Now... Don't Talk Back (3)
Among the schools of jujutsu, the Summoning Type—especially techniques that call forth mythical beasts—are founded upon legend.
Four dragons had been summoned from the legend of the Dragon's Nine Sons, each of whom had something they particularly loved.
Sanye of Fire.Breathes gouts of flame.
Pyehan of Earth.Attacks with howling sandstorms.
Poroe of Wind.Unleashes sonic-boom shockwaves from its maw.
Bihui of Water.Imprisons foes inside orbs of water.
Three of them came charging in—all except Poroe, whom the princess was riding.
One-on-one, I've only got a shot against a single one of them.
The one I targeted was the earth dragon Pyehan, who came thundering forward on pounding strides. That it was the only quadruped, and so held a lower stance, played a part as well. I poured every ounce of power into my leg muscles and hurled myself forward.
A shrill ring of steel. My body was thrown a long way back.
"Kh."
It was a slash that would have severed the limbs of a jujutsu beast—a Nephilim—and all it had managed was a scratch.
"Did you underestimate a dragon? You're just another Namgung box-cutter, I'll bet―?"
The princess teabagged me at her leisure from the sky.
Grrrrrrr!
Apparently unhappy about being the first one cut, Pyehan twisted its body with violent suddenness and charged. By a hair's breadth I flashed the Changgun Sword in a single stroke—and a wall of sand surged up to catch the blade.
The dragons summoned through Guryonggusangbeop command the elements at will.
Which meant the others would too—!
A violent torrent of water and a pillar of flame came crashing in from the flanks at the same instant. Hydro Pump and Flamethrower, coming right up.
HYOOOOOH—
KRAOOOOOH—
Before I knew it, Bihui of Water and Sanye of Fire had launched a pincer attack, and I slipped past by a paper-thin margin. I nearly got steamed like a dumpling. Would've been delicious, too.
I guess those nine brothers really are as close as advertised. And that, right there, is both the strength and the weakness of Guryonggusangbeop.
I sprang into the air and attacked Pyehan once more. Apparently fed up with being the only one I kept targeting, the yellow dragon shikigami came straight at me. It shoved its gaping maw forward and vomited a scorching sandstorm. Bracing myself to be withered into a mummy on the spot, I raised my sword and thrust.
Gralak?
If the hide is that hard, then it's got to be here.
I succeeded in putting a wound on Pyehan's eye from a blind angle, with exquisite precision. The earth dragon, thrown into a panic, scrambled to drive me off. I darted in and out like a mouse and charged toward Sanye of Fire.
KRAOOH? Sanye, looking as if it had just been handed a gift, started to breathe flame—then froze. The sandstorm plastered itself across Sanye's body, where lava had been running like meltwater, and hardened on the spot.
Lava's cooler than people think, after all.
HYOOOOH—
Bihui of Water sprayed a jet from its mouth, trying to save its sandcastle of a little brother. I used that opening to double back toward the wounded Pyehan.
GRWAAARGH!
It poured a roar of misplaced fury at me—anger at the wound, anger at the team-kill, all of it dumped on my head. Without a flicker of fear I climbed onto Pyehan's massive frame and started hacking away like a man possessed.
"Honestly, is there not a scrap of learning in you? I told you a sword can't cut them."
Yongso Yulha shouted down from atop Poroe of Wind. Part of it was savoring her advantage, no doubt—but she was hesitating because of that team-kill a moment ago. Fire Poroe's sonic boom from here, and Pyehan would take the hit too.
A body covered in what looked like meaningless scratches. Sanye and Bihui, having shaken the sand off at last, prepared to attack once more. The Pyehan I was riding went berserk like a rodeo bull, trying to throw me off.
I won't last long on its back.
I drew a deep breath. I bent my upper body far back and swung the hilt gripped in both hands in a great arc. The Changgun Sword had no jujutsu effect to speak of, but it promised a lethal cut. A slash with everything I had smashed into Pyehan's armored hide.
KRAAANG!
Inverted scales shattered. Blood sprayed upward. Pyehan screamed.
GAGAGAGAGAGAK!!!
This was no longer an act. It had entered a state of genuine, all-consuming rage.
Provoke a dragon's reverse scale, and you never see a happy ending.
The ground of Valhalla Field heaved like a thing gone mad. Pyehan's own eyes went blood-red, and it began blasting sand at three times the speed. Unable even to recognize its brothers, it rampaged, biting and tearing at everything on the field. Bihui and Sanye stared blankly at their master, as if asking whether they ought to restrain their reverse-scaled sibling.
"Calm down—. Pyehan! Good grief~. What a mess this has become."
At last the Yongso princess's face twisted, and she brought Poroe down to a lower altitude.
"Hah.... Haaah...."
My heart felt like it was going to burst. I had driven Pyehan of Earth into a rampage. That was the best a perfectly ordinary nobody like me could do. Facing Bihui, or Sanye, or Poroe with the Yongso princess on its back... that was beyond me.
Watching the footage being broadcast to AI Hesed, the principal of Seonggwan Academy—Botan, the Wenqu Star—tilted her head.
"Hrm. Not a trace of cursed energy, and yet he stands against the Yongso clan's secret jujutsu with nothing but raw swordplay."
Fallen though they were, he was still a disciple of the greatest sword clan under heaven, it seemed. Botan's gaze, which had been watching with interest at first, gradually went cold.
"But that is all, I fear. A once-in-a-generation swordsman? A Sword Saint? He has not reached such heights. One dragon, and already at his limit, is he?"
Failing to finish even that one dragon and driving it berserk instead was a blunder, plain and simple.
"If his plan was to throw the stage into chaos with a rampaging dragon, he ought to have chosen Bihui."
The optimal play would have been to deal even damage to all four. But if that was impossible, and he meant to fixate on a single target, it should have been Bihui of Water. Had Bihui sprayed water, it would have doused Sanye of Fire's blazing momentum and hardened Pyehan of Earth's sand into useless sludge.
"Or else he should have gone after the Yongso girl from the very start."
He should have prepared a flight tool in advance, evaded the three dragon shikigami on the ground, and brought down the sorcerer riding Poroe. No—this was that child's only path to victory. She could tell as much without even using Miss Botan's Mystic Eyes, the Rune Eyes.
"Teacher. That's a strong person's way of thinking, isn't it? That kid—Beom—isn't an ordinary kind of strong."
The golden-haired girl watching the footage beside her flicked her fingers through empty air, and star-clouds gathered in soft, billowing tufts. A tiny star condensed at her fingertip. She was the wielder of a star-forging jujutsu that created stars☆.
The Greedy Wolf Star, who at seventeen years of age still held her seat among the Seven Asterisms!
Miss Botan blinked at her cherished disciple's out-of-nowhere remark.
"Eunha, what do you mean by that? Are you saying the boy Kim Beom is someone extraordinary, then?"
Hwi Eunha answered with nothing but a faint smile.
You've grown so much. My Beom.
The only person who ever defeated me.
"Hey. You only got nicked, so snap out of it. It's okay─."
At the center of the colosseum, the princess had brought Poroe down and was desperately trying to talk the rampaging Pyehan into calm.
KRAOOOOOH—
HYOOOOOH—
Sanye and Bihui, furious over what had been done to their brother, came after me. I made no attempt to fight back, and began circling along the edge of Valhalla Field.
Fwoooosh.
Flame skimmed over my head, and water orbs popped and burst as they hunted my body. Before long, a haze of steam was drifting over the floor. The arena had heated up like a sauna, thick and stifling.
The princess has to move before they catch me.
Either I get humiliatingly wrecked by Bihui and Sanye—or Yongso Yulha moves the way I predicted.
GRWAAAAAARGH—!
The sand Pyehan was blasting had thickened to something like a yellow dust storm.
"Cough. I just ate a mouthful of dust."
"Finish him already! Swordsman! Stop running around like a rat!"
"Is the princess weaker than we thought? She's got four of them out and she still can't catch a single non-sorcerer."
The jeers from the stands were aimed mostly at me, but people were starting to question Yulha's ability as well.
"Hmm. I just need to clear this away, don't I? Third!"
The princess covered her mouth with a sleeve of crimson silk and dropped onto Pyehan's head. Her eyes slipped half-closed as she recited the incantation.
"Return once more to True Earth—!"
⟨ True Earth ⟩
At the same instant, Pyehan of Earth crumbled away into a mound of sand. She had dismissed the shikigami—but the sand dust remained.
"Poroe, Raging Wind."
⟨ Raging Wind ⟩
At the princess's command, Poroe soared upward and began beating its wings, gathering the wind.
Kiiiiiiiing—
Soon a sonic boom erupted, the same kind that had once detonated a Nephilim in a single blast. Originally, she would have swept the dust from the arena and sniped me from a clear sky aboard Poroe.
That's your losing move.
The hot, humid air along the ground met that fierce cold wind, and in an instant a massive updraft was born. The updraft sucked in the sand Pyehan had blasted in its rampage, and the whole thing became a sandstorm.
"I can't see a thing!"
"This isn't a desert! What's with the sandstorm!?"
"Ugh, it's getting in my mouth!"
The spectators' vision was blotted out. Bihui and Sanye fell into confusion. Poroe was still in the sky. I shoved through the chaos and ran for the center of the arena.
"This is—!"
There she was—the princess, trailing sleeves fluttering as she tried to hold back the sandstorm.
And the moment it became a one-on-one—
"What's the matter? Showing off?"
She flinched at the sight of me, but composure befitting a noble young lady returned in an instant.
"Ah, all talk, this one. I use a sword too, I'll have you know. Heukam—!"
Yongso Yulha smiled sweetly as she called upon the strongest shikigami of Guryonggusangbeop.
Not a chance I was letting that happen.
I swept the Changgun Sword to the left, almost carelessly. The conditions were satisfied.
Beomseong Iltu
One-on-one: guaranteed kill.
A colossal slash cleaved the sandstorm blotting out the sky in two—and cut down the princess along with it.
