There Was One Madman (4)
Goooooo!
A whirlpool of white energy spun from the tip of the sword. The tightly compressed force burst outward in an instant, sweeping across everything in front of him.
Kwaaaang!
With a single strike, Namgung Hwang obliterated the water bandits charging from the front, then roared at the top of his lungs.
“Black Dragon King!”
His voice was like a lion’s roar.
It crushed the enemy’s will to fight in a single breath and sent the morale of his own side surging.
“Where are you, Black Dragon King! Have you run off in terror? Come out here this instant! Let’s finish what was left undone!”
Kwaaaang!
The force of Namgung Hwang’s stomp shook the entire area.
That monster!
At that terrifying momentum, the face of Guyu Old Fiend, Yeo Dal, the protector of the Waterway Thieves’ Thirteenth Stronghold of the Yangtze, turned deathly pale.
The Namgung Family was already famous for pursuing a domineering style despite being a sword sect, but Namgung Hwang’s sword had reached a level within even Namgung that could only be called bizarre.
It was as if he were firing cannon blasts with a sword.
The blade arts of the Peng Family would almost be gentler than this!
He had already seen that sword once before, but now it felt completely different.
He couldn’t tell whether it was because Namgung Hwang’s power had surged drastically over the past three years, or because he himself was not the Black Dragon King. He simply lacked the level of insight needed to understand it.
“Black Dragon Kiiiing!”
Kwaaaang!
“D-damn it!”
Watching a pavilion explode into fragments and fly apart, Yeo Dal finally shouted in panic.
“Retreat! Retreat now!”
“P-Protector! The Black Dragon King ordered us to hold this place no matter what!”
“You fools! Even if we try to hold it, we can’t defend it! And who’s going to face Namgung Hwang? The Black Dragon King isn’t even here!”
“Th-that is…!”
“Shut up and tell them to retreat, now! Before we all die!”
If the full strength of the Water Bandit Sect had been gathered here, Yeo Dal would never have chosen retreat. However great Namgung Family might be, the Water Bandit Sect had once been one of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu.
In a small clash between experts, it would be hard for them to withstand Namgung Family, but in a full-scale battle, the Water Bandit Sect might even overwhelm them.
But now they were short on men.
In order to increase the volume of cargo ships passing through Maehwado, the Black Dragon King had been attacking every merchant vessel on the Yangtze. In other words, there were now more water bandit ships moving along the river than usual.
That naturally meant there were fewer water bandits left to defend this place.
“Fall back! All of you, fall back! Board the boats! Retreat to the island!”
Yeo Dal ground his teeth.
“Damn Namgung Family bastards!”
If they abandoned the dock and retreated to Maehwado, the Black Dragon King would never let him live it down. The failure to carry out his order was an undeniable fact.
Still, that’s better than dying.
Compared to the Black Dragon King’s rage from far away, Namgung Hwang’s sword right in front of him was far more terrifying.
Kwaaaang!
Even now, more water bandits were being blasted away in bloody, broken masses by Namgung Hwang’s sword.
“Retreat! Nowwww!”
At his command, the bandits turned ghost-pale and ran for their lives.
No, to be honest, even before he gave the order, none of them had been thinking about anything except how to get away.
Namgung Hwang’s martial power was utterly overwhelming. From the start, these rabble had never been a match for him.
How did those useless orthodox bastards move so fast?
The reason the Black Dragon King had chosen to leave despite knowing there weren’t enough troops here was that he believed those so-called righteous sect bastards—who only moved after endless lip service—would need at least ten more days before they could respond properly.
But who could have imagined that Namgung Family would arrive so abruptly, at a time like this?
“Protector!”
“I know!”
Yeo Dal nodded vigorously. There was no time left to dither. If he delayed any further, his own head would roll.
“Launch the boats! Get aboard—”
But as he was shouting the order, Yeo Dal’s eyes suddenly quivered wide.
