At Yohan's unprecedented declaration, Seong-hyeon smiled, while Haru could not hide her flustered look.
Haru approached Yohan and spoke.
"Student Yohan. I think you are saying that because you are excited right now...."
"I'm not excited. I'm not being emotional, either. This is a necessary procedure for becoming the class president of this class."
Hearing his words, Haru frowned.
Since Pluton had been established, sparring had always been conducted in a one-on-one format.
The only exception was the class competition.
But right now, Yohan had proposed the first large-scale sparring match of one against twenty-nine.
‘What am I supposed to do if the other instructors find out...?’
If this had happened in Class S, she could have understood it, at least.
It would have been establishing the hierarchy among those with high ranks.
But right now, this was happening among the weaklings Pluton had designated as Class F.
Haru watched Seong-hyeon's expression.
Seong-hyeon nodded as if telling her to proceed as it was.
"Understood. Let us say that is the case. Even so, sparring requires the opponent's consent. As you said, if you wish to spar against all of Class F, you need everyone's consent."
"Consent...."
Getting the consent of the Class F students was no difficult task.
They already had a negative image of Yohan and were complaining nonstop.
‘At times like this, provocation is the correct answer.’
Yohan looked at the Class F students and let out a hollow laugh.
"Is there really any need to ask consent from worthless things like them?"
At Yohan's words, the Class F students seemed to flare up, and each of them began spitting out a word or two.
"What? Worthless?"
"You seem to think you're something special! You're Class F too!"
"Your ability is the same grade as ours!"
BANG—!
Yohan struck the lectern hard and made the angry students close their mouths.
"You're barking loudly like dogs in heat. Are you not confident?"
The students each twisted their expressions and began watching one another's reactions.
Jung-han also did not know Yohan's actual skill, so he merely ground his teeth.
"Good. I will offer a good condition to you people who have neither spirit nor skill."
"A condition?"
"You may use artifacts, Ego Weapons, and Unique Abilities. All of them. In exchange, I will use none of them."
At the drastic condition that completely looked down on them, the students' anger reached its peak.
At the words that artifacts could be used, Jung-han was the first to raise his voice.
"Good! I agree! Are the rest of you going to be intimidated by what that bastard said?"
"Right! I agree with Jung-han too."
"Me too!"
Starting with Jung-han, the students began agreeing to the sparring one by one.
At that moment, Yohan raised a finger.
"However! The sparring will not stop until the opponent is combat incapacitated. That is the final condition."
"Combat incapacitated? Fine! Let's take this all the way."
"There is no way he can face all twenty-nine of us alone!"
The students, who had fallen for the provocation exactly as Yohan intended, did not know.
They did not know how merciless the phrase "combat incapacitation" was, nor that they had fallen for a shallow provocation and stuck their heads into the jaws of a tiger.
Haru began explaining additional details about the sparring.
"The sparring will be held in the Colosseum at the center of Pluton. The sparring date will be...."
"Any time is fine."
"We are confident any time when it comes to beating up a bastard like him!"
Haru sighed and operated her device.
She began drafting a sparring agreement on her device.
"Let us proceed tomorrow during Period Zero."
"Good."
"Exactly what I wanted!"
She continued entering the students' conditions and the date into her device.
Conditions: Yohan cannot use Ego Weapons, Unique Abilities, or artifacts. Other students may use them. Sparring will continue until combat incapacitation.>
"Yohan, and the representative of Class F, come forward and confirm the conditions written on the device."
At the word representative, Jung-han rose from his seat without hesitation and approached her.
Since the students had also agreed to Jung-han's words, they had no complaints about him being the representative.
"Confirmed."
"Good!"
After receiving confirmation from the two of them, Haru sent the sparring agreement to the students.
Yohan and the students looked at the agreement and pressed the approval button.
With that, the unprecedented one-against-twenty-nine sparring match was established.
As the matter progressed to a point where it could no longer be contained, Haru clutched her head.
Seong-hyeon patted her shoulder and spoke.
"I will take full responsibility."
"Why are you going this far?"
"Because there is a student I am interested in."
"I think I know who you mean.... But I do not understand. This will be a headache when those above say something."
"Instructor Haru, please stay behind and look after the students. I will take the heat and go."
Seong-hyeon confirmed the sparring agreement that had arrived for him and left the classroom.
Then he went straight to the Head of Student Affairs in the faculty office.
***
Pluton Academy's Colosseum.
At its center was a large marble arena.
And seats were arranged in a circle so it could be viewed from anywhere.
After hearing news of Class F's sparring match, people began gathering in the Colosseum.
From the other classes of the first year to second- and third-year seniors, the Colosseum grounds were large enough that there was still room even after everyone sat down.
K and Seong-tae entered the openly well-positioned VIP seats.
Behind them, seven students followed.
They were the seven top-rankers called the Seven Stars of Pluton.
"Look at that. From the Academy's Seven Stars to the Chairman and Lord K.... Everyone has gathered."
"To think this many people would gather for a mere Class F sparring match...."
"It is that unprecedented."
As the students said, Class F's sparring matches were originally outside people's interest.
