The Extra is a Genius!?-Chapter 524: Noel vs The Second Pillar (Part I)

Chapter 524: Chapter 524: Noel vs The Second Pillar (Part I)

The Second Pillar moved.

There was no warning. No shift in posture, no breath drawn before the strike. One moment she was standing there, chains hanging in their unnatural stillness, and the next the air around Noel exploded with motion.

Chains tore forward from every direction at once.

Noel barely had time to register it. Revenant Fang came up on instinct, shadow and steel colliding with the first chain in a violent spark that rattled up his arms. The impact jarred his grip, numbing his fingers as the force carried through his stance and into his shoulders.

Another chain slipped past.

It scraped across his side, tearing cloth and skin alike. Heat flared, sharp and immediate, followed by the wet sensation of blood spilling free. Noel hissed through his teeth as he twisted away, boots skidding hard across stone.

’Twenty percent less?’ The thought flashed hot and furious through his head. ’This is bullshit.’

He didn’t get time to dwell on it.

More chains followed, snapping and coiling like living things, forcing him backward step by step. Noel blocked again, then again, shadows reinforcing his movements just enough to keep him upright. Each impact came heavier than the last, driving him back several meters until his heel caught and he barely avoided losing his footing entirely.

His breath hitched. Too fast. Too shallow.

This wasn’t a clash where he dictated the pace. He wasn’t setting traps or choosing angles or buying space to think. Every action he took was a reaction, every movement a correction made half a second too late.

The Second Pillar advanced without breaking rhythm, chains swaying around her in deliberate arcs as if the space itself bent to her will. Noel tightened his grip on Revenant Fang, blood dripping from his side to darken the stone beneath him, shadows clinging to the blade like they knew what was coming.

Noel forced his lungs to cooperate and pushed himself upright before she could close the distance completely.

He swung Revenant Fang in a tight arc and spoke through clenched teeth. "Fire Arc."

Flame peeled away from the blade and cut forward, a curved slash that bit into the incoming chains. Metal split with a shrill cry and fragments struck the ground, glowing faintly before going dark. The pressure eased for a breath. Just one.

Noel didn’t wait.

He lifted his free hand and released "Glacialis."

Ice struck a chain mid-length and spread fast, crawling over the links until they stiffened and slowed. The movement wasn’t graceful anymore. For a moment, it felt like he’d caught her out of rhythm.

He stepped in on instinct, trusting the opening.

The frost shattered.

Not gently. Not gradually. It broke under force alone, fragments spraying outward as the chain snapped free and surged back to life. Noel’s eyes widened a fraction too late.

The Second Pillar didn’t retreat. She shifted her weight and the chains followed, not as weapons thrown but as parts of her body. One length thickened as it moved, links reinforcing around it, momentum building in a straight line toward him.

Noel tried to turn.

The impact landed first.

It struck his side just beneath the ribs, deep enough that the pain didn’t register right away. What came first was the absence of air. His breath vanished, ripped out of him in a soundless gasp as his body folded and lifted off the ground.

He flew.

Stone rushed past in a blur. His shoulder hit. Then his back. Revenant Fang scraped along the ground, sparks and shadow tearing loose as he slid.

Noel rolled onto his side, choking, his chest refusing to rise no matter how hard he told it to. His vision narrowed, dark at the edges, the world pulsing with his heartbeat.

The ground rushed up too fast.

Instinct took over before fear had time to form. The shadows beneath him twisted sharply and Noel forced the word out through clenched teeth. "Shadow Step."

The impact never came.

The world folded sideways and he reappeared a few meters away, hitting the ground hard anyway, rolling across stone with barely controlled momentum. His shoulder screamed in protest as he slid to a stop on one knee, breath still uneven, vision swimming.

He didn’t get a second.

A chain cracked through the air and struck his hand before he could fully rise. Pain flashed white and sudden, his fingers going numb as Revenant Fang was torn free from his grip. The blade spun away, end over end, shadow peeling off it like torn cloth as it skidded across the ground and bounced once, twice, coming to rest far too far.

Noel’s stomach dropped.

"No. No no no—"

He didn’t finish the thought.

The shadows answered him again, faster this time, snapping tight around his legs as he vanished mid-step. "Shadow Step."

He reappeared above the blade, body twisting in midair as his fingers closed around the hilt. The familiar weight hit his palm and for half a heartbeat, everything else fell away. Ground, chains, pain—none of it mattered.

He landed badly, boots scraping stone as he staggered, but the sword was his again.

Noel sucked in a breath that burned all the way down and dragged Revenant Fang up into guard, shadows clinging tight to the edge. His hand still trembled from the impact, his side throbbed where the chain had caught him earlier, and his mana felt thinner than it should have.

The ground shifted under his feet as he moved, not running so much as giving space where he could. Noel didn’t look down when he placed the first sigil. He felt it instead, a flicker of heat pressed into stone as his mana carved the mark without conscious thought. Another step, another turn, another flare pressed into the ground behind him.

The Second Pillar kept coming.

The first trap went off with a sharp burst of light and fire, a column erupting straight up between them. Heat washed over Noel’s face and he squinted against it, heart jumping as the flames swallowed her outline for a split second.

She walked through it.

The fire licked across her side and burned away part of a chain, leaving scorched metal and torn flesh behind. She didn’t slow. She didn’t cry out. She stepped forward as if the flames were rain.

Noel swallowed hard.

’It works,’ he thought. ’Just... not enough.’

The air changed.

Chains slammed into the ground around her, not striking but anchoring, biting deep into stone. The vibration ran through Noel’s boots and up his legs. From where the chains pierced the earth, shapes began to rise. Bodies dragged upward by iron, limbs bound, faces twisted into something barely human. Eyes empty. Movements wrong.

"Oh, come on," Noel thought, jaw tightening.

He didn’t hesitate. Fireball left his hand in a tight arc, detonating against the nearest shape and tearing it apart in a spray of flame and broken links. He followed it with "Chain Flash," lightning snapping outward and branching through two more, their bodies jerking once before collapsing. "Voltage Needle" cracked through the air next, punching clean through a skull and pinning it to the ground behind.

They fell fast.

Too fast.

His mana dipped sharply and he felt it, a hollow tug in his chest that made his breathing hitch. He had no rhythm left. No flow. Just reaction stacked on reaction.

He cut down the last one and turned—

—and she was already there.

The chain struck him square in the torso, wrapped in a surge of power that punched the air from his lungs. Noel felt himself lift, weightless for a split second, before the world spun and slammed him into the ground. Stone scraped his back as he rolled, pain blooming deep and heavy inside his chest.

He came to a stop on his side, gasping, the taste of iron sharp in his mouth.

This wasn’t slipping out of his control anymore.

It was proving, again and again, just how far behind he still was.