This Isn’t Exactly A Good Choice Either. (5)

Whoosh!

A long spear carrying a fiercely intense energy flew straight at Chung Myung, as if determined to punch a hole right through his body.

Pale with fright, Chung Myung hopped around, desperately dodging the consecutive spear thrusts towards him.

“W-Wait a second!”

Chung Myung desperately tried to say something, but Seo Yeon-Shin had no reason to listen. Without a word, Seo Yeon-Shin chased after him and continued to jab his spear.

“W-Wait…. Wait a—”

Slash!

The spear finally grazed Chung Myung’s cheek, splitting his skin. The moment Chung Myung’s eyes went wide at the bright red droplet rolling down the wound, another thrust aimed right for his groin.

“Eeeek!”

With a desperate leap, Chung Myung dodged the spear and rolled around on the ground, screaming.

“Aaaah! My sword! I told you my sword broke! Just a second!”

“What kind of nonsense are you babbling about!”

From Seo Yeon-Shin’s perspective, it was laughable. A sword breaks on the battlefield? Then you die—who has time to flap their gums?

“No! Do you even know what fair and square means? How cowardly!”

“Cowardly?”

A thick sneer crept onto Seo Yeon-Shin’s lips. Martial artists might be provoked by such words, but to a soldier, it wasn’t even worth a yawn. On the battlefield, equipment is ability, and maintaining that equipment is also part of your skill.

Those who babbled about fighting on completely equal terms didn’t even dare deserve to wear the armor of the military.

“If you’re done talking crap, hurry up and die!”

“Eeeek!”

Chung Myung rolled around on the ground with a face that looked like his neck was already on the chopping block of hell.

“I-I’m gonna die! I’m really gonna die! Help!”

“Help my foot.”

Baek Cheon furiously rubbed his face with both hands.

“That’s why I told you to go swap your sword first.”

“What, do you want us to carve ‘We’re from Mount Hua’ on our foreheads while we fight?”

“Well, that’s true, but.”

“Think about it carefully. Is it better to get stabbed to death by that old man’s spear, or to have the Sect Leader personally carve plum blossom patterns into your forehead?”

“…Wouldn’t it be my skull instead of my forehead? Besides, at this rate, he’s actually going to die.”

“…Honestly, I kind of wish he would.”

Even as he said that, Baek Cheon fumbled at his waist and unbuckled his own sword.

He would have loved to tell him to try fighting with empty-hand martial arts, but the force behind Seo Yeon-Shin’s spear was clearly no joke. No matter how much Mount Hua’s disciples were required to learn unarmed combat, they were fundamentally a swordsmanship sect. This wasn’t an opponent you could face with unfamiliar martial arts.

“Hey!”

Baek Cheon threw the sword in his hand toward Chung Myung.

At that, Chung Myung—who had been desperately dodging Seo Yeon-Shin’s incoming spear—snapped his eyes open, sprang into the air like a carp, caught the flying sword, and drew it in a single motion.

“Kahaak!”

Letting out a beast-like screech, Chung Myung landed on the ground with wild, rolling eyes.

“You scheming bastard! Bullying someone with no weapon?”

“What kind of dog droppings—”

“Quiet! Now I’ll teach you some manners and decency—”

Snap.

“…”

Chung Myung stared blankly at the sword in his hand. With a single clean sweep of the spear, the sword had snapped in half like a rotten piece of wood. Chung Myung muttered as if his soul had left his body.

“I am definitely hunting down the guy who sold me this…”

“Die!”

“Eeeeeeeeek! A sword! Quickly, throw another sword!”

At those words, swords flew toward Chung Myung from all directions. Snatching another sword out of midair, Chung Myung barked out,

“I am remembering the bastard who threw this without its scabbard!”

“You complain even when I give you one.”

No sooner had Chung Myung grabbed the hilt than Seo Yeon-Shin’s spear flew in again. Who knew better than a northern soldier when poorly made weaponry was most fragile? Seo Yeon-Shin’s spear expertly struck the exact point where the center of gravity of the sword lay.

Clang!

But this time, Chung Myung’s sword did not break. Of course, it wasn’t because it was a better-conditioned blade.

“Ugh… This is ridiculously tiring.”

Chung Myung wiped away cold sweat as he looked at the sword qi coating his blade.

“What on earth did he do?”

Seo Yeon-Shin looked at Chung Myung’s sword in bewilderment.

A poorly made weapon didn’t mean a weak weapon; it meant one with wildly inconsistent hardness. It meant that strong, dense parts and weak, loose parts were tangled unevenly inside a single blade.

Such a sword wouldn’t become sturdy just because you forced strong qi into it. Rather, the weak parts wouldn’t be able to handle the force of the qi, causing the sword to shatter.

“What do you mean, ‘what did I do’? I just wrapped the qi around the outside of the sword.”

“…Is that even possible?”

“That’s why I said it’s tiring. Oh man, I’m gonna die here, so hurry up and attack.”

“…Hearing you say that makes me not want to attack.”

“No, are you really going to play it this dirty?”

Seo Yeon-Shin let out a deep sigh. In all his life, he had never met a human being who spilled his own weaknesses so readily. No matter how seriously he tried to fight him, this guy just made it impossible to stay serious.

Damn it.

If he had his way, he’d love to leisurely drag out the time until that fellow’s internal qi ran completely dry, but to be realistic, he wasn’t exactly in a position with time to spare.

“In the end, clever tricks are just tricks.”

Seo Yeon-Shin pointed the tip of his spear straight at Chung Myung’s face. A well-honed aura protruded sharply from the spearhead.

“It’s over now, brat.”

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Hm?”

“Because I’m not going to kill you.”

Seeing the eyes visible through the mask curve into a grin, Seo Yeon-Shin stamped his foot down with explosive force.

