Our Kids Are a Little Fierce (4)
Slash!
“Grrk…….”
The side of his neck was sliced open by about an inch, and all the strength left his body at once. But because he twisted desperately at the last moment, he managed to avoid having his head taken off in a single stroke.
Still.
Flash. Flash.
A searing pain, as if someone had pressed a red-hot iron against his twisted side, ripped through him, and something scraped across the exposed opening in his chest.
In the dazed eyes of the Ice Battle Unit leader, he saw the sword being drawn back. His gaze followed it upward until it met a face cold as ice.
Eyes with no emotion in them at all.
So cold they seemed to drain the warmth out of anyone who looked into them.
“Yo—”
Fwoosh!
He never got to finish. The sword moved again, cleanly cutting through the Ice Battle Unit leader’s neck and sending his head flying through the air.
Thud.
The headless body collapsed to the ground.
“Should’ve been careful.”
Chung Myung grinned and glanced around casually.
“Who’s next?”
The Ice Palace troops, who had lost their commander in the blink of an eye, were seized by terror.
“Ah…….”
“Th-the hell…….”
“R-run!”
“Jump down! We’ll die!”
In a panic, they threw down their weapons and fled. Some stumbled and rolled toward the stairs leading down the wall, while others actually leaped from the battlements below.
Watching the area empty out in an instant, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. Kids these days really are spineless.”
Back in my day, what?
Eh.
What’s the point of even saying it?
Yeo Sa-hon’s face had stiffened completely.
That man……
There was no question about it. Something was wrong with him.
He did not know the man called the Ice Battle Unit leader. When Yeo Sa-hon had still been an elder of the Ice Palace, a unit like that did not even exist.
But at a glance, the Ice Battle Unit leader’s skill was anything but ordinary.
That made sense.
The leader of a combat unit had to be strong, because martial artists would never easily follow someone weaker than themselves. Anyone who rose to that position had to possess real ability.
And yet such a man had lost his head in mere seconds?
Even Yeo Sa-hon himself could not do that.
No matter how strong Chung Myung—no, the Mount Hua Divine Dragon—was, if he truly fought the Ice Battle Unit leader head-on, the battle should have lasted at least a hundred exchanges.
There was no way a head could fly off that quickly.
And yet that impossible scene had unfolded before his very eyes.
Yeo Sa-hon’s body trembled uncontrollably.
Only Yeo Sa-hon here would understand what that meant.
Carelessness?
Yes. Carelessness. Strictly speaking, it had been the Ice Battle Unit leader’s fault for losing focus on the battlefield.
But Yeo Sa-hon could not bring himself to blame him.
People said one must never let their guard down in battle, but how many could truly do that?
The insight to catch even the briefest lapse—an opening so fleeting it could hardly be called a moment—and the decisiveness to leap straight into the middle of the enemy without the slightest hesitation based on that judgment.
And on top of that, the audacity to unleash a perfect sword strike in a situation where even one mistake could mean death.
A monster……
If that young swordsman had simply butchered everyone on the wall in a single stroke, Yeo Sa-hon would not have been nearly as shocked. That could at least be explained by the difference in martial skill.
But things like decisiveness and audacity were not so easily dismissed as mere strength. Even Yeo Sa-hon, who had lived through countless battles, could not have done such a thing.
“Just what……?”
Then Chung Myung, after spinning the Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword once and sliding it back into its sheath, strode forward and leaned his head out over the inner side of the wall.
“Wow, there really are a lot of them.”
They had succeeded in taking the wall, but the battle had only just begun. The Ice Palace’s true strength would not end at this level.
Then Chung Myung turned and called out to Yeo Sa-hon.
“Old man!”
“W-wha? Me?”
“Yeah. Tell the rest of them to get up here faster! What are they, slugs?”
They’re not slugs. You lot are the ones darting around like flying squirrels.
Chung Myung clicked his tongue and pointed below the wall.
