The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All

The man who entered the prison made of smoke, Bolga, a member of the Red Case’s watering team, muttered to himself as he looked at the fallen boy.

For a student, he endured quite a bit, but that was all.

The strength was within the expected range, and the level was only within the expected range.

The atmosphere in the smoke prison was very thin.

If he had intended to kill him, he would have done so earlier, but since he had to take him alive, his partner must have been controlling it so that he could barely breathe.

After a short wait, he was able to breathe normally enough.

Bolga fiddled with his mask and lifted his weapon.

The boy, or rather Yoo Ji-Hyuk, was still unconscious, not moving at all.

“Let’s take the limbs apart and carry them together.”

It will be too much trouble if he wakes up later and struggle.

While muttering like that, Bolga pressed Yoo Ji-Hyuk’s body with his feet as if fixing him.

And he felt as if he was soft and the ground was turning off.

“Huh?”

His body was sinking into the ground.

It was so quick there he didn’t have time to catch him.

And as soon as he saw it, Bolga immediately pulled down the mask and opened his mouth toward the ground.

Numerous wind bullets were shot from his mouth as if digging into the ground.

He shot out wind like a machine gun, and it went deep into the ground, but there was no reaction.

Did he just dig the ground and run away in an instant?

“Heueuk… !”

Then, someone’s suppressed groan flowed through the wind.

It was definitely his colleague’s voice.

Realizing this, Bolga immediately ran out of the smoke prison.

There was a woman grabbing her left ankle.

“Bo, Bolga…… hurry… !”

She clenched her teeth and showed him her ankle, which was rotting.

A dagger like an awl was stuck in her ankle.

“You have to cut the top part. As soon as I touched it, the wound went up… !”

Without hesitation, he cut off her calf with the sword.

Seeing that she had begun to stop bleeding with a suppressed groan, Bolga lifted the sword with his colleague’s blood on it.

The smoke prison began to fade away.

The smoke prison and the clone that hid her main body was a skill that required extreme concentration.

Therefore, there is a fatal flaw that her body becomes defenseless, but she knew it better than anyone, so she had always hidden her body perfectly.

It meant that she couldn’t be caught in such an instant.

Doesn’t it seem as if he knew where she was from the beginning?

He thought it didn’t make sense and it was when he put his hand on his mask so he could attack at any time.

“After all, the smoke was someone else’s ability.”

His voice.

He shot needles straight in the direction of the sound.

But he could instinctively notice that there was no reaction at all.

“Kyak… !”

When he turned his head, this time something like a tree vine was stuck to her shoulder.

She quickly swung her cigarette around, but her wounds didn’t disappear.

You bastard.

Bolga clenched his teeth at the way he tenaciously attacked his wounded colleague instead of himself.

Having made a decision, he quickly carried her over one shoulder.

“Bolga?”

“Let’s get out of here, Orga. As long as you’re hurt, there’s no need to fight anymore.”

As he held her firmly in place, who lowered her head as if she had no face, he heard the voice again.

“Who allowed you to leave?”

He had already decided that he would choose to escape rather than fight.

Bolga spewed out wind towards the ground without any regret, despite the voice coming from right next to him.

The two soon flew into the sky.

Yoo Ji-Hyuk, who he had fought earlier, had no means to attack at medium to long range.

Thinking that it would be better to heal her wound and reorganize first, Bolga opened his mouth.

“Orga, it will be painful, but spread the smoke to cover our bodies. There’s nothing good about drawing attention…… .”

“Bolga, behind you!”

“… Huh?”

For a moment, he felt as if his body had become heavy.

Bolga, who turned his head, soon saw a sight that made him doubt his own eyes.

It was Yoo Ji-Hyuk.

Only his upper body was protruding between him and Orga.

It was a sight that he couldn’t understand even when he saw it with his own eyes.

What…… .

Even before he could mutter like that, Yoo Ji-Hyuk raised his blackened hand.

Before he hit his eyes, all the Bolga could do was blow out wind just once to keep Orga safe.

* * *

Do they say that it’s always too late to regret?

Those were the perfect words for my current situation.

I frowned at the burning pain on my face.

Maybe it’s already blistered.

I didn’t need to see it to know how horrible my condition was.

It was complacency that still positioned me somewhere in my mind that this world was just a game, and that I had cleared it so many times, that it would be okay.

I thought I would gladly endure this suffering at such a conclusion.

This was nothing more than a token to me.

A token of never being conceited again.

I had to change the thinking itself.

Up until this point, I had moved with the play I experienced in the game in mind.

Therefore, I tried to imitate Jin Ye-Seul and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and tried to imitate Lee Ye-Eun and spread the branches of the World Tree to make the surrounding terrain advantageous to me.

Thinking about it now, it was ridiculous.

I wasn’t them.

I didn’t have the talent for swords like Choi Hyun-Woo, I didn’t have the talent for quick awakening and grasping like Han Soo-Young, and I didn’t have the innate physical ability like Ahn Do-Hoon.

Combat sense like Jin Ye-Seul, and cool-headed judgment like Lee Ye-Eun.

The same goes for Cass Lyle, Lee Yu-Na, and Ivan Hunt.

There is a reason they are the main characters.

And I can’t be them.

In the first place, the start was wrong.

