I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy - Chapter 3

Baek Yu-Seol could feel the pulse of blood coursing through his fingertips, the veins writhing as if alive.

He stared into the lifeless eyes of the archer he had slain with his own hands, yet not a trace of guilt stirred within him. 

Though it was his first kill, he felt no fear… only the cold resolve to survive.

“What... What’s wrong with that bastard? He just used Flash, right?”

The leading warrior shouted when he saw Baek Yu-Seol’s quick and agile movements.

“He’s using some unusual movement skill! Hurry up and kill him!”

Flash’s cooldown was not yet complete. Baek Yu-Seol turned the archer’s body and pushed it away with a kick.

Thud! Splatter!

“Ugh!”

Blood sprayed from the corpse, momentarily obscuring the pursuers’ view. One of them even stumbled into the body.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Baek Yu-Seol grabbed an arrow from the archer’s quiver and used Flash to teleport to a diagonal branch above.

Thunk!

It was his first time using Flash in the upward direction, so the distance adjustment was confusing at first. He could not place his foot properly and slipped.

Clinging to the branch with one hand, he summoned all his strength. His surprisingly strong shoulders and back muscles helped him hoist himself onto the branch with relative ease.

Without a moment to tie the string to the bow, Baek Yu-Seol quickly hid behind the wooden post, barely dodging the sea of flames that engulfed the tree in the next second.

Boom!

The small explosion tore through the top of the tree, but the flames quickly died out, likely due to the tree being damp from the snow.

Squeak!

Baek Yu-Seol armed the string with an arrow, used Flash on a branch towards the opposite side, and fixed his aim at the back of a sloppy spearman, who was chasing his afterimage.

Thwack!

“Ahhh! My foot, ahhh!”

‘Missed.’

His aim was slightly off, and it ended up hitting the spearman’s foot.

Although arrows in this world had some degree of ‘aim guidance’ magic on them, he still missed it because he had never used an arrow in his life before.

The fact that he hit the spearman’s foot at all was pure luck.

‘Nevertheless, I’ve made it impossible for him to move anymore. Moving on to the next one.’

Fwoosh!

Another ball of flame came flying toward Baek Yu-Seol, but he jumped off the tree without any regrets.

“Th, that…!”

The fall was steep, and the impact could easily break a bone, or worse. 

One of the pursuers below raised their arms, anticipating his landing.

Baek Yu-Seol plunged his dagger into the gap between the pursuer’s defenses with pinpoint precision.

Stab!

The loud noise that followed sounded more like a collision than the piercing of a sword.

As he neared the ground, Baek Yu-Seol forcibly shifted his momentum and activated Flash.

One of Flash’s unique traits is that the momentum before using it would be conserved.

“Ugghhh!”

As Baek Yu-Seol steadied himself, he saw a mage preparing another magic. The swirling mana in the air overwhelmed him with a strange sensation.

Bam!

“Fire B… Ugh!”

‘Ugh…’

A choking sensation overwhelmed him as he tumbled to the ground, his senses flooded by the swirling mana in the air.

It was the first time he felt mana today, but due to his prior experience, he realized what this phenomenon was called just by instinct.

‘Magic Rebound!’

It was one of the phenomena that occurred when magic casting failed. When a rebound occurs, an explosion prevails according to the scale of the caster's strength, and the caster will take some damage as well.

In the game, a mage would have suffered damage from the explosion alone, but was that the same in real life too?

Having gotten to that point, Baek Yu-Seol crouched down as much as possible.

Boom!

The entire vicinity was engulfed in a small explosion. Baek Yu-Seol rolled over the ground several times to lessen the impact.

“Ugh…!”

Luckily, the mage’s level must have been low, as the explosion was more like a firecracker. Even so, being near the blast left Baek Yu-Seol with minor burns.

Coughing and wincing from the pain, he suddenly felt a sharp sensation near his head. Without thinking, he ducked.

Whoosh!

An arrow flew past his hair and hit the tree next to him.

“Well, aren’t you an interesting one?”

The only remaining pursuers were a warrior with armor and a magic archer.

Both had exposed necks. If Baek Yu-Seol could strike a vital point, he could eliminate them.

Slowly holding the dagger, he got up and took a stance.

The warrior raised the corners of his mouth to speak.

“Your reaction speed is unreal and you use unusual magic. Who the hell are you?”

