The Eighth Form: Gaehwa — Blooming
“Uwaaaaagh!”
The dual-blade wielder went flying out of the arena in spectacular fashion.
“Out of bounds! Eliminated!”
[And the second challenger is already down?!]
[Hunter Lee Tae-hyun is sweeping the Sword Sect all by himself!]
Guguguguk.
A tendon bulged across Seong Yong-ho's forehead as he watched the match.
What kind of disgrace is this?
The two hunters who had come before were not members of the Sword Sect at all. When everyone in the sect refused to participate in the guild war, they'd been hastily scrounged up as substitutes. Until now, Manabu had single-handedly carried every match, so the hole had never shown. He had at least expected them to land a single hit on Lee Tae-hyun — instead, the pair of them combined hadn't lasted three minutes before being tossed out.
“Ahh~ easy. Too easy.”
Tae-hyun rolled his shoulders in an exaggerated stretch, then flashed a grin straight at him, splitting his lips into a long, deliberate smirk.
That little—!
Rage boiled up, but he barely forced it back down. If Manabu took the stage, everything would be overturned anyway. Getting tangled up now would only hand them exactly what they wanted.
He was taking a deep breath, trying to steady himself, when—
“Ah, ah. Ah—.”
Tae-hyun started doing something strange. He was projecting mana into his voice, stretching its range. Judging by the faint sensation that carried over—
“The spectator stands!”
He had no idea what the man intended, but he couldn't let it continue. Seong Yong-ho rose from his seat to step in personally.
“And where do you think you're going, Sect Master?”
Tae-hyun waved both hands wildly in his direction. In an instant, thousands of eyes swiveled toward one point. Tens of thousands of gazes caged him like a prison.
Damn it—!
There was no moving freely now. Seong Yong-ho had no choice but to sit back down.
As if he'd been waiting for exactly that, Tae-hyun put on a look of feigned innocence and opened his mouth.
“Honestly, I'm disappointed. All that talk of the lofty Cheongryong Sword Sect, and I actually expected something. I mean, come on — the two of them together couldn't even last three minutes?”
The mana-amplified voice slithered through the crowd like a serpent.
“Well… fair enough.”
“Honestly, it did feel a little anticlimactic.”
“I've been looking forward to the finals since yesterday, and it's shaping up to be over in ten minutes…”
“The Sword Sect couldn't even put up a fight.”
Murmur murmur—
Just as Tae-hyun intended, public opinion began to move.
“Is this the legendary sect of the great Sword Demon? Toss one decent guy into the ring and abandon the rest like they don't exist?”
“Ngh—…!”
Seong Yong-ho felt his fury punch straight up through his dantian. And the reason was simple.
That bastard knows the two before him weren't from the Sword Sect!
It must have been from the first bout, when Tae-hyun deduced his opponent couldn't use proper swordsmanship. That was why he kept pointedly referencing the first two — to drag down the sect itself by proxy.
“Is this really the future of the Sword Sect — the one worth banishing the White Dragon from her rightful place as next Sect Master without so much as a fight? Because I honestly can't tell.”
“What? Baek Seo-ha didn't leave of her own accord?”
“So the story about her going to Shinseong for money was a lie too?”
He wanted to leap out right now and stuff that cursed mouth shut. But moving on emotion in front of the entire watching world would amount to confessing that every word was true.
“Despite everyone's objections, our esteemed Sect Master intends to pass the sect's next seat to the Sword Demon! His magnanimous wisdom! Alas, for the life of me, this humble fool simply cannot fathom it.”
“The Sword Demon, as Sect Master?!”
“A Japanese hunter becoming the head of a Korean sect?”
“That's going a bit far…”
The Sword Demon joining Cheongryong Sword Sect was one thing. Him becoming Sect Master was an entirely different matter. The seat of Sect Master meant the authority to steer the sect however its holder pleased. A foreigner in that chair could bleed the sect of its Korean identity — and in the worst case, cost them the sect altogether.
