Growing Stronger (3)
Han Yeseo and I kept moving forward, deep into an area where almost no one else was around.
I felt a bit uneasy, but this was only my second time inside a Gate, including today. Yeseo, on the other hand, had probably cleared at least thirty of them. I had no ground to argue.
If the expert said it was fine, who was I to argue?
"But if you're just worried about your face being recognized, wouldn't it be enough to just keep your distance? I don't think we need to go so far that we can't see anyone at all."
Of course, I only said I had no ground to argue. I never said I couldn't ask questions.
"Ah. That's because the deeper you go, the more aggressive the magic beasts get. That's why we're here. Since it's deep inside, there are fewer people, which means there are more magic beasts left."
"Isn't it bad if they're more aggressive?"
"For the people who usually clear D-rank Gates, yes, because they lack the skills. It's dangerous—they could die if things go wrong. But you have me, so it's fine. This way, you can gain better experience, and even if you make a mistake, there's no risk of your identity being exposed."
Hmm. As expected of an expert, I couldn't argue with that.
After all, her reasoning boiled down to looking out for me.
"There are magic beasts over there. Let's go!"
Looking in the direction Yeseo pointed, I saw several magic beasts huddled together like a flock of sheep.
Yeseo's unique ability was ice-based. Against opponents below a certain level, numbers were completely irrelevant. She could freeze them all in an instant.
We headed in their direction, planning to make quick work of them and absorb their mana stones...
"So, if we head over there...!"
"Huh...?"
We found a massive pile of dead magic beasts.
"How on earth...?"
Well, if you don't know, how would I?
This was a clear anomaly.
Magic beasts weren't sunfish; they didn't just belly up and die of natural causes. They had definitely been killed for some reason. But there was no way to know what that reason was.
An intervention by someone else? That made no sense. There was no reason for someone of that caliber to clear a D-rank Gate. If a massacre of this scale had occurred without catching Yeseo's attention, the perpetrator had to be incredibly skilled.
And yet, such a skilled hunter had no reason to be in a D-rank Gate.
Except for a few specific scenarios...
Rustle—
"Sowol! Get down!!!!"
Whoosh—
Suddenly, an unknown attack flew toward us. Living up to her S-rank status, Yeseo sensed it in advance and pulled me down with her. My lingering anxiety from earlier hadn't been a mere superstition after all.
After dodging the attack, I looked up to see a figure standing there, completely wrapped in clothes blacker than the dead of night.
"What is that...?"
"That, Yeseo, is what we call a human."
"That's not what I meant!"
I corrected her with the facts, yet I got scolded. Does she not treat them like a human because they're clad in pitch-black? No matter how often those in black act in un-wizardlike ways, they're still human. Unless they're classified as a subspecies or something.
Getting angry wasn't going to improve our situation at all.
"Sowol, get behind me. We don't know what we're dealing with, so stay back. If that pile of corpses is this person's doing... you won't be able to handle them."
Well, I was planning to do exactly that even if she hadn't told me.
Wizards, by nature, value logic and rationality. Knowing when to bow down in a losing battle is also a core trait of a true wizard.
Whoosh!
As soon as I pulled back to a safe distance, the assailant lunged at Yeseo. Just as Yeseo had shielded me because she didn't know the enemy's strength, the assailant seemed to hesitate slightly, likely unsure of my capabilities.
Considering I was roaming a D-rank Gate, they should have realized I wasn't a significant threat. The fact that they were acting with such extreme caution proved they were no amateur.
Yeseo immediately activated her unique ability. A massive wave of ice expanded outward, centering on her. The freezing cold shielded her while unleashing merciless hostility toward the enemy.
No matter who the opponent was, they wouldn't hold the advantage inside her domain.
Riiip—
But this was an assassin who had deliberately chosen to strike when Yeseo was at her weakest. They undoubtedly possessed some knowledge of her skills.
He pulled a rolled-up scroll from his breast pocket, channeled mana into it, and ripped it open on the spot.
Whoosh!
A massive blaze erupted around him, enveloping his figure. As if declaring this spot as his own domain, the ring of fire clashed violently against Yeseo's freezing aura.
