I Became the Genius Mage of the Martial Academy

Chapter 115 : Ranking Competition (2)

Inside the training ground where the flames had died down. Bong So stood in the middle of the devastation, where the ground was cracked and broken like a complex spiderweb and everything was burned black.

His fist, extended towards the diagonal, was covered in blood. Seeing his two legs trembling and his whole body staggering, it seemed there was a shock from the forced breaking of his Diamond Indestructible Body.

Next to him was a large crater and the First Blade stuck in the ground.

‘Amazing.’

I was honestly impressed. This was not just directed at Bong So.

“I didn’t think you would accurately hit the dagger through that flame, Professor Woo Hee-ryeong.”

I asked, stepping on the shields I had floated in the air one by one and landing on the floor.

If Woo Hee-ryeong hadn’t thrown a dagger to block it the moment it collided with the Flame Lightning First Blade Spear, Bong So’s fist to his shoulder would have been pierced.

And his heart and internal organs would have been damaged by the ensuing shockwave of the flame lightning.

“Then what happens to the victory or defeat?”

“You’re asking even though you know?”

Woo Hee-ryeong asked back with a dry laugh.

She was right. It was practically my victory. Of course, it was the result of making this situation by utilizing the rules that were advantageous to me to the fullest.

“The winner is Zhuge Cheonwu! Rest for one 15 minutes and then we’ll start the next spar, so get ready.”

Woo Hee-ryeong’s guidance also meant that the victory or defeat over there had also been decided.

A spar between Baek Hasin and Namgung Bihwa. Since I hadn’t even given a glance over there while concentrating on the life-and-death struggle with Bong So, I was suddenly curious.

‘Who won?’

Thinking so, I headed to the waiting seats on one side of the training ground, and there was a familiar face.

“You’re here?”

Baek Hasin, he was there.

“I didn’t think you would win.”

“It’s the same for me. What in the world are those absurd things? Floating, and then dropping a dagger… Are you a master of the Transformation realm or something?”

Just as I was about to make a suitable excuse and move on from the difficult question, I felt a presence from behind. It was Bong So with a pale complexion.

“I was surprised. You were amazing. Although it’s still unstable, to think it was a single blow. My Diamond Indestructible Body is still far from perfect.”

Well, since I had created the situation and then slammed him with my maximum firepower, it was bound to be shattered. If I had to receive Bong So’s maximum blow with my two feet tied, I was confident that I would be knocked out in one blow.

Although it looked like I had won easily, in reality, I had barely won. If even one of the magics I had prepared hadn’t worked properly, it would have been me who had fallen by now.

“I was lucky.”

“That’s true.”

Just then, an arm was suddenly placed on my shoulder. When I turned my gaze, I could see a woman’s hand with sharp calluses. At Woo Hee-ryeong’s point, I gave a bitter smile.

“Using an artifact, and fighting in the sky instead of the training ground. I let both slide because there are no direct prohibitions in the regulations, but no more. From now on, if your feet are off the ground for more than 10 seconds, you will be considered eliminated. Of course, the artifact will be confiscated.”

“It’s my mother’s keepsake, so I can’t entrust it to you. Instead, if I use this during a spar, you can eliminate me.”

I put the Daoist Scholar’s Fan in my bosom and spat out a lie calmly. Although I had no choice but to have it taken away by the King of Insects, I couldn’t entrust a divine object to someone else’s hands.

Because it was an item that couldn’t be obtained even with hundreds of millions of nyang.

Perhaps because my excuse worked, Woo Hee-ryeong nodded her head, saying she understood. Next to me, Baek Hasin was looking at me with a ‘you too?’ expression.

‘Come to think of it, Baek Hasin also had this setting, didn’t he?’

In my haste to make an excuse, I had unconsciously taken his setting. Soon, Woo Hee-ryeong, who had finished her warning, went back, and Bong So, who had been standing still and observing the situation, sent a telepathic message.

- I will talk to you again later about the Shaolin heretics.

With this, I had roughly overcome one hurdle. The problem was that the biggest obstacle remained at the end.

I sat in a cross-legged position and prepared for the battle with Baek Hasin while recovering my mana as much as possible.

“It’s time to fight. Both of you, come out.”

With Woo Hee-ryeong’s voice, I opened my two eyes. As I walked to the middle of the training ground, I could see the floor, which had undergone some repair work.

And on top of it, Baek Hasin stood facing me. I could feel a certain pressure from his momentum.

‘This is dangerous.’

