The Support Ate it All-Chapter 565: Finals Week 17–18 (20)

The effect of [Freeze] was to render ten random targets in front of us unable to act.

Five cards, naturally, meant fifty.

If you looked at all the monsters in the area, fifty was barely a handful—but after the fights up to now, we’d already sifted out the trash and left only the elites.

As a result, we managed to freeze most of the dragon-turtle soldiers.

The dragon-tail soldier looked a little surprised, but it didn’t lose its composure.

“You had a move.”

“And that’s not all.”

I answered as I kicked off the ground.

Crow Tree in one hand, and in the other the Immortal Pot I’d just borrowed from Seo Ye-in.

If the dragon-tail soldier froze, everything would be pointless, so I deliberately didn’t use [Freeze] on it.

That meant there were still plenty of dragon-turtle soldiers around it, and they all attacked at once as if to block my approach.

But the next moment, my body turned hazy—

—SLIP...

I shed the onrushing barrage with Ghostless Shadow, and the instant I reached the dragon-tail soldier’s nose—

Its figure whooshed out of existence.

‘Of course it’d use ★Blink★.’

I’d predicted it ages ago, since it was the mage type.

I immediately used ★Blink★ to stick to it, but it tried to widen the gap with another space spell.

Of course, I’d predicted that too—and I had no intention of letting it.

I thrust out the Crow Tree and put the trigger word on my tongue.

“Caw?”

“...!”

When its skill activation cut off halfway and got canceled, the dragon-tail soldier showed panic for the first time.

I took that opening and shoved forward the Immortal Kim Ho Kim Ho Pot.

“I’m borrowing this~”

[Severed Space]

A night-sky-colored space yawned wide and swallowed it whole.

At that, every dragon-turtle soldier in the area snapped its head around at once—then charged only me.

Dodging the torrent of fireballs and burning weapons, I shouted,

“Good—pull out!”

The party immediately drew a card each.

The [Return] cards I’d distributed beforehand, one per person.

Six cards flashed, and everyone was wrapped in a haze of light and launched toward the main base.

—PAPAPAPAT!

Meanwhile, I had one more card in my hand.

‘[Defection].’

The moment I used it, the blue B on my chest blurred—then changed into a yellow C.

Then [Return] triggered right after.

—PAH—!

My body turned into a streak of light and shot upward.

But since my affiliation had changed, the direction I flew was different from my party members.

When I finally dropped back down, I landed right in the middle of Group C’s base.

‘Starting today, this is our home.’

I looked around. For a base, it didn’t have many facilities—probably because more had been destroyed than built.

And last night’s [Bombardment] had definitely helped with that.

Compared to Group B, it was like comparing a brand-new district to a slum. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

—Hey! Who’s that?

—Is that our team?

—Isn’t that Kim Ho?

Group members (temporary) gathered in a murmuring crowd.

Among them was Jeong Jin-myeong, our leader (temporary).

I didn’t see Lee Seonghyeon or Jo Byeok—looked like they’d been dispatched into Group B territory.

‘Then it’s going to get a lot harder for them.’

Not that it was my problem.

Jeong Jin-myeong’s eyes went wide.

“Why are you here?”

“Delivery.”

With a wicked grin, I pulled out the pot and released [Severed Space].

The night-sky-colored space opened—and spat the dragon-tail soldier out.

The instant it hit open air, it spun at an insane speed, whipping its thick tail like a lash in every direction.

A shockwave exploded outward, followed by a fiery blast.

—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG—!

It was too sudden—and the power was way beyond anything we’d expected—so our group members (temporary) couldn’t respond in time.

About half were knocked down, and about half were swallowed by flames.

Jeong Jin-myeong too.

They barely avoided going completely combat-incapable, but the damage seemed heavy—like their mind was flickering in and out.

“What the hell is this...?”

The dragon-tail soldier didn’t care. It stared only at me.

“How long has it been since I was handled by a human. It really went exactly as intended.”

“Told you. This is a notice.”

From the start, you were part of the plan.

I smiled and tossed out a question.

“You’re not going to say you won’t, right?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Sooner or later, I’ll wipe everything out. Of course—”

The moment the dragon-tail soldier raked at the air, I stepped into Featherstep.

A burning claw grazed past me by a razor-thin margin.

—FWOOSH!

“—I’ll turn you into ash first.”

“I don’t really burn.”

“We’ll see if that’s true.”

The dragon-tail soldier rose, floating into the air as if it was finally going on the offensive.

And as it started toward me—

—SSWE-SSWE-SSWE-SSWE—!

—PUH-PUH-PUNG!

All kinds of ranged projectiles and spells converged on it.

The survivors were counterattacking.

They didn’t know the details, but an ambush was obvious.

But a burning defensive barrier formed and cleanly blocked every strike.

“Annoying.”

The dragon-tail soldier spoke curtly, stretched one hand overhead, and launched a pillar of ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) fire like a fireworks burst.

—KWAAA—!

In response, a tremor traveled up from beneath our feet.

I flicked my gaze toward the volcano.

Near the peak, flames were gathering at a terrifying pace.

‘It’ll blow soon.’

And just like yesterday, ultra-long-range bombardment would follow—along with a flood of support troops.

So what did I need to do here?

‘First, [Defection].’

I used my last card and switched my affiliation back to Group B.

I could just [Return] like this, sure, but—

‘If I’m doing it, I should finish it properly.’

Right then, Jeong Jin-myeong staggered upright and thrust a card toward the dragon-tail soldier.

[Discharge].

Just like [Freeze] worked on the dragon-turtle soldiers, that would work too.