Fire and ice. The classic clash of opposing elements, so often depicted in fiction, was playing out right before my eyes. Would the heat melt everything, or would the temperature plunge below the ignition point?
As the two massive forces collided, a thick shroud of steam and smoke billowed up, blanketing the area.
Naturally, I was rooting for the ice.
But no matter how I looked at it, the fire was currently pushing back.
She was losing the elemental matchup.
"Tsk...!"
If even an onlooker like me could tell she was being pushed back, Yeseo herself must have felt it even more acutely. Realizing she would be overwhelmed if things continued this way, she immediately moved to create an opening.
She glided backward. A massive torrent of flame swept into the empty space left by her retreating domain. But this was merely taking one step back to take two steps forward.
The moment she retreated, Yeseo unleashed her other skills.
Hummm...!
A blue flash erupted from Yeseo's hands, surging toward the assailant. Though some of the projectiles were incinerated by the enemy's flames, they couldn't block them all.
Sensing the danger, the assailant shifted his heavy frame. The ring of fire moved slowly in tandem with him. But Yeseo was an S-rank. She had easily anticipated that he would try to dodge.
Another light flashed from her hands.
Phew—
Her previous attack had traveled slowly, giving the opponent time to react and block it. But that had been Yeseo's trap. This next attack shot forward at blinding speed.
It is easy to dodge an attack when you are standing still. But it is difficult to dodge mid-motion due to inertia.
Yeseo had capitalized on this physical law, and she didn't stop there.
Crack!
The very air began to freeze, forming a massive crystal. It was so sharp that even looking at it felt dangerous.
A rapid-fire distraction followed by a devastating blow. It was combat prowess worthy of an S-rank. Despite being ambushed, Yeseo was calmly dismantling her opponent.
Riiip!
Except... the opponent had plenty of tricks up his sleeve as well.
Another scroll was suddenly ripped open. The surrounding space distorted, and a transparent barrier materialized in midair. Yeseo's high-speed projectiles shattered harmlessly against the wall.
Immediately after, a second scroll was torn. It erupted into flames and surged forward. Not only did the attack melt her icicles into nothingness, but it also blasted directly toward Yeseo.
Yeseo hastily encased herself in a thick shell of ice, looking like an ancient creature trapped inside a glacier. The assailant's flames engulfed her completely, but no matter how intense the fire was, ice was still ice.
Even as it melted, it bought her precious time. By the time the ice was seventy percent gone, the enemy's flames finally sputtered out.
But now it was the assailant's turn to go on the offensive. Drawing a dagger, he dashed toward Yeseo.
Yeseo was a Battle Mage, a class that relied heavily on system-provided skills. And many of her most powerful spells carried a high risk of self-injury if cast at point-blank range.
The assailant was exploiting this weakness by forcing a close-quarters brawl. To stop him, Yeseo hastily deployed her unique ability. A massive domain of ice expanded outward, claiming the surrounding area. The assailant stepped right into it.
Yet, he didn't slow down. A unique ability was a completely different beast compared to standard skills. Stepping into one without knowing its properties was suicidal, and even with knowledge, it was incredibly difficult to counter. Unless, of course, one possessed a counter-attribute mystery.
And the assailant was no fool. Another scroll appeared in his left hand. The dagger in his right hand sliced the scroll in two. Instantly, his entire body erupted in flames, centered around the blade.
Only then did Yeseo realize something was deeply wrong.
"He's relying primarily on scrolls...?"
What struck her as bizarre was his heavy use of scrolls—single-use magic storage items created by wizards who pre-carved mana pathways into them. In exchange for being single-use, they offered unmatched convenience, concealability, and portability.
Using them wasn't inherently strange. Anyone with enough money could easily buy them on the market. Since they allowed non-wizards to trigger magic instantly, even high-ranking hunters carried them into Gates just in case.
The problem was that they cost an absolute fortune. True wizards were extremely rare worldwide, yet the demand for these scrolls was sky-high. Because each one had to be painstakingly handcrafted by a wizard, their prices were astronomically high.
