Inter-Grade Battle (2)

As the exchange of killing intent continued for a long time, all the Ten Venerables recognized the battle of wills between Lee Dojin and So Daecheol.

So Daecheol finally gritted his teeth and suppressed his killing intent when he noticed the other Ten Venerables like Fist King and Spear King glancing at him.

Lee Dojin also immediately withdrew his killing intent after confirming that So Daecheol’s killing intent had disappeared.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

Rachel couldn’t help but frown at Lee Dojin who was focusing his attention elsewhere despite her being right in front of him.

“Do I seem like such an easy opponent?”

Unlike her words that seemed to indicate hurt pride, Rachel’s tone remained calmly composed. A magician had to be extremely cool-headed.

“No, that’s not it.”

Lee Dojin slowly shook his head.

“I was just glad to see someone I have a personal connection with. I apologize.”

Even bad blood was still a connection.

When Lee Dojin apologized so readily, Rachel let out a faint smile.

The referee soon announced the start of the martial arts match.

Gap.

Lee Dojin confirmed the distance between himself and Rachel Walker.

And he took a step forward.

Many of the first-year students couldn’t even properly perceive Lee Dojin’s charge. Afterimages trailed behind him in succession.

His body felt light. So light that he needed to adjust to that lightness. It was a change in his body that occurred after absorbing the World Tree.

A beast approached.

Rachel quickly drew a magic formula with her wand.

Kwa-roo-roo-roong-!

Lightning struck from the clear sky.

Not just one bolt, but ten bolts of lightning struck simultaneously.

The lightning fell.

And Lee Dojin’s wooden sword moved faster than that lightning. The blue-white lightning was torn apart by the white light.

All the lightning-based magic spells were rendered ineffective. Yet Rachel Walker did not panic at all. As if everything was within her expectations.

Lee Dojin lowered his body as much as possible and plunged forward. His speed was so swift that no one thought it was a reckless decision.

The first technique of the Heaven Defying Sword, Soul Pursuit, was fired.

A sword light that scattered lightning on the ground as it shot towards Rachel.

Lee Dojin’s eyes flashed with a chilling light.

Frost scattered from both of Rachel’s hands. A thick ice wall rose up.

Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!

Soul Pursuit completely demolished the ice wall in front.

Ice fragments scattered in all directions.

And at the tip of the sword.

Rachel was not there.

Hwa-roo-roo-roo-rook!

Instead, flames rushed to engulf Lee Dojin.

“W-What, she immediately cast a fire attribute spell?”

An astonishingly swift magic transition.

Rapidly casting magic of completely opposite attributes required mental processing beyond imagination.

Rachel concealed herself within the flames. It was a bold combat method that utilized the Walker family’s bloodline trait of not taking damage from their own magic.

The pitch-black smoke and flames obscured Lee Dojin’s vision. From within the flames covering half of the arena, 8 magic missiles were fired simultaneously.

Lee Dojin wrapped Nature’s Energy around his body. And he instantly grasped the trajectories of the incoming magic missiles.

Bang!

He stepped forward.

Lee Dojin’s already fast movements became even more ghost-like as he wielded Nature’s Energy around his body.

Swift.

A speed beyond that.

Lee Dojin ran into the flames while naturally avoiding 6 of the magic missiles.

And for the two magic missiles that reached right in front of him.

Sseu-eo-geok

He sliced them.

The magic missiles.

The precisely bisected magic missiles flew behind Lee Dojin. Explosions occurred on both sides behind Lee Dojin’s back.

Kwa-aang!

“Holy shit!”

“He predicted those trajectories?”

The magic department students spat out curses.

And one was deflected off the sword blade, twisting its trajectory. The curved magic missile exploded in mid-air.

Lee Dojin threw himself into the flames. Thanks to the Nature’s Energy wrapped around him like protective strong energy, he took no damage.

Sswae-ae-aek!

A sharp horizontal slash extinguished all the flames in one strike. The fire was completely gone, with only black smoke rising. But Rachel was not here either.

