episode_0029

029

A greedily engulfing breath of flames, scattering a deep crimson flash, seemed to swallow everything in its path.

Just looking at it made eyeballs feel like they were burning, and the body’s moisture seemed to evaporate instantly.

The crackling flames seemed to heat up the surrounding air, making it feel like even the breath was getting warmer. Yoo Seolhyun felt her breath getting uncomfortably warm for some reason. Somehow, even her breath felt stifling.

It was clear that any human who touched that inferno would burn fiercely until they turned into mere charcoal.

Even if one were to call themselves a hero, facing that flame bare-handed would surely lead to an unavoidable death.

Hadn’t Yoo Seolhyun almost died several times from touching that flame?

But, but…

What in the world just happened?

Yoo Seolhyun couldn’t easily shake off the perplexing feeling from the scene she had just witnessed.

After all, he hadn’t just sliced through that flame.

“With a sword?”

As soon as Lee Jinhyuk drew his sword, the breath of the flames was instantly split in half.

The flames imbued with magic dispersed helplessly and vanished in an instant.

The fierce heat wave fluttered through the air like a butterfly’s wings, then quickly dissipated.

…What in the world just happened?

Yoo Seolhyun, perplexed by the sudden incomprehensible sight, could only stare at Lee Jinhyuk’s back with a bewildered gaze.

Was it really possible to slice through the breath of flames without even adding a layer of qi to the sword?

Even if he used qi, it wouldn’t be possible to slice through flames imbued with that level of magic.

Just as one couldn’t scoop water with a sword, naturally, one couldn’t slice through fire with a sword.

Therefore, what Yoo Seolhyun witnessed was a sight that defied common sense and logic, so it was only natural for one question to arise in her mind.

“…Is it psychic power? Could it be psychic power?”

Psychic power.

The power to manifest one’s own anomalies in the world.

This unique power had shattered countless common sense and laws established by humanity, presenting new possibilities.

If he used the seemingly impossible psychic power to slice through and eliminate the flames, it could be somewhat understandable.

Since the types and powers of psychic abilities are so diverse.

However, if he possessed that level of psychic power, why would he have hidden it until now? There would be no reason to do so.

Furthermore, didn’t Lee Jinhyuk already possess precognitive abilities? If he had precognitive abilities, how could he also have another psychic power? This was somewhat difficult to comprehend.

“Could it be… rather than psychic power, pure swordsmanship?”

To possess that level of skill and technique, one would have to be at the level of a master swordsman, right? A master swordsman is no small feat. Yoo Seolhyun shook her head mentally. There’s no way someone his age could be a master swordsman unless he was a prodigy.

As Yoo Seolhyun’s ponderings deepened…

“You, you!”

“…”

“What’s wrong, what did you do!”

“…”

Kate glared at Lee Jinhyuk with a scowl, but Lee Jinhyuk, unlike before, remained silent, calmly looking on.

His cold, calm gaze, rigid facial expression, and the sight of him confidently wielding his sword as if he could easily defend against any attack, lingered in Kate’s mind, refusing to leave.

The sight of effortlessly slicing through the breath of flames was an incomprehensible sight for Kate.

Because even the heroes she had encountered so far had never just deflected an attack with a single sword swing.

Most stronger opponents had mostly dodged hastily, but how about that guy?

Just a moment ago, he was a guy who cowardly hid behind a girl and only used despicable arrows and various tools!

“I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you.”

Kate growled fiercely.

“There’s no way this time!”

She shouted again to dispel an unknown anxiety and quickly invoked her magic.

I don’t know what kind of trick he pulled off, but this time there’s no way!

With a stronger blow than before, she was determined to finish him off.

As she thought that, Lee Jin-hyuk silently raised his sword. What is that guy thinking?

“……You?”

“……”

An immense amount of magic began to concentrate on the raised blade. The blade, glowing with a blue light, was heated up fiercely. The concentrated amount of magic was similar to the flames Kate had unleashed.

A swordsman, or rather a swordsman, with that level of magical power?

Kate, who was once a sorceress, was quite puzzled.

If that guy could generate that much magical power, why did he only shoot insignificant arrows earlier?

Questions piled up, but the important thing now was not that.

Right now, the focus should be on burning that guy.

“At this distance, I have a clear advantage. I can burn him before he gets close.”

The weakness of all swordsmen, the range.

As swords were typical cold weapons, it was an unavoidable weakness that one had to endure. No, not just swords, but almost all cold weapons were like that.

Even if that guy approached quickly, he would inevitably be slower than Kate, who had already completed almost all preparations.

“So, should I just die now…?”

Swish.

In an instant, the sword swung.

What is he doing, swinging a sword from that distance? With that thought in mind, she gathered flames, but wouldn’t the crescent-shaped magic power be shot from the swung sword?

A sword technique?

“?!”

Kate hastily tried to conjure an incomplete flame in an unexpected situation, but it was futile.

