The Support Ate it All

Cha Hyeon-joo glared at Seo Ye-in for a moment, then gripped her bow tightly and curled her lips into a fierce smirk.

“Well, this works out. I was planning to face her again anyway. Let’s just say we switched the order.”

Seo Ye-in didn’t avoid her gaze and stared right back, clearly showing her displeasure toward Cha Hyeon-joo.

“You keep saying mean things.”

“Mean things? Hey, try putting yourself in my shoes. Let’s see if you wouldn’t curse too.”

“……?”

Seo Ye-in glanced at me briefly and tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand what Cha Hyeon-joo meant at all.

“I don’t get it.”

A thick vein bulged on Cha Hyeon-joo’s forehead.

However, as if she had entered battle mode, her eyes remained cold and composed.

While the two locked eyes,

Click,

Somewhere in the passage, a trap was triggered, accompanied by the sharp sound of metal. That seemed to act as the starting signal, and the battle began.

Bang-bang-bang-bang!

Swish-swish-swish-swish!

Seo Ye-in and Cha Hyeon-joo fired at each other. Seo Ye-in with her magic bullets, and Cha Hyeon-joo with her magic arrows.

Blue streaks of light crisscrossed wildly in midair.

A long-range bombardment.

The key was to evade the opponent’s attacks while landing your own to secure victory.

Seo Ye-in activated her Feather Walk to dodge the arrows, while Cha Hyeon-joo used her own movement technique and started stepping nimbly to the left and right.

But this place had an additional challenge.

It’s riddled with traps.

While dodging the opponent’s long-range attacks, it was inevitable that one would step into a trap.

Would you avoid the arrows but trigger a trap?

Or would you avoid the traps but get hit by an arrow?

This required the kind of decisiveness only a true daredevil could muster.

Bang-bang-bang-bang!

Seo Ye-in fired her assault rifle in rapid bursts as she moved diagonally across the passage.

But then, the ground beneath her foot sank about the depth of a fingertip.

She had stepped on a pressure plate.

Immediately, the corridor began to rumble.

Rumblee!

The walls on either side started closing in.

Knowing she’d be flattened like a pancake if caught, Seo Ye-in rushed forward. The arrows she couldn’t completely avoid were deflected using her conjured dark clouds.

Cha Hyeon-joo’s situation wasn’t much different.

Fzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

As she fired her arrows, she stepped on the edge of a magic circle, and a lightning explosion erupted from its center.

Though she managed to avoid being swept up in it, a few stray currents lashed out and hit her.

“Tch.”

Clicking her tongue briefly, Cha Hyeon-joo kept her hands and feet moving swiftly.

Swish-swish-swish-swish!

Bang-bang-bang-bang!

Meanwhile, I was observing their exchange from a safe position.

Cha Hyeon-joo still has the upper hand for now.

Both of them were moving quickly, making it nearly impossible to land a direct hit.

But while Cha Hyeon-joo’s magic arrows grazed Seo Ye-in two or three times, Seo Ye-in’s magic bullets barely managed to touch Cha Hyeon-joo even once.

It was clear that Cha Hyeon-joo had the overall edge in skill.

It’s probably because of the gap in their specs.

Seo Ye-in might surpass her in terms of control, but her skillset and abilities were comparatively limited.

In fact, compared to other promising students, Seo Ye-in’s toolkit still left something to be desired.

And it seemed Cha Hyeon-joo had already realized this. Using her advantage, she continued to vary her attacks with every move.

Swish-swish-swish-swish!

Once again, magic arrows streaked across the air in sharp blue lines.

But this time, they weren’t aimed directly at Seo Ye-in. Instead, they were fired toward the walls, the floor, and the ceiling around her.

At first glance, it looked like a misfire. But as soon as the arrows struck the surfaces, they ricocheted like rubber balls before shooting back toward Seo Ye-in.

Ricochets.

These were far harder to read and evade than projectiles that flew straight toward her.

“……”

Even so, Seo Ye-in scanned her surroundings with a calm expression, and with one step, then another, she activated her Feather Walk. She weaved through the gaps between the ricocheting arrows and dodged with remarkable precision.

Still, a couple of arrows grazed her despite her deflections with the dark clouds, which left her with minor injuries.

But from my perspective, her response was nothing short of impressive.

