OMH Chapter 17
by VolareI covered my face with both hands, took a deep breath, and then slapped my face twice to make a sound.
“Okay, that clears my head a bit.”
I faced the match with my somewhat clearer mind.
Before long, only one match remained in the class competition.
The opponent is S-grade Ham Soyoung.
‘As expected of an S-grade, I knew I’d meet her here.’
Soyoung looked full of fighting spirit.
‘Wow, she’s a bit scary?’
I know how much it hurts because I’ve been hit by her before, so it’s even scarier.
If I get hit by Soyoung’s attack even once, I’ll lose for sure.
So I have to prevent Soyoung from attacking directly.
I waited for the start of the match with slight tension.
Beep-
As soon as I heard the machine sound signaling the start, Soyoung threw a punch.
The terrifying punching power of the S-grade created a wind pressure with a force that was hard to ignore.
She must be trying to create an opening by blowing the opponent away first, so she can approach.
Even if she sends wind pressure with a punch, she has to hit directly to inflict a fatal blow.
To avoid getting caught in Soyoung’s scheme, the best option was to get away.
However, I also had to do close-range attacks.
I rather jumped into the wind pressure created by Ham Soyoung.
But I wasn’t trying to do the foolish thing of getting caught in that wind pressure.
Before entering the range of the wind pressure, I took a tiptoe, pretending to be blown away by the wind pressure and jumped up.
It was to appear as if I had been caught in Soyoung’s scheme.
As expected, Soyoung, thinking that she had created an opening for me with the wind pressure, approached.
I watched Soyoung approaching and regained my balance.
I grabbed Soyoung’s torso with my legs and knocked her over.
If the small Ham Soyoung falls face down on the arena floor, I will win.
Bang!
A loud sound that could never be made by simply slamming a face into the floor echoed loudly.
Soyoung slammed her fist on the floor instead of her face.
With a loud roar, the entire floor cracked and collapsed around the spot where Soyoung struck.
I, who was entangled with Soyoung, fell down with her.
Wow… Maybe because she’s an S-grade pampered by the research team, the scale of property damage is extraordinary.
Everyone tries to avoid property damage as much as possible because they’re worried about their salaries being cut due to repair costs, but to smash the floor to the point where I can feel the descent…
Still, she immediately figured out that she couldn’t touch me directly and tried to use the terrain, so her skills have improved a lot.
However, her reaction speed was still far from enough.
Soyoung knocked the floor down to float me in the air, but the speed at which she regained her balance was slower than me, who was floating in the air.
I slammed Soyoung, whom I was holding with both legs, to the floor.
Bang!
This time, Soyoung, whose head was buried in the ground, did not move, perhaps because it went in properly.
She’s still young, did I do it too hard? She doesn’t have Adamantine Body/Invulnerable Physique like me.
I poked the motionless Soyoung with my finger.
With the terrifying durability of an S-grade, she might suddenly get up and hit me.
But this time, Soyoung didn’t move, as if she had really fallen.
Finally, today’s long and tiring Martial Arts Tournament/Competition was over.
*
Tomorrow is the last day of the tournament with the finals.
Even if I run to the finals, it starts from the quarter-finals, so it will be all over if I only do the morning match.
‘When the tournament is over, I have to go and beat up the guy who hit Woojin.’
I returned to the Dormitory, determined for tomorrow.
I lay down in my place, determined to sleep well and do well in tomorrow’s match, but I couldn’t rest comfortably because of the crying I heard from the next room.
“What? Who’s crying so loud that the building is about to collapse?”
I stormed into Kim Sanghyuk’s room, which was presumed to be the source of the crying.
Inside the room, Wooreen was crying as expected, and Kim Sanghyuk was beside her, at a loss.
When I heard what happened, Wooreen couldn’t be next to Woojin because of yesterday’s incident, so she spent last night in Lee Hwayoung’s on-call room and is spending today with Sanghyuk.
But she doesn’t like Sanghyuk, so she suddenly started crying.
That’s Sanghyuk’s story so far, and now let’s hear Wooreen’s story.
If Wooreen tells me what she doesn’t like directly, I’ll be able to take care of her complaints.
“Waaaaah!! I don’t like it!!!”
However, Wooreen just cried and said she didn’t like it here.
So I picked up Wooreen and took her to my room.
Wooreen, who came to my room, finally stopped crying.
Then she told me why she didn’t like Sanghyuk’s room.
“Earlier, that uncle looked too big and scary… I don’t want to sleep with him… sob.”
“Well, that’s true. Sanghyuk looks a bit rugged. I understand how you feel. I don’t want to sleep with Sanghyuk either.”
Wooreen added that I don’t look scary, so it’s okay.