After all, it was Class F, and only a Class F sparring match.
But this time was different.
A one-versus-many sparring match, unprecedented in history, and one that tried to defy Pluton's judgment as soon as the Academy's entrance ceremony ended.
That was the reason.
In particular, the gazes of the second years wearing green neckties and the third years wearing blue neckties were far from ordinary.
Because of the actions of these Class F students, the first years wearing red neckties had become eyesores to them.
Through the murmuring people, Seong-hyeon, who had said he would take responsibility for this matter, climbed onto the marble arena.
[Thank you for showing such great interest in this sparring match. I am Jin Seong-hyeon, instructor and assistant homeroom instructor of Class F, who arranged this sparring match.]
When the audience grew quiet, Seong-hyeon continued speaking.
[The conditions for this sparring match are as follows. Yohan cannot use Ego Weapons, Unique Abilities, or artifacts. The other students may use them. The sparring will continue until combat incapacitation.]
People began snorting at Yohan's disadvantageous conditions.
"He is saying he will fight Hunters barehanded, is he not?"
"He has completely lost his mind."
"If that is possible, he could beat magic beasts to death too."
The Colosseum was filled with the students' sneers.
Only Seo-yun, who had directly sparred with Yohan, knew that this reckless move of Yohan's was not reckless at all.
SCREEEE.
Seong-hyeon tapped the microphone and quieted the audience.
[Now. The fighters will enter. First, Yohan.]
When Yohan was called, he appeared from the left entrance of the Colosseum.
With ash-gray hair and a decadent face, he wore a coat and held two daggers.
The daggers were practice daggers with no killing power at all.
‘Let's see how much you prepared.’
Yohan spun the daggers and waited for the students.
Seong-hyeon then called the opposing side.
At that, twenty-nine students poured out of the right gate in a swarm.
Every one of them was wearing expensive artifacts, and they held their respective Ego Weapons.
"How do all of them have artifacts?"
"From the look of it, are those Company J's mana amplification artifacts?"
"Look over there. It is the son of Chairman Shin, the godfather of distribution! Even the artifacts he is wearing are B-grade or higher from Gates!"
When Jung-han heard the words "Chairman Shin," his self-esteem seemed to rise, and he shrugged his shoulders.
Yohan was disappointed by their preparedness.
‘To think all they prepared was showing up wearing toys....’
Once all the sparring participants had gathered, Seong-hyeon took the microphone and stepped down from the arena.
[The sparring will now begin. Countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....]
Unlike Yohan, who was loosening up leisurely, the twenty-nine students were tense as they placed their hands on their artifacts.
[Sparring begins!]
WHIRR—!
At the same time as the sparring began, the students used their artifacts.
At that, their mana power doubled, and they emitted uncontrollable mana.
"Power is overflowing! Overflowing!"
The students, who were using artifacts for the first time, became filled with confidence and gripped their Ego Weapons tightly.
At that moment, Yohan yawned as he looked at the opposing side raising their mana.
‘Company J's artifacts that amplify mana. But if you can't control the overflowing mana, using them or not makes no difference.’
Just as Yohan thought, there were students who could not control their own mana and found it difficult even to walk.
Because of the uncontrollable mana, they felt as if they were bouncing on a trampoline.
‘So, what is their strategy? Surely it is not a simple group attack. It cannot be that simple, can it?’
Yohan stopped yawning, spun his daggers with a flourish, and took a combat stance.
Then Jung-han shouted.
"Swarm him!"
Hearing Jung-han's shout, Yohan sighed.
‘That "surely not" really does get people killed.’
Unable to hide his disappointment, he began appropriately dodging the attacks of the students who charged at him.
SWISH—!
SWISH—!
As if they might reach him but not quite, giving them hope and making them burn through their stamina.
And so he could quickly grasp their information.
‘A complete mess.’
The students' attacks, just as Jung-han had said, ended at simply swarming him.
They stepped forward to attack, only to collide, become tangled, and even swing their Ego Weapons at one another.
"What are you doing?! If you hadn't been there, I would've taken that bastard!"
"What? You're the one getting in the way!"
Looking at those who had no teamwork or even any will to cooperate, he judged that there was no longer any value in analyzing them.
‘Analysis complete.’
Yohan turned a backflip between the students and opened the distance.
"You are trash with no qualifications to be Hunters, not even worth classifying. Is this your full strength?"
The students, whose distance had widened, tried to control their heaving, ragged breaths.
The floor was soaked with their sweat.
Jung-han wiped the sweat streaming down and answered.
"You are barely dodging by the skin of your teeth, so what are you talking about?!"
"I will ask one more time. Is this your full strength?"
"Guys, swarm him!"
At Jung-han's words, one student charged in with a sword.
SWISH—!
Yohan avoided it by a hair's breadth.
At that, the student could not control his body, and his weight pitched forward.
Yohan raised the dagger he was holding and drove it straight into the student's face.
CRASH—!
The student's head was smashed into the ground.
At the sound that could not possibly come from a person, the students who had been rushing to swarm Yohan stopped.
"This is just the beginning. Grit your teeth."