Subjugating on Broadcast (39)
"No!!!!"
Gyeo-wool's scream tore through the spectator stands.
Seonwoo Hyun watched it all with a triumphant smile. Everything was unfolding exactly as he had pictured — Lee Su-hyun was driving Ahn Jin-woo into a corner.
Yoon Jin-ju and Jeong Min-ju's faces had gone grim. Both women knew their way around a fight, and even from that brief clash, the gulf in skill between Lee Su-hyun and Ahn Jin-woo looked considerable.
Unable to collect himself under Su-hyun's relentless barrage, Dong-hyun finally reached for a skill he had never used before. Possession.
Possession
Rank B
In raw physique, there was little to separate Ahn Jin-woo from Lee Su-hyun. Technically, however, the gap between Kang Dong-hyun and Lee Su-hyun was another matter entirely. Dong-hyun had learned a great deal of martial arts from Sirian, but it was nowhere near enough to stand on even footing with Su-hyun. In this world, Lee Su-hyun was, for all practical purposes, the strongest bare-knuckle fighter alive. Under ordinary circumstances, Dong-hyun never stood a chance of beating him.
But Possession changed everything. With the Heavenly Body and Martial God at his disposal, this fight was suddenly worth taking.
Su-hyun came flying in and drove a fist toward Dong-hyun's face. Dong-hyun twisted his head just enough to slip the punch. The instant the strike missed, Su-hyun shifted to take the mount — but Dong-hyun bent his right leg, planting his knee to block the incoming leg, then wrapped both of his own around Su-hyun's left and locked it down completely.
Su-hyun tried to yank his left foot free and settle into a full mount, but it wouldn't come. He started to sit up, hoping to break the position with a barrage of ground-and-pound. Dong-hyun was faster. He snaked an arm around Su-hyun's neck and hauled him down into his chest.
Dong-hyun had a slight edge in raw strength, and Su-hyun couldn't easily pull free. He hammered both fists into Dong-hyun's midsection instead, but Dong-hyun shifted his arms and absorbed the blows without taking any real damage. Sensing his strikes weren't landing, Su-hyun pressed both arms against Dong-hyun's chest to create space, trying to peel the arm from around his throat.
What came through that gap was Dong-hyun's fist. A short uppercut cracked into Su-hyun's jaw.
Su-hyun caught the attacking arm and they moved again. In the span of a few heartbeats the two of them traded grappling exchanges over and over, each hunting for a decisive hold.
His striking didn't look like much — but his grappling is the real deal...
As they wrestled for position, Su-hyun could feel it. His opponent's skill was exceptional. He was the one holding the more advantageous position, and yet he couldn't finish it. If anything, he was being pushed back, inch by inch. In the time it took him to peel Dong-hyun's hands away, Dong-hyun's legs had already wrapped around both of his hips.
The instant Su-hyun tried to sit up, Dong-hyun yanked on his arm, dumped his center of gravity, and completed the sweep. Because it had been a closed guard around the waist, Dong-hyun found himself settling into full mount before Su-hyun even realized what had happened.
Dong-hyun clamped one hand around Su-hyun's throat and started squeezing, driving punches home with the other. Su-hyun guarded, using his elbow to shove at the hand on his neck while simultaneously blocking the incoming fists, his legs working underneath to break the mount. He bucked his hips up and down to keep Dong-hyun from settling into a clean attack, but Dong-hyun's legs had him locked down tight. Shaking him off was not going to be easy.
Dong-hyun was smart about it. From full mount he didn't overextend — he just kept landing small, accumulating shots. Pinned on the bottom, Su-hyun was burning through his stamina trying to escape. Eventually the man underneath had no choice but to force a desperate scramble.
Dong-hyun had no interest in finishing the fight on the ground anyway. After applying just enough pressure, he let Su-hyun go.
Su-hyun pushed himself up, catching his breath, and looked at Dong-hyun. Even he could feel it — Dong-hyun had let him up on purpose.
"You just made a mistake..."
He'd felt Dong-hyun's clear superiority on the ground, but when it came to striking, he still believed he had the edge. His stamina had dipped, sure — but if he ended this quickly, it wouldn't matter.
As always, Su-hyun moved first. He snapped out a left jab — no feint this time, a sharp, genuine jab. Dong-hyun parried it lightly. Then something registered on his senses, coming in fast. Su-hyun's low kick.
At the same instant, Dong-hyun's left foot stepped through and his right hand fired a straight. Su-hyun, committed to the right-leg kick, couldn't react in time. The counter punched straight through.
It was a basic jab-to-low-kick combination. He never imagined Dong-hyun would thread a counter into the very first exchange with such perfect timing. Even in ordinary fights, counters were something you used after reading an opponent's rhythm, timing, and style. Landing one on the opening attack was extraordinarily difficult.
