A long stretch of scorched black marks on the ground. At the end of it was Go Du-gyeong, standing with his long spear extended.

‘He blocked that?’

I retrieved the First Blade, which was emitting residual electric shocks while being blocked by the tip of the spear, and made a surprised expression.

The Flame Lightning First Blade Spear was truly my greatest secret technique. An overwhelming finishing move that had eliminated that hard white tiger in one blow.

I thought I could land at least one meaningful blow even against a super-peak level master, but Go Du-gyeong had nullified it with a single thrust of his spear.

“…Amazing.”

Go Du-gyeong, who had been silent for a moment, muttered softly.

“For that, you blocked it too easily, didn’t you?”

“It wouldn’t do for a professor to be defeated by an intermediate student. Even if I’m a bit rusty, I’m still a man with the title of King.”

Saying so, he slung the spear over his shoulder and added as if in admiration.

“Most senior students would be completely shattered. If they were to receive this head-on.”

He was right. The blow just now was possible because Go Du-gyeong had deliberately waited. He had gone easy on me to check my maximum power.

If it were any other senior student, the moment I took out the spear of flame lightning, they would have noticed the unusual presence and rushed in somehow.

They wouldn’t have even given me the time to create the Flame Lightning First Blade Spear.

“That’s a pity. That.”

“A pity?”

Go Du-gyeong asked back as if he was dumbfounded by my honest impression.

“Even if I went easy on you, the number of students in the entire academy who can graze my collar, no, not just graze but burn it completely, can be counted on ten fingers. You’re as immodest as I’ve heard.”

Saying so, Go Du-gyeong, who clicked his tongue, had one of his sleeves burned black. He pointed at the Daoist Scholar’s Fan and said.

“Anyway, that… is no ordinary object. Is it a type of artifact?”

I nodded my head. It seemed he couldn’t imagine that the Daoist Scholar’s Fan was a divine object that only appeared in legends.

“Well, a weapon is also a martial artist’s ability. Getting stronger is the priority, but… it would be difficult to use this in the ranking competition right away. An artifact that imitates the Art of Controlling the Sword with Qi.”

He pondered for a moment and then added.

“It’s important to get used to the weapon, but it’s also important to draw out your own strength when you don’t have it. From now on, we’ll train in two ways. When you have the artifact, and when you don’t.”

It was a pretty rational plan. I hadn’t been conscious of it because I had been using the Daoist Scholar’s Fan naturally until now, but I had rarely fought with only my own strength without the assistance of the Daoist Scholar’s Fan recently.

“Yes.”

I answered while recovering the mana in my circle. Then, Go Du-gyeong, who had approached right in front of me in the blink of an eye, cast a shadow over my face and said softly.

“Then let’s start right away. I’ll confiscate your artifact for the time being.”

Chaeng-!

The trajectory of the short spear was drawn before the sound, and the Daoist Scholar’s Fan that I was holding in my hand was bounced off and stuck in a tree far behind.

“First, let’s see your response ability when you don’t have an artifact.”

And then he disappeared from my sight in an instant. At the same time, the atmosphere of the surrounding forest changed abruptly. All the noise, from the sound of grasshoppers that had been faintly heard until just a moment ago, to the sound of birds, and the trivial noise of branches shaking, had disappeared at once.

Only then could I recall one fact anew.

The King of Insects, Go Du-gyeong. In fact, he was a being who had risen to that position not with his spear skills, but with his skill in controlling bugs.

“You’ll have to resist with all your might. If you don’t want to be eaten.”

Pasasasak!

With those words, a swarm of giant bees, 50cm tall, jumped out of the bushes. Their number was about ten. I immediately fired the flame bullets I had prepared.

Piing-!

But the giant bees dodged it as if they were scattering.

Since they were flying targets, it was difficult to hit them.

Reluctantly, I spread a wide flame magic to block their approach.

I could stop them, but it wasn’t enough to burn them to death.