“What are you going to do?”
“……Do what?”
“Ha. Man, you’re really dense.”
Looking genuinely exasperated, Chung Myung thumped his chest a few times.
Yeo Sa-hon shrank his neck a little. If it had been before, he would have just laughed off anything Chung Myung said, but after seeing that movement of his just now, every word felt weighted.
“You said you were going to try persuading them with the kid, right?”
“I-I did.”
“They’re all gathered together down there, and we’re up here, nice and high. Seems like a pretty good setup for a conversation, so what are you going to do?”
Yeo Sa-hon nodded with a somewhat blank expression.
You were even thinking about that in this situation?
He did not look particularly wise on the surface, yet somehow he had read the situation with far more composure than Yeo Sa-hon himself.
“I think I may have misjudged you.”
“……What did you think I was?”
The answer came from behind him, not from Yeo Sa-hon.
“A fake Taoist.”
“A rude brat.”
“A mouth that never shuts up.”
“You’ll go to hell for this…….”
“Bring out the last stinking monk.”
Hye Yeon flinched and hid behind Baek Cheon.
“Hey, you hiding bastard?”
“A-Amitabha! Amitabha!”
Watching Chung Myung seize Hye Yeon by the bald pate, Yeo Sa-hon let out a sigh.
This is truly astonishing.
Thanks to the Mount Hua disciples taking the lead, everyone had managed to come up onto the wall safely without any real sacrifice.
Whether Chung Myung had planned that much and led the charge for that reason, or whether the situation had simply worked out that way by chance, Yeo Sa-hon could not tell. But either way, it was an enormous stroke of luck for them.
“Chung Myung. You don’t grab a monk by the head.”
“Sasuk, it’s not that you can’t grab a monk by the head. You just can’t grab people by the head in general.”
“……Ah. Right?”
Watching the others gradually relax, Jo Gul tilted his head.
“Sasuk. Aren’t we going down? What is this, fighting half-heartedly and stopping in the middle?”
“Gul.”
“Yes!”
“……The people behind us still haven’t all come up yet. We’re already short on numbers. If we split up and fight separately, won’t we just get picked off one by one?”
“Ah…….”
Only then did Jo Gul understand and turn around. Then he tilted his head again, still confused.
“There’s no one even stopping them, so why are they so slow?”
“…….”
Baek Cheon opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it again. He had been thinking the same thing.
“No need to rush. The enemy isn’t going anywhere. What matters is that we stay fully prepared.”
That was said purely out of consideration for the North Sea people.
Most understood that intention, but unfortunately Mount Hua had one person who was absurdly oblivious.
“Preparing for this sort of thing is the other side’s job too…….”
“Gul.”
“Yes?”
“Is your mouth itchy? Want me to smack you a little?”
“……No, Sahyung.”
When Yoon Jong glared, Jo Gul drooped and lowered his head.
Listening to them, Yeo Sa-hon’s face reddened with shame.
Who would have thought our own lack of skill would become a hindrance to them.
Even if years of labor had kept them from showing their full ability, most of these people were former elders and elites of the Ice Palace.
They were by no means inferior to those young Mount Hua disciples.
And yet, for some reason, the situation was being led by them. That meant these young disciples possessed something that could not be explained by martial prowess alone.
I really have been shocked over and over today.
He knew this was not the day to get lost in such feelings, on a day that would decide the fate of the North Sea, but he was human too. It was difficult to suppress the emotions rising within him.
“So what are you going to do?”
At Chung Myung’s question, Yeo Sa-hon’s expression hardened.
“From the standpoint of military strategy, I know it would be better to keep our distance.”
“Yeah.”
“But I think it’s better if I go down from the wall.”
“Why?”
At Chung Myung’s question, he answered calmly.
“We need to show the young palace lord to them properly. No matter how sharp a martial artist’s eyes may be, from a place this high and this far away, it’ll be hard for them to confirm that the young palace lord is truly the former palace lord’s son.”
