Cheongnyong Sword Sect (4)

Baek Seo-ha.

It was only after the Republic of Korea had been wiped from the map that I came to truly know her.

I'd been rescued by hunters dispatched from the United States, and had just arrived on American soil. I had lost everything and was half a broken man by then.

'Are you going to keep lying around like that?'

She reached out to me first, for no other reason than that we came from the same homeland.

From then on, she more or less took it upon herself to look after me.

'Eat this. You'll be in real trouble if you keep refusing food.'

She forced spoonfuls of porridge past lips that had given up on eating and drinking altogether.

'Get up. You need some way to protect yourself.'

She hauled me up off the floor where I'd collapsed in listless apathy and drilled me in bare-handed combat whether I liked it or not.

However much we shared the same hometown, it was kindness bordering on excessive.

Thanks to her, I slowly recovered a semblance of daily life. I clawed my way out of an endless depression and, little by little, walked back toward the light of the world.

That was how I grew close to Baek Seo-ha so quickly, and how I came to hear the tangled story behind her.

For instance—

'My left arm?'

How she had lost the name "Baek Seo-ha."

And how her left arm had ceased to move at all.

'You've received so much, Seo-ha.'

Which means it's time to give it back.

To you, who dragged me up out of a darkness so bleak I could barely breathe.

'I'll give you a different future than the one we had.'

At the very least, a future where you can smile without bitterness.

"My bare hands are more than enough."

"…Quit the nonsense and pick up a spear."

Baek Seo-ha's voice was ice cold.

On the surface, nothing about her seemed to have changed. But—

Crack!

The faint grind of teeth. The tendons in her neck standing just slightly taut.

She was, without question, furious.

In vulgar terms: I'd gotten under her skin.

"L-Lee Tae-hyun-nim… what on earth is the meaning of this…!"

"Acting Sect Leader Seong Gyu-ho. I have a conscience too, you know."

I pressed a hand to my chest, doing my best to wear the most innocent expression I could manage.

"No matter how 'rightfully' I earned my shot at the Ascendance Ceremony, the Seven Forms of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Blue Dragon are the sect's hidden arts, are they not? Snatching them up this easily is the heart of a common thief."

"I… I suppose that's true…?"

"You've seen it with your own eyes, haven't you? The sect's disciples simply aren't my match."

At those words, the fallen students all flinched at once.

Fair enough—in one-on-ones, and even in group battles, they'd been swept aside. There was nothing to argue.

"So for this final match, I'd like both of us to fight with everything we have. It would put my conscience at ease."

"Even so, Seo-ha is the sect's foremost disciple. Facing her bare-handed would be sheer arrogance…"

"Foremost disciple, you say?"

Flick.

I stole a sideways glance at Baek Seo-ha.

'The Baek Seo-ha of right now.'

Even with her left arm perfectly whole—

compared to the woman I'd seen in the future—

"She's barely—"

a hatchling. A baby snake, nothing more.

That epithet, White Dragon, was wasted on her.

Pfft.

When I curled the corner of my mouth into a smirk, Baek Seo-ha's eyes went wide with fury.

"Fine, then…"

"Hm?"

"Then I'll fight you bare-handed too, you piece of trash."

"You don't have to push yourself."

"Don't come crying to me later. I'll break at least one of your arms for you."

Her clenched fist trembled violently.

"Whoa… where does he get the nerve?"

"Provoke Seo-ha-sunbae of all people?"

The muttering of the other students settled over the room like background noise.

Seong Gyu-ho squeezed his eyes shut.

"…Very well. Seo-ha, if that is your wish, I won't stop you."

He sanctioned the final match of the Ascendance Ceremony.

Pure bare-handed combat—no mana, no skills. Stepping out of bounds or having your back touch the floor meant defeat.

"Let me say this, in case you're laboring under a misunderstanding."

Just before the match began, Baek Seo-ha stepped close and spoke through narrowed eyes.

"The sect teaches combat arts before it ever puts a sword in your hand. Don't think for a second you've won just because you pried a blade away from me."

