novelraw Chapter 83 : Midterm Exams (4)
Chapter 83 : Midterm Exams (4)
The sight of Su-hyeon matching techniques with Lim Jeong-tae astonished all the watching cadets and instructors.
"What the hell is that guy?"
"Even though Instructor Lim is holding back, he's not just going easy on him."
"The level of that exchange is absolutely not freshman level."
"It's not like I'm just seeing him for the first time, but hmm. I was still underestimating that kid."
"Is he some kind of striking prodigy?"
'No. Certainly.'
Kim Cheol-han, who had returned to his seat after quickly subduing a cadet in the second match, narrowed his eyes.
'It's true that Jeong Su-hyeon is giving it his all without holding back.'
But Instructor Lim Jeong-tae was only gaining a slight advantage over Su-hyeon.
If Su-hyeon's strategies had been a bit deeper, this kind of situation would clearly not have emerged.
'That's an inevitable aspect. The experience gap between them is on a completely different level.'
"What kind of guy is he really?"
Hong In-hyeon drooled as he watched the battle.
'Equally responding to an instructor's serious attacks is something I couldn't even dream of doing.'
He felt his own powerlessness and limitations.
And realized the path forward and its daunting distance.
But watching Su-hyeon's fight now, he was stunned at just what level Su-hyeon had reached.
'I found it difficult to even exchange blows with that guy's boxing, but even that wasn't his full strength?'
Ppaddeuk.
Hong In-hyeon's tightly clenched fist turned white.
'Jeong Su-hyeon.'
Seo Jun-seong, who was up next, was watching with a peculiar gaze.
'Father thought of you as an appropriate stepping stone for my growth.'
But.
'I don't consider you beneath me.'
His gaze shifted to Instructor Gu Hyeongjin watching from a distance.
'I will give it my all.'
He had no intention of losing easily.
No.
Right now, the thought of losing wasn't even on his mind.
Just then.
"Kuk!"
"Yu-jin!"
"Is Yu-jin finished too?"
Lee Yu-jin, who along with Su-hyeon had uniquely continued her fight, was now kneeling on one knee after being hit by Jang Han-su's bamboo spear shaft.
'Lee Yu-jin.'
Seo Jun-seong's eyebrows furrowed.
"Hahaha! Still, you lasted quite long!"
Jang Han-su laughed heartily after striking down Lee Yu-jin's sword energy with his brutally solid spear energy.
Jjireureu.
As a consequence, Jang Han-su grimaced at the tingling sensation piercing his heart.
"By the way, this is a really interesting ability. It's rare for me to be at a disadvantage when clashing with someone else's weapon?"
However.
Lee Yu-jin had collapsed before she could accumulate enough internal damage to bring him down.
Mana Solidification.
Jang Han-su, who could convert his mana into "hardness," maximized his ability by deeply training in martial arts to increase the density of his spear energy.
Therefore.
The bamboo spear he wielded became a weapon harder than anything else.
His trademark fighting style was to sometimes thrust, sometimes wield the spear like a blunt weapon to shatter opponents along with their weapons.
'Monster-like strength.'
Fighting with clashing weapons was always advantageous to Lee Yu-jin.
But what about now?
After just a few clashes of spear and sword, her sword energy had scattered, and her sword's edge had chipped.
'My grip strength...'
Like after doing pull-ups to the limit, her forearm muscles, under excessive strain, trembled as they struggled to even muster enough strength to grip the sword.
'There's no way to turn this around.'
With her main weapon sealed and barely able to grip her sword firmly.
Creating a bold reversal move in such a situation wasn't as easy as it sounded.
Nevertheless, Lee Yu-jin prepared one final attack.
"I'm coming."
"Come anytime."
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Meanwhile.
Following Lim Jeong-tae's counter-attack—where he immediately caught Su-hyeon's single leg takedown attempt and instead trapped Su-hyeon's head between his side and arm for a DDT—the battlefield between the two entered the realm of grappling.
"Kuk!"
Just before being choked by a triangle choke, Su-hyeon inserted his arm and twisted his body to escape, then exhaled deeply.
'Grappling doesn't work either.'
With such inferior physical specs, even though Lim Jeong-tae was going easy on him, exchanges often ended with Su-hyeon pinned to the ground or desperately defending against techniques.
