The Support Ate it All-Chapter 544: Fortress (4)

Even now, the glowing hammers kept increasing in number.

Maybe they decided they couldn’t afford to give him any more time—because one of the Black Blade swordsmen struck first.

They shot forward at vicious speed and thrust their sword.

The others immediately reacted, matching their steps.

SHWEEEEEK!

Right as Oh Sehun was about to be sliced and pierced all over—

Oh Sehun’s figure vanished without a trace, then appeared in midair and dropped straight down.

KABOOOM!

One swordsman got crushed on the spot, and the surging shockwave threw everyone’s balance into chaos.

The moment Oh Sehun landed, he lunged like a beast at the next target and smashed their head.

He threw a hammer and dropped another one.

Then, with empty hands, he gathered light and formed a broad shield—swinging it into the incoming sword strike.

THUUUMP—!

A swordsman was forced back, unable to withstand the rebound.

That swordsman had a light shield bobbing along after them.

For an instant it flared blindingly—then exploded.

KABOOOM!

It was like a wolf had leapt into a flock of sheep.

They were all 2nd- and 3rd-years, and their PvP skill had to be upper-mid at worst, but they couldn’t handle even a single Oh Sehun. One after another, they fell.

His specs were impressive, sure—but the way he ran his Skills and Traits, and the control he had, were beyond student level.

A-rank is only a matter of time. He could probably aim for S-rank too.

As I had that thought, I tilted my body slightly to the side.

WHOOSH!

Mak Dae-ung’s greatsword brushed past by a hair.

I kept stepping, and calmly threw the question I’d asked earlier back at him.

“Still confident now?”

“You bastard...!”

Just a moment ago, he’d been swaggering on the back of numerical advantage. Now he’d suddenly been forced into a one-on-one.

Everyone else had peeled off to deal with Oh Sehun.

Even so, Mak Dae-ung kept charging in, relentlessly.

“You think I can’t catch one punk like you?”

“I don’t know. I can’t picture myself getting caught.”

“Then I’ll draw it for you!”

He surged his momentum and slashed again and again.

It was so fast it gave the illusion his body had split into multiple images.

It was an ultimate technique worthy of a top-tier 2nd-year—yet to my eyes, it didn’t impress.

Maybe it was because I’d just watched Oh Sehun.

No need to see more.

I slipped my body into the gaps between the storming blade strikes and pointed at Mak Dae-ung with an index finger frozen solid.

A thread of frigid energy shot out.

Mystic Sound Jade Demon Finger

Ice Shard Bomb

Chain Explosion

PAPAPOW!

Blue explosions burst in rapid succession, and Mak Dae-ung got coated in ice from head to toe.

The cold had penetrated along his meridians, and his movement slowed sharply.

Only then did he seem to realize something—his eyes widening.

“That finger technique... don’t tell me.”

I passed right by him.

There was no reason to answer, and helping Dang Gyu-young mattered more than bickering.

SHWEEK SHWEEK SHWEEK!

Dang Gyu-young was taking a coordinated attack from three Black Blade swordsmen.

It wasn’t a true emergency, but maybe because they couldn’t use their main shadow Skills, they weren’t gaining the upper hand easily either.

We needed to break the balance, so I sent a finger technique at one of them.

Even with the sudden ambush, the swordsman in black tilted their blade with practiced ease and blocked.

But the attempt at defense was meaningless—an ice explosion still went off.

POW!

Cold spread fast and dulled their movement, and the next instant Ham-Kkyu’s hammer detonated on their skull.

WHACK!

If it had been even at three versus one, now it was two versus two—the result after that was obvious.

We dropped the remaining two the same way, fast.

Dang Gyu-young casually flung the glowing hammer away.

“The feel’s not bad... but I think I’m still more of a ‘Split’ type.”

“That makes sense.”

I nodded and shifted my gaze back to Oh Sehun.

He was also at the finishing stage.

THUUUMP!

A swordsman got blasted away by a glowing shield, and a hammer that had been wandering nearby plunged down like a confirmation kill.

The rest were strewn around like trash, twitching and groaning.

Among them, the 2nd-year in black lay sprawled out and muttered,

“So this is how it ends. I thought I prepared thoroughly... but it seems we weren’t enough to covet the disciplinary committee club’s fortress.”

Oh Sehun smiled slightly and raised one arm.

Maybe he’d been hit by sword aura—his sleeve was torn away.

“You fought well. From now on, I’d appreciate it if you used that skill for something better.”

“......”

The 2nd-year didn’t answer. They slowly turned their head and looked at me.

“Inferno Fist. We’ll meet again.”

“Anytime.”

I answered as if it were nothing.

It wasn’t like we’d only tussled once or twice—of course we’d see each other again next year.

Then reports came in through the communicator.

—Ballista No.1 handled. We’ll take them all in.

—Temporary storage facility is secured too. Open the door.

I’d heard they were struggling because of a strong opponent on the Black Blade side, but once the Ballista support got cut off, they must’ve been subdued in the end.

What remained was Hwang Dam-bi and the Archery Club members, staring down at us blankly from the building rooftop.

They’d seen everything we just got reported—clear as day.

Even so, maybe out of pride, they kept the Ballista aimed this way.

An awkward smile touched Oh Sehun’s lips.

“It can’t be helped. If you really want to go to the end.”

He raised one hand.

The hammers that had still been floating around shot up all at once and fused into a single mass.

For a moment, the night sky brightened like midday—

FLASH!

What formed was a hammer the size of a small house.

If it dropped, it looked like it could collapse a building in one blow.

“.......”