The real problem is that this isn’t over yet….

Rumbleee,

Once again, the ceiling began to tremble violently, as if another trap had been triggered, and then it collapsed with a deafening roar.

While Seo Ye-in busily moved to avoid the falling debris, Cha Hyeon-joo’s bow remained steadily aimed at her.

A massive amount of mana gathered at the tip of her arrow, causing it to grow larger and more menacing by the second.

This is her decisive move.

And just as Seo Ye-in barely escaped the danger of the collapsing ceiling, the arrow was loosed from the bowstring.

Whoooooosh!

The arrow shot forward in a straight line, carving a brilliant beam through the air, but midway through its trajectory, it split into dozens of smaller arrows and they started raining down like a merciless storm.

Seo Ye-in, however, simply stared at the seemingly unavoidable attack with an expression of indifference.

Then, just as the arrows were about to strike her—

Flash!

For a brief moment, her gray eyes seemed to gleam sharply, almost as if they had come alive.

In the next instant, Seo Ye-in’s body slid forward as though she were gliding across the ground.

Swish.

She had combined Bullet Time and Ghost Dance into a seamless move.

The arrows appeared as if they would surely hit her, yet each one narrowly missed, grazing past her by the smallest of margins.

As she weaved through the hail of arrows, the distance between her and Cha Hyeon-joo quickly closed. From my vantage point, it was a puzzling decision.

She’s going for close combat here?

It was true that Ghost Dance gave her the upper hand, and shooting at closer range would improve her accuracy.

But was there really a need to get this close?

The reason soon became clear.

Seo Ye-in had drawn near to Cha Hyeon-joo. So close they were almost face-to-face.

Rather than firing her magic pistol in rapid succession, she suddenly reached into her inventory.

What she took out was a wide, round, and black object with a handle.

…A frying pan?

Seo Ye-in gripped the frying pan tightly and swung it without hesitation at Cha Hyeon-joo’s head.

Clang!

With a crisp, ringing impact, Cha Hyeon-joo’s body staggered and wobbled uncontrollably.

She looked at Seo Ye-in with her mouth slightly open in disbelief.

“Y-You’re seriously using something like thi—”

Clang!

Her words were cut short as a second strike landed squarely on her.

In the end, Cha Hyeon-joo’s eyes lost focus, and her body slumped to the ground. Moments later, she was engulfed in a radiant light and disappeared entirely.

She had been rendered incapacitated.

Since it was just the two of us left, the scoreboard displayed the final match results.

[Kim Ho, Seo Ye-in 1st]

While Seo Ye-in stared blankly at the scoreboard, I approached her and asked,

“You did well, but where did you get that?”

“I borrowed it.”

“From where?”

“The kitchen.”

“To use as a weapon?”

At that, Seo Ye-in casually lifted the frying pan, as if to say, “Didn’t you just see?”

“A backup weapon.”

I’d heard that her backup weapon was being specially developed by the Hye-seong Group.

This must’ve been a temporary substitute.

Come to think of it, a thought suddenly popped into my head, so I asked her again.

“Where’s the pot?”

Seo Ye-in put the kitchen frying pan back into her inventory and pulled out a pot instead.

It still clearly bore the imprint of my head.

“Kim Ho Pot.”

“Right, so why aren’t you using that one?”

Seo Ye-in shook her head and hugged the Kim Ho Pot tightly to her chest as if it were precious.

“No way.”

“Because if you hit her with it, it’ll become the Kim Ho-Hyeon-joo Pot?”

– Nod, nod.

“Unbelievable.”

Falling for the feel of kitchenware, huh.

If I had known this would happen, I never would have let her hit me in that hammer game in the first place.

But it was already far too late to take that back.

“Anyway, let’s head out.”

“Mhmm.”

***

As soon as we exited the arena, we scanned our student IDs at the terminal.

Then, while waiting for our next match to be assigned, we reviewed the battle that had just taken place.

“So what did you think? Fighting Cha Hyeon-joo one-on-one?”

“Strong.”

“She’s good at fighting.”

To be fair, Cha Hyeon-joo had already expended quite a bit of health breaking through the ice walls. She had also taken damage from traps while chasing us and had to take down the Ilgong-Igong Monk duo along the way.

