After warning the students, Yohan left the Image Training Room.
The students could not even move and remained tense until Yohan left. Only after he was gone could they finally breathe.
Amid those students, Jong-pal's dying groans could be heard.
"Call the Medical Instructor! Instructor Jong-pal is in bad condition!"
"...Yeah!"
Medical Instructor Kim Chun-sik arrived at the Image Training Room in response to the students' urgent call.
"What on earth happened here?"
The Image Training Room had been destroyed to the point that its original form could not be found.
The mana stones and ceiling lights were broken, and the device that deployed the protective barrier had been wrecked.
And above all, the control room window had been shattered to pieces.
The Image Training Room was one of the places that boasted Pluton's technology.
For it to be half-destroyed like this. Kim Chun-sik, wearing a white coat, touched his head as if he could not believe it.
Then he looked at the student who had brought him and asked.
"What exactly happened?"
"Well... there was a mock training class against magic beasts...."
"The curriculum for Class F's mock training class should be facing E-grade Mad Dogs."
"Um... actually, that is...."
The student scratched his head and could not continue speaking.
"Speak quickly!"
"They faced A-grade Cerberuses instead of E-grade Mad Dogs."
"Class F students did?"
"No. The one who faced them was a single person."
"Surely...."
One student flashed through Medical Instructor Chun-sik's mind.
A student who had cleared an S-grade Dullahan alone, and who had seized overwhelming victory in a one-versus-many sparring match.
"It was Yohan."
"As expected, it was that student. Even so, this seems a bit much......."
The protective barrier guarding the training ground and control room of the Image Training Room could block even an A-grade or higher magic beast pouring attacks at maximum output.
"The thing is... there was not one magic beast, but three...."
"Haah. Facing one A-grade requires deploying Class A students, and he faced three of them?"
"I cannot believe it either, but it is true."
"You need to say something that makes sense. What was Instructor Jong-pal doing all that time?"
The student continued watching Chun-sik's expression.
"I do not know exactly, but he was angry and operating the control room's equipment."
"Of course, one must operate the equipment at first!"
"The thing is... he kept operating it during the training as well. Unlike during our training...."
Chun-sik could not hide his puzzled expression at the unbelievable news that kept coming.
‘What? A person directly controlling A-grade Cerberuses made it end up like this? What did Instructor Jong-pal do against a student?’
Unable to reach the conclusion that Yohan had destroyed the Image Training Room, he blamed Jong-pal.
"So Instructor Jong-pal, for whatever reason, controlled the Cerberuses and made things like this, is that right?"
"Um, Instructor. Actually, the person who made it like this is someone else."
"Who?"
"Yohan."
"You keep saying Yohan, Yohan, but I need to meet Instructor Jong-pal and speak with him. And how many injured are there? In this state, there must be quite a few injured!"
The Class F student hesitated.
"...The only injured person is Instructor Jong-pal."
"Pardon?"
Instructor Chun-sik hastened his steps where the student led him.
Inside the control room, Instructor Jong-pal had fainted, and a large amount of blood was flowing from his abdomen.
"Move Instructor Jong-pal to the infirmary immediately! Now!"
***
That night.
In order to flee from the Hangeom Family, Jong-pal secretly slipped out of the infirmary and dragged his injured body, limping toward his dormitory.
Because his wound had not yet healed, the bleeding from his abdomen had not stopped.
Even so, Jong-pal had no time to care about that.
If he did not leave Pluton now and leave South Korea, he would be caught by the Hangeom Family.
Arriving at the instructors' dormitory, Jong-pal packed his belongings.
"Hangeom Family, you filthy bastards!"
The more he shouted, the more the wound Yohan had given him throbbed.
Even after he barely finished packing, he had no time to rest.
"What branch line?! He was worse than the direct line!"
No matter how he thought about it, Jong-pal could only believe that he had been played by the Hangeom Family, given that Yohan was no ordinary student.
"How dare you use me as a disposable piece?"
Without borrowing anyone's power, he would enter the Hunter Association, and he would climb to a place where no one could look down on him.
Resolving himself that way, he packed his belongings with a body that was difficult even to move.
