Chapter 182: A Man's Fight - 2
Chapter 182: A Man's Fight - 2
As Jiha and Lungtao strode toward each other, the tension in the crowd climbed higher.
Even once they were within striking distance, neither man slowed his pace, eyes locked on the other's face.
"Wha... what is this..."
The onlookers were stunned.
The Summoning War was fundamentally a fight for survival. Victory demanded any means, every method, and every conceivable scheme, so the idea of two combatants approaching each other this defenselessly was unthinkable.
Even more astonishing was that both men, as if bound by an unspoken pact, showed absolutely no intent to attack as they closed the gap.
They only halted when the tips of their feet were nearly touching.
"You came."
"Took you long enough."
Exchanging greetings in voices only they could hear, Jiha and Lungtao stared intently at one another.
All the trivial, messy history between them was forgotten now. Once a victor emerged, all of it would be erased, leaving only the path forward.
Reading that understanding in each other's faces, the men had nothing more to say.
Before they began, Jiha let his gaze sweep over the audience. In the VIP seats, he spotted Yura, Asira, Enril, and... Leticia, dolled up like the day's grand prize. She wore a white dress with floral ornaments in her hair, and when their eyes met, she offered a soft smile.
Her lips moved silently, shaping a cheer of encouragement. Scanning further, he saw the Commons from Blue and Purple. Since today was a special match, the organizers had allowed Jiha to bring them in to watch.
"Your people came too."
He saw not just his own contingent but also the Escort Guards who followed Narsha. Judging by the way they had taken over an entire corner of the stands, it looked like the whole lot of them had shown up.
"There's Narsha herself."
Following Lungtao's gesture, Jiha spotted Narsha in a corner of the VIP section, arms crossed as she looked down at them. The moment their eyes met, she abruptly jerked her thumb downward.
She was utterly convinced that Lungtao would kill Jiha.
"Her temper's as filthy as ever."
"Go easy on her."
"...You still want to marry me off to that?"
"Once you get to know her, Narsha's a good kid. You'll come to like her."
Lungtao smiled fondly. It was the kind of smile a father might wear after finding a worthy son-in-law for his precious daughter, and it made Jiha's skin crawl.
"Not happening. After I make you my subordinate, I'll just... work her to the bone."
"You'll come to understand each other in time."
"Enough. Shall we start?"
It didn't matter anyway. In the end, the loser would have to listen to the winner. The two men, who had been chatting casually while surveying the stands, turned to face each other. The amiable atmosphere, like that of friends of ten years, vanished, replaced by the cold recognition of an enemy who must be broken.
"Ah, now..."
Something was about to happen. The crowd held its breath, and just as the emcee Ruby was about to speak, the two men moved in unison.
Bam! Bam!
Their fists met with exquisite timing. Jiha, having anticipated this, launched a spinning kick, but Lungtao was already throwing a kick of his own.
Thwack!
Their legs clashed in the air before dropping. Lungtao, clad in his armor, naturally held the advantage. It seemed the accumulated shock would be far worse for Jiha—but he was reinforcing his body with Mana.
His expanded Mana reserves made his physical reinforcement even stronger. Where clashing against that armor had once cost him, even slightly, that was no longer the case.
"Ho-oh!"
Lungtao let out a hearty laugh, having sensed Jiha's newfound strength, and stepped in, closing the distance with nimble footwork. Then, belying his nearly two-meter frame, he unleashed a swift one-two combination.
"What the..."
Had he been hiding this true skill all along? Until now, Lungtao's attacks had been all power and single strikes—but this kind of combination? Startled, Jiha ducked his head low to dodge and slipped inside. But Lungtao, as if he had been waiting for exactly that, drove a knee kick forward.
This wasn't just any knee. It was a knee kick thrown by a two-meter tiger beastman, every inch of him packed with muscle and clad in full-body armor. Jiha had no intention of taking it head-on. He adjusted the trajectory of his elbow strike mid-motion and cut off the knee kick before it could fully extend.
Crack!
Both attacks faltered before fully landing, throwing them off balance. In such a clash, Jiha, at a weight class disadvantage, was inevitably rattled a bit more.
Lungtao didn't miss his chance. Recovering faster, he clasped both hands above his head and brought them crashing down in a massive overhead blow. A hammer punch. Its trajectory was blatantly telegraphed, but the sheer power usually made blocking unthinkable, forcing a dodge. When a two-meter tiger lunges at you, intimidation is the natural response.
'This is a provocation!'
The arc was similar to the downward slash he'd used with his sword before. He was telling Jiha to block it if he dared, even knowing Jiha could see it coming.
Drawing his sword and swinging would let Jiha seize the advantage. But with both men using their bare fists, the first to draw a weapon would lose! Even if he won the match, he would lose as a man!
With a fierce shout, Jiha simply threw a punch from where he stood. Lungtao, about to slam down with his full weight and the hammer punch, saw the fist flying toward his chest and hesitated for a split second. The power of choice shifted from Jiha to Lungtao.
After that brief moment of indecision, Lungtao broke his clasped grip and hurriedly blocked Jiha's counter. Like a bird shot from the sky, Lungtao's body was pushed back, and he flipped once in the air before landing.
"Ooooooh..."
"Waaaaah!!"
The audience, frozen by the rapid exchange, erupted in cheers. They recognized that beyond the two men's extraordinary skill, neither was drawing the weapon at his hip, each staking his pride on it. They were both clinging to a warrior's stubbornness.
A fight between men seeking a victory that went beyond a simple win!
"This is getting heated."
Lungtao wore a bitter smile. Jiha grinned back. "It is."
