If You Fall Behind, You’re Dead! (2)
Whoosh!
Cannonballs cut through the air, and living cannonballs came flying in from the opposite bank.
In one breath, Chung Myung closed the distance by dozens of jang, then kicked off the water and sprang up again.
“What the hell is that?”
“How is a person doing that?”
The water bandits firing the cannons stood there, mouths agape in shock. But it seemed there were a few among them who still had enough presence of mind left to react.
“What are you idiots doing? Fire! Shoot him down!”
“Yes, sir!”
The artillery that had been aimed at the ships all swung toward Chung Myung at once.
“Fire!”
BOOOOM!
The White Thunder Cannons spat flames in rapid succession.
Black cannonballs rained down like a downpour onto Chung Myung, who was sprinting over the water.
“Oh, really?”
Looking up at the scene, Chung Myung twisted the corner of his mouth.
Swish.
His body, having unfolded the Plum Blossom Step upon the surface of the water, began to sway in irregular patterns like falling petals caught in the wind.
BOOM! BOOM!
The shells slammed into the water he’d already crossed, and immense pillars of water shot up more than ten jang high. In an instant, dozens of those columns rose from the flowing Yangtze, creating a truly magnificent sight.
“Keep firing! Don’t stop!”
They had never seen Chung Myung before, but it wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen if the bastard running over the water actually reached them. So the unidentified water bandits desperately kept hurling White Thunder Cannon fire at him.
“No, seriously! How much gunpowder did those bastards stockpile? What, are the government dogs all lying around dead?”
Chung Myung didn’t exactly share the government’s point of view, but since he was the one who had to deal with those cannons, he was practically seeing red.
Still, he didn’t have the luxury of standing there cursing the officials. Cannonballs kept flying at him without a moment’s pause.
Chung Myung grimaced as he surged forward, picking up speed in a sudden burst.
“Grrrgh.”
Even for him, running continuously over water was no easy feat.
Then, in that instant—
“Chung Myung!”
Baek Cheon’s voice rang out loudly from behind him. With no hesitation whatsoever, Chung Myung kicked off the surface and shot upward.
Tap! Tap! Thud!
He landed on a line of wooden planks thrown toward him from the rear and moved forward, stepping from one to the next. The moment his eyes caught the incoming cannonballs, they flashed with a sharp gleam.
“Ha!”
His body spun once in midair, then launched itself forward.
Tap-tat-tat!
He kicked off the cannonballs themselves and moved with lightning speed.
“W-what?”
“That psycho—!”
The attacking water bandits’ jaws dropped so far it looked like they might fall off.
Running over water was already unbelievable, but leaping from cannonball to cannonball was even more grotesque.
They couldn’t believe their own eyes.
“Raaaaah!”
By now, Chung Myung had flown right up to the very front ship. In midair, he drew his sword.
At once, his blade tore through the air with a horrific roar and spewed out a stream of crimson sword energy.
Fwoosh!
The crescent-shaped red blades shot straight toward the underside of the ship where it met the water’s surface.
CRACKKKK!
The sturdy wooden hull was cut apart as easily as paper.
“W-wha—”
BOOOOM!
Before the shattered wood could even finish splintering, the cold water of the Yangtze began violently surging into the ship.
“It’s sinking!”
“Damn it, jump!”
If they dove in bare-bodied, they could at least try to swim. But if they went down with the ship, there was no guarantee they’d survive.
The water bandits threw themselves into the Yangtze without so much as looking back.
“Up we go!”
Chung Myung landed on the prow of the lead ship, kicked off immediately, and sprang toward the next one.
“Try shooting again, you bastards!”
Fwoosh!
The long sword qi that burst from his blade dug into the deck. He had pierced straight through the ship.
“Attack him! Don’t let him get to another ship!”
The moment Chung Myung landed atop the ship he’d pierced, the water bandits let out savage cries and charged him.
But his opponent was simply catastrophically wrong.
BOOM!