If he had defeated Namgung Bihwa, he was at least at the proficient peak level or higher, no, since he had defeated her, who was on the verge of a realm increase, he could be considered to be at the extreme level.

On the other hand, my swordsmanship was between a proficient and master of the peak. There was no answer in a frontal confrontation.

‘In the end, I have to win with magic. But I’ve consumed a lot in the battle with Bong So.’

Only 20% of the mana in my circle remained. And to make matters worse, I couldn’t even widen the distance by going into the sky due to the rule change, and I couldn’t even use the Daoist Scholar’s Fan, so I was at a much greater disadvantage.

‘I have no choice.’

I drew the Martial Arts Sword and concentrated my mana in my other hand. Baek Hasin also aimed his white blade at me.

At the scene that felt like déjà vu, I was reminded of the beginning of the semester. At that time, I had also faced Baek Hasin with just one sword like this.

My pulse beats in the hand holding the sword, and my breathing sounds loud. At the end of my vision was Baek Hasin. I had defeated the beings who had seemed so distant and stood before you like this.

In the immersed world, I could hear Woo Hee-ryeong’s start signal from a distance. With that, as if by promise, Baek Hasin rushed in with his sword extended, and I fired magic and dodged backward.

Seeing Baek Hasin cut down the lightning strike with his sword qi, I activated light magic to blind his eyes.

Although it was a magic that could produce a great effect with little mana, the qi sense that had reached the peak of the peak accurately aimed at me.

I wrapped my body in shadow to hide my presence, and at the same time, I planted magic under my feet in line with the opponent’s approach path. And the moment Baek Hasin stepped into the spot where I had laid the magic landmine.

Paang!

Flames soared. But Baek Hasin was no longer in that spot. As if he had known, he had dodged to the side right before the activation and was rushing at me.

A magic landmine was easy to dodge if you knew its location, so it was over the moment it was seen through.

‘As expected of a protagonist, his detection ability is different.’

I additionally put up a shield in the air to block, or flew a stream of water and froze it to widen the distance, but every time, Baek Hasin’s sword just flashed.

‘He’s trickier than Bong So.’

As if he wasn’t a genius for nothing, every time he cut down the magic, he would fly a sword qi towards this side, so I had to be tense and counter it.

Considering his swordsmanship ability and the use of his sword qi, it seemed he had already reached the extreme.

‘I have no choice.’

I created a wind magic. I blinded his eyes with light magic and his ears with wind magic. Now, all that was left was his qi sense. I attached a flame to the gust of wind and created a flame vortex around Baek Hasin.

In an instant, a hot wind filled his surroundings. The detection of qi is a kind of radar. In a situation like this, it doesn’t work properly.

At this, Baek Hasin rushed in, cutting the flames, but I had already left the spot. And not only that, I ran in a circle around the flames. So that he would be engulfed in flames while chasing me.

No matter how much he tried to chase me, if all sides were just flames, it was difficult to aim at the target properly.

‘A field-type magic like this consumes a lot of mana, so I have to settle the score quickly.’

I fired a light magic at the vision of Baek Hasin, who was trying to open his eyes again. Then, Baek Hasin, who cut down even the flames with a blackish sword qi. But it was already too late.

Because I had already wrapped myself in shadow and approached close to him, swinging the Martial Arts Sword.

The blade, which was thrust at a high speed, grazed Baek Hasin’s neck by a hair’s breadth.

‘He dodged it in that instant?’

I continued the pressure, unfolding the forms of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art at him, who had dodged with a fully bent posture.

Baek Hasin, who was precariously blocking the soft yet fast-paced sword strikes in an unstable posture, suddenly had a black energy linger on his blade.

Kaang!

The explosive blow of the Heavenly Demon Sword Art deflected the Martial Arts Sword to the side. A power that was enough to make my bones ring.

But when facing me, you shouldn’t just be careful of the sword.

Before I knew it, the spear of flame lightning that I had formed outside his vision plunged into Baek Hasin’s side.

Flames and electric shocks jumped up, and Baek Hasin, who was pushed to the side by the impact, rushed in again.

A posture of trying to deal with me, who was close, at this opportunity. Just as his sword was about to rush to my eyes and collide with the Martial Arts Sword, I smiled.

“You should have been careful of what’s under your feet too.”

Flash-!

The large-capacity magic landmine, into which I had put all my remaining mana, exploded, and at the same time, Baek Hasin’s figure staggered.

I passed by Baek Hasin as he was and cut his side.

The reaction of twisting his sword path in that instant to protect his neck and heart was surprising, but that was all.

