If You Don't Want to Fight, Step Aside

"If you don't want to fight, then step aside."

"You're saying you'll fight? Don't tell me you mean to force your way through me?"

Gu Pyo found Yoo Eunhyeon's response absurd in its own right. The truth was, he had already been more than considerate. Plenty of people in the Heavenly Martial Alliance would have cut down anyone entangled with the Demonic Cult without a second thought.

But from Gu Pyo's perspective, Yoo Eunhyeon was still only a suspect. Rather than resort to force, he had meant to coax the young man along by laying out every piece of information he could share.

"For heaven's sake. To think I've been looked down on this far. Well… fine. If you refuse, I'll just drag you in by force."

As if deciding he would no longer hold back, Gu Pyo began drawing up his internal energy and rummaging for something. It was a three-section spear that could be assembled and fitted together; once he left off the head and joined only the shaft, it became a staff rather than a spear.

"If I leave the blade on, I might kill you. That said, a spear art becoming a staff art doesn't make it any less dangerous, so you'd better be especially careful."

Gu Pyo took the staff and spun it; a sharp whistle of air being split began to ring out.

Go Ji-han gave him no end of grief, but that was strictly about his skill at gathering intelligence. Gu Pyo's martial ability was more than enough to have earned him a place in the Heavenly Martial Alliance.

As if to prove it, tension flooded Yoo Eunhyeon's body the moment they squared off, and goosebumps rose across his skin.

Gu Pyo did not seem to reach Yeo U-hui's level, but Yoo Eunhyeon could tell at a glance that he was incomparably stronger than the demonic martial artists who had ambushed him not long ago hunting the tiger-eye stone.

More precisely, he looked about on par with the Demonic Cult disciple and the Heavenly Martial Alliance man who had each gone after Yoo Eunhyeon on the mountain and ended up dying together.

"Tch…"

Yoo Eunhyeon clicked his tongue lightly. Taking that as a sign that he had finished loosening up, Gu Pyo raised the staff and leveled it at him.

He made no move to strike first. Instead, the tip of the staff tracked Yoo Eunhyeon's every shift, as if inviting him to come in.

In truth, Yoo Eunhyeon was the one who needed to escape, so Gu Pyo had no reason to throw himself forward first.

"Come on, then. I'll yield the first move."

With the situation turned this way, Yoo Eunhyeon had no choice but to go hard. He settled into a stance laced with provocation, but Gu Pyo only snorted a short laugh, as if the idea were ridiculous.

"From the start I can't kill you, young hero, while you can kill me. Don't you think that's unfair?"

"I don't intend to kill anyone either."

"And what's that in your hand? Surely you know that if you hit a person with an axe, they die?"

When Gu Pyo pointed the staff at the hand axe Yoo Eunhyeon was holding, Yoo Eunhyeon fell silent.

It was no lie that he had no wish to kill—but if things slid that way, it was also not true that he would refuse to. In the end, what Gu Pyo had put his finger on was a difference in mindset. Grasping the meaning, Yoo Eunhyeon realized he would have to be the first to launch himself, and he began to draw up his internal energy by degrees.

"Hm?"

Sensing the internal energy slowly rising from Yoo Eunhyeon, Gu Pyo made a startled sound. The power coming off the young man was far from ordinary.

This brat… he's much stronger than I thought.

With no proper weapon and a somehow rustic look about him, Gu Pyo had been underestimating him—yet the internal energy he felt from Yoo Eunhyeon now did not seem weaker than his own at all.

KAAANG!

As if to prove it, Yoo Eunhyeon closed the distance in an instant and brought his axe crashing down. But Gu Pyo had been ready from the start; he raised the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠staff and caught the blow.

"Not bad!"

The force transmitted through the staff was stronger than expected. Gu Pyo shouted in something like praise and let the staff drop in a natural arc. Between the mismatch of iron against wood and the considerable power behind Yoo Eunhyeon's strike, he had to shift the staff and skillfully bleed the force away.

