Academy’s Villain Professor

Chapter 42: Villain Attack

“Sounds good!”

The man shouted, kicking off the ground.

With agility belying his size, he threw a punch at me.

I didn’t dodge or block, instead meeting his fist with my own.

Boom—!

Fist met fist, and a powerful shockwave reverberated through the space.

Pushed back, I flexed my hand.

That kind of strength?

Surprisingly, an augmentation type.

His bulky frame was proof he hadn’t slacked on training, even in extreme conditions.

Despite his casual attitude, he wasn’t someone to underestimate.

With trait suppressants and my output capped, I was at a disadvantage in a pure strength contest.

“Nice! I like it!”

Also pushed back, the man looked between the marks on the ground and me, grinning with satisfaction.

“To have this much raw power! This is worth fighting for!”

“Worth fighting, my ass.”

This cocky bastard.

If I were just out to kill him, I’d turn him into mincemeat in three seconds.

His short hair fluttering, the man charged again.

No need to play to his strengths.

I tilted my head to dodge, then spun, striking his temple with my heel.

Crack—!

He staggered but quickly straightened his head, grinning.

I clicked my tongue, annoyed.

Even though the hit landed cleanly, it lacked impact.

No, not even impact—there was no feel.

Shaking someone’s brain like that should’ve been too much for most augmentation-type awakenings, but he took it like it was nothing.

It felt like hitting a rock.

No, if it were a rock, it’d have shattered.

His durability was beyond that.

The man relentlessly swung his fists, pressuring me.

I dodged his punches by a hair’s breadth or pushed his elbows or shoulders just before they

connected, countering sharply.

But my attacks didn’t land significant blows.

He opened his palm, stopping it in front of my face to block my vision, aiming for my jaw with his other fist.

But I moved first, hooking my foot between his legs to disrupt his balance.

His attack missed, and in that opening, I stomped on his knee joint.

Crack—!

Once on each knee, twice on his elbow, three times each on his temple and solar plexus.

In just three seconds, we exchanged dozens of blows, with me landing several critical hits.

The man collapsed on the ground, got back up.

“Fast! Precise! Strong! And ruthless enough to target vitals perfectly! But I’m not going down that easily!”

He charged again.

I fell into thought.

What’s his trait?

Shock absorption?

Nullification?

For me, needing to subdue him quickly and extract info, this unknown trait was a pain to deal with.

Meanwhile, the man, irritably swinging his fists, shouted.

“You’re damn hard to hit!”

No matter how much he enjoyed fighting, getting one-sidedly pummeled was starting to piss him off.

He reached to grab my shoulder—or tried to.

Instead, I slipped inside his guard, grabbing his forearm.

Using his arm as leverage, I launched myself into the air, slamming my knee into his temple.

Boom—!

Our strength was nearly equal, but the gap in skill was clear.

“To think a master like this exists in this day and age. Too good to just be teaching kids!”

He wanted a brutal, bloody brawl, not this one-sided beating.

The damage wasn’t piling up much, but it wasn’t exactly fun, either.

“At least take one hit!”

His impatience fueled his punches, leading to a small but fatal mistake.

A brief blind spot as he threw a punch forward—I didn’t miss it.

I blocked his wrist with the back of my hand, simultaneously reaching out with the other.

Fine, you’re tough. Let’s see if your eyes are as durable.

I aimed to gouge his eye—or tried to.

Crack—!

But my fist was blocked before it reached.

White horns sprouted from the back of his head, shielding his face like a helmet.

The long, rib-like horns tightly encased his face, leaving gaps barely wide enough for a finger.

Withdrawing my hand, I instantly grasped the nature of his trait.

“Bone, huh.”

“Yep! A glass of milk every morning makes this possible!”

“Bullshit.”

An augmentation type using bone.

That explained why my attacks did so little damage.

A bone shield beneath his skin absorbed the impact.

