Chapter 55: Ian’s Performance (5)
TL: Haku
Editor: Hungry Panda
As soon as the match started, Black Magician Kanjihoonie immediately casted a skill.
“Pit of Darkness!”
As expected, he casted a skill that was Ian’s first time seeing. And the floor of the whole arena began to surge with black energy.
You have received the effect of user ‘Kanjihoonie’s ‘Pit of Darkness’ skill.
While receiving the skill’s effect, your movements will be slowed by 20%.
The slowing effect was applied to all of Ian’s Familiars and himself.
At that, Ian slightly frowned.
‘Getting slowed by 20% is quite annoying.’
Ian, who was planning on kicking out his opponent quickly in the early phase of the match using the same method that he used to beat Himenes previously, had to give up that plan.
This was because the slowing effect was also a hindrance, but different from Himenes, Hoonie was moving his Familiars quickly as soon as the match started.
If he lost the timing to attack swiftly, he needed to use standard tactics now.
“Ly, start by catching the ones at the front one by one!”
Grr-!
Ian placed Ddukdae and Ly at the front and had them face Hoonie’s skulls.
There looked to be roughly about ten skulls.
Normal Black Magicians that were around lv 50 managed over 20 skulls and when you thought about it, it looked as if Hoonie’s numbers were much lower, but because they were much bigger and they were black, they felt more menacing.
As always, the skulls began to be tied down through Ian’s Current Proliferation and Ddukdae’s Ice Wave.
Za-Za-Zap-!
‘I need to tie as many of the skulls down as I can in order for Ly to be able to access the Black Magician.’
The opportunity to catch the Black Magician with a swift attack went out the window, but that didn’t mean Ian was planning on waiting until all of the skulls were caught.
“Current Proliferation!”
Ian threw the lightning spheres that were in either hand into the air.
And the bundles of lightning precisely hit two of the skulls.
Za-Za-Zap- Bang-!
And the bundles of lightning that had divided and now were a total of eight spread out and hit the surrounding skulls.
User ‘Kanjihoonie’s Familiar ‘Skull Warrior of Darkness’ has gone into ‘paralyzed’ state. Their movements have been slowed by 30%.
Amongst the ten skulls, a whopping seven skulls were hit by the Current Proliferation skill, and three of those went into a paralyzed state.
Ian’s control ability, calculating the directions of the divided Current Proliferation and even getting the follow-up attack correct, was almost close to marvelous.
Hoonie, who saw Ian’s active play, cast another skill in fear that he would lose.
This time, it was the basic attack skill of Black Magician’s that Ian also knew well.
“Judgment of Darkness!”
A stream of a pitch-black beam shot out towards Ian from Hoonie’s spread hand.
The Judgment of Darkness was a skill categorized as a ‘projectile’ that had the highest speed amongst offensive skills, but Ian slightly twisted his waist and avoided the skill.
He didn’t avoid the projectile after seeing it, but rather it was possible because he predicted that a ray would be shot out while seeing Hoonie’s hand movement.
Ping-!
The Judgement of Darkness only hit the innocent arena floor before disappearing into the air.
Hoonie clenched his fist.
“As expected, you’re an amazingly powerful person! However, you met the wrong opponent today! Muahaha!”
Ian, who had now developed a bit of an immunity towards the cringe-y lines of the elementary-school Black Magician, fired Current Proliferation constantly.
And after spreading the Current Proliferation skill a couple times, most of the skulls were in a paralyzed state, and Ly was almost done catching one of them.
Just then, Ian’s eyes shone.
‘Now…!’
As soon as Ian saw an opening between the skulls that surrounded and protected Hoonie without a gap, he commanded Ly without hesitation.
“Ly, go in!”
Grrr-!
And Ly, who leaped up higher, charged towards Hoonie, who was casting a skill in the back.
In Hoonie’s case, it was a situation where he could fully be taken aback. However, surprisingly, he pulled a foot backwards and cast a skill, as if he was expecting it.
“Revenge of the Dead!”
Ian, who heard the skill words, momentarily felt nervous.
This was because Revenge of the Dead was also a skill that he was hearing for the first time.
And before Ly’s teeth touched Hoonie, a black energy oozed from Hoonie’s whole body.
Grr-!
However, Ly didn’t care about Hoonie and attacked him.
Familiar ‘Ly’ has dealt critical damage to ‘Kanjihoonie’!
‘Kanjihoonie’s Vitality has been reduced by 2272.
Ly’s critical attack that was invoked without hesitation!
However, at that moment, another baffling message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.
As user ‘Kanjihoonie’s skill ‘Revenge of the Dead’ has been invoked, 276% of the received damage will be reflected.
Familiar ‘Ly’ has received 6270 damage.
Ian momentarily thought his eyes were fooling him.
