[Novel] The Mirror [Chapter 4 (2/4)]

Myungwoo's feeling said that centaurs have earth as their magic element so he should choose more air guardians as their opponent.

"Minseong and Minjoon," he said while pointing at two of them before walking around again.

The weapon must be opposite too, if he has no choice of the opposite element. Swords and spears are easily to be attacked with long range weapons such as bow, chain or magic stick; while bow might be easily to be attacked with the other short or medium range weapon such as trident, ax, spear, morning star or sword. 

He will be the 6th guardian, he needs to choose 3 more. And he shouldn't choose an earth guardian if he can. Minseong and him are using an ax, while Minjoon is using a sword. He can just have a one on one battle with Crugab while Minseong and Minjoon attack the centaurs with a bow, so now he only needs to find 3 of his friends who are using long or medium range weapons who are not an earth guardian. 

"Daesun, Minsook and Bonhwa, and me."

He can't choose Princess Sungmi, she is an Earth Guardian, and he chose to let Kichul out of this sparring.

"Not a bad choice at all," Crugab said as he stepped forward with the 5 other centaurs he chose.

"Let's go Guardians," said Myungwoo while smiling as he prepared his ax.

Beside him, Minseong is preparing his ax, Minjoon is preparing his sword, Daesun is preparing his bow, Minsook is preparing his magic staff and Bonhwa is preparing his trident. Sungmi is sitting beside Kichul, then she waves her morning star to create a big bubble around them.

"Each of you has 100 life points and you'll die if your life points are finished. The battle will be in 5 rounds and the winner is the group which has the highest total life points. Your wound will be healed after the training battle like usual. You can use your ability in the battle. If one of your opponents dies, you can help your other team member. Now get into your position."

"Minseong and Minjoon, you'll attack the bow owners; Daesun you'll attack the hippocentaur with spear - his body is big, he probably not too fast; Minsook will attack the female hippocentaur; Bonhwa will attack the onocentaur, and I'll fight Crugab."

"Let's win this," said Minseong while giggling happily.

"Suddenly I got curious," said Kichul, "Princess, are all the guardians male?"

"No," answered Sungmi while laughing, "there is one female guardian and she is a very fierce one. And you'll have some helpful warriors - male and female. It's about time they will join us."

"I can't wait to meet them all."

Just like in video game (all trainings look like this), on everyone's head, they can see two transparent bars: the red bar is life bar while the blue bar is the energy bar (they can see their own bars too when they blink - it will appear in front of their eyes - and blink again to remove it). Then there is the sound of horns, it's the sign that the battle is starting. Crugab and Myungwoo charged towards each other at the same time - Crugab is slightly faster - Myungwoo missed his attack - and Crugab's sword hit Myungwoo's upper left arm. Myungwoo rolled on the sand as he held on to his bleeding wound. Everyone can see Myungwoo's life bar decreased by 22 - 78 remaining.

"That's quite a big hit!" shout Kichul.

"That's still nothing for Crugab's level. If Myungwoo didn't dodge a little, that would cause a bigger wound," said Sungmi, "that's why he is the leader of the centaur clan in our country."

Then the other battle in the first round: Minseong successfully attacked his opponent and dodge from the arrow; Minjoon failed to attack his opponent and got wounded; both Daesun and his opponent got wounded - but Daesun's arrow hit bigger; Minsook and his opponent failed to hit each other; while Bonhwa hit his opponent with his trident in critical hit - 30 hit points!

"Bonhwa hyeong is improving a lot!" shout Kichul happily.

"I know. He did, and I'm so proud of him. He's the co-leader for a reason."

Then the second round is starting, it should be more fierce than the first round: Crugab hits Myungwoo again; Minseong is wounded this time, but he also hits his opponent; Minjoon this time successfully attack his opponent as he cooly use his teleport ability then hit his opponent by his back; Daesun, Minsook and Bonhwa got wounded - Daesun got an critical hit.

"I wonder why Myungwoo hyeong can't successfully attack Crugab yet."

"I think he is learning Crugab's movement... but he should find the weakness soon..." said Sungmi then bites her lower lip again, feeling nervous.

