Chapter 80: Festival: A Petty Feud (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 80: Festival: A Petty Feud (3)
Mao Rang wheezed, gasping for air.
"⎯Haa, ⎯haa."
The sound of her own breathing echoed in her ears. As her lost senses began to return, she reached for her neck first.
"It... it's still attached."
Her weakened legs collapsed against the dirt ground. Her head drooped, but Mao Rang managed to lift her chin to look straight ahead. The harsh sunlight pierced her eyes, making it difficult to keep them open.
"..."
A figure stood before her, looking down with the sun behind him. Shadowed by the midday light, his expression was impossible to discern. Mao Rang could only part her lips in silence.
'Was that just now...'
The Mindscape Domain.
A realm of martial arts that only peak masters could step foot into.
It was said that only Seven-Star-class heroes or the head of the Auditore Family, Al'tair, could manipulate it at will.
But there were exceptions to everything in the world. If someone possessed talent that far exceeded accumulated experience, they could knock on its doors even at a young age.
'All Mute...'
An unpleasant face surfaced in her mind. An insurmountable wall.
Mao Rang barely managed to push herself up. Her legs were still trembling so violently that her joints buckled unnaturally. Holding her breath, she stared at the black-haired cadet.
'Kang Geomma.'
She replayed the previous exchange in her head. Her neck had been severed before Kang Geomma even swung his arm.
A stroke where cause and effect had been inverted. Presumably, his mastery over the domain had reached its absolute pinnacle.
Mao Rang was utterly lost for words.
'A monster like this... is an academy cadet?'
A monster wearing human skin. She could finally understand why Shun and Jin practically wet themselves and threw fits at the mere mention of his name.
Even Mao Rang, known as the Iron Leg, couldn't stop her trembling. But then, a sudden question popped into her mind.
'So why did he manifest the domain?'
Even though he could easily overpower her, he hadn't struck her in reality.
It was a subspace sparring match anyway. There shouldn't be any physical interference in reality...
'Don't tell me... was he trying to save my face?'
To engrave the overwhelming gap in talent through his domain while avoiding unnecessary international conflict.
It sounded like sophistry at first glance, but it wasn't entirely far-fetched either.
She was known as the Star of the Continent. If she were recklessly broken, her country's prestige would plummet.
It could even lead to friction between nations. To prevent that beforehand, he had thrown out a warning strike within his Mindscape Domain.
'So he wasn't just strong.'
How far ahead had that guy seen? Was the kimchi just an excuse?
She prided herself on being skilled at political maneuvering, yet she had been completely played by a seventeen-year-old boy. The depth of his mind was impossible to fathom.
"Ha..."
A dry laugh escaped Mao Rang's lips. Tightening her eyelids, she looked straight at Kang Geomma.
"...Geomma."
Rumors had been quietly circulating among the high-ranking elites.
"It's you."
The genius top student who descended as if dancing from the heavens, and...
"The next Seven Stars."
The official successor designated by the Sword Emperor.
⎯Grit.
Mao Rang gritted her teeth fiercely. Emotions welling up from the depths of her unconscious mind gathered in her eyes.
Envy, jealousy, fear, awe.
The next head of the Iron King Family.
Mao Rang's talent was outstanding, but it wasn't the absolute best. Even she had to admit that.
The strongest power of humanity, Sword Emperor Siegfried; Archery Saint Saki Kojima, who ascended to the Seven Stars at twenty; and All Mute, the hero representing the world's greatest superpower, the US, despite being the same age. Their ceiling of skill was far too high for Mao Rang.
To cover her limitations in talent, Mao Rang had chosen politics. She eliminated her rivals through schemes and covert operations.
However, in the face of overwhelming martial prowess, politics became nothing more than cheap tricks.
'However...'
Mao Rang channeled force into her legs. In an instant, she manifested all the blessings handed down from her ancestors.
BOOOOOOM!
Her calves stretched taut, and the dirt ground began to crack under her. As a violent gust wrapped around her feet, a waterspout of airflow erupted. The sharp sound of muscle fibers tearing rang out.
"I haven't just been idling around all this time either."
