Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 281

Old Fox (1)

There was no reply.

Instead, I was greeted by a blinding flash of white lightning.

Kugugugung!

Fierce electrical charges erupted from Baek Seok-ho’s hand, grazing my ear with incredible speed and force.

“You would have died if you hadn’t dodged.”

“That strike was designed to prevent you from dodging.”

“You’ve got a heavy hand.”

Swish.

Blood trickled from my ear.

It didn’t damage my hearing or eardrum, but it pierced the flesh, leaving it blackened. I could probably recover from an ear injury with treatment, but a direct hit to the stomach would be fatal.

Just as I was about to move, he spoke, his voice laced with warning.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Whoosh!

This time, a flash of light grazed my eyes.

I instinctively dodged the lightning aimed precisely at my neck.

Kugugugung!

The sound followed the lightning’s impact on the ground.

That speed is extraordinary.

It’s natural for light to be faster than sound, but this was something far beyond that.

‘The speed is abnormally fast.’

It’s not that I haven’t faced people who wield electricity and lightning before.

In fact, there were quite a few.

Lightning, along with fire, was one of the most threatening elements found in nature. I often exchanged blows with monsters and demons wielding lightning.

However, Baek Seok-ho’s lightning was the most unusual and swift I had ever encountered.

‘He’s much stronger than I expected.’

This is the might of a High Ranker, one of the top 100 most powerful individuals in the world.

Indeed, the average level of power in this world is higher than where I used to live.

‘Should I probe for information first?’

I took a step forward.

「Langebote」[A wolf-like, unrestrained gait]

The lightning pouring down on me paused as the predator’s unique, threatening gait unfolded.

Strictly speaking, rather than stopping…

‘He judged that further lightning strikes would be a waste of mana since he couldn’t hit me.’

A rational decision.

After the first lightning strike, Baek Seok-ho hadn’t landed a single hit.

However, that didn’t mean the current situation was in my favor.

“If it turns into a battle of attrition, I’ll have the advantage, but ranged attacks favor him. What kind of fight is this going to be?”

The quality and quantity of mana, even the speed at which it replenishes during battle, would give me the advantage in a prolonged battle of attrition.

However, if the battle turned into a ranged fight, synonymous with attrition, the odds would shift towards Baek Seok-ho.

Baek Seok-ho’s specialty: the lightning emanating from his hands and weapon was the problem.

‘The form is lightning, but the content is completely different.’

The speed alone far exceeded the maximum speed that lightning could produce.

The power was also immense, as was the speed.

Of course, speed and power are meaningless if you can’t hit your target, but Baek Seok-ho was slowly starting to use the additional effects of lightning.

Kugung!

As the lightning grazed the ground, the area was gouged out, accompanied by a massive electric current.

Sharp fragments of earth and stone, mixed with the fierce wind generated by the lightning strike, became giant weapons aimed at my body.

Most of the fragments were the size of small blades, but some were larger than my body. Those fragments retained the mana and current transferred from the lightning.

He was aiming for that from the start.

I have to admit it: this is quite threatening.

“Eat this.”

Activation incantation.

As soon as the words left my mouth, flames formed in the air.

Red flames were erected like a wall.

Baek Seok-ho stepped back, feeling the intense heat through his skin.

The heat is not a problem. I can protect my skin with mana.

However, the momentum of the mana composing the flames was abnormally sharp. This is obviously a trap.

Just as Baek Seok-ho was about to pierce the wall of flames with white lightning, having grasped the opponent’s intention…

Mushrooming.

Black letters flashed through the flames like clouds.

Baek Seok-ho’s eyes darted quickly.

‘What is it?’

The letters passed by in an instant.

With superhuman dynamic visual acuity, Baek Seok-ho analyzed the letters that flashed before his eyes.

Just now…

‘Chinese characters and foreign words I don’t recognize. It’s definitely an ancient, dead language. But what on earth is it?’

He soon realized what it was.

Chinese characters and words presumed to be ancient languages of unknown origin bloomed from the flames, then burned and turned to ashes.

…Since I can’t interpret them, I can’t know the other party’s intentions.

‘It’s a possibility, however unlikely.’

They could be meaningless characters.

It was also possible that it was a means of confusing Baek Seok-ho’s eyes and concentration.

Even if they were meaningless, the mere possibility forced him to prepare, even for words that might have no meaning.

He’s using his head. It seems he’s using a tactic that came to mind during the fight. As expected, geniuses are different. I’m completely caught up in it.

But!

That’s something only amateurs would fall for!

“I’m not one to hesitate over some incomprehensible letters!”

Thump, thump.

Baek Seok-ho took his first step.

He had been shooting lightning from the same spot all along, but as the barrier of flames blocked the fragments on the ground and began to surround and pressure Baek Seok-ho, he walked forward.

A confident stride.

Baek Seok-ho put strength into his feet in front of the flames.

Then, electricity gathered in his feet, and his lower body transformed into lightning, allowing him to move quickly. Baek Seok-ho, who had instantly broken through the barrier of flames…

Bang!

…Collided with the wall and fell to the ground.

…Wait a minute, he collided with the wall?

“He gave the flames physical properties. Were those letters just now a form of magic that solidified the flames?”

I don’t know what it is, but it’s amazing.

To think that there would be a wall so strong that even he, moving at the speed of lightning, couldn’t break through. At this rate, it’s sturdier than most S-class shields or armor.

