Ex Rank Supporting Role’s Replay in a Prestigious School

I immediately recognized the person who had set up the trap and detonated it, but I refrained from speaking Arihara Tomoaki’s name aloud.
Given that I had leaked the entry list of the Korean representative team’s attack squad before the match started, it would be best to avoid mentioning the abilities or names of any players from the Japanese team.

After all, even if I didn’t say anything, my capable teammates would notice, so there was no need for me to bring it up.
Park Seung-hyun immediately activated his Insight skill to confirm.
"It’s not the power of the invaders. It looks like either it’s a beast-type ability or something used by a player from the Japanese team."

"Probably the latter? During the power analysis, we mentioned that overseas-trained players could use remote detonation abilities. Also, the design of the material used for the explosion was modern."
Park Seung-hyun and Dokgo Miro quickly figured out Arihara Tomoaki’s identity with a brief exchange.
But did Dokgo Miro deduce the original design of the explosive material by observing the debris when the explosion occurred?

As expected, the Emperor was no ordinary observer.
Meanwhile, somewhere, the swarms of insects surged again, and explosions kept repeating.
"It seems like they’ve fought him quite a few times. It’s a type of ability that involves setting things up in advance, probably prepared to deal with the swarms of insects."

"There are a lot of insects outside the Hojo’s domain. The Japanese team must have had a tough time."
If Yao Ruichi was right, it seemed like the newcomer had been particularly good at driving the insects away.
Although the Japanese team seemed to have been doing well in keeping the swarms at bay thanks to Arihara Tomoaki’s efforts, the situation was different now.

Because of the wicked darkness, the momentum of the insects was unlike anything before.
‘The one controlling the insects must be an invader. And that invader is currently receiving a powerful buff.’
Sssssss……

A strange sound came from the swarm of insects crawling on the ground and flying in the sky.
Though it was too dark to make out their shapes clearly, the sound alone made it obvious how many insects were there.
At Eungwang High’s dormitory, even one insect would send everyone into a panic, rushing to call the student council, but none of the attack squad members here seemed the least bit disturbed.

There might be some who are forcing themselves to endure their disgust since this was a combat situation, but it was hard to imagine anyone being overly panicked.
"Remote-setting abilities have high energy consumption relative to their output. Despite that, using this ability to deal with the insects suggests they want to avoid close combat. Be cautious during the approach."
Currently, the only two players in our attack squad who could fight in close combat were Dokgo Miro and Gwak Kyung-gu.
Both had been eager before the match but were also calm enough to assess the situation and act strategically.

Seeing them take a step back, Yeom Jun-yeol extended his hand forward.
Whoosh!
A rift in space opened at the tip of Yeom Jun-yeol’s hand, and from the gap, the flame-covered red dragon appeared, spotting the swarm of insects and glaring at them.

Among the attack squad, only I and Yeom Jun-yeol could attack from a distance.
If you were to count Yao Ruichi, he could also be considered, but since he wasn’t officially part of our attack squad, and I was in a bad condition, I needed to conserve my energy.
It seemed Yeom Jun-yeol was prepared to fight on my behalf, as he immediately pumped more power into his attacks.

"I’m going to increase my output. It might get hot."
"I can’t even take my jacket off, so if it gets too hot, I’ll be in trouble…"
Fwoooosh!

Ignoring Gwak Kyung-gu’s complaint, Yeom Jun-yeol’s red dragon unleashed a fiery blast.
The surroundings were so dark that the flames of the red dragon appeared even more vivid than usual.
As Yeom Jun-yeol had warned, the heat enveloped my body, but it didn’t feel too intense, maybe because I had been in the darkness for so long.

It wasn’t exactly "warm"—the flames were far too fierce for that description.
Whoosh!
This time, the flames didn’t come from the red dragon, but from the tips of Yeom Jun-yeol’s fingers.

The flames scorched a few of the insects that had slipped through the red dragon’s assault.
Gwak Kyung-gu, who had been about to deal with the insects flying toward us with his twin swords, sighed in frustration.
"The red dragon found another group of insects. Fall back further!"

Hearing that, I threw a glance at Yeom Jun-yeol.
His eyes, visible through his goggles, reflected the light of the red dragon.
Since Yeom Jun-yeol was revealing his dragonborn lineage, it seemed like the light of the red dragon had infused his eyes, making them appear brighter.

‘Could it be that he’s fighting while sharing vision with the red dragon?’
When summoning the red dragon, sensory sharing is possible.
Though the red dragon was highly conspicuous due to its fiery aura, Yeom Jun-yeol had sometimes used it for reconnaissance.

But sharing sensory perception with the red dragon to perceive the surroundings with its five senses wasn’t easy.
When borrowing the red dragon’s eyes, Yeom Jun-yeol’s focus would be somewhat weakened, making it difficult to perform both sensory sharing and fighting at the same time.
While occasionally pausing to borrow the red dragon’s senses, it was clear that Yeom Jun-yeol was sharing a very close connection with it now.

‘He’s really grown…! I bet he kept training even after the boot camp ended.’
There had been no descriptions of Yeom Jun-yeol fighting while sharing senses with the red dragon back in Plmago, and even when I borrowed Yeom Jun-yeol’s power in my past trajectory, that didn’t happen.
But right now, Yeom Jun-yeol seemed to fully understand what the red dragon saw and sensed as he fought.

Yeom Jun-yeol might have entered the first stage of dragonization.
"When we first entered this area, we wiped out almost all the swarms of insects we detected. The red dragon senior took care of more of them than the explosives from the Japanese team!"
The invader, who had been controlling the insects, didn’t seem to expect such a powerful counterattack from us, even though he had been cautious of Arihara Tomoaki’s trap.

