Reader Mage 156-Caution Is Advised

Sangook slamd into rlin. The two of them grunted as they fell on the ground, rolling away from Dr. Eleanor in a tumble of embarrassnt.

“rlin!” Hakyun called out for what was the fifth ti now. “Are you okay?”

It was getting stupid.

Sangook jumped to his knees, spat out a mouthful of sand, and turned to rlin. “Stay out of my way!” he roared.

rlin shot him a glare. It didn’t hurt, it was just annoying. “I was going around her. I told you to attack from the left!”

“You don’t get to tell what to do!”

rlin’s face squeezed, disgusted. “What in the world is wrong with you? Are you mad? Is this what we’re going to keep doing? In a tournant? In front of thousands of viewers?”

“You know,” Dr. Eleanor chid in from where she was standing, a hand on her waist, smiling despite being inevitably bored. “He’s kinda right.”

“Can it!” Sangook sneered.

She was yet to be troubled by them to use even a single spell. Her Grimoire was floating overhead, opened to its first page, and practically useless. rlin and Sangook making a fool of themselves for almost a minute now was enough defense for her, as well as entertainnt. And Hakyun was too confused to know what to do, because rlin had had a plan.

“Like hell I’m going to listen to what you have to say. Who the fuck gave you the mantle of leader here?” Sangook growled, rising to his feet and turning Dr. Eleanor’s way once again. “I’ll be fighting my own way, so stay away or I won’t have the decency of cancelling my spell when you bump into next ti and you’ll freeze to death, Deficient Mage.”

For the first ti in what felt like ages, being called a Deficient Mage felt like a slur to rlin once again.

He clenched his chin, rose to his feet, and thought about socking Sangook in the face. But that would do nothing but turn the tide totally away from them. What he needed now was to find a way for them to pose even a bit of a problem to Dr. Eleanor and see if they could manage to steal the key. Which was turning out to be a much taller mountain to climb than was initially suggested.

If only the plonker would listen to a word he said.

rlin sighed and turned to Hakyun; the boy shrugged as if to say: I told you so. And he had really told rlin so.

Maybe it had been crazy of rlin to even think about the possibility of the two of them and Choi Sangook, who hated them the most in the whole academy, working together. The problem was, he had not been thinking about bonding with the boy, but the best way for Prestige Academy to achieve victory. For him to achieve victory. Because he needed and wanted it. And even Choi Sangook’s stupidity wouldn’t prevent that.

Sangook raised his hand, oblivious to rlin’s thoughts, and his Grimoire flipped two pages ahead. The air chilled at his command, and the leaves of the trees flanking the path they were on rustled. Hakyun shivered, rlin stood, defiant against the abrupt change in the weather condition. His Resilience had broken into the sixtieth level during the past two weeks, so unless Choi Sangook summoned Iceland itself here, he doubted if he would ever be bothered by the cold from the boy’s spells again.

What was still the sa was being captured by the beauty of Sangook’s spells. In sharp contrast to the fiery, untamable temper of the lad, his magic was stunning. Like petals of flowers carried up in a whirl by the wind, two tornadoes of frozen flakes of ice appeared beside Dr. Eleanor, twirling both violently and elegantly—a funny coincidence, but one rlin had once been on the receiving end of.

Dr. Eleanor, on the other hand, was a stranger to Choi Sangook’s magic. And yet, she didn’t look one bit bothered.

As expected.

“Ice magic,” she mumbled. “It’s a common type of magic in the States. But it's very hard to control.” She narrowed her eyes on Choi Sangook whose teeth were rattling almost indistinctly. “Takes a toll on its user. Even more so than their opponent if care is not taken, so it’s advisable to cast only one spell at a ti. And yet, here you are, controlling two Ice Tornadoes. Brazen. You sure you won’t freeze before I do?”

rlin blinked. He hadn’t known that about Ice Magic. How co he had missed it despite having more than just brief altercations with Sangook now?

Choi Sangook, however, looked more annoyed than cold.

“Just shut up and fight .”

Dr. Eleanor shrugged. “If you say so.”

She popped another pill into her mouth, chewed, and in the next instant she vanished from in between the two Ice Tornadoes just before they slamd into themselves. Choi Sangook’s brows twitched. And then she appeared before him, like a thief in the night.

But if there was anything Choi Sangook was besides being hot-tempered, it was prepared.

He grinned at her, and from his feet spread out a thin layer of ice over the ground, destabilizing her as she slipped slightly. Then it stopped spreading forward and decided to climb up her feet instead, crawling up towards her torso like countless spiders.

“Where’s the key?” he asked as Dr. Eleanor tilted her head at the magic. “Answer , or I’ll turn you into a popsicle.”

