I personally really like the word “chaos.”
In a chaos, common sense doesn’t apply, knowledge becomes useless, and schemas fall apart.
Humans who lose in such a muddy fight are reluctant to admit defeat easily.
No way.
If they acknowledge being defeated by someone more unreasonable than themselves, all their sweat and efforts would go to waste.
Instead, they often resort to loopholes, decisive moves, cunning tricks, and the flailing of the incompetent to deflect blame.
But this is knowing one thing and missing another.
The process itself might be irrational, but once they enter into battle, only those who follow the essence of combat can seize victory.
Love Kim, can you really toss aside common sense and find the essence?
[Cast: Black Aurora]
The spear tip is wrapped in black sparks.
[Cast: Friction Coefficient Adjustment]
The utterly simple 1st circle magic added to this transformed into a more destructive force than ever before.
Love Kim hesitated for a moment, then suddenly grimaced.
She blew up her own Roseus Pantera.
Kaboom!
As the gravitational pull on her body disappeared, part of Love Kim’s barrier was ripped away.
The two spells she had cast also disintegrated into thin air.
From the runes used, it seems one was for firepower support from the Ignis series, and the other a self-protection barrier spell.
What a bold friend. Not the best choice but a correct one.
“What’s happening? My magic circle.”
“Maripukn to gauge boson. You didn’t study up to 8 syllable runes properly, did you?”
“… Ugh.”
This is the power of pure magic.
If you ask why on earth you should learn 8-syllable runes not even commonly used in 5th circle magic, it can be used like this.
“Do you think I can’t break through?”
Love Kim bites her lip tight.
She quickly retreats, creating distance.
What’s her plan?
Because I didn’t warm up my Aura Heart enough at the start, I’m not overwhelmingly in a favorable situation.
With my short legs churning diligently, I chased after her.
Love Kim was cornered against a dead-end wall, and the distance narrowed gradually.
“Uaaaaah!”
She suddenly shrieked and charged at me.
[Cast: Demon King’s Horn]
Flap-
The temporary wings created by her external manifestation stirred up a strong wind.
As if she already anticipated it, Love Kim pulled out a spell she had prepared.
[Cast: Sonic Boom]
Boom!
With a thunderous sound, the air layer trembled, and my hair flew in all directions.
I plunged my spear deep into the ground so that my body wouldn’t get blown away and maintained my balance.
At that moment, a fist filled with substantial aura came flying at me.
Pow! Crash!
I ducked my head to dodge the punch and leaped again to evade the low kick.
Clang!
The collision of auras generated a shockwave.
Rumble!
Every time Love Kim threw a punch, my feet were pushed back a little.
Her face began to bloom with confidence.
But the opponent was rashly trying to tackle me. That crossed the line.
I leveraged inertia to flip her back.
Crack-a-boom!
Love Kim rolled on the ground a couple of times and popped up like a weeble, brushing off the dirt from her mouth.
For the first time, she smiled.
“You shouldn’t have sent me to the center of the training arena. Now it’s your turn to face me, NoName. Delayed casting, self-reflection.”
My body was pushed backward with a whoosh.
Zoom-
Turning my head, I saw a giant permanent magnet magic circle on the external wall of the stadium pulling at me.
Scrape-scratch-scratch-
The spear made a bizarre noise as it scraped the grass, and ultimately split in two.
[Cast: Curion Adjustment]
Following Black Aurora and Demon King’s Horn, I cast triple magic.
I lowered the operating temperature of the magnet overlay on the outer wall to room temperature, neutralizing its magnetism.
Seizing the moment, Love Kim unfolded her unique magic again.
“Choose to discard Black Aurora or Demon King’s Horn!”
[Cast: Roseus Pantera]
Whoosh!
A high-energy beam shot out once more.
This time, instead of rebounding, I dodged, and pink droplets floated along the beam’s path.
She wrapped her hands in aura, completing all attack preparations.