Most of the insects that appeared at first were burned away by Yeom Jun-yeol’s hands.
But the newly appearing swarms of insects were different.
"…The insects didn’t lose much of their numbers even after being hit by the red dragon’s flames."

The newly appeared insects flew erratically among the flames.
Their wings were glowing red.
It didn’t seem like the glow was just from the flames.

The power of Yeom Jun-yeol’s flame magic produced shockwaves along with heat, but these red-winged insects weren’t melting from the heat, though they were crushed by the shockwaves.
"It seems like they have flame resistance."
"I heard that among the beasts of the Legendary Tier, there’s one that controls flames. They might have prepared these insects to counter that beast."

Yeom Jun-yeol calmly responded to Park Seung-hyun’s words before continuing to cast his flame magic.
Though it was still somewhat effective, using the shockwave as the primary means of attack wasn’t efficient for this ability.
At this rate, Yeom Jun-yeol would exhaust himself first.

‘I need to make a move.’
Since I had been observing the situation while Yeom Jun-yeol was fighting, a plan quickly came to mind.
The problem was which chess piece to use in this situation.

It didn’t take long to figure out which piece to move.
One of them was me moving directly.
‘It’s the most certain way. But with the wicked darkness covering the land, and having to meet the Japanese team in the beast’s domain, in my current condition…’

My head was spinning.
I wasn’t sleepy, but my eyelids felt heavy from the tension.
Even as I thought that, the number of the red-winged insects kept increasing.

"Hey, even if you didn’t say anything, I would’ve gone."
Dokgo Miro’s voice snapped me back to my senses.
It seemed like Dokgo Miro knew exactly what I was thinking.

"You were hesitating whether to go yourself or send me, right? Of course, I should go."
Whoosh!
Dokgo Miro lightly adjusted his morning star with one hand as if twirling a pen.

Park Seung-hyun and Yao Ruichi watched in awe.
By using his ability, Dokgo Miro could manage that with just one hand despite lacking the necessary strength, and everyone could tell.
They didn’t know Dokgo Miro’s past as the Emperor, nor his strength, so they couldn’t imagine him having that much physical power.

"I’m going too."
"It’s a narrow path."
It seemed like Gwak Kyung-gu understood what Dokgo Miro was planning, but Dokgo Miro decisively refused.

Not many juniors would have the guts to speak that way to the rough-around-the-edges student council president, Gwak Kyung-gu.
Gwak Kyung-gu nodded and responded, but then added:
"I’ll go until the path narrows. I need to use the red dragon’s flames to confuse the enemies, but if I get too close, the energy consumption will be too high."

"Will you use Gwangrim? That way, we can save some energy."
"Seung-hyun, get ready."
"Yes!"

Before I could even speak my plan aloud, the attack squad quickly understood their roles and began moving.
The situation was progressing rapidly even before I could finish thinking about my backup plan.
Watching my teammates act while in a daze, Dokgo Miro spoke:

"I’ve been around you long enough to catch on. By following your eyes, I can guess what move you’re about to make."
Dokgo Miro, adjusting his goggles, stared beyond the flames of the red dragon.
Yeom Jun-yeol, even while fighting the insects with his flame magic, seemed to have overheard the conversation and immediately got ready.

"Red dragon senior, just a bit more time, please."
"Got it. Don’t worry, go ahead."
Despite beads of sweat dotting his forehead, Yeom Jun-yeol was smiling.

The moment his hair and eyes turned completely red, Gwak Kyung-gu and Dokgo Miro rushed into the flames of the red dragon.
As the flames engulfed them, Yeom Jun-yeol increased his output even further.
Whoooosh!

As the two of them were swallowed by the flames, a heavy energy signature emanated from within the blaze.
Gwak Kyung-gu had used Gwangrim and the 100-second grace.
He was likely protecting Dokgo Miro from the flames as they moved through the fiery storm.

Assuming they were moving precisely toward their target despite the fire, they said:
"Call the advance squad now. Even if we don’t know the exact location of Dokgo Miro, we can deduce the route."
"Understood!"

Park Seung-hyun, thinking through their movement route, activated Gwangrim and the advance squad’s marching song.
The red dragon’s flames still obscured their vision.
"It looks like the two of them are out of the red dragon’s flames. I can’t cover them with my power anymore."

"We need to confuse the insects. Send the red dragon to the last known position."
"I’ll do that."
Dokgo Miro, completely suppressing his presence, darted forward.

Gwak Kyung-gu, intentionally dispersing his energy in the wrong direction, was moving while hiding his presence after relocating, deceiving the enemy’s senses, making it hard for us to pinpoint their exact location.
Later, Gwak Kyung-gu intentionally exposed himself to draw attention.
"Kyung-gu’s uniform top is almost melted! His goggles are still intact, but the defense is almost gone…"

"Keep calling the advance squad. We don’t need to support Kyung-gu right now."
Park Seung-hyun, using his Insight skill, noticed Gwak Kyung-gu’s presence and seemed flustered, but after hearing my instructions, he took a deep breath and called the advance squad again.
Before long, we heard the sound we had been waiting for.

Boom!
The sound of a watermelon bursting echoed from a distance.
At the same time, the insects, who had been flapping their wings, lost their strength and fell to the ground.

‘Thud’—the sound of insects crashing to the ground spread through the wicked darkness.
Dokgo Miro had successfully crushed the invader’s head who had been controlling the swarm of insects.