Sparring (1)

“I think this should work.”

“Hmm… The composition is more or less right, but… are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“I’d feel overwhelmed if the team was too big from the start.”

“That’s true. It’s not a bad idea to get a feel for things while gradually adding members. In that case, we’ll go with these members for now. Once the team is finalized, I’ll contact Merci Academy.”

A team needed at least one healing mage.

Elemental had an agreement with Merci Academy, so I’d heard they usually sourced their healers from there.

“Yes, thank you. You’ve worked hard today.”

“You too. I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thank you.”

By the time I had examined the candidates one by one and put together a rough team plan, it was already early evening. But I didn’t feel like the time had been wasted.

The prospective members would have been notified by now. I’d probably set up a time to meet them tomorrow or the day after.

Despite the sense of accomplishment, the fact remained that I’d had my nose buried in paperwork until dusk.

Feeling my mind go a little fuzzy, I sat down in a corner of the guild lobby and leaned my head against the wall.

This one’s rank was too ambiguous… That one was said to be a bit of a psycho… For that one, there was a better candidate with the same element… Then there was the one rated as not being diligent enough… and the one who was too timid, and the one who had just started training and lacked the skill and knowledge to join a team right away.

Did I choose well?

Well, what does it matter if they weren’t chosen? If things go south, I can just live as a succubus…

The fact that there was an escape route brought a sense of comfort to both Lee Han-gyeol’s and Seo A-gyeol’s lives.

I just hope this doesn’t end with both of them ruined.

Come to think of it, was I evaluated like that, too?

Things like ‘has psycho tendencies’ or ‘isn’t diligent.’ The reports were surprisingly detailed.

During the probationary period, we tackled gates with different teams, and the opinions of each team were all recorded.

…I remember being evaluated favorably, though?

In any case, it didn’t really matter now that I was a team leader. Now was the time to prove myself with results, or contributions.

But I have to live my life as a succubus at the same time…

Still, I’d feel too guilty toward my team members to just slack off at Elemental.

Did I take on too much…? Huh?

“Oh? Long time no see.”

Among a group that had just entered the lobby, Baek Seung-hoon, whom I had just seen on paper, made eye contact with me and greeted me. He was one of the guys set to join my team.

What? Did he get the news already?

“Yeah, it’s been a while. I heard you joined Elemental?”

“I joined ages ago. Right after I met you at the Awakened Center. My probation is almost over.”

“Oh, congratulations.”

I feigned surprise, even though I’d just read in his file that his probationary period was ending.

“Hah… I wonder which team I’ll end up on.”

It seemed he hadn’t heard the news. Just then, one of his companions nudged him.

“Ah, this guy? I met him at the Awakened Center when I first Awakened. We’re the same age, but I think he’s a team leader.”

“Ooh.”

“Nice to meet you. Your name is?”

“Huh? Ah, I’m Choi Yoon-sik.”

Hmm? He’s on my team, too.

“I’m Lee Han-gyeol. Are you with Seung-hoon…?”

“Yes. We got close after starting our probation together!”

“Uh… you don’t have to be so formal. Anyway, I look forward to working with you.”

“Huh? Yes. Understood.”

He didn’t seem to know either. His “Huh?” was filled with bewilderment.

“So, Seung-hoon, what’s with the group?”

I didn’t sense anyone particularly strong, so I figured they weren’t a gate-clearing team, but I kept that thought to myself.

“This? Turns out a lot of people joined around the same time. So we’ve been hanging out as a batch.”

Huh? A batch? I didn’t have anything like that.

Of course, it was a small group of only six, including Seung-hoon and Yoon-sik.

“Oh… But what are you all doing here?”

“We just decided to train together, that’s all.”

“Actually, we’re going to spar!”

“Spar? Is sparring even possible?”

I can’t spar. With fire and lightning… no, how do you even spar with other elements? It’s much easier to just kill them.

