What Are You?

Yeon-gyeong ducked her head on instinct.

A droplet of water fell with a plop onto her back.

Before she could even feel the water, a blast of wind struck with an explosive boom.

Kwaang!

“Hiiiing!”

The horse screamed when the rider on its back vanished.

Before she knew it, a man had appeared at Yeon-gyeong’s side.

“Young Master Gyo!”

Gyo-ha did not answer.

Instead, he yanked on the ropes around Yeon-gyeong’s arm and neck.

“…What kind of strength is that!”

Bewilderment rose in the eyes of the Red Flame Unit men.

It was enough force to make the horses lurch.

One of them hastily let go of the rope, but the other was dragged along.

He struggled to hold on, yet he could not keep himself from falling out of the saddle.

The Red Flame Unit man rose into the air.

He flew toward Gyo-ha as if sucked in.

And then.

Kwajik!

He flew away faster than he had been drawn in, and yet what should have been above his neck was gone.

His head had vanished from a single punch.

Gyo-ha then hurled himself at the other man.

The man tried to pull his reins to threaten Gyo-ha, but the horse began to rear the moment it saw him.

“Why is this bastard…!”

Gyo-ha appeared in front of the flustered Red Flame Unit man.

His body was soaked, as if he had swum there.

Savage eyes flashed through his hanging hair.

The Red Flame Unit man raised his saber.

But Gyo-ha’s fist slammed down over the blade.

The saber dug into his flesh.

Then his fist drove straight into the man’s head.

Puk!

His face caved in.

With the saber still embedded, the Red Flame Unit man collapsed on the spot.

Only after defeating the three of them did Gyo-ha shake off the water.

His body was soaked with seawater and blood.

He had started swimming the moment the island came into view.

Yeon-gyeong stared at Gyo-ha with dazed eyes.

She had never imagined they would meet again in a situation like this, but she snapped back to herself at once.

“Y-Young Master Gyo. My master!”

Yeon-gyeong pointed to one side as she spoke.

Gyo-ha checked the three people fighting in the distance.

And the horses circling around them.

With nuns hanging from ropes as well.

Taking everything in at a glance, Gyo-ha sprang into motion.

Yeon-gyeong bit her lip as he shot away in an instant.

Then she picked up the sword lying on the ground.

Her seniors and martial aunts were still being ravaged.

She could not allow herself to think of those men as human.

To harbor evil and fall into hell.

She recalled the vow she had made when she became a sword disciple.

That was right.

To face fiends, she too had to become a ghost.

She had thought she was prepared, but she was not.

Half-hearted resolve was not enough to walk that path.

Only now did she understand why her master had warned her so earnestly.

Strength gathered in the hand gripping her sword.

---

It was only natural that cavalry was stronger than infantry.

Fighting an opponent on horseback was a tricky business.

An attack backed by a horse’s speed could easily tear apart a frail human body.

They were not only fast, it was hard to judge the distance as well.

But it did not matter to Gyo-ha.

If anything, they were easier for him to deal with than others.

There was a reason for that.

Koong!

When he stepped down, the ground shook.

The response was immediate.

“Hiiiing!”

The nearby horses panicked and reared.

The riders on their backs were thrown into confusion.

The Red Flame Unit’s horses had been raised as warhorses and had charged through countless battles, so they did not back down even before a master’s killing intent.

That was why the Red Flame men could not help but be shaken.

Some of them were thrown from their mounts.

Gyo-ha did not miss his moment.

He thrust out his palm.

Wild Ruin Strike, simplified form.

“Kreuk!”

Blood sprayed up in a ring.

A swirling gouge was left carved across a man’s abdomen.

Gyo-ha thrust out his other hand.

The Red Flame Unit man on the ground tried to react.

It was far too late to swing his saber.

He hurriedly threw a punch instead.

Kkwadeudeuk.

But Gyo-ha snapped his hand aside, his wrist twisting until the bone burst out.

“Uwaagh!”

Gyo-ha’s fist dropped onto the screaming man’s head.

Blood spread across the ground.

Silence fell over the battlefield.

One flank of the encirclement had collapsed in an instant.

The silence did not last long.

It was the captured sword disciples who shattered it.