Chung Myung kicked the first man charging at him straight into the cabin without even slowing down, then muttered with fire blazing in his eyes.
“These bastards, seriously?”
Of course Chung Myung had dealt with countless enemies before.
If you were talking about who got on his nerves the most, there was nothing like those from Mount Zhongnan. If you were talking about who annoyed him most, Wudang took the crown. And if you wanted to talk about people who made rage boil up from his stomach, Maninbang was the obvious answer—and the Demonic Sect? Those bastards didn’t even need mentioning.
But this was a different sort of irritation entirely.
“How dare these evil bastards glare at me like that? I’ll gouge your damn eyes out! I will, you idiots!”
Bang!
The man whose jaw had been smashed by the sword hilt flew upward like a kicked ball and hurtled out over the broad Yangtze.
“D-Disciple of Mount Hua!”
Bang!
The water bandit whose face had been stomped on punched clean through the thick wooden deck in human form and disappeared into the unseen depths below.
“It’s the Plum Blossom Sword Saint!”
Well, no one who could hear him was around anyway, so it should be fine.
Hm? There are people here too?
No, no. They’re all dead anyway, so they’re no different from bamboo growing in a forest.
Having finally let out the naked truth after far too long, Chung Myung swept across the deck like a storm.
“M-monster!”
“R-run! Run, now!”
Whether there was an enemy or not, surviving came first. That much was human nature. The water bandits, having lost all will to fight in an instant, leaped over the railings and threw themselves into the water without looking back.
“Where do you think you’re going, you bastards? Get back here!”
Chung Myung snatched the ankle of one bandit as he jumped and yanked him back hard.
“Hiiik! P-please spare me! I’ve done nothing wrong!”
“Did you leave your brain on land, you water bandit bastard? What do you mean you’ve done nothing wrong? You’re a water bandit!”
“Hiiik!”
Chung Myung hoisted the bandit up by the ankle and, with a single sweeping motion, smashed him down onto the deck.
CRASH!
The deck shattered, and the ship was all but obliterated.
“Next!”
Chung Myung’s eyes gleamed as he leaped toward the ship beside it.
“This is what a river battle looks like, you idiots!”
No.
“Wow….”
“That’s insane….”
“Ugh….”
“If you’re gonna puke, go puke somewhere else!”
The Mount Hua disciples shook their heads as they watched Chung Myung rampaging like a boar hit in the ass by a stray arrow.
He looked even stronger than before?
Well, that was only natural if you thought about it. That bastard had always been absurdly strong, and on top of that, he trained harder and more brutally than anyone in Mount Hua. Even Baek Cheon, who was renowned in his own right for his training, had once tried to follow Chung Myung’s regimen and spent days laid up sick afterward. So how could it not be that way?
Of course he’d gotten stronger.
The problem was…
“Why is his temper getting more and more insane as well?”
“...How would any of us know?”
“Maybe Mount Hua’s got bad feng shui.”
Chung Myung’s rampage was the kind of madness that made “running wild” seem like an understatement. The water bandits were starting to look pitiful.
No, wait.
If you thought about it, this had never been going to be easy.
If they had kept their distance and fired those cannons—or whatever they were—from afar, they probably would’ve been able to pin them down without much trouble.
Those water bandits were just unlucky. Who could possibly have imagined that the bastard on the opposite ship would sprint over the water, leap from cannonball to cannonball, and smash the ships apart in one go?
A human who thinks only within the boundaries of common sense can never handle a human who rampages outside them.
“We need to strike while they’re still disoriented. Tell them to speed up!”
“Yes!”
Im So-byeong pointed ahead with his fan.
“Ram them with the ship! The moment we collide, we cross over and wipe them out!”
“Yes!”
There should have been a strategist’s dignity in the sight of Im So-byeong lazily waving his fan…
“Uuugh! Hey! Don’t speed up that much—! Uuugh! Cough!”
…but there clearly wasn’t.
“J-just a moment. Going in that close may not be the best choice… huh?”
