Clash

With the Bound-Hand Duel finished, the Jeokgeondang’s hideout was loud and lively. It had started on an ugly note, but the place was in fairly high spirits now. Whether it was Duho breaking open every wine jar in the storeroom or the fact that a way out with their lives had opened, I don’t know. In any case, once everyone had a cup of wine in them, the mood eased considerably.

Duho tipped his cup back in one go and spoke.

“So, what should I call you? Boss? Brother? Young master? Let’s hear it.”
“Master?”
“…Somehow that’d make me a dog.”

Duho muttered it to himself, loud enough for the whole room to hear.

Sure enough, this one is a pleasure to tease.

I huffed a laugh and said,

“Call me whatever suits you. Big Brother, like the men under you do.”
“Mujin, then…”
“With a ‘sir’ on the end.”
“I’ll just call you Young Master.”

It seems he’d sooner die than call me Brother or hang a ‘sir’ off my name. For my part, I didn’t much care what I was called. He was a comrade-in-arms who had saved my life at Blood Sand Plain as often as I had saved his, and a form of address was neither here nor there.

“We’ve settled what you call me, and your men have agreed to come under me. I’ll pour a round to mark it.”

I got up from my seat and lifted the wine jar. Making a show of taking up the gourd dipper to scoop it out, I let the black pill I had prepared beforehand slip from my sleeve. I made sure it had dissolved and vanished into the wine, then filled the dipper and went around the whole bandit gang. I poured a cup for myself as well, and spoke.

“I know our first meeting wasn’t a pleasant one. Some of you are bound to be holding a grudge. But like it or not, you’ve come under me, so let’s wash it down with a drink.”

I looked over the Jeokgeondang men one by one, smiled, and raised a fist.

“Well — if it still doesn’t sit right with you, we can settle it with this. I’ll take on anyone, any time. Come ahead.”

“Come on, Big Brother, that’s a cheap threat.”
“After watching you beat Boss Duho like that, what lunatic is going to take a Bound-Hand Duel with you, Big Brother?”

The men grumbled, but their faces were bright all the same. Some of it was the wine lifting their spirits; most of it would be the relief of not having to run any more. By rights they were in line to be taken by the soldiers, hauled off to the magistrate’s office with no way out, and come to grief there. I had opened them a way to live instead, so of course their minds were at ease.

“Drink this and let’s forget what happened before.”
“Drink!”
“Whoaaah!”

The men cheered and drained their cups. Every one of them was laughing over the wine and the food. All but one, who let out a groan full of pain.

“Kuuugh…!”

It was the deputy boss.

Black veins writhed up like earthworms across his face, his neck, his forearms.

“Boss! Are you all right?”
“Poison — is it poison?”

The men caught hold of the deputy boss in alarm and looked at me.

I took my spear in hand and spoke to him.

“So it’s you. The one who killed those people.”

The pill I made reacts to anyone who has trained in the demonic arts. Swallow it with that training in you, and black veins come up on the skin, just as they had on the deputy boss. A little pain came with it, but only for a moment.

The deputy boss rose to his feet. The black veins had swollen fit to burst, and the sight of them was hideous beyond words. The pain had died down. He glared at me with bloodshot eyes. His palms were stained black.

Black Snake Palm.

The deputy boss reached a hand toward the men gathered around him.

“All of you, get back!”

I drove my spear forward.

— CLANG!

An instant before his hand reached one of his men, my spear barred the way. Spear and palm collided, and the recoil ran heavy back up the shaft.

Strong.

From the bearing he gave off, he looked to be a mid second-rate. But that’s fine. I’m no ordinary man newly into second-rate myself. When martial prowess falls short, you make it up with something else. It comes down to using the spear’s reach to my advantage and working my way past his guard.

“Aaaagh!”
“What is that! His hand’s gone black!”
“Run! It touches you, you’re dead!”

The hideout had been a drinking party a moment ago; it turned to bedlam in an instant. That was how bad the situation had become. Between the hideous bulging black veins and the hands stained black, the deputy boss looked less like a man than like a monster.

“Get a hold of yourselves, you bastards! Everyone back!”

Duho snatched a man who stood gaping by the scruff of the neck and flung him back.

The deputy boss’s brows drew together as he asked,

“How did you know I’d trained in the demonic arts? Is that why you used a Black Vein Pill on me?”
“I have my ways.”

At that he ground his teeth, and they gave a grating creak. Hard enough that I half expected them to snap.

“I’ll shut that mouth of yours for good.”

He kicked off the floor and rushed me. The blackened palm came flying at my chest. A simple attack, but there was no doubting its force. The mark of the Black Snake Palm was that a graze was enough for the demonic art to soak in and leave an internal injury. Against anyone else it would have been formidable. But he was facing me.

The weapon I handle is the spear, and a spear has long reach. I doubt he’ll get so much as a chance to graze me.

— CLANG! Whooosh!

The shaft dug in against the inside of his wrist and knocked it outward. His hand split empty air. I went for the opening and drove the spear at his flank.

“Ngk!”

He recoiled in fright and gave ground. I didn’t charge after him; I set my stance.

No need to chase him.

Charging blindly at a man using martial arts you don’t know is a bad idea. Experience taught me that much. More than once or twice I had gone in knowing nothing and nearly died for it. That lesson was learned in the body.

The Black Snake Palm is a martial art I only ever heard spoken of at Blood Sand Plain. All I know is that taking a demonic art leaves you with an internal injury. So rather than leap in rashly, I stick to the textbook: use the reach, watch for an opening.

