Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 413
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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413.
Aina heightened her senses to the extreme with her aura.
‘I can’t distinguish the real one.’
The four types of magic Juwen had fused were stealth, ice clones, explosion, and mana distribution.
Stealth continuously forced her to sharpen her senses, accumulating fatigue.
She hid her body among the ice clones and used explosion magic to block Aina from attacking clones indiscriminately to find the real one, while mana distribution made it impossible to locate the real one through mana detection.
Literally perfect interference.
Aina’s eyes narrowed.
‘I can’t find the mage’s location, but.’
Whirr-! Flash!
As powerful mana swirled, Juwen’s magic bullet spell targeted Aina.
Aina’s golden eyes gleamed.
Whoosh-!
She used an aura step to dodge the magic bullet flying at tremendous speed.
‘The moment she attacks, her position is revealed.’
No matter how perfectly she hid her main body, her location would inevitably be exposed the moment she attacked.
Swoosh-!
She rushed toward where the magic came from at a speed invisible to the eye.
If she delayed even a moment, Juwen would hide among the clones again.
Aina didn’t give her that chance and tried to finish the match with a quick decisive blow.
Aina instantly closed the distance with Juwen and thrust her sword without hesitation.
Stab!
“Guh?”
Juwen let out a death rattle as her shoulder was pierced.
Swoosh-!
The stealth was dispelled.
“It’s over.”
Aina said calmly to Juwen, who was trembling with her head down.
At those words, Juwen stopped moving, then raised her head and smiled brightly.
“No, it’s not.”
“…!”
Flash! Boom-!
Once again, an ice clone exploded.
Aina’s face grimaced as she protected her body with aura armor.
‘How…!’
The moment Aina was confused.
Flash-!
Juwen’s attack flew toward Aina once more.
“Tch!”
Aina barely dodged the attack and charged toward Juwen again.
***
-Ohhh! Player Juwen! She’s taking the initiative and completely overwhelming player Aina!
Runba shouted excitedly.
“Wow! This is totally unexpected!”
Iliana, who was watching the match while eating popcorn, widened her eyes.
Many people had expected Aina to win, but they thought it would be a close match.
However, no one had expected Juwen to show such perfectly overwhelming dominance.
Then Iliana spoke to Cal, who was passing by.
“Cal! One more popcorn for me! The one with caramel!”
“Sure! I’m grateful! But that’s your third bag already – are you trying to become a pig?”
“Who are you calling a pig?”
Iliana kicked at Cal in anger, but he annoyingly dodged it.
“Leo, what do you think?”
Cal approached Leo and asked.
“If she maintains the initiative like this, Juwen will win.”
Leo said without taking his eyes off the match.
“And it won’t be easy for Aina to seize control of this match.”
Juwen Torbina.
As the daughter of the Southern Mage Lord, she possessed overflowing talent.
Rarely, she could handle magic of all attributes, and her understanding of each attribute’s magic was also exceptionally outstanding.
On top of that, she had powerful mana and magic casting speed.
‘She’s not a mage who unleashes overwhelming firepower, but she’s an orthodox mage with excellent balance.’
Juwen’s greatest advantage was being able to continuously cast magic attacks of considerable power.
Moreover, handling various types of magic made her capable of responding to all kinds of situations.
Against such a mage, once you lose the initiative, it’s hard to regain it.
“But it won’t end like this.”
Even now, Aina was rapidly cutting down Juwen’s clones.
The ice clones exploded, continuously dealing damage to Aina.
However, they couldn’t deal significant damage to Aina.
It wasn’t because Juwen’s magic was weak.
Her magic was sufficiently powerful.
“Against a versatile mage like Juwen, tricks don’t work well.”
The moment a mage is strongest and most threatening is during combat at a stronghold.
Therefore, for a mage, seizing the initiative means turning the surrounding area into their own domain and fortifying it.
“But if you try to break through head-on, you’ll just destroy yourself.”
Leo watched Aina lowering her stance.
“Aina has sufficient ability to break through Juwen head-on.”
“Hmm!”
Cal crossed his arms with a serious expression.
“Well, she tends to fight instinctively without thinking too deeply.”
To put it nicely, she was the type to clash head-on straightforwardly; to put it badly, she was the type to charge in simply and recklessly.