Along the broad road between the large pavilions—along a different route from Namgung Hwang—white-clad swordsmen were flooding in. It was the Changgung-geomdae.
And at their head was a young martial artist swinging his sword like lightning. One look was enough to tell anyone he was not someone they could handle.
“Ab- abandon the boats! Damn it, leave them! Just jump! Swim to the island!”
There was no time to launch the ships leisurely. Those who had been quick enough to set sail in advance could somehow manage to board, but of the boats moored at the dock, only two were even moving toward the water.
Realizing they had no time to board, the water bandits began throwing themselves into the Yangtze one after another.
“Move!”
“Don’t grab me, you bastard! Get in there!”
“You sons of bitches!”
It was pandemonium.
It made no difference whether they were martial artists or soldiers. When orders still echoed in the mind and there was something they believed they had to protect, they would not spare their own lives.
But the moment that control vanished, all that remained were a few hundred cowards for whom surviving came first.
The water bandits pulled at one another, shoved one another, and hurled themselves into the river. Some tangled together and fell while trying to get ahead of the others, and plenty of them reflexively swung their weapons at the men beside them.
“Aaaagh!”
“Y-you bastard stabbed me?”
If they had simply retreated in an orderly fashion, most of them would already have escaped by now. But in trying to get away even a little sooner, they only delayed themselves further. And Namgung Family’s swords coldly pierced the backs of those men.
“Aaaaagh!”
“Run! Namgung Family is here!”
Splash! Splash!
The bandits who managed to leap into the water swam expertly toward Maehwado, moving quickly and without once looking back. But those who had been struck down by Namgung Family’s blades before they could dive in collapsed helplessly on the spot, screaming.
Before long—
“Hmph.”
When Namgung Hwang’s foot touched the water’s edge, the water bandits had been divided into only two kinds: those who had jumped into the river and fled like arrows, and corpses that had never reached the water at all.
Namgung Hwang’s eyes burned with fury.
“To think I was driven back by such rabble!”
It was a crushing victory.
It was the kind of dominance that could scarcely even be expressed in words. Yet the fact brought Namgung Hwang no joy whatsoever. It only deepened his self-loathing for having once made terms with fear in the face of such pathetic trash.
“You—!”
Namgung Hwang’s gaze fixed on the two boats turning their prows away.
“Move aside!”
He ordered the Changgung-geomdae at his side to fall back, then raised his sword high over his head.
Goooooo!
Once again, thick white energy coiled around his blade.
A sword aura, rising more than a jang above his head, gathered around the sword’s center.
“N-no!”
“Jump! Juuuump off n-o-ow!”
The water bandits on the boats saw it and screamed in terror, throwing themselves overboard. They had already seen enough to know what happened when that white power gathered around his sword.
Bang!
Stamping hard into the deck, Namgung Hwang brought the sword straight down in a vertical slash. The released force shot out like a cannon blast, flying in a straight line toward the boats.
Kwaaaangaaaaaaaaang!
The Sword Gang embedded in the hull literally pulverized the wood that made up the boat. Timber directly struck by the Sword Gang was turned to dust and scattered into the air, and even the parts it did not directly touch were unable to endure the force and shattered apart.
Kwaaaangaaaaaaaaang!
In an instant, one boat exploded whole and scattered across the surface of the Yangtze. At that monstrous sight, not only the water bandits but even the Changgung-geomdae were unable to hide their shock.
Namgung Hwang’s eyes turned to the remaining ship. But the quick-witted bandits had already abandoned it in a desperate escape, throwing themselves into the river.
“Tch.”
Deciding that smashing that boat would no longer mean anything, Namgung Hwang withdrew his sword.
The sight of the water bandits desperately swimming toward Maehwado, cramming the vast Yangtze so densely that it looked like a teeming swarm, was revolting.
“…Damn it. That Black Dragon King bastard!”
