novelraw Chapter 217 : Ascension (4)
Chapter 217 : Ascension (4)
"Hmm."
Ahn Byeong-jun made a serious face and cleared his throat.
'This isn't right.'
His initial plan was to lord it over Su-hyeon, who would struggle to grasp the technique, and instruct him condescendingly.
'And incidentally use that excuse to have one or two more sparring matches.'
But what was this?
Sak!
Though certainly not as good as himself.
The paper, cut neatly in two at the end of a sword strike delivered with fairly smooth body movement, was fluttering down.
"...How did you just do that?"
"...I'm not sure."
Su-hyeon pretended not to know, but.
'It works well, for sure.'
He was getting a proper feel for it after less than ten tutorials.
'It would take more training to apply it in actual combat, though.'
Just like when learning Flying Strike from the Sword God.
With knowledge already accumulated from hundreds of playthroughs, plus practical experience built through actual physical use, the current Su-hyeon had acquired what others called genius-level learning ability.
'This leaves us with some time.'
As Ahn Byeong-jun hesitated while checking the clock, Su-hyeon scratched his itch first.
"Would it be alright if I practice the rest separately?"
"Will that be okay?"
"Yes."
Su-hyeon nodded.
"I can't miss the opportunity to witness Captain Ahn's sword."
"Hehe. A youngster who knows what's important!"
Ahn Byeong-jun, grinning from ear to ear, took out his arming sword and its scabbard from his bag.
"Ah, would it be better to compete in virtual practice?"
"I don't mind doing it for real."
"Huh, are you serious?"
Ahn Byeong-jun tilted his head.
"That sword. You seemed quite fond of it. Or do you want me to go easy on you?"
"No. There's no need to go easy."
Su-hyeon shook his head.
"And I'll make sure the sword doesn't get damaged."
"Hohoho, really?"
Ahn Byeong-jun laughed as if dumbfounded and impressed by Su-hyeon's boldness, then fastened the scabbard to his waist.
"Then shall we start right away?"
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The two faced each other with a distance of about 3m between them.
'Quite short for an arming sword.'
Su-hyeon thought.
It was inevitable, given that it was a blade tailored to Ahn Byeong-jun's dwarf build.
'But such reach hardly matters to that man.'
Above all.
He had the ability to cut anything he touched like cutting tofu, if he so wished.
'Well, but will that be the case this time too?'
"Don't resent me too much. Even if it gets cut, you can just melt it down and remake it, right?"
Ahn Byeong-jun said, stroking his chin covered with coarse whiskers.
"That would be troublesome. It's a sword made by my senior."
"Hehe, do you think I'll have time to consider others' circumstances on the battlefield?"
Ahn Byeong-jun wiggled his index finger, saying there was no chance.
"I won't use sword energy."
"That's appreciated."
"Let's end the chitchat here."
At that moment.
A heavy air settled between the two.
"Here I come!"
Ahn Byeong-jun swung his sword with momentum as if he would really cut Su-hyeon's Moonless Sword in half.
Chaeng!
Su-hyeon's sword parried his strike too easily.
"!"
Of course, there was no damage left on the Moonless Sword.
"What was that just now?"
Enjoying the surprise rising in Ahn Byeong-jun's eyes, Su-hyeon said:
"I thought that if your sword reads the grain to cut, it would be possible to counteract it by twisting the wrist or dispersing the impact point just before the swords collide."
"You bastard!"
Ahn Byeong-jun ran his finger between his nose and upper lip at the fluent answer.
'I teach him one thing and look at him absorbing two, three more!'
"Not bad at all!"
"I'll go first this time."
Chae-chae-chaeng!
Su-hyeon unleashed attacks first from a distance where the arming sword shouldn't even reach.
But.
One strike, two strikes, and three strikes.
With a curious style of swordplay that seemed to receive the attacks, then deflect them, the distance where Su-hyeon could have had the advantage was quickly closed.
'Oh no!'
Su-hyeon swung his sword fiercely to block his approach, but.
Chaeng!
Ahn Byeong-jun deflected the colliding blades by turning his wrist and finally approached to within arm's reach.
'Is this the end?'
He extended his left hand forward, targeting the Adam's apple.
'Hmm!'
