novelraw Chapter 182 : Additional Selection (3)
Chapter 182 : Additional Selection (3)
The fight between Seo Jun-seong and Kim A-yun was flowing in a somewhat different direction than everyone expected.
Crackle!
Lightning shot by Kim A-yun flew like a spear.
Crash!
Seo Jun-seong barely blocked the lightning with a wall made by breaking the ground.
"What the heck, Seo Jun-seong is only defending!"
"The lightning is too fast to see and block with telekinesis!"
"Is that why she's deliberately only shooting lightning?"
"Probably!"
The electricity Kim A-yun controlled was a lethal attribute in terms of both speed and power.
'If I block lightning with the ground, my vision becomes limited. It creates a one-sided situation where I can only be attacked.'
Therefore, Seo Jun-seong had no choice but to spread a gravitational field around himself.
This meant that Kim A-yun had successfully forced Seo Jun-seong to use much of his power on defense.
'If she calculated this far, she used her brain well.'
Seo Jun-seong thought.
The human consciousness has a structure that makes it difficult to do multiple things simultaneously.
Moreover, given Seo Jun-seong's characteristic of using telekinesis, a power that relies entirely on the mind, it wasn't so easy to counter-attack with power while blocking Kim A-yun's attacks.
'It's similar to drawing a square with your right hand while drawing a circle with your left.'
Nevertheless, Seo Jun-seong's expression showed not the slightest hint of impatience.
'Kim A-yun, the problem with your ability is that your defensive power is lacking compared to your threatening offensive power.'
Kim A-yun couldn't defend like Hwang Ji-su who could create ice walls, or Hong In-hyeon who could freely avoid attacks using wind.
"Hup!"
Therefore, Seo Jun-seong could inflict effective attacks on Kim A-yun just by exerting a little telekinesis to throw a pile of rocks, as he was doing now.
'Now, what will you do?'
Watching Kim A-yun's reaction with curious eyes, Seo Jun-seong soon had to let out a small exclamation of admiration.
Crackle!
Just before the attack reached her, an enlarged electric sparrow carried Kim A-yun into the sky.
"What!"
Seo Jun-seong wasn't the only one surprised.
"Whoa! What is that!"
"My goodness. Is such a thing even possible?"
"No, normally it's impossible!"
The watching cadets whispered.
"Being able to emit lightning and having an attribute affinity that prevents electrocution are completely different issues."
Hwang Ji-su said.
"But that alone wouldn't allow her to ride a sparrow made of electricity. Unlike wind or ice, physically riding it should be impossible."
Su-hyeon interjected.
"Then what did Kim A-yun do and how?"
"...I don't know the exact principle, but she seems to be utilizing something like metal."
"Hmm?"
Hwang Ji-su, who had tilted her head slightly, soon nodded.
"That's right. She could use a railgun too. So she's moving using physical metal?"
"She could also use it as ammunition in an emergency."
"Hmmmm."
Hwang Ji-su's expression grew serious.
'She didn't seem to have a particularly high understanding of her characteristic. She's applying it well.'
The catalyst was probably Su-hyeon, who was standing next to her watching the fight with a serious expression.
'Always good at making others do good things.'
Yet he was always at the forefront, which made it emotionally complex for those watching.
"...But why a sparrow specifically?"
To Lee Yu-jin's question, Su-hyeon answered.
"She says she can only visualize things properly if they're cute."
"How cute, even that."
Kwon Seung-yeon chuckled.
Whoosh!
Having flown high to avoid Seo Jun-seong's attack, Kim A-yun fired a barrage of lightning toward him.
'Tch!'
Seo Jun-seong increased the volume of the gravitational field surrounding him to deflect the lightning barrage.
Boom! Boom!
Seeing the lightning striking the ground just a few meters away, Seo Jun-seong's expression hardened.
'Lightning is certainly a tricky attribute to deal with.'
However.
'She's not as fast as Hong In-hyeon.'
Which is why this was possible.
Grasp!
When Seo Jun-seong clenched his fist, Kim A-yun and the electric sparrow, which had been flying in a zigzag pattern, abruptly stopped in midair.
'Got her!'
Seo Jun-seong, who had captured Kim A-yun's physical form with telekinesis, immediately fired an overwhelming volume of rock debris.
'Now!'
Kim A-yun, who had been waiting only for this moment when Seo Jun-seong switched from defense to offense, pulled out a metal sphere from her pocket with a speed reminiscent of a gunman.
Boom!
The railgun fired with overwhelming output flew straight toward Seo Jun-seong.
"That looks dangerous!"
The watching cadets all shouted in surprise, but.
'I thought she would come at me like this.'
Seo Jun-seong, who had foreseen this situation, simply lifted his body with telekinesis and moved out of the railgun's range.
"!"
