Better Dead Than Alive! (5)
Arrows rained down like a storm.
That wasn’t mere exaggeration or a figure of speech. The arrows were, in the most literal sense, falling like rain.
“Jo Gul!”
“Hey, you crazy bastard!”
“Hiiiiiik!”
Jo Gul flinched just as he was lifting his sword.
No matter how he looked at it, there was no way he could block that ominous hail of arrows with a sword alone.
“Jump in, idiot! Into the water!”
“Ah!”
Without hesitation, Jo Gul hurled himself into the Yangtze River.
Fwoooosh!
He crashed into the water in a huge splash, then kicked and thrashed desperately downward, deeper and deeper.
When he instinctively turned his head, he saw the arrows piercing the surface and shooting down after him.
Their momentum had weakened, but the sight of them tearing through the water while leaving trails of bubbles was, in some ways, even more terrifying than seeing them from above.
Yikes!
Jo Gul flailed his arms and legs faster, forcing himself deeper.
Aaaah! Somebody save me!
He kicked like a frog, pumping his limbs as hard as he could to build speed.
Fortunately, he’d made it in time. The arrows that had reached almost to the back of his head began to lose their force and float up toward the surface.
Whoa... I thought I was dead there.
Jo Gul’s mouth fell open, and white bubbles spilled out in a stream.
He let out a relieved breath, then suddenly jerked his head around.
In the murky waters of the Yangtze.
Unlike the valleys of Mount Hua, visibility here was almost nonexistent; through the cloudy water, he could feel something moving.
A fish?
No. Too big. Too fast.
Detecting a black shape charging straight at him, Jo Gul reflexively swung his sword.
“Grrrgh...”
The pirate who had been lunging at him with a long trident-like spear was cut down by Jo Gul’s swing of the Plum Blossom Sword and convulsed once in the water.
Red blood poured from the pirate’s chest, blooming through the pale river like smoke.
Ha!
Jo Gul briskly recovered his sword.
Thank you, Elder!
Hyun Young probably hadn’t foreseen a situation like this when he put him through training, but after all those exercises of swinging a sword under the water in Mount Hua’s valley streams, moving in water had become almost natural to Jo Gul.
Shifting his gaze, he spotted a bluish shape far off in the distance.
It was definitely the blue uniforms worn by the pirates.
So what if these bastards are strong! I’m not losing anymore either! Come on, bring it!
Jo Gul gripped his sword with a confident expression.
But then...
Huh?
Another shape appeared behind the bluish one.
Two!
That was manageable.
Three?
A little rough, but still... maybe.
Four? Five? Six? Ten? Twenty...
Holy crap!
Blubblubblub!
Startled out of his mind, bubbles burst from Jo Gul’s mouth and nose.
Why the hell are there so many?
No matter how much he had learned to fight underwater, taking on that many pirates alone would not have been easy even on dry land.
And these guys specialized in water combat. Wasn’t he at an even greater disadvantage down here?
Sensing that something was very, very wrong, Jo Gul tried to shoot toward the surface, but the pirates were swimming faster than he had expected—far faster.
Leaving trails of bubbles like afterimages, the pirates surged toward him and stabbed at him with their spears from all sides.
Whoosh!
The spears, wreathed in blue aura, came at him with a viciousness that made his skin crawl.
Even underwater, he could hear the spears slicing through the water with chilling clarity.
“Kuh!”
Jo Gul swung his sword reflexively.
Thunk! Thud!
The spears were knocked back by his blade. It was his usual sword style, but underwater, it had to be just a little slower than normal.
Swish!
Because of that tiny lag, one spear he hadn’t been able to block grazed his shoulder.
It was only a glancing blow, but the spear, packed with internal energy, left a long wound across his shoulder.
Agh! Damn it!
If not for Hyun Young’s training, that spear wouldn’t have merely grazed him; he’d already have had holes punched through him in several places.
Even so, facing the pirates underwater was still no easy matter.
