Chapter 702: Week 8 PvP (3)
For Shin Byeongcheol, there was only one way out of this suffering.
Charge the crystals and win as fast as possible.
So he kicked off the ground and shot forward at once.
Leaving one line over his shoulder.
“I’m going! You’ll block them, right? Block them!”
“Of course.”
With an easy smile, I stepped in front of the two assassins.
And before Jang Chongmyeong could thrust out his sword, our eyes met.
[Activating ‘Mutual-Destruction Eye’.]
[The target is afflicted with the status effect ‘Frozen(B)’.]
[Cooldown: 00:00:59]
CRRRRK—
About half of Jang’s body was sealed in ice.
I switched targets for a moment and smacked Wang Sehun away with [Wind Force].
BANG!
Then I looked back at Jang Chongmyeong and saw him standing there calmly, watching me.
As if he had no intention of dispelling the freeze.
So I asked him,
“Looks like you did your homework.”
“I had no choice. You’re a person of interest, after all.”
By now, enough replays had piled up that a fair bit about my skills and traits was known.
Not just the wind and forced movement, but also the fact that I could inflict freezing in a variety of ways, that I could make it impossible to remove, and that there was still a cooldown attached.
So he saved his dispel on purpose.
To judge whether [Diamond Freeze] had been applied.
If it had, he would have planned to stall until it wore off.
He might fall behind for the moment, but if he could bait out one of my main moves in advance, it would still be worth it.
Especially since having to charge two crystals made a long fight inevitable.
But I like mind games too.
I’d expected this kind of thing to happen sooner or later, so I hadn’t used [Octopus Arms] or [Diamond Freeze] on the first freeze.
At the moment, the more time the other side wasted, the better for us.
And a one-minute cooldown would come back quickly enough.
Maybe Jang noticed that too, because he used his debuff cleanser right away.
CRSHHH—
The ice coating his body shattered and scattered.
By then Wang had rejoined him, and the two of them alternated sword strikes.
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
I dodged and deflected them as needed while gradually giving ground.
At the same time, I flicked my eyes toward Shin Byeongcheol and saw him furiously digging through the junk like a mole.
Then he plunged a hand into it and pulled out an empty crystal.
“Found iiiit!”
“Good work. Let’s go charge it right away.”
“Of course. And now the curtain rises on our counterattack.”
His desperate look from moments earlier was gone, and he spoke in a lofty tone.
Then he ran toward the giant mortar-slash-blast-furnace in the center, because just as I’d suspected from the start, that thing was the sanctuary.
At the same time, he started throwing chopsticks everywhere.
FWIP FWIP FWIP!
Some flew off into random places and stuck into the ground, while others targeted Jang and Wang.
Naturally, they batted them aside without effort, but Shin Byeongcheol didn’t stop scattering chopsticks.
FWIP FWIP FWIP!
As he kept moving his hands and feet busily and pushed forward, a beam of light from the giant mortar connected to the empty crystal in his hand.
[Crystal A 1%]
[Crystal A 3%]
Charging had started the moment he entered its range.
Jang and Wang exchanged a glance, then immediately began pressing harder.
Their pursuit quickened, and they even started firing sword energy.
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
“Whoa-whoa-whoa!”
Twisting himself into bizarre angles and making bizarre noises, Shin Byeongcheol barely avoided them.
He kept running and kept throwing chopsticks as he complained,
“But seriously, should this even be the kind of thing people hold grudges over? I don’t think emotional conduct is appropriate for assassins.”
Jang and Wang answered him evenly, one line each.
“Grudges? I have no idea what you mean.”
“Did I not say it already? We merely wish to bring this to a close as martial artists.”
“More importantly, we are not assassins.”
“At least not right now.”
“We are Jang Chongmyeong and Wang Sehun.”
Shin Byeongcheol stared at them in disbelief.
“Wow, look at you two playing dumb. Fine, whatever, but putting that aside, what are those fake names? Why are they so obvious? And why did you keep your family names the same?”
Maybe the question caught them off guard, because Jang and Wang both faltered for a moment.
Then each pointed at the other as they answered.
“...He came up with the names.”
“...He insisted on keeping the surnames.”
“He said it should be fine since our seniors had already graduated.”
“He said surnames all sounded alike anyway.”
That made Shin Byeongcheol look twice as dumbfounded.
“You’re blaming each other here? You’re both the exact same kind of idiot.”
“...”
“Go change them. I’ll come up with names for you myself. When it comes to naming sense, this great Shin Byeongcheol is the man.”
“...Come to think of it, didn’t you name T.E.B too?”
“That’s right! You two can do it too.”
“Not a bad suggestion. But first, let us finish this.”
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
The two assassins’ offensive became even fiercer than before.
Shin Byeongcheol had tried to drag things out, and it was backfiring on him.
A few strands of sword energy grazed his body.
[Shin Byeongcheol 96%]
[Shin Byeongcheol 93%]
“Ow-ow-ow-ow! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!”
I was blocking most of the attacks and had even put [Sylphid Armor] on him, but he still had to dodge some of it himself.
And of course that wasn’t going to be easy.
This was a hostile environment, he couldn’t leave the sanctuary’s range, and most importantly, there was the sheer difference in skill between the two teams.
He was sitting below 400 points, and what he was facing was a combined assault from a 700-point and an 800-point fighter.
Honestly, just lasting this long was impressive.
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
“Save me! Save me!”
[Shin Byeongcheol 92%]
[Shin Byeongcheol 90%]
Even as his health kept getting chipped away bit by bit, the crystal kept charging steadily too.
