The Incompetent Hero and the Yeom Alliance (6)
"Well now, ain't this a right mess. What's the Vermilion Bird lady doin' all the way out here?"
Chaos reigned across the battlefield.
In the midst of a slaughter so fierce that "pandemonium" barely did it justice, a sharp-eyed man with blue hair watched the carnage with casual ease.
Fukhaedaeseong, the Demon King, clicked his tongue as he gazed upon the ruined Yeomhwang Castle.
Even from this distance, he could clearly feel it—the ferociously burning flame of life, the primordial power at its core.
It was weaker than he remembered, true, but against his current condition, she would still be a troublesome opponent. At full strength he might have welcomed the challenge; as he was now, it was another matter entirely.
"Normally I'd be chargin' in with a grin, but not today. Got a job to finish first, so let's give it a proper go."
He rose from his seat with a lazy stretch, eyes glittering with anticipation.
For this raid, their collaborators had handed over the infiltration routes, allowing a massive force of the Beastman Alliance to pour into the assault. Even so, the defenders here were no pushovers.
"One look an' it's plain we're outmatched in raw power. No wonder they wanted me so bad—gettin' pushed this hard, of course they'd call for me. Kyahahaha!"
A surge of motion.
Waves rose—waves no human strength could hope to oppose, a disaster given form.
Silent, all-devouring waves that swallowed everything in their path.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAANG!!!
"Kyahahaha! Come on! Come on!! Kyahahaha!!!"
The Demon King's spear lashed out in wild abandon.
Gang-gi the color of blue ocean waves swept the battlefield without restraint, carving through enemies with merciless efficiency.
"Eek?!"
"R-run!!!"
The most natural power a Demon King possessed—the force that overwhelmed and crushed others—spread in every direction, seizing the martial artists with raw terror.
Yet fleeing in fear was no guarantee of survival. Those foolish enough to choose the coward's path were simply caught in the tide of gang-gi, limbs skewered, blood spraying as they fell.
"Ain't there a single one who can stop me?!"
Swish!!
"?!"
An invisible dagger flew toward the rampaging Demon King.
Even in his current state, a direct hit would have been fatal—a silent, lethal threat that closed the distance without a sound. Had it been anyone else, they would never have dodged in time and would have met their end right there.
KAAANG!!
He barely managed to bat it aside with his spear, yet the numbness racing through his hand drew a bitter smile from Fukhaedaeseong.
"Khh… What the hell did ya just throw at me? My hand's shakin' just from blockin' it."
"Are you Fukhaedaeseong?"
"Me? Yeah. I'm Fukhaedaeseong, the Demon King. I introduced myself, so you oughta do the same, yeah? Who're you?"
"I doubt my name will mean anything to you… but I am Dan Seolpung, head of the Sichuan Dan family, known as Dokzon, the Poison Sovereign."
At the words "Poison Sovereign," the Demon King's lips curled upward.
One of the key figures he had been briefed on before arriving—and the very target of this mission. With the objective confirmed, there was no longer any need to engage Juzaku in the distance. That, at least, was a relief.
"That so. So you're the Poison Sovereign, eh? Heard plenty about ya. They say you're pretty damn strong—that true?"
"Hmm… Well. I am strong."
Dan Seolpung spoke with quiet confidence and slipped both hands into the wide sleeves of his robes, concealing them completely.
It was the ready stance of the Dan family's martial artists when they committed to a serious fight—a posture that left an opponent wondering what hidden weapon might suddenly fly from those unseen sleeves, exerting crushing psychological pressure.
Among martial artists, the saying went that the moment a Dan family member hid their hands, you should leave the area immediately. The stance was that infamous.
Fukhaedaeseong knew little of humans or the Dan family, yet the strike moments earlier had already proven this man was no ordinary foe. He grinned and settled into his own stance.
In perfect condition he might have shrugged it off, but as he was now, a single moment of carelessness against this man would leave a hole through his skull.
"…Here I come."
"Kyahahaha! Come at me all ya want!!"
Dan Seolpung's hands moved.
In that instant a tiny flash of light streaked through the air, accompanied by the sound of something slicing the wind.
Khh, this bastard… How many hidden weapons did he throw in that single moment?
The Demon King laughed savagely and swept his spear.
Kang! Kakakakang!!!
Blue, wave-like gang-gi collided with the invisible, qi-wrapped projectiles and shattered into pale azure light, scattering like surf breaking against rock. Each impact sent fresh numbness through his arms, yet Fukhaedaeseong still stepped forward, closing the distance.
"?!"
Pabababababababat!!
In that same instant, as if a trap had been prepared in advance, an even greater storm of hidden weapons poured down in a mad frenzy.
Kang! Kakakakang! Puhbut! Kang! Kang! Kang! Peopeopeok!!
"Ya crazy bastard! When the hell did ya set up a trap like this?!"
"A master of hidden weapons must spare no preparation to maintain distance from the enemy."
He managed to bat most of them aside, yet not all. Several projectiles punched clean through Fukhaedaeseong's body.
The moment those weapons pierced him, the balance of the fight tilted sharply.
"Guhk!…"
Poison flooded through him in an instant.
His body was already a wreck; the toxin spread with terrifying speed, and blood sprayed from the Demon King's lips.
"I read the reports on you. You fought Jang Cheon-woo, the hero from another land."
"Yeah… that was a real good time."
"I know his strength. That you fought him so fiercely, and that your condition is far from ideal—your coughing blood just now made that clear enough."
Dan Seolpung settled back into his stance.
"You cannot defeat me. Fukhaedaeseong—blame your own foolishness for standing before me while your body is in such a state."
