The Nightmare Returns
CRACK!
The Blood Wave Squad member I'd kicked square in the head went flying backward.
He blocked it?!
I'd expected as much, but he still wasn't some ordinary low-rank martial artist. It had been a surprise attack, yet he'd crossed both arms to shield his face.
He tumbled across the ground with a noisy clatter.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!!
He finally skidded to a stop, leaving deep gouges in the earth. Even as he flew, right before my kick sent him airborne, he had shoved Namgung Sogyo into the arms of another Blood Wave Squad member.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Sogyo was clutched against the man's chest, her mouth clamped shut. Fire erupted in my eyes.
"Let that kid go!"
The Blood Wave Squad members glared back with bloodshot eyes, pouring out killing intent as if they were vomiting blood.
"What the hell are you?!"
"That girl wasn't supposed to have any guards!"
Hellish killing intent blazed from my own eyes.
"Get your filthy hands off her right now, or I'll make sure that even if you live, you won't be living at all!"
My words made the Blood Wave Squad members flinch in surprise.
"...You bastard! So you know who we are and still came at us!"
The clouds that had been veiling the full moon drifted aside.
Whoosh...
The snow flurries grew fiercer. The flakes, driven by the plummeting temperature, were closer to shards of ice now. They scraped across my skin like tiny blades.
The one who seemed to be their leader—a man with a pig's head marked in red blood—gestured toward the fallen man.
"Stop playing dead and get up! Taking one hit from some Namgung Family martial artist... I saw you block it in that split second!"
The Blood Wave Squad member on the ground didn't so much as twitch.
The full moon emerged. The world brightened.
"Good gods."
The fallen man was already dead, his neck snapped along with the two arms he'd raised in defense.
"This bastard isn't some ordinary martial artist."
The Blood Wave Squad members growled as they readjusted their grip on their hook-shaped weapons. The atmosphere around them shifted.
Whoosh!
Their hook weapons whirled through the moonlight. The one clutching the struggling Namgung Sogyo fell back while the remaining six surrounded me. Every direction was sealed off.
"..."
Snowflakes swirled. Sweat ran down my forehead and froze. The tips of my fingers slowly went numb as the cold sank in. White breath drifted from the mouths of the pig-headed Blood Wave Squad members.
The instant a crimson aura began seeping from their weapons—
"Attack!"
All six charged at once, pouring in like rice spilling from a sack. They held nothing back.
Thunderflame coiled around my entire body.
"This energy?!"
Their eyes widened. Before any of them could close the distance, I lunged at the nearest one as if to smother him. I caught the hook weapon flying at my throat bare-handed and drove my palm upward into his jaw.
CRUNCH.
His teeth shattered. I ripped the weapon free.
STAB! STAB! STAB!
I riddled his chest with the stolen hook. Then I clenched both fists toward the Blood Wave Squad members rushing in from either side.
I had drilled the martial arts I'd acquired over and over again, hellishly, relentlessly. Beyond mere mastery, I had melted them into my flesh and bone, layering them onto myself through sheer effort. In the process, the very foundation of those arts had sunk into every one of my movements as if it belonged there.
I recalled that moment in my mind.
Whoosh-whoosh.
A Blood Wave Squad member leapt at me.
"I'll deal with a nobody like you myself!"
His hook weapon came crashing toward my face.
"Hup."
Whoosh-whoosh.
I lifted my leg. Raised it high. Hooked my ankle around the wrist of the man holding the weapon.
"Huh?!"
His eyes bulged. I yanked. Drove him into the ground.
CRACK!
He slammed headfirst, upside down.
I remembered the battle in the pouring rain. My opponent then had been Jeokmaryeong, the Yama King of the Heavenly Demon Cult. As far as I knew, he was the strongest in pure hand-to-hand combat in all of Jianghu. One casual, dusting-off punch from him had made an enemy's entire head explode.
I imitated him.
Like this.
I spread my legs.
Lower the arms.
Vmmm...
Without my realizing it, crimson light was radiating from my eyes. It was the same phenomenon that appeared when I realized the Heavenly Demon's power to copy martial arts while chanting Namsang Samadhi.
And then... throw the punch like this!
My fist, wreathed in flickering Thunderflame, flashed.
The charging Blood Wave Squad members flinched. In their pupils, my bandaged fist loomed enormous.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM!
With thunderous explosions like lightning strikes, the heads of the men on either side burst apart. Their corpses crumpled amid the smoke, skulls half-crushed.
The remaining Blood Wave Squad members reeled in shock.
"Th-this is...!"
The power leaked out. Still nowhere near enough.
Nearly half of each of those two Blood Sect men's heads had remained. Jeokmaryeong had pure external force alone to blow the heads of trained martial artists clean off. I still couldn't perfectly replicate the extreme elasticity rising from the lower body or the precise application of strength at the exact right moment.
Still a long way to go. A long way.
While I frowned, the Blood Sect group in front of me was plunged into pure chaos.
"I-I've never heard of fist techniques this fast..."
"How is such a powerful martial artist even here?!"
The Blood Wave Squad leader barked at them.
"Don't just stand there gawking! Swarm him!"
"B-but, Leader! This guy's already way beyond an ordinary martial artist!"
With three of them slaughtered, the flow of the fight had shifted to me. Instead of them pressing me, I was the one pressing them. When I advanced, they retreated. The encirclement was no longer the issue; now I was the hunter and they were the ones falling back. Eventually they clustered around the man holding Namgung Sogyo hostage, keeping their distance and hesitating.
"Hah."
I wiped the blood from my cheek. The unfamiliar stance had left me winded; my breath was climbing all the way to my throat. I planted a hand on my knee for a moment and sucked in air. The Blood Wave Squad members all twitched, as if ready to exploit the opening.
"..."
But my frost-sharp crimson gaze never wavered for an instant. In the end, they couldn't move a muscle.
Between ragged breaths, I spoke.
"Put the kid down."
I drew three more deep breaths and added,
"Do that, and I'll be considerate—I'll just crush your heads cleanly."
"Y-you crazy bastard. If that's consideration, what the hell isn't?!"
I straightened up. With my breathing fully recovered and Thunderflame still faintly burning around me, I said,
"I got the idea from some black-rat pack of a group. Anyone who resisted them, they never simply killed. They turned them into human pigs who were alive but couldn't really be called living. Take a page from that."
"H-hiiik..."
The Blood Wave Squad members visibly wavered.
"Should we run?"
...What? Run?
Their words actually startled me. An impossible reality was unfolding right in front of my eyes. Martial artists were talking about running away. They kept murmuring among themselves. The Blood Sect had no pride of the martial world. No pride as martial artists either.
"Let's run."
Even the leader made no move to stop them. They edged backward, step by hesitant step. They even started carefully setting Namgung Sogyo down on the ground. I had said the words, but watching them actually try to carry it out made me doubt my own eyes. Across the Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic paths, anyone with even a shred of pride as a martial artist would never do something like this—this was the kind of thing only the lowest scum would pull.
So this is what the Blood Sect is.
I steadied my confused mind. Better this way, really.
They were never people to begin with. They're beasts.
Mumyeong's disgusted voice stabbed sharply into my mind. He himself was essentially an evil spirit of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Of course he wouldn't look kindly on the Blood Sect.
I watched them set Namgung Sogyo down and try to turn tail. I had no intention of chasing them. Sogyo seemed to realize it too. Color returned to her face. Our eyes met. I nodded once—It's okay. Just wait a little longer.
And then that voice rang out.
"No, no, no... This isn't right..."
Everyone froze. The Blood Wave Squad members were wearing pig-head masks, so I couldn't see their expressions. But the air they gave off was unmistakable. They were panicking—because the voice had come from among them.
"This is why you guys are no good. See? This is exactly why you don't work."
