“Stop.”
Just as I was about to step onto the field, Professor Pyuteori raised a hand in a firm gesture.
“The human summon will stand down. Send out the summon on your shoulder instead.”
“Pardon? But…”
Yustia’s eyes wavered in bewilderment.
Professor Pyuteori stared at us from beyond the deep-blue wall of water, his hands clasped behind his back.
“I know. Rumors have already spread far and wide about the overwhelming physical strength your human summon possesses.”
The professor’s gaze shifted to me, then soon moved back to Yustia.
“But Lady Rosenhart. You are mistaken about the true meaning of a battle. It is easy to rely on overwhelming power to secure victory right now. But a true summoner must know how to overturn the board even with her weakest card.”
His voice settled heavily over the entire field.
“The other students are constantly running up against their limits with their summons, striving to grow. But you are relying on that human summon’s overwhelming physical ability, and instead of facing your own shortcomings, you are tailoring your tactics around his strength. That is not true growth.”
Professor Pyuteori’s criticism cut deep.
Yustia bit her lip and lowered her head.
Because she, too, must have felt it somewhere in her heart.
My brute physical strength was certainly a powerful weapon, but at the same time, it was a double-edged sword that hindered her from leaping to a deeper level as a mage.
“Yes, Yustia. The professor is right.”
I turned my head toward Yustia.
“What? Mr. Taesan… Whisper is only an intermediate summon…”
“The other students are training and thinking every day to earn badges with nothing more than intermediate summons too. The variable that is my physical strength will eventually reach its limit. If only to prepare for that time, you need to push your own ability to control mana to its limits.”
At my words, Yustia’s eyes trembled faintly.
Professor Pyuteori nodded with a faint smile.
“A summon who is not merely strong, but knows how to worry about his partner’s future. You have quite an excellent summon, Lady Rosenhart.”
At the professor’s gesture, the particles of the water wall drifting through the air sharpened further.
“Now then, let us see how you will break through my solid water wall using only that intermediate summon of yours and support magic.”
“I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Yustia let out a short sigh, then slowly nodded.
The Wind Whisper, which had been curled up small on her shoulder, followed her gesture and fluttered uneasily onto the field.
—Boo…
Whisper let out a small, unconfident cry, and when it faced Professor Pyuteori’s deep-blue water wall, its body trembled faintly.
Before the overwhelming density of water-attribute energy filling the air, the little wind summon looked far too pitiful.
“Wait a moment, Whisper.”
Yustia narrowed her brow and rapidly began to think.
Acceleration and Wind Shield, which Whisper had used during the last practice battle.
With her support magic added in, Whisper’s wind was by no means something that could be ignored.
But the water wall Professor Pyuteori had unfolded before them was different from the level of its density alone.
With only basic acceleration buffs or defensive magic, it would be difficult to leave even a scratch on that solid barrier of mana.
‘How should I break through?’
A faint ripple of mana began to stir at Yustia’s fingertips.
She looked back and forth between Whisper’s small body and Professor Pyuteori’s enormous water wall, sinking into thought as she struggled to find her own answer.
“Are you ready?”
At Professor Pyuteori’s low question, a portion of the water wall encircling him separated like droplets and began drifting in the air.
They were heavy yet sharp water-attribute bullets.
“Here we go! Acceleration!”
At Yustia’s shout, a swift current of air wrapped around Whisper’s body.
—Boooo!
Whisper quickly sliced through the air and flew upward, but when Professor Pyuteori flicked his finger, the water droplets waiting in the air shot out at a fierce speed.
Tututut—!
“Whisper, to the right!”
At Yustia’s urgent command, Whisper barely managed to twist its body.
One of the passing water droplets struck the ground and gouged out a small pit.
Even though it was obvious Professor Pyuteori was holding back and adjusting the power appropriately, their speed and trajectories were persistent enough to be difficult for Whisper to handle.
“If you are too busy dodging with only that much, you will collapse from exhaustion before you even reach my barrier.”
With a single gesture from the professor, the surface of the water wall rippled. This time, several streams of water sliced through the air like snakes, beginning to cut off Whisper’s escape routes.
A deep anxiety spread across Yustia’s face.
“It seems you still haven’t properly grasped your summon’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Professor Pyuteori clicked his tongue softly and waved his hand.
With that light gesture, the particles of the water wall drifting in the air gathered together like a great wave and crashed down on the Wind Whisper.
“Whisper!”