All right, you bastards! I’m Jo Gul of Mount Hua!
Eyes blazing, Jo Gul tightened his grip on his sword.
“Hup!”
But that resolve dissolved faster than snow the moment a spear whistled past his face.
I-I’m going to die.
These bastards were too skilled.
Their attacks were one thing, but their movement speed was on an entirely different level from his.
He was only a little quick by ordinary standards, but these guys moved like merfolk.
Their motion underwater was even faster than the way they moved on land.
What’s more, Jo Gul’s sword was one of the fastest and most agile blades in Mount Hua.
It was the kind of sword that suffered most when speed was taken away.
In other words, among Mount Hua’s disciples, Jo Gul was the one at the greatest disadvantage in a water fight.
And that was exactly the case now.
His sword, which should have been tearing in like a venomous snake and leaving more than a dozen afterimages, was only able to create five.
Even the speed of his strikes had fallen to less than half of normal.
Damn it!
If he’d known this would happen, he would’ve stopped fooling around in training and actually put in the effort!
Even as he thought that, a giant claw shaped like a bird’s talon lunged for his face.
Jo Gul desperately leaned back to avoid it, and the moment he did, another pirate—already slipped behind him—thrust his spear at Jo Gul’s back with a smug grin.
I can’t dodge th—
Clenching his teeth, Jo Gul twisted his body.
He’d rather take a wound to the flesh than let a vital point get pierced.
And then—
“Grrrgh!”
The pirate thrusting in with his spear suddenly had bubbles rising from his mouth, and red blood spread through the water like ink in a bowl.
Huh?
Behind the pirate clutching his back and floating upward was a face Jo Gul was more than glad to see.
“S-Sas—”
He’d forgotten he was underwater and yelled out, only to gulp down a mouthful of water rushing into his throat. Choking, he clutched at his neck.
Seeing that, Baek Cheon shook his head in a way that was clearly visible even underwater.
Then, with the speed of lightning, he darted forward and slipped past Jo Gul’s side.
He’s running?
Jo Gul stared at him in shock.
Just how masterful did your use of internal energy have to be to move in this current as if you were standing on solid ground?
Baek Cheon, having passed him, swung his sword broadly ahead of him.
The blade, packed with fierce internal energy, cut through the water and generated a massive whirlpool that instantly swept away the rapidly moving pirates.
“Kuh!”
“Ugh!”
The pirates were thrown off balance by the whirlpool. At the same time, Baek Cheon grabbed Jo Gul by the shoulder and shot upward.
“Pwaaaah!”
Breaking the surface in one burst, Baek Cheon kicked off the water and leaped back onto the ship.
Thunk!
Thrown onto the deck, Jo Gul clutched the wooden boards and retched violently.
“Bweh! Gahhh! Ugh... I thought I was going to die.”
Seeing that, the Mount Hua disciples all shook their heads in unison.
“He saved that idiot.”
“Our martial uncle really is too kind. He should’ve just let him die.”
“Wouldn’t that be better for Mount Hua too?”
Jo Gul shot his head up.
“Sahyung! Fighting those bastards underwater is impossible! I dove in and found out for myself.”
“I see... So you only realized something even a three-year-old could figure out after going to check it personally. Very much like you. Good to know.”
“......”
Yoon Jong let out a long sigh and looked ahead. The dragon ship, having pierced their vessel with its chain, was dragging the boat forward at breakneck speed.
“Martial Uncle. What do we do?”
“Hmm...”
Baek Cheon looked down over the bow.
The spear that had bored through the hull was plainly visible to him.
No way we can pull that out.
Even someone like him, who knew next to nothing about ships, could tell.
If they removed that spear, water would pour in. Then the vessel would sink in an instant.
And if they sank into these waters swarming with pirates, survival would be out of the question.
“For now, we can only watch. We need our feet on solid ground before we can do anything at all.”
“...But, Sahyung.”
Baek Sang spoke with concern, as though he didn’t think that was a good idea.
