The enemy didn't care about honor. Without warning, and before the countdown for their unofficial duel could even begin, the bully head lunged forward, swinging a heavy, glowing weapon straight at Jeesuk's head.
It was a cowardly, sudden attack meant to end the fight in a single second.
But Jeesuk was faster.
With a fluid, practiced motion, he brought his long sword up. SPARKS FLEW as the blades collided, a sharp metallic ring echoing off the school walls. Jeesuk shifted his weight effortlessly, absorbing the impact, and gracefully deflected the strike away from his body, forcing the bully to stumble forward from his own momentum.
Jeesuk didn't even blink. He just tightened his grip on his sword, his expression as calm as if he were taking a school exam.
The crowd of watching students gasped. The fight for survival had officially moved from monsters to mankind.
The bully head snarled, his face twisting in frustration as his cowardly opening move failed to land. "Think you're slick, huh, President?" he growled, his knuckles turning white around his heavy mace. A faint, muddy red aura flared around his boots—a Level 2 Vanguard skill activation.
He swung again, a brutal, horizontal slash aiming straight for Jeesuk's ribs. The air hissed with the raw weight of the strike.
Jeesuk didn't retreat. He stepped into the attack's blind spot, his movements calculated and precise.
CHIRP!
With a crisp flick of his wrist, Jeesuk used the flat of his blade to parry the mace downward, forcing the heavy weapon to slam into the concrete floor. The sudden impact sent a jarring shockwave straight up the bully's arms. Before the larger boy could recover his balance, Jeesuk spun on his heel, delivering a swift, powerful kick directly to his chest.
The bully flew backward, crashing hard against a row of lockers with a loud, metallic BANG! "Whoa!" Joel cheered from the sidelines, crossing his arms. "Nice form, Rep! Ten out of ten!"
The surrounding crowd of students whispered fiercely, their eyes wide. They had assumed the quiet, disciplined class representative would be an easy target in a lawless world, but Jeesuk was proving them completely wrong.
The girls there gone crazy looking at his fight.
The bully head pushed himself up, spitting a bit of blood onto the floor. His eyes darted from Jeesuk to the locked lab doors, then to his gang standing nearby. He knew he was losing, and his arrogance couldn't handle the humiliation.
"Don't just stand there!" the leader hissed to his lackeys, his voice dropping into a desperate, dirty tone. "Take him down! All of you, get him!"
"Hey! That's cheating, you cowards!" Kyna yelled, instantly reaching for her weapon. Liyana stepped up beside her, her fingers tightening around her dagger.
Three bullies from the gang lunged forward at once, drawing rusted pipes and daggers, charging at Jeesuk's back while he was still focused on the leader.
Yoorie's eyes narrowed. Her heart flared with a cold, sharp anger. They really don't know when to stop, she thought.
She didn't want to blow her cover or cause an explosion that would panic the hundreds of students watching in the hallway. But she remembered the system notification from the restroom: Everything you desire can be manifested through the wand.
She didn't need a loud, flashing spell. She just needed a subtle shift in the environment.
Staying low behind Joel and Kyna, Yoorie lightly flicked her ruby wand.then tilted wand slightly without anyone noticing.She focused her mind entirely on the shoelaces and heavy boots of the three charging bullies. She desired them to knot together, completely locking their movement.
Snap.
In mid-stride, the three bullies suddenly tripped over their own feet as if their shoes had been glued to the floorboards.
"What the—?!"
With a series of loud thuds, all three of them went flying forward, face-planting hard onto the dusty floor and sliding past Jeesuk like clumsy ice skaters. Their weapons clattered uselessly away across the tiles.
The entire hallway went dead silent.
Joel blinked, completely bewildered. "Did they… did they just trip over air?"
Jeesuk glanced down at the groaning bullies at his feet, then his eyes subtly drifted toward the back of the group, landing straight on Yoorie. Yoorie kept her face perfectly blank, innocently tilting her head as if she was just as confused as everyone else.
A tiny, unnoticeable smirk played on Jeesuk's lips. He turned back to the bully leader, who was now trembling, entirely alone. Jeesuk raised his long sword, pointing the tip directly at the leader's throat.
"You lost," Jeesuk said, his voice dropping into a lethal chill. "Now back up. Like we agreed."
The bully leader looked at his defeated gang, then at the sharp steel inches from his face. He swallowed hard, his bravado completely shattering. "A-alright. Fine. Let's go," he muttered, scrambling to pick up his mace. He dragged his tripping, limping lackeys back into the crowd, disappearing into the sea of terrified students.
"Serves you right, brats!" Joel shouted after them, laughing.
Suddenly, a loud, heavy CLICK echoed through the entire corridor, cutting the celebration short.
The crimson light in the hallway shifted into a deep, vibrant emerald green. The heavy steel doors of the Science Lab began to glow, the physical metal door opened showing a portal inside.