“To do this three minutes into the match, it’s too late.”
Here it comes.
Love Kim’s aura is ‘Pleasure.’
And it’s extremely potent pleasure.
Droplets shaped like heart balloons greedily absorbed the surrounding mana, growing in size.
She charged towards me like a predator while recovering the droplets.
As she extended her hand wrapped in aura, the energy merged as if water droplets combined.
Her legs, striking the ground, visibly quickened.
The mana she had condensed in her hands exceeded the necessary threshold, and high-density mana fragments began to tumble down.
A significant amount of power focused on Love Kim’s shoulder.
From her foot, leg, torso, shoulder, to fist, the right side was increasingly warmed up.
This looks somewhat dangerous.
“I won’t know even if I die!”
From her fist, an explosion erupted.
Kaboom!
The entire meadow was blown away, and fine dust shot high into the sky.
I shielded myself with my wings to minimize damage.
The contracting force of Aura Heart was so strong that the next attack came immediately.
Bang bang bang!
In a split second, I faced a three-hit combo from her right hand, right foot, and left hand, tearing away one of my wings.
Crash!
Once again, the magic power wrapped in her left foot and right hand exploded, rendering my Black Aurora magic circle unusable.
“Ha-ha-ha! This is truly the end, NoName!”
A strong downward current weighed down on me.
Her left foot stomped down with all its might.
Due to the protruding terrain, there wasn’t much room to move.
Boom!
The Demon King’s wing made a deafening noise and cracked.
A small crater formed from the shockwave, and dust scattered.
“Uh…?”
Despite her critical hit, my wings didn’t break.
The Demon King’s wings shed marble pieces as if shedding a skin.
[Cast: Newton Barrier]
A barrier that gets harder the more force is applied.
The layered shields I stacked from triple casting didn’t break at all.
I laughed derisively.
“Did you think sis won?”
In a surprise move, I unleashed Black Aurora, Demon King’s Horn, Newton Barrier, and concluded with my saved Quadruple Cast.
A magic circle appeared above me, targeting Love Kim.
The runes densely filled the magic circle, and mana was injected.
[Cast: Uplift]
“Yaaaaaaah!”
I lifted the ground, sending her soaring high into the air.
“I can trust my speed, too.”
Tap-tap-
With a little running start, I leaped even higher than her.
The chaotic battle in the air is undoubtedly the true chaos.
Humans are born with the fate of not being able to fly; hence, being in the air is like a fish out of water.
We often preach the importance of lower bodies, but what can we do if our feet don’t touch the ground?
“Uh… what should I do? Just take the hits.”
I elbowed her in the abdomen.
Crunch!
“Oh?”
The Black Aurora caused an electric shock, disabling Love Kim’s barrier restoration function.
Lucky me.
Typically, electricity doesn’t penetrate barriers well. Maybe a tiny hole opened up somewhere.
Love Kim hit the ground at a horizontal angle.
Gasp…!
The recoil bent her back like a bow, and she lifted about 10 cm off the ground.
I brought both feet together and pressed down on her lower abdomen to firmly pin her down.
She pulled up all her aura to thicken her barrier and curled herself up.
“Uuaaaaah!”
“This is just futile flailing!”
I deactivated all my spells except for Demon King’s Horn and readied the foundations for the Quadruple Cast again.
[Cast: Steam Explosion]
[Cast: Arc Discharge]
[Cast: Layered Flow]
“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I included everything.”
I prepared various spells of different elements, daring her to think one single spell could neutralize them all.
In this mana-churning space, high-pitched screams echoed.
“Ugh. Haah. This can’t be happening. No way!”
“What’s not happening? Can you really make such sounds while taking continuous hits?”
She mustered significant output, so it’d take quite some more to chip away at her barrier.
Destruction of the barrier was roughly at 30%, but the resource expenditure greatly differed between us.
From now until the match ends, the initiative is solely in my hands.