“Die!”

Boom!

With how much internal energy he poured into it, the ground he crushed with his left foot exploded. Converting that force directly into propulsion, Seo Yeon-Shin shot toward Chung Myung like a streak of lightning.

There was no need for fancy techniques. Battlefield martial arts were characterized by simplicity and strength. Nothing else mattered besides cutting down and piercing the enemy right in front of you. Abandoning all complex forms, a strike maximizing overwhelming speed and intensity was launched at Chung Myung.

Target!

Murderous intent flashed in Seo Yeon-Shin’s eyes.

He already knew from fighting him that the opponent was strong. Both his mastery of techniques and his talent in martial arts had reached a level he could hardly handle.

But that was all.

If you lived your whole life on the battlefield, you were bound to run into countless people stronger than yourself. Battlefield martial arts weren’t a method to become strong; they were a method to kill the strong. No matter how much talent that fellow had for flying and jumping, if he hadn’t experienced a real battlefield, he wouldn’t be able to avoid this blow.

I’ll end it in one breath.

The tip of Seo Yeon-Shin’s straight-flying spear dipped slightly downward. This created a tiny opening that someone of lower skill would never notice. If he aimed for it on purpose, it was a single path of the sword that could reach his neck.

Since that fellow was strong, he would definitely notice this opening. Then what would he do? Desiring a quick victory, would he really miss this chance and try to engage in another clash of sword and spear?

Not a chance.

He would definitely aim for it. Absolutely. And that moment would be his end. Shoulder or chest—he would gladly give up whatever was required. In exchange, his spear would snap that fellow’s spine.

“Oh?”

Sure enough. Seeing Seo Yeon-Shin’s strike, the fellow naturally thrust his sword forward. Convinced that his trap had worked after seeing the angle of the sword tip, Seo Yeon-Shin boosted his charging speed even further.

“Uoooooh!”

Seo Yeon-Shin’s spear lunged straight for Chung Myung’s abdomen. At that moment, Chung Myung kicked off the ground, lifted his body into a spin, dodged the incoming spear, and thrust his sword directly toward Seo Yeon-Shin’s neck from midair.

An astonishing strike—closer to an acrobatics performance than martial arts. If he hadn’t anticipated it, his throat would have been pierced by this single blow. Yes, provided he hadn’t anticipated it.

“Hah!”

At that instant, Seo Yeon-Shin threw his upper body backward with all his might.

Swish.

For someone who was leaning forward while charging—especially one pouring their entire body’s internal qi into a dash—to suddenly lay their upper body flat was not as easy as it sounded. But having gambled on this very fraction of a second, Seo Yeon-Shin managed to pull off that difficult feat.

Slash!

The sword dug in right under his chin. The blade, glowing with pale blue qi, sliced off the tip of Seo Yeon-Shin’s chin like tofu.

Half an inch—if it had cut just half an inch deeper, the invading qi would have severed Seo Yeon-Shin’s tongue as well. But that half-inch difference meant it only went as far as splitting his jawbone.

Then only one thing remained. To drive his spear straight into the body of that brat still floating in midair.

Greed!

If he hadn’t been greedy and had simply tried to stab him straight in the chest, he wouldn’t have been able to escape with just this minor wound. But his greed to pierce the throat in one go decided their fates.

That is the limit of a martial artist who hasn’t experienced the battlefield!

The veins on the back of Seo Yeon-Shin’s right hand bulged disgustingly. Gathering every last ounce of remaining strength into his spear without a single shred of carelessness, Seo Yeon-Shin thrust his all-out spear strike toward the abdomen of Chung Myung, who was suspended in the air.

“Uooooooooh!”

Seo Yeon-Shin clearly saw Chung Myung’s rapidly retracted sword blocking the path of the spear.

It’s useless!

Crash-crack!

His spearhead shattered the qi surrounding the sword and smashed the blade itself into pieces. Seo Yeon-Shin clearly saw the sword blocking his path shatter into dozens of fragments.

It’s over—

At that moment, Seo Yeon-Shin’s eyes flew wide.

Just as his spear was breaking the sword and he noticed the masked man’s eyes curving into an arc, the man suddenly spun like a swallow in midair, dodging his spear completely.

No way? This guy—

Did he use the force of my spear in reverse and intentionally break the sword?

No, that’s impossible. If so, does that mean he predicted all of this? There’s no way something like that is possible!

But before his thoughts could even continue, Chung Myung swooped down on Seo Yeon-Shin like a hawk seizing its prey. Deflecting Seo Yeon-Shin’s reflexively raised left arm with his elbow, Chung Myung slammed his shoulder straight into Seo Yeon-Shin’s chest.

“E-Rrr-Aaaah!”

Boom!

With a massive collision sound, Seo Yeon-Shin’s body crashed into the ground. The hard earth and Chung Myung’s shoulder sandwiched him from front and back. Feeling an impact as if he had been struck by a giant battering ram, Seo Yeon-Shin vomited blood from his mouth.

“Cough!”

Seo Yeon-Shin’s vision went black. When Seo Yeon-Shin, who had momentarily lost consciousness from the unbearable shock, laboriously opened his eyes again, all he found was a man whose annoying smile could be sensed even through his mask, and the cold sensation of a sharp sword fragment pressed against his throat.

“Tsk, tsk.”

“…”

A voice full of amusement rang in Seo Yeon-Shin’s ears.

“You really shouldn’t have let your guard down. A man of your standing.”

Hearing the words coming from the masked man, strength drained entirely from Seo Yeon-Shin’s body.

Letting my guard down, looking down on my opponent… It turned out to be me all along.

A complete defeat with not even a shred of excuse. Overcome by the humiliation, Seo Yeon-Shin tightly squeezed his eyes shut.