Although Su-hyeon had somewhat anticipated this, he was inwardly surprised by the swift movement.
Using his long reach, he extended a left jab targeting Ahn Byeong-jun's head.
Shuk!
And that fist caught nothing but air.
'He dodged my jab?'
Iridescence rose in Su-hyeon's eyes.
'From that distance too?'
It was remarkable reflexes.
'Even without Eye Power.'
"Kid, I didn't expect you to counter like that!"
Ahn Byeong-jun, who had retreated two steps back, smiled as he lightly twirled his arming sword.
"As expected, my intuition is never wrong. I believed you could entertain me well!"
"Is that so?"
To Su-hyeon, he was an opponent different from preconceptions in many ways.
'He's a dwarf but a swordsman, not a craftsman. Unlike the impression given by his muscle-packed physique, he uses swordsmanship that cuts softly based on relaxation.'
"Good! Let's raise the gear a bit more!"
Ahn Byeong-jun rushed at Su-hyeon again.
Shuk!
Su-hyeon attempted a thrust utilizing his reach from a distance, but Ahn Byeong-jun deflected the attack like a snake and approached again.
Tadak!
Su-hyeon quickly stepped on a Mana Shield and soared into the air, turning a somersault.
Ahn Byeong-jun, who suddenly found himself at Su-hyeon's back, swung his sword in a straight line while turning his body halfway.
Chaeng!
Su-hyeon's body staggered as he parried the attack filled with speed, weight, and sharpness.
"Hehe, my attacks seem quite overwhelming, don't they!"
Ahn Byeong-jun made no attempt to hide his intention to continuously break Su-hyeon's spacing.
'As you wish.'
The moment he deflected his sword and entered close quarters.
Su-hyeon planted a knee kick into his head with his left leg, which he had prepared in advance.
'Got him!'
It was a timing that couldn't be thought of otherwise.
However.
"!?"
Despite it being an attack surely made without warning, Ahn Byeong-jun raised a cover and received it as if he had anticipated it.
'Insane!'
Moreover, not stopping there, Ahn Byeong-jun's counterattack involved cleverly tripping Su-hyeon's stepping foot and ramming into his chest.
"Keuk!"
Su-hyeon flew backwards as if hit by a dump truck, but he tumbled using the momentum of being pushed back and stood up, preparing for additional attacks.
"...!"
However, Ahn Byeong-jun merely looked at him with a slightly surprised expression without launching any further attacks.
'To think he could even react to that. And so easily.'
"Wow, that just now was quite something!"
Both of them were surprised at each other.
"Hehe, this is really fun. This is how it should be!"
Su-hyeon felt his blood boiling in earnest, no less than Ahn Byeong-jun.
It was something he often felt when sparring with Lee Ho-seung too.
He was always impressed by the skills shown by swordsmen at a higher realm than himself.
"You're really amazing."
"Hey, that's what I wanted to say!"
Ahn Byeong-jun's lips twitched.
"Spear Devil, that old man doesn't need to feel resentful. I can't even fathom how strong you'll become in the future."
"You flatter me."
Su-hyeon bowed his head and said.
"Then this time, may I use all the tactics at my disposal?"
"Huh?"
"Since you'll be able to handle them without difficulty, Captain."
"Kid, of course. Whatever you do is just child's play to me!"
Ahn Byeong-jun, who had boasted, immediately lowered his voice and added:
"...But let's not use that Chukji or whatever."
That was the one thing he wasn't confident about parrying without injury.
"...Understood."
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'Eye Power, Tachypsychia Mode.'
Kiiing!
First, strengthening his eyes to the maximum, prepared for the overload to his brain.
'Hardening Shield, and Sword Energy.'
Sword, fist, foot.
Enhancing all possible attack methods.
Chaeng!
Ahn Byeong-jun's attempt to target his wrist while parrying the sword looked like slow motion.
'If I can see it, I can react to it.'
Kaang!
Similarly, he deflected Ahn Byeong-jun's sword using his wrist.
"Tsk!"
Ahn Byeong-jun, unable to gain an advantage by leveraging his specialty of manual dexterity in the process of exchanging blows, changed his tactics.
'He's fast!'
Attacks with increased speed targeted his brow, waist, and legs in succession.