By the time she faced Seo Ye-in one-on-one, she likely didn’t have much health left, and most of her powerful skills and abilities were probably on cooldown. Yet, she had still managed to hold her own and even gained the upper hand in their duel.

She truly had the grit of a promising student.

“If you fought her when she was in top condition, you’d lose.”

“Mhmm.”

Seo Ye-in nodded her head in agreement, but there was a subtle glint of competitive spirit in her eyes.

Having a rival isn’t such a bad thing.

It would only motivate her to train even harder.

Cha Hyeon-joo, in turn, would keep striving and getting stronger to avoid falling behind, which would create a positive cycle of growth.

Before long, our second match was assigned, and Seo Ye-in and I stepped into the teleportation magic circle.

Our vision shifted instantly, and we were greeted by a small room with walls enclosing us on all sides.

After waiting for a moment, the countdown began.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Start!]

“Let’s finish the second match quickly, too.”

“Finish it.”

We began moving swiftly through the labyrinth.

In the previous match, by the time we had reached the later stages, traps were everywhere, leaving hardly any safe ground to step on. But since this match had just started, the labyrinth felt much more open and manageable.

Whenever the path split into multiple directions, we relied on our Lucky Charm radar for guidance.

“Straight ahead?”

“Straight.”

“Right turn?”

“Left turn.”

“Good.”

As we continued advancing at a fast pace, we both slowed down almost at the same time.

We had sensed faint signs of movement up ahead.

And sure enough—

Swiish—!

Thin, chopstick-like rods came flying toward us.

However, they weren’t aimed directly at us. Instead, they seemed to target the area around us, likely meant to trigger traps.

To counter, I combined Wind Force with Twister.

Whoooosh—

The strong whirlwind changed the chopsticks’ trajectories little by little, causing them to embed themselves harmlessly into random spots.

And as for the person who had thrown the chopsticks—

“Well, well, who do we have here?”

As expected, it was Shin Byeong-cheol.

Judging by how quickly we encountered him after the match began, it seemed our starting points must have been quite close to each other.

I asked him,

“Weren’t you in the 400-500 point range?”

“Yeah, pretty much. To be exact, I have 503 points.”

“How did you end up getting matched with us?”

“Fufu, there’s a reason for everything.”

Shin Byeong-cheol let out a low chuckle and gestured toward a teammate standing behind him.

“As you know, I’ve been pretty popular this week, haven’t I? I brought along someone skilled.”

At Shin Byeong-cheol’s gesture, a male student stepped forward a bit.

But his face looked strikingly familiar, so I asked,

“Are you related to Jeong Chong-myeong, by any chance?”

“He’s my older brother. I’m Jeong Jin-myeong.”

“I see.”

Jeong Jin-myeong was also a mage class, but like Jeong Chong-myeong, he didn’t seem to have any particularly unique characteristics.

An attribute-less mage.

Most likely, he was a member of the White Magic Club.

His score must be pretty high, too.

Seo Ye-in and I had an average score in the low 800s.

Since we got matched, their average score must be similar.

Considering Shin Byeong-cheol revealed that his score was 503, it meant Jeong Jin-myeong’s score was at least close to 1,000.

He was practically on the level of promising students or disciplinary committee members.

“He’s definitely skilled.”

“Fufu, didn’t I tell you? I warned you you’d regret it.”

For once, Shin Byeong-cheol flashed a confident smile.

Jeong Jin-myeong, however, didn’t join in his enthusiasm and simply said to us,

“Let’s get started. No point wasting time.”

He was right. There was no room for idle chatter.

We didn’t know when additional traps might spring up.

And since one of them had a score in the 1,000s, it didn’t look like they had any intention of avoiding the fight.

While Jeong Jin-myeong began channeling mana, Shin Byeong-cheol positioned himself slightly in front as if to protect him.

But then—

[Ice Wall]

A thick wall of ice suddenly rose between the two of them and completely sealed off the passage.

Shin Byeong-cheol whipped his head around. He grew startled and began fumbling at the ice wall in confusion.

“What….hey! What is this?”

“What do you think it is? It’s a partition.”

I answered casually and gave a slight nod with my eyes. Seo Ye-in nodded her chin slightly in response.

Then she pulled the frying pan out of her inventory and gripped it in her hand.

“You’re all alone now…”