Hwang Dam-bi and the members quietly folded up the Ballista.

*****

The next day.

The results of the 4th temporary storage facility infiltration spread across all of Dragon Slayer Academy.

An overwhelming victory for the disciplinary committee club.

They hadn’t let a single person enter the temporary storage facility, and not even one trivial forbidden item had been stolen.

Thanks to that, they recovered a huge portion of the prestige they’d lost from the previous failure.

The Black Blade faction and the Archery Club were the exact opposite.

They’d united sizable forces with plenty of skilled members, so a lot of people had expected them to put on a show.

But those expectations were rendered meaningless when they all got caught and it ended.

They’d completely lost face.

“The penalties won’t be a joke either, right?”

Dang Gyu-young spoke as we walked side by side.

The disciplinary committee club was keeping the details quiet, but with the Thieves’ Club president’s veteran instincts, Dang Gyu-young said they could guess.

“Demerit points and disciplinary action are the baseline. Then they’ll have to pay for everything—stuff that got smashed and broken, people who got hurt, items used. There’ll be club-level penalties too.”

“The Swordsmanship Club is going to feel wronged.”

If a single faction acted on its own and everyone took the loss.

Dang Gyu-young shrugged.

“Not like they’re blameless. They couldn’t keep their members in line. Besides... do those guys even listen when you talk?”

And then added that their own people didn’t ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) listen for shit either.

As someone who led a group too, it sounded like they genuinely related.

“Shwo-shwo is having a rough time to the end.”

“Yeah. They’re probably breathing fire by now. Might even be doing a sword dance.”

For some reason, I could picture an enraged raccoon bouncing in place.

One thing was certain: going forward, Black Blade’s influence inside the Swordsmanship Club would shrink drastically.

And with finals coming up, it would probably stay quiet for a while.

We kept walking while gossiping about Black Blade, and before we knew it, the meeting spot with the disciplinary committee club was right in front of us.

When we went inside, Gwak Seungjae and Oh Sehun—already waiting—spoke a line each.

“You’ve arrived.”

“Like I said before—good work.”

In a friendlier atmosphere than usual, Oh Sehun took out a black booklet and showed it.

“Now we should wrap up the deal, right?”

“Sure.”

Dang Gyu-young nodded readily.

The disciplinary committee club side was handing over the necromancer magic tome, and we were handing over the method to bypass the Van Wave.

If the operation had failed, we would’ve disclosed it as part of taking responsibility—but since it succeeded perfectly, we were resuming the deal.

“.......”

Dang Gyu-young exchanged a final look with me, and we nodded at the same time.

Then Dang Gyu-young set a box with a greenish sheen down on the table.

The [Cube of Life (B)] they’d taken back from Hwang Dam-bi because the rental period was over.

“This.”

“......!”

Maybe it was an item they hadn’t expected at all—because Gwak Seungjae’s flat expression twitched.

Oh Sehun’s narrow eyes curved with interest too, but they quickly smoothed their face and said,

“I’ll check it.”

“Do what you want.”

At Oh Sehun’s look, Gwak Seungjae pulled out a terminal that looked like a barcode scanner.

It was an item that played a similar role to the Van Wave—if it detected a forbidden item, it reacted with a red light.

They put the necromancer magic tome into the Cube of Life and activated the terminal—

HMMMM—

No reaction appeared.

They took the booklet out and ran it again, and only then did the red light seep in—which meant the terminal wasn’t broken.

The verification continued.

They tried inserting various forbidden items one after another, and even tried inserting multiple at once.

HMMMM—

The conclusion was simple: as long as it was placed inside the cube, the terminal didn’t function.

Oh Sehun stroked their chin, intrigued.

“Looks like Van Wave gets blocked by life-type energy.”

“Similar.”

“This feels like something we should pass up the chain. Can we borrow it?”

“Talk to the owner.”

Dang Gyu-young added that we’d borrowed it too, in the first place.

Gwak Seungjae asked to confirm.

“1st-year Park Nari, correct?”

“Yeah. That’s them.”

“We’ll contact them.”

But whether they could extend the rental period was unclear.

It wasn’t an item that got lent easily to begin with—and it had already been several days.

Beomi and Chaemi, the villa’s owners, were probably furious.

Could anyone really handle making them even angrier?

Not our problem.

The deal was only about providing the “method.”

How the disciplinary committee club and the academy negotiated with the Nature Club after that, how they handled the Cube of Life, how they modified Van Wave—all of that was for them to figure out.

Oh Sehun seemed to be thinking the same thing, because they handed the necromancer magic tome over to us.

“Thanks. We’ll handle the rest.”

“Yeah. Use it well.”

Dang Gyu-young replied with a satisfied look.

That meant the business was settled—for now.

But Gwak Seungjae still looked like they had something to say, staring at me.

“I’m curious. How did you figure out the connection between the cube and the Van Wave?”

“It was pure coincidence.”

It was a Hidden Piece we’d discovered that way in the first place.

But it didn’t seem like enough of an explanation.

“You were also the one who completed the Cube of Life the first time. You matched the 10x10x10 blueprint that was thought impossible. Did you know everything from the start?”

“It was just miscellaneous knowledge.”

“I’m not sure that level of information can be dismissed as mere miscellaneous knowledge... but this makes it even more certain.”

As Gwak Seungjae’s face hardened further, the atmosphere in the room grew heavier.

In that state, they opened their mouth like they were making a declaration.

“The reason I arranged this meeting is partly to finish the deal—but also because there’s something I absolutely need to say.”

“.......”

They stared straight at me.

“Kim Ho. Join the disciplinary committee club.”