I had to admit that I was weak.

And what the hell is the weapon given to me?

I had to admit why I had unconsciously chosen the dagger and bow in the first place.

It was only hard at first, but not at all after that.

“Kkeuaa, aa… ! You motherfucker… !”

At the moment the man who fell to the ground by blowing wind to reduce the impact, screamed painfully.

I wondered if it would have been possible to kill him as it is, but it seemed like it was too much.

‘A woman’s ability is smoke. The man has a wind-related ability.’

I managed to take the woman’s one leg by injecting poison, even giving up on retrieving Nidhogg’s fang.

Since she’s far away from here, it’s better to assume that she won’t be participating in the fight for a while.

That meant that she could no longer do the things she used to toy with me with the clone.

“Fucking, I will never forgive you… !”

With one eye squashed, the guy was muttering like he was grinding his teeth.

It looked like he was full of gaps.

But there was no need for me to go and rush all the way.

Instead of rushing at him, I pulled out a silent dagger.

It was the last blade I had, but I’d rather fight with my bare hands than go melee with it anyway.

I threw it at him with all my might.

Originally, it would be normal if he didn’t notice it, but somehow he managed to deflect the dagger that flew at him and even spat needles at me in return.

I immediately hid in the shadows.

It was the new ability of Henir’s Shadow.

[Effect][Active]

― You can cast Henir’s Shadow at will. Henir’s Shadow has acknowledged you as master and is willing to serve you.

― Hernir’s Shadow can be wrapped around a part of the body and used as armor.

— You can make things that touch the shadow temporarily sink into the shadow. The depth and duration of the sinking depend on the owner’s ability and the conditions of the object it comes into contact with.

― You can move from shadow to shadow using Henir’s shadow as a medium. The greater the distance, the greater the amount of mana consumed. Only those who possess Henir’s Shadow can move through the shadows. The shadow must be large enough to move.

— ???

Originally, it was an art that was supposed to be used as a moving machine.

In the original story, Jin Ye-Seul mainly used this to attack close to the opponent’s front.

But I used this to hide my body in the shadow.

If I’m in here, there’s no way he can attack me.

“What, shit… !”

While hiding in the shadow and disappearing, I made eye contact with him.

Now I had to assume he knew my abilities.

‘I don’t have enough mana…… .’

A while ago, while attacking the woman with the branch of the World Tree, I absorbed mana in a hurry, but it was like peeing on frozen feet.

When fighting in the prison of smoke, I wasted too much mana without thinking.

Now, it seemed impossible to attack by pulling out the branches of the World Tree on a large scale.

With a small click of my tongue, I began to move from shadow to shadow.

Meanwhile, he leaped onto a lamppost and stood on top of it like a bird, looking down.

“I won’t get hit twice, bastard.”

That almost convince me that my predictions were correct.

The silent dagger was something that even Choi Hyun-Woo could not notice.

However, he found it in advance, and not only had he been able to cover up the attack, but had even intercepted it towards me.

His ability is related to wind.

Wind.

He must be able to sense the wind by spreading it around.

Although he was blind in one eye, if he used wind, he could sense all directions, so I had to avoid approaching hastily.

What should I do?

I couldn’t continue to waste time like this, but I shouldn’t be impatient.

Now, what should I do?

It was time for the conceited guy who always thought he had all the knowledge and information to show his true colors.

How the hell can I get out of this situation?

“There you are!”

I immediately stretched out the branches of the World Tree from the shadows toward him.

Naturally, he intercepted the branches of the World Tree with only the minimum necessary attack.

I continued to draw his attention and stretched out a large number of branches toward the street lamp.

However, as if he was aware of my intentions, he quickly shot a large amount of needle towards it, cutting off the branch of the World Tree.

At that moment, the silent dagger I threw flew towards his face.

In a fit of desperation, he let out a strong wind that he had used to blow me away instead of the needles.

The silent dagger was terribly broken and flew away.

The strong wind that he spat was not only enough to shatter the silent dagger, it also shattered the ground that was in its path.

And that was exactly what I was aiming for.

“Where, shallow water…… .”

Even from a distance, I could see the guy’s expression, who was had been muttering as if it was absurd, was dyed white.

I stretched out the branches of the World Tree as much as I could, picking up smashed asphalt and gravel.

I never had the shallow idea that I was going to shoot him down with this.

I aimed at him from all sides and threw the asphalt, gravel, and shattered debris.

The guy continued to spit out wind and intercepted the debris.

And every time he did that, the powder of crushed and shattered debris flew here and there, creating a shadow.

Only I and parts of my body can move in shadows.

The shadow had to be large enough to be used as an exit.

However, like Henir’s Shadow, the branch of the World Tree was a parasite that was living in my body.

It meant that the branch of the World Tree was also treated as part of my body.

“Kkeueuk!”

If he doesn’t know where it’s coming from, there’s no way he can stop it.

As he screamed, his was body was struck with countless branches of the World Tree, like a cactus.

______________

[Note: ‘Peeing On Frozen Feet‘ ‘언 발에 오줌 누기’ – Something that works for a while, but disappears immediately and can worsen later. In fact, if you pee on your frozen feet, the ice melts for a while, but soon freeze again. – Namu-Wiki.]