Conditioned Counterattack (4)

What is a human?
If, in his whole life, the greatest profit and bargain amount to nothing but killing and taking?
He can be no more than a beast.
The Heavenly Father granted us wisdom so that we might observe the martial world.
Surely He did not give us wisdom like a heavenly god’s just to shove it in a corner and let it stink of mold.
-William Shakespeare, <Hamlet>-

-Krreuk!!

The exchange continued.

No. It was the repeated cycle of one-sided strikes, too lopsided to call it an exchange.

Pavlov kept evading the 1200 Inch Punches with beastly senses, and I couldn’t land a single blow on his vital points.

At a glance it looked like he was merely charging in recklessly, but he was steadily closing the distance while detecting the flow of Natural Qi.

A feat close to impossible with human senses.

Yet Pavlov, who had deliberately shoved the influence of demonic-arts into half of his persona and gained transcendent, beastlike senses, was accomplishing that absurdity.

The idea was not merely to confine madness, but to compress its side effects and turn them into one’s power. It was ridiculously effective.

‘This is no time to be impressed.’

I widened the distance, evading Pavlov’s claw techniques and fist-and-kick strikes.

The idea of using the side effects of demonic arts, the very thing that leads to Qi deviation, as one’s strength gave me a great insight.

But right now, I had to bring him down and keep Irene Adler alive to secure the path that led to Moriarty.

Today, Sir Fawcett and that elderly postman might somehow save London.

But if I went down here, someone worse than the Vermilion Phoenix would drive this city into ruin.

As if I could sit by and watch that.

“You just can’t behave, can you?”

For a badly behaved dog, the rod is medicine.

If only I didn’t give him distance, he would be manageable.

How nice it would have been if I had learned the dog beating Golf Technique, the Kung-Fu said to be unrivaled under heaven for correcting a dog’s habits and striking a ball.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t learned staff arts, but I couldn’t see anything long around here that I could use as a cudgel.

The only weapons I could use were these two fists and legs.

I thought the 1200 Inch Punch would be enough to deal with that hulking man, but it had been blocked by that grotesque application of Two Face. I had no choice but to find another means.

What was fortunate, at least, was that perhaps because Pavlov had pushed his soldier persona to the forefront, whose destructive power and perception were beastlike and superior, every technique he threw was entirely linear.

The problem, on the other hand, was that his speed was steadily increasing.

Every technique at his fingertips was a simple, efficient motion meant to stab a vital point and take a life as quickly as possible, yet because of his inhuman reaction speed and that bizarre movement art that leapt at unexpected angles, I couldn’t properly evade without constantly unfolding Indra’s Net.

“Those eyes hold not even the shadow of intellect, yet…”

And there was one more thing that nagged at me.

I didn’t know how, but despite having lost reason, the impact that occurred whenever Pavlov threw a punch was still firing needle-sharp fist energy forward.

That method was a Qi-Force Long Needle, used for purposes such as inflicting internal injury on tumors formed inside the body and causing necrosis.

It was a technique only brought out when a skilled external-arts surgeon performed a Kung-Fu Surgical Operation, requiring deep knowledge and delicate circulation.

It was not something you could use after throwing away reason, yet Pavlov, charging in with beastlike eyes, would still occasionally unleash that sharp technique and threaten my acupoints.

“I see… so this was the source of the dissonance.”

It seemed that while the soldier persona was surfaced in front, the physician persona was clearly still doing its work behind the scenes.

To gather the power of two personas wholly into one under the single aim of destroying the opponent. Any sane person would fear the risks that would come after the fight and never even attempt it.

‘To break it, I either find the gap that forms between the two consciousnesses, crush him with overwhelming power… or else—’

An opponent who was a brutally bad matchup for the 1200 Inch Punch.

Then I, too, had to find another method.

Pavlov sensed the artificial changes that occurred in the flow of Natural Qi with animal senses, and avoided the 1200 Inch Punch.

If my guess was right, his consciousness was maintaining a state like a set of scales.

If the physician persona and soldier persona were in perfect balance, then the man who could hold a proper conversation earlier would not undergo such a dramatic shift, drooling and charging like an enraged bear.

In other words, the two personas Pavlov split through Two Face meant that while one rose above the surface of consciousness, the other could exert only relatively small influence.

The fact that he was now closer to a beast meant, as I judged earlier, that the soldier persona was exerting stronger dominance.

If Pavlov, dominated by his soldier persona, was reading and evading techniques no human could parse through beastlike senses and motion, then I should do the opposite. Strike with a technique that looked slow, yet was difficult to handle without human intellect.

‘The chances… won’t be many.’

That ‘conditioning’ he spoke of was clearly the process of making his body respond without passing through the brain, with the sole aim of avoiding the 1200 Inch Punch.

A simple method in concept—reading Natural Qi with activated senses and moving the body accordingly—yet one that ordinary people could not imitate.