‘This crazy… 6270 damage? That doesn’t even make sense!’
Continued, Ly’s Inherent Ability, Bleeding, was immediately invoked, but that didn’t even get registered to Ian.
If he had received over 6 thousand damage, it was definite that Ly didn’t have much Vitality left.
On top of that, the effect of the Revenge of the Dead was applied after Ly’s Inherent Ability, Health Absorption, was invoked.
Because the point where Ly steals Vitality through Health Absorption was the maximum of his Vitality, he wasn’t able to recover.
‘Ly’s maximum Vitality is probably not even 8 thousand!’
And at that moment, Hoonie’s attack continued.
Pu-Puck-!
His staff hit Ly’s shoulder.
Familiar ‘Ly’ has received 759 damage.
There was no time to hesitate now.
Ian urgently recalled Ly.
“Ly, Summon Release!”
Just when Hoonie was about to do a follow-up attack, Ly’s body turned into a white light and disappeared into thin air.
“Keke, as expected, it was a wolf that had strong Offensive Power but takes blows terribly!”
Hoonie mocked Ian, who was taken aback, but Ian wasn’t in a state of mind to say something back.
At the unexpected situation, cold sweat dripped down his back.
It was now impossible to summon Ly for 30 minutes. In other words, that meant that he couldn’t use Ly until this match was over.
‘To think that I would have to fight without Ly. I should have safely eliminated the skulls in front instead…’
However, there was no way for Ian to have known that Hoonie had a skill that returned damage. Anyways, ambushing Hoonie using Ly was the best choice for Ian.
‘Ly became uncontrollable for the battle, but since he had received quite a large amount of damage as well.’
He remembered Himenes’ Vitality to have not reached even 10 thousand.
Hoonie would have lost over 6 thousand Vitality from Ly’s critical attack and the additional damage from Bleeding.
He thought that it wasn’t a complete loss on his side. And as the Bleeding effect continued as Ian predicted, Hoonie’s name began to slowly blink.
It was a sign showing that his Vitality had dropped below half.
‘Since that Revenge of the Dead skill doesn’t look like a skill that can continue on for a long time, I should cut his Vitality little by little with Current Proliferation.’
Hoonie’s current Vitality at most should be at around 4-5 thousand.
Even if he continued to use Revenge of the Dead, Ian, who had over 10 thousand Vitality, was confident he could catch him.
However, just then, Hoonie cast a skill that was unexpected again.
“Spirit Absorption!”
The new skill names that were continuously invoked, and the ‘Spirit Absorption’ skill that Hoonie used made Ian fall into despair.
As Hoonie spread his hand out, four of the skulls were sucked into his hand, and his Vitality was recovered.
“Keke, now the wolf’s gone, and my Vitality is completely recovered. Now how do you plan on facing me, muahaha!”
“Hmm…”
It had definitely turned into an incredibly unfavourable situation.
‘I could even lose.’
This was the first time Ian had thought that he could lose since participating in this arena.
However, there was a need to firstly do his best.
“Ddukdae, Ice Wave!”
Hoonie consecutively shot out Judgment of Darkness, but Ian dodged or blocked them with Bbookbbook as he slowly began to face the skulls one by one.
And for 15 minutes like that, Ian and Hoonie’s intense battle continued.
The spectators were in awe again at the surprising control that the two people were showing and were immersed in the match.
The two people’s battle was to the point it made everybody’s hands sweat.
“Ddukdae, Summon Release!”
And at the end of the intense battle, in the end, Ian had no choice but to Summon Release Ddukdae as well.
However, as he had reduced the number of skulls during that time, it was a situation where there was only one skull left.
The two people stopped their battle and momentarily faced each other.
“Persistent fellow!”
At Hoonie’s words, Ian smirked.
“Who you calling persistent, dude. And how dare you keep talking down to your hyung, kid?”
“Ki, kid? This villain!”
Hoonie, who was enraged at the word kid, ran towards Ian. And Hoonie and his skeleton cornered Ian.
‘Hm, this isn’t good…’
If he was cornered like this, it would become difficult to dodge Hoonie’s black magic with control.
It was right when Ian was momentarily contemplating.
Squirm-.
Bbookbbook, who was hanging onto Ian’s back, moved.
“Huh?”
Bbook- Bboo-Bbook-.
And Bbookbbook, who came down from Ian’s back, crawled over to Hoonie and blocked his way.
Bbook! Bbookbbook-!
For a moment, Ian was moved.
‘This Bbookbbook! Just when I thought he only went around with me because of the meatballs!’
In order to protect Ian, who fell into a crisis, Bbookbbook had valiantly stepped forward.
Meanwhile, Hoonie, who saw Bbookbbook’s form that blocked his way, sneered.
“What the hell is this turtle? You still had Familiars left?”
