If You Fall Behind, You’re Dead! (5)
“You insolent little bitch….”
Who wouldn’t be furious when a young swordswoman who looked barely old enough to have lived half her life said something like that right in front of them?
Ga Nam-pyeong’s eyes began to glint with murderous intent.
“Let’s see if you can keep talking after your whole body’s been shredded to pieces.”
A cold tension spread between the two of them.
“T-that….”
Jo Seung, who had somehow ended up clinging close to Chung Myung’s side, spoke in a trembling voice.
“D-daoist, no, Great Hero! We need to stop this.”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung glanced at him with a look that seemed to ask, Why the hell are you here? and tilted his head.
“Why?”
“That man is Ga, Ga Nam-pyeong. Muddy Blue Snake Ga Nam-pyeong! He’s a pretty famous expert in the Yangtze River region!”
“……Mm?”
“He’s said to be ridiculously skilled with his saber and also renowned for his water-fighting techniques. I heard several bands tried to recruit him, but he turned them all down because he didn’t want to serve under anyone else…. Who would’ve thought he’d build a band of his own….”
Jo Seung swallowed hard, his face tight with anxiety and impatience.
“That Ga Nam-pyeong is on a completely different level from the average wanderers drifting around the Yangtze. There was even a time when he clashed with one of the Nine Sects’ experts, killed him, and escaped the sects’ pursuit. That’s how dangerous he is.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes! I was wondering how this newly formed band gathered so many people…. It seems Ga Nam-pyeong had followers he’d been grooming separately.”
“Hmmm.”
Chung Myung looked at Ga Nam-pyeong with an odd expression.
“Doesn’t really look that impressive to me.”
“That’s what I find strange too. From what I know, Ga Nam-pyeong was strong, but not the sort who’d be good at managing people…. So when did he prepare all this….”
“Does he have money?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked if he’s rich.”
“……What kind of money would a wandering martial artist have?”
“So that’s a no?”
Chung Myung’s eyes narrowed meaningfully.
A penniless vagrant somehow got his hands on all those White Thunder Cannons and managed to feed this many people?
Once a band started running on its own, the river bandits’ loot could cover their own upkeep, sure. But in the beginning, someone had to pour in real money.
And this was a brand-new river bandit band, yet they were fielding this many men?
“That doesn’t make any sense unless there’s some seriously huge backer behind him.”
Chung Myung tapped his cheek lightly.
“Well, that’ll come out when we dig around…. More importantly, this terrain’s pretty weird. I figured it was just a sandbar dressed up as an island, but this is really an island.”
“D-daoist! This isn’t the time to be admiring the scenery. That woman’s going to die!”
“Who? Sago? Or that Ga Nam-pyeong or whatever-the-hell-he’s-called bastard?”
“……What?”
Chung Myung snorted.
“You worry too much. Sago won’t lose to some trash like that if she’s fighting at full strength.”
“Daoist, I think you don’t understand Ga Nam-pyeong….”
“And you understand our Sago?”
“……What?”
“Neither of us knows the other side, do we?”
Doubt flickered across Jo Seung’s face. It was the expression of someone wondering what kind of nonsense this was, but Chung Myung only shrugged.
“D-daoist, are you really sure this is okay?”
“Sure? What are you—oh.”
Then Chung Myung tilted his head.
“Hold on.”
“Yes?”
“You’re that guy I sent flying after insulting me earlier, aren’t you?”
“……Yes?”
“Haha. I nearly forgot. Come here.”
“…….”
Sometimes… the goodwill one so carefully offers ends up producing a very unfortunate result.
“Hup!”
Ga Nam-pyeong drew in a short breath and thrust his saber forward.
By nature, a saber was more of a weapon for sweeping and slashing than for stabbing. But Ga Nam-pyeong’s hwangdo, shaped closer to a sword than an ordinary saber, was specialized for thrusting.
Someone trained in water combat had to account for fighting in the water. A heavy, thick saber did not reveal its full power there.
A heavy saber suited a wanderer who often had to fight in messy close quarters, while a weapon that could pierce cleanly was more fitting for a river bandit who fought in the water.
His hwangdo was a weapon designed with both of those needs in mind.
Whooooosh!
Each time it moved, a chilling, ghostly shriek burst from the hole bored through the tip of the blade.
Ga Nam-pyeong shot the saber in with terrifying speed, then immediately drove it again. In an instant, he unleashed more than ten slashes. They were so precise and so powerful it was hard to believe they came from a mere bandit.