Blood poured from Mao Rang's mouth as she grinned, yet she took a flawless stance.
A dull pain rushed up her knees. Yet she felt liberated.
It felt as though the heavy shackles tangled around her legs for so long had finally been shattered.
"Phew..."
Mao Rang exhaled a long breath. Stripping away all worldly concerns, her legs felt light as a feather. Looking directly at Kang Geomma, she murmured softly.
"Thank you, Geomma."
"..."
Kang Geomma tilted his head in silence. Mao Rang answered with a bright smile.
"Thanks to you, I've snapped out of it."
Soon, Mao Rang's upper body leaned forward slightly, and then—
⎯⎯BOOM!
A thunderous roar erupted as the ground burst open. This was a physical phenomenon occurring in reality, not within a Mindscape. The air surged like a heat haze, dragged along by her legs.
The distance between her and Kang Geomma closed in an instant. Mao Rang firmly planted her left foot into the ground.
The source of impact for a kick was balance. The more stable the posture, the more its destructive force entered a whole different dimension.
Using her buried left leg as an axis, Mao Rang swung her right leg. Tremendous force drawn from her core traveled through her muscles to the tip of her foot.
Her Storm Leg, wrapped in a ferocious gale, targeted Kang Geomma's temple at terrifying speed. It looked set to shatter not just his skull, but his entire body.
Swish!
Mao Rang's attack carved a meaningless arc through empty air. A fierce gale of dust kicked up from the shockwave.
Not even a shadow remained where Kang Geomma had been standing. Her eyes immediately darted around, searching for him.
'Above? Below? Beside me?'
Her pupils quickly scanned every direction. In that moment, a prickling sensation stabbed her spine like a needle. A blade hissed sharply, flying from her blind spot.
'Behind me.'
Mao Rang spun her mid-air leg horizontally without pausing. Her toes traced a smooth circle, aiming straight for Kang Geomma's face.
Clang-g-g!
A harsh screech of metal grinding against metal rang out. Her cast-iron foot, which should have crushed his face, was stopped cold by a slender blade.
Mao Rang's eyes widened into circles. How on earth could he block that? The answer was terrifyingly simple.
He had exquisitely twisted his blade to deflect the strike. A movement more precise than machinery.
Looking at Kang Geomma's composed stance, one would think he had only moved his wrist. At least, that was what the spectators thought.
But Mao Rang saw it crystal clear.
Crack-ck-ck...
Along with the sound of fine cracks appearing on the blade, the metal tangled and fused together like flesh healing over a wound.
Kang Geomma had channeled the [Blessing of Regeneration] into Murasame via the [Blessing of Transfer]. It was an activation driven not by premeditated strategy, but by pure instinct.
The blade, forged from magical beast materials, was woven with their cells. The blessing surged through the fine cracks in the blade like blood vessels, regenerating it to every corner.
'M-Monster...!'
In the brief instant horror and bewilderment swept across Mao Rang's face, Kang Geomma flicked his Sashimi. A ray of cold silver light grazed past Mao Rang's left arm.
Slink⎯ Thud.
A crimson cross-section was revealed, and the hunk of flesh slid off her arm. Mao Rang's gaze lingered on the severed spot. A hollow chill brushed against her side.
"..."
The laughter that had filled the arena vanished with that single strike. The crowd's eyes were dazed beyond mere astonishment. It was a sequence of unreal scenes, like living through a dream.
"AAAAAAAGHHH!"
Mao Rang screamed a beat too late. A crimson geyser of blood belatedly spurted from where her left arm used to be. She clamped her remaining hand over the severed wound and scrambled backward to create distance.
"Haa... haa..."
Her breathing grew progressively fainter. Mao Rang barely managed to force her eyes up to look ahead. Kang Geomma flicked his Sashimi, snapping off the blood clinging to the blade. Red droplets fell from the tip like dew.
Kang Geomma turned his eyes toward Mao Rang. A blinding white light leaked from his gaze.
"A-A demon...!"
A chilling sensation sliced down her spine. Mao Rang sensed her imminent death.
Instinctively, her feet moved. Just before death, humans struggle to survive. It was the instinct of a living creature.