Ian pretended to listen to Hoonie’s cynical remark with one ear while he continued to plan a method to win the match.
And Hoonie, who thought he had already won everything, continued speaking with an expression overflowing with confidence.
“Why don’t you surrender now? You’re a pretty amazing villain for coming this far facing the universe’s greatest Magician.”
He continued to try to provoke Ian, but as he had no reaction, Hoonie was enraged.
“I’ll start by catching this big-headed turtle! Judgment of Darkness!”
Judgment of Darkness was shot out of Hoonie’s staff and it rushed towards Bbookbbook.
Bbook-!
However, Bbookbbook swiftly went inside his shell.
‘Judgment of Darkness’ skill has hit user ‘Ian’s Familiar ‘Bbookbbook’. 1 damage has been dealt.
Hoonie’s eyes slightly rounded.
“Chet, is it a barrier?”
As Hoonie watched Bbookbbook, who had his head out again with a triumphant expression in front of him, Hoonie’s expression scowled.
“Solid turtle, I’ll punish you a little later.”
Bbook-?
And Hoonie began to attack Ian with the skull 2:1.
And Ian turned his back and ran for his life.
“Puahahat! What the hell! What do you plan on doing by running around like that!”
Hoonie chased after Ian in enjoyment.
And Ian lured Hoonie, who was like that, towards the outer edge of the arena.
‘Just a little, a little more!’
From others’ perspectives, it looked as if Ian was running away from Hoonie and the skull as he had no other choice by the turn of events, but truthfully, Ian had a plan.
It was a clever scheme he thought of while Bbookbbook bought him some time.
Ian and Hoonie continued their battle and had ended up just running around the arena.
And the moment where Ian and Hoonie were passing by Bbookbbook, who was by the outer side of the arena.
‘Now!’
Ian used the great skill.
“Space Distortion!”
As the skill was used, Ian and Bbookbbook’s places were switched, and Hoonie, who chased right after Ian, was momentarily taken aback at Ian’s disappearance.
“Wha, what the hell?”
And Ian, who moved to Hoonie’s back, used his running inertia and pushed Hoonie using all his strength.
Puck-!
“Ack-!”
Hoonie, whose body was fundamentally light and whose Strength stat was noticeably weak as it was a Black Magician class’ characteristic, couldn’t help but be pushed by Ian, and his foot was even caught on the shell of Bbookbbook, who had appeared in front of him as his position was switched.
Bang- Bang-Thud-Bang-!
Ian let out a shout of delight.
“It worked!”
Hoonie, who fell, had rolled out of the arena.
And a system message rang out in the arena.
User ‘Kanjihoonie’ broke out of the arena.
According to the rules of the arena, it is counted as an ‘Off-course Loss’.
User ‘Ian’ has won the match.
And at that moment, the spectators, whom were watching the match with an excited expression, let out a cheer.
“Wooow! That was unbelievable!”
“It was a come-from-behind win that I wasn’t even thinking of!”
“Did you see that Summoner’s control? He’s crazy, how can he his skills so excellently?”
Meanwhile, there were sounds that also touched Ian’s mood in an odd way.
“That Summoner can win even without that wolf summoned from an artifact. I think maybe he is capable.”
Ian was slightly teary-eyed, but because it was shortly after winning a match that he almost lost, he was in a good mood.
Ian mumbled inwardly as he looked at Hoonie.
‘It was definitely a difficult match. But of course, if we were to fight again, I’m confident that I’ll win more easily then.’
Hoonie’s control skill was definitely exceptional.
However, the reason why Ian almost lost was not because of that. It was because he suffered properly by Hoonie’s skill ‘Revenge of the Dead’ with Ly.
If they were to fight again, he would leave Hoonie alone and just catch all the skulls first before slowly attacking Hoonie.
Meanwhile, Hoonie, who had suffered from an unexpected Off-course Loss, shook his fist in sorrow.
“Euh… Euhh…!”
Ian, who saw that form, wanted to tease him for some reason.
“Kid, what should we do when I won?”
Hoonie’s two eyes were even filled with tears.
“Euaaah! I had won! I had won that!”
He was a little strange of a kid, but Ian was inwardly agreeing that he almost lost by skill.
‘For sure, his control as well, he was an incredibly amazing kid. Incomparable to the sloppy one that’s supposed to be the number 1-ranking Black Magician.’
At the form of the kid, who was even sorrowfully crying, Ian felt a tiny bit apologetic.
“Don’t cry, kid. If you challenge again the next time, I’ll accept it.”
However, at Ian’s sympathy, Hoonie’s sorrow exploded even more.
“Heuaaang! This match is invalid! It’s invalid! Do the match again! Again!”
However, just because one kid begged, there was no way the semi-final results would be overturned.
Like that, Ian overcame a large crisis, and was able to safely make it to the rookie league’s finals.