Magic Academy’s Genius Blinker

Chapter 265

The Noble Soul (15)

***

Cheollibeun had expected to easily subdue Soya.

The abilities of the two were at the highest level, and Cheollibeun had a history of overwhelmingly defeating him countless times during their battles in Aether World Online.

Moreover, he also knew that Cheollibeun would notice the existence of Baek Yu-seol.

No matter how well he concealed his presence, it would be impossible to completely hide from a dark mage of 9Risk.

But then…

“Are you the one behind Soya?”

He had not anticipated this development at all.

With a stiff expression, he leaped forward toward Cheollibeun.

No matter how improved his physical abilities had become, he could not manipulate mana, and there was a possibility his knees could shatter.

Yet, he controlled his blink with utmost precision for a stylish landing.

Thud!

Upon landing, he found Soya nearly half-conscious, shedding tears and snot like a flood.

Since she was originally a beautiful person, it might have been pitiful to see her so ruined, but… strangely, he felt no such sympathy.

Instead, he felt exhilarated and refreshed.

After all, he had sent her to Cheollibeun with the intention of provoking this situation.

‘You need to suffer a bit more.’

The garbage-like dark mage who dared to aim for Leafanel’s heart and even corrupted her noble soul.

“Hmm, up close, you’re more of an ordinary high school student than I expected.”

“I’m indeed a high school student.”

“How boring. Do you plan to play dumb after coming this far? The expression on this kid’s face is telling the truth.”

Despite his face filled with pain, Soya desperately turned her gaze toward Baek Yu-seol.

The pleading, desperate look in her eyes seemed to view Baek Yu-seol as her hope, but… he had no intention of saving her.

Not that he had the ability.

“Truly… ordinary.”

Cheollibeun furrowed his eyebrows.

Having honed his ability of Thought Control for hundreds of years, he could indirectly sense the hidden powers within his opponent, no matter how much they tried to conceal their aura.

Yet, oddly enough, he felt no power emanating from Baek Yu-seol.

He was just an ordinary person, neither more nor less.

This made it even more suspicious.

‘Is it even possible for an ordinary individual to enroll in Stella Academy?’

Even if he assumed that an ordinary person could enroll in Stella Academy, could that ordinary body independently solve all the countless incidents that had occurred until now?

‘How strange…’

Cheollibeun’s expression hardened as he stomped on the ground.

The branches crunched underfoot, and simultaneously, a shrill scream escaped Soya’s lips.

“Ugh…”

Having merely broken a twig, she was probably feeling the pain of her wrist being shattered.

He was not the type to derive pleasure from inflicting pain on others, but the boy in front of him was too bothersome to deal with Soya’s neck right now.

“It seems you have no intention of talking willingly. It can’t be helped. This is not my style, but…”

Cheollibeun clenched and unclenched his fist, raising the remaining dark mana to the maximum.

Red heat waves swirled around him, distorting the flow of air.

“I have no choice but to force you to speak.”

It was certain that Baek Yu-seol was the one who had controlled Soya to fight Cheollibeun.

If so, it would also be reasonable to assume that the person who instructed the foolish Soya to steal the spirit’s heart was the same individual.

It was a natural line of reasoning.

However, there was no way to deny it.

‘This is troublesome…’

Although Cheollibeun’s suspicions were valid given the circumstances, Baek Yu-seol had no room for excuses.

He knew well that saying “I didn’t do it!” wouldn’t work.

‘I didn’t want to fight…’

One reason for this was that Cheollibeun was strong enough to survive encounters with the world’s strongest beings, but another reason was that he was a character Baek Yu-seol had cared for quite a bit while playing the original game.

Now that he was no longer just a character, but a real person, he could not express those feelings…

Swoosh-!

“Huh!”

As Cheollibeun stomped one leg down and swung his arm, the crimson mana lashed out like a whip.

There was no sound at all.

Ignoring the air resistance lightly, the mana’s whip swung at several times the speed of sound.

Baek Yu-seol felt a chilling sensation and quickly blinked to the side, barely managing to dodge the attack.

‘Crazy…!’

He couldn’t even see it.

He had barely sensed something was dangerous with the fringes of [Intuition], and only instinctively evaded, failing to grasp the delicate trajectory of the whip at all.

‘Is 9Risk going to be the end of me…?’

Previously, he had described Cheollibeun’s attack power as quite low, but that was an extreme example only considering “magic battles.”

With just the ability of Thought Control, Cheollibeun had risen to the ranks of 9Risk, and his physical abilities were also remarkably high.

Until now, he had no need to reveal that physical prowess, so no one had paid attention.

However, now that he had exhausted all his mana and had to move directly, Cheollibeun’s true skill began to gradually reveal itself.

Boom!!

As Cheollibeun lightly kicked off the ground and jumped, the earth caved in and collapsed beneath him.

At the same time, the ground’s tearing pain was entirely transferred to Soya, who screamed and rolled on the ground, but there was no one paying attention to her.