Then he created a giant's arm and attacked Kim A-yun.
"Eek!"
Seo Jun-seong stopped his attack right in front of her eyes, bringing the match to an anticlimactic end.
[Match over! Seo Jun-seong's victory!]
"Wow, he turned it around."
"Too bad. A-yun almost won."
"That was close."
"What do you mean, close."
Hwang Ji-su snorted at the murmurs of some cadets.
"That guy had already foreseen what tactics Kim A-yun would choose. Then he used it at the critical moment. The gap between them is much larger than it appears."
Su-hyeon also quietly nodded at Hwang Ji-su's assessment.
'Seo Jun-seong won easily without revealing any of his progress during the break. That's what matters.'
Su-hyeon's gaze turned to Seo Jun-seong.
'I wonder how much he's been sharpening his blade to defeat me.'
Seo Jun-seong was still someone who evoked a competitive spirit in Su-hyeon.
[Lee Yu-jin and Kang Geon-woo, prepare yourselves.]
To break through the 10-meter distance between them, Kang Geon-woo had to make many sacrifices.
Clang! Clang!
Kang Geon-woo, wearing gauntlets, endured Lee Yu-jin's flying strikes as he closed the distance.
"Kuuuk."
Kang Geon-woo ground his molars and let out a painful groan.
Just receiving a few attacks had left his gauntlets, made of the highest grade refined steel, tattered and unusable.
'Terrifying.'
Naturally, the arms inside the gauntlets were already cut in several places and bleeding.
'It's okay. The muscles aren't cut.'
But it was also true that continuing to receive attacks was burdensome.
Swish!
With nimble movements that didn't suit his large frame, Kang Geon-woo dodged the flying strike and rushed toward Lee Yu-jin with a burst of speed.
"Woooah!"
Lee Yu-jin, who had already accumulated decent damage from a distance, met Kang Geon-woo's charge head-on.
Crash!
The fist and sword collided, creating a tremendous sound.
'She's not pushed back?'
Kang Geon-woo was astonished to see Lee Yu-jin receive his punch without being pushed back despite his superhuman were-ape strength and more than twice her weight class, as if she had taken root in the ground.
'How high is her mana level?'
Since an awakened person's output largely comes from both their physical strength and mana.
It was best to assume that Lee Yu-jin's mana quantity vastly exceeded his own.
Moreover.
'Ugh. Damn it, it feels like my organs are being flipped.'
The damage was severe from throwing just one punch, as the stronger mana penetrated his internal organs.
Whoosh!
Despite this, Lee Yu-jin elegantly evaded Kang Geon-woo's persistent reaching attack with graceful footwork, each time extending her sword concisely to strike his gauntlets.
'As expected, she won't engage on my terms.'
As long as Lee Yu-jin deliberately maintained her distance.
Breaking into that interval was truly difficult.
However.
'Without that, there's no way for me to win in the first place!'
There was a reason why Kang Geon-woo had chosen to face Lee Yu-jin despite this.
'I only need one chance. If I can grab her arm and throw her, I might even aim for victory.'
Since jujutsu, the origin of judo, was a martial art designed precisely for such situations.
It was clear that whether Kang Geon-woo could enter "that distance where weapons become meaningless" would determine the outcome of this match.
"Haah."
The problem was that Lee Yu-jin no longer just wielded a heavy sword like before but had become even harder to catch by utilizing her flexibility and elasticity.
In the end, only a pattern of meaningless swipes followed by counterattacks, resulting in damaged gauntlets and lacerations all over Kang Geon-woo's body, was repeating.
'He's enduring well.'
Lee Yu-jin thought.
Anyway, Kang Geon-woo's resilience was remarkable, somehow parrying and blocking with his gauntlets while avoiding direct hits.
'If this were a fight against a demonic beast, I would simply bisect it and be done. But in human combat where killing is prohibited, a sword's cutting power is inevitably limited.'
That was also what Kang Geon-woo was counting on.
Additionally, it was an unavoidable choice for Kang Geon-woo, who hadn't yet reached the level of creating fist energy like Oh Chang-seong.
'Hmm. I guess I have no choice.'
Like Seo Jun-seong, Lee Yu-jin changed her strategy to turn Kang Geon-woo's plan against him.
"Geon-woo, you're quite persistent."
Lee Yu-jin, pretending to be annoyed, raised her sword to the high position.
"Let's see if you can block this too?"
It was a stance that advertised a downward strike to anyone watching.
'Got it!'
It was bait too attractive for Kang Geon-woo, who was already pushed to the extreme, to resist.
Tap!
Lee Yu-jin, who had increased her sword energy even more, took a step forward and slashed diagonally at Kang Geon-woo.
'Now!'
Kang Geon-woo also stepped forward and reached out to grab Lee Yu-jin's wrist.