The sword technique, swiftly attacking like a ray of light, cut through the flames fiercely and reached right in front of Kate’s nose.

Kate unconsciously extended her arms and the remaining tentacles to protect herself.

However, as soon as the heated sword technique touched her, the tentacles were cleanly sliced off, and her arms and bones were neatly severed, cutting through Kate’s chest.

“Ugh, ugh, ack?!”

In excruciating pain, Kate lost her focus, causing the immense magic power she had gathered in her mouth to scatter all at once, and the lost magic power confused and disturbed Kate’s insides.

“Cough, ugh, ugh, ack, ugh!”

Due to the severe damage, Kate, who had many wounds all over her body, exceeded the threshold her body could handle. Kate vomited blood and collapsed. Oh, oh, this can’t be. Me, defeated by that guy, it’s…

“Sword technique, a swordsman…? How can a guy like you… use such a technique…!”

Half-losing her sanity and falling behind in mental age, she vividly remembered that there were very few swordsmen who could implement a sword technique in the past.

Therefore, she never imagined that a little kid like him could use a sword technique.

Was he not an archer?

Or was it a fake to induce complacency?

I don’t know, I don’t know.

“Ugh, ugh.”

“……”

“Don’t, don’t come, don’t, stop, stop!”

“……”

As Jin-hyuk slowly, very slowly approached the collapsed Kate without saying a word, she screamed abruptly.

It was like a delicate snake foreseeing death.

Kate felt a wave of horror wash over her as she tried to escape, but her body was in such a state of disarray with all her tentacles, arms, and internal organs in chaos that she could barely move.

It was a state that would have been fatal for an ordinary person.

Kate, being a half-human, half-beast hybrid, was barely clinging to life.

But even that wouldn’t last long.

A man was slowly approaching her, as if savoring the final moments of his prey.

“Ugh, ugh, cough, ugh.”

Step by step.

The slow and quiet sound of footsteps echoed in Kate’s ears like thunder.

With the inevitable death looming over her, Kate could only gaze weakly at Lee Jinhyuk, her eyes devoid of strength, as she coughed up blood.

Lee Jinhyuk looked down at Kate for a moment. Kate didn’t know it, but this was a moment of hesitation. But it was short-lived. Lee Jinhyuk soon made his decision. He raised his sword.

“……Am I really going to die like this, coughing up blood?”

“……”

Without a word until the end, Kate looked at the boy who raised his sword.

She pondered her past.

She had turned herself into a monster through her research on life magic.

She had only wanted to continue her research for a little longer, she didn’t want to grow old and die, but Kate’s greed ultimately brought about her downfall.

How many people had she sacrificed to prolong her life?

In the end, she too met a fleeting fate like this.

Kate closed her eyes as if resigned.

Death was imminent.

And with a final, deep breath, Lee Jinhyuk ended the life of the mad sorceress who had dabbled in forbidden life magic.

This was the fate of the boss monster of Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon.

“……Lee Jinhyuk.”

And in the mind of Yoo Seolhyun, who had witnessed the entire scene, there was confusion.

There were many scenes that didn’t make sense.

“…He was a Sword Ki Master?”

Sword Ki Master.

A seasonal technique that many swordsmen dream of.

A long-range attack that only swordsmen with high concentrations, accelerations, and releases of mana could perform.

Among the current academy students, there were only a few who could use Sword Ki Master. Many instructors couldn’t even use it.

Even in the Union where geniuses gathered, this was a rare skill.

Yoo Seolhyun couldn’t use it either. She had a similar technique called Spear Technique that shot out mana, but she had been repeating failures so far. It was that difficult.

“It was much more powerful than what Lee Siwoon showed during the last assessment.”

Of course, it might not have been Lee Siwoon’s full power during the test, but the power of the Sword Ki Master used by Lee Jinhyuk now was incomparable.

Even the powerful half-human, half-beast monster wasn’t incapacitated in one blow.

Yoo Seolhyun knew how strong and resilient Kate was, having fought her life and death battles with the monster.

Even after fighting fiercely for dozens of minutes, Yoo Seolhyun couldn’t defeat the monster. And now, it was falling so easily.

Lee Jinhyuk, what is he?

From wielding flames to using Sword Ki Master.

He was said to have such poor skills that he had barely entered the academy. Why, why was he hiding these abilities?

If you dream of being a hero, it’s better not to hide them.

“…Ah, he’s unconscious.”

Was it because the tension was finally released?

She could tell that her consciousness, which she had been holding tightly onto, was gradually becoming blurry.

Before losing consciousness, Yoo Seolhyun once again thought of Lee Jinhyuk with a hazy mind.

‘Why on earth are you…?’

Only questions lingered in her mind, but soon Yoo Seolhyun’s consciousness flickered away.

Beyond her hazy consciousness, she faintly heard a voice that seemed to be calling out to Lee Jinhyuk, but soon she lost consciousness.

***

“Oh, I thought I was going to die.”

I slumped down. Look at my trembling legs.