I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 78

78

“…”

“…”

A brief lull.

They stared at each other, catching their breath.

Of course, only Cha Minhyuk needed to catch his breath.

He felt no pain, and abilities didn’t work on him.

It was a power that felt almost like cheating, but the limit of his stamina was unavoidable.

The attacks from Seonghyun didn’t inflict pain, but physical fatigue continued to accumulate.

‘A healer… a healer…!’

Seonghyun was already beyond what you could call a healer.

It was to the point where it seemed his healing ability was just an additional skill.

“Quite impressive movements.”

“…”

Having his own words thrown back at him, he began to feel an indescribable emotion.

A very unpleasant feeling, as if he was being patronized.

‘How dare he, how dare he mock me?’

Being treated like this by a first-year, of all people, made him unbearably angry and equally ashamed.

If this weren’t the Academy Battle, he would have wanted to kill him.

But Cha Minhyuk didn’t have any real offensive abilities.

The team’s composition itself was built around strong defensive abilities.

‘There’s still plenty of time left.’

There was still plenty of time to nullify pain and abilities.

Even before facing Seonghyun, he had thought he needed to finish this within the time limit, but after fighting Seonghyun, he realized he had to end it within that time for a different reason.

He had thought that Seonghyun might play it safe and avoid him while his ability was active, so it didn’t matter whether he finished it within the time or not, but now it was different.

Cha Minhyuk, having realized that he would be the one to lose if he didn’t finish it within this time, recomposed himself.

Since he didn’t have any long-range attack abilities, Cha Minhyuk’s movements were also quite skillful.

Being able to nullify pain and abilities, his attack style itself was very different from others.

Every single movement from the moment he started attacking was full of openings.

A battle that only Cha Minhyuk could wage.

‘The method…’

Usually, when he used this method, the opponent would try to exploit his openings and end up being counter-attacked.

But Seonghyun was showing a battle style that was no different from his own.

He hadn’t shown this kind of style before.

He definitely hadn’t.

But this time it was different.

He was engaging in battle with all openings exposed, just like him.

Of course, he was flustered, but he didn’t stop it.

Because he had identified Seonghyun’s openings and actually landed several attacks.

Of course, the problem wasn’t that.

He had an ability with a time limit, but Seonghyun didn’t.

A healing ability that was hard to even determine if it had a limit.

‘How am I supposed to win against this…!’

He was at a loss.

To be honest, he hadn’t realized that Seonghyun had this level of close combat ability.

Even compared to what he had seen before, it was too different to simply say he had gotten a little stronger.

‘Did he… hide his strength?’

He even wondered if it was possible to hide this much strength in a battle against a second-year, of all things.

As his head grew more and more complicated, he began to question how he had gotten so strong, rather than thinking about how to deal with him.

“Looks like the result is already decided?”

Seonghyun didn’t miss this either.

He could clearly see that his opponent had already lost the will to fight from his expression.

“…Shut up. You just got lucky.”

Seonghyun was also a little surprised by the current situation.

He hadn’t expected the difference to be this great.

‘I think this is enough.’

All the grades were watching the current battle, and of course, all the third-years were watching the entire fight without exception.

“Don’t tell me… did you take that drug…?”

“What?”

When Seonghyun looked at him with a puzzled expression, Cha Minhyuk let out a hollow laugh with an expression that said, “I knew it.”

“You took that drug to re-awaken your ability.”

“Don’t talk nonsense…”

“Do your parents know? That their son committed such an act?”

Cha Minhyuk thought of the best he could do in this situation.

Even if the result was a little dirty, it was just to make his opponent angry.

“Ah…”

When Seonghyun didn’t answer, Cha Minhyuk said with a bitter smile.

“Ah… so your parents brought it to you.”

“…”

Seonghyun’s expression as he stared at him without saying a word was filled with anger, as expected.

‘Got him.’

Whether it was true or not, as usual, it didn’t matter.

It was a success if Seonghyun lost even a little bit of his composure.

‘Knock him out.’

That was the most certain method.

Immediately make him unable to fight and take the victory.

“Why aren’t you answe…”

He was about to scratch at him a little more with words before starting the fight again, but Seonghyun didn’t wait for him to finish.

“Keuk!”

The attacks were faster and heavier than before.

Pain and abilities should be nullified right now, but for some reason, he began to feel a tingling sensation in his body.

Seonghyun’s attacks didn’t stop.

He was showing a clearly different movement, as if the thoughts he had earlier, that he was being patronized, were correct.

‘Okay. This is enough…’

He could definitely see more openings.

If he aimed for a sure opening among those openings and landed just one accurate blow, he would be able to knock him out.

‘This is enoug…’

But as soon as the openings appeared, they began to disappear.

As if he was showing them on purpose and then taking them away.

‘This is…’

It was starting to get overwhelming.

He didn’t feel any pain, but he felt like his body was breaking down.

A feeling that he had touched something wrong began to creep in.

