# Chapter 20
While verbal provocation might be somewhat tolerated, using abilities to launch a fire attack just because a Guide couldn’t be caught was absurd, but they were already going mad.
However, the fireball he threw was laughable compared to Byun Tae-young’s flame.
Ha-min didn’t stand still to let it hit him.
Unless one could instantly raise the heat in the air and turn the surroundings into a sea of fire, the fireball needed to directly hit the target to cause harm, but he missed Ha-min every time.
Afterward, the flames would fly through the air and fizzle out, as expected.
“Uh…”
Ha-min seemed increasingly surprised at himself.
And he wasn’t the only one surprised—the other Espers’ shock was even greater than Ha-min’s.
“This is…”
The A-class Esper couldn’t step forward carelessly anymore.
Three mistakes had already accumulated.
The thought that they could catch him if they just made up their minds seemed to have vanished, and attacking Ha-min again in front of the other Espers was becoming increasingly burdensome.
Thanks to this, Ha-min could avoid their attacks much more easily.
Even if an A-class Esper attacked with full intention, Ha-min was at a level where he could easily avoid it.
So the rest of the small fry weren’t even an issue.
One person seemed to try to lift Ha-min with telekinesis, but Ha-min avoided that too.
By moving around to prevent them from using their abilities, he broke their concentration, and the Esper eventually gave up.
I had given him a few experiences of responding to my full-speed attacks, and he seemed to be recalling and applying those lessons.
Ha-min was a far better student than I had thought.
“Catch him! How can Espers not catch one Guide?!”
“But Ha-min is an S-class exclusive Guide, so shouldn’t we be careful?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at one Esper’s response.
They had been using all their strength and still couldn’t catch him, yet they were speaking as if that was the reason they hadn’t caught him.
Then Ha-min urgently shouted.
“Hey! I won’t tell anyone, so could you please attack me with your full strength?”
The Espers’ faces soured at those words.
“Really. I truly won’t say anything. And my Espers don’t care even if I tell them such things. So please keep attacking. Oh, wait a moment. Please wait a little.”
As Ha-min pulled up his loose pants above his knees, the Espers looked at him with bewilderment.
Rings were neatly stacked on Ha-min’s ankles, calves, above his knees, and up to his thighs.
The Espers seemed to sense what would happen once Ha-min removed all of them.
“Stop that guy! Attack him now!!”
The A-class Esper who shouted like that initiated an attack himself.
He must have been a body enhancement user as he ran toward Ha-min and swung his leg.
‘Insane!’
Now he was resorting to direct physical attacks.
Both the speed and power were laughable, but still, he was someone called an A-class Esper.
Ha-min took a few steps forward, fell, and burst into laughter.
That sight might have seemed bizarre to others, but I knew why Ha-min was acting that way.
His body felt unexpectedly light, as if floating.
Ha-min had to try hard to adjust after removing the heavy rings.
And once he adapted, he moved as if he were truly flying.
‘He definitely has talent. He was never an ordinary Guide.’
It was truly the blessing of the author-god.
As Ha-min took flight, the Espers let out bitter laughs.
Their expressions asked what on earth was happening.
They must have been regretting why they had picked a fight with Ha-min in the first place.
“Call the others! If we back down like this, it’s a disgrace to Espers!!”
When the A-class Esper shouted, one of the Espers behind tried to dash away.
“Should I catch him, Ha-min?”
“No. Let’s leave him for now. This is really fun. I want to see for myself, too. How far I can go. But am I allowed to attack?”
Ha-min was wondering if a Guide could hit an Esper.
If it was okay, he wanted to fight these people.
He asked me, but he seemed to want to hear the answer from the Espers as he looked at them.
But the Espers didn’t say he could.
If it had been earlier, they would have angrily said they’d teach him a lesson, but now they were probably too afraid to speak.
“I think you can hit them. Normally you couldn’t, but even if you hit them, I don’t think these people will talk. As long as no rumors spread, it’s fine. Espers won’t go around bragging about being hit by a Guide, so go ahead and try.”
“You’re really smart, Eunwoo.”
Ha-min quickly finished his admiration and threw punches and kicked legs at the Espers surrounding them.
They must have thought that no matter how much a Guide who couldn’t fight swung his fists, it wouldn’t amount to much.
It would have been better not to think that way from the beginning, but I couldn’t blame them.
They hadn’t had a proper chance to assess Ha-min’s skills and probably couldn’t have even imagined it.
There were good reasons for Ha-min becoming this way.
When I told him I’d feel my teaching was worthwhile if he could touch my arm even once within an hour, Ha-min made tremendous attempts to do so.
But there was no way for Ha-min to approach me as I enhanced my body and used martial arts to dodge.
It was an impossible task from the start, but Ha-min endlessly persisted, determined to succeed somehow.
He had continuously failed until now, but that time and those challenges weren’t in vain.
The results were now becoming apparent.
What Ha-min was showing now was evidence of the time he had invested.
A fierce punch flew, and a C-class Esper went flying.
Literally, he flew and fell.
Those who saw their fellow Esper get hit by Ha-min and collapse couldn’t close their gaping mouths.
“Wow…!”
Ha-min genuinely marveled at his own strength.
Just then, the sound of people running from a distance could be heard.
“Judging by the footsteps, there seem to be about twenty of them, Ha-min. Congratulations. You must be very excited.”
“Yes!”
Ha-min smiled as if he was looking forward to it.
The Espers wore blank expressions, wondering how this was happening.
In their minds, this was absolutely impossible.
The fight should have ended much earlier, with Ha-min collapsing before them, beaten to a pulp.
At first, they might have been hesitant to deal with Ha-min because of the S-class Espers, but now none of them seemed to be thinking that way.
If they could, they would have wanted to grab Ha-min immediately, breaking his limbs.
But they must have been burning with frustration because they simply lacked the skill to catch him.
Ha-min used this time effectively.
He fairly threw punches and swung his legs at the Espers surrounding him.
He attacked everyone equally so no one could complain about being hit by a fist while others were kicked.
Most collapsed, unable to get up, feeling as if their breath was cut off from being struck in the waist or back.
“Ha-min. You’re really good at this, aren’t you?”
“I know. I really am good, Eunwoo.”
Ha-min seemed surprised by his own talent.
And he had every right to be.
Even I was getting more and more surprised.
I knew Ha-min was exceptional, but to think he’d be this good…
He seemed to be continuously awakening new abilities as time passed.
Such people weren’t entirely unheard of.
I had seen a few such geniuses in the martial arts game world too.
People who gain insights during fights and grow stronger in battle.
In a game filled with heroes, there were many such characters.
But Ha-min was showing skills no less impressive than theirs and was continuing to grow stronger.
The Espers who appeared then were not a disaster for Ha-min but a gift.
The Espers, watching Ha-min run wild, probably couldn’t understand what was happening at all.
I couldn’t know what the Esper who went to fetch them had said, but I had my guesses.
They couldn’t have said that Espers were getting beaten up.
Not only would that have been embarrassing to admit, but how many people would have hurried over after hearing such a thing?
In this world of rampant individualism, would these Espers come running for someone else’s problem?
That didn’t make sense.
Perhaps they had said they caught Ha-min?
Judging by the smiles and expressions initially fixed on the faces of those approaching, it wasn’t hard to imagine.
But those smiles disappeared instantly.
“What’s that? What’s happening right now?”
“Ha-min is now… Ha-min is… No. From a Guide…”
The newly arrived Espers just mumbled such things to each other, finding the situation they were witnessing hard to believe.
While this was happening, they looked at each other as if wondering what they should do, watching Ha-min throw punches at the Espers.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