Yustia cried out urgently, but Whisper, swept up in the spray of water with its overwhelming mass, tumbled helplessly across the ground.
In the place where the wave had passed, only Whisper’s pitiful figure remained, floundering while soaked through with water.
“We shall end it here.”
The professor lightly flicked his finger and withdrew the water wall he had deployed over the field.
The fiercely surging aura of mana calmed and scattered as if it had all been a lie.
“You were only preoccupied with increasing Whisper’s speed using support magic. But this one’s true strength lies in its flexibility—reading the grain of the wind and slipping through narrow gaps. If you intended to break through my water wall with only strength and speed, it was a losing battle from the start.”
Professor Pyuteori offered weighty advice to Yustia, who had sunk to the ground.
“That special human summon you possess is certainly an enormous variable. But if you become intoxicated by that and lose the delicate touch inherent to a summoner, your growth will stop there. I hope you come back a little more improved next time.”
“Wait…”
Yustia cautiously spoke as she stroked the waterlogged Whisper.
“Could I perhaps challenge you again right away?”
What filled her eyes was not despair, but a clear stubbornness.
Professor Pyuteori looked down at Yustia with interest, his hands clasped behind his back.
“An immediate rechallenge is not allowed in principle. However…”
The professor’s gaze slowly moved toward me.
“If it is the two-on-two tag match you mentioned, then it may be worth considering.”
I lightly loosened my body and stepped onto the field.
“Hmm…”
Professor Pyuteori stroked his chin as he observed each and every one of my movements.
“It is an honor to be able to directly battle the famous human summon from another world. As the rumors say, I cannot sense even a handful of mana from you, but the energy of your body is rather sharp.”
“The honor is mine.”
I replied calmly and faced Professor Pyuteori.
A faint smile spread across the professor’s lips.
“Very well. I never expected I would one day have a battle while conversing directly like this with a summon rather than a summoner, but this too can become part of education.”
At the professor’s gesture, the mana that had scattered into the air gathered once again, beginning to take the form of a water wall far larger and denser than before.
“I’ll go first.”
I kicked off the ground hard and charged toward the water wall.
Closing the distance in an instant, I twisted my waist wide and thrust out my fist.
Kwaaaang—!
Along with a thunderous roar, a heavy impact traveled through my fingertips.
But the water wall swallowed the destructive force of my fist whole, like a vast swamp.
Only the surface my fist touched rippled; beyond the barrier, the professor was watching me with a calm expression.
It was the same heavy sense of helplessness I had felt during the mock battle with Evan.
“Excellent destructive power, but water is specialized in dispersing physical impact. With simple blows, you will not even be able to scratch it.”
No sooner had the professor finished speaking than the water wall writhed like a snake and counterattacked.
A heavy stream of water struck my abdomen with ferocious force.
“Urgh…”
At the pressure that knocked the breath out of me, my body was helplessly pushed backward.
I barely managed to hold my ground while leaving faint marks on the floor, but the mass of the water wall was beyond imagination.
“Mr. Taesan!”
Yustia’s urgent cry reached me, but I shook my head.
If physical blows did not work, then I had no choice but to use the same method as I had with Evan.
I clenched my fist tightly and charged toward the water wall once again.
But this time, I aimed not at the water wall itself, but at the empty air just in front of it.
Gathering strength throughout my entire body, I struck the atmosphere with force.
Kwagagagang—!
A powerful shockwave tore through the air and slammed into the water wall.
Water and air collided violently, unleashing a tremendous rupturing sound.
Slosh—!
The form of the solidified water wall warped, and the professor’s brow narrowed.
The aftermath of the shockwave had disrupted the cohesion within the water wall.
“To think you would strike empty air and create a shockwave—what truly monstrous strength. Splendid. I did not expect you to neutralize my Aqua Slime so quickly.”
Professor Pyuteori applauded as he recalled the slime that had collapsed onto the ground.
His eyes held an even deeper interest than before.
“You broke through the limits of physical strength with the variable of a shockwave, and the spirit mage seized that opening with precise timing. The coordination between you two is certainly not bad. However…”
Blue mana began to surge once more at the professor’s fingertips.
This time, the speed at which the moisture in the air condensed was incomparably faster and more ferocious than before.
“I wonder how you will fare against this. Come forth, Undine.”
At the professor’s cry, the water droplets in the air took on a human shape and gathered together, until an Undine, beautiful yet radiating a chilling aura, revealed herself.