“You talk too much. You shouldn’t cross the line.”

The chill he felt at that moment was greater than any emotion he had felt so far.

“…Huh?”

Cha Minhyuk wasn’t aware of the battle.

He had temporarily forgotten that everything was different from a real battle, except that he couldn’t kill his opponent.

Was this the price?

A cracking sound was heard, and Seonghyun took a step back from Cha Minhyuk.

“Th, this…”

Cha Minhyuk looked at his left arm.

It wasn’t cut off, and he didn’t feel any pain, but the only thing that was different from usual was that it looked a little out of place.

The arm, bent in the opposite direction, was telling the severity of the current situation.

“You son of a bitch…!”

Cha Minhyuk desperately grabbed his broken arm with his one remaining good arm.

He had to force it back into place somehow.

But as expected, Seonghyun didn’t let him do that.

Seonghyun grabbed the hand that was holding the other arm and bent that arm backward as well.

“Kuaaak!”

Cha Minhyuk, who had lost both arms without putting up a proper resistance, desperately tried to push Seonghyun away with his feet, but Seonghyun had already anticipated this.

Cha Minhyuk’s foot, which was rising towards Seonghyun’s abdomen, was blocked by Seonghyun’s kick in its path.

Kneeling down with the recoil, Cha Minhyuk had no choice but to look up at Seonghyun thanks to the changed height of his view.

“What can you do now?”

It wasn’t a mocking tone.

It was as if he was genuinely worried about him.

That made him feel even more miserable.

“Th…”

Seonghyun struck Cha Minhyuk’s neck with a hand blade while he was defenseless.

He wanted to give him one more cool blow, but he judged that this was the right amount since all the students were watching.

“Keueo…”

Cha Minhyuk, who had received his own goal of knocking him out, clenched his teeth tightly as he fainted, as if he was quite upset even in that moment.

“We have confirmed that Cha Minhyuk is unable to fight. The Academy Battle is won by the first-year representative.”

A result that no one had expected.

It had only been about 30 minutes since they had started to harbor a hopeful feeling.

All the battles were over, and someone came in from outside to help the injured Cha Minhyuk.

At that moment, as they were about to put him on a stretcher, a scream was heard.

“Kuaaak!”

It seemed that he no longer had the capacity to maintain his ability, so it was released in advance.

“Keuek, tre, treatment…”

Cha Minhyuk, who had gone through all the battles without pain until now, threw away his last remaining pride and begged, grabbing Seonghyun’s pant leg, as the unexpected and unprecedented pain came all at once.

“Ah, of course. You should definitely get treatment.”

“Tha, thank…”

As he was about to let out a sigh of relief, Seonghyun turned around and headed back to the hallway he had first entered.

“Wh, where are you going…”

“Get good treatment at the hospital. It’s not an injury that can’t be treated.”

Cha Minhyuk clenched his fist tightly with the little strength he had left and fainted as Seonghyun only turned his head slightly to speak.

Seonghyun, who had no sympathy, left the arena without looking back, and Inhwan and Sangyeon were waiting for Seonghyun.

“Kim Seonghyun!!!”

“I believed in you.”

Inhwan and Sangyeon were happier than he thought, and they ran to Seonghyun and hugged him.

“Why, why are you doing this.”

“Ha… really… the compatibility was so bad…”

“That’s enough. We all did what we could.”

Soon the room returned to its original state, and Seonghyun headed to the waiting room.

“Wow… I can’t believe it. We’re going to compete in the National Battle as representatives of Korea…?”

“Same here. I couldn’t have imagined it…”

Both of them had dumbfounded expressions.

They may have stretched their imaginations a lot, but they weren’t expecting it.

He wondered if they were feeling a similar emotion to when they bought a lottery ticket.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

Now it was time to return to their class.

With the elation of victory still lingering, Seonghyun and his group opened the door.

“Waaaah!”

“Congratulations!”

The first-year students were gathered in front of the door, as if they had been waiting in advance.

The students were filling the hallway, and each and every one of them had an expression that sincerely congratulated them.

Of course, there were those who didn’t.

Jealousy and envy were already predicted from the moment Seonghyun had the healing ability, so it didn’t matter at all.

The only thing that mattered was that the other first-year students were now sincerely congratulating them.

“Are we the top of the food chain now?”

At someone’s casual remark, there was a moment of silence before everyone burst into laughter.

“That’s really… the best, isn’t it?”

“I can already see the third-years’ expressions.”

Something that had never changed since the Academy was created.

The most representative thing was the order of meals, but that order would now be changed as well.

“Thank you all for congratulating us. Now that it’s come to this, we’re going to win all the National Battles as well.”

“Waaaah!”

At other times, they would have just heard it as a passing remark, but Seonghyun’s presence today was one that could make the current words a reality, so the first-year students didn’t take it lightly.

“Let’s go now.”

As Seonghyun finished speaking, the first-year students and Seonghyun’s group headed to their respective classes.