CH 21

June 26, 2022 — 1 Comment

In fact, there was a little bit of Berayon’s selfishness mixed in the request for a demonstration of defensive magic.

Rather than bothering Baek Yu-seol, it was a plan to make Morso of the Dorden family, who supported him, shine more.

Morso was currently in class B and had a much lower grade than his classmates in class A. However, if he demonstrated superior magic in a mock battle against an S-Class, his position would certainly improve. 

It was likely that he would be promoted to Class A.

“Both of you go up to the podium.” 

“Yes.”

Stella Academy encouraged competition between students for the sake of gaining practical experience, under the premise that safety equipment was worn.

At one end of the long, straight class platform, Baek Yu-seol stood proudly.

As soon as he came, Morso stood on the other side.

“Show no mercy! Crush him!”

The boy standing next to Yuslek shouted. It was Raiden who was harshly beaten by Baek Yu-seol during the dungeon practice.

‘Narrow-minded.’

Raiden was grinding his teeth, making it clear that he still couldn’t admit his previous defeat. Morso glanced at Raiden, then grinned as he looked at Baek Yu-seol with a triumphant look on his face. 

“Of course. Just you wait.”

He knew that Baek Yu-seol was a difficult opponent. Not only did he play with Raiden and his gang during the dungeon training, but he also won a duel against Hong Bi-yeon after that.

All that, however, was thanks to ‘Blink’. As such, he would be able to defeat Baek Yu-seol in this demonstration, as the attacker and the defender changed on a turn-by-turn basis, rendering blink useless.

‘Let him be publicly humiliated.’

The students approached the podium, gathered around both contenders, and started chatting.

“Will Morso win? Although the demonstration centers on defense, he’s learned powerful earth-based attack magic.”

“I think it will be difficult to resist Morso’s attack…”

“Baek Yu-seol doesn’t even wear a magic shield, so how is he going to block it?”

As Berayon raised his hand, the students’ chatter stopped.

“I don’t know who goes first, get ready.”

Morso and Baek Yu-seol drew their canes and aimed them at each other.

“Initiate.”

As soon as the command was issued, Morso revealed his teeth and smiled, creating a brown magic circle in the air. Some students who saw it widened their eyes.

It was an implicit rule to use low-level 1st class magic because it was a basic magic practice, but he used the Dorden family’s second-class magic, which had strong destructive power!

“Dorden Stone Pierce!”

A brown light flashed from Morso’s cane and stone rose from the floor, gathered in the air until reaching the size of a human’s head, and rushed to Baek Yu-seol.

Even though the training uniform included a first-class magic barrier, the magic Morso conjured was powerful enough to be dangerous for a student who did not know how to use defensive magic properly.

If the students’ confrontation became too heated, the instructor would have to intervene. However, Berayon was watching the duel without showing any intention of doing so.

Awesome!! Awesome!!

Fortunately, it didn’t matter if the instructor didn’t intervene.

Swish! Baek Yu-seol drew his wand diagonally in a relaxed motion.

Then there was silence, as if nothing had happened.

Morso’s magic had vanished into thin air.

Complete extinction. “Uh, huh?”

“What just happened?”

“The magic disappeared…?”

The students began to gossip after the sudden disappearance of magic. However, Morso, who performed the magic, as well as some high-level students and the instructor, noticed it right away.

Morso’s magic was properly activated. It was just that Baek Yu-seol destroyed it.

But that was all they could know, and no one present could grasp the principle behind it. It was the same with Instructor Berayon.

‘What…? What just happened?’

The principle was simple.

Just as there must be an electric wire in all electrical appliances, there must be a mana bond in all magic. If that was cut, the magic would vanish.

The skill, which even in the game was not easy to master, was even more challenging to perform in real life.

Just perceiving flying magic was difficult with human eyesight, but for the technique to work, even the bond of mana had to be severed precisely.

‘I’m still only able to cut from 1st or 2nd class magic to 3rd class at most…’

It was the result of several days of pitching machine practice.

“Wow….”

Morso clenched his teeth and raised his cane again. Three stones appeared in the air.

It was then that Instructor Berayon and other students realized how Baek Yu-seol defended himself.

A white beam of light emanated from the tip of his wand. It was a top-notch intangible magic sword that some wealthy people who had a lot of money but did not know how to use attack magic carried for self-defense.

‘Is the power of the intangible sword really as weak as it seems…?’

Instructor Berayon, who had seen the intangible sword, had his doubts, but he was soon forced to put it aside.

The moment the stone piercing touched the magic sword, it was all destroyed.

It didn’t take much effort. With one-star agility, it was impossible to consecutively block flying magic by striking it like a baseball player would.

What was important was minimal movement.

