The Worth of a Single Word - 10
Hong Ryeon, whose entrance alone had flipped the entire battle on its head, lightly gripped the greatsword that stood as tall as she did.
- Krrrk…
There could be no letting up. The ambush had bought us one clean hit, but the enemy wasn't fully down for the count yet.
The demonic cultist who had been sprawled across the ground slowly began to rise. The seductive elegance she had carried mere moments ago was nowhere to be found—only tangled hair and a body caked in dust. But more shocking than any of it was her face, warped into the visage of some vengeful demon.
"Ha. Haha."
She staggered upright, looking frail enough that a single blow might finish her—and yet I knew. Sa Yun knew. Yu Hui knew.
And so did Hong Ryeon: the demonic qi seething off that woman had only grown thicker.
"Ptui."
Something burst from her frothing mouth. Dark crimson blood. Had the ambush left her with internal injuries? I certainly hoped so…
"Even living as long as I have…"
That frigid voice bore down on the whole clearing. Sa Yun and Yu Hui raised their swords and took aim, while Hong Ryeon simply stared at her with cool indifference.
The moment her wavering demonic qi grew dense enough to take on shape, the demon's mask of a face flowed back into a beauty's.
"You die today."
Though that voice alone was bloodthirstier than any demon's.
"…She's detonated her Demon Blood."
Demon Blood—a demonic art by which demon cultivators hoard their accumulated qi and detonate it against their most mortal of enemies, doubling their strength. Now that it had gone off, that woman wouldn't come out of this unscathed either. Had she wanted Hong Ryeon dead that badly?
- KWAAAAAANG!!
A detonation ripped through the air. The congealed demonic qi exploded, and what it birthed was fire—black, hideous, dangerous fire.
"…Yu Hui. Sa Yun. Protect Innkeeper Yu and the village chief."
So Hong Ryeon knew what that flame was, too. The Fire Tiger—one of the flame demons the Demonic Cult so loved to unleash. The black tiger wrought of flickering black flame fixed us with sinister eyes and began to bare its fangs.
- Grrrrrr…!!
Flame poured out along with its low growl. Watching it, I spoke to Yu Hui.
"Can you fight?"
"Of course…!"
Teeth clenched, Yu Hui let the strain loose from her shoulders. Sa Yun, standing beside her, did the same.
They were forcing calm onto their faces as they watched the Fire Tiger when—
"Die!!"
With a ragged roar, the cultist moved.
- CLAAANG!!
Iron claws wreathed in demonic qi slammed into the greatsword. The shriek of steel kicked up a storm of killing intent that even rattled our side—and in that instant, the Fire Tiger roared, and Yu Hui and Sa Yun sprang.
- GWROOOAR!!
Fwoosh. Flame born of the qi packed into that roar spread in every direction. Yu Hui threaded through it on dazzling footwork, and the moment she closed within the tiger's reach, her sword fell without hesitation.
A blade trailing crimson sword-qi carved upward from below, rending the flame-forged body of the Fire Tiger in two.
But that alone was never going to bring the tiger down.
"Hup!!"
Sa Yun seemed to know it too. Yu Hui's strike existed only to tear open a gap in the enemy. Into the seam Blood Wind had split in the flames, at the black body now laid bare, Sa Yun reached out her hand without a moment's doubt.
- WHAAAM!!
With a sound like hide splitting, the Fire Tiger staggered backward. But the enmity in its eyes, the killing intent, the sheer wall of violence—none of it settled one bit. If anything, it looked delighted, swinging its flame-wreathed forepaw all the harder.
In Cheonsang Myeongwol, players had mockingly christened that move the Meow-Meow Punch, but seeing it in the flesh, it looked far too vicious for such a cuddly name.
Sa Yun was pulling back to dodge it. No. She mustn't dodge it like that.
"Block it!!"
That attack detonated the instant it struck the ground, throwing out a shockwave—dodge it, and you'd be swallowed by the blast. Blocking it before the explosion went off was the best option.