‘But sometimes that kind of enemy is the most frightening.’
Aina was exactly that case.
***
‘This girl really!’
While hidden in stealth, Juwen screamed internally.
Aina was silently taking down Juwen’s clones.
Each time, she was caught in explosions and took damage, but there wasn’t the slightest hesitation in her movements.
‘Even being simple and reckless should have limits! Really!’
The damage one ice clone could inflict on Aina would be minimal from her perspective.
But even minimal damage, when accumulated continuously, becomes significant damage.
Anyone would hesitate when caught in such a dilemma, but Aina showed no hesitation whatsoever.
She charged without blinking an eye or hesitating.
With the momentum to smash through everything that stood in her way.
‘I didn’t think I could beat Aina with this. But I never expected her to break through the stealth magic this quickly.’
Clicking her tongue internally, Juwen gripped her staff.
‘I need to buy time.’
There was no chance of winning in a direct confrontation anyway.
For Juwen to defeat Aina, she needed one decisive blow.
Juwen’s magic had powerful force and tremendous rapid-fire speed.
It had enough power to instantly defeat any ordinary Knight Department student, but Aina was an opponent on a different level.
Moreover, Aina’s sword was faster than Juwen’s magic.
‘Aina can easily neutralize my attacks with her sword strikes.’
Juwen’s eyes narrowed.
‘Even if my attacks hit, they’ll be blocked by her aura armor and won’t deal significant damage.’
If that happened, she would face Aina’s counterattack.
Unlike Aina, who had the defensive power to withstand Juwen’s attacks multiple times, Juwen would be finished if she allowed even a single hit.
‘If I can’t take her down in one shot, it’s my defeat anyway.’
That’s why she needed time to prepare a powerful finishing blow.
Juwen readjusted her grip on her staff.
The moment Aina was about to cut down Juwen’s last clone.
Flash-!
Juwen, pointing her staff at Aina, instantly released her mana.
Whirring-! Flash-!
A powerful mana bullet rushed toward Aina.
At that moment, Aina’s golden eyes gleamed.
Flash-! Kwagagagagang-!
As she swung her sword upward from below, a golden flash blazed forth.
Having precisely bisected the magic, Aina looked at Juwen, who had dispelled her stealth magic and revealed herself.
“Found you.”
Aina immediately rushed toward Juwen.
Seeing Aina approaching, Juwen unleashed all her magic at once.
Spells poured forth from magic circles generated in the air.
Aina’s golden eyes flashed as she readjusted her sword grip and swung it forcefully toward the air.
Whoosh! Kwagagagagagagagang-!
Countless spells exploded in the air.
“One more time!”
Juwen drew up her mana and launched another indiscriminate attack.
-Ah! Contestant Juwen! You’re making very inefficient attacks! If you keep using magic of that scale, no matter how vast your mana reserves, you’ll quickly exhaust yourself!
Runba shouted urgently.
“The stealth magic was good up to that point.”
“It’s too disadvantageous for Juwen Torbina. If it had been an Urban Battlefield or Forest with cover, it might have been a more even fight.”
“It couldn’t be helped since it’s combat between a knight class specialized in close combat and a mage.”
Regretful voices poured out from among the upperclassmen.
Along with the golden sword strike, Juwen’s magic was blocked once again.
“Huff- Huff-”
Juwen was panting from the excessive use of magic.
Blood was flowing from the corner of Juwen’s mouth due to the forced mana manipulation.
Limit.
Juwen instinctively realized that fact.
In contrast, Aina looked relatively fine.
Although she had taken direct hits from magic several times, she was different from Juwen who had reached her limit.
“You can’t beat me with attacks that rely on numbers alone.”
Aina said, lowering her sword.
“This is nothing more than stalling for time. So admit defeat.”
“I can’t simply admit defeat to someone who always ignores others as if they don’t matter.”
“I’ve never ignored others.”
Aina said, looking down.
“I have something I must achieve, so I just focus on that alone.”
“That’s what ignoring others means.”
Juwen gritted her teeth.
When Aina first became the year representative, Juwen was secretly frustrated but acknowledged Aina.
The skill Aina showed in the entrance exam was a level above her own.
For now, she had no choice but to acknowledge that Aina was superior to her.
The same was true for Havedon and Shasha.
