Chapter 55
The bridge leads down to District 20s.
Two vehicles entered one of several bridges with the sea below.
Max and Geum Jonghwa faced each other against the wind.
“…”
“…”
Max rolled the Lollipop around in his mouth.
The candy he brought from the Hotel was butterscotch flavored. It was luxurious and rich.
“Hup!”
Geum Jonghwa let out a short Breath and swung his sword.
A Slash Attack, accompanied by the sharp light unique to the Geumseong Family, pounded against the Shield.
Bang! Clang!
Max’s Shield was worn down in an instant.
The Slash Attack grazed him, leaving cuts on his shoulder and thigh.
“Hahaha! Why don’t you try making another ignorant sword above your head? Can’t even do that because you don’t have time to concentrate?”
“…”
Ignoring Geum Jonghwa’s provocation, Max reinforced his Shield and racked his brain.
Magic brought many methods to mind, but Geum Jonghwa convinced him that he could easily Counter most of them.
Even so, his deliberation had to continue. A dead end in finding a method would lead directly to death.
Consuming the sugar provided by the candy as fuel for his brain, he calmly assessed the situation.
‘Geum Jonghwa isn’t aiming for the tires or Usagi at all, but only my neck.’
It was something to be thankful for, even if it meant he had to find a way to deal with it.
Max and Usagi wanted to get far away from the Districts in the 10-range as quickly as possible.
“Even though disposing of the car is the end of the request, just abandoning it on the road is impossible.”
He had to grab the carrier where he hid the Smartphone. If he just hid himself without dealing with it, it could become unnecessary evidence.
If they were going to abandon the car provided by the Association here and leave, burning it without leaving a trace was the bare minimum.
All these judgments were made in an instant.
Geum Jonghwa, who had been firing Slash Attacks, directly lunged at Max.
Max immediately changed his response. The space where the Shield disappeared shimmered as if harboring heat.
“…Killing him in one strike is difficult. Dropping him under the bridge is the best option.”
A Shockwave struck the air and shot out like a cannon.
The target, naturally, was the incoming Geum Jonghwa.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Geum Jonghwa laid his blade flat and struck the condensed mass of magic power, then rode the repelling force to fly to a bridge pillar and stuck his feet to it like a spider.
Still not taking his eyes off Max, he kicked off the pillar and rushed in again.
“Good! Very good! It’s a fine magic with a solid foundation!”
“Could you just shut up?”
This was a scenario where the Mage tried to widen the distance as much as possible, while the Swordsman tried to close in to a distance where his blade could directly reach.
An obvious yet fundamental dynamic that determined victory or defeat continued.
However, the variable was that Max knew how to use his body compared to other mages.
A sword strike that would normally be decisive did not lead to a fatal blow.
Craaack!
Max’s Psychokinesis ripped out all the iron railings lining the boulevard.
He was separating and twisting them at the same time.
He shaped them into spears and poured them down on Geum Jonghwa.
Hundreds of crude spears were imbued with magic power.
If he took them without responding, even Geum Jonghwa would die looking like a hedgehog.
On top of that
[Kraken]
Translucent cephalopod tentacles surged up around Max, filling the gaps.
“Hah, how merciless!”
Geum Jonghwa raised the corners of his mouth and leaped up.
The iron skewers imbued with Psychokinesis followed him like a school of fish.
[Geumseong Sword Dawn Light]
Intense light and Slash Attacks spread out in all directions with Geum Jonghwa at the center.
The radiance, reminiscent of a flashbang, pushed away the spears pouring down like heavy rain.
Geum Jonghwa did not miss it and seized the moment.
Max’s eyes were twitching at the sudden light - a pattern that guaranteed certain victory whenever he faced a Mage.
‘An opportunity! I’ll increase my speed.’
This guy’s eyes were not prosthetic.
If he faced the powerful light created by Dawn Light, his vision would be blurry.
Ping!
Geum Jonghwa knocked over a vehicle with a Slash Attack. He was bluffing, exploiting the fact that Max’s hearing would have become sensitive to compensate for his temporary blindness.
Then, quietly and quickly, he got onto Max’s vehicle and got to the back.
“I won!”
Geum Jonghwa swung his sword with certainty. - clang!
The blade was blocked.
As if he had read that he would aim for the neck once he seized the opportunity.
A Shield condensed to the extreme was positioned at the nape of his neck. There was no protection for any other part.
“This crazy bastard! A gamble here?”
The tentacles of the Kraken clumped and twisted together, then struck Geum Jonghwa.
“Keuhuk!”
Geum Jonghwa spat blood and fell onto the roadway.
How many seconds had passed since Max let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the enemy rolling away?
A tiresome voice was heard.
“Mage! That attack really hit the mark just now!”
“Tough bastard…”
Geum Jonghwa was standing on the seat of a car with its roof torn off.
The bald man he had left behind was holding the steering wheel, dripping blood from his nose and mouth.