For his eyes, which couldn’t be shielded by bone, he protruded bone to act as a barrier.

Against strikes, he had an overwhelming advantage.

In a fight between high-level combatants, victory often hinged on tiny mistakes or habits.

But his bone shield more than covered those gaps.

A perfect ironclad armor integrated with his body.

I threw punches at his vitals multiple times, but each was blocked by bone.

The number of vitals I could target was limited.

A precise, perfect attack threading a needle’s eye.

But because it was so perfect, he could predict where it’d land.

The moment he sensed a gap, he guarded with bone before the attack even came.

Even if it didn’t, it didn’t matter.

I found the situation utterly infuriating.

Tough, fast, strong.

While augmentation types could be countered with the right match-up, he was a particularly bad fit for me right now.

“No mistakes, not even a small one. Perfect offense and defense! You’re the best! Let’s keep playing!”

The fight was dragging on endlessly.

My allowed output was already teetering on the edge of its limit.

If I could subdue him by pushing a bit further, I’d take the risk, but this guy wasn’t someone I could neutralize with moderate effort.

For the first time in this intense exchange, I stepped back, creating distance.

I relaxed my stance, placing a hand on my hip, and sighed deeply.

My face, wiped with one hand, was full of exhaustion.

“Ugh. This won’t do.”

“Giving up? Too soon!”

“Not giving up… Well, maybe it is giving up.”

I raised my head.

At the very least, I couldn’t easily subdue him in my current state.

Wanting everything was greedy.

I had to give up something.

“I’ll admit it. You’re strong. Right now, I can’t just neutralize you. I’ll give up on getting information.”

Normally, maybe, but I didn’t have that luxury now.

The communicator on my hip was buzzing incessantly.

The students were hammering the emergency call function on their watches.

It was supposed to ring once, but it kept going.

The man sneered.

“Right now, huh? What, you're gonna power up or something?”

“Nothing that dramatic. Just something simple.”

I stomped the ground hard.

Thud—!

“I’m setting aside a hero’s mindset.”

The ground shook, kicking up dust.

“Cheap trick!”

I let out a cryptic remark and melted into the dust.

“And acting like a villain.”

The switch from hero to villain was monumental.

My voice echoed through the dust.

“Augmentation, manipulation, emission, anomaly. Know what trumps all traits?”

“There you are!”

He turned toward the sound, but I was already gone.

My hand shot out from the dust, wrapping around his throat.

One hand choked him while the other grabbed his arm, twisting it back.

Simultaneously, I kicked the outside of his knee, bringing him down, and stomped hard on his calf to pin him.

Even with his body encased in bone, joints had to remain flexible for movement.

The sequence was so fluid and swift that he only realized he was caught after being forced to his knees and choked.

“Rear naked choke. Add a joint lock, and it’s even better.”

His trait seemed invincible in close combat, better countered from a distance, but the real solution was ultra-close combat.

The bone shield beneath his skin absorbed impacts, but under full pressure like this, it pressed against vital organs and blood vessels.

His face turned bright red as I compressed his carotid artery.

Crack—Crunch—

He struggled, but the color slowly drained from his face.

My voice in his ear was colder than ever, like a different person.

“You thought traits and physical training were everything. But neglecting combat skills, which every human has equally, leads to this.”

He sprouted bone from his back—a last-ditch move for when his rear was taken.

But it only scratched my skin.

In a few exchanges, I’d fully analyzed his bone trait.

Its attack power couldn’t pierce my defenses.

Focusing solely on defensive bone training had thrown off his balance, leading to his defeat.

“If I had your trait, I’d have balanced physical defense and trait-based offense. Maximizing strengths while ignoring weaknesses like this was your mistake. Or rather…”

I tightened my grip on his throat.

Crack—Crunch—

The sound was too dangerous for a human neck.

His body went limp.

“Your biggest mistake was meeting me.”

Releasing his arm, I checked the time.