'If I grab it, it's over!'
A situation where if he grabbed her wrist and inserted his arm into her armpit for a shoulder throw, the game would end.
But.
Whoosh!
Without even blinking, Lee Yu-jin suddenly disappeared from Kang Geon-woo's sight like a ghost.
'Good God! I've been...'
Lee Yu-jin, who had taken a side step while spinning a full circle, used the back of her sword to strike Kang Geon-woo's ribs forcefully.
Thwack!
"Kuhak!"
As the striking power and Penetrating Scene penetrated even the were-ape's thick muscles to attack his internal organs both inside and out, Kang Geon-woo, unable to endure any longer, coughed blood and slumped to the floor.
[Match over! Lee Yu-jin's victory!]
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Seo Jun-seong and Lee Yu-jin.
If the two of them had won by turning their opponents' aims against them through superior tactical play.
Hwang Ji-su and Hong In-hyeon's methods were somewhat different.
"Hwang Ji-su is indeed clever."
"Yes."
Through the screen, they could see Choi Min-a firing all sorts of elemental magic, from fire and lightning to poison mist, wind, and energy bullets.
But none of them could penetrate the double defense of cold air and ice walls deployed by Hwang Ji-su.
"Choi Min-a is undoubtedly a genius magician. But the current Hwang Ji-su, who can control the ice attribute to its extreme, is a formidable opponent for Choi Min-a."
Instructor Kang Junman's words were agreed to by Instructor Oh Chang-seong.
"It's a case of one well-trained weapon being more fearsome than ten skilled ones."
'Ji-su, you really are a monster.'
Choi Min-a bit her lip.
Whatever she had consumed during the break, her mana output itself had changed.
Based on that power, she had become even more impregnable.
'Above all, she's controlling even unnecessary variables.'
"At this rate, there's not much Choi Min-a can do, right?"
"Yes. Hwang Ji-su, who was born with natural talent, has now equipped new tactics as well."
"More than anything, I sense her determination to overwhelm her opponent mercilessly compared to the others."
Oh Chang-seong muttered internally.
'Anyway, she seems to have the strongest personality among those five.'
Her competitive spirit toward Su-hyeon also seemed as strong as Seo Jun-seong's.
[...Match over! Hwang Ji-su's victory!]
In the end, the fight ended blandly as Hwang Ji-su, who had consistently pressured Choi Min-a like entangling her in a spider's web, froze her without allowing even one chance for reversal.
"...Choi Min-a isn't someone who should lose like that."
The cadets watched with somewhat concerned eyes as Choi Min-a emerged from the capsule with a resentful face, clenching her fists.
'Her pride must be severely hurt.'
Nam Tae-hoon was looking at Choi Min-a with a peculiar expression.
"Why don't you go say something to her?"
Su-hyeon gave Nam Tae-hoon a nudge.
"...I'll pass."
"What do you mean, pass? There's time before you fight me, so go talk to her a bit."
After forcibly sending Nam Tae-hoon away, Su-hyeon looked at Kwon Seung-yeon.
"Just do what you can do well."
"Of course! Don't worry!"
Kwon Seung-yeon, who knew that the limitations were clear in a one-on-one match given their compatibility, grinned.
'She's completely in fun mode?'
Hong In-hyeon, who had fired a whirlwind right at the start, was bewildered by Kwon Seung-yeon's unexpected reaction.
Whoosh!
Kwon Seung-yeon, who had extremely lowered her weight, flew into the sky riding the wind like a glider.
'What the?'
Hong In-hyeon's eyebrows twitched.
'What's she aiming for? The sky is my battlefield anyway.'
The answer to that question was soon revealed.
"Hehahaha, Ten Thousand Catty Strike!"
Kwon Seung-yeon, who had maximized her weight, began a vertical drop toward Hong In-hyeon's head while cackling.
"What Ten Thousand Catty Strike!"
Hong In-hyeon, slightly annoyed at her playfulness, created a powerful turbulent current in his fist and collided with Kwon Seung-yeon's fist.
Crash!
An enormous shockwave erupted, sending Kwon Seung-yeon flying back into the air.
However.
'Damn, this is no joke.'
Hong In-hyeon's expression turned serious as his wrist felt sprained and sore from the exchange.
'How much did she increase her weight? It feels like it would easily be in tons.'
But going along with the opponent's pace ended right here.
'You don't have a means to attack from a distance like Lee Yu-jin.'
Victory would be his if he just kept bombarding her with wind blades, whirlwinds, and turbulent currents for wide-area attacks from afar.
Whoosh!
Kwon Seung-yeon gave a hollow laugh seeing the powerful bundle of turbulent currents surrounding Hong In-hyeon.
"You've gotten disgustingly stronger while I wasn't looking."