- THUD!!
Had she heard my shout? Sa Yun snapped her sword up. She caught the paw before the attack could fully form—but the weight bearing down on her blade buckled her knees, and I could see her jaw clenching.
Red blood ran in a thin line from the corner of her mouth. Even so, her eyes never left the enemy.
"Her flank!!"
A big attack invites a big opening. The tiger's blow was a heavy, flashy move meant to buy it recovery time, and so a gap had naturally opened at its side. Yu Hui was far too seasoned to miss it. She was a disciple of Hongseong Gate too, after all.
- SSHRAK!!
A strike that split its hide wasn't something even the Fire Tiger could shrug off; with a low rumble it tore its forepaw from Sa Yun's blade and bounded backward.
"Thank you!"
Sa Yun called out, letting the tiger's blow roll off her with a light turn of her body.
Think nothing of it.
Perhaps because its attack had failed and it had been hurt into the bargain, the Fire Tiger's movements turned cautious. Unfortunately for us, a cautious Fire Tiger was bad news.
"Sa Yun! Yu Hui! Just hold on a little longer!!"
"Yes!!"
The battle between Hong Ryeon and the Demon Blood–empowered cultist raged on. Attacks too fast for the eye to follow, and Hong Ryeon parried them all with practiced ease, her massive greatsword moving as though it weighed nothing—yet she didn't seem able to carve out an opening of her own.
Between masters, a single opening decides victory and defeat. And the cultist, Demon Blood detonated, was pouring on a barrage too fast to breathe through. Anyone short of a master at Hong Ryeon's caliber would have cracked long ago.
But she, true to the name of Grand Disciple of Hongseong Gate, absorbed the onslaught with icy composure, baiting her enemy into opening gaps of its own accord.
Even as she deflected the endless assault, Hong Ryeon bit her lip. The dread gnawing at her—that Sa Yun and Yu Hui would fall to the Fire Tiger, that the village chief and I could die. She wanted nothing more than to hurl the cultist aside and come to us, but the offensive was simply too fierce. Perhaps the cultist had summoned the Fire Tiger for precisely that purpose.
"Ahahaha!! Take this!? Huh?! Huh?! I'll carve that back of yours wide opeeeen!!"
…So that was her game.
To shake the cultist loose, Hong Ryeon would have to commit to something big—and the cultist was inviting exactly that. Which left us one job: bring down the Fire Tiger, so Hong Ryeon could put everything into the enemy in front of her.
- GROOOAR!!
The roar snapped our focus back. The instant the black flame erupting from the tiger's frame surged hotter, Sa Yun and Yu Hui charged it without a flicker of hesitation.
Gale Wind on the heels of Blood Wind, and Starcloud Flash riding the Gale Wind's wake.
The latter-half sword forms of the Hongseong Divine Art wove together with its first-half forms and bloomed, resplendent, in Yu Hui's hands. And the moment the tiger's flames were stripped away by them, Sa Yun reached out her hand.
The strike that shatters stars—concentrated qi detonating upon impact.
Struck by the star-shattering blow, the Fire Tiger was blasted backward.
But—
- Grrrrr…
Not yet. It had taken real damage, but the beast still looked like it had fight left in it.
Answering that fighting spirit, that hostility, the inner energy of the Hongseong Divine Art bolted from her dantian. What raced up through her veins was exhilaration. Yes. Yes. Yes. So this was power.
- GROOOAR!!!
Sa Yun tightened her grip on her sword. The leather of the hilt, pressed flush against her palm, felt good.
"Ugh!!"
The Fire Tiger shot out like a loosed arrow and slammed bodily into Yu Hui. As she was knocked sprawling with a cry of pain, the Ominous Star roosting in Sa Yun's body whispered, sweet as syrup.
The one precious to you has been hurt.
So…
Will you simply stand there?
Right. I should. I couldn't just stand by, could I.