That was the terror of Martial God — the ability to read incoming attacks and answer with the optimal strike.
Su-hyun's body buckled under the impact, and Dong-hyun's assault poured in through the opening. Su-hyun was a top-class fighter. He reset his stance and raised his guard — but Dong-hyun's attack was vicious. Fists found every gap in the guard with surgical precision: the abdomen, the temple. Bare-knuckle fighting, with no gloves, made guarding that much harder.
Su-hyun couldn't weather the one-sided beating. He went down.
"I... I'm not... done yet..."
He couldn't even hold himself steady. His body trembled. And still he tried to get up and keep fighting.
"Why are you going this far?"
Dong-hyun asked him.
"Yu-rim... I have to... protect Yu-rim..."
Su-hyun crawled forward and grabbed Dong-hyun's ankle. Dong-hyun crouched down, seized him by the hair, and yanked his face up.
"Hey. Who the hell do you think you are? Did Yu-rim ask you to save her? What are you to her?"
Su-hyun's pupils shook. From the moment he'd walked out to fight, Yu-rim hadn't even looked at him. She'd told the man standing in front of him to go fight well.
Does Yu-rim not need me? No... that can't be. This bastard threatened her...
The thought lit a fire behind his eyes again. He couldn't give up. Not when it was for Yu-rim.
Dong-hyun, still gripping him by the hair, drove punch after punch into his face.
"Wake up. I'm going easy on you because you're Yu-rim's friend. What you've got isn't love. It's obsession."
Ob...session...?
He didn't want to, but the image of Yu-rim wrapping her arms around Dong-hyun kept overlapping in his mind. His heart wavered.
"Maybe you're right... I surren—"
He never finished the word. He blacked out where he lay.
Winner — Ahn Jin-woo
When Dong-hyun stepped out of Room 3, five women came running and threw themselves into his arms.
"We were so worried..."
They all asked after him at once, checking that he was all right.
Su-hyun, barely conscious, could see only one thing: Yu-rim, who had no eyes for him at all, fussing over Dong-hyun alone. Then he collapsed again.
Seonwoo Hyun watched the man surrounded by women and couldn't contain his fury.
What the hell is so great about that guy that they worship him like this?
By Seonwoo Hyun's standards, Dong-hyun's popularity made no sense. He wasn't rich. He wasn't even generous. How did a man like that persuade people, charm them, pull them in?
I need to get my hands on him. Fast...
Lee Su-hyun no longer even registered in Seonwoo Hyun's eyes. He'd been intrigued by the idea of the strongest man in this place — but after watching him get demolished by Dong-hyun, the interest evaporated. He hadn't been the type to chase men in the first place.
Following the staff's guidance, Dong-hyun was now entitled to take three slaves. His first choice, as promised, was Kim Ji-yeong.
Kim Ji-yeong wept as she thanked him for choosing her. She'd been terrified she would die at Seonwoo Hyun's hands. Dong-hyun had saved her from that, and her loyalty to him became absolute.
He turned his eyes, considering who to pick next. Strangely, Seonwoo Hyun's remaining slaves averted their gazes, refusing to be chosen. They knew who Seonwoo Hyun really was. If he won this tournament, they stood to receive a massive share of the prize money. And if the organizers had various mechanisms in place, then no matter how impressive this Ahn Jin-woo was, they believed Seonwoo Hyun would ultimately come out on top.
Only one person met Dong-hyun's eyes, silently begging to be saved.
It was the woman who had been paired with Seonwoo Hyun from the very beginning. The moment their gazes locked, her face filled with desperate hope. He wasn't going to find a better candidate anyway. Dong-hyun pointed her out.
"My second choice is that woman."
The moment Dong-hyun indicated her, Seonwoo Hyun's face flushed dark with rage. He turned a furious look on the staff. The staffer's expression turned awkward — the first crack in the blank, arrogant faces those officials had worn this entire time. It was a measure of just how much influence Seonwoo Hyun carried here.
"The rules are the rules... there's nothing I can do..."
The staffer stammered, trying to talk Seonwoo Hyun down.
"Fine. Just fine! Yeah. This is how it should be — this is what makes it fun. Your ending is going to be miserable."
Seonwoo Hyun put on a show of being unbothered and let the woman go.
Participant Ahn Jin-woo's second selection: the slave Kang Bo-ram.
They swapped Kang Bo-ram's chip and sent her over to Dong-hyun.
"Please select the last slave you will take."
"My final choice is XXX."
The words were barely out of Dong-hyun's mouth before Seonwoo Hyun exploded.
"You son of a bitch!!! I'm going to fucking kill you!!"