He must have followed them all the way here with a car and picked up Geum Jonghwa.
“The Ninjutsu we talked about, please.”
“Mhm.”
At Max’s signal, Usagi tilted the steering wheel and slipped into a narrow road with only one lane.
A turning point that required deceleration.
Usagi’s magic power flowed into the ground.
[Earth Release Fissure Rock]
A basic Tier 1 Ninjutsu that tore the ground and made rocks rise.
The rock Usagi manifested created a sturdy jump ramp for the vehicle to ride over.
Thump!
The vehicle jumped just like that and landed cleanly on another road built over the sea.
Thanks to Max’s Psychokinesis safely pressing it down, he immediately picked up speed.
“You’re using a very interesting trick! Geum San!”
“Yes!”
At Geum Jonghwa’s command, Geum San also rushed at the jump ramp and forcefully got onto the same road.
Screeeech!
The vehicle Geum San had procured was not ordinary.
It reached an incredible speed and stuck right next to the vehicle Usagi was driving.
‘If I try to overturn the car driven by his lackey with Psychokinesis, he’ll take the opportunity of my divided consciousness to aim for my vitals.’
As if proving Max’s judgment, Geum Jonghwa began slashing while scattering blood.
“Kaaak!”
Not a trace of the appearance Geum Jonghwa had shown at the party remained.
He pressured Max, exuding a madness intoxicated by blood and battle.
Max spat out the stick from which the candy had disappeared and clicked his tongue.
“He swings like a beast, yet his technique is solid. Psycho bastard.”
Even as he evaded and used the Shield, wounds were endlessly appearing.
But he couldn’t allocate more magic power to defense. The loading of his Unique Magic had to continue.
Because he knew this was a guy who couldn’t be dealt with just by pushing him away for a moment.
“Kuhahaha!”
Along with Geum Jonghwa’s mad laughter, Max’s blood was scattered.
Geum Jonghwa’s smile, anticipating victory, grew deeper.
However, Max did not feel the pain.
It wasn’t analgesia caused by excitement.
His head, which was forcefully continuing its casting and defense, hurt more.
“Now!”
At Max’s signal, Usagi used Ninjutsu again.
[Earth Release Fissure Rock]
A wide jump ramp leading to the sea was formed in front of them.
As Usagi’s vehicle ran without reducing speed, Geum Jonghwa gave an order.
“Stick to them!”
“Yes!”
Even though it was high, none of these four would simply die from falling into the sea.
He had to follow and kill him for sure.
Slash!
The blade cleaved Max’s chest.
It wasn’t deep, but evasion itself was slowly becoming difficult.
Geum Jonghwa was adapting to Max’s movements and beginning to read them.
And they reached the jump ramp.
The two vehicles simultaneously put their tires on the wide jump ramp made of rock.
Vroooom!!!
They jumped without hesitation, like in a movie.
However, only one vehicle plummeted into the sea: just the one with Geum Jonghwa and Geum San.
Max’s Psychokinesis had grabbed Usagi’s running vehicle.
Even though they rode the jump ramp at full speed, they didn’t fly off but stopped right at the edge.
As if time had stopped.
‘Right. Of course you’d jump after us.’
Geum Jonghwa was not an opponent who would fall for the same trick twice.
That was exactly why, when briefly discussing it with Usagi, he had asked her to use it twice.
“You petty bastard…!”
In the vehicle falling into the sea, Geum Jonghwa’s face contorted like a demon.
Just as he was about to jump off the car he was riding and lunge this way, Max had already finished preparing his Unique Magic.
It was what he had been preparing all along.
Back when Max was constantly agonizing over the advancement of his magic and devouring books indiscriminately, he saw interesting information in a book related to the universe.
A celestial body is born at the end of the process of Stellar Demise and Gravitational Collapse.
It is limitless mass, an Event Horizon from which no matter, let alone light, can escape.
“Even back then, I was at least able to resist with this.”
The magic that had annihilated a part of the Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals right before his regression.
For Max, who had talents in Impact, Psychokinesis, and Severing, it was an ideal celestial body.
“The density of mass manifested by Impact, gravity, space-time, collapse… If I stubbornly delve into all the related images, what I eventually reach is.”
A baseball-sized miniature Mana Condensate floated above Max’s palm.
[Black Hole]
Naturally, it wasn’t a real Black Hole.
Because that wasn’t a concept a 5th-Tier Mage could manifest.
‘Even if my tier rises, I’ll have to keep this magic with me and advance it.’
This condensate possessed the optimal form and imagery to contain Max’s view of magic.
“A present.”
Max looked down at Geum Jonghwa, who was lunging while swinging his sword, and dropped the condensate.
Geum Jonghwa, upon touching the Black Hole, plummeted rapidly as if being sucked into the sea along with Geum San’s vehicle.
KABOOOM!!!
The Shock spread, and the seawater soared high.