novelraw Chapter 28 : How to Reach the Unseen Sword (2)
Chapter 28 : How to Reach the Unseen Sword (2)
Fortunately, my hyung-nim's opponent on the tournament bracket was someone I didn't know.
I let out a sigh of relief.
The opponent of the Sura Cult's Flame Saber, Yang So-pyeong, was also an insignificant opponent.
"We will now begin the 16th match of the round of 64! Yoo Jae-ha of the Little Demon Academy versus Mu-hyu of the Assassination Guild!"
In the previous matches, the Sword Demoness, the Mad Demon, and Gwang Se-hyeon had advanced to the round of 32.
The kids who had finished their matches early came and gave me a word of encouragement.
"Jae-ha, win."
"Captain! Crush him!"
"Be careful. Mu-hyu is strong."
I waved my hand and went up to the tournament stage.
"So you're the man who defeated Piram."
The opponent was from the same Five Heretical Factions as Piram.
"Are you here for revenge?"
"Why should I?"
He's a guy who has a knack for making people feel awkward even though it's our first meeting. He was the one who brought up Piram to me first.
"You two don't seem to be very close."
"Piram and I are childhood friends. We even have the same birthday. So we've celebrated our birthdays together every year."
Then at least get some revenge. Piram would be sad to hear that.
"Did Piram go back okay?"
"No. He's watching from over there."
I cast my gaze to where Mu-hyu was pointing. It was a place where various renowned martial artists were seated.
It was almost full, but the four most honorable seats were empty. It was obvious that they were the seats of the Heavenly Demon, the Blood Demon, the Sura Cult Lord, and the Divine Monk.
They would probably show their faces in the tournament around the semifinals at the earliest.
And I could find Piram sitting at the very bottom end of the seats of honor.
The person looking at me with sharp eyes above him was probably the King of the Green Forest.
The drumbeat announcing the match continued, and soon a huge bell rang.
"Let the match begin!"
The announcer came down from the tournament stage.
Only Mu-hyu and I were left on the tournament stage.
"Since you defeated Piram, there's no need for a probing battle. I'll go all out from the beginning."
I wanted to tell Mu-hyu, who kept bringing up the already eliminated Piram, not to kill Piram a second and third time, but I couldn't say it out loud because I wasn't close to Piram.
Still, seeing him mock him like that, it seemed that the two were indeed real friends.
If I had been mocked to that extent, I would have at least considered him an enemy.
"I will avenge the fallen Piram in the preliminary rounds!"
Mu-hyu, killing Piram until the very end.
He's a persistent guy.
Just then, Mu-hyu's presence on the tournament stage gradually faded.
I was looking at Mu-hyu now, but it felt like I wasn't looking at him.
To be precise, should I say that the information about Mu-hyu was disappearing?
Mu-hyu's smell, sound, the texture of his clothes, the luster of his skin, etc., were gradually disappearing. In the end, even the sight of the existence called Mu-hyu became blurry.
I was genuinely surprised by my current state.
Because this was something that could be said to be of a higher level, beyond the realm of simply being at the Peak.
Should I call it the realm of instinct?
I don't know much about the world of assassins, but I knew that whether one could do this or not was what divided the special-grade and the first-rate.
The criteria for dividing the special-grade and the first-rate were simple.
Whether you could kill the opponent when you faced them after an assassination failed.
Matching one's presence with the surroundings is called assimilation. To achieve this assimilation, one had to empty one's senses one by one.
Empty one's smell, empty one's weight, empty one's sound, and finally, empty one's presence.
And then fill it with the information of the surroundings. That was assimilation.
Just like an octopus making its body the same as its surroundings.
With this, one was ready for assassination.
If you could handle this perfectly, you were called a first-rate assassin.
And the special-grade...
Slice!
I dodged the sword a beat too late.
Blood flowed from my cut cheek.
'This is a bit tricky.'
Disturbance of presence.
The act of deceiving the opponent using one's own presence while in a state of assimilation.
A necessary condition to become a special-grade from a first-rate.
The unique skill of the assassination guild to kill the opponent when an assassination fails.
Mu-hyu, who had momentarily shown himself, kicks off the ground and disappears from sight again. By now, Mu-hyu would be in my blind spot. He would probably move again if I turned my head. And so, Mu-hyu was clearly on the tournament stage, but he had completely disappeared from my sight.
At the same time, I felt two equal presences.
I dodged the presence I felt from the right.
Slice!
'Damn it!'
What I had dodged was the fake presence, and the left was the real presence. This time too, because I was late in dodging, my thigh was thinly cut.
"I thought it was just talk, but you're really a special-grade."
The good thing was that in the martial world, there were largely two known ways to deal with a special-grade assassin.
One was to form a qi barrier around oneself and accurately find the opponent with qi sense, not presence.
However, to use a qi barrier skillfully, one's martial arts realm had to be at least at the end of the Peak. At my current level, it wasn't impossible if I were forced to do it, but if I did, my dream of becoming the youngest unit commander would surely be gone.
