Swordsmanship (2)
“…Swordsmanship?”
It was such an out-of-the-blue remark. Swordsmanship, of all things. I tilted my head at the incomprehensible suggestion.
“Swordsmanship. You said you’ve never learned it before, right?”
“That’s right.”
We had sparred once before, and Lee Sunho had shared his impressions about it then. I had never learned swordsmanship, nor had I ever had the opportunity. If I had graduated from a proper military academy, I might have had the chance to learn it formally through some connection. But for a slave soldier, such opportunities simply didn’t exist.
The reason was simple. A slave soldier’s role was nothing more than a means to fill out insufficient troops. Slave soldiers were expendable. They were consumables meant to step forward and hold back the demonic beasts, or to run trivial errands that weren’t worth assigning to regular personnel. There was no way they would invest precious resources and time teaching swordsmanship to expendables who were going to die anyway.
And they can’t be allowed to become too strong, either.
There was also the concern that if slave soldiers grew stronger than regular troops, they would become harder to manage. That was why I had never even learned the basics of swordsmanship.
“So I’m saying I’ll teach you. From what I see, if you learn it properly, you could become even stronger.”
It didn’t feel real. Could I truly become stronger by learning swordsmanship? Lee Sunho had advised me before that it would be good to start learning it now, but I hadn’t really connected with the idea.
“You don’t really get it, do you?”
“…Honestly, no, I don’t.”
I admitted it readily. It felt like listening to a description of a fruit I had never seen or tasted. Like having someone list off details in my head about some unknown, unidentified fruit—how it looked, what it tasted like. I was listening, but I couldn’t imagine the specific effects or benefits, so it didn’t sink in.
“I’ll show you myself.”
Lee Sunho stood before one of the training dummies arranged in the hall. The training dummy, made of wooden poles joined together, vaguely suggested a human form with arms and a head.
“If I strike this dummy with this wooden sword, what do you think will happen?”
“The struck part will cave in, I suppose.”
“Right. But that’s just a blow. It’s not a proper slash from a blade.”
What is this guy talking about? It was a wooden sword, not a real blade, so of course that was the case. Seeing my baffled reaction, Lee Sunho laughed. I hadn’t said a word, yet he seemed to have read my thoughts perfectly.
“Watch closely.”
Lee Sunho gripped the wooden sword with both hands in front of the dummy and settled into a stance. Then he slowly raised the sword upward.
“Hup!”
With a short shout, he brought it slashing down diagonally with all his strength.
Slash—
The upper half of the dummy fell to the floor with a dull thud.
“……!”
I stared in shock at the dummy’s severed torso rolling across the ground. The cut surface left by the wooden sword was impossibly clean. It looked exactly as if a real blade had sliced through it.
No. Wait. Did I just think… it was cut?
I had only thought of the wooden sword’s attack as a ‘strike.’ I couldn’t possibly have thought of it as a ‘cut.’ After all, I had believed it would be absolutely impossible with a blunt practice weapon that had no edge.
Yet there was no dent from impact. Only a clean cross-section, as if it had been sliced by a sword.
“What is this….”
The unexpected, bewildering result left me speechless.
“If I quote my swordsmanship instructor, he said, ‘A supreme swordsman who has grasped the true principle of the blade can cut even a massive boulder with a tree branch.’ Of course, I haven’t even approached that level yet….”
Lee Sunho asked me with a triumphant smile.
“How was it?”
“…….”
I stayed silent. I slowly replayed Lee Sunho’s movements from a moment ago in my mind.
I couldn’t react.
For an instant, I had lost sight of the sword entirely. By the time I realized it, the dummy had already been cut.
I recalled it once more. Not the invisible wooden sword itself, but the posture of the man holding it. Both hands and wrists gripping the hilt. A straight, upright spine. The left foot stepped forward to generate power. A perfectly balanced stance that permitted no waste whatsoever.
I knew nothing of swordsmanship, but I was still a soldier who had survived countless battles against demonic beasts on the front lines. The impression left by Lee Sunho’s sword in that single moment spilled from my lips as if I were possessed.
“It was incredibly… neat and clean.”
“Oh.”
Lee Sunho looked genuinely surprised by my assessment. My observation seemed to have caught him off guard.
“Most guys just say the sword moved so fast they couldn’t see it. You’re the first one who paid attention to my posture.”
He grinned, clearly pleased.
“That alone tells me you have talent. When my teacher first started instructing me, the thing he hammered into me most was proper posture.”
“With that level of power, why did you fight the way you did against the orcs?”
“Hey, kid. Training and real combat aren’t the same thing. I’m still nowhere near using it properly in a fight. If I had fully mastered this, I would’ve torn through that tough orc hide and sliced it apart long ago.”
Facing high-risk demonic beasts like orcs was a world apart from striking a stationary dummy. Those creatures wouldn’t patiently wait for my attack or hold still while I set my feet.
He was right.
“I see.”
Convinced, I nodded.
“But… will I actually be able to learn it if you teach me?”
“Of course it won’t be easy. If just anyone could master it, the world wouldn’t be in this sorry state. Sword masters would be popping up everywhere, wiping out the demonic beasts’ entire population. It’s just that…”
Lee Sunho added with conviction in his eyes.
“I’m teaching you because I see the potential in you.”
“…….”