Here's the recap of third round: Myungwoo and Crugab are fast but Myungwoo hit each other but Myungwoo hit bigger (he hurt Crugab's horse body); Minseong did critical hit to his opponent (he shout so loud and his opponent shout louder in pain); Minjoon change himself into wolf form but it seems like his strategy doesn't work well as he got wounded - so he changed back; Daesun and Minsook got wounded but Bonhwa hit his opponent successfully. 

"If everything goes well, Minseong might win first," predicted Sungmi, still feeling so nervous.

"We still win for now," counts Kichul, "but with very narrow differences."

"They need to attack more."

And the fourth round's result: Myungwoo and Crugab hits each other again - but Myungwoo hits more on Crugab's leg; Minseong successfully wounded his opponent; Minjoon hit his opponent successfully; Daesun got wounded; Minsook hits his opponent with critical hit (he shout that he has seen his opponent's movement through prophecy); Bonhwa again proved himself that he is the co-leader with another critical hit.

"Oh, that was so cool, Bonhwa hyeong!" shout Kichul, "we made a big improvement!"

"We'll win, I guess," said Sungmi, finally letting out a long-relieved breath.

And the final round's result: this time Myungwoo hits Crugab without he get hurts; Minseong killed his opponent (followed by loud cheer from all the guardians); Minjoon is using all his energy that still left to do teleport and successfully attacking again - with critical hit; Daesun change his strategy by using his telekinetic power - he throw sand and rock to his opponent - which is successful; Minsook create a powerful magic which hit his opponent in critical hit; and Bonhwa killed his opponent too - lightly.

"We win right?" asked Myungwoo before he dropped on the ground, his body full of wounds.

"Hyeong!" scream Minseong who quickly runs to his hyeong's side.

But at that time, the bubble disappeared and everyone who was wounded or killed - got healed and resurrected again.

"We did it!" screamed Bonhwa, hugged Minsook and created a loud cheering sound.

"Myungwoo, you're a great guardian. You lead the other guardians well too," said Crugab, "your strategy was good."

"Thanks to Princess Sungmi who never tired of guiding us," said Myungwoo, "but do you really think we did well?"

"Myungwoo and Bonhwa really did well. But I'm sorry I'm still weak," said Daesun.

"No, you just need a little more training. I certainly remember you can shoot with three arrows at the same time," said Crugab while patting Daesun's shoulder.

"Thanks to spend time with the guardians, Crugab," said Sungmi, "we are so thankful."

"They will become greater guardians - even much greater than before."

A long gray-haired female hippocentaur nodded her head as she changed stare with Myungwoo.

"So I guess, the princess and guardians will sleep here before continuing with the adventure tomorrow?" asked Crugab.

"Right. It's getting late so... Minseong and Kichul need to go back to your world, right? I think you both can leave now," said Sungmi.

"We'll be back tomorrow evening," said Kichul.

"Take care, hyeongdeul!" Minseong waving his hand cheerfully.

Both of them touched their small mirror and they disappeared into the mirror. Myungwoo takes their mirror and keeps it inside Kichul's backpack - he chooses to take care of the backpack from now on. 

"So Princess," said Minsook, "we need to build a tent?"

"We need 3 tents. If you aren't tired, you can make one or two tents then we build the rest manually."

"I said I wanna learn how to build a tent from Minseong," said Minjoon sadly.

"Don't worry, let's make it with me," said Myungwoo as he opened the backpack and checked its contents.

"I can make two. Wait, give me a second," asked Minsook.

He kneels on the sand and as he opens his palm - a thick old-styled book appears there - that's his magic spell book. 

"Let me find the correct spell..."

"Anyone wanna find food from nature?" asked one of the female hippocentaur who has a cheerful voice.

"Let's go, hyeong?" asked Bonhwa to Daesun.

"Sure! I wanna join!"

The first night of their adventure going very well: Minsook created two tents successfully but he became so hungry after that - and he even sleeping while snoring, reported Daesun and Minjoon who sleep in one tent with him; 

Myungwoo and Minjoon build one tent together - which being used for Myungwoo and Bonhwa to sleep together; Princess Sungmi sleep in one tent alone; their dinner consist of half food from the mini market and some from nature - Daesun easily shoot down a lot of fruit and Plor - the name of the female cheerful hippocentaur - happily catch all of the fruits; and they have bonfire session before sleep that night. 