Crunch!

A thick tree that had once been part of the World Tree was easily split in two, and Baek Yu-seol, who had been standing there, vanished like an afterimage, reappearing about 10 meters away.

‘Now!’

Baek Yu-seol used Blink.

It had been only a few seconds since he discovered that peculiarity, and he quickly grasped the opening.

‘The delay between blinks must be at most 0.3 seconds.’

To some, this might feel like an exceedingly short moment, but for the dark mage of 9Risk, it was more than enough time.

‘Damn it…!’

However, Baek Yu-seol had also anticipated that an attack would rush in during the gap of his blink.

But…

There was no way to respond.

To use the next blink, he had to accurately determine his position and measure the distance before executing the control for the blink, which was something that could not be accomplished with an ordinary human’s concentration in an instant.

With no other choice, Baek Yu-seol expanded his blink toward the area with the least obstacles, barely managing to avoid Cheollibeun’s attack, but in the process, he scraped his forearm against a branch and got injured.

Drip!

A drop of blood fell.

Baek Yu-seol jumped back, clutching the wound to stem the bleeding.

He was unable to use even simple healing magic, making injuries sustained during battle extremely fatal.

‘… How strange.’

Cheollibeun’s expression hardened.

Just by seeing how many times his attacks had been evaded, it was clear that Baek Yu-seol was formidable, yet somehow he appeared clumsy.

His combat sense seemed exceptionally high, but his physical abilities did not seem to match.

‘Well… does it matter?’

For whatever reason, if he was in a weakened state, that would actually work in his favor.

Currently, Cheollibeun was in a situation where, despite the title of absolute defense, he could not trigger any of his characteristics or abilities.

‘Now, even Cheollibeun can be beaten!’

Swoosh-!

As the dozens of incoming black mana whips approached, Baek Yu-seol sharpened his gaze.

Avoiding the fight was impossible.

No matter how much he had liked the character Cheollibeun was, he had to sincerely face him to survive.

‘Can I win?’

He didn’t know.

But it was worth a shot.

Thud!

Reaching a branch through a series of blinks, Baek Yu-seol paused briefly to catch his breath.

This was simply an act to recover the usage count of his blink, but Cheollibeun also entered a brief standoff to retrieve his whip.

‘I need to concentrate.’

Focusing while closing his eyes during battle was a mad act.

But at that very crucial moment.

In the mere 0.5 seconds that Cheollibeun would retrieve his whip and swing it again, Baek Yu-seol closed his eyes and swiftly plunged into his mental realm.

[Red Spring March’s Blessing]

How had he fought until now?

Available blink count: 3.

Maximum travel distance: 15m.

These were clear ‘limits’ etched into his pliable body.

That was not all.

His physical abilities were riddled with flaws.

Although Blink was so fast that even a dark mage of 9Risk could miss it, what about the speed at which he wielded a sword?

‘So slow.’

To their eyes, wouldn’t it look like slow motion captured by a super-speed camera?

The action of swinging the sword was as slow as a sluggish turtle, making it incredibly easy to avoid attacks no matter how fast Blink was.

Yet, it was impossible to immediately swing the sword faster.

He had trained relentlessly and had not slacked off, but ultimately, there were limits to his growth rate.

‘I need to change my method.’

He had thoroughly read the magic manuals of the previous generation owners of the Mana Leakage Syndrome, who fought against the Progenitor Mage.

He had shared all the techniques for a swordsman with mana leakage to counter mages from start to finish, but there was nothing written about “countering dark mages.”

Since they were physically superior to humans, there was no way to deal with them with simple swordsmanship.

Even Ha Taeryeong could not prepare measures against them.

‘I have to create it myself.’

He had to think for himself.

Up until now, he had somehow managed to scrape by through luck, but that wouldn’t work against Cheollibeun.

But was it divine fortune?

His absolute ability was entirely extinguished, so if his response was sufficient, landing a strike was a possible situation.

‘Then, rather…’

He would give up on cleaving and instead thrust.

‘… Rush straight ahead using the acceleration of Blink.’

It was a simple method.

It almost seemed laughable considering all his previous worries.

But did Baek Yu-seol not use this method because he was a fool?

He had once attempted a thrusting attack through Blink.

Long ago… back at the start of the semester during the necromancer’s assault.

Having been injured to the point of nearly dying, Baek Yu-seol had delivered a final blow with a straight rush toward the nearly dead necromancer.

He had nearly received a similar fatal wound.

Why?

Because if the opponent knew Baek Yu-seol was rushing straight at them, it would be easy for them to launch a sharp counterattack.

This was why he had fought by aiming for the enemy’s sides.

With his defense being nearly zero, Baek Yu-seol himself could have become the actual danger.

That one fatal flaw of having no defense forced him to fight in a troublesome manner.

‘Focus. If I concentrate, I can do it.’

Baek Yu-seol’s mental realm grew even denser.

An ability to concentrate that transcended human limitations.

