Hoshin-ganggi: True (3)
The orc warrior's fist, accelerated to its absolute peak, came hurtling toward me. It arrived in the space of a single breath. I can't dodge this. The instinct hit me instantly. The miraculous suspended moment from earlier did not repeat itself. Perhaps it had been nothing more than a fleeting coincidence. Or maybe it had only been possible because my concentration had been pushed to its utter limit. I couldn't even begin to understand how I had stepped into that realm in the first place.
In that infinitesimal instant—
The orc warrior’s iron-hard fist smashed into my face.
“Urk…!”
My head whipped around from the force. A heavy impact rattled my vision again. Consciousness flickered. My legs buckled as though they might give out at any second, yet—
“Ugh, aaaaaah!”
I roared, desperately clinging to my fading mind. I planted strength into my trembling legs and held my ground. Closing the distance into the monster’s now-defenseless chest, I drove my fist deep into its abdomen.
The iron armor plating its torso shattered. I felt the heavy impact travel through my knuckles. Sizzle…! The orc warrior’s waist bent sharply as it staggered backward from the force of my blow. It was working. My attacks, which had failed to land before, were finally getting through.
The principle was the same as the halberd it had wielded, the one embedded with the Vile family seal. It was likely a special mechanism that concentrated the user’s mana into the weapon. An enchanted magic armament could tear a human body apart and shatter the earth with a single strike.
My newly refined Hoshin-ganggi: True, the veil of Heavenly Fate and qi now cloaking my entire body, had become both the ultimate shield and the ultimate weapon for me.
Soon the creature swung at me again.
It felt as if a boulder the size of a house had slammed into my chest. Yet compared to the earlier agony of bones shattering and flesh being torn apart, I could endure it. I buried my fist into the creature’s flank, driving straight into the wound Arisha had opened with her magic.
“Graaaaaah!”
A scream loud enough to rupture eardrums. Ignoring the pain, the orc warrior hurled another punch.
The force of the blow had already surpassed the limits of mere physical strength. “Kgh…!” The impact to my chest made my heart stop for a split second. I forced my violently shaking body to obey. I could not stop here. Stopping meant death.
I forcibly accelerated the circulation of Heavenly Fate within my body. The stopped heart thundered back to life. Stiffened muscles unlocked. I could not fall. I could not retreat. Both body and mind instinctively understood that losing consciousness for even an instant would mean defeat.
That was why I desperately thrust out my fist.
My full-powered strike slammed into the orc warrior’s chest. It staggered back with a groan, but quickly regained its stance and charged again. The exchange continued without end. At some point we had both abandoned everything except the act of striking each other. There was no energy left for defense, evasion, or any other consideration. Every time a blow landed, I barely clung to my blurring consciousness and poured every ounce of strength into the next attack.
The monster was the same.
The fight had transformed long ago. Victory was no longer decided by simply knocking one side down. It had become a bizarre duel that could only end when one of us actually fell. Both of us desperately swung our fists while clinging to consciousness that threatened to snap at any moment, refusing to become the loser.
The orc warrior’s waist bent at an unnatural angle. Its heavy lower body kept the swaying torso upright. Its next fist immediately pierced my abdomen. My body lifted off the ground. I barely stopped myself from being slammed into the dirt.
…It’s weakening.
The ferocious strikes the orc warrior had unleashed at the start were gradually losing power. Unlike me, who could burn additional Heavenly Fate to heal wounds, its body was steadily accumulating damage from my relentless assault. Although I was consuming vast amounts of Heavenly Fate, the creature was reaching its limit at an even faster rate.
And then, at last—
Sizzle…
The orc warrior could no longer hold itself upright and dropped to one knee.
The heavy sound of its powerless knee hitting the ground echoed. Its arms hung limp as if it could no longer even clench a fist; only its upper body remained somewhat upright. Now that it had knelt, our eyes were finally level.
“……”
The orc warrior simply stared at my face. I returned its gaze without any reaction. There was no longer any will to fight in its eyes. It was hard to believe this was the same creature that had been madly hammering me with killing intent only moments ago. Its strangely serene demeanor almost looked as if it had cleanly accepted its defeat.
Then it slowly curled the corners of its mouth into a grin.
I flinched for a second, but soon realized what the expression meant and froze. The orc warrior raised the arm it had used to throw countless punches and pointed in one direction. There, lying abandoned on the ground, was the halberd it had thrown earlier.
“You want… me to take it?”
There was no other way to interpret the gesture. But why? I couldn’t understand the reason.
When I looked back at the orc warrior—
“……”
It had already lowered its head. Soon its massive upper body tilted to the left and collapsed heavily onto the ground.
It was dead.
As if to prove it, a familiar energy began rising from the green-skinned corpse. Heavenly Fate. Just like every time I had hunted countless monsters, the energy flowed out and poured into my body.
And I could only stare in astonishment.