I mounted Love Kim, who lay sprawled out, clenching my tiny fists tightly.
I crafted a gigantic claw made of aura.
Smack!
She received a smack across the cheek, looking up at me incredulously, struggling.
“Hahaha… H… why? Why am I like this? I did everything perfectly!”
A clear signal of self-denial.
This reaction is common among geniuses, but being hit resolves it all.
“It’s simple. I fight better than Sister Love.”
“How did I get electrocuted by fluke—”
Smack!
I slapped her other cheek.
“You still haven’t been hit enough.”
Gag…
“I feel dizzy.”
With not much time left until halftime, I emptied my emotions and focused solely on whittling down her barrier.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Her head notably swung this way and that, as if she was playing ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go.’
“Stop hitting my face! I’m dizzy…! Ugh…”
“No, because you keep resisting! There’s nowhere else to hit while holding you!”
“Does that mean you’re giving up on the match? I haven’t lost, ugh…! I’m not losing! Aaaah! Why isn’t this coming off!”
[Cast: Gravity Coefficient Adjustment]
“Then since I haven’t won either, I’ll keep hitting.”
“Seriously, you’re crazy, crazy, crazy…”
Love’s resistance slowly dwindled.
After smacking her cheeks around 58 times, she seemed to resign and droop her body.
Clap!
“Get up!”
“Why again…?”
“I got bored since you weren’t reacting to being hit.”
“… Maybe can you let me go for a sec, Na-me?”
Suddenly, Love Kim spoke to me in a calm tone.
I unconsciously felt like I should let go, so I stood up.
She staggered for a bit but then collapsed again, maybe due to dizziness.
She slammed her head into the ground and didn’t budge at all.
Her back trembled a little.
“… Damn.”
“Hmm? What did you say?”
I couldn’t catch it, so I asked again.
“Ugh… I said… I give up.”
“Hmm? What did you say?”
I heard her clearly, but asked again.
“I give up! I’m saying I give up! Waaaah! Why do I have to say this so many times?!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. But are you crying right now?”
“You know I’m…! You know! I really messed up… Na-me, I won’t watch your show again…”
“Hehe, okay then.”
“I’ll be an anti-fan!”
“Being an anti-fan is fine too.”
“Ugh… Actually, I don’t hate Na-me. Saying I’ll be an anti-fan was all a joke. Why do you take it so easily? I feel like I’ve been played the whole time, and it’s so infuriating!”
“Let’s go inside before it gets uglier.”
I had enough fun by now.
With many eyes on us, I wiped her tears in full view and poured mana into the Crystal Sphere to record the match result.
If both turn blue, it’s my victory; if both turn purple, it’s the opponent’s victory; if they are different colors, it means a draw.
I caught Love Kim subtly painting her Crystal Sphere purple.
“Record the match result properly.”
“Ah! Ugh…”
“Good boy, good boy.”
I patted her dirt-streaked head.
“I feel really bad but not in a bad way. It’s strange.”
Love Kim complained while fiddling with her hair.
*
“Hahaha! Wow, I truly saw it again! NoName, that friend is a riot!”
Among the silent audience, only one person burst into laughter.
A man threw off his tacky sunglasses and clasped his hands with his upper body leaned over.
“You remind me of when you were a kid.”
Principal Park Tae-seok added with a smile.
Then the man turned his head sharply and scowled.
“You really have a way with words, Principal. No matter how you see it, I wasn’t that much of a fool. Man, I never believed it when I was told the middle schoolers were really beaten up, but now I see it—it’s truly a wild spirit.”
The man in the green Saemaul Undong t-shirt grinned, revealing his gold teeth.
A name tag awkwardly pinned with a safety pin sparkled in the sunlight.
[Kim Gun, Chairperson of Korea Habitat for Humanity]
The infamously renowned champion of the 16th National Exchange Tournament clicked his tongue while watching Na-me.