What exactly had he seen in me to make him think that? I couldn’t understand it, but I unconsciously recalled the sword he had demonstrated once more. And then, as if possessed, my head began to nod.
“Right, no time to waste. We’re diving straight into accelerated lessons.”
Lee Sunho began teaching me the fundamentals of swordsmanship right then.
“Every basic of swordsmanship stems from posture. How you grip the sword, the angle of your wrist. The lower body that plants firmly on the ground and generates power. The upper body’s balance that transfers that power from the lower body into the blade. And there are absurdly many other things you need to focus on for even a single attack.”
The technique he had shown earlier wasn’t something that could be perfectly copied just by hearing it described. It was a continuous flow of optimal movements tailored to the individual, built through countless repetitions and refinement. Trying to mimic Lee Sunho’s exact posture and motions was pointless. Our physical capabilities were fundamentally different from the start.
Our innate body types, the way we used our muscles, the methods of applying force to every motion—everything was different at the root.
“Simply swinging a sword means nothing. No matter how you call it swordsmanship, it’s no different from bashing with a club that happens to have a blade. So what you need to think about is the optimal posture and movement for cutting.”
I listened closely to Lee Sunho’s words. I took them in, then put the advice into practice with my body.
Cut.
I assumed the stance with only that purpose, holding only that single thought. At the same time, I wondered: Had I ever swung a sword while thinking like this before? No. I had simply swung my weapon to kill demonic beasts, to kill my enemies.
“Killing isn’t the goal. Think about how to swing your sword more sharply. How to cut better. How you must move to achieve that. Focus only on those things.”
Until now, when I swung my sword, I had only ever thought in terms of simplicity. Faster. Stronger. If I failed to kill an enemy, it was because I hadn’t swung fast enough, because my strength had been insufficient. That had been true against the demonic beasts, and against the orc as well. I had swung harder and faster to cut through that thick, tough green hide, yet I had ultimately failed to slice it. All I could do was force the blade into its neck and pierce through to end its life. That too had been nothing more than overpowering it with brute force. A crude, technique-less style of combat.
Even though I knew it, I had never once considered it a problem or tried to fix it. It was simply because I was weak, and I had only sought ways to narrow the gap between my weakness and the demonic beasts’ strength. The method I had devised was Hoshin-ganggi powered by Heavenly Fate.
And now I was acquiring a second method capable of defeating demonic beasts.
“Put more strength into your lower body. Your upper body isn’t balanced, so power isn’t transferring into the strike. Too much waste.”
I kept swinging the sword. Faster and stronger no longer mattered. Slowly, while refining the posture to greater precision. Speed and power would come only after the stance was perfected.
Every time I swung, Lee Sunho corrected my form. Again and again. Through that repetition, my swordplay gradually grew more refined.
And after roughly two hours had passed.
Slash—
The upper half of the dummy fell with a thud and rolled across the floor from the wooden sword I had swung.
“You crazy bastard.”
Lee Sunho’s curse, mixed with a belated chuckle, reached my ears.
“You’re the first one to pull that off in just two hours. Well, I guess it makes sense. Your body and senses were already forged in real combat.”
Though I had been a slave soldier, I was still a veteran who had spent years on the battlefield. And after my resurrection, I had accumulated far more experience through aggressive fighting that utilized Heavenly Fate. The practical combat instincts engraved in my body were exceptional because of it.
“Good work.”
Lee Sunho clapped me on the shoulder and turned away.
“…Are you leaving already?”
“Yeah. We’ll be heading out on the operation soon. If I lie down now, I can get about six hours of sleep.”
I bowed my head and offered my thanks to Lee Sunho.
“Thank you.”
“Huh?”
Lee Sunho turned back with a puzzled look at my grateful tone.
“I taught you to repay a debt. If I hadn’t seen the potential, I wouldn’t have bothered starting.”
He waved his hand dismissively and walked toward the training ground’s exit.
“I’ll clean up and head back.”
“Yeah, yeah. Take it easy.”
Once I was alone, the training ground fell silent. I stared at the base of the dummy whose upper body had been severed. It felt too regretful to clean up and leave now. I wanted to hold on to this newly grasped sensation a little longer.
My body was actually in peak condition.
“Just a little more…”
I swung the wooden sword in my hand again. Without losing the feel I had gradually internalized, I now channeled Heavenly Fate to add power and speed to my strikes.
“It’s almost time to depart. Where did that kid run off to…?”
One hour before the operation began.
“Um, Squad Leader.”
Seo Hayun, who had been glancing around, approached Garan.
“What is it?”
“Have you seen Jungwoo? I can’t find him anywhere.”
“Hmm?”
Garan tilted his head, then immediately looked for Lee Sunho. He had already been informed that she had business with him.
After hearing the situation from Garan, Lee Sunho made a strange face.
“Don’t tell me that bastard…”
“Do you have an idea where he might be?”
“Ha, he’s probably still in the training ground. Let’s go together.”
Lee Sunho led Garan and Seo Hayun toward the training hall. The moment the door opened, they froze at the chaotic state of the interior, but soon spotted Han Jungwoo sprawled out asleep on the floor.
“Jungwoo!”
“You—!”
While the two rushed straight to him in alarm, Lee Sunho let out a dumbfounded chuckle. His eyes fell on the countless sword marks carved into the training dummies.
“Haha, this crazy lunatic bastard…”