Blink.

After swiftly casting Blink twice in succession, Rachel’s body was suddenly behind Lee Dojin’s back.

The wand in Rachel’s hand plunged into the ground.

Ice and lightning surged up together from the ground.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that ice and lightning dominated the entire arena.

It was both a wide-area magic and a concentrated magic targeting a single opponent. It was a sight that fully showcased Rachel’s genius.

Nature’s Energy once again enveloped Lee Dojin’s body, forming a protective strong energy.

He bent his legs, contracting his body as much as possible.

His muscles screamed.

And he leaped.

Colorless sword energy emanated white light from the wooden sword in his right hand.

The 2nd technique, Moon Slash, cut through the entire arena.

The lightning and cold energy that had dominated the entire arena were violently torn apart.

Lee Dojin’s wooden sword was aimed at the neck of Rachel Walker, who could only stand blankly after using up all her physical limits.

The referee declared Lee Dojin’s victory.

If another first-year had defeated the strongest second-year, it would have been considered an upset and caused excitement, but since it was Lee Dojin, the audience wasn’t too confused.

“It was a difference of a split second.”

“Well, that’s true.”

Rachel smiled weakly.

“You went easy on me, didn’t you, junior Dojin?”

Rachel’s body collapsed very slowly. Gracefully even as she fell.

Lee Dojin carefully embraced Rachel’s body. Her red robe touched Lee Dojin’s shoulder.

“You didn’t take much direct damage, did you?”

Rachel opened her eyes wide, which she had gently closed, as she looked up at Lee Dojin speaking to her.

“Heh, you caught me.”

“…Please stand up.”

Lee Dojin lifted Rachel’s body as it was.

“Hmm?”

The audience tilted their heads in confusion as Rachel, who had clearly collapsed leaning on Lee Dojin’s body, walked down from the arena perfectly fine alongside Lee Dojin.

The confusion was brief, and cheers for Lee Dojin erupted once again.

Lee Dojin had become the grand champion of both the first-year martial arts competition and the inter-grade battle.

Lee Dojin slipped away towards the waiting room, leaving the cheers behind him.

The reason was the same as last time. He didn’t want to unnecessarily draw attention.

And there was no need to face Sword Emperor So Daecheol right now. They would be crossing swords soon enough anyway.

The match between Yeon Simun, the strongest third-year who had finished this martial arts competition, and the strongest fourth-year was scheduled for 2 PM. Lee Dojin planned to come back for that match.

---

Lee Dojin had a lunch appointment. So he headed to where his companion was. It was a soup restaurant.

“Hey, congrats on first place.”

“You’re having blood sausage soup 3 hours before your match?”

The silver-haired martial artist, Yeon Simun, had already ordered food. She had called Lee Dojin in advance and ordered his menu as well.

“Then what should I eat?”

“…Right. I guess soup doesn’t really matter.”

Lee Dojin, strangely feeling dumbfounded, cleared his throat.

“Well, I was originally planning to have a cool bottle of soju with soup after my match was over. But my opponent is too weak.”

Lee Dojin blinked twice.

“The strongest fourth-year is weak?”

“They’re the strongest, but not the real deal. The real one is absent. Forfeited.”

“That person is one of the Golden Generation that the vice principal mentioned, right?”

“Yeah, that guy didn’t even come to school during the martial arts competition period in the first place.”

“Can I ask what kind of person they are?”

“His name is Seo Baekhyun. He uses a sword like you. As for the rest… go find him yourself next semester. It’s hard to explain in words.”

“I see.”

It didn’t seem like Yeon Simun was avoiding answering because she found it bothersome. It really did seem difficult to explain. Come to think of it, if someone asked Lee Dojin himself what kind of person Yeon Simun sitting in front of him was, he would find it hard to answer too.

Not just her personality, but especially about her martial arts.

Yeon Simun, seemingly not nervous at all, cleanly finished her blood sausage soup down to the last drop.

