A Sea Dragon That Could Chew Through Rebar
In truth, Hari had her reasons for accepting the assassin guild's commission.
The territory where she operated was south of the Janggang—practically a holy land for the unorthodox and black-path factions.
It was a lawless zone.
The Sado Alliance, the unorthodox path's answer to the Murim Alliance, had long since stopped functioning, and even the imperial court had given up on governing the place. The southern borderlands were a living hell where foreign tribes rose up at every opportunity.
Official authority had become meaningless, and even well-intentioned martial artists fell for nothing. Such was the inhuman demonic realm of Murim's southern lands.
And so.
"You're going to the Murim Alliance with those people from earlier to get a Hopae, right?"
"And?"
"Mind if I tag along?"
Hari was ready at any moment to wash her hands of life south of the river and flee north.
If a white-knight Gallery user would just show up with a bang and do her a solid on a beast Hopae, life north of the Janggang would become so much easier.
Since things had already turned out this way, her head was stuffed full of schemes for freeloading a Hopae through Hae Suah.
"You know that's not something I can decide on my own."
"Then try talking them into it for me. If I walk up myself, they'll freak out thinking a fox is trying to bewitch them. People in this era who hate foxes start having seizures the second they see my ears and tail."
"Then just make them like you."
Of course, Hae Suah—hit with this heavy question right in the middle of heading back to the battlefield—was completely blindsided.
"You think I'm getting a Hopae for free? Me? I was out fishing and reeled in a Murim Alliance member, watched him fight Blood Sect guys, and helped him escape. At the very least, I earned my keep."
So.
"If you want a Hopae, then help me out for once."
"How am I supposed to help?"
"You already know what to do—that's why you're following me, isn't it?"
The assassin guild killers who'd led Hari here.
If she helped us eliminate them this time, there'd at least be room for mitigating circumstances.
Enough of a foothold that Namgung Lin might read the room and quietly lend a hand.
"Yeah, well, honestly that's the most legitimate way. I've got a pile of bad karma, so trying to freeload a Hopae would be pretty shameless."
"So you do get it."
"Would I be asking you to put in a good word if I didn't?"
Watching Hari grumble and mutter, I felt a random urge to knuckle-rap her on the head, but…
"Including the ones still hiding, there should be about fifteen of them. Seven in plain sight right now, but quite a few waiting in the blind spots, so I'll focus on cleaning those up."
"You sure about that? If you're cosplaying as a good guy, you need to make it obvious."
"I've got a plan, so don't worry about it—just do your job properly. Especially that Murim Alliance guy. Don't let him die. If he lives, we all get our Hopaes and live peacefully."
"Yes, yes, understood."
She was actually putting together a solid plan and giving orders, so even though she was annoying, it was kind of nice.
Anyway—ride this momentum and get back.
"Hah… hah…"
Having swung her sword through more than thirty exchanges, Namgung Lin gasped for breath.
Every time she was about to seize the upper hand, a hidden weapon flew in from a blind spot. And again—every time she was about to seize the upper hand—a hidden weapon flew in from a blind spot.
Even attacks she could have blocked cleanly had to be twisted away with every ounce of her strength because of the intervening darts.
She'd come within a hair's breadth of dying instead of killing, yet her expression was bright.
I can do this.
A first-class assassin.
The word "first-class" certainly carried intimidation, but the "assassin" that followed ultimately held them back.
Their technique for matching swords head-on wasn't particularly impressive.
Compared to the relatives who'd beaten her black and blue countless times in the Namgung Family, their sword strikes had the depth of a child's game.
Predictable. Honest.
"You. What the hell is that sword path? It's arrogance itself."
"No, it's not arrogance."
How could a mere assassin's sword possibly stand against the sword of the Namgung Family, which walked the path of hegemony?
The Namgung Family's sword was a Hegemonic Sword that properly blended the principles of fierce Strength and swift Speed.
That overbearing sword force didn't diminish even when facing two first-class assassins at once.
If anything, it stabbed into the assassins' openings all the more fiercely and swiftly, as if delighted to have more targets to trample.
"This is just the result of everything I've learned and trained so far coming together. It's not arrogance—it's simply that kind of sword."
Everything depends on how you set your mind.
It can take any form.
While helping Hae Suah begin the Samjae Simbup, Namgung Lin had gained a modest insight of her own.
If everything depended on how you set your mind, and if it could take any form—
Then I, too!
Wasn't it all right to be a little more confidently Namgung Lin?
Once that thought crossed her mind, she felt as if some great weight that had been sitting on her heart had been lifted away.
Her heart lightened by that much, her head—freed of its burden of debt—recovered its sharpness, and her vision clearly widened.
Clang!
At the very moment steel ground against steel and their swords locked in a contest of strength—
"Ghk!"