One of the fleeing group had stopped dead. A man in a yellow pig head. He had even thrown his hook weapon aside and just stood there.
"You—have you lost your mind?"
The Blood Wave Squad leader said in a flustered voice.
Chuckling, the man in the yellow pig head replied,
"And you still call yourselves the Blood Sect after this? No. No, you don't. Somewhere along the way the Blood Sect lost its own color. Actually, it's not just us. All of Jianghu has been losing its colors. Depressing, isn't it?"
Shiver.
It had only been once. But I could never forget it.
"What the—who's this unfamiliar voice?"
The leader was thrown into confusion. My pupils locked rigid. I could never forget this voice.
"It wasn't like this in the old days. We used to be purer. This crazy world. Everyone just picked up a sword, and somewhere along the line Orthodox, Unorthodox, Demonic, Blood—everyone became the same damn guy. This isn't right... Right? Yeah. Especially this kind of crap—getting so obsessed with your urges that you order a little kid kidnapped, try to carry it out, and then the second you're about to die you turn tail and run. Even the lowest scum wouldn't pull that kind of pathetic shit."
My pupils stayed locked. I could never forget this voice.
"You guys don't even qualify as villains. You're just a bunch of childish little shits. And because you're like that, this Jianghu full of idiots who only flex their power and think strength is the greatest thing in the world... ah, so basically..."
The man in the yellow pig head licked his lips with a nasty little smile, nodded, and raised a finger.
"You can't create any tension. You pig-dog bastards."
Snap.
He flicked his finger.
THUNK!
What punched straight through the leader's chest was a hook-shaped weapon.
"Guh... gaaah?"
The Blood Wave Squad leader looked behind him. One of his own men had driven the hook through his chest without a second's hesitation.
"...! Leader!"
The remaining members visibly panicked and fell into chaos.
"Y-you crazy son of a—guh."
Blood poured from under the leader's pig head as he flailed his hands.
SLASH!
The man who had ambushed the leader slit his throat. Then he yanked off the pig head he'd been wearing. He was a young man who looked barely twenty, with a boyish face. His hands were soaked in the blood of the leader he'd just killed. He raised those hands and shouted,
"Long live the Blood Sect! Long live, long live, long long live! With this, have I contributed even a little to Lord Blood Demon's domination of Jianghu?!"
The yellow pig head shook his head.
"No."
"Huh?"
The young man wore a blank expression.
Thrust.
Another hook punched out through his chest. Behind him stood yet another Blood Wave Squad member.
"I receive the command of the sole master of the Blood Sect, the Seventh Palace Lord."
"..."
Even in his final moment before death, the young man never understood what had just happened to him. The yellow pig head whispered to him,
"I care more about myself than Lord Blood Demon. Sorry."
"..."
"Don't worry. I'll devour the entire Blood Sect myself. I'll slit that Blood Demon bastard's throat soon enough too. Uhihi, uahahaha."
It was pure chaos. Namgung Sogyo was trembling violently.
"Ohhh. Look at the little missy shaking. You bastards. What were you doing not covering her eyes, huh?"
The yellow pig head strode forward.
"Eek!"
He roughly yanked Namgung Sogyo close, then covered her eyes. Then he turned to me and nodded repeatedly, as if asking for approval.
"I did good, right?"
Snow piled up. The sharp, ice-shard sleet buried every sound. I ground my teeth.
"...You crazy son of a bitch."
"Oho... ohahahaha! Looks like I've already been found out!"
The yellow pig head pulled off the mask. It was a man with pale, snake-like skin and a smile so wide it looked ready to split his face.
"Tada!!! Nice to meet you! Moyong Bi-gun!"
It was the nightmare that had begun in Obi-dong, where the Golden-Haired Divine Ape had been. Cold sweat broke out as I ground my teeth.
"Damn it. Why the hell are you here?!"
The man standing before me was Ryu Hwasa, the Seventh Palace Lord of the Blood Sect—the one who had thoroughly toyed with me in the past.