novelraw Chapter 120 : HAUT Duel (1)
Chapter 120 : HAUT Duel (1)
When Yein returned to the outdoor training grounds, Abel was already preparing for the first duel.
“Alright then. Nam Yein and Iris, take your designated positions. The rest of you, sit along the edge of the grounds.”
At Abel’s command, the students moved.
“Now, if you have any items you intend to use in the duel, show them to me first.”
“None,” Iris declared confidently.
In contrast, Yein approached Abel with his inventory in hand.
When Abel reached inside, his eyes widened.
He blinked several times before staring back at Yein.
“Is there something I shouldn’t be using?” Yein asked.
“No… nothing like that…” Abel trailed off, looking unsettled.
What’s going on? Iris frowned and glanced curiously toward the two of them.
A moment later, Yein took back the inventory, strapped it at his side, and walked to his spot.
“Alright. HAUT, second half, day one. The first duel begins now!” Abel raised his voice.
“The duel lasts a maximum of ten minutes. Victory goes to the one who reduces their opponent’s HP by four-fifths or forces a surrender. Equipment and skills are limited to what HAUT provided. Abilities can be used freely. Only the items you showed me beforehand may be used. And remember—if things get too heated, I’ll step in to stop it. Begin!”
The moment the signal dropped, Iris lunged.
With a single leap she crossed over ten meters, her greatsword raised high.
Boom!!
An explosion rang out.
!
Iris flinched and stepped back.
Smoke?
Black smoke spread in an instant, swallowing Yein from view.
Does he really think this kind of trick will buy him time? Pathetic.
Iris closed her eyes.
Footsteps reached her ears—retreating.
Her eyes snapped open, and she dashed toward the sound, slashing her sword.
The wind pressure tore through the smoke, and Yein’s figure came into view.
Got you!
Iris charged with her greatsword raised—
!
Her expression froze.
A chill of foreboding swept through her body.
Yein was staring straight at her. His face betrayed no emotion at all.
Tap!
Iris abruptly stopped her advance.
Instead, she kicked up dirt and pebbles, sending them flying toward Yein.
The moment the stones hit the ground in front of him—
Kiiiiing!!
A sharp whine echoed as a buried mine activated, unleashing a blast of frigid air.
“As expected. Fighting like a trickster, just like a snake hiding in its belly,” Iris sneered.
He must have planted the mine during those few seconds he’d vanished into the smoke.
“But no matter how many items you rely on, it won’t help you.”
She sent mana into her skill slot.
A green light flashed from the bracer strapped to her arm.
Her body blurred—and then reappeared right in front of Yein.
The training center’s mobility skill, Instant Acceleration.
At that moment—
Kiiiiing!!
Another frost mine detonated.
Yein hadn’t planted just one.
“Ah!”
“No way…”
The spectators seated along the edge of the training ground gasped in unison.
But Iris’s teammates—Toby, Jo Inhu, and Muimi—didn’t so much as twitch. Their eyes remained fixed on her.
They already knew.
They knew exactly what kind of person Iris was.
Kwooooom!!
The ground erupted in an explosion, sending dirt flying high.
“…Hmph.”
Iris let out a snort, pulling her greatsword from the ground.
A crater several meters wide gaped open where she had struck.
“Not bad. You dodged.”
At the end of her gaze, Yein was down on one knee, glaring back at her.
Faint green light flickered from the skill slot on his arm.
“Those frost mines don’t work at all, do they?” Maria muttered in disbelief, staring at Iris.
Her entire body was rimed with frost, yet she stood there, virtually unharmed.
It’s a matter of aptitude, Toby thought silently.
An Awakened’s resistance to status effects depends on their Mental Power aptitude. And Iris’s Mental Power is S-rank.
In other words, Iris possessed the highest resistance possible for an Awakened.
That was why she could charge through fire on the fourth floor of a dungeon, roll in a blizzard, or even breathe poisonous fog without suffering much.
He planted those mines hoping to slow her down with frostbite. But Yein, that strategy won’t work. Against Iris, it’s useless. She’s a literal iron wall.
If your opponent’s ability is overwhelming, inflicting debuffs is a valid approach.
But against Iris, they simply didn’t stick.
“Now let’s see how you dodge this!”
Iris charged at Yein once again.
Both had already used their movement skills, so their cooldowns were still ticking.
Tap!
With a burst from the ground, Iris reached Yein in the blink of an eye.
Her greatsword was raised high above her head.
Yein!
Lumina screamed inwardly.
Meiling stood with her arms folded, biting her lip as her eyes locked on the two.
Seo Yui, her expression stiffer than usual, watched Yein’s hand slip something from his inventory.
Clang!
Iris’s diagonal slash crashed into a blue hexagonal barrier.
“Haaah…”
Lumina let out a shaky sigh of relief.
“Is that a Mana Shield?” Zen muttered.
“The shape’s strange,” Rio replied, studying it.
“It’s an item. A single-use barrier that blocks non-attribute attacks. They’re pricey—most people would rather just use a proper Mana Shield.”
