Korea-Japan Friendly Match (4)
Gulp.
The tense Kang Jihoe swallowed.
'Atsuto.'
The player before his eyes was a ranker from Japan, one of the world's great summoning powers.
Of course, he knew him well too.
Last year, Japan had made it all the way to the semifinals.
The footage from that time had already spread across the world, and Atsuto's reputation was likewise shaking the globe.
Among his summons in particular, the Soul Hunter (A-grade)—a warrior and assassin—was especially famous for its tremendous power.
"Please take care of me."
Pssshhk!
With five summons brought out and lined up, he greeted him.
"The same to you."
Atsuto also bowed his head in return.
The stage was set, so there was no reason to drag things out any longer.
'I'm going first.'
Kang Jihoe sent his tank-DPS summon, the Snowflake Berserker (B-grade), charging forward first.
Behind the Berserker, decked out in all kinds of expensive runes, stood a healer, a supporter, and a long-range summon ready to provide covering fire.
In a way, it was orthodoxy itself!
It was a composition and formation considered the most stable in the industry.
'Hooh?'
Watching the summon rush toward him, Atsuto's eyes gleamed.
'This feels different?'
Atsuto instinctively sensed it.
The summons' placement, the posture of their charge, their direction—everything about them was high-level.
Had Korean rankers always been this good?
'But not good enough for me.'
He had learned control directly from one of the Five Emperors, Yoshida Hikaru.
He was also evaluated as a major player with the potential to break into the world top 100.
If he lost to a setup like that, it would be a complete blow to his pride.
KWA-AAAANG!
The greatsword of the Soul Hunter precisely intercepted the axe of the charging Snowflake Berserker.
Thunk, thunk!
It even spun its greatsword in circles to shave away and deflect the arrows from the ranged summon.
"Huh."
Kang Jihoe's eyes widened.
'How is that even possible?'
The Berserker's charge was overwhelmingly domineering.
Even among domestic rankers, very few would face that charge head-on rather than evade it.
And yet Atsuto's Soul Hunter had received it with ease.
And not only that—
Slash!
The moment it blocked, it spun its body and cut across the Berserker's abdomen as it passed by.
Splurt!
Blood burst upward.
"Healer!"
Wooooong!
The healer and supporter continuously provided backup, and shaaash! from the enraged Berserker's axe, a blizzard of snow kept surging forth, but—
Slice, slash!
The Soul Hunter's movements far exceeded imagination.
Before he could even tell how it was moving, the Berserker's entire body was being covered in wounds.
Kang Jihoe felt a massive wall before him.
Its runes and specs were impressive, sure, but…
'It's different.'
Its control was different.
As if it could predict the movement of the axe, the greatsword kept cutting off its trajectory, and once one strike was blocked?
He had to give up another attack.
'Yeah.'
It felt like fighting big brother.
'No.'
Now that he thought about it, maybe it wasn't quite to that extent.
'If it were big brother…'
The Berserker's head would've already been flying.
Still.
It was certain that his opponent was several steps above him in every way.
A gap so huge that not even all the experience he had built up sparring countless times with his friends after the founding of Carpe Diem could overcome it!
'All the better.'
Kang Jihoe's eyes blazed with desire. He couldn't always face only the weak.
The more he tried to clash with the strong fighter in front of him, the more he himself would grow!
'Big brother said it's okay even if I lose.'
But?
That definitely did not mean to just lose for nothing. It meant to give it everything he had.
To fight with the resolve to take down even one more of the opponent's summons if he could.
'Snowflake Berserker!'
Kang Jihoe called out to the wounded creature in his mind.
At the same time—
Papapapaat!
It began running straight forward, outright ignoring the Soul Hunter.
When you lost in weight class, there was only one way.
'Take down the opponent's supporter, healer, and sniper first!'
It didn't matter if he gave up his own. This wasn't a strategy meant to win.
'It's to help the next player after me deal with him as easily as possible.'
After all, the format was a tournament.
Atsuto had to fight the next opponent with the same forces he had just used, without recovering HP or changing summons.
In that case?
