Hey! Grab the Leftover Liquor Over There! (Part 2)
“Hmm.”
As Namgung Hwang stepped into the valley, his eyes narrowed to slits.
It was a strange stretch of terrain. A long channel of water ran between sheer cliffs. It wasn’t narrow enough to be called cramped, not with room enough for two boats to pass side by side if one pushed it, but it was hardly wide, either.
This is the perfect place for a water bandit stronghold’s entrance—better than anything I could have hoped for.
What’s more, the cliffs rose to a formidable height. The deeper they went into the gorge, the darker the surroundings became. Looking up, it felt as though a black world had been split by a single long blue line of sky.
“Keep your guard up!”
Namgung Hwang’s shout rang through the valley.
“Even a lion uses all its strength to catch a rabbit. Our enemy is the Sapa. You never know what trick they’ll use. Losing to skill is no disgrace, but dying because you were careless is the deepest disgrace of all!”
“Yes, sir!”
With sharp eyes, Namgung Hwang scanned the surroundings.
Even he had never led so many men into battle against such an enemy. It would not have been strange for him to be a little worked up.
But as if to prove that the head of the Namgung Family did not occupy that position by accident, his gaze remained utterly cold.
“Father.”
“It’s Gaju.”
“Yes, Gaju-nim!”
Namgung Do-wi corrected himself at once.
“The passage is narrow, and the current is strong. If the boats are attacked here…”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
Namgung Hwang said it with firm certainty.
“That’s why I had the Changgung-geomdae escort the boats. There’s no way those worthless water bandits will break through the Changgung-geomdae and reach us.”
Namgung Do-wi nodded.
It might have sounded arrogant, but he knew better. When someone had every right to be proud, that wasn’t arrogance. It was confidence.
“More importantly…”
Namgung Hwang’s gaze lifted.
A crooked smile touched his lips.
“Those water bandits don’t know their place. If they’re bandits, they should be acting like bandits and swimming around under the water.”
At that, Namgung Do-wi’s eyes snapped toward the spot where Namgung Hwang was looking.
“They’re coming!”
Clinging to the cliffs like twin folding screens on either side, figures in black surged toward them with fierce speed.
They’re different!
For a fleeting instant, tension crossed Namgung Do-wi’s face.
Running down that sheer cliff as if it were flat ground was not something ordinary light-footwork could accomplish. That one sight alone made it clear those black-clad men were on a different level from the water bandits they had fought until now.
“So this is Black Dragon Clan, is it?”
Namgung Hwang smiled faintly, almost in amusement.
And before he could even issue an order, the Changgung-geomdae aboard the boats leaped up all at once, like great birds spreading their wings, and raced up the cliff face.
On those steep walls where there seemed to be no foothold at all, the two groups collided head-on along the near-vertical slope.
“Cut them down!”
“Kill them all!”
Sword energy scattered in all directions.
Sharp blades pierced the bodies of the bandits, while the spears the bandits threw—each only a hand span long—ripped through the flesh of the Changgung-geomdae.
Slash!
A bandit with a long gash across his chest didn’t even have time to scream before he plunged into the river below.
Splaaash. Splaaash.
Whoever saw it would have known at a glance that the Changgung-geomdae held the advantage. Even if they had never practiced fighting on cliffs like this, the martial skill they had built up through years of steady training did not bend to the limits of terrain.
“This can’t be all of them.”
Namgung Hwang lifted his head and looked above.
“Shoot them!”
Sure enough, the sky above the narrow gorge was instantly packed with black arrows.
“Just as I thought.”
It was an attack as predictable as it was obvious.
Yet for all the menace it suggested, it was little more than useless show.
Clang, clang, clang!
Namgung Hwang’s sword knocked every arrow away.
If this had been a conventional battlefield where armies clashed against armies, the rain of arrows falling from above would have been a real threat. No—if the force trying to break through here had been any ordinary sect rather than the Namgung Family, they would have been forced to suffer enormous losses.
But the ones leading the charge now were none other than the Namgung Family of the Azure Sky.
Ordinary arrows without a single trace of inner power in them could rain down all day and still not leave so much as a scratch on Namgung Family fighters.
If the archers had poured inner power into their shots at close range, that would have been dangerous, but maintaining inner power while firing at this distance was impossible for all but the very best.
In other words, the cliffs that towered so high above them were actually hindering the enemy.
“Gaju-nim! Should we climb up?”
“No need. Ignore them!”
Namgung Hwang roared.
“Don’t waste time on petty curs! Let the ones behind us handle the cleanup!”
“Yes, sir!”
The boats, which had hesitated for only a moment, surged forward again. The water bandits fighting the Changgung-geomdae threw themselves from the cliffs in an attempt to stop them, but none of them managed to set foot on the boat Namgung Hwang was riding.
“Aaaagh!”
“Guhh!”
The Namgung Family elders stationed along the rails, guarding the boats, cut down the rushing bandits in an instant.
“Don’t interfere, you evil dogs!”
“How dare the Sapa dogs aim at us!”
Though they were advancing under constant pressure from the very front, the Namgung Family’s boats only widened the gap from the Wudang boats behind them.
No phrase suited the scene better than “cutting through the tangled skein in one stroke.”
Whooshhhhh!
The boats cleaved through the current and raced onward. It almost seemed as though no one in the world could stop Namgung Hwang now.
Namgung Do-wi, watching Namgung Hwang standing atop the lion-shaped prow, shivered.