Reason screamed alarm bells to flee from the danger. But brain cells paralyzed by terror creaked and failed to function.
Her legs and hands moved on their own. Her feet assumed a stance she had no desire to take, and her remaining arm rose.
'I don't want to die.'
Only the desperate urge to live drew out the series of motions. As Mao Rang felt her vision gradually turning hazy—
THUD!
Her foot stomp dug into the dirt once more. A crunching sound of fracturing joints rang out.
Mao Rang squeezed every drop of strength from her strained ligaments and muscles, hoisting her leg high. Simultaneously, wind gathered in a sharp sphere at her toes.
The pain was blindingly intense. Yet the tip of Mao Rang's foot remained locked onto Kang Geomma.
She looked like a gun barrel just before the trigger was pulled. Soon, her unconscious mind moved her lips.
"Wind Tremor Kick."
ROOOOOAR!
A fierce gale swept up clouds of dust as it charged forward. The onlookers could only gape like goldfish.
"...I thought you were a bit smarter than your brothers."
Kang Geomma, who had been silent for a moment, shook his head.
"Though your spirit isn't bad."
Bending his upper body, Kang Geomma shifted his grip on the hilt to a reverse grip.
He looked just like a beast baring its claws.
Those who didn't know him raised question marks at his unstable posture. But those who knew Kang Geomma gulped and shared the exact same thought.
'Here it comes.'
Time slowed down to a crawl.
Kang Geomma's eyes captured the intersection of present and future as a red line.
The elongated light trailing from both his eyes was vivid.
An attack filled with wild gales would shatter Kang Geomma's limbs. That surely should have been the outcome...
⎯Swish.
The blade of the three strikes cut cleanly through the wind.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯Slice.
Next, steel buried itself into flesh.
The sound was clean.
Thump, thump.
The crunch of breaking bone and the slicing of flesh echoed.
Soon after, the fierce wind died down.
The very next moment, a dry, mechanical voice echoed across the training ground.
[Subspace Sparring has concluded.]
The blank eyes of the spectators began to widen one by one.
[The winner is...]
Soft groans leaked from the crowd.
[Joaquin Academy cadet Kang Geomma.]
The Star of the Continent had fallen.
* * *
"Phew."
I wiped away the dripping sweat. The traces of the bloodbath vanished along with the subspace barrier.
I took a broad sweep of the spectator stands. Most were staring at me dazed, without even blinking. Scattered among them were quite a few famous figures.
Vladimir Yezhov, Mahatma Sindbad, All Mute, and her party. They glared at me, their vigilance openly displayed.
It was uncomfortable.
'This is why I tried to finish it moderately...'
I shifted my gaze back to Mao Rang. Her wide pupils suggested she hadn't quite regained her senses yet. Mao Rang swayed weakly, like a candle flickering in the wind.
"..."
I struck the first blow inside the Mindscape. No grand reason for it, really.
I just didn't want to cause unnecessary commotion since I still had to sell Kimchi Stew for the remaining two and a half days.
Think about it. Who would want to eat at a restaurant where the owner chops people up with a kitchen knife?
Though my weapon is technically a sashimi knife.
Honestly, I thought she would've gotten the hint with just that much.
But Mao Rang suddenly flared up with fighting spirit. As expected of someone ranked in the top three among the younger generation, her resilience was on another level.
Mao Rang manifested every single blessing without caring about the severe strain on her body.
It was a tactic that took full advantage of the subspace, where there was no physical fallout in the real world.
'Her reputation wasn't earned for nothing.'
I thought, scratching my chin.
In any case, provoking me by claiming kimchi was their food in the first place was asking for a beating. Whatever her hidden motives were, that part really rubbed me the wrong way.
I turned my gaze back to Mao Rang. Life was beginning to return to her grayish pupils.
Having confirmed her condition, I took a step toward her.
Thud, thud.
"..."
As my footsteps drew closer, her eyes—which were just regaining life—began to tremble.
I had learned a lesson from Mao Rang's twin brothers.
'Let me wrap this up thoroughly so she won't harbor any lingering grudges.'