“We’re just going to take it easy. Yoon-sik here is going to make us some simple earth armor.”

Earth armor, right. I chose him because I saw he had the control to create armor from earth.

“You and… that guy over there?”

“Oh? How’d you know?”

I’d just picked out the two whose magic power felt roughly equal.

“You’ve gotta be this good to be a team leader. Anyway, go on and do your thing. I’m just going to sit here for a bit. My head hurts from reading all day.”

“Ooh, look at the team leader. You must’ve had a rough day. Get some rest. Let’s go.”

The group swarmed toward the front desk. After a brief conversation with a staff member, the employee suddenly pointed at me, and the entire group turned to stare.

Then, Seung-hoon, Yoon-sik, and another woman came running over. She must be the last member.

“What, you’re my team leader? You should have said so!”

“Ah…! So that’s why you said you looked forward to working with me…!”

“Hello! My name is Han Yu-jin!”

Baek Seung-hoon, the water elementalist. Choi Yoon-sik, the earth elementalist, and Han Yu-jin, the wind elementalist.

For now, these three were my team members, excluding the healer.

Water, to facilitate the conduction of lightning and for hydration, just in case.

Wind, for better control over fire and water.

Earth, to prevent my fire and lightning from hitting my own team (not that it would happen), and for simple terrain manipulation like barriers.

“A pleasure to meet you. I’m Lee Han-gyeol, your new team leader. I look forward to working with you all.”

I shook hands with the three of them in turn. Over their shoulders, I saw a flash of envy on the faces of the others.

“Since it’s come to this, you have to come watch us spar! We have to show our team leader what we’ve got.”

“Is that okay?”

It wasn’t like I had anything else to do.

“Hey, you’re the team leader.”

“That’s right. And who knows? You might find someone you like among the rest of us.”

Hmm, it would be weirder to refuse at this point.

“Alright. Since we’ve met like this, it must be fate. I’ll buy everyone dinner after the spar. Them too.”

“Wow! Now that’s a team leader!”

“Thank you!”

*

The training gate.

The very fact that they used an entire gate as a practice area, no matter how useless it was, showed just how massive a guild Elemental was.

“Should we do it here?”

The two who were scheduled to spar began to put on protective gear.

The gear consisted of a hooded, cloak-like garment and something that looked like arm sleeves.

It reduced the impact of elemental attacks like fire, lightning, and frost, but it didn’t block all damage.

And while it weakened the power of elements, it wasn’t very effective at stopping physical force, so it was said to be pretty useless against earth or water attacks that relied on mass.

Still, it was better than nothing. Especially in a spar like this.

“You all dressed?” Baek Seung-hoon, now fully clad in the robe and sleeves, called out to his opponent.

“Hold on. I tied the strap wrong. You go ahead and get Yoon-sik to put the earth armor on you first.”

His opponent was a slender man. I’d heard he was a fire elementalist.

The one I’d excluded from my list because his element overlapped with mine.

Honestly, no matter what he showed me here, his chances of joining my team were slim.

“Bullshit. Stop fucking around. The earth armor gets weaker over time. Ah, sorry.”

He must have realized I was there after swearing. He waved a hand at me apologetically.

I waved back to show it was no big deal.

Soon, both of them were ready, and Yoon-sik molded armor and helmets for them out of earth.

The armor was in the shape of a vest, and seeing the magic imbued within it, it looked surprisingly sturdy.

The helmets were reminiscent of Spartans. The slightly different shapes suggested they were custom-made.

Of course, the question of how useful that armor and helmet would be in an actual gate raid was another matter entirely.

“Ah, I’m still a bit clumsy with the arm parts, so for now I’m making them without arms.”

“You really don’t have to be so conscious of me…”

“Haha, you think so? We’re starting now. Hey, start. You’re all set.”

Seung-hoon and his opponent—I heard his name was Jin-hwi—put some distance between them.

“Hey, I’m coming at you!”

Seung-hoon attacked first.