Of course I knew that.

'The sect teaches hand-to-hand too?'

'Obviously. What use is a hunter who becomes helpless the moment his sword is taken from him?'

I'd heard it from the woman herself, after all.

"Is that so? Then I'm thoroughly screwed."

"How long do you plan on keeping up that lazy act?"

She stalked to face me head-on, a low growl in her throat.

'It's been a while.'

Facing Baek Seo-ha directly, blade to blade—or fist to fist.

A faintly nostalgic feeling drifted through a corner of my heart.

"Then we begin the final match of the Ascendance Ceremony! White Dragon Baek Seo-ha versus Lee Tae-hyun—begin!"

The moment Seong Gyu-ho gave the signal—

"I'll end this quickly."

Baek Seo-ha lunged at me like a blade leaving its sheath.

She was on an entirely different level from the rabble who'd come before her.

Whoosh!

A fist came tearing in, vicious and fast. I slipped it by a hair's breadth and retreated a step.

But Baek Seo-ha was hardly the type to let that opening go.

Tat! Swish! Whap!

Like a predator closing on its prey, she chased me down without granting an inch of distance and rained blows on me without pause.

"You can't win by… running away forever, you know?"

I didn't bother answering, concentrating only on slipping her punches.

'Baek Seo-ha really is Baek Seo-ha, isn't she?'

Her combat arts were genuinely high caliber. If she layered skills and mana on top, she'd more than hold her own even without a sword.

Every movement was clean, crisp, seemingly without a single opening.

'But do you have any idea how many times I've watched all of this?'

Tap.

I caught ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her arm lightly.

"…Tch!"

Her brow knotted as if she'd been caught off guard, but she wrenched free at once and came at me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with another punch.

But—

'I can see it.'

Where her fist would go next. Where she'd move, what attack she'd follow with.

'I can see all of it.'

I'd sparred with Baek Seo-ha hundreds—thousands—of times. Against a version of her far stronger and far more mature than the one standing here now.

So the combat arts I saw before me were—

"Utterly predictable."

"What did you…?!"

"When you throw a punch, you think about the follow-up. Like this."

WHUMP!

I drove my fist to a stop mere inches from Baek Seo-ha's face. Her white hair scattered in the displaced air.

"That's how it's done."

"Wha—"

Her mouth hung open for an instant. Only after my fist had already been withdrawn did she register that a blow had come at all.

"Call it a one-on-one all you like—the moment you start fighting, it's war."

"Who are you to lecture—!"

"In war, being simply strong isn't enough to win. You have to be seasoned."

Flap-flap-flap!

I deflected her punches as lightly as water flowing off a leaf.

"Strip the emotion out of your attacks and put reason in their place. If you can't land a hit, make your opponent walk into it instead."

'Hot blood, cold head. Understood?'

"Save your unorthodox movements for one critical moment—use them once, when it truly matters, to seize the opening."

'The outcome is decided the instant the fight begins.'

"Stop trying to turn the tide in a single stroke. Take the advantage bit by bit."

I was returning the lessons someone had once given me. Back then they'd bored me half to death and I'd let them wash over me—

'Don't cry… I'm sorry. That it had to end like this.'

but now, they were things carved into my soul, impossible to erase.

"Whoa…"

"Gulp…!"

Everyone present could only swallow dryly as they watched the two exchange blows.

So this was what people meant when they said a fight stole the breath from your lungs.

Wham! Wham-wham-wham!

Tat!

Baek Seo-ha swung arms and legs first, and Lee Tae-hyun dodged by exactly the right measure or deflected every strike.

It was as if the two had rehearsed it—attack and defense interlocking with not one clumsy note between them.

"Insane…"

If they'd fought with skills unleashed without restraint, the battle might have been flashier, grander.

But then no one would have understood the fight itself the way they could right now.

Hunters fight leaning on skills and the stat corrections of their status windows. And because of that, most people overlook a simple truth: fundamentals matter more than anything else in combat.

