As a clear aura formed on the blade, Baek Ra-uk narrowed his beady eyes and said.

“I thought it was a false rumor…”

“You have ears, but you can’t hear. Just like a worm.”

I deliberately didn’t block the [Arrogant Young Master] rising from within and retorted.

Because I needed that cold and arrogant impulse at this moment.

I immediately swung the Muhak Sword, which was clad in sword qi.

Kiiing!

The two swords that clashed in the air became entangled with energy, and the swords cried out.

“To think a worm was hiding his skills.”

“Keuk!”

The faint energy clad on the sword. It was internal energy that had not yet become sword qi.

This meant that Baek Ra-uk had reached at least the first-rate level.

“Why is a rat like you here, not having been promoted?”

I continued to push him, sneering coldly. A power struggle combining mana enhancement and sword qi.

Normally, I would have been the one pushed back.

If this wasn’t my territory, that is.

Along with the churning formation, the ground where Baek Ra-uk was standing slightly collapsed.

It was an anomaly of only a few inches, but it was enough to tilt the tide of the battle.

Screeech!

Baek Ra-uk’s worn-out sword began to be pushed back, being chipped away little by little.

‘As expected.’

I looked at the guy’s sword being cut away with sunken eyes.

According to the setting, Baek Hasin used the sword his mother had left him, and Baek Ra-uk also had a memento with a similar story.

So, there was also a part where he approached Baek Hasin to form a bond of sympathy using this as an excuse.

After the betrayal, everything else was a lie, but I remembered being even more dumbfounded because this was one of the few truths.

‘I’ll shatter it here.’

Screeeech!

With a terrible noise like scratching a piece of iron, Baek Ra-uk’s sword wavered unsteadily.

Baek Ra-uk, who had noticed this, tried to pull back, but it was already too late.

A fang of ice that had swallowed the fog and grown in size fell on Baek Ra-uk’s head.

Baek Ra-uk, who twisted his body in an instant to avoid it and pushed back the Muhak Sword.

It was certainly a move worthy of someone who had hidden his skills.

However, in the process of responding, his sword was already half-chipped.

I immediately swung the sword clad in sword qi at Baek Ra-uk, who was trying to get into a stance.

Baek Ra-uk, who couldn’t even counterattack because of the ice fragment embedded in his shoulder, defended.

Sparks flew as steel and steel clashed.

The scary thing about sword qi is not just its cutting power.

Woooong-

A vibration rings out while the swords are in a standoff.

Just as you get internal injuries when high-level masters have an internal energy battle.

A sword clad in sword qi and a sword that is not also resonate and have a durability battle.

And the result is, of course…

Crash!

The iron core breaks, and half of Baek Ra-uk’s sword flies away.

In the instant the tip of the sword floated in the air, I could see Baek Ra-uk’s small eyes wavering.

A clearly different appearance from before.

“Like master, like sword.”

Sneering coldly, I swung my sword at the guy as it was.

A series of attacks that couldn’t be countered with a half-broken sword.

Just as the sword was about to cut through his shoulder, his figure blurred.

Baek Ra-uk had immediately dug into my space and unleashed a palm technique.

It was a surprise attack that took advantage of the gap when the sword was broken and struck the weak point as smoothly as flowing water.

Soon, a fist flew to just below my chin.

Thud!

It was a good attempt.

If I hadn’t been the opponent.

“Is the struggle over?”

I got into a stance as if to execute him, staring at his fist, which was stopped in the air.

I had expected this and had spread a shield near my neck in advance, and Baek Ra-uk’s fist was blocked before it could even extend.

Thanks to that, Baek Ra-uk’s stance was now defenseless.

‘Just one arm.’

The tip of the sword shone, and leaving a clear afterimage, the Muhak Sword was brought down.

Slice!

A drop of blood splattered, and the middle of the hill was engulfed in silence.

“…Like a rat.”

I muttered, looking to one side.

There was Baek Ra-uk, holding one tattered arm and getting up from the dirt floor.

I had definitely cut him. However, the opponent had narrowly avoided it, so I couldn’t cut him completely.

I should have injured him to the point where he couldn’t even leave.

I rushed at the guy again.

He might have been able to avoid it the first time, but that was all.

Because there was no way he could face an enemy clad in sword qi with a magic shield with his bare hands.

Just as Baek Ra-uk was sending a look of resignation.

Toot toot toot-

A trumpet sound echoed. At the same time, my sword, which was being swung at him, stopped in the air.

“That’s enough.”

Instructor Jeongmuk, who had approached at some point, was blocking my sword.

“It’s your team’s victory.”

The team battle was over.

The result was our victory.

“To beat a team of 5 with 4 people. It was quite impressive. That peculiar technique as well.”

Jeongmuk’s muttering gaze was piercing, but I was just worried about Baek Ra-uk with a strange feeling.

‘I should have gotten rid of him for sure.’

And even more so when thinking about his backer. But fighting any more than this would have big consequences.

“The rest of the injured should be supported and brought over.”

As Jeongmuk and the other instructors gave first aid to the injured and then disappeared, I could see Baek Ra-uk gathering his broken sword.

“You won’t be able to repair it.”

I threw a spiteful remark. I did it on purpose to get on his nerves.

Because if he was provoked and entered a second round, I was planning to break him for sure this time.

But Baek Ra-uk turned his body without a word.

He was a guy whose inner thoughts were hard to read.

Just as I was about to turn around as well…

Clang!

A stone flew from behind me and was blocked by the shield I had spread in advance.

It was Do Sogi.

“What are you doing?”