Moreover, while Sanda, the main unarmed martial art he had learned, didn't emphasize grappling.
'His grappling is also at an elite level.'
Sanda was just an additional martial art that he had trained in, showcasing his hipster tendencies after learning all kinds of martial arts.
True to his nickname "18 Martial Arts," with his tremendous academic zeal, it was unlikely that he wouldn't have learned Jiu-jitsu from Kang Jun-man, a specialist in the field and his workplace colleague.
"How about it, want to surrender now?"
"No way."
Lim Jeong-tae tilted his head, guessing that Su-hyeon had something up his sleeve.
"What are you planning? It's reckless to just endure without a clear vision."
Of course, that wasn't the case.
Su-hyeon still hadn't used his Mana Shield.
"Hmm."
Lim Jeong-tae approached to see Su-hyeon's reaction and threw a low kick aiming to bind his front foot.
'I knew it!'
But Su-hyeon wasn't going to keep taking low kicks that came without setups.
'Mana Shield.'
Ppaak!
A shield created in midair stopped Lim Jeong-tae's kick.
'!?'
Although Lim Jeong-tae's attack power was extraordinary, Su-hyeon's shield was strong enough to block one kick.
In that gap, Su-hyeon charged forward.
'This guy!'
Cowardly? Sneaky?
He didn't think such things.
'What's that in a fight? If it's an available option, you should use everything.'
Lim Jeong-tae, acknowledging Su-hyeon's hidden card, immediately responded.
Shuk!
With his kick blocked, Lim Jeong-tae chose a front hand jab for control.
But Su-hyeon's superhuman eyes and reflexes allowed him to narrowly avoid the jab, which was a predictable choice.
'Not a chance!'
Lim Jeong-tae swung his arm to strike away the palm aiming for the marker on his neck, but.
'!'
Su-hyeon opened Lim Jeong-tae's guard with a feinting motion and then showed him his back.
'This guy!'
A jumping right spinning kick.
A large attack that normally wouldn't hit was flying toward Lim Jeong-tae's chin at a timing that was impossible to avoid, due to meticulous setup.
Bwoong!
But even this, Lim Jeong-tae could avoid.
Bending his knee instantly and folding his waist like in limbo to avoid the kick, Lim Jeong-tae used his monstrous core strength to rise again from that position and delivered a palm strike with his hand raised.
'That's so typical of Chinese martial arts!'
Ironically, there's no palm strike in Sanda which uses gloves.
The jangjeoh, located between the palm and wrist, was, contrary to the image of the palm, quite a powerful and solid area, making it an attack method with considerable power that couldn't be taken lightly.
However, the disadvantage of the jangjeoh is that its range is shorter than a fist.
Therefore, Su-hyeon narrowly avoided the jangjeoh with a sway, leaning his head back, and delivered a counter elbow.
'Kuk!'
His elbow grazed Lim Jeong-tae's nose tip, stimulating his nasal cavity and causing a tiny trickle of nosebleed.
"Woooooah!"
"Nosebleed!"
The cadets made a fuss.
In kids' neighborhood fights, isn't the one with a nosebleed considered the loser?
Outward appearances were often important elements in determining the outcome of a fight.
"This guy."
Lim Jeong-tae, irritated, prepared a bigger attack.
Moving forward with a front hand hook, front hand body jab, and rear hand body straight.
After strongly emphasizing the mid-section with three punches, an axe-like high kick aimed at Su-hyeon's temple.
Bwoong!
Instead of dodging the kick, Su-hyeon firmly set up his two-hand guard to receive it, and in that fleeting moment, pushed Lim Jeong-tae's standing foot with his foot, causing him to fall.
Kuwoong!
A landed on his butt after the nosebleed.
'This guy!'
Having created two humiliating scenes, Su-hyeon's actions finally made blood rush to Lim Jeong-tae's head.
"Good! Let's go a bit more!"
Ppaak! Ppagagak!
Relentless consecutive strikes pounded above Su-hyeon's guard.
'Damn. This hurts like hell.'
Su-hyeon backpedaled while maintaining his covering and taking most of the attacks with his body.
'This isn't the time to dodge everything individually while giving stimulation.'
He couldn't dodge everything anyway.
And in a direct confrontation with an offensive Lim Jeong-tae, Su-hyeon would inevitably be pushed back.
That was exactly what Su-hyeon was aiming for.