Baek Yu-Seol’s reaction time has always been remarkable. In the real world, he was a pro gamer who frequently appeared on special broadcasts. He had even won first place in a world competition for reaction speed.

However, no matter how fast humans were, they could never avoid arrows, especially with their backs facing the enemy.

Moreover, they were even more difficult to dodge when fired at such close distance.

“If you were a skilled mage, it would still be understandable with your enchanted senses… But you’re just an idiot who can’t even use magic. I don’t understand. Why don’t you tell me before you die?”

Mana Leakage Disorder, which strengthened all human senses, was practically useless in the magical society, but it surprisingly offered such amazing physical abilities.

However, Baek Yu-Seol didn’t have any intention to talk, and the warrior giggled as he noticed it.

“Yeah, let’s see if you can move around with that injured body of yours."

Provocations always struck Baek Yu-Seol as childish, and he saw no reason to respond.

“… Do you have any potions?”

“I have some here.”

“Good.”

Baek Yu-Seol took a stance as he drew the dagger little by little.

"Once I kill you, I’ll take it, so don’t lose it."

[Flash]

At the moment when Baek Yu-Seol’s body became blurry, the warrior raised his shield and covered his neck and face.

‘I’ve already figured out how you use Flash!’

Baek Yu-Seol’s previous Flash attacks had always ended with him stationary, swinging his dagger afterward. The warrior assumed this momentumless attack would be easy to block. Moreover, the dagger he wielded was not very threatening.

The rest of the warrior's body was protected by armor, so he decided to only protect his face and neck. On the other hand, Baek Yu-Seol approached the opponent’s face with deadly concentration while using Flash.

The warrior felt proud of his intelligence, raised his shield, and at the same time, slammed his foot hard on the floor.

‘Wave Break!’

Immediately after, the ground in front of him caved in as the powerful waves spread, making a fan shape, and the vicinity trembled along with its rhythm.

Crack!

“I’ve got you, you bastard!”

The magic he cast was a Class 1 basic magic designed to disrupt the enemy’s stance within a certain range. Under normal circumstances, it would have been enough to immobilize his opponent.

“Die!”

Convinced that Baek Yu-Seol was stunned, the warrior swung a large two-handed sword.

“… Huh?”

‘I have 10 years of PVP experience. Even though this is my first time fighting an actual battle, I’m so familiar with magic battles that it makes me pity you.’

Baek Yu-Seol had faced countless opponents who struggled against his Flash and relied on wide-range skills to catch him.

‘...I'm behind you!’

With lightning speed, he appeared behind the warrior, dagger poised to strike at the archer's vulnerable back.

But the archer’s instincts flared. Sensing the danger, he rolled across the ground just in time to evade Baek Yu-Seol’s strike and retaliated with a rapid barrage of arrows from his crossbow.

Thwip! Thwip!

“Ugghhh!”

If he could use Flash continuously, dodging such attacks would’ve been effortless. But with Flash on cooldown, Baek Yu-Seol had no choice but to roll awkwardly to avoid the arrows.

[Flash cooldown: 2 seconds]

The warrior closed in, his massive two-handed sword casting a foreboding shadow over Baek Yu-Seol.

[Flash cooldown: 1 second]

Baek Yu-Seol rolled back once more, scanning the opposite direction.

“He’s going to Flash over there!” the warrior shouted, certain they’d read his intentions.

They realized it too. The direction of his gaze before activating Flash must have given away his target.

However…

It was just a decoy he set to make them think he was using Flash in the first place.

Using the momentum from his roll, Baek Yu-Seol spun and lashed out with a surprise kick. The warrior, caught off guard, raised his elbow defensively.

Crack!

“Ugh!”

“Cough…”

Baek Yu-Seol’s shin collided with the warrior’s armored elbow, sending searing pain through his leg. The warrior staggered from the impact, giving Baek Yu-Seol just enough time to activate Flash.

[Flash]

The archer, anticipating Baek Yu-Seol’s next move, had already aimed his bow. But his reaction lagged as Baek Yu-Seol suddenly appeared directly in front of him.

Thud!

With no time to reload, the archer’s delay sealed his fate. Baek Yu-Seol’s dagger pierced his neck.

“Keugh….”

Thud!

“Ugh….”

After the archer fell, Baek Yu-Seol also couldn’t stand the pain in the shin and felt the urge to kneel.

"Ughhh."

‘It hurts. It hurts so much that I want to cry.'