They threw themselves barehanded at the Red Flame Unit men.

Those whose hands had been cut off attacked with their feet and their teeth.

Gyo-ha was about to hurl himself straight toward the Sword Queen.

It was because her wounds were severe.

At that moment, his eyes met the Sword Queen’s.

She flicked her gaze to the side.

Gyo-ha understood what she meant.

He immediately changed direction and shot off to the side.

His body tore through the air.

Gyo-ha’s fist drove toward a Red Flame Unit man.

The man hastily raised his saber to block.

The saber shattered and the fist slammed into his body.

The impact bent the horse’s spine.

Naturally, the rider’s body folded in half as well.

He was dead then and there.

“Th-thank…”

The freed sword disciple tried to express her thanks, but Gyo-ha was already in motion again.

“…Do not face him head on. That one is a monster!”

The Sword Queen and Gyo-ha.

Compared to the two, the Sword Queen was stronger.

No one could deny that fact.

She was an absolute master.

Yet the men of the Red Flame Unit felt greater terror from Gyo-ha.

Those who died at the Sword Queen’s hand did not even feel their deaths.

Some even felt awe in their final moment.

Her sword existed in a realm no mere human could reach.

But Gyo-ha was different.

His was primordial violence.

Kwajik.

A man screamed as his leg was snapped away, bone bursting out through the flesh.

Even when they tried to bind him with ropes, it was the Red Flame Unit men who were dragged along.

Groans leaked out from survivors scattered across the ground.

Gyo-ha passed them by without a glance.

He knew they were already powerless.

There were others whose task it was to finish them off.

A sword disciple picked up a saber that had been cleaved in half.

She thrust it into the neck of a fallen Red Flame Unit man.

Of course, there were still those who tried to use the sword disciples as shields.

But Gyo-ha was not like the Sword Queen.

He had no personal feelings toward them, so he could act with cold precision.

Gyo-ha’s palm touched a sword disciple’s side.

A light impact.

Her body was shoved sideways.

‘As long as they don’t die.’

He kept his touch measured.

At the same time, the Red Flame Unit man’s face twisted in panic.

Gyo-ha’s foot came down like lightning.

Kwaang!

The Red Flame Unit man crumpled.

The sword disciple who had been knocked aside climbed back to her feet.

Her face was contorted with pain, yet gratitude shone in her eyes.

Limping, she walked toward the Red Flame Unit man.

Meanwhile, Gyo-ha was already moving toward his next target.

---

The wind on the battlefield was changing.

The three of them could feel it. No more sword disciples were being brought in as hostages.

Wild Gale Saber and Short-Trunk Man clicked their tongues at the same time.

The only bit of good fortune was that the Sword Queen’s condition was already bad.

She looked as if merely standing was a struggle.

‘The tide has already turned.’

There was nothing that could change that now.

Even so, the moment they looked at the Sword Queen, a chill ran through the two of them.

“…”

She looked as if she could collapse at any moment.

Yet her eyes now held only the two of them.

The wavering had vanished.

She slowly raised her sword.

They both stepped back on instinct.

The tip of her sword tracked them, as if the blade had split into two.

Chaejaeng!

Clear metallic notes rang out from axe and saber.

Barely managing to block the strike, the two of them frowned.

Was this truly the strength of an old woman who looked like she could die at any moment.

But soon they saw the Sword Queen stagger.

Her thigh was stained red.

The wound she had taken earlier had split open.

‘Right. Time is on our…’

Kwagang!

An explosive sound rang out from behind them.

Something crashed down beside the three of them.

“Ugh…”

A dying man.

He was one of the men from the Red Flame Unit, one of Wild Gale Saber’s own subordinates.

His body was a wreck, as if struck by a boulder.

They had no idea what technique could have done it.

When they glanced back, they saw someone driving the men back mercilessly.

“…Do your subordinates weigh on your mind?”

It was the Sword Queen.

Wild Gale Saber’s lips twisted. The situation had changed.

‘No.’

It was bluff.

He still had plenty of subordinates left.

He could not possibly fail to deal with one half-dead old woman.

Short-Trunk Man seemed to think the same, nodding with a grim face.

Saber and chain-sickle darted in toward the Sword Queen’s head and waist.