By now, even Namgung Hwang had no choice but to understand. The Black Dragon King was not here. The Black Dragon King was cunning, but he was not one to avoid battle. If he had been here, he would have already stood in Namgung Hwang’s way.
“Family Head. It’s a complete victory!”
“...Complete victory?”
Namgung Hwang turned around.
At some point, the merchants who had taken shelter inside the pavilions had gathered behind him, cheering and raising their voices. It meant that every water bandit who had dared set foot in the northern riverland had been killed or driven off.
“Hmph!”
But Namgung Hwang could not be satisfied with that.
“What victory is there in this?”
“Pardon?”
“Since when did reclaiming what should have been ours count as victory? Victory is only a word used when you’ve made another’s possession your own! You don’t call it victory just because you drove off thieves who broke into your house!”
Namgung Myeong lowered his head at that.
“To think we bowed our heads for three whole years out of fear of those water bandit wretches—when they’re the sort of rabble that could be dealt with any time we wished…”
Grinding his teeth, Namgung Hwang’s eyes blazed.
This kind of victory would never compensate for the years they had lost. There was no Black Dragon King here, nor the Black Dragon Clan, the Water Bandit Sect’s elite. Against such trash, even killing a thousand would not soothe his anger.
“Prepare the boats!”
“F-Family Head?”
“There!”
Namgung Hwang pointed toward the island in the center of the Yangtze.
“Is that place north of the river, or south of it?”
“...Th-that is…”
When Namgung Myeong could not bring himself to answer, Namgung Do-wi, standing beside him, spoke in his place.
“It isn’t north of the river, but it isn’t south of it either. It is, as you can see, an island.”
“Good!”
Namgung Hwang shouted with a booming voice.
“Even if that treaty was made by mistake, a treaty is still a treaty. Before its term expires, Namgung does not set foot on southern soil. That means the word Namgung has spoken shall absolutely be kept!”
“Yes, Family Head.”
“But that place is not southern soil!”
Namgung Hwang’s eyes flared like fire.
“Prepare the boats. I cannot stand by any longer and watch filthy water bandits dare set up camp there and threaten the northern riverland. I will land on that island myself and tear every one of those bandit dogs apart with my own hands!”
“F-Family Head. That is far too dangerous. Please reconsider.”
Namgung Myeong said anxiously.
“As you can see, it’s an island. To reach it, we must go by water.”
“So?”
“In other words, if we enter that island, we may become isolated. It is a position from which enemy attacks are easy and our own support is difficult.”
“As if I didn’t know that?”
“Pardon?”
Namgung Hwang turned to Namgung Myeong with burning eyes.
“Mount Hua held that land for a full three years. That island that could be attacked at any time because it was outside the treaty!”
“Th-that…”
“Are you really trying to say that something Mount Hua could do—no, something even the Green Forest did—our Namgung Family cannot do?”
“Th-that is absolutely not what I meant. But—!”
“Then prepare.”
“F-Family Head. Please, just listen to me once—”
When Namgung Myeong tried again to stop him, Namgung Hwang clicked his tongue briefly, his face openly displeased.
“I’m not so stupid that I can’t tell what you’re thinking. I’m not so blind with rage that I’ve lost all sense of reason and am charging headlong without thinking.”
“...”
“Don’t you understand? The Black Dragon King isn’t there right now. And neither is the Black Dragon Clan. It’s an unclaimed battlefield. If we don’t move now, taking that island later will become ten times harder.”
“That may be true, but…”
“If you can’t move when the opportunity comes, then you’ll need to spend several times the effort afterward. This is the time to act!”
Namgung Myeong bit his lip and nodded. Namgung Hwang wasn’t wrong.
“Understood, Family Head!”
“Launch the boats! We’re taking that island!”
“Yes!”
Namgung Hwang’s fierce eyes turned toward Maehwado.
Black Dragon King. I’ll seize your leash. By my hand, Namgung Hwang’s hand!
A proud, triumphant smile spread across his face.