Shark Hunt (5)
Geum Cheon-gang couldn’t hide his confusion when he saw the polearm gripped in William’s hands.
A martial artist who used a polearm?
Ever since swordsmen had come to dominate the Wulin, polearm users had all but vanished except for a handful of sects. Or so he’d thought.
‘There’s no point in applying common sense to a foreigner.’
Geum Cheon-gang shook off the stray thoughts and glared at the opponent before him.
A foreigner wielding a polearm.
He couldn’t begin to guess why someone like this had suddenly appeared from the Hainan Sword Sect, but one thing was crystal clear.
‘He is not an easy opponent.’
The relaxed bearing of a man taking a casual stroll even while standing in the middle of a battlefield. That kind of composure only came from absolute confidence in one’s own skill.
He clearly had real combat experience, and those battle-hardened eyes suggested he was far from inexperienced. If anything, he was probably even more seasoned than Geum Cheon-gang himself.
Geum Cheon-gang swallowed dryly and assumed the opening stance of the Black Wolf Sword technique his master had taught him.
He quickly glanced toward the Hainan Sword Sect. No one seemed to be coming down to help. They were simply firing arrows at the Black Shark Squad from a distance.
If they stayed rooted in place like that, the Black Shark Squad’s casualties would only keep mounting.
‘...I have to either break through him or subdue him in an instant.’
If he failed at both, the entire Black Shark Squad would be buried on Hainan Island. Geum Cheon-gang clenched his teeth and unleashed the first form of the Black Wolf Sword.
It was a swift, light sword strike that mimicked a hidden wolf lunging forward to tear out its prey’s throat in a single bite. A terrifyingly fast slash flew straight for William’s neck.
‘Pretty quick.’
William slid the shaft of his poleaxe into the sword’s path, easily blocking the first move. When his opening strike was parried so simply, Geum Cheon-gang withdrew his blade without hesitation.
He knew better than to engage in a contest of strength against someone wielding a polearm. That would be pure insanity.
If he had tried to force a power struggle, the poleaxe’s blade would have ridden up his weapon and taken his head clean off.
‘He actually reacted to my swift sword and blocked it… What a troublesome opponent.’
What was the most important factor when using a swift sword?
Whether the opponent could even see the attack and respond to it.
A swift sword that abandoned everything else in favor of pure speed would lose half its power the moment the enemy could keep up and defend against it.
That was why Geum Cheon-gang decided to test the waters a few more times. It would waste time, but it was better to be thorough than to rush in half-heartedly.
Once again, Geum Cheon-gang’s sword flashed.
Three clashes.
When he saw the butt of the poleaxe pierce the exact spot where his head had been a moment earlier, cold sweat ran down his back.
‘He’s using the butt of the shaft like a spear. That absurd agility is giving me a headache.’
The poleaxe still hadn’t been swung even once. That was precisely why Geum Cheon-gang remained tense even as he continued his probing attacks.
He had already revealed the crucial information that he used a swift sword, yet the enemy had barely shown anything despite using such an unfamiliar weapon.
The opponent hadn’t displayed any proper techniques or internal energy manipulation. He simply kept jabbing with the sharp spike on the end of the shaft, aiming for vital points and testing him.
Because of the fundamental difference in reach, even that felt incredibly difficult to deal with. The way the weapon extended and retracted from a longer distance than a sword was extremely troublesome.
‘Is he trying to drag this out?’
The opponent wasn’t taking the initiative to attack. At this rate, the Black Shark Squad would suffer fatal losses and be wiped out before he could break through this foreigner.
Geum Cheon-gang glared at the foreigner with anxious eyes.
‘I have to break through no matter what.’
"..."
William looked at Geum Cheon-gang and sneered. Although he was on the defensive, he held complete control of the fight. The fundamental difference in reach and his defensive posture were completely restricting Geum Cheon-gang’s movements.
‘If I drag this out, he’ll have no choice but to overextend.’
Time was entirely on William’s side.
That was why he had no reason to be impatient.
If he simply continued to pressure his opponent slowly, the martial artist in front of him would eventually try to force his way through or kill him in desperation.
William maintained a stance that looked ready to thrust at any moment, slowly increasing the distance between them.
A distance where the swift sword couldn’t reach him, but the poleaxe could.
