You Started This Fight (1)
It would be more accurate to call it a sudden squall than a storm.
The atmosphere, which had been sinking so deep it seemed frozen solid, was overturned in an instant. Those who had been pressing down on everything around them like a calm, suffocating weight now rushed forward like blazing fire.
“W-what the hell!”
“They’re coming this way!”
The water bandits let out screams that sounded almost like shrieks.
And yet, among all those shouting themselves hoarse, there were very few who actually stepped up to block the way.
They were panicking.
With Maehwado already surrounded and the island nearly taken, there was no need to worry about an attack from outside. No matter how formidable a warrior might be, it would take time to cross such a distance.
And during that crossing, they would have to endure a barrage from the ships stationed on the Yangtze River. Even if they forced their way through that attack, they would have to accept massive damage, and even if they somehow reached Maehwado, they would have to fight the troops that had already seized the island with bodies exhausted from the crossing.
Wasn’t that exactly why even Shaolin had not dared throw itself into this river so easily, fully understanding the danger?
Namgung Hwang had already proved with his life just how unfavorable this situation was for them. So even if this was the famously extraordinary Mount Hua, they had assumed there was nothing to be done.
But Mount Hua’s response instantly exceeded every one of their expectations.
Baek Cheon’s foot slammed down on a plank. The board, which had dipped slightly into the water, sprang back up at once.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Baek Cheon raced ahead, stepping from plank to plank as though they were stepping stones, his speed no slower than if he were running across level ground.
The distance from the riverbank to Maehwado was certainly great.
But what if this were not a river, but open land?
For a martial artist, that distance could hardly be called far.
Fwoooosh!
Following Baek Cheon at the front, the disciples of Mount Hua in their black robes ran in a line behind him. From afar, they looked almost as if they were running across the surface of the water.
One of the men, who had been staring blankly at a sight he had never seen in his life, suddenly snapped out of it and shouted in alarm.
“W-what are you doing, you idiots! Shoot! Shoot arrows!”
Of course, his daze lasted only a moment. But by then, Mount Hua and the Tang Family had already crossed a quarter of the way.
“Fiiiiire!”
The frightened bandits loosed arrows like madmen.
They had fired in such haste that they had not even managed to form proper ranks, but they were still water bandits. The internal force behind those arrows was nothing to scoff at.
Arrows that had been launched as if to pierce the heavens now rained down all at once. Straight toward Mount Hua, which was racing out front like a black dragon!
Swiiish!
It looked like black rain falling from the sky.
But the swordsmen of Mount Hua racing forward did not slow in the slightest. Instead, they all raised their swords toward the heavens.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
And the arrows that fell were cleanly knocked aside by blades that moved without a single wasted motion.
The reason bows were not widely used in wars between martial artists was obvious. Weapons of range could make their trajectory plain to see, but that also meant they could not break through a martial artist’s defenses.
And yet the reason the water bandits favored bows so much was simple. Those submerged in water could clearly see the danger and still be unable to stop it.
But now, the Mount Hua swordsmen running across the river as though it were flat earth were not hindered in the slightest by the rain of arrows.
“Shoot! Shoot more! Damn it, stop them at the ankles!”
When the attack failed to land, someone began screaming in a fit of panic.
Even if they could not bring the enemy down with arrows, they had to buy time somehow.
That strategy was certainly sound.
What he had failed to consider was one thing: Mount Hua was not the only force running across the water to save Namgung.
“Faster, shoo—…kgh!”
The bandit at the prow, shouting orders, suddenly convulsed as if struck by lightning.
“Khrrrk… khrrrgh.”
“P-patriarch!”
“Sir! Why are you—”
When the bandits nearby turned their heads, the man who had been giving orders was already toppling backward like a rotten plank.
Thud!
His eyes rolled back as he hit the deck, and a thin line of blood trickled from his forehead.
“D-dart!”
A throwing knife had sunk deep into the patriarch’s forehead, buried to the hilt. The bandits screamed in terror.
That was only the beginning.
“Aaaagh!”
“Aaaahh!”
Those standing in rows along the railings, shooting arrows, began dropping one after another with screams, falling over the side of the ship.
Splash! Splash!
Just as everyone was still reeling from the outrageous development, someone shouted in a voice cracked with panic.
“Hidden weapons! Hidden weapons! It’s the Tang Family! Duck—! Urk!”
Swiiiiish!
The hidden darts of the Sichuan Tang Family sliced over the heads of the bandits who had thrown themselves down in fear. The survivors’ backs were soaked in cold sweat.
Those darts were surely coated in Tang Family poison.
At their level of skill, even a brush with one of those darts would mean death. And naturally, not everyone was lucky enough to avoid them.
“Aaaaghhh!”
One man struck in the face by a flying dart clutched at his face and crumpled to the deck.
“Ah! Ahhh! Aaaagh!”
He rolled on the boards, screaming so horribly that it was barely a human sound, then coughed up blood froth before rolling his eyes back and trembling all over.
“Krrk… krrrrk!”
Starting from the hand gripping his face, a black aura began to spread, and before long his entire body was covered in red-and-black blotches.
“Ugh… ughhh…”
Those watching could not help but groan in disgust. Just looking at it made their own bodies tremble.