With nearly twice the force of a moment ago, she crushed the assassin's arm strength, forced his sword aside, and carved across his chest.
"Hoo… hoo… haah."
This was beyond consciously reinforcing specific body parts by circulating internal energy.
Internal energy had begun permeating every joint of bone and muscle, truly entering the realm of the superhuman.
The threshold of First-class.
"I should be thanking Miss Hae."
The wall of First-class that she hadn't been able to cross no matter how hard she tried these past few years—
There was the way Hae Suah had tossed out that she should try protecting herself this time, having sworn to protect others, and the way she'd approached asking for help entering martial arts. Helping Hae Suah had let her revisit her beginner's heart, and that had played a big part.
"Now then, next is—"
Just one of you left.
She was about to say it, puffing out her chest with open presence, when—
"Hahahahaha! Burn to death, all of you!"
—someone shouted.
A presence several times brighter than Namgung Lin's own, wreathed in Fox Fire, began setting the whole area ablaze, and screams erupted from every direction.
"That crazy bitch…"
I clicked my tongue at Hari, wreathed in Fox Fire, slamming meteor-like into the place where the assassins were hiding.
She'd said she'd make it clear she was helping us out, and this was how she planned to show it.
Screams and voices cursing Hari erupted from all over.
"Hari! You damn fox bitch, after all the money you took, you're doing this?!"
"Oh, I'm trying to live clean now. No more reason to keep rolling around in the southern shithole."
The assassin who'd been riding Hari's coattails and strutting around the most couldn't hide his shock at her betrayal and broke from the battlefield, vanishing into the forest she was sweeping through.
"Haha, internal strife! Excellent! Excellent! You wretched unorthodox street rats—dare to try murdering people in Hubei without the permission of the Wudang Sect's Taoists! Reflect on your sins!"
The senior brother Taoist, seeming to revert to his younger self's temperament, was spraying spit as he simultaneously drove the two remaining assassins before him.
That guy's eyes had rolled back—I didn't get the sense he was going to lose.
Figured he'd handle it on his own.
Whoosh!
In an instant, I threw myself at a hidden weapon flying in from a blind spot and snatched it.
"You okay?"
"Ah, Miss Hae…!"
The hidden weapon had been aimed at none other than the back of Namgung Lin's head.
She must not have registered it at all amid the chaos Hari had created; Namgung Lin looked back and forth between me and the dart in my hand with a startled expression.
"Caught one, huh?"
"Yes, I did it. I really wanted to show you I could at least pull my own weight."
Namgung Lin looked thoroughly proud of herself, unable to keep the corners of her mouth from rising as she looked at me.
The vibe that she wanted praise was so strong that I gave her a thumbs-up, then handed her the dart that had just come flying and casually stepped forward.
"Then, can I take that last one?"
"You want to step in yourself?"
"I learned martial arts too. I should properly fight at least once."
"Mmm…"
Namgung Lin looked slightly dissatisfied.
She clearly wanted to keep fighting more, so I wondered if I should yield, but—
"All right! You just saved me, and I'm sure Miss Hae wants to consolidate her insights. And the training dummy for that is right over there."
She stepped completely aside, leaving the disposal of the last remaining assassin to me.
"You people—do you take me for some monkey who can't even understand human speech?!"
Apparently offended by how we were treating him like a scarecrow, the assassin who'd been silent charged in with a do-or-die look.
But.
Crack!
"What?"
"Oh, this feeling."
I funneled the handful of internal energy in my body into my right hand and snagged the sword the assassin thrust out. The blade couldn't withstand the force of my grip and snapped.
Last time at the inn, that assassin's dagger had only managed to draw a little blood.
I figured if I mixed in internal energy, maybe this time I wouldn't even bleed—and it played out exactly as I thought.
No—better than I thought.
I'd only expected to snatch the sword, after all.
Anyway.
"Hahp!"
"Hup!"
Next up was hand-to-hand.
With the opposite fist—the one that hadn't broken the sword—I threw a hook aimed at his jaw. The assassin recoiled in terror and leaped back.
He quickly fled beyond the reach of my fist, and I saw him immediately reach into his robes to counterattack.
In that case—
Carry this speed straight through…!
Thwack!
As I spun my body, the thick tail of a sea dragon, wrapped in hard sea dragon scales, added the full force and speed of that rotation and drove a crushing impact straight into the assassin's jaw, shattering it clean.
"Urgh… ghk…"
The assassin toppled over foaming at the mouth.
"W-woooooow!"
Namgung Lin celebrated my victory with a barrage of applause, as if she couldn't believe what she'd just seen.
"Oh…"
I think I'm actually getting stronger?
As combat experience piles up, as data accumulates on what my body can do, as I start forming a sense of how strong opponents are—
I probably don't need to run first like I did when I met those Blood Sect guys last time.