If You’re Going to Be Called Lucky, Kid (2)
"H-hey! Die!"
A spear shot through the air in a flash, straight for Namgung Pyeong’s throat.
His instincts screamed that there was no way to block it, and Namgung Pyeong clenched his eyes shut. But in that instant—
Clang!
A sword, flung from somewhere like a streak of light, slammed brutally into the spear aimed at his neck. Even then, it did not lose momentum; the blade drove straight through the throat of the pirate holding it.
Whoosh.
Namgung Pyeong stared blankly at the blood spraying from the pirate’s neck.
"Back up."
"……"
"Back up."
"Huh? Ah… yes! Y-yes!"
Startled, Namgung Pyeong blurted out the answer. The female swordswoman gave him a brief sidelong glance, then stood firmly in front of him without another word.
That was the beginning.
"Ooooooooooh!"
It was like a landslide.
Like earth and stone cascading down a mountainside, a black tide surged forward along the path carved open among the pirates.
Swords gleaming white, contrasting with their black robes, sliced through the air like the wind.
For the pirates who had been pressing the Namgung Clan into retreat, it was nothing short of catastrophe.
Everything in this world was relative.
To the exhausted Namgung Clan, the pirates attacking them had seemed like savage beasts. But before Mount Hua’s disciples, advancing as a great, unbroken tide, they were nothing more than leaves being swept away.
Swish!
The swordsmen of Mount Hua who had surged to the front swung their blades in unison. Ten-odd swords traced the same arc as if wielded by a single person, and their cold edge pierced the chests of the bewildered pirates.
"Aaaagh!"
"Th-those damned… urk…."
The pirates, seeing their comrades become dead souls in the blink of an eye right before their eyes, were gripped by terror.
Those who pursue profit over principle are the cruelest and most savage people in the world when they hold the upper hand—but the moment their own lives are endangered, they become the greatest cowards of all.
That was only natural. Why would men who valued their own lives above all else have any reason to stand fast on a battlefield where death was all but certain?
And, unfortunately for them, there was someone here who understood that filthy nature of the evil sect better than anyone else.
Bang!
Someone stamped the ground hard and shouted, "Break them!"
The moment the words fell, five black shadows leaped into the air.
Baek Cheon, Yu I-seol, Yoon Jong, Hye Yeon, and even Jo Geol, who had forcibly caught up to the main force with everything he had.
They carried out Cheong Myeong’s will as though they themselves had become the sword in his hand.
"Strike!"
The instant Baek Cheon’s command rang out, red plum blossoms bloomed from all four swords at once.
These were not the practical, efficient sword paths they had shown until now, but something dazzlingly ornate.
As if they meant to bury the entire Plum Blossom Island beneath red plum blossoms, countless flowers blossomed wickedly from their blades.
And at the center of it all—
"Aaaaaaa-mi-ta-bha!"
With a solemn Buddhist chant, golden energy burst out explosively.
Buddha’s Light Shining Everywhere.
The sight of solemn golden radiance surging up through the red plum blossoms that ringed the Namgung Clan was truly overwhelming.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
Plum blossom petals, flung through the air, rained down like a storm upon the pirates. And on the front line, golden sword qi came crashing in like a wave.
"Aaaagh!"
Those struck by the Buddha’s light were sent flying, vomiting blood.
"Argh! My arm!"
"Gah…."
Those buried beneath the sharp plum blossom sword qi also screamed in agony. Light as petals as they looked, the sword qi was mercilessly sharp.
It only brushed skin and split flesh. If it struck true, it cleaved bone.
In this tightly packed battlefield, those vicious petals showed their power to the fullest.
But the others were not merely standing by and watching.
"Protect Namgung!"
At Baek Sang’s shout, Mount Hua’s swordsmen kicked off the ground with all their strength. Like bolts of lightning, they charged, colliding with the retreating pirates and thrusting through them.
"Hyaaaah!"
Swish!
Baek Sang’s sword drove straight into the center of a pirate’s chest. He crippled the man in a single stroke, then pulled the blade free and ran toward the next.
The pirate he had sent reeling vomited blood and stabbed out with a spear in one final act of resistance, but Baek Sang didn’t care in the slightest.
Clang!
Because Guok Hui, following behind him, knocked the spear aside.
He would do what he had to do. The rest was left to those who followed behind him. And the disciples and junior brothers at his back were no less capable than he was.
There was not a shred of reason not to trust them!
"Keep your head cool."
At the voice that reached his ear, Baek Sang’s body jolted.
"Yes, Uncle-Master!"
Swish!
Un Geom casually dealt with a pirate who had been targeting Baek Sang, then calmly swept his gaze over the surrounding battlefield. Under his look, Mount Hua’s disciples tightened their grips on their swords and slowly forced the boiling blood in their veins back under control. Calm returned to their eyes once more.
Thud!
Then, the five swords that had leaped forward landed around the Namgung Clan as if to guard it from every direction.
"Y-you damn bastards! Why the hell are you scared of a pitiful number like that! Crush those bastards already… urk!"
The pirate, thrashing in panic, never finished his sentence and toppled backward.
A bi-do had been buried so deep in his forehead it looked nearly blue.
Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.
"Aaaaargh!"
"My face! My faaaace!"
Yet another barrage of throwing needles and shuriken crashed into one side of the encirclement, making it collapse in an instant. They were so tightly packed that their shoulders were touching; there was nowhere to dodge the hidden weapons.
The pirates’ numbers, once the pride of the Water Bandits, had become a hindrance instead. And from the Tang Family’s perspective, there could hardly have been a more comfortable fight.
The enemies rushing from the front were cut down wholesale by Mount Hua. All they had to do was throw hidden weapons in whatever direction they pleased.