But he gritted his teeth, fighting through the pain. Slowly, he turned to face the warrior, who glared at him with blazing fury.

“You ran away like a rat who’d never fought a battle before, and then your mood suddenly changed?”

“I hadn’t before. Thank you for letting me gain that experience.”

Reality was nothing like keyboard and mouse games, a lesson Baek Yu-Seol learned the hard way… down to his aching bones.

And it made him realize that this world was real.

"Now that you're alone, what are you going to do? If you're thinking of waiting for the other two to catch up and gang up on me, forget it. They're slacking off down below."

The warrior’s eyebrows twitched.

"Those damn bastards..."

“You really thought five of you would be enough to catch me. You must never have imagined it would feel so ugly to get beaten like that?”

It was a lie. Baek Yu-Seol had no idea what the others were doing. He was bluffing, hoping to weaken the warrior’s resolve.

Instead of faltering, the warrior raised his sword.

‘Fuck.’

Baek Yu-Seol’s leg bones were almost broken, making him unable to move freely anymore. And relying on just one Flash for movement posed too many risks.

When he feigned an attack with his dagger, the warrior instinctively raised his shield to guard his upper body. Yet Baek Yu-Seol noticed something: the warrior’s gaze flickered to the fallen spearman behind him.

‘I guess he’s trusting that guy who’s pretending to be passed out behind me.’

Earlier, he confirmed that the spearman, who had been hit by his misdirected arrow to the foot, had fallen to the ground while sobbing.

The spearman had not yet died, nor had he lost his consciousness. Baek Yu-Seol’s sixth sense, which was sensitive thanks to the Mana Leakage Delay, made him feel his breath.

The distance between him and the spearman was only three meters. If Baek Yu-Seol moved even a little closer, he would be able to stab and subdue the man in a single moment.

‘What should I do?’

'Should I throw the dagger backward to subdue him? No, that’s not right. There is no guarantee that I’ll be able to kill him with my shitty aim, and the risk of losing my only weapon is high. Did I not realize it when I shot the arrow? I’m a beginner with no skills at the moment.'

Even so, it was burdensome to use Flash. Baek Yu-Seol’s distance from the warrior was only five meters.

The moment he used a backward Flash to kill that bastard, the warrior would immediately narrow down the distance. He couldn’t cover all eight meters.

The distance was short, and he also had a magic skill that could shake the ground

'I can’t use Flash to kill the spearman.’

When he thought about it up to that point, he acted as if he had thoroughly calculated everything.

He lowered his center of gravity and threw his legs back slightly as if he were about to charge at the warrior in front of him.

As he retreated a bit like that, the distance to the rear became closer. However, his spear hadn’t moved yet. It was a distance that barely reached the tip of the spear, but he was aiming for a more certain timing.

However, such a golden opportunity would never return.

“Hup!”

When Baek Yu-Seol’s body moved, the warrior immediately reacted and swung his shield, but without using the Flash, he ran backward and stabbed the back of the spearman with the dagger held in both his hands.

He died instantly without even being able to resist.

Baek Yu-Seol grabbed the fallen spear and stepped back. The warrior narrowed the gap again, shield raised. But now, Baek Yu-Seol had Flash ready, making it harder for the warrior to predict his next move.

“You little…!”

The warrior tried to say something, but Baek Yu-Seol threw the dagger without giving him a chance to speak and accurately aimed for the opponent's stomach.

Naturally, the warrior raised his shield and casually deflected the dagger. However, this was nothing but a preparation for what was about to come next.

Baek Yu-Seol watched the warrior from the side as the spear spun in his hand, forming a wide, sweeping arc.

As if trying to Flash behind the warrior.

At that point, the warrior made a decision.

'… Right. His forward Flash can be counterattacked by my magic, so after tricking me to defend my front with a dagger, he’s going to move to my side and aim at my back!'

The warrior immediately spun his shield behind him, and the transition was instantaneous. If his judgment was correct, he would have been aiming at his side and rushing in to attack.

'Huh?'

However, there was nothing behind him.

Because Baek Yu-Seol had even expected that, and this time, he really dug into the front.

‘Shit!'

By the time the warrior realized his mistake, the tip of Baek Yu-Seol’s spear was already at his throat.

Puhhh!

[Episode 1 ‘Escape from the Pursuers’ has been completed.]

[EXP acquired!]

[By uniquely developing the story, the Constellation Project promises additional rewards.]