To make a name that rang across the entire Yangtze River—the vast artery that flowed through half of the Central Plains—meant one thing: his skill had to be real. And Ga Nam-pyeong’s saber was proving beyond doubt that his reputation was no exaggeration.
But then—
Whooooosh!
His outthrust hwangdo stopped a mere inch before Yu I-seol’s neck. To anyone who didn’t know better, it would have looked as though he had deliberately halted the blade right before her throat.
Yet while Ga Nam-pyeong’s expression twisted, Yu I-seol’s remained calm and unreadable. That meant the situation was not what it looked like.
This brat!
A flicker of caution entered Ga Nam-pyeong’s eyes.
Just half a step.
Each time he thrust his hwangdo, Yu I-seol retreated just a half-step farther than his blade could reach. She had completely read the trajectory of his attacks and was neutralizing them with the minimum possible movement, wasting not a single motion.
It was not something one could even attempt without absolute confidence in the footwork one was using and the courage to trust it completely.
That she could show that kind of composure against him only made Ga Nam-pyeong’s temper twist more violently.
But instead of losing his head, he steadied his breathing. To lose reason on the battlefield was even more dangerous than baring one’s throat to the enemy’s sword.
Even so, she’s still just an inexperienced brat.
From that one exchange alone, he had already measured her skill. If they fought ten times, he would win perhaps twice at most.
But wasn’t the thing that turned those two chances into absolute certainty called experience and polish?
Whooooosh!
Ga Nam-pyeong’s saber stabbed toward Yu I-seol’s neck once more.
With light footwork, Yu I-seol shifted back a half-step beyond the blade’s reach.
Whooooosh! Whooooosh!
The seemingly meaningless thrusts came in a relentless barrage.
That ear-splitting ghostly shriek, the lightning-fast chain of invisible thrusts. The attack looked rough and flashy, but not especially substantive.
Huh?
Watching the scene, Chung Myung let out a strange smile.
“He’s using little tricks.”
As though he’d heard that directly, Ga Nam-pyeong’s eyes flashed and he thrust his saber again. Once more, Yu I-seol retreated as if it were only natural.
But in that instant, the saber that should have stopped in midair seemed to lengthen abruptly, surging forward with the force to pierce her throat. Yu I-seol’s eyes widened, and she leapt back without hesitation.
“Taaaat!”
But Ga Nam-pyeong didn’t let her withdraw so easily. The sharp saber qi he released shot toward her throat at terrifying speed.
Yu I-seol swung her sword like a bolt of lightning to block it.
Kagagagak!
The saber qi met her blade with a grating shriek of metal, then skidded away to the side.
Thud.
She avoided the injury itself, but the force carried in the saber qi still left a heavy ache in her wrist.
Whoosh!
Ga Nam-pyeong pressed the attack without granting her a moment to breathe. Then he kicked up the sand beneath his feet, hurling it toward her in a cloud that threatened to bury her vision.
“Tch.”
For a split second, a trace of shock flickered across Yu I-seol’s otherwise expressionless face.
And when Baek Cheon saw that, he was shocked too.
What is this? Why is Sago…?
Of course Ga Nam-pyeong was no easy opponent, but Yu I-seol didn’t look as though she was being overpowered in raw skill. It seemed more like something else was preventing her from showing her true ability.
The fact that even on her face—so calm and cold under any circumstance—there was now a hint of confusion made that all the more obvious.
“It’s the distance.”
“Hm?”
Baek Cheon asked without even turning his eyes from the fight.
“The sound from that hole at the tip of the blade. That’s sound-based technique. If you keep hearing it, it shakes up your insides.”
“…….”
“And that bastard’s been controlling the distance of his thrusts from the start. He’s messing with both her eyes and ears at once. He’s smarter than he looks.”
Even kicking up the sand was part of it.
Ga Nam-pyeong probably didn’t think such cheap tricks would work on someone at Yu I-seol’s level. But what if all of it piled up? Constantly rattling the ears, constantly muddying the field of vision—if that went on long enough, one mistake would eventually happen.
“Dirty….”
“There’s no such thing as dirty in a fight. Living like a filthy coward is a hundred times better than dying clean.”
“…….”
Baek Cheon gave a silent nod. He’d reflexively wanted to protest, but from the standpoint of someone who had survived countless real battles, he couldn’t deny it.
“What do you think? Want me to go help?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
At Chung Myung’s casual question, Baek Cheon cut him off firmly.
“She’s not the kind of woman who loses to that degree.”