“Ah. So you want to take the kid over there and stick him in front of the guys holding swords?”
Chung Myung asked, pointing at Han Yi-myung. Seol So-baek, riding on Han Yi-myung’s back, flinched slightly and looked quietly at Chung Myung.
“……That is—”
Yeo Sa-hon faltered as if at a loss for words, and Han Yi-myung, who had been listening silently the whole time, stepped in.
“I understand what the priest is concerned about. But if we don’t do even that, everyone will die anyway. And the young palace lord more so than the rest.”
“Hmm.”
“It is the best course. Please understand.”
Chung Myung gave a lazy nod.
“Well, if that’s the North Sea way, I’m not going to argue. Everyone has their own methods.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“But.”
Chung Myung’s face went cold in an instant.
“If you’re calling that the best course, then you’d better be ready to be the first one to die when things go wrong. That’s what responsibility is.”
“…….”
“Let’s go down. They look pretty pissed off too.”
Chung Myung smirked and looked down over the wall.
Seol Cheon-sang’s face had twisted so badly it was practically purple with rage.
“Th-those—!”
He had seen the Ice Battle Unit flee in utter panic from the wall.
“Those cowards!”
The Ice Battle Unit was a combat force he had specially trained and built after becoming palace lord. He had created them because he believed that, with the walls built so high, they would be more useful than any other unit if outsiders ever attacked.
And yet if those men fled with their tails between their legs like this, what was left of his dignity?
“Ice Battle Unit leader! You useless bastard!”
Seol Cheon-sang’s furious glare turned to the wall. From atop the high battlements, it was not the Ice Battle Unit but others who were looking down at him.
His pride had been trampled utterly.
No matter how hard he clenched his fists until they bled, no matter how much he ground his teeth, his fury would not subside.
“What are you idiots doing? Drag them down here at once!”
“P-Palace Lord. If they climb back onto the wall, the damage will be too great.”
“Then what? You expect me to just sit here and watch that disgrace?”
The elder who had spoken bluntly hurriedly bowed his head the moment Seol Cheon-sang’s bloodshot eyes locked onto him.
“And you still call yourselves proud warriors of the Ice Palace? You shameless fools!”
What mattered more than pride was the lives of the Ice Palace’s people.
Who here did not know that……?
It was doomed from the start.
No one could say that to the palace lord. If they did, their own head would be the first to fly.
They had sacrificed what must never have been abandoned just to protect themselves, so how could they possibly summon the courage to risk their lives now?
“Bring those bastards before me at once! Those damned Central Plains brats must be kept alive so I can…….”
“P-Palace Lord!”
“Hm?”
“Th-there!”
Seol Cheon-sang turned with a baffled look.
Step. Step.
One person was leisurely descending from the wall.
“You…….”
Seol Cheon-sang’s face twisted in an instant into that of a demon.
At some point, Chung Myung had shed the leather outerwear and revealed the martial robes embroidered with Mount Hua’s symbolic plum blossoms. He came down the stairs and walked toward them with complete ease.
“Long time no see, Palace Lord?”
To see him greeting them so casually sent Seol Cheon-sang’s face red in an instant.
“You…… filthy bastard!”
The booming voice shook the entire Ice Palace.
“I! And the Ice Palace! Have shown you kindness, and this is how you repay it, you Central Plains dogs! You ungrateful—!”
“Ah. That’s a misunderstanding. I’m the type who repays kindness twofold.”
“What did you say?”
“But this is a little different.”
The smile slowly faded from Chung Myung’s face. Where the grin had been, only coldness remained.
“I don’t regard anyone who joins hands with the Demonic Sect as human.”
“…….”
“There’s no kindness to repay a dog of the Demonic Sect with. Only swords.”
It was a sharp, freezing rebuke.
The coldness that had crossed the high wall of the battlements swept through the Ice Palace like a storm.