Slightly shaking the sword to block the left shoulder, bending the wrist to the right thigh, and then rotating again like a fan to block the head.

It was an efficient movement learned while being hit by the pitching machine’s fifth-level.

‘Isn’t this pretty good?’

If it was powerful magic, he wouldn’t be able to stop it like this, but for 2nd class, it was enough.

While Baek Yu-seol was satisfied with his swordsmanship, Berayon broke out in a cold sweat and analyzed his protégé’s defensive skills.

‘If Morso loses here, I am going to have a headache too…!’

Instructor Berayon, who was racking his brains for a way out, came up with a brilliant idea.

‘Yeah, it’s a little unique, but anyway, it has its weaknesses.’

So he deliberately gave a round of applause. It was in the middle of a battle, but it was to draw attention. Then he praised Baek Yu-seol.

“As rumored, your magic is great and I admit that your defensive skills are worthwhile. But…”

He glanced at Morso.

“At the end of the day, that defense technique has its limits, because it only cuts the attacks one by one…what are you going to do if there is a large number of attacks?”

In other words, Berayon hinted Morso to ‘attack with numbers’, a method that made use of Baek Yu-seol’s inability to slash at multiple incoming projectiles at once.

Morso, hearing his words, pointed his cane towards the sky. The brown rhombus-shaped magic circle started going round and round, gradually adding formulas after formulas.

The stones that rose from the floor were slowly clumped together to form eleven stone projectiles, but each was much smaller in size than before.

As a magic that attacked multiple people by reducing its power, it was not suitable to use on a single target, but it seemed to be the perfect magic for Baek Yu-seol.

“Come on, wait. Isn’t that too much?”

“There are so many……”

Morso had gone too far. Obviously, the magic he used then was at a higher level than that of a wizard who was in the first year of high school. This meant that it should not be used in the first-year competition.

Despite knowing that fact, Instructor Berayon chose to turn a blind eye.

“Bolir Stone Pierce!”

At his shout, the pieces of rock poured down from the sky one after another…

Kagagagak!!

…and were annihilated once more.

Baek Yu-seol had protected his body by rotating his sword like a windmill.

“What, what?”

“How ….”

Chak! Baek Yu-seol, who held the intangible sword straight again, was sweating a little.

When he looked at the martial arts techniques, he saw a description of rotating the sword to block a swarm of flying arrows, but he had no idea how to actually do that.

This technique, known as ‘fanning,’ had been extensively practiced while blocking the pitching machine in the fifth level.

The disadvantage of fanning was that it required several times more mental strength to keep Terifon in shape, as well as a lot of breathing in at once.

Furthermore, the defense was weaker than when blocking a single magic projectile, so if Morso had been able to use more powerful magic there, the shape of the sword might have been broken while blocking.

“Oh…!”

“Wow, wow.”

“It almost looks like Magic Shield……?”

Eventually, the students exclaimed.

It was a surprising technique no one had never been seen in textbooks. How many people in the world could perform such stunts with only a sword?

“Crazy……”

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Is there any magic like that? What special family are you from?”

“No. That’s a sword in the first place.”

In the midst of the uproar, someone stepped out when Berayon still didn’t stop the fight.

“Instructor.”

At those words the students moved away, paving the way for the voice’s owner towards Berayon.

Prince Jeremy Skalben. He, who had been quietly observing the situation from the back, stood up.

Checking his smiling face, Berayon, as well as Morso’s complexion, became pale.

“Yeah, yes. Tell me.”

“Why didn’t you stop the fight?”

His words ‘why?’ seemed to have several meanings.

The magic that Morso used was not suitable for a first-year battle, his opponent could have been seriously injured had he made a mistake, it seemed that victory or defeat had already been decided, and so on.

Berayon then slowly looked around the students.

The eyes of all the students were cold and sunken.

It was over. The instructor had an intuition that his career had ended there. Having provoked Prince Jeremy, he knew there was no way out.

His hands and feet trembled, and cold sweat was dripping down his cheeks, but he somehow pulled his lips apart.

“Now it’s Baek Yu-seol’s turn to attack…”

In that way, the initiative fell on Baek Yu-seol,

Although blinking could not be used, the other side could only use Magic Shield anyway. As Baek Yu-seol, who approached with a leisurely walk, swung his sword once, Morso’s magic shield was shattered to pieces.

The match ended by aiming the intangible sword at the neck.

Berayon started seeing red, and the words he had to say got stuck in his throat.

Prince Jeremy was watching. That fact alone made him feel a painful pressure all over his body as if he were shackled.

However, he had to admit reality,

He was forced to spit out words he never wanted to say.

“…Baek Yu-seol, Victory.”