I narrowed my brow slightly and checked the remaining amount of mana.

The guy, who was trying to get up with his head on the ground as if his injuries were severe.

“Who do you think you are…”

Do Sogi clenched his fist, scraping the dirt on the ground in a radial pattern.

A fierce reaction for just losing a single assignment.

But his strange behavior didn’t stop there.

Munch munch.

That guy, he was eating dirt.

No. He had eaten something he was holding in his fist.

Just as I was about to instinctively create a distance at the chilling sensation.

In an instant, I could see the energy inside Do Sogi churning.

‘What is this?’

A vein popped out on Do Sogi’s temple, and a sword flew straight at me.

I dodged Do Sogi’s rushing sword and got into a stance.

‘Did he dope?’

I inferred, looking at his stronger muscle strength than before and the veins that had popped out all over.

‘A surprise attack in the gap when the instructor is gone.’

The timing was strange.

If you get caught with a banned drug, you’re immediately expelled, but to take such a risk just to beat me, even after the exam was over?

‘There’s something.’

To block any unforeseen variables, I immediately used the remaining moisture in the air to shoot fangs of ice.

The ice blades flying towards Do Sogi’s injured thigh.

Clang clang clang!

But the fangs of ice crumbled on the purplish energy that was undulating near Do Sogi’s thigh.

‘What?’

Do Sogi, who had approached right in front of me before I knew it, swung his sword.

Clang!

In an instant, the shield broke, and I was sent flying back by the immense force.

‘Strange.’

I barely caught my balance and hid behind a tree, lost in thought.

The moment the magic had hit.

That purplish airflow. It was as if the energy inside his body was burning up and blocking it.

In an instant, a thought flashed through my mind.

‘Anti-magic?’

Strangely, there were moments when magic didn’t work on Do Sogi.

‘But that’s a concept that only appears in <Magic Knight Academy>, isn’t it?’

Just as I was wondering. I saw the trunk of a relatively thin tree breaking with a cracking sound.

Do Sogi was rushing towards me, cutting down trees like a beast.

“Tsk.”

I gathered my mana and formed a sword qi to block it.

Even so, I was being pushed back in muscle strength by the berserk Do Sogi’s sword.

‘If there were no obstacles, I would have been done for long ago.’

Right now, I was avoiding him by circling around the thicker trees than before.

And I was making the floor slippery so that he couldn’t follow me right away through auxiliary magic like ice or grease.

‘But this won’t decide the match.’

Although I was barely blocking him, at this rate, it was obvious that it would become a war of attrition between my mana and his stamina.

Since I had already used most of the mana in my circle for sword qi and magic, time was not on my side.

‘I have to end it before that.’

I prepared magic in the urgent situation.

If the opponent has the power of anti-magic, normal magic won’t work.

I gathered all the remaining mana in my circle.

Woooong-

Then, along with a vibration, the mana that had been condensed until now was about to explode.

Not from my spread palm, but from the center of the tree between Do Sogi and me.

‘If magic doesn’t work, I’ll have to settle it with physical force.’

Do Sogi, who was rushing with his eyes bloodshot, felt the anomaly for a moment and his eyes widened, but it was already too late.

Craaaack!!

As I caused several mana expansions, including flames, inside the tree that had been filled with moisture in advance, the tree couldn’t withstand the rapid expansion and exploded like a claymore.

Of course, only in the direction that Do Sogi was rushing.

Steam and other smoke rose slightly, and what was revealed beyond it was the figure of Do Sogi with tree fragments embedded here and there.

“You… bastard.”

The guy, who had become covered in blood, growled, straightening his half-bent knees.

There was no way he would be fine when one side of his body had become a rag from the tree fragments.

I looked down at him, having already spread a shield.

“You’re tough.”

Then, Do Sogi, who bared his teeth and rushed at me. But in my hand, a magic made by squeezing out the last remaining mana was already unfolding.

“Will you be fine even if flames explode from inside your body?”

At that moment, the ends of the numerous wooden fragments embedded in Do Sogi’s body began to burn with flames.

Fwoosh!

Unlike the phenomenon forcibly caused by mana, the flames that burned as the real wood reacted to the heat undulated intensely.

“Kuaaaak!”

Do Sogi, who was in pain. A wind magic swirled around him like a vortex.

Then, the flames rode the wind and created a vortex of fire as if a dragon were soaring.

Fwoooosh!!

A synthesis magic of fire and wind, implemented by burning all my mana.

“If strength doesn’t work, you just have to press down harder.”

Soon, the vortex of fire lifted, and what was revealed was the figure of a blackened Do Sogi.

The guy who soon collapsed with a thud.

A sigh came out automatically as I sensed the completely depleted mana in my circle.

“…This is incredible.”

Then, Baek Ra-uk’s indifferent voice was heard.

“Are you going to lecture me after just standing by and watching?”

I glared at Baek Ra-uk with a sharp expression.

Do Sogi’s unidentified drug and anti-magic.

Circumstantially, this guy was the only one behind this.

“Tell me everything you know about this guy’s strange behavior.”

I raised my sword and urged him on. I had no strength left, but I had to at least bluff.

Because I had to get information somehow.

‘Anti-magic.’

I had never heard of this. Because I had completely blocked off any involvement with Baek Ra-uk after being backstabbed in the first playthrough.

But this was reality.

A situation where I didn’t know what kind of variable would appear next if I didn’t get information here.

Just as I was about to point my sword at Baek Ra-uk.

“What are you doing?”

A voice coming from the forest broke the silence.

What was there was Baek Hasin.

(End of Chapter)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep