“Oi, dude, dude. It’s starting now.”
Inside a waiting room on B3 of Colosseo, cadets were gathered in front of a display screen.
It was 14 consecutive wins vs 14 consecutive wins, and was a big match that would be carried out once a day at most. Similar to the battle yesterday between Yong Taeha of the Yong household and Sophia Vorkova who each had 13 consecutive wins, the fight today would be an interesting sight for the excited cadets.
“Wow, is it Ling Ling versus Yu Yeorum? That’s gonna be spicy.”
“Aren’t they both in the top 30’s at least?”
“Yeah, but with their scores, they would have been in the top 20’s or the top 10 last year.”
“Who do you think’s gonna win? They both look super strong.”
During the two weeks after the start of the semester, cadets that were greatly interested in getting stronger tended to watch footage of cadets with a high number of points. If they couldn’t make it for the live battle, they would find a recorded version at least.
Thus, they watched with intense excitement.
“I don’t know. I’ll stan for whoever that wins.”
“Dude, if you’re a Korean, cheer for the Korean at least.”
“My mum’s Chinese though.”
“Aht…”
One of the two will rise to have 15 consecutive wins, while the other would have their record broken. Depending on the outcome of the battle, their points would end up having a difference of 20 points, so it would be a huge blow to the loser even though it was still the start of the semester.
One day’s loss required them to have two days of wins to rise back up.
A cadet wearing a pair of circular glasses opened his mouth.
“Actually, it might end quickly. Both of them are extremely aggressive so rather than becoming a battle of attrition…”
“Just shut up.”
“Okay.”
Tension arose as the area turned quiet. But once the countdown began, the cadets turned rowdy again. Ling Ling, who grabbed the swords in a reverse grip, formed a cross with her arms.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“Ehng?”
Cadets who were used to watching Ling Ling’s fights were in doubt.
Ding–
The moment the bell rang, Ling Ling stabbed the swords down before pushing the ground away.
Like pushing off the ground with ski poles, she accelerated her small body forward and bounced forward like a tiny flea. “Uwah!” The cadets created an uproar as they watched Ling Ling shorten the distance of 15 metres in an instant while swinging the two swords around like a blender.
It was difficult to spot it with their eyes but Yeorum seemed to have blocked it. A destructive thud that was unbelievably made by the clash of wooden swords resonated as dust clouded the alleyway arena.
“Guwaaaa!”
“What the hell! That’s insane!”
Their arms appeared to be moving judging from their body and shoulder movements but everything was blurry past the elbow and the sword wasn’t even visible.
The two of them were in a different time plane compared to the spectating cadets.
After receiving a strike, Yeorum kicked the ground and flew forward. It was an intimidating stab, which Ling Ling parried by crossing her swords but the aftermath of Yeorum’s mana went on and demolished the wall behind her.
The following slash aimed for Ling Ling’s head and although she tried to block it with one of the swords her power was far too lacking. Along with an explosion, Ling Ling’s head received a direct hit. Even the barrier wasn’t enough to fully nullify the strike and blood oozed out of her head while the HP bar also went down by a large margin.
Despite that, she used her other sword to reach for Yeorum’s lower stomach, but Yeorum, who had trained how to delicately manipulate mana with Yu Jitae, protected her stomach with mana.
She was still flung backward by a dozen metres before she immediately tried to raise her body back up. However, Ling Ling didn’t wait for her. Her small body once again flew forward with her swords acting like ski poles as flames rose up from the blades.
It was her forte, [Flame Sword (B+)]. The two swords enveloped in flames came crashing down like the fangs of a beast.
Kwaang!
A pillar of fire was created and covered the two behind the blaze.
“Oi, oi! What’s happening! Come on!”
“Uwaaah!”
They screamed from the cliff-hanger.
Bam! That was when someone was flung outside with their body burnt black like charcoal. It then fell down on the ground. Ling Ling, who stood back up with her fangs in full display, had her teeth painted in deep red as if she had been hit on the mouth.
And before long, Yeorum slowly walked out from the flames. Disgust was evident in her expression.
– Fucking bitch. You dare try to bite my ear?
“Kuuuuhh!”
“She’s swearing! She’s swearin’!”
“Yu Yeorum’s angry!”
Yeorum’s left fist was covered in blood.
Blood travelled down her nose after perhaps allowing a hit from Ling Ling. Raising her left hand, Yeorum aggressively wiped the blood and it was apparent that she was fuming even from the other side of the camera.
Soon, Ling Ling dashed forward again. It looked like she was in a fight to death as she slashed down with the two swords but her arm was soon bent into an unnatural angle, crushed by Yeorum’s sword.
“Uaaak…!”
“Uwah, what the fuck!”
But Ling Ling did not give up. The small beast dropped the swords and used her fractured arm to grab Yeorum by her hair.
Bam!
She then gave a headbutt which made Yeorum roll on the ground. Chasing after her, Ling Ling rode on top of Yeorum and revealed her fangs with her hands on Yeorum’s chest.
Yeorum’s elbow was then bitten as blood oozed out through the gap created within the barrier. Meanwhile, Ling Ling’s hands tried to rip Yeorum’s protective equipment on the chest area. Her nails were broken and blood raced out but she did not hesitate.
Ling Ling did not care about the method as long as she could win.
At the start, Yeorum was dumbfounded,
– What are you trying to…?
Ling Ling smiled,
– This fucking bitch! You have a death wish!!
And Yeorum finally went insane.
She raised her [Pulsation] to the max.
Slam! She smacked her on the face which twisted Ling Ling’s chin to the side. Ling Ling’s hands that looked for a place to grab managed to reach Yeorum’s neck but Yeorum withstood against the grip with her neck alone and held the unkempt hair with her hand. Then, she used her fist to crush Ling Ling’s face. Along with a nosebleed, her lips were torn.
Startled, the beast distanced itself but that was soon proven to have been a mistake. [Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art]’s swordsmanship was revealed. Yeorum’s sword was covered in a red light as it travelled down an unthinkable trajectory.
Ling Ling tried to use her arms and the wooden sword she managed to pick up to parry the sword, but her arms were crushed yet again along with the sword this time. She was flung backward and crashed into the wall, through the building, until she crashed into the fence on the other side of the building.
The camera quickly rose up in order to film both of them. However, Ling Ling’s HP was reduced to 0 and she soon turned into fragments of light.
Still enraged, Yeorum approached the place where Ling Ling had been, and angrily bellowed at an empty place.
[Victor: Yu Yeorum.]
[Combat time: 03 minutes, 15 seconds.]
[Acquired Points: 10]
“…”
“…”
An unfathomable battle and the gruesome appearances of the two cadets – after watching it all, one of the spectating cadets blocked their mouth with a myriad of emotions. He wasn’t the only one getting goosebumps from it.
To prove that, the waiting room remained quiet for a very long time.
***
“That fucking slut! I’ll kill her!”
Yeorum screamed after being summoned back to the real world.
The Level 4 artifact, [Statue of Competition] healed the injured cadets almost entirely after the end of the duel. Thanks to that, she was back to normal and her several wounds had already vanished.
“Calm down. Yu Yeorum.”
“You saw right? You saw that as well! That crazy bitch tried to rip my clothes after realising she couldn’t win!”
She no longer had a weapon after the spar ended. While fuming, Yeorum glanced around and picked up a fire extinguisher before kicking the door open with her foot. She walked forward in large strides and appeared like she was about to kill someone.
He could understand both sides. The red race viewed fights and duels as important but amongst the competitive superhumans, there were several of them that had a screw loose like Ling Ling.
Should he stop this, or no.
In fact, the Regressor couldn’t really find the reason to stop her. Wouldn’t she be in a better mood after venting her anger?
So if this wasn’t Colosseo, he might have let her do whatever she wanted. However, there were too many eyes in the surroundings.
A thick arm covered her body before she could go outside onto the corridor.
“Let go. Don’t hold me back. I’m serious!”
Driven insane, Yeorum shouted and raised her nails to scratch Yu Jitae’s arm. Of course, he didn’t bleed and it was her own nails that bled instead.
There was no other choice.
[Knifehand Strike (D)]
***
“…”
That night, Yeorum crouched down and smoked a cigarette after cooling herself down.
“…”
She didn’t get angry at him for stopping her. Having decided to obey the system of the academy, she knew what sort of result her actions would have caused.
“…”
After coming back to the dormitory, Yeorum stayed holed up in her room and brooded over what happened the entire day. It wasn’t the first or second time she was doing this, so the Regressor had an idea of what it meant for her to spend time alone and sulk.
In fact, it wasn’t something to get angry about. The fight had just escalated more than it should so her anger was only temporary.
She needed some time to settle her rampaging emotions, like what she was doing now.
As he had expected, Yeorum walked out of her room the next morning while scratching her belly beneath the shirt as if nothing happened.
“Do you feel a bit better now.”
“…Yeah. Breakfast?”
Yeorum spread some cream cheese on a slice of bread with nimble hands and pushed it into her mouth. Meanwhile, Yu Jitae talked about what happened the day before.
“You fought well yesterday.”
“…Yeah. I won, and that’s all that matters.”
“Right.”
“Yourself?”
“Huh?”
“You thought it was a shame didn’t you? When you were looking. Since I didn’t properly use what I learned.”
He didn’t say anything in response. She was right and her fight yesterday was simply a mess.
Yeorum grinned.
“You knoowww~ That girl was fuckin’ acting like an animal. I was freakin’ surprised and I got caught up in her pace.”
“Whatever. No need to explain what’s happened already.”
Hearing that, she gave a nod with a pout. Then, she quietly resumed pushing the bread into her mouth so Yu Jitae had to break the silence.
“Lair’s community website is in an uproar. Quite a lot of them watched the video as well.”
“Ah, you mean that, footage of the fight?”
“Yeah.”
“How many?”
“5,200.”
“Shit.”
It meant that half of the 1st grade cadets had seen it. “They must’ve seen me go mad,” she chuckled.
“And?”
“What do you mean.”
“Anything fun apart from that?”
“People were bad-mouthing that Chinese girl a fair bit.”
“What were they saying?”
When Yu Jitae quietly showed her the posts and comments of [Community Lair], Yeorum once again chuckled.
And after seeing an announcement, her expression turned a level brighter.
“Hoh? What’s this. She got sanctioned! You see this ‘3 days of restriction on individual spars for misconduct and 20 points deducted’ part? She’s fucked now right?”
It wasn’t there when he last checked but it seemed that the education department had just come up with a punishment.
“Serves you right, you stupid bitch. Fight if you’re there to fight. Why try to rip someone else’s shirt?”
“…”
“Did she want to see it that badly? Well, my titties do stand out a bit too much ♥”
She joked around and laughed frankly without keeping a pretense. Even her mouth munching on the bread began moving slightly faster.
Yeorum being happy and enjoying herself wasn’t too bad to look at.
“Anyway, there was a call from the PR team.”
“What did they say.”
“They want to carry out an interview with ten or so from the top ranks of the individual spar section. How is it – are you interested?”
“Not really.”
“You want me to turn them down for you?”
“Hmm…”
Blankly chewing on the bread, she asked.
“By the way, is that tiny bitch also coming?”
She appeared to be talking about Ling Ling.
“I think she was.”
“I’m going then, of course.”
“…”
“I’m not trying to fight. My mood’s all settled now, and I just wanted to have a chat.”
“…Alright.”
“Seriously, do you think I get angry all the time?”
Although it was hard to believe her, the Regressor couldn’t find the reason to dissuade her either. Thus, he took Yeorum that day and headed to the PR team.
*
But after arriving at the waiting room of the PR team’s interviews, Yeorum became slightly startled.
She entered after kicking the door. When eyes gathered on her, she greeted them by saying, “Hello unnis and oppas?”.
Up to there was fine because she was doing all that without thinking too much about it. What was strange instead was the atmosphere surrounding the room and the ones that had already gathered.
When she curiously inspected them closely, she realised that someone was holding another person by their collar.
Besides, they all looked familiar. Those nine cadets who had gathered at that place were all inside the list of people that required more attention, provided by Yu Jitae. In other words, they were all candidates for the top positions amongst first graders.
They were fighting but the tense atmosphere was cracked by Yeorum’s entrance.
One of them let go of the collar and spitted on the ground, while someone else swore.
“…Look at you guys.”
Though surprised, Yeorum gave a smile.
“What are you doing here?”