novelraw Chapter 103
Chapter 103
Chapter 103
The tournament began. Han Sang-ah moved through her matches with ease.
The Hunters who had made names for themselves in their regions were no slouches, but the gap was obvious.
She reached the semifinals without incident and stepped onto the prepared stage. Her opponent for the next bout stood across from her.
— Then we will begin!
No gear was allowed, and unique patterns were forbidden. Victory would be decided purely by one’s mana and combat skill.
The moment the word fell, her opponent lunged and swung a gauntleted fist. At the same time Han Sang-ah drew her sword to counter.
A sudden whistle cut through the air and Han Sang-ah halted her attack. Her opponent did not. The gauntlet smashed into her temple, and she tumbled backward, rolled across the floor, and forced herself up.
“Kgh.”
She swayed for a breath, then looked to the referee. But he showed no intention of calling the foul.
Han Sang-ah raised her hand at once.
“Referee, my opponent attacked after the stoppage whistle.”
The referee checked something for a moment, then shook his head.
“Analysis says that is not the case.”
Expression flat, Han Sang-ah smoothed back her hair and turned her gaze on her opponent again.
Three referees judged rule violations.
“I request a video review.”
They nodded and began the review, sharing the clip with her at the same time.
“...”
One thing was certain. She could tell the footage was altered. The exchange was still vivid in her memory.
She had heard the whistle, then taken the hit. In the replay, by the finest margin, the punch preceded the whistle.
“We will resume.”
In the end, there was nothing more for her to say. The video contradicted her memory, and the referees had ruled there was no foul.
Her mind ran cold calculations. If even the review said what was false, this was no mistake.
The referees were siding against her. It was not just one official’s problem.
‘They intend to make sure I cannot win.’
A duel and a fight are different. Yoo Chan-seok said it all the time. The distinction was playing out before her in a different form.
This was a contest under rules, and others judged whether those rules were broken.
“Then it is entirely possible for me to lose even if I’m much stronger.”
Han Sang-ah lifted her sword and reset her stance. The conditions were against her, and there was nothing she could do to change them now.
Even so, she had to win this bout.
‘Even if it means they could edit the video.’
There was a limit to that. If the timing was so fine that ordinary people could not perceive it, doctored footage could skate by.
But if it was obvious enough to look wrong to anyone, they would not be able to fake it.
“For all the fame, your skill seems lacking.”
With a boom, the opponent slammed his gauntlets together and grinned.
“Fame and skill do not move in lockstep.”
Han Sang-ah agreed without hesitation. It was true.
“What, trying to play weak now?”
“I never said that.”
She had only stated a fact. She had no idea why he heard it that way.
‘One clean shot, set in properly.’
That was the path Yoo Chan-seok had given her, and she had found it fit her well.
The same applied in this battle. Wearing an opponent down slowly was not her forte. That was Yoo Chan-seok’s way.
Sword in hand, she slipped past the gauntlets with calm, precise footwork.
His attacks did not find her. Even with ordinary judging, the gulf in experience and execution showed.
Mana gathered along her blade, enough to end the match in a single strike.
“?!”
The whistle sounded again at the instant she moved to finish it. By rule, she had to withdraw the power she had poured into the sword.
“What is the reason?”
She sheathed the practice blade prepared for the bout and asked.
“We detected an issue in the arena’s video system and are inspecting it. This is necessary to ensure a fair match.”
She offered no rebuttal. The officials were not on her side in the first place. Arguing here would only bring penalties.
“Understood.”
The timing was suspicious to anyone with eyes. Yet no one could know how much mana she had gathered in her sword.
The battle resumed.
She had to be careful. If the rules were being applied to favor her opponent, then the moment she did anything that could be construed as a gray area, they might disqualify her.
He could foul and be excused. She could be called for a foul even when she committed none. The handicap was blatant.
“Either way.”
She had every rule in her head. She could win without breaking a single one. Compared with the gimmicks in the first-grade Erosion Cores she had faced, these conditions were not so difficult.
If they blocked the one-hit finish, then she would aim for one hit that dealt decisive damage. Stopping even that would be hard.
‘If I try to attack, they will interfere again.’
They would blow the whistle at the knife edge of timing, then judge that she struck after the stoppage and disqualify her.
Steel rang. Her blade met the gauntlet.
“You cannot beat me. This match has already been decided that way.”
He sounded certain, as if someone had already told him how this would go.