And yet, this assailant was tearing through them like cheap paper. As if killing Yeseo was worth any price.
And as if he had prepared for this exact fight from the very beginning.
Enveloped in roaring flames, the assailant was barely affected by Yeseo's unique ability. Though it slightly hindered his mobility, the effect was negligible. In the end, he successfully closed the distance.
Yeseo tried to endure by reinforcing her body with mana, but as a Battle Mage, she stood no chance in a melee against a class specialized in close-quarters combat.
Deep gashes began to carve into her flesh, and blood flowed freely. The flames clinging to the assassin scorched her skin as they clashed at point-blank range.
"Argh!!!"
I could feel it instinctively. Yeseo couldn't win this. It wasn't that she was weaker than her opponent. The assailant had thoroughly investigated her, mapping out every single skill in her arsenal.
He had prepared counter-mysteries in the form of scrolls and was using them to systematically corner her. In the realm of supernatural powers, elemental matchups were so absolute that a weaker opponent could completely dominate a superior one if they held the perfect counter.
Considering how well Yeseo was holding her ground despite such a massive disadvantage, her raw skill was undoubtedly superior. The assailant simply knew this and had planned accordingly.
Boom—!
Shortly after, a massive explosion erupted at close range. A thick cloud of smoke instantly blanketed the area, obscuring the battlefield.
From within the haze, the sounds of a brutal exchange echoed. Flesh tearing, bones rattling, and the violent vibrations of colliding mana shook the ground.
When the smoke finally cleared, Yeseo's condition looked incredibly precarious. While the assailant remained virtually unscathed, Yeseo was covered in countless wounds.
She could still stand, but only barely. It was obvious.
She was not going to win this fight. It was a fact that I knew, the assassin knew, and... even Yeseo herself knew.
Yet, she refused to give up. She could have run. Granted, escaping would be difficult given the opponent's preparation, but her chances of survival would have been significantly higher if she abandoned me and fled. But she didn't.
Why? Why was she going to such lengths for someone she had known for less than ten hours? What was I to her that she would risk her life like this?
Only she knew the truth. But did it even matter? The bottom line was that Yeseo was fighting for my sake.
Hummm—
But reality was cold and unyielding. The masked man had no intention of letting Yeseo catch her breath. He ripped open yet another scroll. A massive surge of destructive power erupted from the shredded parchment, hurtling directly toward her.
She couldn't dodge it. She couldn't block it either. If that hit her, even if she survived, she would be critically wounded.
Everyone present instinctively knew that if this attack connected, it would be over. Sensing her own defeat, Yeseo closed her eyes.
A colossal wave of malice descended upon her.
With a deafening crash.
"...Huh...?"
But Yeseo wasn't dead. Despite the impact, she remained completely unharmed. Her skills had been systematically countered, leaving her with a future of either collapsing from exhaustion or dying when her defenses shattered. But now, a slight deviation had occurred in her fate.
Because I blocked it.
"What... are you...?"
For the first time, a voice slipped from behind the masked man's lips. For someone who had meticulously accounted for every variable, a very human flicker of emotion finally showed.
"Me?"
He had asked me a question.
"Can't you tell? I'm a human."
And I kindly gave him an answer.
I recycled the exact same line I had used on Yeseo earlier.
Honestly, if I ran away right now, I would definitely survive. Maybe running to get help would have been the smarter choice.
But no matter how much I analyzed it, my instincts warned me otherwise. This guy was too dangerous; he had mapped out everything about an S-rank hunter. Even if I brought back reinforcements, the outcome wouldn't change.
In that case, how could I create a wild card? What variable had this bastard failed to account for?
"A wizard?"
Me.
An unregistered Wizard. An existence absolutely no one could have predicted.
"Let's fight together, Yeseo."
If Yeseo dies, I die. If Yeseo lives, I survive.
So, I will help. From this moment on, we are bound by a shared secret. We are in the same boat.
⟨ Explosion ⟩
Boom—!
I chanted the second spell I had prepared in advance.
It was time to strike back.