“What the…”
The amount of Heavenly Fate absorbed was absurdly vast compared to a normal orc. When I estimated it at roughly five times the usual amount, the influx only grew larger. It surpassed ten times, then reached nearly twenty times the normal quantity. It rapidly filled the nearly empty reserves in my heart.
“Incredible.”
It still wasn’t enough to completely offset what I had burned during the fight, but it had replenished more than half. Even if it was technically a net loss, simply learning the benefits of hunting a variant like the Orc Warrior was a valuable gain.
If I become stronger…
It meant I would be able to absorb even greater quantities of Heavenly Fate more efficiently. I had been using the volume of Heavenly Fate as my standard for measuring a monster’s strength. Every powerful creature I had subjugated until now had possessed enormous amounts. Yet this was the first time I had absorbed this much at once.
The relief of survival and the sense of accomplishment from defeating such a powerful monster washed over me.
“Ugh…”
With the tension gone, my body staggered. I still could not fall. I looked at the halberd bearing the Vile family seal lying on the ground. I had to carry it back to Arisha and the subjugation force.
Fortunately, circulating Heavenly Fate once more healed my wounds and washed away the fatigue. Sleep threatened to crash over me like a wave, but I endured it, shouldered the heavy halberd, and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
A thick stench of blood rode the wind. The cries of orcs and the metallic clang of weapons colliding. Wild gusts and swirling mana. The savage, chaotic energy that had filled the forest gradually grew still.
The countless fierce battles had finally ended.
“There are no more.”
Once the soldiers confirmed that no additional orcs or monsters remained in the vicinity, Arisha made her declaration.
[Situation terminated. Immediately assess the number of injured. After emergency treatment, we move out right away.]
She wanted to heal the soldiers’ wounds immediately, but there was no telling how many more orcs might still be pursuing the retreating main force.
And…
Arisha glanced sideways at Seo Hayun. The priestess, her once-pure white robes now stained with blood and dust, was still moving busily even after the battle had ended. She had given only simple first aid to the lightly wounded and was now focusing entirely on the critically injured, barely keeping them alive.
She understood she could not treat every soldier here and now. It was a rational compromise.
Having experienced such situations to the point of exhaustion, Seo Hayun moved with calm efficiency, tending to the wounded without complaint. Ironically, the busiest person in the entire subjugation force was probably the non-combatant priestess.
“Hang in there. When we return to base, I’ll heal you properly. I promise.”
“Haha, Priestess! Don’t worry about me! This old lung of mine is tougher than it looks!”
Even though the soldier claimed he was fine, his face was deathly pale and his voice was dry and cracked. Despite hasty hemostasis, he had already lost too much blood to be in good condition.
“I’m sorry. If only I could treat you right now…”
“Hey, it’s fine! If I was going to die from something like this, I would’ve kicked the bucket ages ago! Cough! Hack!”
“You idiot! Just shut your mouth already!”
A comrade cursed as the soldier coughed up blood again. Yet the fact that he could still joke without a single complaint showed how well he understood how hard the priestess was working to save the lives of the subjugation force. They also knew she was throwing herself into healing to avoid thinking about Han Jungwoo.
That was why, no matter how much pain they were in, none of the wounded ever complained to her.
“…That kid. He’ll make it back, right?”
One soldier unconsciously voiced the worry he had been holding inside. Though the mutter had not been loud, it reached the ears of most of the men. The atmosphere that had been propped up by forced jokes instantly grew heavy.
“Hey, hey… Why say something like that all of a sudden? That’s bad luck… Of course he’ll be fine. It’s him we’re talking about.”
“……”
Even the soldier who answered could not hide the uncertainty in his voice. It was only natural. What they had left Han Jungwoo to face was a monster beyond comparison with ordinary orcs. None of them could confidently claim victory against such a creature.
The fact that they had followed Arisha’s order to retreat without objection proved they had all shared the same grim thought.
In that situation, leaving him behind had been the correct decision. Yet the cowardly act of surviving by sacrificing a comrade filled them with unbearable guilt and self-loathing no matter how much they tried to deny it.
“He’ll come back alive.”
In the darkening mood, one soldier spoke with genuine conviction. The others turned to look at him. It was Lee Sunho. Aside from the men of the 2nd Reconnaissance Unit who had operated together in the 9th Defense Division, he was probably the only soldier from another squad who had truly interacted with Han Jungwoo.
“That guy’s a real crazy bastard. He’ll definitely come back alive.”
“……”
The soldiers could not understand where Lee Sunho’s certainty came from. Yet no one refuted his straightforward words. Because they all wanted to believe it too. They hoped the man who had saved their lives would return and dissolve the painful knot lodged in their hearts.
Arisha, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, approached Seo Hayun and spoke softly.
“…Do you resent me?”
Seo Hayun, who had been hurrying between the wounded, stopped the moment she heard Arisha’s question.