Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Canon in Blue
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Kim Ji-hyun instantly swatted away the spear thrusting for her neck.
“Ha… shit.”
With a deafening roar, she was shoved straight back. She spat on the ground and glared at me. But I had no intention of stopping.
I pressed my assault relentlessly, weaving blue trails through the air. My follow-up strikes crashed down like waves, each one targeting her lifeline.
Kim Ji-hyun barely blocked and dodged, hanging on by a thread. Even as she was being pushed back bit by bit, her eyes remained eerily calm.
“For someone spouting such ragtag logic, you’ve got some decent skills.”
This was leagues beyond that ugly bat-headed monster from the other side of Gyodongdo that I’d beaten senseless.
“You son of a bitch… you were hiding your power?”
“None of your business.”
I was drawing on the gloves’ mana whenever I needed it. As long as I didn’t exhaust it completely, I was confident I could stay alive against Lee Se-eun charging at me with murderous intent for a little while.
“Taekwondo with nationalistic flair—what a perfect combo.”
She wasn’t just enhancing her body with mana; when she’d smacked my spear away earlier, that spot had shimmered silver.
Metalization, too, huh?
“Get that shit out of my face!”
Ferocious bursts of sound erupted from her flailing limbs. Each strike carried the brutal momentum of a truck driven by a knight three bottles deep in soju.
“Don’t play these cheap tricks with me… rah!”
She stomped hard, and the ground exploded like a landmine. I had no choice but to fall back, keeping my trajectory intact.
A cloud of dirt surged up, and chunks of stone rained down from the air. Wiping her mouth, Kim Ji-hyun emerged from the dust.
“You’re dead.”
“Hey, watch the language.”
I gripped my spear like a pool cue, knocking away the falling rocks as if they were billiard balls. The spinning stones whistled through the air and pelted her forehead repeatedly.
A sharp clang rang out.
“Clang?”
I’d slammed rocks into her skull, and instead of a thud, it was a clang.
“How thick-headed are you…?”
The air ripped apart with a screech, leaving an afterimage where she’d stood. Her heel shot toward my temple.
“Guh.”
The shockwave blasted away the floating dust in all directions.
I managed to raise my arm in time to block, but it ached down to the bone. Without the gloves’ mana, my arm—and probably my head—would’ve exploded.
“You blocked that?”
“What, you think I’d just take it?”
Then, dark flames leaped from my arm onto her leg. I grabbed it and flung her away.
Kim Ji-hyun twisted midair, landed cleanly, and checked her leg.
“Damn it.”
I wasn’t sure exactly, but she seemed to realize those clinging flames spelled trouble.
Normally, dragging this out would favor me. But without tapping the gloves’ mana, I couldn’t hold out against her.
Even using it only when absolutely necessary, thirty minutes was my limit. She’d noticed the flames on her leg were a disadvantage, too.
“You’re not the only one who can amplify your mana, rookie. And without any proper gear, no less.”
The piercings embedded in her face glowed brighter. At the same time, wind howled out from her body.
If I had to put my personal take on it…
“Can’t even handle it properly, can you? Mana’s leaking everywhere.”
Each of those piercings held mana, and she was about to unleash it.
“None of your business. If I don’t kill you here today, I’ll smash that Erosion Core.”
“Ooh, promises you can’t keep.”
She’d been fast before, but now it was on another level—too quick to even compare. She unleashed a barrage of explosive kicks.
I gritted my teeth, drew on the gloves’ mana, and blocked or dodged each one.
“Kahak.”
The impacts kept piling up in my body. But I couldn’t burn away the shock and fatigue with Paradox Flame—not while it was still clinging to her leg.
I couldn’t waste this rare successful cast. Swallowing the blood rising in my throat, I kept my guard up, minimizing damage as I took the hits on my body.
“It’s over!”
A dull thwack, and her kick smashed into my left leg. Off-balance, I ate a roundhouse aimed at my head and flew back, slamming into the wall.
“Urp…”
My vision shook, tinnitus rang in my ears. I couldn’t hold it in anymore and vomited blood onto the floor.
“You little shit, crawling around when you’re nothing.”
If I was just stalling, I could burn through the gloves’ mana wildly. But that would deplete it soon enough.
“Yoo Chan-seok.”
Han Sang-ah quickly stepped between me and Kim Ji-hyun.
“And what are you? Stay crumpled. You can’t handle her.”
“I agree.”
She wasn’t a match for Han Sang-ah either. And I hadn’t lost yet.
“I know I can’t win. Just recover.”
Then Han Sang-ah pulled something from her pocket.
“I didn’t want to do this.”
She pressed a button, and the vial’s cap popped open. Realizing what it was, I made a dumbfounded face.
“No way.”
Those vials were definitely refined elixirs infused with mana. The issue wasn’t that—they were custom-processed for perfect absorption by Han Sang-ah.