“You will get pummeled without landing anything and drop out. If you ever gather enough mana for a true hit, the refs will stop you.”
Han Sang-ah slid back, reset her guard, and said nothing. He lowered into a sprinter’s crouch and charged.
‘If my power is lacking…’
Then she simply had to use his. This was not refined borrowing like transforming force into flow. With Yoo Chan-seok’s coaching and countless hours of practice, she could borrow an opponent’s force if she wished.
She did not need that here.
A counter. One strike at the exact moment. Read the attack with all five senses, know the instant it would land and the line of maximum impact.
Then control her body and execute without a seam.
“Now.”
The slash she threw lacked the speed and weight for a clean, scoring blow.
“Kgh… Aghh!”
The flat of her blade smashed into his ribs as his gauntlet swept past. She felt the rib give through the steel and into her hand.
‘It landed cleanly. This is the end.’
It was not a rough counter. It was a perfect one. She had traced a delicate path and struck the precise point at the precise time.
He lost balance and skidded across the floor with a heavy thud.
Only then did a useless whistle sound late. Anyone could see she had landed the blow before the stoppage. She had used the flat, not the edge, so the injury was a contusion, not a laceration, and would heal with time.
“Hunter Han Sang-ah is the winner.”
Even with every condition slanted toward the opponent, there was no way to deny her hand in a case like this.
“I wonder how Jung Oh-hoon is doing.”
She murmured as she stepped down from the platform. If they were interfering with her, they were certainly interfering with him.
Jung Oh-hoon’s temperament was different, and so was his answer.
He noticed quickly that the officials were handing down one-sided rulings.
“Your name was Kim Sunhyuk, right?”
He slipped past a hammering attack and spoke.
“What about it?”
He grinned and kept talking.
“You had a girl working under you. You used her, yes?”
Jung Oh-hoon had already dug up the personal details of every Hunter in his qualifier. The moment he spoke, the other man’s face hardened.
“You little piece of shit.”
“She quit around two years ago as far as I know… But good grief, there is a medical record of an abortion.”
Jung Oh-hoon’s tone went dry as he watched his opponent.
“The date she left and the date of the procedure match up a little too neatly.”
Kim Sunhyuk’s swings grew wilder. Jung Oh-hoon kept his dodges razor thin and kept talking.
“If you play with your junk like junk, what do you expect would happen, you worthless creep.”
His methods of collecting information about his opponents were not exactly fair. It actually leaned towards being illegal.
Han Sang-ah had won by staying honest under a rigged structure.
Jung Oh-hoon was not that type. He had no intention of pushing honestly against dirty play.
There was a reason some people called him Filth. He did not care about purity or moral correctness in method.
“Dad, why did you throw away Mom? Why did you leave me to die?”
“You bastard!”
The man’s attacks grew more vicious.
“If your hammer work was half as good as your downstairs habits, you would have finished me in seconds.”
Jung Oh-hoon slid back from another sweeping blow, needling him with a smile.
The shadow beneath Kim Sunhyuk began to boil. From the seething dark, black blades and spears thrust up.
“Now there it is.”
The whistle sounded immediately. Running your mouth was not a foul. But using a unique ability was.
“Tournament? Enough with that bullshit. I am going to rip your mouth open.”
Jung Oh-hoon raised his rifle instead of answering.
“If you have the skill, try.”
Jung Oh-Hoon was not provoking because he was weaker. He was choosing the surest path to win a doctored contest.
— Hunter Kim Sunhyuk is disqualified for a rules violation. This bout is over as of now. Repeating.
Kim Sunhyuk had no intention of complying. Which meant this was no longer a match. The match had ended. He lost by disqualification.
If they fought now, it would not be a sanctioned bout. Jung Oh-hoon raised a hand’s breadth and skimmed across the stage, engaging him cleanly.
He had left his usual equipment behind, but he could still use his mana patterns.
So long as the rules were not stacked to favor a specific opponent, he did not expect to lose to someone like this.
Fifteen minutes later, Jung Oh-hoon subdued him.
The rake who had been flinging shadow weapons lay on the floor with a bullet in each limb.
Jung Oh-hoon won his regional qualifier. Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon both overcame stacked rules in their own ways and advanced to the main tournament.
Only Yoo Chan-seok remained. They were in different places, but their thoughts were the same.
For Yoo Chan-seok, losing would be the harder thing.