With a blank, spellbound expression, Sa Yun slid toward the Fire Tiger.
Star Flow Steps. Moving like a star threading the heavens, she closed the distance—and the tiger failed to stop her.
- WHAAM!!
What she extended was not a palm, but a fist. Crude. No form to it, no meaning to it. A blow given over wholly to savagery and rage. Her dantian's reserves drained by the second, but Sa Yun couldn't have cared less.
More. I have to destroy more.
The light in Sa Yun's eyes burned fiercer by the moment—and with it, the impacts hammering the Fire Tiger's body rang heavier. It was being driven back. Driven back, and back.
Flustered by her sudden change, the tiger reared a forepaw high and smashed it down with all its might.
- KWAANG!!
Flame geysered up with the detonation. But punching straight through that fire was a single fist. A blow mighty enough to split the very flames caved into the tiger's body—and brought it to its knees.
Yes. This is it. This is it. Destruction and violence. This is what I must put first and foremost.
…Was it, though?
Beyond that sweet, syrupy voice, one heavy line reached her.
"Have you been eating your meals?"
"Call me Uncle."
Just a single line, that was all. But a line so warm, so utterly dependable, that one could not help but lean on it. Those kind, gentle words she had once received cut straight through the vast power of the Ominous Star and woke Sa Yun's mind from the darkness where it had been wandering.
- Grrrrr…
Flame kindled in the Fire Tiger's eyes as it heaved itself upright. Even so, Sa Yun could not help but turn her gaze. In her eyes: Hong Ryeon locked in battle with the cultist. Yu Hui, felled by the tiger's blow. And—Yu Wol, watching her with worry written across his grave expression. At the sight of him, the darkness thinned further, and the path came into view.
Why was I standing here?
- To fight, wasn't it?
No. It was to protect.
The Hongseong Divine Art, the sacred art of Hongseong Gate, is a destructive, ferocious martial art. It answers emotion—an Ominous Star that could raze all things, and yet a Divine Star that burns itself as fuel in order to protect.
So what had I been doing just now? Following the spirit of the Crimson Star—protecting? Or drowning in rage, destroying for destruction's own sake?
- Go to this place, and grow stronger.
An unfamiliar, yet gentle voice was calling her back to her senses.
- Gyeonwol Mangji. See the moon, forget the finger. You must look hard, and know exactly where your eyes should fall.
Beyond that voice, a roar. Even against the Fire Tiger's provocation—kindled precisely to set her own Ominous Star alight—Sa Yun did not waver. She simply curled her fist lightly, unlike before.
Right. The road I must walk is not the road of destruction.
The line carried on that starlight fell like rain on parched ground, and the teaching of the Crimson Star—to shield the world even at the cost of burning oneself to ash—became a pillar, standing firm.
Amid the blazing, surging flames, Sa Yun curled her fist. And then, just once, she glanced back.
She had to become the Ominous Star. But that Ominous Star had to be a Crimson Star—one that protected. And beyond that, a Divine Star, to protect the powerless souls watching her from behind. And so Sa Yun thrust out her fist. But this was not the indiscriminate fury of moments ago.
- WHAAM!!
The Fire Tiger, caught square by the blow, staggered. What chased it was a fist of starlight. One strike, then another—not killing intent, but the blows of a guardian's starlight scattering free across the night sky, flowing on like water. The inner energy that had always moved so awkwardly within her now streamed with utter naturalness. This was the movement of the stars. This was the true meaning of the Crimson Star.
Swept up in a feeling like flight itself, Sa Yun swung her fists on and on—and the Fire Tiger's flames began, little by little, to gutter out.
Um… isn't that a little dangerous?
From the moment Yu Hui had been sent flying by the tiger's attack, Sa Yun's movements had changed. Destruction. The will of the Crimson Star had drained out of those fists, leaving nothing behind but crude violence made purely to destroy. She was bulling straight through the tiger's flames, and I could see small burns blooming here and there across her body wherever the fire licked her.