She aimed for the year representative position and resolved to do her best with Aina as her goal.
‘Aina Beidna! Just wait, I’ll take the year representative position soon!’
When she boldly declared war, Aina said indifferently.
‘I’m not interested in the year representative position.’
‘What? Then why do you get first place?’
‘To gain recognition from Leo. If necessary, you can be the year representative. I’m not interested.’
‘Wait. I have no intention of becoming year representative that way. I’ll defeat you and take the year representative position!’
‘Then let’s say you won.’
‘What?’
“I’m going to defeat you.”
“That’s impossible in your current state. You’re already at your limit.”
At Juwen’s words, Aina shook her head.
Looking at Aina, Juwen smiled slightly.
“Surpass your limits, that’s our school’s motto, isn’t it?”
“….”
“And because you only see what’s visible in front of you.”
“…?”
“That’s how you get caught.”
“…!”
Seeing Juwen pointing downward with her finger, Aina’s eyes widened as she looked below.
‘What is this?’
Her feet wouldn’t move.
‘Invisible threads?’
Like a spider web, threads of mana were binding Aina.
Click-!
Juwen pointed her staff at Aina.
“The magic in front was a decoy! The real thing was laying traps to bind you!”
‘When did she…’
Juwen’s unique magic, Arachne.
Magic that binds the opponent’s feet with threads of mana like a spider web.
And once caught in this magic, the more you struggle, the more entangled you become in the web.
Of course, if it was Aina, she could escape this magic easily with just a little time.
However.
“That time is enough!”
Juwen’s mana surged.
It was definitely different from before.
“Maximum firepower!”
Kwang-!
As if artillery fire had erupted.
The surrounding air trembled.
Aina’s eyes wavered at the magic that flew right to her face.
Kuwoong! Kwagagagagagagang-!
As the explosion occurred, the Arena itself disappeared from sight.
Juwen looked at the thick dust cloud that had risen.
Whoosh-!
At that moment, Aina emerged through the cloud of dust.
Though her entire body was in tatters, Aina’s golden eyes still glinted with light.
She had finally broken through even Juwen’s decisive strike and reached him.
“I expected you wouldn’t fall from just that much!”
“What?”
At Juwen’s shout, Aina’s eyes filled with shock.
Juwen pointed his finger at Aina and released his mana.
Even while coughing up blood, he fired a magic bullet.
Bang-!
“Guh?”
Aina, hit directly by the magic bullet, rolled miserably across the ground.
‘Now… this is my limit…’
Aina used her sword as a cane to lift herself up.
She gritted her teeth and tried to move somehow, but her body wouldn’t obey.
Juwen approached with his finger still aimed at her.
Step- Step-
Aina seemed to give up, closing her eyes and lowering her head.
But when no magic attack came, she opened her eyes and looked up.
There stood Juwen with unfocused eyes, his trembling hand pointed at Aina.
At that moment.
Thud-
Juwen collapsed.
Mel approached and checked on the unconscious Juwen’s condition, then declared.
“Winner, Aina Beidna.”
“Ooooooh!”
“That was really close at the end, wasn’t it?”
“Wow! If the conditions hadn’t been favorable for Aina Beidna, she would have won anyway, right?”
Excited voices poured out.
Aina looked at the unconscious Juwen.
Juwen had already reached his limit long ago.
Yet he continued to press Aina relentlessly.
Aina gritted her teeth.
Herself, who gave up the moment she reached her limit, versus Juwen, who kept attacking until the very end to defeat her.
If Juwen had held onto his consciousness even a little longer.
‘I would have lost.’
Her heart stirred uneasily.
She never dreamed she would struggle this much.
She had only thought about showing her best performance to gain Leo’s recognition.
But…
‘How pathetic.’
Trudge trudge-
Even while receiving cheers, Aina kept her head deeply lowered.
The image of Juwen attacking beyond his limits came to mind.
The image of Luke always struggling at his limits also came to mind.
Could she do the same?
Aina’s face contorted as she looked down at her hands.
Gain Leo’s recognition, inherit the Legacy of the Sword Saint, and take revenge on Tartaros.
That had been Aina’s plan.
Until just moments ago, Aina had believed without doubt that she could gain Leo’s recognition if she just became stronger.
But.
‘Can I… really gain Senior Leo’s recognition like this?’
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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