It's tiring, but it's worth it, thought Myungwoo, he learned a lot and made friends today.

"Like I said, nobody knows if I'm sleeping here."

Minseong raises up before stretching his body. The sofa in the music room in his school is the spot that Minseong chooses to sleep on. He knows this room well enough that nobody will use this room except on weekends, and it's always been unlocked too. 

"I'll just sleep here too tomorrow evening," said Minseong as he exited the room and closed the door.

"Kim Minseong-ssi?"

'OH GOD YOU STARTLED ME!"

Minseong just turned around and found an unfamiliar girl behind him. He doesn't even bother to ask how this girl knows his name.

"Oh I'm sorry! I was just from the library... but the school is about to close so I should leave soon and I accidentally saw you from the room..."

The girl looked quite nervous as she explained about what happened. He was staring at the name on her shirt: Kim Sunsook. This girl brings a lot of books with her.

"Oh, I was doing something inside... you know, music-related. I think I fall asleep there until this late... thank you for coming to tell me about the time," said Minseong while offering his hand, "let me help you to take some of the books."

Sunsook gives some of her books to Minseong's hand as they walk out of the school together.

It's 6 in the morning and the sun is still barely shining in the foggy morning. Myungwoo opened his eyes and felt so tired as if he didn't have enough time to recharge. He is sleeping in his sleep - not a very effective way to sleep, that's why they actually need a real sleep to fully recharged, just like princess Sungmi always tells them to do. He might just continue his sleep when he comes back to his world, after the others are awakened too.

It's true that there are so many centaurs guiding around the Southern line but it doesn't mean they're 100% safe so he chose to stay here with the others. Bonhwa is still having deep sleep as he walks out of the tent. 

"Wow!"

"Good morning, Myungwoo."

Myungwoo was amazed by the big old-styled ship in front of him. So once again he doesn't just see this kind of ship in a game but also for real now, in this mirror world. 

"Do you like to see the ship, Myungwoo?" asked Sungmi.

"Yes. It looks amazing. Is that our country's flag, princess?"

Myungwoo is pointing at the flag on the ship which consists of 6 rounded symbol - which he knows as a symbol of elements: black cloud at the top is the darkness element; brown mountain (earth element) and red fire in the next line; yellow ray (light element) and blue wave (water element) in the next line; and in the very bottom is blue air symbol. 

"That's right. If you wonder why we need such a big boat, it's because the waves are not a joke especially for the Southern ocean. We can't always ask Daesun to calm down the wave, right?"

"Daesun can do that?" asked Myungwoo while widening his eyes.

"Yes. You can even make the day turn into darkness if you want, Myungwoo, but it isn't necessary for now," Sungmi answered.

"But princess, will everyone be ok as we leave? Only Minsook and Daesun will accompany you. Me, Minseong and Kichul will come back tonight."

"Don't worry too much, Myungwoo. Do you think I'm a princess for only a title?"

"I know. But you shouldn't be too tired, princess."

"Don't worry, really. By the time you join us tonight, I think we have already arrived at the other side. Please sleep for a while before coming here again," said Sungmi, "we might need you to guide us tonight."

"Alright princess. Please stay safe, all of you."

"Sighs. I can't really focus on the ceremony."

Myungwoo looks from the mirror to Bonhwa, they meet in the restroom in the middle of the launching ceremony of the new game they launched. 

"Me too. I keep thinking about princess Sungmi, Daesun and Minsook," whispered Myungwoo as Bonhwa stood beside him to wash his hands.

"Daesun hyeong is great but he needs more training..."

"While Minsook is a bit careless..."

"But our princess is strong, right?"

"She is, but still... until what time I should stay? Can I go there now to just check on them?"

"You can leave at 6 but I don't think it's wise to go there now hyeong. You even haven't recharged enough."

"Okay, I will wait patiently..."

"Let's go back to the ceremony, hyeong."