“So, even if the elders of the main family work hard for decades, the head of the family is different. I can’t gain the upper hand even when fighting a mere twenty-year-old.”

Baek Seok-ho was genuinely impressed.

His lightning was the result of decades of effort.

To lightly dodge or block such lightning is not something that can be done easily. At least, among the people Baek Seok-ho knows, there are only a handful who can put up such a close fight against him.

Moreover, if you add the condition that they are magicians to that handful, there are fewer than five.

Because Baek Seok-ho is not someone who just unleashes lightning.

He is Changsu [A martial artist].

A martial artist who uses a spear as his main weapon.

The old fox had a talent for battle, and over time, that talent fully blossomed.

That’s why he was arrogant.

Baek Seok-ho’s arrogance, which made him believe he would definitely win the fight, took something away from him.

「Foxfire」

The fire that Baek Seok-ho collided with was no ordinary fire.

It was a cursed fire that should never be ignored.

Whoosh!

At first, it was a small spark.

Baek Seok-ho frowned at the small flame that had attached to his shoe and tried to suppress it with mana, as if putting out an alcohol lamp.

By cutting off the oxygen, he tried to extinguish the fire, but something was wrong.

Instead of covering the flame like a lid, the mana was being sucked into it.

“!!!”

This is a curse!

Baek Seok-ho realized the power within the flame at once, but it was already too late.

He should have never stopped paying attention and being wary from the moment the unknown letters appeared in the flame. Baek Seok-ho was arrogant and presumptuous.

The price was his right ankle.

Whirrr!

The small spark had already grown to a size that could be called a proper flame.

Baek Seok-ho, who had his foot taken by the flame, made a decision.

Extinguishing it was too late. Then, the only option was to cut it off.

Slice!

Lightning was grasped in his hand like a sword, and he severed his right foot, along with the fire, in one go. A decision made without hesitation.

Thanks to this, Baek Seok-ho was able to reduce the damage to just one foot.

“Too bad. I thought I could take it up to the ankle.”

“Now I know what it is. It was an incredibly sticky Kirlin [will-o’-the-wisp]. At this rate, even if I win the fight, all my skin will be burned off.”

Kirlin (鬼燐).

It was a will-o’-the-wisp.

A gloomy flame that burned in places like the night and tombs.

Baek Seok-ho accurately identified what had made his foot like this.

Now I know what those letters are. They are letters related to curses.

He crammed all sorts of curses into the will-o’-the-wisp to make it impossible to easily undo. It was a truly vicious and clever attack.

“Not bad.”

But if you don’t have a next move, you’ll lose your right foot too, you know?

The mana gathering in Baek Seok-ho’s right hand was ominous.

Kugugugung!

The transformation was instantaneous.

The mana soon became lightning, and the lightning transformed into dozens of bolts in the sky, pouring down towards the ground. I, who was desperately trying to escape, stopped.

If I run away, I will surely lose.

The instinct to stop it here dominated my body.

“He’s really angry about having his foot cut off.”

Instantly, all sorts of ideas came to mind.

The first thing that came to mind was a lightning rod, but that wouldn’t work.

The concept that makes up the lightning is not electricity, so setting up a lightning rod wouldn’t stop it. Only the visible form is made of electricity.

In reality, it’s a mass of fast and sharp mana.

The original form is not everything for something like that.

If that was real lightning, I would have taken some kind of action. I would have built a transmission tower, blocked it with the ground, or done something.

‘The best way to defend against that is with an equal mass of mana.’

So, this time too, I created flames.

It’s not for nothing that I set up a wall of flames.

The flames, brimming with the curse of the skill 「Foxfire」, are made up of a vast amount of mana that even someone without talent for mana would suspect as they passed by.

20% of my maximum mana.

20% may seem small, but it was more than the total amount of mana that an ordinary magician could invest. Moreover, the quality of mana is on a different level.

‘How many more times can I withstand this?’

However, there was a limit to how much even these flames could block Baek Seok-ho’s lightning. Maybe nine more bolts. If he disperses the mana that makes up the lightning and widens the range of impact, it will collapse within five bolts.

It’s about time he came.

‘He’s coming from over there. That’s one bolt.’

Bang!

A dull sound was heard beyond the wall.

It was like the sound of a neighbor in an apartment pounding on the wall with all their might.

The following burst of sound unleashed a thunderclap.

Kugugugung!

A clear thunderous sound.

Not only the sound, but the impact was so great that the flames, which had not wavered like an impregnable fortress even with the continuous attacks, began to shake violently.

That’s two bolts.

I can withstand three more bolts.

Just as I was thinking that…

“…Damn it!”

I instinctively stepped back.

Run as far away from the wall of flames as possible!

By overusing my leg muscles and moving faster than lightning, I was able to escape from the ominous premonition.

Immediately after that…

─────!

A deafening roar echoed.

As the wall of flames collapsed, a tremendous flash of light blinded me through the gaps in the wall.

It didn’t matter which reached me faster, the speed of light or the speed of sound.

What mattered was that the speed of both was insane.

I had dodged lightning while seeing it, but this time, I couldn’t do anything.

By the time my hearing and sight recovered, I saw a monster.

“He’s tougher than I thought. It took some effort to break through.”

Baek Seok-ho approached, nonchalantly breaking through the wall of flames. Lightning, like the paw of a beast, was formed on his severed right foot, and he held a thin, long lightning spear in his left hand.

Having his leg cut off was nothing to the cunning old fox.

This was an area he could overcome with his cunning.