The basics of polearm combat were never to surrender distance. That meant Geum Cheon-gang’s only option was set in stone.
He had to close the gap somehow and settle the fight up close.
‘If I aim for the torso, he’ll just sweep it away with the shaft. I’ll target the hands instead!’
Geum Cheon-gang stepped into the footwork of the Black Wolf Step that he had learned alongside the sword technique and charged in once more. His body, as agile as his swift sword, closed the distance to William in an instant.
William tracked the suddenly accelerating movement with his eyes. It wasn’t a speed that surprised him—he had faced opponents even faster than this. He slipped the small round object hanging at his waist onto his left hand and pushed it into the path of the flashing sword light.
A metallic scraping sound rang out, and Geum Cheon-gang’s body lost balance, staggering.
"Ugh…!"
‘What is that?’
It was a small, round shield that had been hard to see clearly in the dark night. Geum Cheon-gang instinctively realized his sword had been deflected by it.
He immediately rolled backward.
In his field of vision, the poleaxe’s blade passed by dangerously close. If he had been even a fraction slower, one of his limbs would have been sent flying through the air.
Humiliating as it was, it was better than dying. Geum Cheon-gang used the Falling Swallow Step to rise from the dirt-covered ground and looked at William with a troubled expression.
‘A shield…?’
A poleaxe was surprising enough, but a shield as well?
Geum Cheon-gang felt genuine bewilderment at the foreigner’s equipment.
‘I’ve never learned how to fight someone using a shield.’
It was clearly just a small round shield barely large enough to cover the face, yet fighting this man felt like battling someone who had their entire body protected by a shield.
He hung the shield back at his waist and gripped the poleaxe with both hands.
The way he held it was subtly different from before.
Geum Cheon-gang raised his sword with a tense expression. The man who had felt like an impenetrable wall was now taking the offensive.
‘Even if I have to push myself a little, I’ll extend the length of my Sword Qi and strike… That’s my only option.’
It was the only way to overcome the fundamental difference in reach.
The more he extended his Sword Qi, the more his internal energy consumption would increase exponentially, but this was hardly the time to worry about that.
Geum Cheon-gang drew internal energy from his dantian and poured it into his weapon.
At the same time, William’s poleaxe began to glow with a blue light as it sensed the movement of energy.
William observed Geum Cheon-gang, who was holding a sword shining with red light, with calm, sunken eyes.
Even in the heat of battle, he hadn’t lost his composure. He calmly analyzed the movements Geum Cheon-gang had shown so far.
‘He’s quite fast, but his power isn’t that strong. It’s a sword style thoroughly designed to cut the opponent’s breath within a few moves. Since the sword’s length isn’t very long, for him to inflict meaningful damage on me, he has to step inside my range.
Or… he’ll have to overcome the reach difference with Sword Qi.’
William’s right foot pressed firmly into the ground, shifting his weight forward.
‘I’ll take the initiative!’
In response to that movement, Geum Cheon-gang’s sword flashed once more as he charged in. His target was the arm that was extended somewhat forward. Based on how the fight had gone so far, the foreigner would likely try to block or deflect the attack with his shaft.
Geum Cheon-gang planned to follow up with a continuous barrage of strikes and watched for William’s reaction.
And then—
‘What?!’
Geum Cheon-gang was thrown into confusion when William simply lowered his body and dodged the attack entirely.
Because the image of the man stubbornly blocking every strike had been burned into his mind, he had unconsciously ruled out the possibility of the opponent choosing to evade.
And now he had to pay the price for that mistake.
William’s poleaxe spun for the first time, bringing the blade toward his opponent. The target was the ankle. Geum Cheon-gang instinctively burst out a wave of energy from his toes in response to the unexpectedly nimble movement.
It was an attempt to create distance somehow.
William wrapped aura around his body and deflected the energy wave. He had faced enemies who tried this kind of trick as often as there were pebbles on the roadside.
He hooked the curved, hook-like part beneath the poleaxe’s head around Geum Cheon-gang’s right ankle and pulled.
The body that had been trying to bounce away with powerful force was forcibly stopped, causing Geum Cheon-gang to fall backward.
His right foot had been caught by the poleaxe, completely destroying his balance.
William immediately recovered the poleaxe and thrust it toward Geum Cheon-gang’s chest.