[Crystal A 46%]
[Crystal A 49%]
At this rate, we would charge both of them with room to spare before he went down.
That was what I was thinking.
And then—
A few more trucks appeared at the edge of the pit and dumped another load of debris in a crashing heap.
And among it, something flashed again.
The second crystal had already appeared.
“...!”
“...!”
Everyone’s eyes snapped that way at once.
It was sudden enough that nobody seemed quite sure what to do.
Naturally, I was the first to speak.
“I’ll go get it.”
“What about me?”
“Hang in there.”
“Hey, hey, no way! This isn’t what we agreed on!”
“Mom’s going out to shop~ Watch the house while I’m gone~”
And don’t open the door if strangers come by~
I gave him a warm little wave and left.
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
Seizing the chance, Jang and Wang unleashed ultimate moves in a flurry, while Shin Byeongcheol twisted his whole body to avoid them.
“Mom is a liar! Mom is a liar!”
Even so, his hands never stopped moving. Just like before, he kept throwing chopsticks nonstop.
By now the whole area had practically become half a field of chopsticks.
Wang Sehun casually knocked aside a chopstick flying at him, then countered with sword energy.
“Like the other day, I’ll admit one thing. Your evasive ability is impressive.”
“Much obliged. Glad you think well of me.”
“But is there really any reason to keep doing such useless things? If you had focused only on dodging, your situation would be better than it is now.”
“Does it really look useless to you? Looks like you learned nothing that day.”
“I remember you imitating a formation.”
At that, Shin Byeongcheol curled up the corner of his mouth.
“Then take this chance and learn something.”
“...?”
“You play the long con. Bluff, lie, bluff again, keep it going, and then you bring out the decisive move.”
TAP! TAP!
Two more chopsticks sank into the ground.
And then every chopstick already embedded there connected to the others with threads of mana, forming one enormous magic circle.
“I may not know formations, but I’m confident in traps!”
“...I see. Well played.”
Jang Chongmyeong and Wang Sehun simply nodded in silence.
The next moment, countless threads of mana shot out from the giant magic trap.
FWAAAASH!
If they got wrapped up in those, they’d be bundled into a ball of thread in seconds. And even if that didn’t happen, their movement would still be severely restricted.
Even so, the two of them kept calm.
Their bodies blurred—
and vanished.
They had cast [Ghost Without Shadow].
SHHHH—
They reappeared outside the trap’s range and were just about to resume attacking—
BOOM!
Compressed air exploded and shoved them right back into the trap.
Jang and Wang both visibly jolted and whipped their heads around.
And of course, their eyes landed on me.
I used ★Blink★.
I’d picked up the empty crystal, watched the situation for a moment, and then cut in at the decisive timing.
The mana threads shooting out of the trap immediately wrapped themselves around Wang Sehun.
“Ghk...!”
On top of that, a blue circle spread out centered on him.
He had activated [Pulverize Zone].
If we dropped them here, charging would get a lot easier.
Jang Chongmyeong, meanwhile, had reacted a little faster and tried to evade, so he was less affected.
He used his footwork and tried to get out of the trap again.
So I stepped in front of him—and he immediately sent a vicious sword strike at me.
SWIIIIISH!
Naturally, there was no reason I’d suddenly start getting hit after not being hit this whole time.
So I slipped aside and moved to strike him down, but apparently that sword hadn’t been his only play.
He opened his free hand—
and for a moment, it looked like it multiplied into several.
A palm art.
PAPAPAPAT!
Well, being a swordsman didn’t mean he had to train only in swordsmanship.
If you kept something hidden and suddenly brought it out, you could catch an opponent off guard exactly like this.
That is, if your opponent wasn’t me.
His goal wasn’t to bring me down. It was to shake me off for a moment and get out of there.
Because that much was obvious, I’d already expected him to spring something unexpected.
And at the same time, I answered his feint with a feint of my own.
I pretended to smack him with [Wind Force], then used [Frost-White Shot] instead.
BANG!
One side of Jang Chongmyeong’s body was covered in ice.
He used a debuff cleanser immediately, but the moment the freeze came off—
[Using ‘Diamond Freeze(C)’.]
[Activating ‘Mutual-Destruction Eye’.]
[The target is afflicted with the status effect ‘Frozen(B)’.]
CRRRRK—
His body froze solid all over again.
Jang Chongmyeong cast a dispel for the third time.
FLASH!
But unlike the last two times, this one didn’t come off.
His expression hardened, and I asked lightly,
“No more left, right?”
“...A checkmate.”
BANG!
[Wind Force] exploded, and Jang’s body went flying neatly through the air before landing right beside Wang.
Squarely inside the range of [Pulverize Zone], too.
“...!”
“...!”
Still tightly wrapped in mana threads, the two of them looked down at their feet.
They had probably already guessed what was about to happen from the replays.
But they didn’t give up. Instead, they raised their momentum again.
“We endure.”
“Let’s.”
And the moment that formless force dropped into the blue circle—
they drew up every scrap of protective force aura they had and slashed upward.
KWA-AAAAANG!
As a result—
[Jang Chongmyeong 74% / Wang Sehun 68%]
They had taken heavy damage, but neither of them collapsed. Both were still standing.
“You pulled through.”
“Can you keep fighting?”
“More than enough.”
Because of [Pulverize Zone], the trap had mostly disappeared too.
So the two of them tightened their grips on their swords and moved to attack again—
and then a notification message appeared at the edge of my vision.
I had no choice but to stop short.
...This procs here?
[‘Déjà Vu’ activates.]
[‘Pulverize Zone’ activates.]
KWAAAAAAANG!
Jang and Wang were crushed flat.