Of course Yoo Eunhyeon had never expected to hurt his opponent with that first exchange, and he flowed straight into the next move.

Attack after attack after attack. High and low, left and right, through all eight directions he swung the axe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a storm, intent on landing damage.

The moment Gu Pyo so much as hesitated, Yoo Eunhyeon meant to break past him—but Gu Pyo worked the staff as if it were an extension of his own limbs, turning aside every blow.

No—more precisely, he was softly redirecting them, and Yoo Eunhyeon, realizing as much, clicked his tongue inwardly.

He's very used to fighting. This isn't the work of someone who's only done it once or twice.

Even as he marveled at Gu Pyo's staff work, Yoo Eunhyeon kept up the fierce assault.

But while Gu Pyo was bleeding off the attacks with the bare minimum of internal energy, Yoo Eunhyeon's, poured into the relentless barrage, was being spent at a frightening rate.

At last, when the first to tire began to pull his axe back to catch his breath, a bone-chilling sensation raced up from his cheek.

Shaaak.

A feeling that raised goosebumps over his entire body. Instinctively Yoo Eunhyeon twisted his head aside, and Gu Pyo's staff drove deep into the empty space he had left.

"Missed? I thought I'd lined up the opening perfectly."

Muttering as if surprised that Yoo Eunhyeon had dodged, Gu Pyo withdrew the staff and clicked his tongue lightly in disappointment. He himself had found weathering Yoo Eunhyeon's barrage unexpectedly taxing, and he had wanted a meaningful result from that single strike.

Hearing Gu Pyo's words, Yoo Eunhyeon clenched his teeth; whether it was only his imagination or not, the cheek the staff had skimmed past seemed to burn.

Looked at one way, the exchange had seemed even, but the honest truth was that Yoo Eunhyeon was at a disadvantage. In raw quantity of internal energy they were similar—or Yoo Eunhyeon might even have held the edge.

But in how that energy was used, and in pure combat experience, Gu Pyo was clearly ahead.

Still, this had only been basic give-and-take; neither of them had yet brought out a true martial art in earnest. Yoo Eunhyeon drew his internal energy up once more.

"So you mean to continue."

Seeing the fighting spirit still burning in Yoo Eunhyeon's eyes, Gu Pyo raised his staff again.

Once is enough.

Thinking that, Yoo Eunhyeon tightened his grip on the axe. And Gu Pyo seemed to read the thought as clearly as if it were written on the young man's face.

What the other man was after was obvious. Yoo Eunhyeon had no need to win. Land a single successful attack, and he would use the opening to break free.

And given the ferocity of Yoo Eunhyeon's assault, even one clean hit might well create that gap.

Damn it. I really should have finished this earlier.

Thinking as much, Gu Pyo dropped his stance and aimed the tip of the staff at Yoo Eunhyeon—and Yoo Eunhyeon charged straight at him.

"Haaap!"

With a shout, Gu Pyo did not wait this time; he thrust the staff straight at the center of the oncoming body.

But in that instant, without losing the momentum of his charge, Yoo Eunhyeon's body spun a full turn, slipping the staff aside, and in the same breath he swung the axe at Gu Pyo's neck.

"?!!"

Yet somehow the staff was already back, tight against Gu Pyo's body. Only then did Yoo Eunhyeon realize the thrust had been a feint—an empty form meant only to create an opening.

Even so he followed through with the axe. The moment axe and staff collided, both men's bodies shuddered.

For his part, Gu Pyo felt his hands go numb from a blow stronger than he had expected. This time, instead of bleeding the force away, he took the shock full on, wound it around the staff, and twisted it in. Loaded with raw rotational power, Gu Pyo's staff shot toward Yoo Eunhyeon at point-blank range as if it meant to tear everything apart.

It lacked the killing power to end a life in a single blow, but for wounding and subduing there was no better technique. Gu Pyo had conceded that taking Yoo Eunhyeon down uninjured was impossible.

"Kh!"

Yoo Eunhyeon clenched his teeth and let out a short cry. At this range there was no dodging it.