I think it can be interpreted as meaning that it’s okay to sleep in my room.
I originally planned to sleep alone comfortably, but I laid Wooreen on the bed to sleep with her.
I patted her for a long time, hoping she would fall asleep quickly, but Wooreen looked at me with wide eyes and said.
“My brother always sang songs and told old stories before going to bed. But he didn’t do it after coming here, but he did it now, but he says he can’t sleep with my brother from yesterday.”
“Uh… so are you asking me to sing now? You got angry every time I sang, saying it wasn’t that.”
Fortunately, Wooreen continued, not meaning that.
“You know. I miss my brother so much.”
I was nervous that Wooreen would start crying again after saying such a pitiful thing.
But when I reassured her that she would be able to meet Woojin soon, Wooreen fell asleep quickly.
That’s a relief. I need to sleep well and face an important tomorrow.
I peacefully went to sleep with my roommate.
*
The next day, I woke up at 6 a.m., sleeping in an hour later than usual to maintain the best condition.
Even though I slept in later than usual, the tournament starts at 10 a.m., so I can prepare leisurely.
But it’s too early for a six-year-old, so I left the sleeping Wooreen to Sanghyuk and went to warm up.
*
Today is the final, so I have to face Song Jooha.
Jooha is a tricky opponent because he’s a seasoned S-grade with a lot of experience. He’s also a Psychokinetic, so he’s really hard to deal with.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have confidence in winning.
When it comes to experience, I’ve already beaten Jooha.
I warmed up by stretching and jogging as usual.
Because being nervous about the fear of the opponent won’t be beneficial.
However, I couldn’t just ignore the measures against a formidable opponent, so I thought about how to deal with Jooha.
It was possible because I knew information about Jooha.
As I roughly went through the expected scenarios and prepared, the match time was approaching before I knew it.
*
Today’s match is the shortest, but the most people come to see it.
Because it’s fun to watch the strongest players in the Martial Arts Tournament/Competition. The stakes are high, too.
Sanghyuk also brought Wooreen and insisted on joining the gambling scene.
‘Okay, make a lot of money and buy Wooreen some snacks.’
I cheered for Sanghyuk’s luck and went to the waiting room.
The first opponent I will face today is Nature-type Kim Daeyeop.
This person has been with the Association for as long as I have, so he is a much more experienced Esper than Jooha.
Kim Daeyeop is an Esper who handles water, and since he is A-grade, his firepower for extracting water is good, so in spaces without water, he extracts moisture from the atmosphere and uses it.
And since pouring that water as it is doesn’t have much impact, he freezes it and throws it.
Just like now.
Bang, bang, bang!!
I covered my face to avoid getting hit in the vital points like eyes by the hail-like ice chunks flying from all directions and rushed in.
Originally, Kim Daeyeop sharpens the ice sharply and throws it.
But sharp objects are not very useful to me and are prohibited during matches, so he threw them in chunks.
Maybe it’s because he doesn’t care about the shape, but it seems like he’s throwing them faster and more than during missions. It stings a lot!
I narrowed the distance appropriately and jumped at the opponent.
“……?”
But the opponent looks relaxed. In situations like this, they always do something.
“Ugh!!”
Sure enough, since when he stopped throwing hailstones, he gathered them and froze my arm.
Even for me, it’s dangerous to apply a large impact when my arm is frozen solid.
But I have two arms.
I immediately tried to attack again with my remaining arm, but Kim Daeyeop froze this hand as well.
‘No, is there this much moisture in the dry Korean winter air?’
Still, judging from the fact that he couldn’t even freeze my wrist on the left, unlike the right, which was frozen solid up to my shoulder, it seemed like this was the limit.
I gave up attacking with my hands and attacked Kim Daeyeop’s side with my feet.
Thud!
Perhaps because there wasn’t enough moisture to handle, Kim Daeyeop took out the moisture that had frozen my arm and gathered ice chunks to block my attack.
I changed my posture, grabbed the ground with my hands that were freed from the ice, and attempted a body turning kick.
I succeeded in kicking the tip of his nose with my right foot, which went in first, but Kim Daeyeop, who roughly knew my pattern, blocked my left foot, which went in second.
“Haa… haa…”
Kim Daeyeop, who barely blocked my attack, gasped for breath.
Usually, they are knocked down here, but he managed to block it even after being hit by the first attack, so veterans are different.
However, perhaps because the impact of being hit in the nose was so great, Kim Daeyeop was unable to attack me right away, whose posture had collapsed due to the turning kick.
Taking advantage of the gap, I, who was lying on the floor due to the turning kick posture, tripped Daeyeop and knocked him over.
And I immediately took the lead by slamming down with my elbow.
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