The giant bees, which had grown huge due to the unique environment of the spiritual mountain and the trait change through Go Du-gyeong’s specialty, internal energy, had a resistance to swords and other attributes.

Wiiiiing-!

Before I knew it, a swarm of about ten giant bees was flying around, wary of the flame magic.

Their movements were different from when I had fought them as a junior student.

Because the King of Insects was controlling them directly.

Even now, he must be hiding somewhere in this forest and watching me.

If I put up a flame wall like this, only this side’s stamina would be worn down. As it was, it had been a short time since I had fired the Flame Lightning First Blade Spear, so I was short on mana.

At least, thanks to the growth of the circle itself in the process of recovering after the battle with the white tiger, I had about half of my mana left, but carelessness was forbidden.

I gathered all but a part of the flames that surrounded me. It was to secure my vision.

A giant bee flew towards the gap where the flame curtain had disappeared. When I predicted its path and shot it with a flame bullet, the giant bees did not approach any further after that.

They just buzzed around, waiting for my mana to be consumed.

‘I guess I have no choice.’

A trap of this form is over once it’s discovered. I had to get out. It was only me who would be at a disadvantage if I held a siege in a surrounded state.

I gathered the flames. Instead, I took out a shield and wrapped it around me.

It was to avoid being hit by a surprise attack.

And then I drew the Martial Arts Sword.

A flame bullet in one hand, and a sword in the other. This was my original fighting style. The one that had continued right after I entered the academy.

As I was feeling the old sensation anew, I could feel that the giant bees were still surrounding me from all directions. It seemed they were trying to gauge my reaction, who had switched to an offensive stance.

After looking around, I immediately rushed at a giant bee that was floating low on one side. Then, the giant bee that immediately dodged backward.

As if luring and hunting, the targeted giant bee fled to the middle of the swarm with all its might, and the bees that were on all sides flew towards my side and back, as if aiming.

‘Got it.’

Just then, I fired the flame bullets that I had gathered in my hand as a surprise attack.

Pa-pa-pa-pang!

In an instant, three giant bees that were rushing at me fell.

When I became the prey, the movements of the giant bees, who had momentarily become the hunters, were linear and simple.

If it’s difficult to hit, then predict the trajectory.

‘Good.’

I caught up with the giant bee that was fleeing as if to lure me without raising its altitude and cut it in two with my sword. No matter how high its innate physical ability was, a giant bee couldn’t withstand the rush of a peak-level master.

‘With this, there are five giant bees left.’

I had caught half, so now I just had to catch the other half. I calculated so.

That was a mistake.

Puhwak-!

In an instant, thick earthworms that jumped out of the ground wrapped around my both ankles.

“What?”

The moment I swung my sword to cut the earthworms, a giant bee rushed in. I reflexively spread a flame magic and burned the surroundings.

But soon, the middle of the flickering flames was blown open, and a giant beetle rushed in without hesitation.

‘Crazy.’

A 1-meter-tall beetle that was rushing at a high speed with its horn extended like an excavator.

Kaang!

After barely cutting the earthworms, I raised the Martial Arts Sword to block it, but my balance wavered slightly due to my unstable posture.

‘But it’s not to the point where I can’t win. It’s not as elaborate as human swordsmanship, so I’d rather just deflect it and…’

As I was thinking that, the giant bees that had dodged the flames rushed in from above my head.

“Welcome.”

I extended the shield that I had floated around me at them. Then, the giant bees that crashed like bugs on a windshield.

In the gap where they were flinching at the transparent wall, I fired a flame bullet through the gap between the shields.

Paang!

The giant bees, which were directly hit by three flame bullets and burned to a crisp. At the same time, I deflected the beetle’s horn to the side and turned half a circle to get behind it.

“It’s over.”

Aiming for the gap in its senses, I thrust the Martial Arts Sword, which was clad in sword qi, and the beetle, which trembled its body and then collapsed as it was.

Before I knew it, what was spread around was a sight of a dozen or so dead bugs scattered around.