Blocking did not look much better. The moment he had fallen for Gu Pyo's feint, he had been forced into a dead end.

Kwaduk!

Even so, blocking was still the way to take the least damage, so Yoo Eunhyeon raised the axe and caught Gu Pyo's Whirling Burst Fang.

The instant the staff met the axe, Gu Pyo poured still more strength into his grip, as if detonating the power he had condensed.

Caught in the Whirling Burst Fang, Yoo Eunhyeon's axe went limp and spun through several wild revolutions.

And the technique, still carrying force even after stripping the weapon away, should have driven straight into Yoo Eunhyeon—yet Gu Pyo frowned.

Too light?

He had already acknowledged Yoo Eunhyeon's internal energy. He was not unable to answer it, but it was not so weak that a weapon could be flung aside this easily.

"You dropped the weapon!"

Realizing Yoo Eunhyeon had deliberately let the axe go, Gu Pyo pulled the staff back.

To make a call like that in an instant… He may not be a fighter by trade, but he's clearly been through his share of hardship.

Thinking that, Gu Pyo calmly gathered his internal energy. Now that the young man had intentionally discarded his weapon, he would already be gone from that spot.

Without so much as a glance at the axe still hanging in the air, Gu Pyo searched for Yoo Eunhyeon's presence.

If releasing the axe had been deliberate, a follow-up attack was certain.

Sure enough, the man who had abandoned his axe appeared at Gu Pyo's left and drove a piercing hand-strike straight into the exposed midsection.

But Gu Pyo still had strength to spare. Having snapped the Whirling Burst Fang back under control so quickly, he used that same force to bat Yoo Eunhyeon's piercing strike aside.

"Quite fierce."

In truth Gu Pyo was rather impressed. Experience might be lacking, but the keen senses and the refusal to yield ground were remarkable.

He looked little different in age from Gu Pyo himself, who was only in his late twenties, and he did not even seem to be a formal martial artist of the jianghu—yet to show this level of skill was impressive in itself.

Is he connected to the Uiseon Suga after all? Otherwise…

The thought flickered through Gu Pyo's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mind for an instant, but by then the advantage had already shifted to him.

Yoo Eunhyeon's last attack had been an all-or-nothing strike made even after discarding his weapon. From here on, Gu Pyo expected to be able to steer the fight his way.

But just as he thought so, a chilling sensation suddenly brushed him.

"…Kh?"

He could not see it, but he felt something shooting toward him. It was similar to a hidden weapon, and yet utterly unlike one.

His reaction lagged because of that stray thought, and Gu Pyo felt a sharp sting in his side.

Trickle.

Cloth tore and blood welled, but the force itself was not strong; luckily it had only scraped the skin, and the wound was not serious. In that brief interval, though, Yoo Eunhyeon slipped past him as if he had been waiting for exactly that.

Unconsciously clutching his injured side, Gu Pyo stared after Yoo Eunhyeon's retreating back with the most startled expression he had worn yet.

He knew this technique.

"Eunryeongsa!? How do you know that?"

Of the three forms of Mudong Hwanmu that Yoo Eunhyeon had learned from So Biwon, the first, Pokjonghoeng, stood for formless power; Eunryeongsa stood for formless stealth.

It was a technique that struck with a weapon while at the same time driving an invisible, formless blade of internal energy into the opponent. Naturally, without having learned Hwandong Simgong, the effect lasted only an instant and was very weak—but since its true purpose was a covert attack, that much was enough.

In any case Yoo Eunhyeon had achieved his aim. Just as he passed Gu Pyo and made to break free entirely, a human silhouette appeared ahead of him.

Instinct told him at once that it was an enemy; ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yoo Eunhyeon checked himself.

"This is—!"

Sensing something reach out from the shadows, he tried to throw his body aside—but his opponent was a master who far outstripped Gu Pyo.

Caught utterly defenseless, Yoo Eunhyeon felt a sharp, tingling energy skim through his whole body. Strength drained from him, and he crumpled bonelessly to the ground.