From different directions.

Tadang!

The saber and chain-sickle were knocked aside.

Yet something strange flickered in Wild Gale Saber and Short-Trunk Man’s eyes.

The sound had split as it rang out, unlike before.

It meant that small cracks were beginning to form.

The clash continued.

Short-Trunk Man followed up by swinging his axe.

Tang!

His hand was knocked backward.

In that brief time, Wild Gale Saber finished his preparations.

A technique from his exclusive saber art, the North Wind Blade Art.

North Wind Wild Dance.

Wild Gale Saber’s saber shot forward.

Kwaang! Kwagang!

Saber strikes poured in without a break.

“Mm!”

A furrow formed on the Sword Queen’s brow as she was pushed back.

The tip of her sword was trembling. Unlike before, she could no longer fully disperse the impact.

As soon as Wild Gale Saber’s assault ended, Short-Trunk Man’s axe came rushing in while he caught his breath.

The Sword Queen blocked it with her sword.

Yet this time the axe did not bounce away as it had before.

‘Her strength is gone.’

Wild Gale Saber and Short-Trunk Man smiled at the same time.

Now there was truly not much left.

Their attacks grew fiercer.

The Sword Queen’s clothes were torn and soaked with blood, to the point where their shape was hard to make out.

She could only keep retreating.

Each time she did, the two men’s spirits burned higher.

At last, Wild Gale Saber’s blade sliced across the Sword Queen’s shoulder.

Chwaak!

Blood splashed through the air.

The hand gripping her sword shook from the impact.

Short-Trunk Man’s eyes quivered with joy when he saw it.

This was it.

Yet it was Wild Gale Saber, who had cut her, that noticed something strange.

‘When did it get this quiet?’

He could hear the sounds of fighting.

But those sounds seemed to come from far away.

Unease prickled at him as he flicked his eyes aside and saw a shadow approaching him.

“…!”

Wild Gale Saber broke off his attack.

But Short-Trunk Man, blinded by the chance to bring down the Sword Queen, pressed forward instead.

Koong.

The ground rumbled.

It was only the sound of a footstep, yet it boomed like thunder.

Then a fist fired like a cannon shell, tearing through the air toward the two of them.

Wild Ruin Strike.

Kwagagagang!

The impact sent both their bodies flying backward.

“Keulek.”

Short-Trunk Man lay on the ground coughing up blood.

Wild Gale Saber, who had at least braced himself, managed to stay standing.

Even so, his condition was far from good.

Both arms throbbed even though he had blocked with his blade.

When he slowly lifted his head, he could see a man walking out through the dust.

Steam was rising from his back and shoulders.

His once-soaked clothes and hair had already dried.

Each time he walked, his hanging hair swayed like a tail.

The man’s eyes were those of a beast, not a human.

“…What are you?”

“Gyo-ha of Kunlun.”

Gyo-ha answered briefly.

He loosened his shoulders as he looked at Wild Gale Saber.

Ttudeudeuk.

His shoulders screamed in protest. That last strike had been quite a strain even for Gyo-ha.

On top of that, his body was a wreck from rushing to take down his enemies.

Even so, he could still run.

He could still throw his fists.

That was enough.

At Gyo-ha’s movements, Wild Gale Saber checked behind him.

The battlefield was a mess.

The tide of battle was turning.

A fight that had been all but won was collapsing in an instant.

When he looked to the side, he saw Short-Trunk Man hastily circulating his qi and regulating his breath.

Doing that in the middle of a fight was little different from suicide.

Seen the other way, it showed just how desperate things were.

His internal injuries were worse than they looked on the surface.

“Ha. Useless bastards.”

There was not a single man who was any real help.

Wild Gale Saber irritably ran a hand through his hair.

The only consolation was that the Sword Queen was no longer in any state to fight either.

Unlike Short-Trunk Man she had not sat down to regulate her breathing, yet she was watching them while trying to steady her breath.

“Kiddo. Gyo-ha of Kunlun, was it?”

Wild Gale Saber gave his saber a big swing.

Even after such a long fight, his aura had not diminished.

“Come on in.”

Wild Gale Saber crooked a finger at Gyo-ha as he spoke.