“But thanks to our Sect Master's ocean-wide generosity, we've been granted one final chance.”
Tae-hyun turned his head slightly and looked at Baek Seo-ha. She'd been standing there with her mouth hanging open, watching the spectacle unfold — and the moment their eyes met, she gave a little squeak and hiccupped.
“White Dragon versus Sword Demon. The winner takes the seat of the next Sect Master. That's how it works, right?”
The Sect Master Deciding Match. The private wager that had passed only between them was, in that instant, being broadcast to the entire world.
“I'm sure our Sect Master is an honorable man who keeps his promises.”
That insufferable little colt…!
The power in his body would not stay leashed. The urge to seize the man by the throat and snap his neck surged hard enough to shake him.
“They're fighting over the Sect Master's seat?!”
“Oh hell yes, this is good.”
Now this is what a guild war should be!
Seong Yong-ho neither denied nor confirmed it to the end. He simply smothered his fury and made his mind work.
So you've drawn a double-edged sword, you bastard of Heaven's Nature.
That one move had granted Baek Seo-ha both legitimacy and spectacle for the Sect Master's seat — but in doing so, it had handed Manabu the very same card. Either way, everything would be decided in the next bout.
“Go, Sword Demon.”
“You don't need to tell me.”
The man who had kept his head silently bowed through everything slowly rose to his feet.
“I'm well aware it's my turn next.”
Muscles swollen far beyond their usual state, and a torrent of mana churning through him. Watching that figure, Seong Yong-ho allowed himself a private smile.
It seems you've dug your own grave, bastard of Heaven's Nature.
Baek Seo-ha could not beat the Manabu standing before him now. That was the judgment of the Sword Emperor, who had watched her for many long years.
Tae-hyun passed the turn without delay. And the one who stepped into the arena in his place was, of course—
“Whew…!”
The White Dragon, Baek Seo-ha.
“So we meet here at last, woman.”
Manabu narrowed his eyes at her across the arena floor.
“I'll give you credit for not running.”
“Run? Why would I?”
Holding her signature deadpan expression, she raised her sword.
“Running is your job today.”
“You've grown some nerve.”
Manabu prepared for battle without hesitation.
“…….”
“…….”
Silence stretched between the two of them. And so the battle for the Sect Master's seat—
[The match… begins!]
—raised its curtain.
CLANG!
The moment the bout started, the two blades collided.
“You've gotten somewhat worth cutting, compared to back then!”
Manabu's sword grazed her by a hair's breadth and slid past.
Just like in my image training.
Perhaps because she had faced an imaginary Manabu over and over again, she found she could instinctively read part of his blade's path.
Clang! Slash!
She parried the wide sweep coming from her left and drove straight through. The edge kissed Manabu's cheek, carving a red line across it.
“You—!”
Not a mortal wound, but seizing the first strike carried enormous weight. Ride this momentum, and victory would come quickly.
“Go get 'em, sis!”
Shin Min-woo bellowed his cheer toward the arena.
“Look at that, hyung! Sis is totally dominating him!”
“I have eyes and ears too, you know.”
Tae-hyun spoke while gently rubbing his still-stinging side.
Why does this kid's elbow keep getting sharper by the day…
“Isn't sis just going to win at this rate?!”
“Honestly? Can't say.”
Baek Seo-ha had undeniably achieved explosive growth in a short span. The woman expelled from the Sword Sect and the woman standing there now were as different as heaven and earth. But there were no absolutes in combat. No matter how strong a fighter was, a single mistake could mean death. And Fujiwara Manabu, of all people, was an absolute nightmare in that regard.
“If you're keeping what I whispered to you in mind, you'll win.”
“The whisper?”
In the moment she was swapped in—
Tae-hyun had murmured one small thing.
If it's you, you can act on it. Seo-ha.
The words had barely settled when a thick wave of killing intent began to seep from Manabu's body.
“I'll kill you!”