A stream of water shot out from the center of his palm, forming a spear of water that flew toward Jin-hwi.

“Huh?”

The water spear dissipated two-thirds of the way there.

“Aah, he’s just nervous.”

Because it had scattered at the two-thirds mark, Baek Seung-hoon ran the remaining one-third of the distance himself.

Well, one-third plus two-thirds does equal one…

But Jin-hwi wasn’t foolish enough to just stand there and watch.

He lightly waved a hand to create a curtain of fire, blocking Baek Seung-hoon’s advance. Then, with a visual straight out of a cartoon, he twisted his hands together and created a fireball between them.

The fireball curved around the curtain of fire, heading for the approaching Baek Seung-hoon.

“You wish!”

Seeing this, Baek Seung-hoon thrust out his right hand as if to claw at it. Streams of water shot from his fingertips like giant claw marks and struck the fireball.

Chiiii—

The fireball, struck by the multiple streams of water, scattered. Hmm, Jin-hwi’s fireball doesn’t have much cohesion either.

But it seemed to be a feint. Jin-hwi used the smoke and the curtain of fire to approach stealthily.

Then, with flames swirling around his right hand, he—

Thwack!

Huh?

He punched the armor?

Not to be outdone, Seung-hoon also raised a hand.

Smack—

He landed a water-slap on the helmet that sounded incredibly solid.

Uhh?

Is this really how they’re supposed to fight?

Thwack! Smack! Thwack! Smack!

Jin-hwi’s flames seemed to have been doused by the water, so now he was just throwing punches without any fire at all, merely imbuing his fists with magic power.

Seung-hoon, apparently realizing his water wasn’t doing much damage, did the same, imbuing his fists with magic power and slugging Jin-hwi.

“Ooh! Go, go, go!”

“Hey, hey, hey! To the right! The right!”

“The right! Not like that, you idiot. Hey!”

And Seung-hoon’s batchmates were watching this with great amusement. I get that watching a fight is fun, but… uh…

Suddenly, Baek Seung-hoon’s eyes met mine. I don’t know what my expression was, but he flinched upon seeing my face.

“Hey, hey. Hold on.”

He created a great splash of water to push Jin-hwi back, then tried to form a water spear again—

Only to fail due to Jin-hwi’s interference.

Now Jin-hwi’s eyes met mine, too. He flinched just like the other guy, but then he gritted his teeth and—

“…Here I come.”

Jin-hwi thrust his palm forward as if firing a ki blast. Flames roared out like a flamethrower.

But don’t they teach you not to use it like that because it’s inefficient? Unless a monster is right in your face…

Baek Seung-hoon blocked the torrent of flames with a curtain of water. I thought it was a decent move, but this time, the curtain was too thin.

Chiiii— Chiik—! Chiiik—!

“Agh, hot!”

This was a truly pathetic display.

Weren’t these guys about to finish their probation? Did I mishear that they had completed their basic training?

At this rate, they could go at it for a hundred days and a hundred nights and there’d be no clear winner.

“Dammit, hey! Hey! Hold on! That’s hot!”

Or maybe not? Was Seung-hoon the loser?

Swallowing a sigh, I approached the two of them.

“…Is it over?”

“Probably. Sss, that’s hot. Um… I’ll work harder from now on.”

“…As long as you work hard, that’s what matters. You should focus on practicing how to shape your element and increasing the output of the element itself. And—”

I turned my head to look at Yoon-sik.

“You have a real knack for handling earth. The form is good, but it’s also great that you imbue it with magic power to increase its durability. If you keep developing that, you’ll be perfect.”

“Ah! Thank you.”

“And since we’re at it, it would be great to see your skills too, Yu-jin… Huh?”

Suddenly, Jin-hwi tapped me on the shoulder.

The way he tilted his chin up and looked down on me was somehow—

“Before that, I’d like to see the team leader’s skills.”

…He’s picking a fight with me, right?