“What are you planning to do during the break, senior?”

“Well.”

Yeon Simun pulled out a tissue.

“If I can take the head of the New Humanity Society leader, I’ll do that.”

Revenge.

Yeon Simun was dreaming of avenging her older brother.

“If not, I guess I’ll just train. Or run some dungeons.”

Lee Dojin saw a resoluteness in Yeon Simun’s eyes that he had rarely seen before. She seemed to have already firmly made up her mind to take the head of the New Humanity Society leader.

“What about you, junior?”

“First I need to get my hunter license.”

A glint appeared in Yeon Simun’s eyes.

“Oh, your hunter rank. That’s something all the academy students should be curious about.”

“…Is that so?”

“What rank do you think you’ll be rated? Want to bet some chicken? I say A-rank. What about you? S-rank?”

Yeon Simun suddenly made a proposal. Lee Dojin found the flaw in her words.

“Isn’t A-rank the maximum for initial registration?”

At Lee Dojin’s rebuttal, Yeon Simun replied with an indifferent face, as if disappointed.

“So you know that.”

Yeon Simun’s scheme to easily win a chicken had been exposed. Lee Dojin let out a chuckle as he looked at Yeon Simun who had tried to deceive him with such a straight face.

Originally, the maximum initial rank was B-rank. But as the hunter era passed a generation, there were many cases of disciples of martial artists achieving martial arts far surpassing existing B-rank and coming for initial hunter registration, so they had no choice but to raise the maximum to A-rank.

Yeon Simun’s face became slightly serious again.

“You’re probably on the New Humanity Society’s hit list too. Those bastards aren’t the type to leave someone who killed their member alone.”

Lee Dojin slowly nodded. Even though he had only encountered them once, he could tell from that one meeting that they weren’t normal people.

-Until we meet again. Don’t die. It’s a promise.

The crazed face of Ryu Sohye, vice leader of the New Humanity Society, was still etched in his mind.

“They don’t hesitate to target the loved ones of their targets.”

“If I can strike first, I’m thinking of attacking first. Either killing the executives one by one, or capturing the lower-ranking ones one by one.”

Yeon Simun slightly furrowed her brow at Lee Dojin’s words.

“That’s dangerous.”

It was a short phrase, but it contained genuine concern.

“You’re one of my precious people too, senior. If they touch you, I don’t think I’ll be able to hold back. So I have to strike first before that happens.”

For the first time in a very long while, Yeon Simun was flustered. After a brief silence, Yeon Simun opened her mouth.

“Yeah… you’re one of my precious people too.”

Yeon Simun stood up and went to the counter.

“So I’ll pay for this.”

Yeon Simun held out her card to the employee at the counter.

She had turned her back to Lee Dojin to avoid showing her flustered state.

“Let’s go.”

Lee Dojin smiled faintly.

“Okay.”

---

Despite Yeon Simun’s words, Lee Dojin had some expectations inside.

Even if not part of the Golden Generation, wouldn’t they have risen up because they were strong?

But that was a misconception.

Most of the truly strong seniors among the fourth-year students had not participated in this martial arts competition.

“Hahaha! I’ve heard a lot about you! Junior Yeon Simun!”

“I see.”

“That’s right! My name is Kim Younghun!”

The referee’s announcement of the start of the match echoed across the vast arena.

And Yeon Simun lowered her stance and took a true step. Her long silver hair fluttered.

A blue fist energy pulled up from the ground was fired straight towards fourth-year Kim Younghun’s upper body.

It was the Hundred Step Divine Fist.

Kwa-aang!

Kim Younghun’s large body flew past the circle of the arena all the way to where the audience protection barrier was.

“……”

Silence engulfed the entire audience.

“Um, Yeon Simun student wins.”

The referee’s weak voice echoed across the arena.

The last match of the inter-grade martial arts competition ended like that.

The two joint winners were decided as Lee Dojin and Yeon Simun.