As the battle came to a lull, I pulled out the Martial Arts Sword from the corpse of the giant beetle and looked around.

‘But where did the remaining two giant bees go?’

The flame bullets I had shot earlier were a total of three. Two of the remaining five were still left.

Shuuuuung-

Just then, I felt a qi sense of something approaching at a high speed above my crown and dodged to the side.

Kuuung-

The ground was dug up with a heavy impact. What had made a hole in the floor was a rock that seemed to be about 4 kilograms.

With a thought of ‘no way’, I lifted my head, and two giant bees were floating in the sky at a height of about 100 meters. They had worked together to drop the rock.

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I looked up at the sky with a dumbfounded expression.

It was a complete modern warfare of the martial world. The beetle with a hard rushing power was the armored force, the earthworms were the landmines, and the giant bees were the drones, a well-equipped trio of land and air.

Although it was only a force of a dozen or so, the power of the combined forces controlled by the King of Insects was beyond imagination.

What if the combined bugs like that swarmed in by the dozens, no, hundreds?

Just imagining it gave me the creeps. I narrowed my eyes, conscious of the presence of the King of Insects that would be beyond the bushes.

A being with the power to turn the tide of a battle alone. The title of King of Insects was such a thing.

But even so, if the forces he could operate were only two giant bees, the situation would be different.

I had already seen through their aim. Since there was no reason to be hit by the same move, I stared at how the giant bees would come out from now on.

But they didn’t seem to have any intention of coming down to the ground. To be precise, the King of Insects was controlling them to be that way.

‘Don’t tell me I have to catch the ones up there too?’

A whopping 100 meters. And that was not the ground standard, but the sky standard.

With the magic I could currently use, there was nothing that could hit an object 100 meters above the ground, except for the Flame Lightning First Blade Spear.

As if they knew this, the two giant bees were circling each other, drawing a figure eight as if to tease me.

‘If I had the Daoist Scholar’s Fan…’

As a weak thought was about to rise, I soon shook my head. I shouldn’t rely only on the Daoist Scholar’s Fan.

I looked at the giant bees. They would come down on their own if I waited, but since it had come to this, I wanted to try hitting them once.

‘How?’

The way to intercept an enemy at a high altitude. There was one way. To fly a missile. It was a matter of flying it to a height of 100 meters, like flying a water rocket on Science Day in my childhood.

And on top of that, calculating that the opponent would dodge.

‘Damn, this is difficult.’

I concentrated my consciousness and sprinkled water into the air. And then I used fire magic in parallel to lay a fog in all directions. The area became foggy in an instant.

Puhwak!

In an instant, the fog was pierced. I stepped on the highest branch among them and then leaped towards the sky.

The height of the tree was about 20 meters, and since I had leaped more than 5 meters, the remaining distance was about 75 meters.

And on top of that, I formed a shield in the air, stepped on it, and jumped again.

The remaining distance was about 70 meters.

The distance with them rapidly closed. I aimed at the giant bees, which were trying to scatter in a fluster, and held the Martial Arts Sword in a reverse grip.

‘It doesn’t matter if I have the Daoist Scholar’s Fan or not.’

My talent was not like that. It was not something to be hidden by a mere divine object.

A talent that could reach the absolute realm by itself.

From the beginning, a weapon was just an aid.

Because the true power was here.

Kiiing-!

The circle vibrates. The mana explodes along the expanded mana circuit. As if a 6-cylinder engine is igniting, an electric shock is imbued in the Martial Arts Sword.

I kicked off the last shield that I had floated in the air earlier.

The remaining distance was about 60 meters. It’s enough.

I throw it with all my might.

The Martial Arts Sword that rushes in an instant. The blow that was thrown at the point where the two bees crossed diagonally pierces them.

Pajijijik!

An electric shock that explodes at the same time. In an instant, the giant bees turned to ash.

“Got it.”

It was a success.

The problem was that I was now floating about 40 meters in the air.

(End of Chapter)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep