Our Kids Are a Little Fierce (2)
“I, I……?”
Seeing Chung Myung descend lightly onto the fortress wall, riding the surging golden qi around him, Yeo Sa-hon’s eyes widened until they seemed ready to split.
What in the world is that man?
It wasn’t actually that hard to understand. There were plenty among them with the skill to do what he had just done.
But to make that judgment in an instant, while climbing an ice wall that looked ready to slip away beneath your feet and with arrows raining down like a storm overhead—and then actually act on it without hesitation—that was not something easy to pull off.
He’s so young, and yet how can he be so accustomed to battle?
That was not the decisiveness of someone who had merely learned to fight. It belonged to someone who had fought as naturally as breathing.
“Elder!”
“Ah.”
Yeo Sa-hon snapped back to his senses.
As Chung Myung climbed onto the wall, the barrage of arrows had briefly stopped. If they didn’t rush up now, no one knew when the next rain of death would begin.
“Up! Hurry, get up!”
“Yes!”
Gripping the ice wall with outstretched hands, Yeo Sa-hon clenched his teeth.
If not for them, the casualties would have been unimaginable.
He was only realizing all over again how fortunate it was that they were fighting alongside the disciples of Mount Hua.
“Now! Kill that bastard now! Hurry!”
If one person seized fortune, another had to suffer misfortune. That was the way of the world.
If the North Sea warriors climbing the wall had found fortune, then the Ice Palace warriors defending the top of the wall were staring at utter misfortune.
Misfortune named Chung Myung.
Crack!
His lightning-fast sword slipped through the blade blocking his path and drove straight for the throat without the slightest hesitation.
“Krrk…….”
The man who was struck coughed up bloody froth and collapsed sideways with a grotesque sound.
“Dieee!”
All the warriors of the Ice Palace charged at Chung Myung with bloodshot eyes.
And yet.
Flash!
A single precise thrust cut in cleanly.
Flash-flash-flash!
Following it came dozens of sword phantoms, all driven out in a relentless chain.
The men rushing toward Chung Myung stared wide-eyed at the dozens of sword energies flying to fill every inch of their vision.
W-we have to block it……
Crack! Crack-crack!
But with their ability, blocking sword energies faster than lightning was impossible. Their frantic swings succeeded in deflecting a few, but the ones they failed to stop mercilessly sliced and pierced their bodies.
“Ugh…….”
Those who died instantly were still the lucky ones.
Those who barely managed to twist away from the vital points crumpled to the ground, moaning in unbearable pain.
Flash!
And Chung Myung’s sword mercilessly severed the rest of their lives.
Keeping alive the breath of someone who could never be saved was nothing but mockery. Chung Myung knew well that the only mercy he could give was a clean death that would lessen the suffering they had to endure.
In the blink of an eye, nearly a dozen lives were snuffed out.
Blood streaming from the corpses stained the white fortress wall red. The sight looked like crimson flowers blooming across a snowfield.
But no one here could call it beautiful.
Swish.
Chung Myung walked forward with an expression of complete indifference. His sword hung in one hand, his posture loose and relaxed, as if it took no effort at all. One of the young-looking Ice Palace warriors stared at him, his hand trembling.
……This lunatic.
Of course, despite his boyish face, he was actually the captain of one of the North Sea Ice Palace’s combat units, the Ice Arrow Squad.
He had seen his share of storms and bloodshed, yet even he shivered at the cold, merciless look on Chung Myung’s face.
A killing sword.
There was not even the smallest trace of intent to subdue his opponent. It was the sword of a battlefield—an execution sword. A sword that existed solely to kill in the fastest, cleanest way possible.
“Not coming?”
Chung Myung muttered coldly at the men before him.
“Then I’ll come to you.”
Tap!
With the tiny sound of his toes pushing off the ground, his body shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.
“Hah!”
“This bastard!”