Meaning it could blow the thing back to its main base—the volcano.

But just before activation, I cut in front of Jeong Jin-myeong, and the card that was about to glow crumbled into black ash and scattered.

—PSSSSS....

At the same time, ash was scattering from my own chest.

[Protection] had activated.

‘That’s why I changed affiliations first.’

To include myself in [Discharge]’s target list—then bounce it off with [Protection].

For reference, [Freeze] applies a little differently:

It doesn’t nullify the activation itself like this—instead, it freezes everyone except the person who has [Protection].

Since it’s a Hidden Piece and the target count is ten, the odds of it getting blocked are high, too.

Either way, this meant Group C no longer had a way to deal with the dragon-tail soldier.

Jeong Jin-myeong stared at me like I was insane.

“Hey. Isn’t this too much?”

“We’ve gotta eat too.”

Other teams were teaming up and squeezing us—so why would we just sit there and take it?

I started to add something else, then threw myself sideways in a hurry.

—JIIIIING—!

An extremely compressed beam of fire sliced past, continuing to chase me as it tracked along the dragon-tail soldier’s pointed finger.

“Have you ever seen someone so ungrateful? I blocked [Discharge] for you, and this is what I get.”

“You’re saying nonsense.”

—JIIIIING—!

I kept hammering Featherstep, but it didn’t seem like I could shake it with that alone.

And the beam was almost catching up—hovering right on the edge of contact—so I whooshed with ★Blink★ to a corner of the base.

In the next moment, right in front of me—

A tower glittering in radiant, multicolored light.

[Crystal Tower (C+)]

Everything else here was practically slum-tier, but they must’ve invested steadily into this—its grade was pretty high.

Of course, it wouldn’t last long.

—PUNG!

An ice-white bullet hit, and the tower froze over.

It didn’t even budge, like it had real durability—but that was enough.

I didn’t have the breathing room to keep pounding on it anyway.

The moment I stepped into Featherstep, fire-arrows poured down like rain.

—SSWE-SSWE-SSWE-SSWE—!

The dragon-tail soldier had followed with ★Blink★.

It clenched its fist, and a dark crimson flame rose from within.

I spoke in Song Cheon-hye’s tone.

“That’s a forbidden skill, you know? That’s a school rules violation, you know?”

As if it wasn’t even worth responding to, the dragon-tail soldier threw a punch.

A firestorm crashed down.

—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA—!

I barely slipped out of the radius again, but the situation kept getting worse.

Then, at last, the volcano erupted.

A gigantic fireball crossed an enormous distance—and crashed into Group C’s main base.

—KWAAAANG—!

And from inside the flames, dragon-turtle soldiers swarmed out and started attacking the other team’s members.

Watching with satisfaction, I thought,

‘That’s enough work for today.’

At this point, even if they used every [Discharge] they had, there’d be no fixing it.

I looked up at the dragon-tail soldier.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Do you think I’ll let you?”

“I already slipped you.”

—PAH!

And I used [Return] to leave.

The scenery whipped past at insane speed, and I crossed a vast distance in a single breath—landing at our main base.

‘Feels good to be home.’

Especially with these modern facilities.

Meanwhile, my party members were resting nearby, waiting.

The moment I returned, Hong Yeon-hwa came trotting over.

Half happy, half worried, she asked,

“Are you okay...?”

“I’m fine.”

If I’d stayed a little longer, I would’ve taken a hit—but with that kind of spec gap, it couldn’t be helped.

Next, I returned the pot to Seo Ye-in, then looked at Song Cheon-hye, who’d just run over.

“You were holding things down, right?”

“Yes. Like you said, we secured only crystals. We used almost all our [Return], though. You took care of what you went for, right?”

“It’s done.”

Not long after, the sub-quest updated.

[Sub Quest: Finals Week 17–18](In progress....)

▷Condition: Fail upon retirement

▷Goal 1: Defeat competitors (45/20 people)

▷Goal 2: Defeat dragon-body soldiers

Dragon-scale soldiers: 41

Dragon-tooth soldiers: 24

Dragon-turtle soldiers: 14

▷Goal 3: Destroy a rival team’s Crystal Tower (1/1 time)

▷Goal 4: Your team takes 1st place

▷Reward: Scaled payout based on completion

Maybe because the dragon-tail soldier and dragon-turtle soldiers were rampaging properly, the Crystal Tower had been destroyed.

My contribution was maybe 1% at best, but still—contributing was contributing, so the count went up.

And since plenty of the other team’s members had gone down, Goal 1 ticked up too.

I said to Song Cheon-hye,

“Use [Recon].”

“Where?”

“Group C.”

Maybe she was curious too, because she immediately drew the card.

The other members gathered around with eager faces as well.

—PAH—!

A huge screen floated up, showing Group C’s base.

The moment we saw it, sighs and groans spilled out from all sides.

“Wow...”

“Jesus.”

Every single facility—without exception—was burned to the ground.

There weren’t any survivors in sight either.

They’d either been swept away with the base, or abandoned the hill and fled—one of the two.

And the dragon-tail soldier that had caused this devastation was retreating with its underlings back to the volcano.

I’d pulled a bunch of infuriating stunts on it, sure, but its top priority was guarding the sleeping Flame Emperor Dragon.

It had decided our main base could wait a bit.

I’d planned with that in mind, too.

And if it came anyway, we could just blow it away with [Discharge].

The moment the screen vanished, I said to Song Cheon-hye again,

“Now use [Observe].”

“On Jeong Jin-myeong?”

As Group C’s leader, she probably thought I wanted to check if they’d survived.

But I shook my head.

“No. On Moyong Jun.”