In a battlefield where no defense was needed, the Tang Family displayed their greatest efficiency.
"Hmph."
Dang Gun-ak, glaring coldly at the pirates just as he had when he first met Cheong Myeong long ago, said as if biting out the words, "Show them what real pain is."
"Yes, Patriarch!"
At his command, the Tang Family members moved even faster. Every time a hand emerged from within a sleeve, a pirate’s anguished scream tore through the air.
The Namgung swordsmen, unable to believe what they were seeing and too wary to let their guard down, stared blankly at Mount Hua and the Tang Family at first. Then, at last, they collapsed as though their strength had simply left them.
"Th-they’re… here…."
"They really… really came to help…."
They couldn’t bring themselves to say, “We’re saved.”
By now, they understood painfully well that taking this island was not the end. They would only truly survive once they escaped it.
But that was merely what their heads told them. Their hearts were telling them something entirely different.
They turned their eyes toward Namgung Myeong—or rather, toward the one who had fallen unconscious in Namgung Myeong’s arms.
"…"
Looking at the limp Namgung Dowi, their eyes stung and their vision blurred despite their efforts to hold it back.
"Young Patriarch…."
How many sacrifices had there been?
Driving his body to the point of becoming a rag was, in truth, a small matter. Namgung Dowi had even sacrificed Namgung Hwang, the Patriarch and his own father, just to save them.
When they thought about what state of mind he must have been in to run all the way here, they could hardly bring themselves to meet his face.
And the ones Namgung Dowi had finally brought to them were the very people now protecting them.
"Push forward!"
Mount Hua, and the Tang Family.
Who could possibly have imagined that they would rush here for Namgung’s sake? Even those famed righteous sects had abandoned them. The Five Great Families, whom they had believed to be bound to them by blood and alliance, had not even shown their faces.
And yet Mount Hua, who had nothing to do with them, and the Tang Family, once estranged from the Five Great Families and bitter enemies besides, had stepped onto Plum Blossom Island without demanding a single thing in return.
They had come knowing full well how dangerous this place was, and had still taken all that danger upon themselves to save the Namgung Clan.
How was anyone supposed to put such a feeling into words?
"Stand up and draw your swords!"
At that moment, Namgung Myeong shouted while gripping Namgung Dowi tightly.
"If you still have the strength to hold a sword, then get up even if you have to scream your throat raw! You are Namgung warriors. Do you think you can just sit here and wait like idiots because someone came to help? If sacrifice is needed, then we must be the ones to sacrifice. If blood must be spilled, then we must be the ones to bleed! Do not take their spirit for granted!"
At those words, everyone snapped to their senses as if struck by lightning. The fire in their eyes flared back to life.
Though trembling all over, the Namgung swordsmen somehow forced themselves upright and staggered forward, moving to join the Mount Hua swordsmen surrounding them.
At that sight, Cheong Myeong let out a snort.
Stupid bastards, all of them.
They were exhausted to the bone and had no hope of being able to ask for help, but even so, they wouldn’t just sit there and wait to be saved.
Well. That’s Namgung for you.
The Namgung Clan had always been number one in the world when it came to nothing but pride.
Cheong Myeong’s gaze swept coldly over the battlefield. The heat of war swallowed people whole. Those with the advantage and those at a disadvantage alike were eventually dragged along by its current.
But Cheong Myeong’s eyes alone captured the whole of the battlefield with razor-sharp clarity.
This war was already over.
No—really, it had been over from the beginning.
Those fools had let down their guard, convinced that no rescue would ever come to Plum Blossom Island. There was no way they could defeat Mount Hua and the Tang Family after such a sudden arrival.
In the first place, if they had faced each other head-on with proper forces and all their strength available on open ground, a band of Water Bandits would never have been a match for the Namgung Clan.
The Water Bandits had only been able to win because they forced the Namgung Clan into terrain favorable to them. And this Plum Blossom Island now favored Mount Hua and the Tang Family.
All that remained was for them to be swept away.
Unless…
Kwaaaaaaaaa!
At that instant, a chilling tearing sound of air rose up, like a massive boulder rolling down a mountain.
Baek Cheon’s head snapped violently to the side.
What is it?
But all he could see were the pirates, frightened and hesitating as they backed away.
Yet Baek Cheon’s instincts were faster than his thoughts.
Thud!
The moment he kicked off the ground and leaped, the bodies of the pirates in front were split apart and hurled aside, and a rough black clump of flying blades shot fiercely toward Mount Hua’s swordsmen.
"Hyaaaaaah!"
As if he had been waiting for this, Baek Cheon threw himself in front of them and swung his sword with all his strength toward the incoming blades.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaang!
After twisting the flying projectiles upward with his blade, Baek Cheon’s body was blasted backward like a shot arrow. Even after smashing into the ground once, he was still hurled back into the air, and Mount Hua’s disciples screamed at the sight.
"Sajeooooook!"
"Senior brother! Damn it!"
Baek Cheon twisted his body in midair and landed on the ground.
Thud.
Half-collapsing as he came down, he drove his sword into the earth to steady himself.
Bright red blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
"You…"
Bloodshot veins sprang into Baek Cheon’s eyes. His own condition didn’t matter in the slightest. Right now, he was so furious he could barely think straight.
"You son of a bitch…."
How could he—how the hell could he launch flying blades at the backs of his own subordinates?
"You…!"
Baek Cheon saw it clearly.
The corpses of the pirates cut down by the earlier attack, and the vivid blood-red path formed by the blood that had spilled from them.
At the end of that path, cut through the pirates’ ranks—
"…You damn punks."
The Black Dragon King, his hair practically standing on end with rage, was coming forward with steps that seemed ready to crush the very ground beneath him.