The warriors of the Ice Palace instinctively swung their swords at the charging Chung Myung. More than ten blades, all wrapped in blue sword qi, aimed to cut him down.
And then—
Flash-flash-flash-flash!
An unbelievably fierce sword strike burst forth, so fast that the eye could scarcely hope to follow it.
Clang! Clang!
The swords rushing toward Chung Myung struck the sudden burst of light and were flung back instead.
That wasn’t all. The streaks of light pierced straight through the chests of the stunned warriors who had lost their weapons.
Thud! Thud!
Those hearts were pierced, and the men fell with eyes still wide in disbelief.
Thump. Thump.
Watching their comrades die without even managing a proper scream, the faces of the Ice Palace warriors began to turn paler than the North Sea snow itself.
“Ch-charge him, you idiots! Do you think you’re worthy of being Ice Palace warriors if you act like this? We have the numbers! Surround him and kill him!”
Easy to say.
To say they should use their numbers meant they were being told to accept casualties. Who would willingly throw away their own life just to kill an enemy?
But the deeply unfortunate truth was that Chung Myung was not the kind of man who would back off simply because they refused to charge.
Flash!
His sword rushed forward, leaving countless afterimages behind it. The startled men wildly swung their blades and retreated in panic.
And yet—
Slash!
“Aaagh!”
Sudden, searing pain struck at their ankles. They looked down in horror and saw their own feet, already severed and spilling blood.
Slash. Slash!
Even as they recoiled, sword energies skimmed along their thighs. Though it had only brushed past them, the flesh on their thighs split open with a sickening sound, revealing stark white bone beneath.
Seeing blood surge up in gushes, they screamed in agony and crawled backward on all fours.
A chill more biting than the North Sea air settled over the fortress wall.
It had taken only a few breaths since Chung Myung climbed up, yet in that short time, this place had already been completely seized by him.
“Hh…… hhup…….”
Terrified, the men did everything they could to put distance between themselves and Chung Myung.
But what they didn’t know was what it meant to give ground to Chung Myung.
Tremble.
The tip of Chung Myung’s sword began to quiver like a mirage.
Tremble.
What began as a faint vibration, so slight it almost seemed like an illusion, gradually grew stronger—until blood-red sword qi finally began pouring from the blade’s tip in streams.
Everyone’s eyes filled with shock.
Flowers were blooming across the vast snowfield beyond the wall.
As if plum blossoms had endured the long winter and forced themselves to bloom through the snow, red blossoms, like drops of blood, opened one by one across the world of white.
This is……
A sword that made flowers bloom.
Those who had never in their lives seen such a sight stood frozen, mouths hanging open, their fear forgotten.
“Ah…….”
Like a garden suddenly spread out before them, the countless blossoms began to scatter on the North Sea wind. It was a magnificent wave of petals, so vast it seemed ready to fill the world.
Wasn’t it absurd?
How could flowers possibly bloom from the tip of a sword so cold?
And yet the flowers blooming from the iron sword, carrying the full chill of the North Sea within it, were so vivid—and so beautiful.
But there was more hidden in those sword-qi petals than beauty alone.
Slash.
Slash. Slash.
The petals swept across the bodies of the Ice Palace warriors without mercy.
Each time those soft-looking petals drifted by, flesh was cut away with a frightening sound and crimson blood spurted forth.
“Aaagh!”
“Th-this!”
“Get away! Now! Each one of them is sword qi!”
Only then did the men regain their senses and try to leap aside, but it was already too late. Their surroundings had been entirely swallowed by the red petals.
The petals that had once fluttered along on the wind suddenly changed their nature and began to sweep over the martial artists like a violent storm.
Slash!
Petals split flesh.
Thud!
Petals pierced bodies and passed straight through.
The petals that had seemed so delicate now deceived the eye and ravaged the flesh.
The irregular storm of petals, like a swarm of countless butterflies, was no longer beautiful at all.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Aaagh! Aagh!”