‘I cut quite deep.’

On top of the protective qi that had been half-broken by the spear of flame lightning, the Martial Arts Sword, which was clad in sword qi, had cut through, so there was no way he would be fine.

Baek Hasin staggered, clutching his abdomen from which blood was gushing out. Aiming for that moment, I fired a flame bullet and at the same time approached and was swinging the Martial Arts Sword when.

Jjeo-eong-!

A black line filled my vision. The flame bullet was split in half and scattered, and the Martial Arts Sword was bounced off as if it had exploded.

At the gruesome sensation, I reflexively stepped on the Spirit God Step and dodged backward.

Then, a black sword qi that flew towards my nape. I barely retrieved the Martial Arts Sword to block it, but my wrist was tingling.

“…This is a bit dangerous.”

I muttered, looking at Baek Hasin, who was now engulfed in a black current. The blackish sword qi that was said to bloom when the Heavenly Demon Sword Art reached a certain realm. A demonic qi that could usually only be shown after reaching the super-peak realm.

‘Don’t tell me he’s come to control that?’

But for that, Baek Hasin’s two eyes were ominous. It seemed he had gone berserk from the injury that had threatened his life.

Perhaps because his aptitude was too good, he had obtained an enlightenment and power that did not match his current realm. For example, it was similar to a case where the muscles grew too fast and the skin or control ability couldn’t keep up.

As proof of that, if it were anyone else, they would have been eroded by the demonic qi or fallen into qi deviation long ago, but in Baek Hasin’s case, the demonic qi was rather waving on his both arms as if to protect his body.

The problem was that demonic qi was a power that was accompanied by a human’s strong emotions and impulses.

“I’m going crazy.”

I kicked off the ground and retreated, looking at Baek Hasin who was rushing at an incredible speed, breaking the floor.

This is unavoidable. In a normal way.

And then I stepped on the shield I had floated in the air and floated in the air. A sword strike with demonic qi brushed past my feet. If I had been a little late, my ankle would have been blown off.

‘I’ll get out of the attack range within 10 seconds.’

I continued to leap, stepping on the shield foothold that I had hastily formed. If I used the aerial maneuver within the 10-second standard that Woo Hee-ryeong had set, there was a chance to overcome this situation.

Pachang-!

But that expectation was shattered with a baptism of black sword qi.

It was much faster to be intercepted than to make a foothold. The result was disastrous. I fell to the floor with the fragments of the transparent curtain.

I jumped to the side without even having time to calm my tingling legs. Now, my mana was also almost depleted. But the bigger worst thing was the existence of Baek Hasin, who had approached right in front of my eyes before I knew it.

I hastily raised the Martial Arts Sword to block the opponent’s sword strike. But it was unavoidable to be pushed back by the sword pressure. The sword that Baek Hasin had swung, relying on his instinct, was much sharper and more ferocious than before.

It was a momentum that would be bounced off in less than a minute. But I couldn’t give up.

I gathered my remaining energy and activated the demonic blood in my body. And on top of that, I imbued the Martial Arts Sword with sword qi to resist the demonic qi. It was difficult to endure even three exchanges in a frontal confrontation.

But I gritted my teeth and unfolded the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art. Beyond the scattered plum blossom sword qi, I could see the figure of Baek Hasin approaching, assimilated with the demonic qi.

Although he was running wild, having lost his reason, his appearance, which had become one with the demonic qi in a state of selflessness, brought me a kind of inspiration.

In a moment of crisis, my inner self calmed down, and a moment of immersion followed.

The sword qi shines and scatters like plum blossoms along the sword path. And on top of that, I imbued all my remaining mana to bloom a flame plum blossom.

Hwareuk-

It was the moment when the principles of the sword’s forms and magic communicated. The moment the power of the sword and magic derived a single conclusion called martial arts, the sword path changed, and the flame plum blossom bloomed in full.

It was time to leap to the next realm, which I had only vaguely felt.

I thrust my sword. A blow that contained a profound enlightenment. A sense of omnipotence envelops my body. In this moment, I was not afraid of anything.

But at the end of the ecstatic sword path, what I faced was the demonic qi of overwhelming power.

The white flame and the demonic qi collided with a huge shockwave.

As I saw the figure of the opponent moving away at a high speed and the deafening noise, I sensed that I had exhausted myself.

While my head was ringing low, I could hear Woo Hee-ryeong’s voice from a distance as if it was flickering.

“The winner is…”

(End of Chapter)