They'd both predicted today would be a decisive battle, expected it to be fierce, but even they hadn't anticipated this. Lungtao had provoked Jiha, daring him to block the blow he knew was coming, and Jiha had bulldozed through it with sheer power. Reaffirming that the other was a remarkable man, they couldn't help but laugh.
This bastard—I like him.
Jiha dusted off his hands and spoke casually. "So what now? Keep going with fists?"
"The audience is enjoying it, so a bit more won't hurt. If you want to use your sword, feel free to draw it."
"Oh? Should I fight with just one hand?"
After trading taunts, they lunged at each other without warning. This time, Jiha was the one who charged first.
'Can't let the tiger pounce.'
Jiha threw himself into the fray without hesitation. The surprising agility Lungtao had shown with that earlier combination was clearly a hidden trump card. A tiger isn't just strong; it's fast. A formidable opponent—but seizing the initiative was the only way to gain the upper hand.
Lungtao, about to spring forward, looked momentarily baffled as Jiha rushed him even faster. Then he laughed, realizing that Jiha had deliberately moved slower before, feeding his senses a false rhythm just to set up this exact sequence. He'd even let go of the momentum earlier to construct this very scene.
Having stolen his timing, Jiha closed in and unleashed a flurry of punches. Admiringly, Lungtao abandoned his leap and responded belatedly. Jiha ducked under a punch and slipped inside, snapping out a low spinning kick. The thigh Lungtao had been about to use for another knee kick caught the blow, causing him to stumble. Large frames like his were always relatively weaker in the lower body.
That moment of stiffness was the opening! Jiha took another step forward and landed a clean hit.
Crash!
The punch, reinforced with Mana, slammed against the armor, and of course, Lungtao was uninjured. But he felt it. Armor was ultimately just shaped metal. Pounding it with Mana-enhanced fists would eventually break it. Naturally, Lungtao wouldn't just stand there and take it, but... the key point was that the blow had connected.
Lungtao swung his arm swiftly, but Jiha deflected it, striking his forearm with a Hand Blade to push it aside. By blocking and redirecting the attack at its origin, Jiha forced Lungtao back again. But just when it seemed he was retreating, Lungtao smoothly launched a front kick.
"..."
Jiha, about to press the attack again, hurriedly covered his body with his arms. Lungtao was tall, but his lateral bulk was just as imposing; even a simple front kick felt like being hit by a flying log. It didn't deal damage, but it pushed Jiha back.
'Ah, weight class really is a problem you can't just solve...'
Jiha was fighting well, but he simply couldn't overcome the size difference. From the start, a human fighting barehanded against a tiger beastman—a species physically superior even among beastmen—was absurd. It was pure stubbornness.
But it was a man's stubbornness!
Jiha was searching for another opening to rush in when Lungtao raised a palm. It was a signal to stop. Jiha paused, watching to see what he would do, and Lungtao drew his sword.
"You have me at a disadvantage in unarmed combat."
"Already asking to draw weapons?"
Jiha's voice dripped with sarcasm, but inwardly, he was impressed. In truth, Jiha had held a slight edge in skill and tactics during their close-quarters fight. The stalemate was entirely because Lungtao's physical hardware was so superior.
By drawing his weapon, Lungtao was admitting that his physical attributes were the only reason he'd kept pace.
"I'm running on Mana too, you know."
"Even considering that, it's true you had me beaten. Draw."
"..."
At Lungtao's gesture, Jiha considered his choices. The Grade 3 sword at his back, and the Grade 1 Gladius on his belt. Which one would decide this?
'Not much of a choice, really...'
He didn't know what Special Ability Lungtao's scimitar—a Grade 2 Dirga Weapon—possessed, but a Grade 3 sword would never hold up against it. The moment Jiha drew the Gladius, Lungtao smiled and gripped his weapon with both hands.
"Then, shall we get serious?"
"I'll be using my abilities from now on."
Jiha declared he would now use the Special Abilities he had kept hidden until this point. There was no real need to announce it. But against a man who was acting like a man, he had to respond in kind. This was the rule of males vying for dominance.
In any pack, it was the one rule that must be followed by the males who would stand above other males. A man recognizes another man, and follows him.
Lungtao had humbly admitted his disadvantage and drawn his sword first, and Jiha, in turn, declared he would use his Special Abilities. Even in a life-or-death brawl, it was a battle of pride, a contest of mettle between men.
The audience watched the standoff, holding their breath so as not to miss a single word of their exchange as they drew their weapons. They sensed that this was on a higher level than any Summoning War match they had ever seen—a fight of mutual recognition that transcended the norm. The energy in the crowd simmered within the silence.
Whoosh!!
Jiha and Lungtao leaped at each other at the exact same moment. Reading that Lungtao was about to launch his signature leap-downward strike, Jiha took a light bound forward and flew. Low-altitude flight—a move meant to strike before Lungtao could reach the peak of his jump.
But Lungtao adjusted his grip on the sword and swung it horizontally, having predicted that Jiha would try to interrupt his leap.
'Dangerous...'
A Dirga Weapon forged by the Dirga always carried a Special Ability. Bran's weapon had one, so Lungtao's scimitar certainly did too. Yet even with every intelligence network at his disposal, Jiha didn't know what that ability was. And Lungtao was about to use it now.
Jiha's instincts screamed a warning. Should he use flight to pull back? No, the ability might ignore distance. In that case, he'd counter with his own best ability! Jiha instantly wreathed his sword with Wind Blade and swung it to meet Lungtao's scimitar. A strike imbued with an absolute will to win.