The man’s body convulsed as though seized by epilepsy, then went limp. He had only been struck by a few darts as thin as hair, and yet he died before he could even draw and release a few breaths.
The faces of those who finally grasped the true power of poison turned deathly pale.
A peaceful age, above all else. That was why everyone had forgotten it.
Why had the Tang Family, despite its weakness in direct combat between individuals, still been able to covet one of the seats among the Five Great Families?
Because in a massive battle like this, where one faction crashed against another, there was no place more dangerous than the Tang Family in all the world.
A venomous serpent that had long hidden itself in the distant lands of Sichuan had finally broken its silence and begun to soar on the waters of the Yangtze.
“You bastards! Stop hiding your heads and shoot the damn arrows! Do you want to die by my hand?”
The commanders, their eyes bloodshot, screamed themselves hoarse. If they hid beneath the railings and clung to life like this, then even surviving would not be living at all. The Black Dragon King’s wrath would surely fall on them, would it not?
Whether they raised their heads or kept them down, death was all that waited in the end.
But fortunately or unfortunately, they no longer had to worry about it. Something other than darts came flying over their lowered heads.
Swiiish!
The water bandits who had their heads buried in fear reflexively looked up.
A pouch?
Their eyes filled with confusion as they spotted small green pouches flying swiftly overhead.
Boom! Boom!
The many pouches burst at once, releasing pungent poison powder and poison sand that blanketed the bandits crouching below.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Graaagh! Ah! Aaaaghhh!”
Then came shrieks so miserable no one would ever want to hear them in a dream. Poison sand bit into flesh, and black poison dust spread across the deck, forcing itself into noses and mouths.
“Khrrrk…”
“Khhk, krrk.”
The deck became a field of death in an instant.
Dang Gun-ak, having shaken one ship to its core in a single stroke, looked on with cold eyes and gave the order.
“Conserve the hidden weapons! This battle will be long!”
“Yes, sir!”
The Tang Family warriors who followed behind him answered in small but firm voices.
And all the while, Mount Hua kept charging onward.
In the center of those running like bolts of lightning, Cheong Myeong’s sharp voice rang out.
“They’re coming!”
As soon as those words fell, the swordsmen of Mount Hua drew their blades back to their waists. Then they thrust them downward toward the water beneath their feet.
Fwaaaaat!
The sword energy released from their blades pierced the surface and shot downward. Even though they surely could not see clearly beneath the water, there was not the slightest hesitation in the way they unleashed it.
And then.
“Again!”
At Cheong Myeong’s command, the swordsmen of Mount Hua sent out another wave of sword energy into the water as though they were one body.
Of course, their feet never stopped moving for even a moment.
The result of that attack was immediately visible to the eye.
The river was beginning to turn red with blood.
The bandits lurking beneath the water, waiting to strike, were pierced and killed by the sword energy before they could even reach Mount Hua’s feet.
Fwoosh!
A few of Mount Hua’s disciples kicked off from the planks and leaped upward. At the same time, long spears burst through the boards they had been standing on and shot up from the water.
Fwaaaaat!
Blue sword light flashed in. And before the bandit who had thrust the spear could even dodge, his body was sliced apart.
The bandit, unable even to scream properly, let his spear tremble in convulsions, but Mount Hua’s disciples never once checked whether he lived or died. They just ran forward, and forward again.
Fwaaaaat!
As if to block their advance, dozens of water bandits simultaneously sprang up before Baek Cheon and Yu I-seol, who were running at the front.
But Baek Cheon and Yu I-seol did not slow down. If anything, they charged even faster.
Tap!
Yu I-seol lightly kicked off a plank and stepped onto Baek Cheon’s shoulder. Baek Cheon tilted his head slightly to the side as though he had known she would, giving her a foothold without a word.
And then!
Taaaaap!
Using Baek Cheon’s shoulder as a springboard, Yu I-seol launched herself into the air—literally flew. Like a hawk diving from the sky, she dropped behind the backs of the bandits who were still hanging in the air and had not yet managed to get their feet onto the water.
In perfect coordination with her, Baek Cheon charged straight through the front.
“Haaah!”
Baek Cheon’s sword created dozens of streaks of sword light, blanketing the bandits before him all at once.
“What—?”
The water bandits’ eyes widened to the point of tearing. The number of sword lights was impossible to believe if they came from just one man’s blade.
But there was no time to be surprised. Before the sword light even reached their bodies, dozens more streaks burst from Yu I-seol’s blade, flying in from behind them.
A storm of sword light crashing down from front and back. It was a joint attack carried out by just two people against dozens of bandits.
The result was truly horrific.
“Aaaaghhh!”
“Aaaagh!”
The incoming sword light mercilessly pierced the bodies of the bandits who had leaped up with full force.
Shraaaak!
As Baek Cheon’s feet scraped across the water like he was carving a path, his sword swept horizontally once more with tremendous force.
Fwaaaang!
With a sound like a long whip cracking through the air, the bodies of the bandits pierced by sword light were cut cleanly across and flung aside.
“I’ll cut a path through!”
Baek Cheon’s voice erupted like a lion’s roar that could pierce the heavens.
“Run! We’re saving Namgung!”
“Yes, sir!”
The swordsmen of Mount Hua raced across the blood-stained river like streaks of lightning. Maehwado was drawing closer and closer.