‘First, I need to run. I will heal my mana heart and return.’
With one hand, Jong-pal leaned on his cane, and with the other, he carried his bag as he moved.
After leaving the instructors' dormitory, Jong-pal looked around.
There was no one.
After confirming that no one was there, Jong-pal limped all the way toward Pluton's entrance.
At that moment, a chilling voice reached Jong-pal's ears.
"Where are you going, Park Jong-pal?"
When Jong-pal turned around, Yohan was standing there.
"Yohan! You bastard!"
"I should have executed you in the Image Training Room, but there were too many people watching, so I could not."
Yohan took out his Ego Weapon, Yeongcheol.
At that, Jong-pal realized that Yohan was truly trying to kill him.
Jong-pal took a chess piece out of his briefcase.
Then he placed the bag on the ground and gripped a Pawn in his hand.
‘If I use mana while my mana heart is damaged, I might die, but....’
Jong-pal bit his lip.
Then he scattered the Pawns he was holding across the ground.
Mana flowed from Jong-pal's body and entered the Pawns.
He coughed up blood and clutched his heart.
‘To think summoning mere Pawns places this much strain on me!’
The Pawns dropped on the ground became figures of knights, then held swords and aimed them at Yohan.
"You think you can face me with toys like that?"
"Toys? You looked at the power I held as someone who had been in the Hunter Association and as a Pluton instructor, and called them toys?"
"I can see your limits at a glance."
"Even you are looking down on me!"
While conversing with Jong-pal, Yohan began analyzing him.
‘A mage who uses summoning magic. The genre is chess. Judging by the fact that he coughed blood after summoning Pawns... it looks like his mana heart has collapsed.’
After finishing his analysis, Yohan shook his sword toward the ground.
‘An army of Pawns without the mage Queen is no different from ordinary knights. In other words, I am dealing with ordinary people.’
Yohan lowered his head slightly and raised his eyes.
When his killing intent reached Jong-pal, Jong-pal urgently shouted.
"Attack!"
With the loud ringing of iron clashing, the knights that were Pawns charged at Yohan with their swords.
The knights' swordsmanship was like that of the medieval era.
Yohan, who had faced countless forms of swordsmanship, could avoid it even with his eyes closed.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Yohan avoided the knights' attacks by a hair's breadth.
Then he precisely aimed for the knights' cores and stabbed in his Ego Weapon.
Seeing that, Jong-pal panicked and spoke.
"How do you... know the locations of the cores?"
"I have a lot of experience."
The trick was the same as when he had fought magic beasts in the Image Training Room.
Yohan had fought countless battles against this kind of summoner.
Necromancers who pushed forward with human-wave tactics, Contractors who summoned knights from myths and legends.
The summoned beasts summoned by such people continued moving endlessly until their cores were destroyed.
Even if they suffered damage that would have been fatal to humans.
That did not mean all cores were located in the same place.
However, just as living creatures had instincts, summoned beasts had instincts as well.
That instinct revealed the location of the core, so Yohan could grasp it by watching the summoned beast's movements.
"My... Pawns...."
Jong-pal's eight Pawns all turned to ash and disappeared after Yohan's eight slashes.
At that, Jong-pal took out Knights and Rooks and summoned them.
The horse-shaped Knights became cavalrymen, and the castle-shaped Rooks became large shield soldiers.
At that, Jong-pal clutched his heart even harder and dropped to one knee where he stood.
‘Mana overload is starting. I need to end this quickly.’
When the cavalryman's horse snorted and charged in, Yohan turned his Ego Weapon into a spear.
Then he thrust it precisely into the cavalryman's core.
One cavalryman turned to ash and disappeared.
The remaining cavalryman aimed for Yohan, who was holding the spear.
Yohan jumped in place, turned the spear into a sword, and cut horizontally.
Even the remaining cavalryman turned to ash and vanished.
"Urgh. Rooks, protect me!"
Following Jong-pal's command, the shield soldiers surrounded him.
Then he took out the Queen.
‘This is my final move.’
Jong-pal threw the Queen beyond the shield soldiers.