With the shrieks of the dying came a dense blood mist.
The Plum Blossom Sword Art Chung Myung displayed here was on a different level from the sword he had shown in the martial arts competition of the past.
The most demonic sword among righteous sects.
Mount Hua’s Plum Blossom Sword Art, often described as even more eerie than the swords of the demonic sects when judged purely as swordsmanship, was finally revealing its true value on the very battlefield where it could shine brightest.
Thud.
Thud.
“Guh…….”
When the mirage-like petals disappeared, only collapsed bodies and pools of blood remained.
“Kh…….”
One man, somehow still not fallen, knelt and gasped for breath.
He had not gone down, but after being slashed countless times all over his body, he was drenched in blood and convulsing.
Chung Myung stepped through the blood gathered on the ground and cut him down in a single stroke.
Thud.
After casting a disinterested glance at the man who collapsed with his pain left behind, Chung Myung lifted his head and looked ahead.
Somewhere, the sound of dry swallowing could be heard.
It was just as Chung Myung, with his expressionless face, raised his sword again to make the plum blossoms bloom once more.
“Hyaaaah!”
From below the wall, Jo Gul leaped upward with a thunderous yell.
“Chung Myung! We’re here!”
“That bastard, seriously!”
Right behind him, Baek Cheon, Yoon Jong, Yu I-seol, and Dang Soso sprang up after him as if bouncing into the air.
Seeing them, Chung Myung’s face twisted in an instant.
“Seriously, that damned bald monk couldn’t even climb up this one wall!”
“A, Amitabha!”
A plaintive Buddhist prayer drifted up from below the wall. Chung Myung shouted with the most displeased expression in the world.
“What the hell kind of Amitabha is that? If Lord Amitabha saw you, he’d smack you for being useless!”
“……Amitabha.”
The disciples of Mount Hua landed beside Chung Myung, who was now twisting his face in utter disgust.
Seeing the scene Chung Myung had created, they all stiffened for a moment before quickly smoothing their expressions.
“Hey, what the hell did you go and do this time?”
“Well, if you have to handle that much on your own, I guess it makes sense.”
“Right. Exactly! Now it’s our turn!”
Baek Cheon didn’t even wait for Chung Myung to answer before he shouted.
“Move! Show them Mount Hua’s sword!”
“Yes, Sasuk!”
“Hyaaaaaah!”
Baek Cheon, Yoon Jong, and Jo Gul charged straight toward the warriors atop the wall without a single glance back.
The Ice Palace warriors, startled by the sudden reinforcements, flinched—but the three showed no intention of considering their troubles. Their swords flashed fiercely as they surged ahead.
Bang!
“Move! You’ll get hurt, you idiots!”
“Stop getting so worked up, man!”
As soon as Jo Gul started rampaging, the enemy was forced back, and then back again.
“I’m going in.”
“Yes!”
Yu I-seol and Dang Soso immediately followed after them. As soon as the two of them joined the fight, the Ice Palace warriors staggered yet again and were driven back even farther.
And then—
“Ugh! Amitab…… damn it, this wall!”
Hye Yeon finally climbed up onto the wall. The moment he took in the situation, he rushed forward and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Please do not blame this humble monk for lacking mercy!”
“……”
Not one of them even looked at Chung Myung as they charged off like that.
Chung Myung watched them in silence for a moment, then let out a snort of laughter.
“Honestly.”
With a smile that somehow looked a little complicated, he flicked the blood from his sword and stared ahead.
“What can I say, Ice Palace? Our kids are a little fierce.”
Then he shouted loudly and ran after them.
“Kill every last one of them!”
“Ooooooh!”
The beasts of Mount Hua, all bound together as one, swept over the Ice Palace warriors like a storm, flinging them aside as they surged forward.
On the fortress wall of the North Sea Ice Palace, amid the slicing wind, Mount Hua’s plum blossoms began to bloom in earnest.