I might have to dream a new dream of becoming the youngest grand commander. From the grand commander level, it was a relationship where one had to report directly to the Young Lord.
I briefly imagined a one-on-one meeting with my junior sister. Cold sweat was already flowing down my face.
I had no choice but to recall the second method.
The second was to strike down both the real and the fake.
Whether it's fake or real, if you cut them both, it becomes real.
However, this method also had a problem.
If I had used this method right away in the first exchange, I would have been able to use it sufficiently.
Because the opponent would also be unconsciously off guard.
The people who saw me cutting both presences would probably have been impressed by my countermeasure.
Because this is the realm of experience, not talent.
Everyone is bound to be flustered by something they experience for the first time. If the technique Piram had used in the fight with Piram in the preliminary rounds was something I had experienced for the first time, I might have been flustered and lost.
But I was well aware of a technique superior to Piram's, and I had actually experienced it, so I was able to deal with it appropriately.
I was going to do that this time too, but I hadn't met a special-grade assassin often, so my response was a little late.
And this difference was bigger than I thought.
"As expected, defeating Piram wasn't just luck."
Even the slight opening I had found in the opponent had disappeared.
"I will also show you my trump card!"
Then what was the all-out effort from before?
Mu-hyu used assimilation again and disappeared from my senses.
And I opened my eyes wide in surprise.
The number of presences felt on the tournament stage was ten.
'This is special-grade?'
Don't give me that bullshit!
At this point, isn't this just the second coming of the God of Assassins!
* * *
"Oh-ho! To draw out that technique from our Mu-hyu already, he's not just an ordinary guy. Isn't that right? King of the Green Forest."
"Ugh...!"
The King of the Green Forest, who was momentarily at a loss for words when the King of Assassins asked him of all people, answered right away.
"It's close, but he hasn't allowed a single decisive blow so far."
At those words, the King of Assassins, who had been so triumphant until now, shut his mouth. Instead, the one who opened his mouth was the Master of the Underworld.
"Those eyes, they are by no means the eyes of someone who has given up."
The King of Assassins snorted.
"Hmph! Even so, he's no match for our Mu-hyu!"
The Master of the Underworld asked with a smile on his face.
"Why is that?"
The King of Assassins answered as if to show off.
"Because he hasn't even shown the real thing yet!"
"There's more to it than that?"
This surprise was the Master of the Underworld's genuine feeling. Because what he had shown so far was enough to be said to be beyond the level of a rising star.
And the child of the Heavenly Demon Cult, who was countering it, albeit closely, was also amazing.
From their point of view, the fight now was a kind of tag where the person who ran out of stamina first would be caught.
Here, the tagger was Mu-hyu, who held the offensive, and the one running away was the child of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
However, if what the King of Assassins had said was true, it was enough to break the balance that was being maintained so closely.
"Ten is not all."
As soon as the King of Assassins' words ended.
"Oh-ho! It seems that's it."
The King of the Green Forest's pure admiration followed.
The Master of the Underworld turns his head to the tournament stage. And he also let out an exclamation of admiration.
"Oh-ho... perhaps we are witnessing the birth of a legendary assassin right now."
On the tournament stage.
The number of presences felt was a total of twenty.
And that number was continuously increasing.
Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three... thirty.
"Of course! That child is the one who will lead the assassination guild in the future, no! The child who will rule the night of this martial world! And unfortunately, the child of the Heavenly Demon Cult will only be a scapegoat for the beginning of that legend."
* * *
My only amusement, having grown up in the assassination guild, was observing things.
Then I thought, "How fun would it be to do this observation simultaneously?" and immediately put it into practice.
By playing this game, new things were piled up in my world, which had only been life and death.
Parallel thinking.
Only when I played this game could I escape from the pressure of life and death.
So I continued to expand my new world.
And so, as I spent my time frantically in the world of play and death, I had become the youngest special-grade assassin before I knew it.
* * *
It's increasing.
Just when I think it's the end, it increases again.
I think I teased him too much.
To be honest, I didn't want to do that either. I couldn't dodge it completely, so I dodged it a beat late. So I didn't get a fatal wound, and I've come this far.
"How dare you make a fool of me?"
I declare with integrity that I am doing my best in the given situation.
"No! I'm doing my best!"
May my sincerity reach you!
It sounded as if several people were speaking from all directions.
"I am an assassin, but I am still a martial artist. I have always done my best in killing my opponents. But you played with me!"
He keeps saying things that could be misunderstood.
"I did my best too! Really!"
It was unfair. All the blood that had fallen on the tournament stage now was mine. For reference, that bastard hadn't shed a single drop of blood.
Thinking about it, I'm getting angry, you deceptive bastard! Just by listening to him, you'd think he was the one being made a fool of.
Should I just go for the youngest grand commander? No! I quickly came to my senses. And with this number, I wasn't confident that I could react properly even if I created a qi barrier.
The number of presences I feel now is thirty.
Fortunately, it wasn't increasing any more than that.