They forget how much difference it makes in a real fight to read the killing intent behind an opponent's strikes, to predict the trajectory of an attack or an evasion—things that go far beyond mere technique.

Here in the Sword Sect, at least, those fundamentals were considered the very foundation of being a hunter. That was why the sect taught bare-handed combat before ever letting a student grip a sword—to awaken that sense.

Everyone gathered here had at least a faint awakening of it themselves. Which was exactly how they knew—

just how vast the gulf between those two really was.

'No… that's not it.'

Seong Gyu-ho shook his head.

'At a glance, it looks like Seo-ha is driving Tae-hyun back. But the truth is the opposite.'

Lee Tae-hyun was parrying every one of Baek Seo-ha's attacks with room to spare. It was Baek Seo-ha whose composure was fraying, whose focus was crumbling under the strain.

"Hup!"

When Baek Seo-ha launched a kick, Lee Tae-hyun sidestepped it with a light shuffle.

"Hah… hah…"

Before she knew it, her breath had climbed all the way to her throat.

Lee Tae-hyun, meanwhile, hadn't shed a single drop of sweat, and still wore that easy, friendly smile.

'That's his condition after knocking down every disciple in the sect?!'

Seong Gyu-ho had thought there was nothing left to shock him—only for the man to casually toy with even Baek Seo-ha on top of it all.

"A… a monster…"

Could any nest in this world be worthy of hatching a monster like that? For now the creature crouched in the shadow of obscurity, but—

'If he ever starts moving in earnest…!'

Shudder.

A cold chill shot down Seong Gyu-ho's spine.

"Shouldn't we wrap this up soon?"

"Hah… you…!"

Baek Seo-ha ground her teeth until they ached.

'Why should I—why should I lose to a piece of garbage like him?!'

It felt as though everything she'd worked for was being denied. She was the future of the Cheongnyong Sword Sect. She owed a debt of gratitude she had to repay. Wasn't that why she'd taken up the sword in the first place? Even if only to keep from disappointing the Sect Leader—

'The Seven Forms of the Blue Dragon… I have to protect them!'

She wiped the sweat from her brow and steeled her resolve. In the same breath, a faint azure light rose from her body.

Hmmm…!

Mana—the very thing forbidden in this match—began to swirl around her.

"S-Seo-ha!"

Seong Gyu-ho lunged forward to stop her, but her feet had already slammed into the ground.

"I won't hand over victory…!"

Gritting her teeth, Baek Seo-ha unfolded her form.

KRRRRAAAAAAH!

The shape of a blue dragon rippled into being behind Baek Seo-ha.

"Oh, damn it all! Dodge!"

Seong Gyu-ho screamed a warning at Lee Tae-hyun.

But the man remained rooted in place, keeping that signature ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ease of his.

"A foul at the decisive moment… Seo-ha had a rather cute side to her, didn't she?"

Murmuring something no one could make sense of—

Swish.

he extended his open hand.

"You used mana, so I'll use some too. Fair's fair—hardly a foul, right?"

And at the motion that unfolded next, the Sword Sect's disciples—including Seong Gyu-ho—nearly lost their minds.

GRRRRAAAAAAAH!

A dragon's silhouette spread out behind Lee Tae-hyun. Where Baek Seo-ha's dragon had been a gleaming azure—

the dragon baring its fangs savagely behind him was—

"A… a Scarlet Dragon?!"

Crimson from head to tail, red as spilled blood.

It was a red dragon.

"Hoo—"

The moment that short exhale left his lips, his hand-blade moved.

The ascending strike and the descending one met in the center and collided.

KUUUUUNG—!

Scarlet Dragon against Blue Dragon. Two ferocious dragons opened their great maws, each to tear the other apart.

Kugugugu…

Before long the shockwave settled, and the match reached its end.

"Ah… ugh…"

With a short groan, Baek Seo-ha lost consciousness and crumpled.

"Whoops."

Lee Tae-hyun caught her, then laid her gently on the floor. Turning his head toward Seong Gyu-ho, he flashed a wicked grin.

"I believe that's my win?"