Then he poured all his remaining mana into it.
"Kghk!"
Blood began pouring from every hole in Jong-pal's body.
His mana flowed backward, and his mana heart was damaged beyond repair.
The Queen, after consuming mana, took the form of a queen.
The queen, wearing a long cloak and holding a staff, looked at Jong-pal and spoke.
"My King, the fact that you have summoned me... means you have staked your life on this battlefield?"
"Yes. Kill that bastard before my eyes!"
"If I display my ability, the King's mana will...."
"I do not care! Proceed!"
A single tear fell from the Queen's eyes.
Then light shone from her staff.
Three magic circles overlapped and were drawn in front of the staff.
A single beam of laser was fired from the end of the staff.
WHIRR.
The laser burned and scraped across the ground as it headed toward Yohan.
An attack thinner than a blade yet faster than the speed of a sword.
That thing, which burned and cut through everything with sheer power, was a laser.
When Yohan dodged it easily, everything in the path the laser had passed through had been cleanly severed.
"Laser. A Third Circle spell with high power, but one that must aim at the target along a precise trajectory. If I am the target, I can avoid it just by turning my body."
"Impossible...."
Jong-pal fell into despair at the fact that even though his Queen had used her sure-kill move, she could not inflict a single wound on Yohan.
Yohan changed his Ego Weapon, which had been in the shape of a sword, into a dagger.
He threw the dagger that swallowed the moonlight in pitch black toward the Queen.
SQUELCH.
The dagger lodged in the core in the Queen's heart.
"Ah, my King...."
Leaving those words behind, the Queen turned to ash and disappeared.
As if Jong-pal had no mana remaining at all, he could not even maintain the shield soldiers protecting him.
The shield soldiers disappeared into smoke.
And so only Yohan and Jong-pal remained.
"Do you know what caused your defeat?"
"If I knew something like that, I would have killed you long ago!"
Looking at Jong-pal, who now coughed blood even as he spoke, Yohan said,
"If you had summoned all your chess pieces at the same time and attacked, you might have had a chance of victory. About one percent."
"Even if I had done that, only one percent...."
Jong-pal in his prime had used every chess piece, just as Yohan had said.
But now, he had to operate with his mana heart destroyed, so he could not.
"Goodbye, Park Jong-pal."
"Damn it.... Do you know how much I have suffered because of you...?!"
"Even at the end, you are noisy like a dog bastard in heat."
"Yohan! If only you had not existed, my life would never have...!"
"Shut up for a bit."
Yohan took out Yeongcheol, turned it into cloth, and blocked Jong-pal's mouth.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
"Now it is finally a little quiet."
Then Yohan crouched and checked his device.
< Name: Yohan
Age: 17
Vitality: 25
Mana: 10
Endurance: 25
Strength: 25 >
"I cannot get a feel for how I am supposed to use Predation, but... is this how?"
Yohan extended his left hand forward as his instincts commanded.
"Predation."
As Yohan called out his Unique Ability, Predation, he clenched his left hand.
Yohan's shadow rippled, then transformed into a single wolf.
"Is this the true form of Predation?"
Facing the approaching death, Jong-pal tried to keep shouting, but he was blocked by the shadow cloth covering his mouth.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Yohan looked once at the shadow wolf with red eyes, then looked at Jong-pal.
"Devour him."
Following Yohan's will, the shadow wolf charged at Jong-pal and bit the nape of his neck.
"Mmph...."
Jong-pal's body, bitten and torn apart by the wolf, was digested into shadow.
-Predation complete. Absorbing 1% of the corresponding nutrients.
< Name: Yohan
Age: 17
Vitality: 26
Mana: 11
Endurance: 26
Strength: 26 >
Yohan checked his device.
"They all went up by one overall."
Just as Yohan was about to shut off the device, new text appeared.
-Predation ability has grown: Absorbs 2% of consumed nutrients.
As he had thought, the power of Predation was not that of F-rank.
It was a cheat-like ability that granted stats when devouring people, and at the same time, a Unique Ability that grew together with its user.
‘If I surpass my prime with this ability... if I create a force here, revenge? It will be more than possible.’