The Unsurpassed Maiden

After explaining to her team members her plan, Mi Young wished them good luck before they separated from one another. Mi Young can only think of her members before she went to her destined direction.

The first thing about her plan was they needed to secure at least one flag. If one of them finds an enemy team with a flag, one should immediately send them a message by firing a Pyro technique through the sky which will serve as a signal to their other members. If they see it, they will have to immediately go in that direction to help their team member.

However, if one finds an enemy with the same roles as them, they will have to shoot a huge fireball in the sky to signal their team members that he or she needs support during their battle.

It may be a tricky and unsure plan but Mi Young believes that her team members will do well.

While she was carefully walking towards the North direction where she believes that one Hydro team is located, Mi Young tries to think about a possible way she can do in order for her team to secure a flag.

She remembered what the MC told them earlier backstage when everyone was still preparing.

"This is supposed to be announced at the end of the match to make it more thrilling to the viewers but the heads agreed upon telling it to you guys in advance to motivate everyone on the team to work harder." The MC says as he calls on every member from the ten winning teams. "I want you guys to know that the team who will secure a flag, not counting their own flag, at the end of the game will receive an award from the Ten Great Mages of our academy. Those who will have their flag snatched from them will suffer consequences. And the teams who will rank first, second, and third will also receive more bonuses from the academy."

 

This made a lot of the members agitated and excited at the same time. However, Mi Young was so engrossed with the thoughts of Se Heon that she didn't seem to take notice of everyone's aggressiveness around her.

Mi Young wants to punch herself for only remembering it now that they're already on the battlefield. She really needs to focus hard or else, she and her team will have to suffer great consequences and she doesn't want to disappoint them as their captain as well.

As she continued to venture further North, Mi Young couldn't help but feel like somebody's watching her every move. However, the girl ignored it thinking that it was just her overthinking side.

Mi Young was walking for almost two hours now and still, there's no sign of her teammates needing help or her encountering enemies, she wonders if it's a good sign or not.

Because of too much walking, the black haired girl decided to relax for a moment and continue her walk later. She was looking for a good resting spot when she heard water running. Immediately, her human instincts kicked in and she can instantly feel the dryness in her throat from the lack of water since earlier. Mi Young decided to rest near the river.

Just like she thought, there is indeed a river a couple of feet away from the tree she was about to rest at earlier. Mi Young walks towards the river in hurried strides, trying to get a taste of the water in front.

When she reached the river, the black haired girl immediately kneels down in order to use her hands as a scoop to drink the cold water from the river. As the water hit her throat, Mi Young immediately finds herself regaining much of her energy which went wasted because of her long walk earlier. Aside from that, the water calms her nerves as it reminds her of her hometown. After all, she is still a child from a Hydro family.

The black haired girl was about to get another scoop of the water when she realized that someone was watching her. However, it's from a place she wasn't expecting the most.

"Ah!" Mi Young yelps in surprise upon seeing a pair of eyes watching her from underneath the water. "What the actual hell?!"

Mi Young immediately backed away from the river just as the owner of the eyes emerged from the surface. "Hi!"

A tall, slender young woman with short dark blue hair greets her. Mi Young immediately regains her cool when she realized it wasn't a captain from another faction. "Geez, you scared the sh*t out of me."

The woman scratches her nape before she smiles sheepishly at Mi Young. "Sorry about that."

"What were you doing there anyway?" Mi Young asks. She also noticed that even though the other party came out from the water just seconds ago, her clothes weren't wet. In fact, they are even drier than Mi Young's which went soaked the moment she kneeled near the riverbank. "What's a lady like you doing underneath the water peeping at people who tries to drink?"

"Wait! Let me just clear three things for you." The other party says while raising her hands. "First of all, I am not a girl. I'm a boy. I have this thing below me that can definitely prove that, wanna see?"

Mi Young looked at him, horrified. "What!? Of course not! Are you out of your mind!?"

"No need to react like that, lady." The boy says while looking at Mi Young weirdly. "I was just asking. Well, that's your loss not mine."

Mi Young wanted to strangle the boy right there when those words left his mouth. She was about to say something in return but the boy stopped her once more by raising his hands in the air. "Wait! Let me finish talking. Second, I wasn't peeping on you or anyone who drinks water from the river! And third, it's just my hobby."

"Just your hobby?" Mi Young repeats while looking at the boy incredulously. "Is your hobby peeping on people?"

"I repeat, it's not peeping."

"What's it called then?"

"Observing? Spying? Watching?" The boy asks. He even had the nerve to look like he was thinking deeply.

Mi Young grimaces while watching the boy in front of her. She's still traumatized by his words a while ago.

Then the boy looks at her once more.

"Actually, I have been following you since earlier. You know, just checking out if you have your team's flag with you. But upon further investigation, I realized that the flag isn't in your hands." The boy says. He even ended his short speech with a smile. "So, I will leave you now."

The boy was about to leave Mi Young alone by diving in the water when the black haired girl stopped him. "Wait!"

The boy stops as he cocks his head to the side, "Yes? Perhaps you changed your mind and want to take a peek on my w—"

"Hold it right there!" Mi Young shouts, not caring if nearby enemies can hear her, she just doesn't want to hear the rest of the boy's sentence. "First of all, I don't want to take a peek at your—whatever that is. Second, I want to ask you a question before you go."

The boy looks like he was thinking about Mi Young' words once more but then he shrugs before he says, "Okay, what is it?"

"From what faction are you?"

The boy looks confused with Mi Young's question. He turns his gaze towards the river then back at the black haired girl once more, "I don't know if your mind is still working or not but I hope you can see that I emerged from the water and that I was totally dry the moment I went out of the surface of the water. If that does not scream Hydro to you, then I think something's wrong with your head."

Mi Young blinked at the boy twice, trying to decipher his words. Then she gives him a beaming smile before she says, "Okay then, good luck."

After that, Mi Young turns her back away from the boy. She didn't even take any step yet when the boy suddenly calls her, voice now serious.

"Stop acting, I know you know my secret." The boy says. When Mi Young turned to look at him once more, his previous facial expression, which resembled an innocent looking lad was now gone, replaced with the look of a cold hearted person who looks like he found a very interesting toy. "Tell me, how did you learn?"

Mi Young knew what the boy was talking about, so she answered honestly. "I sensed someone was following me earlier. I thought it was just a feeling but then I can feel a breeze around me even though there is no wind at all. If there is, the grass as well as the leaves in my surroundings should be moving too."

The black haired girl pauses for a moment to look at the boy's expression. When she sees his eyes, Mi Young swore she saw the evil face of the Seelie Queen from the boy for a couple of seconds. She shivered at the sudden thought.

"Then, when I stopped, the movement stopped as well. You might not have noticed it but you were giving off a little too much wind for someone who keeps on hiding around me." Mi Young says before continuing. "And when I saw the riverbank, you suddenly emerged from there. That's when I finally realized that my hunch was true. And that's why I asked from which faction you really are.'

The boy smiled wickedly at her before asking, "What is this hunch of yours then?

Mi Young looked the boy in the eyes before she answered his question, "That you are a dual user.. You have both the Hydro and Anemo elements."