Dr. Eleanor humd the heaved an exhale, her breath visible in the cold air.

“Complacent, “ she mumbled. “Did no one teach you not to relax in battle until you are certain you’ve won?”

Choi Sangook didn't get to reply as countless bone structures jutted out of Dr. Eleanor’s legs, ripping holes into her clothes but shattering the ice that kept her in place. They didn’t stop there, however, and made their way towards Sangook who was only a few steps away. He managed to regain his wits quickly and move out of the way, but he was not so lucky as to evade every strike. A few slashed him across his thigh, ankles, and calf. And while he was catching his breath, Dr. Eleanor turned her gaze towards his Grimpoire hovering in the sky, directing her palm at it. Another bone spike structure grew from her hand; a second later, it was shooting towards the ancient-looking book. Just before it hit, the Gtrimoire shifted out of the way, racing back into Sangook’s hand, and the bone structure missed.

It seed he had learnt sothing from fighting with rlin after all.

“Well, I guess I’ll give you points for that,” Dr. Eleanor said with a smile as she turned back to Sangook, the bone structures she had produced coming back to her and returning to her body. She popped another pill and swallowed it, then turned towards rlin and Hakyun who were both watching like they were rely audiences. “What? Are you both just going to stand there? Co on. Fight for the key. What if your other party fails?”

They won’t. rlin was certain of that. Nora would never live with herself if they did. But that was no incentive for them to fail here either. However, he was not watching just because he wanted to, it was because he knew trying to team up with Sangook was pointless.

He had a different plan.

“Good. Co on. Let see what you have, rlin Tyrrell. I’m curious,” Dr. Eleanor walked forward, past Sangook who was down on one knee still feeling the pain from his sustained injuries, and focused on rlin.

But she had gotten things wrong.

“Are we going to fight her now?” Hakyun asked, ready as he’d been from the start.

“No,” rlin whispered. “I have another plan. Sangook will do that for us.”

“Hold on!” Sangook voiced just before Dr. Eleanor could completely throw him to the background. “I’m not done yet.”

As expected.

“Tend to your wounds, kid,” she said. “You’re bleeding. This isn’t a life or death battle.”

That was where she was mistaken. rlin had heard the boy’s conversation with his father, and it was technically a life or death battle for him.

Sangook gritted his teeth and channeled mana. His Grimoire flipped back to its first page, and imdiately ice flakes blood over his wounds, forming thin frozen layers over the cuts.

He stood up.

“See? I’m perfectly fine.”

Dr. Eleanor sighed and turned around to face Sangook, acknowledging his zeal to continue. And that was rlin’s cue. He whispered his plan to Hakyun, and imdiately dashed into the forest to the side. Dr. Eleanor, noticing the movent, was forced to turn her head slightly, which was sothing of a blessing to Sangook.

“You should focus on the more important Mage here,” the boy muttered smugly, and Dr. Eleanor froze again. She shattered the ice keeping her bound with even less worry than the last ti, and she and Sangook fell into what was a one-sided fight that was in her favor.

rlin didn’t let himself be derailed. He bounded past trees, making sure not to get too farther than thirty steps from Dr. Eleanor’s location, until he found the perfect hiding spot. As soon as his movents stopped, Hakyun’s Grimoire left his hands and flipped open. Chunks of rocks were pried from the ground, rging together until they ford a boulder around rlin with a gap large enough for him to see, and his mana to directly connect with Dr. Eleanor. He would have preferred to be fully concealed, but his Intelligence was still only up to Level thirty-seven—a lot more than what he had started with, but not yet enough to take him to the big stage. Basically, he still needed his opponent to be in his field of vision for his ability to work.

He wasted no ti going ahead with his plan.

rlin activated Reader Mage, and across his view appeared details of the most recent spell Dr. Eleanor was casting, enabling her to blur out of Sangook’s view without even the slightest bit of worry.

[Perk: Reader Mage Activated]

[Analyzing spell…]

[Analysis complete]

[Spell: Copper Conduit

Category: Advanced, Tier II.

Spell Wielder: A-Class Mage

Spell Description: A spell ford by increasing tallic ion concentration in the body through mobilizing copper ions, enhancing nerve conductivity along neural pathways to boost reaction ti and reflexes.]

[Deconstructing Process: The mage uses a mana sheathe to stabilize the process. Create a dent in the sheathe, which will cause the process to collapse and render the spell useless due to incompletion. However, this is a delicate task. Not only will you be subject to adverse effects as a ans of taking on the magic of a Mage far beyond your capabilities, there is also the risk of impacting them with migraines if the deconstruction is not done delicately. Caution is advised.]

[Deconstruct?]

[Yes?]/[No?]

rlin froze, his brows pulling in.

Dr. Eleanor was a tal Mage?