All of it was possible because Pavlov had adapted to the 1200 Inch Punch in a short span of time.

To bring him down, I had to decide the outcome with the fiercest technique possible, without giving him room to adapt.

Feints would not work. Neither the principle of speed, nor the principle of illusion, could deceive him.

There are two methods used to bring down a beast.

Become a beast as well.

Or subdue it with an Academic Kung-Fu that held the highest Kung-Fu principles.

I had no desire to throw myself into the pit of stupidity alongside him, so what I had to pursue was rational Kung-Fu study, something only possible by drawing human wisdom to the extreme.

The 1200 Inch Punch was undoubtedly profound, but it was created for guiding the way. I had to choose something even more powerful than that.

Hard, Heavy, Overbearing, Fast, Illusory, Change-Up, Sharp, Soft, Slow.

Among the nine lineages that classify all Kung-Fus in the Martial World, the three that cannot be learned without exceptional wisdom are Soft, Slow, and Change-Up.

Soft is built on wisdom and perception.

Change-Up cannot be achieved without wisdom and movement arts.

“If I were holding a sword, it would be right to face him with Soft Sword or Change-Up Sword, but… with fists and kicks—”

What I needed right now was power that could knock down that huge body.

In other words, a fist that carried the principle of Slow, unfolded through courage and wisdom.

“Hunting, huh. It’s a shame I don’t have a proper deerstalker hat.”

-Tatat!

I shoved Pavlov back as he came within arm’s reach, widened the distance, and took a new stance.

A movement completely opposite to the precise exchange I had maintained without showing a single gap until moments ago.

I spread both arms wide and slowly drew a circle.

As the flow of internal energy that began in my elixir field circulated through my meridians, I unfolded the Cogwheel Method.

The cogwheel of internal energy that forced its way out through the acupoints across my body began moving the Natural Qi that wrapped around me, forming a spherical domain.

-Kooo…

I exhaled and gathered both hands before my chest.

含胸者 胸略內含 使氣沈於丹田也.
Those who contain the chest draw it slightly inward, making the qi sink into the elixir field.

Without pushing my chest out, I drew it inward and sent the Qi down into the elixir field.

-Sseuu…

With an inhale, I straightened my back.

拔背者 氣貼於背也.
Those who lift the back make the Qi adhere to the back.

The energy that had sunk into the elixir field surged again along my spine, rising toward Hundred Meetings.

I held my breath for a moment, waited until the Primordial Essence gathered in my forehead began giving off heat, then opened the meridians.

The energy poured down once more like a waterfall toward the elixir field, sweeping through my whole body while scattering a grand Yang aura.

能拔背 卽能力由脊發 所向無敵也.
If you can lift the back, power issues from the spine. Wherever it goes, it is without equal.

Tai Chi. After containing the chest and lifting the back, a rotation quickly follows, strengthening the Essence’s nature and preparing you to exert courage beyond your limits.

The internal energy that fell into my elixir field did not radiate a cool sensation as it did after completing the circuit normally. It boiled hot like lava.

Unlike an ordinary rotation, the Qi cogs created through Cogwheel Method firmly seized Natural Qi and moved with it, and by entrusting my body to the circular flow thus formed, I accelerated the rotation of internal energy without even needing to consciously force it. Cogwheel Tai Chi.

It was a secret Baritsu technique I could attempt only because the density of Yang Qi in the air had risen to an eerie level.

My body was heating up like a steam engine, and how long I could sustain it was unknown.

But from my softly clenched fists and both arms, I could feel fierce arm strength incomparable to normal.

“Come. I’ll face you with the slowest, yet strongest move.”

Pavlov showed a brief sign of wariness at my changed momentum.

It seemed his beastly senses had identified danger early.

But only for a moment.

Unable to endure my provocation, he charged again like a mad dog.

“Khahaaaah!!”

Pavlov surged in, kicking off the ground again and again and accelerating to a speed difficult to catch even with eye techniques.

I could see the other persona, compensating for intelligence that had fallen below even a spirit beast’s, wrapping dense fist energy around the giant’s fists as he transformed into a beast.

A combined assault of man and beast.

Yet a hunter who had taken countless beasts’ lives always knew the method.

Orthodox Tai Chi of the Wu-tang Clan, classified as Soft Punch and specialized in returning and nullifying the opponent’s attacks.

Baritsu Tai Chi used that as its foundation, yet developed in a completely different direction.

A martial study that used the principle of Slow, which few had mastered even in the martial world. It looked slow at a glance, yet gradually stole the space the opponent occupied. A Kung-Fu study closer to the art of war.

“Baritsu, Slow-Fist Tai Chi.”

With legs grown heavy as Mount Tai, I advanced one slow step at a time.

I rounded my motion around Pavlov’s arm, his nails sharpened, and swept it aside.