“Hmm.”
Chung Myung quietly curled one corner of his mouth.
“How about that!”
Ga Nam-pyeong roared like a tiger. It was not a sign of excitement. That booming voice was simply another tool, meant to further confuse Yu I-seol.
There were two ways to beat someone superior to you: become stronger yourself, or drag them down to your level.
Attaching bells to a saber and using sound-based techniques to throw an opponent into confusion was an old, old art among the demonic factions.
His Ghost-Crying Saber was an evolved form of that kind of martial art. Every time it moved, the blade naturally released qi-laden sound waves that rattled the opponent’s internal energy.
If one had considerable experience facing demonic martial arts, a countermeasure could be found. But there was no way that young swordsman standing before him had such experience.
And if she were the sort who had always been used to exchanges that were clean, precise, and optimal, then she had to be rattled by the way his saber thrusts varied in strength and range with every single strike.
And the proof was right there….
Flash!
The blade grazed the arm just beneath Yu I-seol’s shoulder. Her torn clothing quickly bloomed red with blood.
Flash!
Another wound opened at her side.
The saber that hadn’t been able to touch her until moments ago was now landing cleanly.
Just a little more.
When hunting, one had to be careful.
If he got too eager here, he could be punished by a clumsy counterattack and end up suffering a disastrous setback. Time was on his side; there was no need to rush. He only had to catch her slowly and methodically.
I’ll kill you first!
A cold killing intent entered Ga Nam-pyeong’s eyes.
“Haaah!”
He shouted and poured his inner energy into another thrust—at the very instant the saber shot forward—
Clang!
Before his blade had even fully extended, it smashed into Yu I-seol’s sword and twisted aside.
“Tch!”
But Ga Nam-pyeong did not panic. Calmly, he withdrew the blade and thrust again.
Clang!
But this time too, the same thing happened.
Before the saber could fully extend, Yu I-seol’s sword had already occupied the path it was meant to draw and shoved it away.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Again and again, no matter how many times he thrust, the same thing happened every time. Before the saber could even reach half its extension, Yu I-seol would thrust her sword as if she had known it was coming and knock it aside.
Backpedaling in shock, Ga Nam-pyeong stared at her with disbelief. Yu I-seol, whose face had become expressionless once more, said:
“I get it.”
“…….”
“Sound, distance, sensation. None of it matters unless the saber is fully extended.”
“W-what….”
So she was knocking it aside before the blade could fully extend?
Did that even make sense?
If that were possible, her sword would have to be at least twice as fast as Ga Nam-pyeong’s saber.
Later action suppresses earlier action.
It meant a sword thrust after the attack had already begun would somehow have to travel farther than his saber.
“Th-that’s impossible! Aaaargh!”
With a savage scream, Ga Nam-pyeong thrust again. It wasn’t a sound-based attack this time. It was simply a desperate, feral cry.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But his saber still could not follow the path all the way to its end. Every time he thrust, Yu I-seol’s sword flashed out like a ghost and batted it away again and again.
He squeezed out every last thread of inner energy he had, driving the saber faster and faster—but that sword was still already waiting where his blade was headed.
“Aaaarghhh!”
By now, Ga Nam-pyeong’s thrusting had started to look almost like a seizure.
If she blocks it, then I’ll just crush her with force!
There was no way he’d lose in raw power. That little brat….
And then—
Twirl.
Yu I-seol’s body rotated, gently letting Ga Nam-pyeong’s saber slide past to the side.
Then, light as a butterfly, she drifted forward and extended her sword.
The world seemed to slow.
Sensing his fate, Ga Nam-pyeong understood one thing in that instant.
Gone…?
Black-Masked Ghost was nowhere to be seen.
There was no sign of the man who had clearly joined the battle first, claiming he would fight at the front.
W-where?
Nothing.
A martial expert at Black-Masked Ghost’s level would have stood out anywhere. But he was gone, and so were the subordinates who had come with him when they formed the band.
“You bastar—”
Swish.
Before the words could finish, Yu I-seol’s sword passed through Ga Nam-pyeong’s neck.
Drift.
With barely a sound, his head rose into the air.
As the world spun around him, Ga Nam-pyeong saw it clearly.
Across the island.
Black-Masked Ghost’s group was being carried away on the Yangtze’s current, growing smaller and smaller as they drifted from the island.
They fooled me….
The world went dark in an instant.
Rage and hatred belonged to the living.
Ga Nam-pyeong no longer had the right to be angry.