The three Cerberuses were summoned before Yohan and bared their teeth as they looked at him.
"What is this supposed to be, Instructor?"
Yohan opened his eyes sharply and looked toward the control room hidden behind the black curtain.
[I am merely going to discipline an arrogant bastard like you a little. As if ignoring Pluton's tradition were not enough, you challenged the authority of an instructor who controls the students! This requires punishment.]
It was only the surface reason for dealing with Yohan.
"Are you making me your enemy right now?"
At Yohan's words, Jong-pal's laughter spread through the speaker.
[Enemy? Did you just say enemy? I am merely disciplining one student....]
"Answer the question."
[...Yes! I am making you my enemy! So what can you do about it?]
Yohan let out a deep breath and pointed toward the control room with his finger.
"I will show you. What happens when you make me your enemy."
[You say the most ridiculous things, Yohan!]
Yohan operated his device and checked Cerberus's information.
<Cerberus.>
It has a Doberman-like form, is about the same size as a person, and is characterized by having three heads.
Each head fires water, wind, and fire magic.
An A-grade magic beast that appears as the boss guarding the Hell Gate.>
After quickly checking the information, Yohan turned off the device.
The heat rising from the lava around the Hell Gate made beads of sweat gather on him.
"Come out, Yeongcheol."
When Yohan called the name of his Ego Weapon, Yeongcheol, his shadow began to move.
The shadow climbed up his body and became a pitch-black sword in his right palm.
Facing an animal-type magic beast for the first time, Yohan began performing his routine.
He tapped his heart twice with his right hand, brought the blade forward, then shook the blade toward the floor.
His analytical ability toward the situation sharpened, and his breathing settled.
His vision became clear, and his honed senses turned only toward the enemy.
[Are you praying to God before tasting defeat?!]
Jong-pal's jeering voice did not reach Yohan's ears after he performed his routine.
All Yohan could see were the three Cerberuses before him.
‘I need to confuse them first.’
Yohan leaped at high speed and began circling the Cerberuses.
The three magic beasts tried to follow Yohan with a total of eighteen eyes.
However, each of their heads collided and tangled.
Grrrr.
Yohan passed the Cerberus's middle head and swung his sword.
WHOOSH.
Unable to follow Yohan with its eyes, the Cerberus dodged by lowering its head with animal senses and instinct.
And then.
WHIRR.
Red, blue, and green magic circles unfolded in the mouths of the three Cerberuses. From the middle heads, Hellfire, a fire spell, spewed out.
BOOM, BOOM—!
Yohan twisted his body in the air and avoided the Hellfire.
Then Icicles shaped like large, sharp spears of ice flew toward him.
"Kgh."
Fireballs and lumps of ice flew endlessly toward Yohan. Ice lodged in the walls, and scorched marks from fire remained around the Hell Gate.
Yohan checked how far Icicle could fly inside this training ground.
The magic launched by the Cerberuses left marks along the walls of the Image Training Room.
The Icicles in particular were lodged as if floating in the air.
‘I cannot read their thoughts.’
Yohan, who had originally dealt with people, always fought while analyzing his opponent.
Temperament, habits, abilities, and the like.
He analyzed the fundamental things people possessed in the middle of battle.
However, Cerberus, which was nothing more than an animal, was different.
‘Should I at least approach first?’
While Yohan was thinking, the Cerberuses' movements changed.
***
Inside the control room, Jong-pal was watching Yohan, who refused to fall.
"Yohan, that bastard. I thought Cerberus would finish him with one blow!"
When the Cerberuses, which moved only by instinct, failed to finish Yohan off, Jong-pal grew frustrated.
So frustrated that Jong-pal began operating the control room's machine himself.
At that, the three Cerberuses began moving according to Jong-pal's will.
"In-Instructor, is this also part of class? It is different from the magic beasts we fought...."
"This is also class! Are all of you objecting to what an instructor is doing?!"
Jong-pal flew into a rage, his gentlemanly and gentle personality nowhere to be found.
Startled by his appearance, the students could not speak.
***
The magic beasts that had moved instinctively began showing group behavior.
The Cerberuses surrounding Yohan fired Strong Wind, a wind spell.
Under the powerful wind pressure blowing from three directions, Yohan stabbed his sword into the ground and endured.
WHIRR.
When red magic circles unfolded, Yohan entrusted his body to the wind and rose into the air.
‘Magic beasts suddenly acting as a group, and a wind-and-fire combination....’
BANG.
Thanks to the powerful wind blowing in, Yohan was able to use Yeongcheol as a foothold and escape from inside the whirlwind.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
A massive pillar of fire surged up in the place Yohan had escaped by a hair's breadth.
It was a coordinated attack between Strong Wind and Hellfire.
‘If my judgment had been even a little late, I would have been ash.’
The power of the magic fired by the Cerberuses was different from before.
Before Yohan even had time to reorganize his line, a large number of Icicles flew at him.
THUNK, THUNK, THUNK—!
Yohan ran along the wall of the training room and dodged the Icicles.
The three magic beasts drove Yohan into a corner. Then, at an appropriate distance, they stopped approaching any closer.
[How amusing, the way you dodge like a rat!]
Hearing Jong-pal's voice from the speaker and seeing the magic beasts standing still without attacking any further, Yohan became certain.
His opponent was not a magic beast, but a person.
In that case, he needed to change the way he fought.
From fighting magic beasts to fighting a person.
"Shut up and come at me."
Jong-pal's anger rose all the way to the top of his head at Yohan's words, and he began controlling the magic beasts again.
WHIRR.
The three magic beasts fired magic in turns.