[Derived skill of Red Spring March’s Blessing: ‘Super Concentration’ activates.]

Thus, 0.5 seconds passed.

[Blink]

Swoosh!

“… Hmm!”

As Cheollibeun swung the whip toward Baek Yu-seol, who had his eyes closed and head raised toward the void, he frowned as Baek Yu-seol vanished in an instant.

“What a bothersome brat. Is running away all you can do?”

As he slowly turned his gaze, he saw Baek Yu-seol standing about 10 meters away, looking back at him.

‘What is this?’

But something felt different about the atmosphere.

The aura emanating from Baek Yu-seol felt unusual.

As if… even the slightest flow of wind were being disregarded.

Cheollibeun instinctively sensed it.

‘I don’t know exactly, but it seems he’s regaining his previous power.’

He couldn’t let that happen.

“Huh!”

As Cheollibeun extended his arms down and swung his whip, it spread wide like crimson hands.

Having already fought against two 9-class mages simultaneously, and even with his stamina depleted from facing Soya, who was presumed to be half mages due to her ability of Thought Interference, he was in a very weak state.

Despite trying to conserve mana as much as possible, now that the opponent was coming at him seriously, he had no choice but to show his true power as well.

Even if he had to expel all his strength today and die, he would have no regrets if he did his best.

He had always thought that way.

‘My body is at its limit now.’

This attack would likely be his last.

Drip!

Blood trickled from the corner of Cheollibeun’s mouth.

He had twisted his insides by forcibly drawing dark mana up from the ground.

That pain was so horrendous that an ordinary person could not even dare to imagine it, yet Cheollibeun felt nothing at all.

His only focus was on the enemy in front of him, that insolent young boy pointing a sword at him.

… Whoosh!

As the autumn wind rustled the leaves, they slowly fell to the ground.

The gentle breeze that flowed as if nothing had happened brushed past both men’s cheeks.

“… Gulp!”

Cheollibeun slowly lowered his head while spitting out a mouthful of blood.

He looked down at the silver magic sword that had penetrated his chest.

‘I was careless…’

His senses had dulled.

This was partly due to his blood loss and weakness, but after so long, “the earth had loved him and shielded him” so much that he no longer needed to deploy his senses, causing that once-sharp perception to fade.

However, was it true that even a rotting tree can bear fruit?

“Damn it…”

Baek Yu-seol, who had lost his sword, took a few steps back and ended up leaning against a tree, collapsing to the ground.

‘I should have… concentrated a bit more.’

He thought he had certainly caught all the attacks rushing straight at him.

But the opponent had also figured that out and attacked with flexibility, targeting every gap within the gaps.

‘This… I’m really going to die…’

The blade of black mana had pierced his waist.

It was a fatal wound.

He might die very soon.

What about his own attack?

Clunk!

As Baek Yu-seol’s mana infusion faded, the Terivon Sword fell from Cheollibeun’s chest, hitting the ground.

Blood flowed from his chest, but… it was not a fatal wound.

The moment he thrust the sword toward the heart, Cheollibeun emitted mana and twisted its trajectory.

It could be considered an absurd reflex or combat sense, but now he had to respect an enemy he had to fight for his life against.

“… What a shame.”

Cheollibeun gathered all the remaining dark mana and healed the wound on his chest.

Normally, it would have healed in an instant, but now even stemming the bleeding was overwhelming.

“Consider it an honor. You are the first to injure me in the chest since that man.”

Although he was in a weakened state now, he could take pride in nearly inflicting a fatal wound on a man with the title of absolute invincibility, right?

Of course, Baek Yu-seol, who was not a magic warrior, felt no pride at all.

It was just…

‘If only I had thrust a bit faster…’

If only he had used Blink just a little faster.

If only he had focused a bit more to evade.

If he had had just a little more experience… he could have avoided such a ridiculous attack.

‘I need to finish this.’

As Cheollibeun stumbled toward Baek Yu-seol, he suddenly stiffened at an ominous feeling he sensed from afar.

Quickly turning his head, he spotted a woman with violet wings appearing in the distant sky.

‘The Elf King… has she regained her strength?’

Having witnessed this situation, Cheollibeun lowered his head, realizing that while it might be good to finish Baek Yu-seol, it would be too late to escape.

‘… I need to leave.’

To preserve this worthless life even a little longer.

Cheollibeun picked up Soya, who was lying on the ground, shedding tears and snot, and carried her.

If he died like this, he would not be able to properly handle her.

As Cheollibeun walked away with Soya on his back, he turned for one last look at Baek Yu-seol.

Clutching his abdomen and with his eyes closed, he was completely defenseless, yet for some reason, Cheollibeun felt no desire to kill him.

In his eyes, there was not a hint of ‘evil.’

It was odd to think that he had controlled Soya and turned the World Tree into a mess, yet his gaze was strangely pure and noble.

‘For now, it might be okay to leave him alive.’

In an instant, Cheollibeun’s body fused with the earth, disappearing from sight.

End of Chapter