Even perfectly tailored, they weren’t directly refined through her meridians and bloodlines. Once the mana was spent, it’d revert to ordinary mana and dissipate.
One-time use, in other words.
She pulled out three such vials and downed them all.
“How much was that?”
“Enough for an eight-story building. Custom job, too—takes forever to remake.”
She’d started crafting them after passing the academy entrance, finishing only after graduation.
“Chaebols forever.”
No wonder she’d been saving them. An entire building’s worth in what couldn’t even be 100ml total? Us commoners wouldn’t dare touch something like that.
“Must’ve racked up a huge debt. Wonder if she can pay it back.”
With that, Han Sang-ah could hold off the piercing-faced woman for a while.
“Want me to pay it back? Teach me properly from now on.”
“Teaching you to fish, huh.”
“You know fishing too? But that’s not the kind of lesson I need.”
Another weird response, but I let it slide this time.
“Dump it all in five minutes.”
Han Sang-ah replied to my words.
“If I ration the mana, I could last longer. Even dumping it all in five minutes, all I can do against her is stall.”
“I know. Still, dump it all in five minutes.”
She glanced at me, then nodded. Pale sparks crackled around her with a sharp pop.
“If that’s what you need right now.”
With that, she charged Kim Ji-hyun, drawing her sword. She must’ve heeded my earlier advice on her draw—before the blade cleared the sheath, she conjured three rails in the air.
Her emerging blade would ride one of those three rails into a swing.
A three-way choice. No more telegraphing punches.
“Not bad talent at all.”
I muttered, chuckled dryly, and focused on recovery. I withdrew the Paradox Flame burning on Kim Ji-hyun’s leg.
Couldn’t maintain it right now. It took too much focus.
“Haha, you idiot.”
The flames vanished from her leg, and even while facing Han Sang-ah, Kim Ji-hyun’s face lit up with obvious relief.
No more nagging hindrance—she’d be thrilled.
“I’ll smash her skull, then you’re next.”
I didn’t answer. I just stared her down. Next, my ass.
Han Sang-ah was holding her own pretty well. She was maximizing the bits of knowledge I’d passed on, blocking Kim Ji-hyun’s attacks and probing for counters.
Truth be told, Kim Ji-hyun’s mana output was just overwhelming; my combat skill was far superior.
“This…”
Having swallowed a building’s worth of mana, Han Sang-ah was pouring it out freely, managing to respond to the onslaught somehow.
Without the time we’d spent together, she never would’ve lasted the five minutes I’d specified. But now, she had the skill to execute my plan.
“Ah… gak…!”
Finally, at the five-minute mark, Han Sang-ah took a kick to the gut, let out a weird groan, flew back, and crumpled to the ground clutching her stomach.
“One down!”
Kim Ji-hyun leaped skyward toward her.
“Out my ass.”
That ambitious axe kick never landed on Han Sang-ah’s head. My perfectly timed spear swing sent her body bouncing away, her heel slamming into bare ground instead.
“How…?”
“What’s so amazing about that attack?”
A few more cracks echoed in my body, then faded completely. Kim Ji-hyun backed off slightly.
“You, in that short time…”
“Thanks to you and Han Sang-ah.”
Kim Ji-hyun had fought while leaking mana she couldn’t fully control from all those forehead piercings. Han Sang-ah had chugged exorbitantly priced custom one-shot mana boosters and burned through it all in five minutes.
All that wasted mana had dispersed into the air—and I’d put it to very good use strengthening my bloodlines.
How much? Enough that I no longer needed the gloves to fight her.
I still couldn’t overwhelm Kim Ji-hyun, of course.
But fighting her on equal footing with just my own mana, no gloves required…
“You’re finished.”
Now I could go the distance, no problem.
“Like classical music?”
“What kinda bullshit is this now?”
Guess not. No big deal if she didn’t know—she’d learn the hard way. Knowing classics wouldn’t help her dodge anyway.
I charged, swinging my spear and leaving a blue trail.
“That trick again?”
Kim Ji-hyun braced to counter both my attack and the trajectory’s follow-up.
“…What’s your game?”
But the blue trail just hung in the air, not coordinating with my strike.
Sixteen attacks in total. While wary of the lingering trails, she dodged or blocked my strikes, countering and pursuing relentlessly.
The blue trails didn’t fade—they persisted in the air.
“Theme complete.”
The trails began attacking in sequence, following a steady rhythm.
“It’s no different from before…”
Kim Ji-hyun trailed off.
Unlike the old trails that vanished after one strike, these held their positions.
“Shit.”
The trails’ attacks varied—speeding up or slowing, growing stronger or weaker. Not just sixteen repeating strikes.
Meanwhile, I swung my Paradox Flame-clad spear to fill gaps in the evolving 16-hit combo and amp its power.
“That’s why I asked if you like classics.”
It was inspired by canon form.