Water bandits, driven mad, swarmed down the cliffs. A hail of arrows rained from above. And now, not only arrows but boulders the size of men were crashing down, sending violent spray skyward.
It was utter chaos.
Yet at the center of it all, Namgung Hwang’s back did not waver even once.
Namgung Family’s head.
The Emperor Sword, Namgung Hwang.
And the Namgung Family of the Azure Sky.
Once again, Namgung Do-wi felt the full weight of the power his family possessed. Someday, he too would have to lead the Namgung Family in the same way Namgung Hwang did now.
One day, even Shaolin and Wudang will have to kneel beneath the Namgung Family’s feet.
Just as Namgung Do-wi made that silent vow while batting aside the arrows, Namgung Hwang shouted loudly.
“I see it!”
At last, the end of the long gorge came into view. The once-tight valley suddenly widened, and the full shape of the innermost basin lay clearly before them.
It was enormous.
It looks like the top of a giant volcano.
The water that had entered by the narrow passage spread out like a fan, meeting the land at the far end. In short, the terrain here was a vast basin ringed by sheer cliffs.
“So they really chose a place like this.”
This was, without question, a fortress blessed by heaven itself.
The entrance was absurdly narrow, making it impossible for many boats to come through at once. Anyone forcing their way inside would have to endure heavy losses, since they would be helpless against attacks launched from the cliffs above.
But that applied only to ordinary men. It didn’t apply to martial artists. No matter what the enemy did up there, once a man reached the level of a top-class expert, he could avoid it all.
Namgung Hwang’s lips curled.
“If they drew us in here, aren’t they just mice trapped in a jar?”
He drew his sword.
“Land! We strike them all at once!”
“Charge!”
On the shore stood several enormous halls and pavilions.
Water bandits rarely built grand structures, since they were always moving their strongholds around. But these buildings were massive and imposing at a glance.
They carried the unmistakable spirit of men declaring that unlike other bands, they would never abandon this place and flee.
And what of it? They’re still just water bandits!
Namgung Hwang stepped hard on the prow and launched himself forward.
Thud!
He flew twenty or so jang in a single breath and landed on shore….
“Dieeee!”
No sooner had Namgung Hwang touched down than more than a dozen water bandits attacked at once. Their weapons varied, but every one of them came with sharp killing intent.
“Insolent trash!”
Thoom!
Namgung Hwang stamped down and swung his sword.
Kwaaaaaaang!
The terrifying force of his heavy sword cut down the charging men in one sweep.
No—“cut down” almost did it injustice. “Smashed apart” was the more fitting description.
Those who took that sword infused with overwhelming inner power head-on had to pay the obvious price. They were flung back like cannon shots, and before their bodies even struck the ground, they were dead.
“Get lost, you minnows!”
Namgung Hwang roared like a lion.
“Where is the Black Dragon King? I, Namgung Hwang, the Emperor Sword, will take him on myself!”
With him leading the way, the Changgung-geomdae of the Namgung Family leaped ashore one after another.
“Gaju-nim!”
“Give the order!”
Frowning, Namgung Hwang shouted again.
“Slaughter them all! And find the Black Dragon King—drag him before me!”
“Charge!”
At their master’s command, the Changgung-geomdae charged forward like a gale.
“Stop them!”
“Those mangy dogs!”
The Black Dragon Clan’s water bandits gritted their teeth and moved to block them.
There was no retreat, after all.
This heaven-made fortress denied escape even to the water bandits who owned it. Once the enemy invaded, there was only one path left to them.
Fight to the end.
Among the water bandits of the Yangtze River Eighteen Strongholds, Black Dragon Clan was home to the most ruthless and savage of them all. The countless crimes they had committed were not the sort that could be forgiven by dropping to their knees and begging for their lives.
Then there was only one remaining answer.
Fight to the death.
“Die!”
“Ugh!”
The clashing of steel against steel rang out like screams.
In raw skill, the Changgung-geomdae was clearly superior. Add in the Namgung Family elders and guests, and even Black Dragon Clan’s water bandits began to feel the pressure.
But there were no doubt more of them.
Black-clad bandits poured forward like an ant swarm, so many that it was hard to believe where all those men had come from.
“Shoot them down!”
Kwaaaang!
Kwaaaaaang!
From the catapults installed in the halls, great iron grapnels were launched in rapid succession.
The swordsmen of the Changgung-geomdae struck at the incoming grapnels, but that only changed their trajectory, sending them straight into the bodies of the Changgung-geomdae on the right.
Kwadudududuk!
“Guhhh….”
If the distance had been adequate, they would have been able to respond, but they had never experienced a melee of this scale. The Changgung-geomdae member who was sent flying in a spray of blood twitched once, then went still.
“You bastards!”
Namgung Hwang roared and lunged forward.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
The sword energy bursting from the tip of his blade sent men flying as if they were pebbles kicked into the air.
“Show them the spirit of the Namgung Family!”
“Charge!”
Just as Namgung Family’s momentum reached its peak, the Wudang disciples, having followed into the basin behind them, spilled ashore all at once.
Heo Do-jin-in descended and took the lead, driving his disciples into the front lines in a single rush.
“Y-you bastards from the righteous sects…”
Slash!
Heo Do-jin-in pierced the neck of a bandit who had frozen in place, unable to retreat, and said coldly, “Don’t fall behind. We’re catching up in one blow.”
“Yes, sir!”
Namgung and Wudang.
The two great sword sects representing the world began to butcher the water bandits as if competing with one another.