked her tongue. And for the first time since the PvP assessment had begun, she staggered back a few steps.

But the depth of a third-year was not so easily spent. Shadow hands and feet sprang up around her, and moving in concert with them, she calmly turned aside each of Hong Yeon-hwa's attacks one by one. As the exchange continued at close range, the momentum swung rapidly back toward Dang Gyu-young. The moment a hugely swollen shadow fist swung down hard at Hong Yeon-hwa—

- BOOM!

With the sound of a bursting drum, the shadow fist veered far wide of its target. Once again, Kim Ho had intervened at the perfect moment. As if that weren't enough, wind laden with physical force kept blowing in, disrupting Dang Gyu-young's every movement.

'Ugh, that thing, seriously—'

How could anyone butt in so infuriatingly? She knew perfectly well that this was a mentoring PvP assessment, that two-on-one was only fair — and yet it felt as though a grudge would linger all the same.

Dang Gyu-young made herself a promise. Once this was over, she was going to doodle all over Kim Ho's back again.

Hong Yeon-hwa, meanwhile, once again seized the opening Kim Ho had carved out and attacked. In the blink of an eye she finished her incantation—

The lava whip transformed into a burning bow and arrows, firing rapid shots at point-blank range. Flaming arrows thudded one after another into the shadow butterflies still taking shape, the shadow hands and feet, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and everything else besides. A good portion of Dang Gyu-young's shadow magic was cut off before it could even be cast properly, and the wind blew without pause.

Composure began to drain bit by bit from Dang Gyu-young's face. To Hong Yeon-hwa, it looked like cracks slowly spreading through an impregnable fortress wall.

'Just a little more!'

All she had to do was push a little further. Kicking off the ground hard, she attacked with even greater ferocity.

- KRAKOOM!

From beneath Dang Gyu-young's feet, massive shadow spikes erupted one after another, surging toward Hong Yeon-hwa. Unlike the shadow hands, feet, or bludgeons, these were a form built to inflict direct wounds. Hong Yeon-hwa read them as proof that her opponent's composure was failing.

She kept loosing flaming arrows to burn the spikes away, yet a considerable number still remained and came flying at her. Hong Yeon-hwa took the measure of those spikes and thought:

'I can't dodge them all.'

But if she widened the distance and fell back, as she had before... Dang Gyu-young would get the time to regroup, and the opening she had struggled to create with Kim Ho's help would evaporate into nothing. Standing at the crossroads, Hong Yeon-hwa made her choice. She would accept some of the damage.

With rapid steps, Hong Yeon-hwa wove between the shadow spikes. Some grazed past her by a hair's breadth; a few raked across her limbs or her cheek, leaving raw welts. Each time, her brow creased slightly — but her gaze never once wavered, fixed squarely on her target, Dang Gyu-young.

The moment Hong Yeon-hwa judged she had closed in, Dang Gyu-young stamped her foot lightly.

- KRAKOOM!

From beneath her feet, several times as many shadow spikes as before rose up into a wall. Even after being harried this relentlessly, she had still been holding a hidden card in reserve.

But Hong Yeon-hwa was not flustered in the slightest.

'I knew you had it.'

Because she had anticipated even this. Flames blazed to life around her tightly clenched fist, and she thrust it straight out in front of her—

- BOOM!

A hole punched clean through the shadow wall, and it collapsed inward.

Watching even her final line of defense get breached, Dang Gyu-young felt quietly satisfied.

'Not bad at all.'

She had changed the shadows' form into spikes partly because her composure had slipped, but she had also meant it as a test of Hong Yeon-hwa. And Hong Yeon-hwa had passed that test splendidly, accepting the damage to punch through to her target. More than that, she had even anticipated that one more wall would rise, and had her next move ready and waiting.

Any other mentor would have awarded a passing grade for this alone.

'Still a touch short, though.'

Sustaining the close-quarters fight and peeling the sticker were another matter entirely. She had no intention whatsoever of going easy.

But just as Dang Gyu-young was about to launch her counterattack—

- Tap.

Something touched her shoulder, light as a feather. Startled, she whipped her head around to find Kim Ho standing there, his hand resting on her shoulder.

"Huh?"

What was that? When had he gotten this close? While supporting Hong Yeon-hwa, he had been creeping closer by inches, and the instant Dang Gyu-young showed an opening, he had closed the remaining distance in one dash.

'Come to think of it…….'

He had said Hong Yeon-hwa would handle all of the sticker-peeling, true — but he had never said he would stay far away and do nothing but support.

The realization came a touch too late.

- Whooosh—!

With the hand on her shoulder as its anchor, wind came converging in from every direction. It was the same wind magic Kim Ho had been using all along — but the physical force packed inside it was heavier by an order of magnitude. Heavy enough that, for a few short seconds, Dang Gyu-young could not so much as twitch. A skill that had been maddeningly troublesome even at C-rank had climbed two full tiers higher through Amplification.

But Dang Gyu-young had no spare moment to wonder how the skill's power had suddenly leapt so high. In that instant, only a single thought dominated her mind.

'S-such an…… annoying…… skill…….'

I really, truly, hate that skill.

And so, as Dang Gyu-young's loathing for Wind Force swelled by the second—

'Now!'

Hong Yeon-hwa stretched her hand toward the sticker with everything she had. She pinched the corner of it caught on her fingertip and threw her whole body backward, tearing it free as she retreated.

- Riiiiip!

"……."

It felt as though everything around her had fallen silent. Hong Yeon-hwa looked down in a daze, and the sticker swam into view. It was clinging firmly to her hand, yet even staring right at it, it felt unreal. But soon, bit by bit, reality began to sink in — and her heart started to pound.

'I-I did it……!'

A full week of struggle had finally borne fruit. Tears nearly welled up, but with two people watching, she held them back.

As Hong Yeon-hwa struggled to calm her pounding heart, Dang Gyu-young spoke.

"You got one off. Nice work."

Then she added, "Now you just have to get the rest, don't you?"

Hong Yeon-hwa had briefly forgotten — in this sticker PvP assessment, success meant peeling all three.

'Could I really…… get the other two?'

She couldn't say for certain. She shot Kim Ho a questioning look, and he answered with a light tilt of his chin — as if to say he would keep backing whatever she wanted to try. Hong Yeon-hwa nodded back at him.

'Right. Let's push as far as I can go!'

And once more reigniting her flames, she kicked off the ground hard and charged at Dang Gyu-young.

- FWOOSH!

But…….

For all that Hong Yeon-hwa fought valiantly to the very end, one sticker was all she managed. She had spent nearly every prepared measure on the first sticker, so her strength was bound to drain away afterward. Judging that dragging the fight on any further would be pointless, Hong Yeon-hwa accepted her defeat.

"I lost."

"Good work out there."

The moment Dang Gyu-young ended the PvP assessment, the result rose on the scoreboard.

'Yep. That got docked.'

Even with fifty precious PvP points shaved away, Hong Yeon-hwa's heart felt strangely light. The reason no resentment or lingering regret remained, unlike usual, was probably that she had given her absolute best — poured out everything she had, right up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to her limits.

Hong Yeon-hwa turned her gaze to Kim Ho and managed, with some effort, to open her mouth.

"Um…… good work."

"Good work."

Kim Ho answered just as briefly. And a faint smile crept, unbidden, across Hong Yeon-hwa's lips.