At that moment, Jo Seung, who had been gripping the railing, tilted his head.
“Why?”
“Ah, n-no, just wait….”
After studying the ships ahead for a moment, he spoke to Im So-byeong with a peculiar expression.
“I think it should be fine to go in.”
“Why are you changing your tune?”
“...Normally, water bandits don’t go carelessly near places where people have fallen into the water. Water bandits are more comfortable in the water than on land, so just because they’ve fallen in doesn’t mean they’ve been neutralized. If you get too close, they can even bore holes through the ship from under the water.”
“Hm?”
Im So-byeong flinched, having never considered that possibility.
“But you’re saying it’s fine to go in? Are you defecting?”
“N-no, nothing like that. Look over there. Those bastards can’t even swim properly, can they?”
Im So-byeong narrowed his eyes and looked at the water bandits jumping from the sinking ships. Sure enough, their floundering looked oddly awkward.
“They don’t know river combat?”
“It seems that way.”
“Water bandits who don’t know river combat? Does that even make sense?”
“W-well, in a way, that’s only natural….”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
Jo Seung swallowed dryly before answering.
“Who’s ever a water bandit from birth? Usually, people learn martial arts first and then join a riverside stronghold, or they end up becoming water bandits because they have no other way to make a living. That’s when they start learning river combat.”
“So if that stronghold was only recently established, it wouldn’t be strange for their river combat to be lacking?”
“Exactly. The ones jumping over here probably weren’t from some other place and then transferred in. There’s a high chance this is a newly formed stronghold.”
Jo Seung’s face was earnest, almost desperate.
Whether he was trying to deny any connection between them and those men, or trying to prevent relations between Mount Hua and the Water Bandit Sect from worsening, it was impossible to say.
“Hmm….”
Im So-byeong nodded.
“Well, that’s not really my concern. In any case, it means we can close in without much trouble. Good. Everyone, full speed ahead!”
The ships carrying the Mount Hua disciples and the Green Forest bandits cut through the waves and surged forward.
The enemy ships, thrown into chaos because of Chung Myung alone, failed to notice their approach and flailed about until the Mount Hua side had nearly reached them. Only then did they realize what was happening.
“A-avoid them!”
“No time! We’re colliding!”
The great ram at the prow of the fast ship smashed directly into the side of the enemy vessel.
BOOOOOOM!
The struck ship tilted as if it might capsize, pushed hard to one side. But the spearhead-shaped ram driven into its flank clung stubbornly to the hull and refused to let go easily.
“Hook them!”
The bandits threw the hooked chains they had seized from the captured stronghold, linking ship to ship and binding them tightly together.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Mount Hua disciples drew their swords and rushed forward at once.
“Go! Take care of the water bandits first!”
“Ooooooh!”
The disciples of the illustrious Mount Hua Sect led the charge, with the Green Forest bandits right behind them. As far as combinations went, it was bizarre beyond words, but their momentum needed no further explanation.
Leaping across the gap between the ships and onto the enemy deck, the Mount Hua disciples swung their blades with lethal precision, cutting down the water bandits in an instant.
“Kraaah!”
“Y-you bastards!”
Baek Cheon cut down the chest of one bandit who, after panicking and then gritting his teeth to counterattack, collapsed in a single stroke. Then he shouted with all the righteous energy in his chest—or tried to, anyway.
“The chivalrous path—!”
“Damn it, all because of you—!”
“Do you have any idea what we went through?”
“We almost died, you water bandit bastards!”
“Dieeeee!”
“......”
Guys? I think the point is a little off.
“Cut them open! Leave nothing but skin!”
“Yes!”
Baek Cheon stared blankly as the Mount Hua disciples, leading the bandits and charging straight ahead, tore into the enemy line.
Uh….
Well, whatever. What did it matter?
As long as they fought well.
“Flip the whole damn thing over!”
Baek Cheon joined that bizarre sight without a shred of hesitation.