Even if he died, he would hit the rear line as hard as possible, and then die!
"Run!"
Bloodshot veins filled Kang Jihoe's eyes.
He hadn't defeated rankers above him and made it onto the national team for nothing.
Because he was young, his ferocity was all the more certain.
"Ignore the attacks and just run! It's fine if you die—just tank the hits and keep going!"
"Huh?"
Atsuto was startled.
Originally, he had planned to slowly strangle him to death while cutting him apart with the Soul Hunter.
He needed to do it safely if he wanted to beat the next ranker too.
He was still a Japanese ranker, after all—shouldn't he be able to take down at least two against these Korean brats?
But—this made things troublesome.
"Stop him!"
Taaat!
The Soul Hunter turned back again and leaped to finish off the Berserker completely, but—
Slaaash!
The Snowflake Berserker's axe was no joke either.
With frost scattering everywhere, it began taking down the summons in the rear one by one.
Its HP had less than 5% left from Atsuto's ranged attacks, but after barely cutting through the enemies, the Berserker snorted and roared.
-Kuooooooooh!
The opponent healer's wings were torn apart, and the supporter's staff was broken!
Though it had lost to the Soul Hunter, it had still accomplished enough to be satisfied!
With that thought, the Snowflake Berserker roared joyfully.
And then—
Thunk!
Its neck was pierced by the Soul Hunter, which had come up behind it.
'Whew, I lost.'
He lost, but he had fought well.
He had shown a respectable performance against a player from a major power.
Once the Snowflake Berserker died, the situation was quickly wrapped up.
[Result of the first match!]
[Kang Jihoe loses vs Atsuto wins!]
"Next is Hong Ari."
Baek Jinwoo muttered.
"Got it."
The second batter was Hong Ari.
Step, step.
She walked out with a resolute expression.
"...Noona, that guy was no joke. But I wore him down a lot."
"Okay, good work."
She took over from Kang Jihoe.
'Jihoe went that far for this, so I absolutely have to win.'
Hong Ari had already experienced Atsuto once before. So she knew well how strong he was.
'Normally.'
At Kang Jihoe's level, he never would have been able to kill any of Atsuto's summons.
Forget taking out the healer or supporter—he probably wouldn't have been able to touch even a single hair.
But?
The current Kang Jihoe was undeniably strong. He had become strong enough to contend with the mighty Atsuto.
'The training paid off!'
Hong Ari steadied herself and took a deep breath. Her stiffened face showed just how nervous she was.
"Firebird."
Kirurururururu!
Her trade summon was a B-grade Firebird!
Whoosh!
The bird covered in flames began to blaze.
Her opponent was Atsuto!
The Firebird was an inferior version of the Phoenix (A-grade), but among Fire-attribute summons, it was fairly well-regarded.
What was more, she had recently received Baek Jinwoo's focused training, so her fundamentals were solid.
'I'll show him.'
Hong Ari glanced at Baek Jinwoo instead of Atsuto.
Baek Jinwoo gave a slight nod.
'How much stronger I've become.'
Whoosh!
Hong Ari moved first.
Her five summons deployed all at once and pressured Atsuto's remaining summons.
"Huh."
Even the astonished Atsuto was no pushover.
Kwagagagagaga!
They tangled here, burst apart there, and clashed back and forth—and the result?
It came out sooner than expected.
[Hong Ari wins vs Atsuto loses!]
She had barely won.
The Firebird's wings were torn, and her other summons' HP was all below 10%, but...
And Atsuto had only had three summons left, but...
Still, a win was a win, wasn't it?
"Yessss!"
Hong Ari let out a shout of joy. Then she stretched out her palm toward Japan.
"Next. Come on out."
"Not bad."
Japan's next batter was Ryo.
He wasn't a world ranker, but he was a player ranked ninth in Japan.
"To think just two of them would be enough to sink Atsuto."
Ryo muttered as he deployed his summons.
It really was a shocking situation.
No matter how clever they'd been, just two people had beaten Atsuto?