Before my regression, there was a rumor that the Hundred-Killing Death God had appeared in the martial world after I was kicked out of the Heavenly Demon Cult, and I wondered if that guy was him.
An assassin who toys with his opponents with a hundred presences before killing them.
The level of mockery was exactly the same as that guy's. If you're going to kill, kill cleanly. Isn't his personality truly vicious?
"You've never seen anything like this before. Be glad, you're the first."
It was a rather unpleasant experience to have thirty voices ringing from all directions.
"Heheh. This time, you won't be able to dodge it!"
And if the content is mockery, that is.
I could feel the guy's rampaging prayer calming down. It seemed he was about to really attack.
I haven't thought of how to deal with it yet!
At this rate, a one-on-one meeting with my junior sister was confirmed.
Thirty presences attacking me in an instant.
Even though I'm the one being attacked, I'm amazed.
I can't even calculate how to perform this.
The good thing was that the guy was not a monster like my junior sister.
Because as the number of presences increased, the attack speed slowed down.
For now, let's dodge everything I feel.
The people watching this match are probably wondering why I'm making a fool of myself on the tournament stage right now. They'll probably mock me while watching it.
Just thinking about it makes my face flush.
Could this also be what the guy intended? Looking at the personality of Mu-hyu I've seen, it was quite possible.
Moreover, he might have created this technique for this purpose.
He's a scary guy.
However, it was clear that the guy had not yet completely made this technique his own. The significantly slowed speed was proof of that!
Slice.
Huh? I definitely didn't feel a presence, but I was cut. The good thing was that it was only at the level of the skin being cut.
But the current situation has worsened.
'This is why geniuses are so unlucky.'
The attack just now definitely had no presence.
In other words, the guy had made me excited by mocking me with the remaining presences, but he himself had not forgotten his basic duty as an assassin and had been thinking all along about in which situation his attack would stand out the most.
The situation where an assassin's attack is most powerful.
Assassination.
So, right now, I was trapped in a world where truth and lies were all mixed up.
A false presence could become real, a real presence could become a false presence, and all these presences could be fake in the first place, with the real one hiding separately.
Usually, the choice is a binary one, but this was at least a four-way choice.
My head is spinning. I've never been good at this kind of complex thinking.
Let's retrace the situation as simply as possible.
That's what I'm best at.
So, just thinking simply, I just need to find the real one, right?
Right, I've found the answer. What's next?
If it's real, I just have to cut it. How?
What's the big deal? If it's real, I'll be cut, and at that moment, I can just cut back, right? Huh? This makes sense.
If I cut faster? My victory.
However, the difference is whether I can do it or not, and thinking about it carefully, this is worth a try.
It would have been impossible for the me of the past, but this body, which has endured the energy of the Reversal of Heaven, has some validity to the crazy thing I'm thinking of now.
In other words, the key point was in the reaction speed.
A kind of act that comes from the unconscious before it passes to the conscious.
To give a simple example, let's say a mosquito lands on my arm.
Regardless of whether one is a martial artist or not, any person, before even seeing or confirming the mosquito, will unconsciously realize that what has landed on their arm is a mosquito, and at that moment, the other hand will have already flown to the arm and will be in the process of compressing, crushing, and pulverizing the mosquito on the forearm.
This is reaction speed.
If I'm fast, the mosquito ascends to heaven!
If the mosquito is fast, my blood ascends to heaven!
And the body part related to this reaction speed is the minor meridians. And I know how to increase the reaction speed.
I'll fill the minor meridians with as much qi as I can, and wait for the attack to reach me.
And the moment the attack reaches, before the conscious recognizes it, I'll swing my sword in that direction.
If my attack reaches first, my victory!
If the enemy's attack cuts first, the enemy's victory!
However, there was also an element of luck involved here.
I had not yet opened all the minor meridians.
The number of minor meridians I have currently opened is up to 6 of the 9 great meridians.
In other words, if an attack came from the direction of the remaining 3 minor meridians, I wouldn't be able to react and might lose just like that.
This was a gamble. But a gamble itself includes an element of luck. And a competent gambler controls even that element of luck.
I stood at the corner of the tournament stage.
With my back to the part of the out-of-bounds area where the minor meridians I hadn't opened were. With this, I made luck my ally.
I closed my eyes and waited.
"You've given up. You've lasted a long time against me. I'll give you a special compliment."
I'll close my hearing too. It'll just make me more distracted.
And so, I focused all my attention on the minor meridians.
Flinch.
The skin reacts to the presence it feels.
Countless fakes pass me by.
Fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake...
In the midst of the feast of countless fakes, a tingling sensation from the right elbow.
The familiar sensation of the flesh being cut and blood flowing.
Undoubtedly real!
I immediately turned my body to the right and swung my sword.
Slice!
The sensation from the sword was definitely the sensation of cutting something.
"Did I get him?"
Damn it! It was shallow!
The guy's eyes were blank.
That was the look of someone who had gained enlightenment.