Jong-pal no longer hid the fact that he was controlling them.
BOOM, BOOM—!
After one magic beast fired its magic, it fell back.
Then another magic beast fired magic, and the remaining magic beast deployed a magic circle.
THUNK, THUNK—!
‘Reload after firing. Cover fire during reload. This is basic among basics. It is basic, but....’
Yohan thought while dodging the incoming magic.
‘Too basic.’
Yohan circled around inside the training ground and measured the angle.
‘Now!’
Yohan stuck close to the Cerberus that was reloading its magic. At that, the attacks of the remaining two stopped.
The shallow human desire not to lose even one piece for nothing had taken effect.
If they had remained as they were according to the original nature of magic beasts, they would have mercilessly poured attacks on him.
A magic beast that could not move would be a headache for Jong-pal.
Yohan quickly stuck to the magic beast and aimed for its leg.
Whoosh.
Yohan's sword passed cleanly through the air.
To be precise, the moment the sword touched the Cerberus, its texture changed from that of a real living creature to that of a hologram.
"I see."
Yohan decided there was no need to continue dealing with magic beasts that were nothing more than holograms.
‘Type B-192. Combat against summoned beasts using long-range magic.’
And after looking at the magic beasts that were now nothing more than magic launchers, he finished his analysis.
"Instructor Jong-pal, you will realize what your mistake was!"
In the atmosphere that had turned cold, unlike the lava of the Hell Gate, Yohan looked at the opaque monitor room and raised his middle finger.
[Urgh! That bastard!]
BANG—!
Along with the sound of Jong-pal slamming the machine, his shout came through the speaker.
"Instructor.... At this rate, something really will happen...."
"What will happen? That bastard is the one getting beaten. Is there a problem?!"
"No, that is not what I mean...."
The students wanted to say that it was not Yohan, but Instructor Jong-pal, who would end up in trouble, but they closed their mouths.
Jong-pal flew into a rage, his gentlemanly attitude during class nowhere to be found.
"This time, I will finish it!"
When Jong-pal turned the machine's dial all the way, warning sounds rang through the control room and the training ground.
[Warning. Magic power at maximum.]
Jong-pal ignored the warning and controlled the three Cerberuses.
‘So this is the answer I get. Good. This is exactly how you should come at me. That way, you become an example.’
Yohan calmly steadied his breath and thought of a plan.
‘The opponent is no longer a magic beast. Then the best move is to block his vision first.’
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
The power of the Hellfire the magic beasts fired increased.
Yohan moved by stepping on the Icicles embedded in the wall.
The Hellfire's power had risen enough to melt the Icicles, and as the fireballs collided with the ice, great clouds of steam rose.
The entire training ground was covered in steam.
‘Stage One succeeded.’
BANG! BANG!
SWISH, SWISH, SWISH!
WHOOSH.
When the area in front of the control room became covered in hazy steam, Jong-pal began firing attacks indiscriminately.
"Stop playing tricks and come out, Yohan!"
Jong-pal shouted while hurriedly operating the control room's machine.
‘If his vision is blocked, he cannot detect my presence either?’
If this had been a real magic beast, it would have quickly found Yohan's location through smell and hearing.
But right now, the one facing Yohan was the excited Jong-pal.
Yohan picked up a fragment that had fallen to the ground and casually threw it.
Tap.
Hellfire was fired in the direction where the fragment fell.
At that moment, a red magic circle was visible within the steam.
‘The weakness of magic. When deployed, its light and location are exposed.’
He could have ended it immediately, but that was not Yohan's purpose.
Certain retaliation against an enemy.
For that, he had to break the curtain protecting the space between the control room and the training ground.
Yohan picked up another fragment and threw it toward the ceiling.
Tap, tap.
Even though there was space behind it, the fragment bounced off empty air where nothing could be seen. And as soon as it fell to the ground, magic was fired.
[Even if you repent now, I will not forgive you, Yohan!]
Jong-pal's voice came through the speaker.
Amid the continued indiscriminate magical bombardment, Yohan discovered a small light on the ceiling.
Among them, a prism was being emitted from the light closest to the control room.
Yohan formed Yeongcheol into the shape of a dagger.
Then he threw it at the light from which the prism emerged.
SHATTER—!
[Danger. Danger. Protective barrier disappearing.]
A warning sounded from the speaker.
[What do you think you are doing right now?!]
Along with it rang Jong-pal's raging words.
When the protective barrier was destroyed, the locations of the mana stones creating the hologram were plainly revealed.
SHATTER—!
Yohan continued creating daggers from shadow and destroyed the mana stones.
[Fuck, what are you doing, Yohan?! This is property damage, do you understand?]
"You started this mess yourself, and now you're barking noisily like a dog in heat."
When the mana stones were destroyed, the three hologram Cerberuses and the Hell Gate background disappeared.
And the inside of the formerly opaque control room began to come into view.
"Instructor Jong-pal, your mistake was directly operating the magic beasts."
Yohan extended his right hand and created a dagger.
Then, using his right foot as an axis, he stretched his left leg high and long into the air.
"Drop dead."
Yohan threw the dagger toward the control room.
WHOOSH.
SHATTER—!
The dagger pierced through the control room window and struck Jong-pal's body.
Seeing Jong-pal faint instantly, the students swallowed.
After finishing the job, Yohan slowly approached the students.
Then he looked at them once with sharp eyes and put Yeongcheol away.
The students who saw his gaze whispered.
"That is a warning aimed at us.... The moment we make him our enemy, whether it is an instructor or us, it is all the same...."
Unable to move under Yohan's killing intent, the students only broke out in cold sweat.