At Least the Greatest Under Heaven
“I’ve never used it in a real fight before, but it’s pretty useful.”
Yoo Eunhyeon muttered as he slowly stroked the hammer.
The ten successive Pokjonghoe that had come before were no simple attacks. On the surface the hammer had merely crossed in a cruciform pattern, yet beneath that a process of overturning and packing the flow of natural energy had been taking place. Like a farmer leveling the field before sowing seed, he had subtly cultivated the energy of the surrounding space. Then he had planted his internal energy into that ordered grain of natural energy and, with the final blow, harvested it all at once. That was the fundamental principle of Pokjonghoe-Dapungnyeon.
“Impressive. I’ve never heard of a martial art like this……”
Cho-yeong, too, seemed to have taken a rather deep impression from Yoo Eunhyeon’s latest move.
But the look lasted only a moment. She lightly regulated her breath as though wiping away the disturbance, then adjusted her grip on the sword once more.
“Now that I’ve seen your true skill, young master, I suppose I ought to do this properly so as not to be rude.”
Cho-yeong’s tone remained soft, yet the force contained within it was different from before. No longer a playful test, but a challenge carrying clear resolve.
“Isn’t this enough for you to confirm my skill? I did give it my best, after all……”
Yoo Eunhyeon offered an awkward smile, but a heavy aura still lingered around the hammer in his hand. He himself knew that the exchange just now had been far from light.
“I’ll admit it was surprising, but this level simply isn’t enough.”
Instead of answering further, Cho-yeong slowly raised her sword. The tip of the blade quietly leveled at Yoo Eunhyeon. Stepping closer, she whispered in a voice low enough for him alone to hear.
“Shouldn’t you at least be the greatest under heaven before I can acknowledge you, young master?”
Shwaek!
Having delivered the line, Cho-yeong did not wait for a reaction; she lightly thrust her sword as though telling him to give ground. Yoo Eunhyeon stepped back, bowed his head, let out a deep sigh, and gripped the hammer tightly.
I never imagined she would be this strong……
As if permitting not even an inch of opening, Cho-yeong’s swift blade dug in with relentless sharpness. Because the killing intent moved faster than the eye could follow, Yoo Eunhyeon’s stamina and concentration were already nearing their limits.
Yet he could not surrender. The instant he cried out defeat, not only death but every burden and responsibility would fall squarely upon his mother, Su Hwa-seon. That was the one outcome he could never allow.
With that resolve his gaze grew steadily sharper. No longer mere defense—he sought openings for attack even while defending, regulated the flow of natural energy, and searched for ways to turn his opponent’s power against her. Swift blade, internal energy, and his own instinct interlocking, he parried her assaults step by step while watching for a chance to counter.
Shwaek!
At that moment the tip of Cho-yeong’s sword began thrashing even more violently, as though it had seen straight through his intentions. With the minute tremor of the blade tip the flow of air changed, and the grain of the surrounding natural energy seemed to waver.
Watching that tip, Yoo Eunhyeon raised his hammer the instant the sword vanished.
Kang!
The moment sword and hammer met, the internal energies coiled about both fighters collided and churned violently. Between the metallic ring of steel on steel, small sparks leapt up and burned the air like light.
“Kueuk……!”
A powerful shock climbed his arms and shoulders, shaking bone and muscle, yet he did not so much as blink as he gripped the hammer and reclaimed his center.
Kaaang! Kang!
In that interval Cho-yeong’s sword increased its speed still further, swinging in unbroken succession. The flow of the blade that left afterimages in empty air pressed upon him as though it were alive. Amid that pressure Yoo Eunhyeon finely adjusted the current of natural energy while he swung the hammer.
Hwoong!
Once more he seized the hammer’s center and drew internal energy up from the depths of his dantian. Channeling it to his fingertips and regulating the impact energy as though letting it flow away, he remained unshaken even within the turbulence of sword and hammer. In his eyes only the tip of Cho-yeong’s blade, its afterimages, and the flow of energy he himself had shaped existed.
Now!
It was the moment Cho-yeong’s sword drew a diagonal half-circle and came down as if to graze his waist. Confirming the opening, Yoo Eunhyeon instantly shortened his grip on the handle and raised the hammer with all his strength.
“!?!?”
But the blade that had been tracing the half-circle had long since vanished from its path. By the time his hammer leisurely carved empty air, Cho-yeong’s sword reappeared amid his disrupted balance.
“Keuk!”
It grazed his shoulder as it passed; cloth tore and a thin wound opened. In that same instant Cho-yeong’s voice seeped in like the wind.
“The Sokjuhwan-geom is a sword art whose essence lies in changing strikes and empty feints.”
The extreme of speed is to erase one’s presence before the opponent’s eyes. Mere quickness is never enough. Mixing changing strikes with empty feints doubles both power and confusion.
Damn it!
Yoo Eunhyeon could only take the trajectories of the swift blade that now pressed incomparably harder than before. As continuous assaults far more intricate than the collisions he had barely blocked poured in, small wounds began to be carved into his body of their own accord.
“This…… isn’t a good matchup for Eunhyeon.”
Watching from the side, Ju Yu-ryeon muttered with a grave expression. Su Hwa-seon nodded, eyes full of worry.