A blade far rougher and faster than the one in her memories. Rather than panic, Baek Seo-ha chose to adapt to the new information.
Block only the essential strikes. Let everything else flow past.
And in between, hunt for the opening.
Bit by bit, just as Manabu began to be dragged into her rhythm—
Ssuk.
He drew back a step. That was the preparatory stance of a battōjutsu draw. She readied her counter, exactly as she'd drilled in image training.
Half a beat early.
Then Tae-hyun's whisper surfaced in her mind. Why that words came back to her at this precise moment, she couldn't say.
This is the chance to end the match.
All she had to do was unleash the sequence she had rehearsed a hundred times. Baek Seo-ha bent her knees and lowered her head. And then—
“……!”
The direction she moved was not forward, but back. She retreated clean out of Manabu's attack range.
…Why on earth?
She couldn't understand it herself. And yet, somehow, she'd known she had to. Her instinct had told her so.
Put distance between us. Now.
Ddeokkeok.
Manabu finished sheathing his blade right about then. And at the exact instant the sheathing completed—
[Instant Draw: Musō Shinden — Divine Transmission of the Dreaming God]
The sword left its sheath.
KWAAAAAANG!
A violent shockwave surged along the path of the draw and split the ground.
“Huh…?”
“Too bad, woman. I could have cut you in half with that one.”
Baek Seo-ha doubted her own eyes. Manabu had clearly sheathed his sword. And in the same breath, he had drawn it.
He's sheathing and drawing at the same time…?
A movement of impossible speed that had never once appeared in her image training. Which meant it was a technique he had never shown anyone until now.
He grew this much in the time between?
Impossible, she thought — but what stood before her eyes was the truth regardless.
“It'll be different from here on out, woman.”
Kagagagagak!
His speed and power climbed even higher.
“Tch….”
Baek Seo-ha bit her lip. It felt like standing in a gale so fierce she could barely breathe. His slashes gave her almost nothing to read.
Swish! Slash!
A crack opened in her defense, and sword lines bloomed across her body. In no time at all, her clothes were soaked red.
“KHAHAHAHA! Didn't you say you'd beat me?! Go on, say it again!”
It resembled Park Sung-chan's swordsmanship, but without the crudeness. The gaps were maddeningly hard to find.
But I can't just keep defending.
She was churning through her thoughts, searching for a breakthrough, when—
Half a beat early.
Tae-hyun's words rose again.
…Don't tell me.
Nothing to lose. Baek Seo-ha decided to trust her own judgment.
Click.
She reset her grip on the sword. Then she unfolded the blade she had originally designed to fight the old Manabu.
Half a beat early.
CLANG!
Her blade locked perfectly against Manabu's, sealing his sword path dead.
“My sword… stopped?”
So that's what he meant.
Only then did Baek Seo-ha fully understand. Manabu hadn't grown. He had been made stronger by an external factor.
Only the power and speed of his blade rose. The swordsmanship itself is unchanged.
Which made the countermeasure simple: unfold the original forms exactly as planned. The only difference — half a beat early.
The corner of Baek Seo-ha's mouth lifted slightly. A smile that, in some strange way, resembled Lee Tae-hyun's.
“From here on, I'd say you're the one in over your head.”
“Getting cocky over blocking one attack?!”
Even so, she had no means of stopping the battōjutsu itself. The moment Manabu opened the distance and moved to sheath his blade—
Tat!
Baek Seo-ha cut in.
Faster. Even faster this time.
Half a beat sooner still.
If he was fast enough to sheath and draw in a single breath, then all she had to do was read even that, and move ahead of it.
Tseuzeuzet!
The silhouette of the Blue Dragon coalesced around her.
“Seven Forms of the Blue Dragon.”
The dragon began to move — with a motion no one present had ever witnessed before.
“Eighth Form: Gaehwa — Blooming.”
The eighth form of the Seven Forms of the Blue Dragon. Conceived and created by Baek Seo-ha herself — a form that was hers and hers alone.
The White Dragon's sword bloomed.