"Keuk!"
Despite not being imbued with sword energy, the sensation of his sword energy being scraped away made his chest feel tight.
'Just by removing unnecessary force, the power, speed, and trajectory change.'
The sword principles melted into Lee Ho-seung's and Lee Yu-jin's swords were not felt.
What was felt was just an incomprehensible sword suffused with clear hostility, its intention and origin unknown.
'I can't see the end.'
A feeling of seeing but not seeing.
Chaeng!
In that strange sensation, it was inevitable that I would be the one to allow an opening.
Kaang!
I block the sword hilt targeting my side with a hardening shield.
'If I had taken that directly, a rib or two would have been broken.'
I try to escape into the sky by stepping on a Mana Shield, but Ahn Byeong-jun's foot, stepping on the shield following me, was faster than the shield disappearing.
'Damn it!'
Chaeaeng!
I eventually had to face Ahn Byeong-jun's sword head-on.
'It's heavy!'
Ahn Byeong-jun's sword strike, who had long reached S-rank, carried a weight like bearing the sky.
Kwaaaang!
Unable to withstand even a single swing, I was slammed into the ground.
"Keheok!"
The impact on my back was concerning as I failed to properly break my fall.
"Huu, huu."
Ignoring the screams from my lungs, I somehow regulate my breathing and stand up.
'He's strong indeed.'
Even using Tachypsychia Mode was insufficient to take control of the offensive and defensive.
'The difference in caliber is clear.'
Of course, Ahn Byeong-jun was merely treating this as a warm-up while facing me.
'Even if I used Liberation, it wouldn't close such a large spec gap.'
There was only one way.
A one-hit reversal using Chukji.
'If I didn't know, maybe, but creating an opening to land such an attack when he's already aware is no easy feat.'
Besides, we had already agreed not to use Chukji in the first place.
I couldn't see a proper means to overturn the current disadvantage in my eyes.
'But I don't feel good about this.'
Even if I'm going to lose, I should struggle to the end.
"I'm coming again."
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While Su-hyeon was exchanging blows with Ahn Byeong-jun.
"...Hmm."
Nam Tae-hoon, who had returned to the dormitory after declining all sparring proposals from friends, was reading a newspaper available at the school with a serious face.
['Spear Devil' Lim Se-jin, Black Castle Isolation Confirmed!]
['Goblin' Sim Jae-gyeong, Black Castle Isolation Confirmed!]
.......
[Night Goblin's Kang Seong-gyu, Scheduled for White Castle Isolation and Treatment.]
The names of big shots that seemed ridiculous no matter how he looked at it.
Tae-hoon felt newly incredulous at the fact that they were all Ma-in caught through Su-hyeon's activities.
'Isn't this the best achievement in recent times?'
Though a normal trial would take quite a long time.
Given the special circumstances, it was the South Korean system to quickly review Ma-in treatment based on their criminal history and risk level to determine isolation.
'Kang Seong-gyu. They say he was a Ma-in who gave trouble even with Captain Ahn Byeong-jun and Senior Squad Leader Jo Sujin present.'
Yet he went to White Castle, which meant he probably hadn't been going around committing serious crimes like murder.
'What kind of guys do they think they are. They wouldn't have given him an easy pardon.'
White Castle.
Initially, it was an isolation facility created to show respect to Ma-in whose pre-transformation merits were recognized.
'Red Ma-in with bad crimes are isolated in Black Castle, while those who became Ma-in without crimes or with mitigating circumstances are sent to White Castle.'
Among them, the deepest part of Black Castle, the underground, housed truly malicious and dangerous Ma-in.
"...Hmm."
Nam Tae-hoon, who had been hesitating while flipping through the newspaper, sighed and stood up from his seat.
'Damn, it seems too early.'
But there was nothing he could do once it was decided.
-What did you want to talk about?
-It's not something for texting. I'll tell you when we meet.
The person he sent the message to was none other than Hong In-hyeon.
'I didn't know his uncle was also a White Castle inmate.'
In any case.
If he could gain his cooperation, carrying out the given mission shouldn't be a problem.
-I'll come to your place in 30 minutes
-If you want
"I guess the die is cast now."
Nam Tae-hoon's eyes reflected in the mirror had sunk coldly.