The emergency communicator, buzzing wildly earlier, was now silent.

Either the situation was resolved, or they had no chance to press it.

I’d wasted a lot of time on this small fry.

I was about to leave but glanced down at him.

Promises should be kept.

I placed my foot on his elbow.

Crack! Crunch! Snap! Snap—!

With emotion-fueled follow-through, I pulled a handful of pills from my pocket.

I’d shattered his limbs, but he might have a regeneration trait.

I forced his mouth open and stuffed them in.

This would keep him from using his trait for hours, even if he woke up.

I turned, looking back at the path I’d come.

Better prepare for the worst.

I looked up the mountain instead of the way I’d come.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the beach I returned to had lost all its earlier peace.

I scanned the area.

Pink smoke hung thickly, and students were scattered, collapsed.

The transport helicopter was burning, having crashed, and an unfamiliar figure lay in front of it.

Probably one of the attackers.

Besides me, only four people stood on the beach.

Three unfamiliar men and women, and Da-yeon, bound in a bizarre restraint device.

Obviously, these were the culprits.

Seeing me emerge from the forest, they reacted differently.

The attackers were startled; Da-yeon was relieved.

Her mouth was gagged, but her eyes conveyed a torrent of emotions toward me.

“Barely…”

Grasping the situation, I spoke slowly.

“Looks like I wasn’t too late.”

A few minutes—no, seconds—later, and the outcome would’ve been different.

Prioritizing neutralization over information had prevented the worst-case scenario: a kidnapping.

Muttering, I stepped forward.

“No deaths or critical injuries.”

The students were all unconscious, with no visible major wounds.

Likely, they’d passed out from inhaling too much of the pink mist.

The villains’ target was Da-yeon alone; the others didn’t matter to them.

But that only applied to the students.

I stopped in front of Se-ah and So-hee, and collapsed on the ground.

So-hee had a broken arm and blood in her mouth.

Not even a combatant, yet she’d fought hard.

With a brief reflection, I shifted my gaze.

Se-ah was worse.

Minor cuts, a dangerous puncture wound, and significant bleeding.

Unlike So-hee, who was fully unconscious, Se-ah sensed my presence and opened one eye, grimacing.

Her voice trembled faintly.

“Sorry. I couldn’t protect them.”

“Yeah, looks like it. Some guardian, lying here comfortably while a student’s about to be kidnapped.”

My sarcasm twisted her face with anger.

But her anger wasn’t directed at me.

She was furious with herself.

The villains were strong, but she shouldn’t have gone down so helplessly.

Years of teaching in the academy, detached from real combat, had made her complacent.

A minor mistake, which never would’ve happened before, led to a critical injury.

She’d managed to crash the helicopter into one villain’s back, taking them down, but she’d failed to protect the students.

The pain of being broken, cut, and pierced didn’t register.

The reality of failing the students tore at her heart.

I knelt in front of her.

“You did well, though.”

I wiped the blood from her mouth and stuck a bandage from my pocket on her cheek.

Sorry, So-hee, I only had one.

I stood slowly.

“The rest…”

Turning, I faced the three villains.

“I’ll handle it.”

Until the moment I stood and turned, the villains couldn’t move a finger.

They weren’t fools.

Since I arrived, I've been full of openings.

As an enemy, they could’ve attacked from behind or retreated, having achieved their goal.

But their instincts, defying reason, wouldn’t allow any action.

A fleeting glance, natural steps, breathing, and every word carried an intent: move first, and you die.

Staring at them, I continued in a calm tone.

“Quite a dilemma.”

I stroked my chin.

“The guy who targeted the students—I crushed his limbs so he’d need a wheelchair for life. So, for you, who tried to kidnap a student and hurt my friends…”

My gaze was as emotionless as if I were looking at meat in a butcher shop.

“What should I do?”

The answer was already decided.

Tilting the hand on my chin, I pointed at them with my index finger.

“You have a family?”