Honestly, before the match, the Japanese rankers had been thinking this:
'Wouldn't Atsuto take at least three of them down?'
'If he got lucky, he might even solo wipe them.'
'That'd be pretty funny. Getting wiped by Atsuto, not even Shusuke.'
'But so what? Isn't that just Korea's level?'
At the very least, they had thought he would beat three or more. But that expectation had already fallen apart.
"Hm."
Baek Jinwoo, arms crossed, also wore an interested expression.
'They're better than I expected.'
Kang Jihoe and Hong Ari.
Both of them had made good use of the fundamentals he had taught them.
It seemed they had at least started to accept that what mattered in battle wasn't the weight class of the summons, but the player's control.
If that hadn't been the case?
They would've gotten completely swept by that kid Atsuto before Ryo even had to come out.
"...Master."
Oh Sunyoung, standing beside him, murmured.
"This is truly moving."
She couldn't hide her excitement.
Who were they facing?
Wasn't this one of the world's top five superpowers?
She had never even dreamed of it.
That in such a short time, they would grow enough to fight on equal footing with Japan's national team.
"Come on, what do you mean moving?"
Smirk.
Baek Jinwoo laughed.
"It's you guys, and the Japanese players too... all of you are full of flaws."
If this much improvement was enough to be moving, then as their teacher, Baek Jinwoo would be disappointed.
"First of all."
He looked at Gi Jaehyuk and Oh Sunyoung, who were waiting nearby.
"Hong Ari is definitely losing to Ryo."
Naturally.
She probably wouldn't even be able to land a proper hit. That was how bad her condition was.
In that case?
Now one of the two had to go out and face Ryo.
"So, which one of you wants to go?"
Baek Jinwoo was planning to go out personally as the final batter, so only one of Oh Sunyoung or Gi Jaehyuk could go next.
In other words, this was a question of who would gain real combat experience here.
"Please let Jaehyuk go."
"Noona?"
"...I'm not national team material. The one who needs real-match experience for this World League is Jaehyuk."
Oh Sunyoung recommended Gi Jaehyuk.
Baek Jinwoo nodded.
A willingness to yield!
Very nice!
"Instead."
Baek Jinwoo grinned.
"I'll give Oh Sunyoung a special gift."
"...A gift, you say?"
"You'll see. Gi Jaehyuk."
"Yes, big brother!"
"You can beat someone like Ryo, right?"
"...Ryo?"
Gi Jaehyuk's eyes widened.
No matter that Ryo was near the bottom among Japan's national team, in Korea he was a monster.
When Kang Geonho, Korea's number one, had faced Ryo, the clip of him getting one-minute'd was still floating around the internet.
That was how powerful a ranker he was!
And yet Baek Jinwoo was calling him "someone like Ryo"?
"Why, can't you beat him?"
"..."
Gulp!
Gi Jaehyuk swallowed.
'There had to be a reason the big bro was saying that.'
Screw it!
Gi Jaehyuk blurted it out.
"...I'll definitely win."
If big bro was saying it like he expected him to win, then what was he supposed to do?
He just had to go win!
"Good. That's the mindset."
Whoooosh!
The match was already in progress.
Hong Ari's Firebird was gradually fading away!
Even while talking, Baek Jinwoo had been reading Ryo's summons and his control.
As a result—
'Gi Jaehyuk wins.'
The Gi Jaehyuk Baek Jinwoo saw was a genius. He handled summons so well that it was like looking at himself as a child.
If he simply did what he had been taught and didn't make mistakes?
He would beat someone like Ryo by the narrowest margin.
Naturally, if others heard that, they would call it insane.
To say he could see the overall outcome without even watching the full match!
But what was he supposed to do if he could see it?
It had been the same in Battle of Summoners.
Even when players fought each other, he could often tell exactly who would win before the match even started.
How much time had passed like that?
The match ended.
And naturally, just as expected.
[Hong Ari loses vs Ryo wins!]
"Next is Gi Jaehyuk."
"Yes, big brother!"
Against Ryo, who was holding down Hong Ari with an arrogant expression, Gi Jaehyuk stepped forward.
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