A simple thrust. But the most threatening move of all.
Geum Cheon-gang rolled sideways and got to his feet.
If he had been even a little slower, his heart would have been pierced. He sprang up and looked at William with a tense face.
‘If I hadn’t rolled quickly, I would have died right there.’
The bizarre application of techniques he had never seen in the Central Plains made Geum Cheon-gang recall the saying that the world was wide and full of extraordinary people.
‘If I survive this, it will be a good experience. If I survive, that is…’
The opponent was definitely not beneath him.
He seemed to be conserving his internal energy, using only the bare minimum, yet his movements were still incredibly threatening.
Geum Cheon-gang briefly considered overwhelming the opponent with internal energy, but immediately discarded the idea.
The person he was fighting wasn’t just the foreigner in front of him.
If he wasted any more internal energy, he wouldn’t even be able to run away, let alone fight the next battle.
‘It’s taken too long.’
Geum Cheon-gang glanced around with an anxious expression. He couldn’t help it; the unease was eating at him. Just as he feared, despite suffering considerable losses, the Black Shark Squad had managed to close the distance.
‘At least a third of them are already lying on the ground.’
The situation was bad. Therefore, Geum Cheon-gang threw every last bit of his pride to the dirt.
It was the only way he could complete his mission.
‘Martial artist or not, I must complete the mission. You stupid bastard from the Geum family.’
He had already used the Falling Swallow Step. What pride was left to lose as a martial artist? Geum Cheon-gang bent down, scooped up a handful of dirt, and hurled it at William.
Then, taking advantage of the moment William dodged the dirt, he used his movement technique once more.
The distance between him and William widened in an instant.
Fleeing in the middle of a one-on-one duel.
At the absurd action, William let out a hollow laugh and pulled out a gourd.
How many times had he experienced situations like this on the battlefield? He bit off the gourd’s stopper with his teeth and brought the opening to his mouth.
His cheeks swelled up in an instant.
It was a ridiculous sight that didn’t belong on a battlefield at all.
But he wasn’t doing this to make anyone laugh.
‘Based on the original novel’s description, he needs to light the fuse to detonate the Thunder Bomb.’
He planted strength in his right foot and gathered his internal energy. Using a method that any Central Plains martial artist would have cursed as utterly crude, he exploded the energy gathered in his foot and chased after Geum Cheon-gang’s figure.
‘It’s fortunate that the foreigner isn’t particularly skilled in movement techniques. I should have done this from the beginning.’
Fighting like a proper martial artist at this point? Ridiculous.
Geum Cheon-gang mocked himself as he pulled a Thunder Bomb from his chest. Since he was hidden among the Black Shark Squad, the opponent wouldn’t be able to stop him. He quickly took out a fire stick and lit the fuse of the Thunder Bomb.
‘I may have lost the duel, but I will win the war.’
He infused the bomb with internal energy and threw it. In the middle of a battlefield filled with arrows and death, a flaming orb shot forward like a cannonball, flying toward the Hainan Sword Sect.
A weapon of terror that could turn even a Super Peak expert into rags if it scored a direct hit.
For the first time, the Hainan Sword Sect’s formation began to retreat. The Black Shark Squad members waited at a distance where the explosion could barely reach them.
‘It’s over now!’
Once the Thunder Bomb detonated, the Hainan Sword Sect would suffer irreversible damage. Geum Cheon-gang forgot his fatigue and smiled with relief at the future that was about to unfold…
"...Huh?"
Just as the Thunder Bomb was shooting forward like an arrow, a stream of water appeared as if to say that hope ended there, cutting across the bomb’s predicted path.
The water stream forcibly twisted the Thunder Bomb’s trajectory and even extinguished the burning fuse.
In an instant, the bomb that had cost a massive fortune to create turned into nothing more than a rock and fell at the sect leader’s feet.
"Hah..."
Fire is extinguished when it meets water.
The laws of nature had suddenly poured cold water over the Demonic Cult’s plans.
More precisely, it was William, who had spat the water from his mouth.
"You bastard…!"
Geum Cheon-gang glared at William with a face full of rage. William simply lifted the gourd and shook it as if to say, look at this.
William wore a mocking smile so infuriating it made one want to curse out loud.