“Not bad, for a boy!”

He drew demonic qi up into his hands and came at me again. This time he went for my ankle.

— CLANG! Shwip!

I knocked the hand off my ankle with the spear and hauled the weapon back in the same motion. The blade swept toward his own ankle, and he leapt straight up on the spot in shock. Where it passed, it left a long line scored in the floor.

“You hop about like a rabbit.”
“Why you—!”

The taunt had landed, it seemed. He closed the distance in one go, aiming at my face. My mouth, more precisely, I suspected. He must have been sick of hearing me needle him.

— CLANG!

I brought the spear up and knocked the attack aside, then swung the raised shaft straight back down. The blow came at the crown of his head, and he crossed both hands to block it. My spear did not break through them. No. It was being pushed back, little by little.

The internal energy I’ve gathered still isn’t enough. I didn’t force the attack; I drew the spear back and gave ground.

— CLANG! CLA-CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The sharp ring of metal carried through the hideout. I played the spear’s advantage and batted his attacks aside, over and over. It looked like easy blocking. It was not. Every blow I turned sent a massive shock through me and set my body shaking. Thanks to all the punishing training, I didn’t buckle.

Sure enough, training never betrays you.

“Damn it all…!”

His face went red, then livid, and burned. He’s the stronger of us and he can’t land a telling blow. It must be maddening.

Just then Duho and the bandits, who had been watching it all dumbstruck, came back to themselves and took up their weapons.

“Big Brother! We’ll help you!”
“Weapons up!”

I shouted at them as they made to run in.

“Stay back, you’re in the way! With your skill it’s a dog’s death and nothing else. Get outside, now! Go down to the foot of the mountain and you’ll find the magistrate and his soldiers waiting. Go and ask for help!”

At that, Duho asked,

“What? I thought the soldiers had the place surrounded?”
“Idiot. You believed that?”
“Ah, hell — you swindling bastard!”

He spat the curse out and shouted at his men.

“We’re bolting, all of you! Move!”
“What about Big Brother, then?”
“That’s not for you to worry about! Running fast is how you help, so no more talk — run!”

At Duho’s word the men cleared out of the hideout fast. Before he followed them, he turned back and shouted to me one last time.

“Young Master! I’ll be back soon — hold out!”

Then he was gone from the cavern, and the emptied hideout held only the two of us, the deputy boss and me.

I shifted my grip on the spear and gave him a thin, nasty smile.

“Now that the nuisances are gone — shall we play properly?”
“Insolent brat! I’ll tear you apart!”

Black haze poured off his whole body as he came at me.

— BANG! BANG! BANG!

Spear and hand collided dozens of times, and every collision sheared great chunks off my true qi. It was the Black Snake Palm’s demonic qi.

A demonic art carries considerable destructive power through its demonic qi alone, without ever touching the body. But it doesn’t work on me.

My internal and external arts had come into harmony, my attainment in the Azure Dragon Art had risen, and pure true qi had gathered because of it. This true qi carried a demon-subduing nature. That is something I learned crossing blades countless times with masters of the demonic arts at Blood Sand Plain: the Azure Dragon Art’s true qi held a mystery about it, like the dragon itself. It made me eager to see what power it would show once I filled in the missing half.

“Why! Why does the demonic qi have no hold on you! Have you got some uncanny energy in you!”

It tore out of him like a scream. He seems rattled that I have held out far longer than he expected.

“No need for you to know. What’s a dead man going to do with the answer?”

Instead of an answer I drove the spear in.

The situation was not all in my favor, though. The demonic qi wasn’t giving me an internal injury, but my internal energy was burning down fast in exchange. If the fight went on like this, mine would run dry first. A straight contest was beyond me, as I’d thought.

“Hah!”

I gathered every scrap of internal energy I had left and swung the spear in a great arc.

— BOOM!

Shaft and both his hands met head-on. He staggered back. I used the recoil to whip my body around and ran for the way out.

“Where do you think you’re running!”

His bellow burst out behind me, a voice full of killing intent. Worked up past all reason, he came after me without a second thought, out to kill. The distance between us was a bare thirty feet, and it closed, and kept closing.

Twenty feet.

Ten feet.

By now his ragged breathing was right at my back.

At last light showed at the end of the hideout’s narrow passage. The moment I cleared it I threw myself forward.

“Die…!”

He broke out of the passage in that same instant, hand already reaching.

— Fwip, fwip, fwip, fwip, FWIIING!

A tearing burst of air slammed against my eardrums. Dozens of arrows passed over me and flew into the passage.

— Thunk! Thunk-thunk! Shunk!

“Kh — hukh…!”

The deputy boss could do nothing against the incoming arrows, and they buried themselves all over his body. His gaze dropped. Then he looked at me with disbelief on his face.

“Ah — the soldiers? They weren’t at the foot of the mountain. They were already waiting right here. No reason for me to stake my life on a fight, is there?”

I got up, brushing the dirt off my clothes.

“You… dog…”

He couldn’t get the rest out; he dropped backward in a heap.

Eyes still wide open, he was dead.

“Whew.”

I let out a long breath. Against a man trained in the demonic arts, it was a fine victory. I’d confirmed what the Lanzha drilling had bought me, and I’d banked real combat experience.

A satisfying result.

The voice ringing in my head sounded almost as if it were congratulating me on the win.