Pabababat!!!
A rain of hidden weapons poured down once more.
What grated most was that the gang-gi within each projectile was uneven. Some were strong, some weak. There was no way to tell them apart, so even the weak ones had to be met with full force.
That was the signature art of the poison-wielding Dan family itself—slowly, relentlessly draining an opponent's strength.
Kang! Tititititing!! Teong!! Kaaang!!!
The instant he put even slightly less power into a block, a weapon punched through his gang-gi and buried itself in his flesh. Every single one of those embedded projectiles carried a lethal extreme poison. A normal human would already have died several times over.
And yet—
"Kyahahahahahaha!! Perfect!! I love it!!! I thought that hero was some kinda freak! But I was wrong!! There's another human just like him! There is!!"
"…Kh."
Instead of faltering, he began to thrash even more violently.
Kwang! Kwang!! Kwangkwnagkwang!!!
Blue gang-gi exploded outward.
With every swing, multiple hidden weapons were caught in the tidal wave of energy and flung away. Unfazed, the Demon King charged straight at Dan Seolpung.
He paid no heed to his own body. So long as the projectiles were not aimed at instant-kill spots like the head or heart, he simply ignored them, charging forward like a jiangshi that felt no pain.
Distance!…
To create distance, one had to stop the enemy from closing in. To stop them, one had to inflict pain—make them think, If I come any closer I'll truly die!
But what meaning did a threat of death hold against someone who refused to die?
Against a Demon King who charged without the slightest regard for his wounds, Dan Seolpung had no means left to open the gap.
"Hup!!"
"Ohho?! Showin' me somethin' special, are ya?! What're ya gonna pull out this time!!"
And so Dan Seolpung gathered every scrap of his energy into a single point.
Viridian light—the entirety of his qi—condensed into one razor-sharp hidden weapon.
"Can't win with numbers, so yer goin' for quality! But if that's all, I just gotta dodge, yeah? Ya got a plan for that?!"
"Do not worry. You will not dodge so easily!…"
An incomplete technique.
Yet if he did not complete it here and now, he would die.
In that extreme moment, the Poison Sovereign took a single step—one step beyond the stagnant boundary of his current realm.
One Life
Fit!
The hidden weapon left the Poison Sovereign's fingertips.
Fukhaedaeseong sharpened his senses to the absolute limit and caught the weapon's departure. Because he had pushed his perception so far, the Poison Sovereign's movements and the projectile's flight seemed impossibly slow.
At this speed, blockin' it is impossible. So dodge… wait?
His body would not move.
More precisely—the moment he returned his internal time to normal in order to send the signal to his nerves, the weapon's accelerated speed would already have pierced him clean through.
No way…?!
It was a hidden weapon that had surpassed human limits, accelerated to the extreme until it touched the realm of the divine—an unavoidable pinnacle of the assassin's art.
This bastard!… He was even more of a goddamn maniac than I thought!!!
"You—!"
TEONG!!! KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
"Be pierced."
As if an explosive had detonated, the weapon punched through the Demon King's body and his gang-gi erupted in a catastrophic blast.
Confirming the result, Dan Seolpung dropped to one knee.
"Haa… haa…"
To generate that extreme acceleration required every last drop of his qi. That was why the technique remained incomplete—after a single use, he could do nothing more.
"Father!!"
"…Young Master."
"Are you all right?!"
In that moment the young master of the family rushed to his side. The sounds of battle around them had quieted; the situation must have been largely settled.
"You truly brought down Fukhaedaeseong! What a magnificent achievement!"
"Yes. It is."
"I'm afraid that won't do."
Pook!
"!"
"As expected… you are strong, Father."
In that same instant, Dan Seollyun drove a small hidden weapon straight through Dan Seolpung's heart.
"You—you bastard!…"
"Farewell."
KWAANG!!!
At the same moment, from the crater where the Demon King had been driven into the earth, a single dragon surged upward.
Dragon King Ananta.
Fukhaedaeseong revealed his true form—yet by then, everything was already over.
"This is inconvenient, Lord Fukhaedaeseong. You should have finished Father off properly."
[He was stronger than I expected.]
"…Yes. My father is strong."
[In the end, you stabbed your own father.]
"Of course I did not kill him. The Beastman Alliance will need the blood of an Imugi, after all. One ought to prepare a gift for the comrades who will rule Yeom Kingdom alongside us, don't you think?"
At those words, Dragon King Ananta fell silent for a moment.
Then he spoke again.
[Well, that's none of my concern. But that one—I will eat him.]
"…What do you mean by that?"
[The damage is greater than I thought. For recovery, the qi of an exceptional martial artist should serve as decent emergency treatment.]
"In other words, you intend to absorb Father's qi to heal yourself?"
[Yes. Even if he is dragged off by the Beastman Alliance, he will only live out his days having his blood drained in every humiliation. This is my respect for your father, who gave me a fine match. Do not interfere.]
"…Do as you please."
He had no power to stop Dragon King Ananta in any case. And so Dan Seollyun stepped aside.
Ananta opened his jaws wide, swallowed Dan Seolpung in a single gulp, and soared into the heavens.
"I'll report that Father is dead. Things are going to get busy from here. Firmly seize control of the Dan family… hand a few useful martial artists over to the Beastman Alliance so they can produce the Four Poisons… use that power to dominate Yeom Kingdom… Truly, I am going to be busy."
And so, the massive raid that would later be remembered as the opening act of the war between the Beastman Alliance and Yeom Kingdom—the Yeomhwang Castle Overturn Incident—came to its end.