“That Pokjonghoe-Dapungnyeon is powerful, but it takes time to unfold. She’s noticed and is repeating only short, rapid attacks. As expected, the difference in experience is large……”
Just as Su Hwa-seon said, Cho-yeong was fully exploiting the advantages of her swift sword, driving Yoo Eunhyeon so hard he could not even attempt an offensive. It had been only a single clash, yet already she was altering her movements to match her opponent. That one exchange laid bare her seasoned skill.
“Can Eunhyeon really win?”
“At this rate…… it doesn’t look easy.”
Unable to hide her anxiety any longer, Ju Yu-ryeon finally shouted toward him.
“Eunhyeon! Stop! It’s okay to lose once!”
Without pausing her assault, Cho-yeong quietly asked him,
“She’s saying that—will you surrender?”
“……Please don’t talk to me. I’m a little busy concentrating.”
As he said, there was no room now even to weigh surrender. He was simply pouring every scrap of mind into one place without a breath’s respite.
That much, Cho-yeong’s swift blade was fierce. It did not stop at mixing changing strikes and phantom strikes to shake the flow; it dug into the tiniest openings without missing a single one. The pressure was like a hunter locking onto prey. The sensation that a moment’s carelessness would send his life flying. On that knife-edge boundary Yoo Eunhyeon moved as though entrusting his body, half in trance, without even registering the drain of stamina and internal energy.
“You still seem to have some room left.”
When he showed no sign of yielding, Cho-yeong wore a subtle smile and quickened the rhythm of her attacks still further. The short, chopped bursts of the swift sword were the fastest of anyone Yoo Eunhyeon had ever sparred against.
Kaaang! Kang! Kang!
……How?!
Yet the one who felt something strange as the exchanges continued was Cho-yeong. Far from growing confused by the layered real and empty strikes, Yoo Eunhyeon was gradually meeting and turning aside her blows more cleanly with every pass.
In eyes that could no longer hide surprise, his figure stood out with stark clarity.
If I read the grain of natural energy first…… I can answer before the sword arrives.
Through a small shift of perspective Yoo Eunhyeon was reading her swift blade. The sword wavered like an illusion, yet at its root there was always a flow of internal energy. The moment that energy was loaded, the surrounding natural energy trembled as well—and that he could sense with ease. To a man who had spent his life touching soil and reading wind and moisture, the minute fluctuations of natural energy were anything but unfamiliar.
“Impressive. To evade an attack you could not avoid a moment ago…… But you cannot win with defense alone.”
As she said, if he remained locked in defense it would be Yoo Eunhyeon whose strength failed first. Even so his gaze did not break. A method of twisting the very flow he was blocking and returning it upon her had brushed through his mind.
Kaaang!
He shook off stray thoughts and received her thrusting blade with the hammer. Internal energy coiled about both weapons scattered, and the current of natural energy shifted. Loading his footwork with internal energy, he turned his body and deliberately altered that current. The efficiency was poorer than a direct attack, yet it was enough.
The only thing that can reverse the present flow is Pasaemugyeok.
His internal energy was already draining toward the bottom. If Pasaemugyeok failed, he intended to accept defeat quietly. Having caught his breath, he once more stood before Cho-yeong.
“Very well. If you wish to stake the match, I will take it.”
Cho-yeong had already sensed what he aimed for and understood it to be his final attack—his last desperate struggle. Having watched his movements just now, she too acknowledged that he was no opponent to take lightly. That single brush of a technique had been enough to confirm he possessed the potential to make even her tense.
Her eyes settled. She no longer intended to let the sword flow as though testing. She prepared one of the ultimate forms of the Sokjuhwan-geom—Tuyeongcheonseong.
Tuyeongcheonseong was a technique that could truly be called an ultimate of the art: a single real strike hidden among countless empty feints scattered like rain. All power concentrated upon taking one targeted life; only two paths existed to block it. Either stop every single empty strike one by one, or pierce the single real strike concealed within. Needless to say, neither was easy.
Without a shred of hesitation Cho-yeong drew up her internal energy.
……What is this?
She suddenly felt a strange force. From the swinging sword, at irregular intervals, a subtle resistance as though catching on something in midair brushed her fingertips.
Reading the opponent’s moves is important. Yet…… there are also times when one must trust one’s own power and simply push through.
She already guessed he was preparing something; she had no intention of yielding ground. Firmly gathering the drawn-up energy in her dantian, she twisted the sword upright. It was the very instant the ultimate form of the Sokjuhwan-geom, Tuyeongcheonseong, was about to unfold.
Seogeok.
With a sharp cutting sound through the air, strands of Cho-yeong’s hair scattered into empty space. There was no time to gauge the situation. This time it was not hair alone—a cold sensation flashed past her earlobe.
“……!”
Immediately afterward her clothes fluttered as if torn, and a keen edge of energy grazed her cheek. At the successive eerie strikes boring in, even Cho-yeong could not help but freeze for an instant, breath locked in her throat.
Only then did her gaze turn fully forward. Not eyes chasing illusions, but eyes that pierced the flow itself. From Yoo Eunhyeon’s feet the air currents he had sent outward were quietly undulating.