“If we sink this ship now, it’ll work much more to their advantage. They’re dragging us along for a reason, aren’t they? Probably because wherever they’re taking us is better for them than staying here.”
“...Most likely.”
“Then maybe we should just...”
Baek Sang couldn’t bring himself to finish.
He couldn’t think of a better way to deal with it either.
If they resisted here, the ship would sink in the end, and then they’d have to fight the pirates underwater while also protecting the civilians.
That’s just as bad, if not worse.
There was no good answer.
Baek Cheon seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he turned to the disciples with a hardened expression.
“We’ll have to make a plan. Baek Sang! Dang Soso!”
“Yes!”
“We’ll cover you. Get off the ship right now and head to the riverbank. Tell Beggars’ Sect and bring back reinforcements from the surrounding area...”
“No!”
Dang Soso shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Soso.”
“Better dead than sorry! I’m not doing that!”
Baek Cheon frowned.
“It’s not the time to be sending for reinforcements—”
“You’re trying to send us away because you’re worried we’ll be in danger, aren’t you?”
“Soso. The reinforcements—”
“Absolutely not! I knew it would be like this, which is why I was afraid of only you seniors learning Zaha Divine Art. Once is easy enough! But if you back off once, from then on Martial Uncle will start pulling me back first!”
“......”
“No. Absolutely not! Reinforcements will never arrive on time! Then I might survive alone and end up watching my sahyungs die!”
“Soso...”
“If that’s the case, I’d rather bite through my tongue and die! You can lock me in Plum Blossom Cave when we get back to Mount Hua if you want! I’m not listening to that order.”
Baek Cheon let out a heavy sigh.
“I...”
“I will absolutely not be a hindrance.”
This time, Baek Sang spoke with a hard expression.
“There is no disciple of Mount Hua who will retreat and leave their comrades behind. It may be foolish and stupid, but being clever and rational is something I can do plenty of when I’m calculating money.”
“......”
Baek Cheon sighed deeply.
“You foolish bastards.”
“We’re always foolish.”
“There aren’t any smart people in Mount Hua anyway. If we were smart, we’d have run away already.”
“......”
That was... fair.
“Fine. I get it.”
Baek Cheon nodded and spun around sharply.
The immense dragon ship came into view.
I don’t know what the right answer is.
Finding the best response was an unbelievably difficult thing.
It was easy to stand at someone’s side and criticize when they were the one leading, but once he was the one actually in command, there were far too many things to consider.
So this is the sort of thing that bastard dealt with every day?
Maybe what he needed to learn from Chung Myung wasn’t just martial arts.
If Chung Myung’s back were standing before them right now, the expressions of the disciples behind him would surely be very different from what they were now.
He’s not here. I have to do it.
Baek Cheon bit his lip.
No matter what happened, he had to save them all and get them back to Mount Hua.
It was the very instant he hardened that resolve.
“Martial Uncle! Over there!”
“Hmm?”
“I think that’s it!”
Following Yoon Jong’s pointing finger, Baek Cheon turned his gaze and saw sheer cliffs rising along the side of the river.
A natural fortress.
The terrain was so perfectly suited to that description that the middle portion dipped inward in a broad concavity.
“...A place like this?”
Baek Cheon gritted his teeth.
This place was, quite literally, a fortress gifted by heaven.
Behind it rose a towering cliff like a sheer wall; in front stretched the broad expanse of the river.
Movement to the left or right was impossible because of the cliffs, which meant the only way to reach that place was either by crossing the river or descending from the cliffs.
And inside that hollowed basin, there were buildings large enough for people to live in, along with a dock where ships could be moored.
“...A pirate stronghold.”
Now that he’d seen it with his own eyes, he understood why the pirates had dragged them all the way here.
That place was a giant trap.
A trap you couldn’t escape from.
And they were now no different from mice caught inside it.
Before he realized it, Baek Cheon had clenched his fists.
Maybe.
Maybe he was facing the worst situation of all his journeys through the martial world so far.