'The purpose of this test isn't to defeat the instructor, but to steal that marker on his neck.'
For that.
'I need to maintain a defensive posture to allow the opponent to sustain his offense, and land a counter at an unexpected timing while enduring.'
Therefore, although burdensome, Lim Jeong-tae's attacks, fueled by his irritation, were what Su-hyeon desired.
'...That's what you're thinking, right?'
However, a man of Lim Jeong-tae's caliber wouldn't fail to read such intentions.
'That's why you're still not at my level.'
Lim Jeong-tae, who had been reading those intentions, threw good bait.
'Take the bait!'
He deliberately lowered his guard and threw a left long hook at Su-hyeon.
It was clearly a big attack aimed at inflicting more damage on Su-hyeon, who was enduring with his covering firmly raised, and thus a moment when the marker on his neck would be completely unguarded.
However.
'It's a trap!'
Su-hyeon had guessed that Lim Jeong-tae, who was controlling his strength even in his excited state, wasn't really losing his composure.
Therefore, he didn't take the bait.
Bwoong!
Lim Jeong-tae's eyes flashed as his arm, extended under the assumption that Su-hyeon would come in, cut through empty air.
'He didn't fall for it?'
If Su-hyeon's arm had come flying, he was planning to catch and break it with the guard he had intentionally lowered.
'...Or did he fail to react?'
That was a conjecture with low plausibility, even by his own assessment.
'Good intuition.'
He thought, and.
'It would have been over if he had fallen for it.'
Su-hyeon took a deep breath amid the tense atmosphere.
There were two more reasons why Su-hyeon didn't take the bait.
'First is that I know this man's technical fighting pattern.'
And second.
'A real victory comes from exploiting the openings I create myself.'
Taking what was being fed to him wasn't Su-hyeon's style.
Bureuru.
Feeling his entire body's muscles twitching slightly, Su-hyeon inwardly clicked his tongue.
'Almost at my limit.'
He had almost no strength left.
Therefore, it was time to make a decisive move, and.
'I'll have to lie down for a day.'
That method inevitably had to utilize [Liberation], the only doping technique currently available to Su-hyeon.
'Use Liberation to launch a surprise attack at a speed beyond expectations.'
That was the only option left.
The reason he hadn't used Liberation was that doing so wouldn't overturn the spec difference with Lim Jeong-tae.
Strictly speaking, the current exchange was only possible because Lim Jeong-tae was matching his strength and speed to Su-hyeon's.
Therefore, even if Su-hyeon suddenly used Liberation, nothing would change.
'But it's still a valid card for catching him off guard with a single tempo adjustment.'
Juchum juchum.
Su-hyeon closed the distance with cautious steps.
Two steps forward, one step back.
'Now!'
As Su-hyeon shifted gears and dashed, Lim Jeong-tae threw a front hand hook with perfect timing.
'Again!'
While a Mana Shield created in midair stopped his fist, Su-hyeon lowered his body and activated [Liberation] as he stomped the ground.
'Fast!'
How many batters could hit a high fastball thrown without warning after seeing only three curveballs?
At this moment, Su-hyeon's movement, with his specs suddenly pulled up, created a perceived speed beyond the actual speed.
Ppagak!
Su-hyeon willingly took the reflexively extended rear hand uppercut and forcefully succeeded in tearing off Lim Jeong-tae's marker.
"He got it!"
"Impossible!"
It was the moment an upset occurred, with a cadet finally achieving victory in the third group.
"Uwahahahaha!"
And the very person who allowed this upset, Lim Jeong-tae, burst into laughter while clutching his stomach.
"Yeah, I lost. I lost."
Though it wasn't an elegant victory, so what?
He couldn't help but highly evaluate Su-hyeon's tenacity and will, which forcefully tore off his marker.
[You have won the battle against Instructor Lim Jeong-tae!]
[Remarkable achievement! Everyone in the academy is amazed by your victory!]
[Achievement points 900 awarded!]
Without even reading the status windows appearing before his eyes.
Exhausted, Su-hyeon sat down on the floor.
"Phew."
'That was close. I almost lost.'
Even for him, defeating Lim Jeong-tae, who matched his difficulty level precisely to Su-hyeon's fighting ability, was no easy task.
But anyway.
'I won.'
Su-hyeon smiled with relief.