Such items were used in two main cases:
One, when a Mana Shield alone wasn’t enough, serving as extra defense.
Two, when one’s Energy aptitude was too low.
Since Mana Shields counted as magic skills, the lower the Energy aptitude, the less damage they could block.
Clang! Clang!
Iris swung her greatsword again and again, but Yein met her blows with more disposable barriers. Each one blocked a strike before dissolving into particles.
“How long do you think you can keep this up? Those expensive things aren’t unlimited, are they?”
She swung once more.
This time, Yein dodged with a movement skill instead of activating another shield.
“It feels less like I’m fighting an Awakened, more like I’m bullying an ordinary human. Hardly satisfying.”
Despite her words, Iris’s lips curled upward.
“So I’ll just end it now.”
She leveled her greatsword.
A golden light wrapped around the blade, growing brighter and brighter until it formed the shape of a massive sword nearly three meters long.
It’s over.
Toby licked his lips, his face tinged with pity.
The moment Iris activated her ability, Sword of the Conqueror, he knew the duel’s end was near.
The skill conjured a weapon with 1,000% of the attack power of her current weapon.
Ten times the strength, with no drawbacks. But what made it truly absurd was its property—
Piercing Damage.
It ignored defenses entirely.
Toby had dungeon-crawled with Iris countless times, and he had seen her use this ability against bosses.
Every time, the boss ended the same way—cleaved cleanly in two by the golden blade.
Ordinarily, you prepared strategies to counter a boss’s strengths and exploit their weaknesses.
But Iris’s ability mocked such conventions, bisecting foes with brute power.
The name Sword of the Conqueror was more than fitting, and it was the foundation of her confidence.
Combined with her S/A/S aptitudes, it was why she was hailed as possessing overwhelming talent.
Hmm.
Abel, silent until now, rested his hand against his inventory as he observed.
Thud-thud-thud!
Iris gripped the golden sword in both hands, eyes wide, and charged forward.
Yein threw something onto the ground with his left hand while scattering coarse powder into the air with his right.
Dark smoke spread in an instant, cloaking the field in black.
“Another smoke bomb? That won’t work on me!”
Even if he fled under cover of smoke, her senses would lock onto his position.
The only oddity was the powder he had cast into the air.
But it didn’t matter.
No item could deal meaningful damage or inflict status effects on her.
She barreled onward.
Overwhelming opponents with sheer power—that was her favorite style.
And she knew Yein’s movement skill was still cooling down after his last dodge.
Without it, he could only run straight.
“Got you!”
Iris grinned, accelerating further.
Soon, Yein’s back came into view.
With all her might, she swung the golden sword down, ready to cleave him in two.
1,000% piercing damage.
Not even a tank’s shield, a mage’s Mana Shield, or the disposable barriers Yein had been using could withstand it.
In that instant, Iris was certain of victory.
But the golden blade stopped short of Yein’s shoulder.
“What…?”
Iris looked down.
Thorned vines had erupted from the ground, coiling around her arms and legs.
“Tch.”
She clicked her tongue and jerked her arm, trying to rip them away.
“!”
The vines held fast.
She pushed harder, trying to break them with brute strength, but her legs were caught too.
And then she noticed something strange.
The black smoke had vanished.
In its place, the training ground’s dirt had transformed into a soggy, pitch-black mire.
The vines were growing out of that corrupted soil.
That wasn’t a smoke bomb…?
As realization dawned, a voice cut in.
“Some items trigger synergy effects when used together.”
Iris’s gaze shot forward.
Yein was staring at her calmly.
“Normally, those thorned vines would be easy for you to tear apart. But when they sprout from soil corrupted by Swamp’s Curse, their strength increases dramatically.”
Iris clenched her teeth, struggling harder—but the more she fought, the tighter the vines squeezed.
In that moment, the golden glow faded from her greatsword, leaving only the faint blue light of a magic weapon. Her face hardened.
Sword of the Conqueror lasted only ten seconds.
After that came a three-minute, thirty-second cooldown.
“And Swamp’s Curse doesn’t just empower the vines.”
Yein pulled more items from his inventory.
“Its true effect is to debuff anyone standing on corrupted ground—lowering their defense and reducing their resistance.”
Iris’s eyes widened.
“It affects allies and enemies alike, so normally it’s risky to use. But right now, I don’t have to worry about retaliation.”
Grinding her teeth, Iris glared at him.
Yein’s arms were full of bombs imbued with elemental power and items designed to inflict all manner of status effects.
The moment she saw them, she understood why Abel had spent so long examining his inventory earlier.
“How did you… how do you have so many items…?”
“No matter how high your resistance, it’s not immunity. If you keep getting hit, eventually status effects will stack.”
Yein smiled thinly.
“Let’s see just how impressive an S-rank Mental Power resistance really is.”
“Nam Yein…!!!”
Iris spat his name through gritted teeth, eyes blazing with fury.
(End of Chapter)