I knew that sight all too well. Demonic deviation—the process by which a martial artist is devoured by their own art, losing their reason and turning into a demon. Damn it all. Why now, of all times?!
Yu Hui must have noticed too, because her face had gone sheet-white; and Hong Ryeon, still dueling the cultist, was grinding her teeth as well. I had to stop it. If I didn't, Sa Yun would be reduced to a husk of herself—
…Huh?
"…Huh?"
I wasn't the only one thrown off; Yu Hui was every bit as stunned. The fists that had been pure destruction had abruptly begun to change.
"Th-that's—!"
Fists like falling stars—unavoidable, unblockable. Enlightenment born in the midst of battle.
The very technique Sa Yun had been banging her head against was now unfolding from her body. Fists of starlight that could be neither dodged nor blocked pressed the Fire Tiger back, step by step.
Yu Hui, who had been staring blankly, burst out laughing.
"Ahaha! Our littlest! You're seriously amazing!!"
That's right. Amazing. Enlightenment, in the middle of a fight like this? While clawing her way out of demonic deviation at the same time? This. This is exactly why I'm so fond of Sa Yun!!
"All right!! Coming in!!"
Shaking off the hit she'd taken, Yu Hui surged up and charged the Fire Tiger—and what unfolded from her, too, was the Meteor Fist. Two meteors whirled like a tempest, devouring the tiger whole.
- WHAAM!!
When the meteors finished their fall, the Fire Tiger's head finally dropped. Watching that colossal body come apart into flame and scatter, the two of them crumpled to the ground.
"Hahh… hahh…"
"Hoooo…"
Meteor Fist was a technique from the latter half of the Hongseong Divine Art; the qi it demanded was anything but cheap. On top of that, Sa Yun had already flung those brutish, gas-guzzling fists earlier, and Yu Hui was still wearing the blow she'd taken. Bringing the Fire Tiger down as they had deserved nothing but praise.
- GROOAR!!!
That was when it happened—the Fire Tiger's death rattle. Before its body could finish dissolving into flame, the beast wrenched its jaws open. Inside that grotesque maw sat a black mass of fire. The instant it took aim at me, Sa Yun and Yu Hui squeezed out the last dregs of their strength and ran for me—as if to block it with their own bodies.
And was I supposed to just stand there and watch?!
"P-please get away—!!"
It stung, but I had to ignore that one. I seized both Sa Yun and Yu Hui and hauled them back. Sure enough—running on empty and utterly spent—they came slack in my grip and were shoved stumbling backward. By then, the fireball was right in front of my nose.
In that case. There was only one thing to call to mind.
The first form of Chae Family Taiji Quan—four ounces to deflect a thousand catties.
Softness can bend the force of a river—even when all the softness has to work with is a feather's speck of strength. I thrust my right hand, the hand of Yang, at the fireball that had closed the distance in a blink.
- SSSKT.
The ragged flames dancing off the sphere singed the hem of my sleeve, but I wasn't afraid. That colossal fire, bent on burning everything in existence, tried to devour even my right hand—but fire cannot burn fire. Granted, if that thing had been a lava sphere instead of a fireball, the story would have been different. Just like that Navy uncle once said—lava and fire sit in a strict chain of command!
"Hah!"
With my right hand cradling the rushing lance of flame exactly as it came, I began to move. Left foot planted as the axis—instead of opposing the current, I spent a single thread of force to bend its course.
- FWOOOOSH!!
Yang met Yang, and the flame roared hotter still. But there was no reason to fear. A flame on the verge of guttering out burns fiercest of all—and is just as unstable. Holding the axis true, I turned one more full revolution, and I felt the fire—fiercer, shakier—begin to split apart.
So then. I drove my left hand, the hand of Yin, straight into the heart of the flame. For when Yin and Yang meet in harmony, they beget stillness. What they drew was the Taiji. The harmony traced by right hand and left turned the flame of pure destruction into the Taiji itself, and it faded away, serene.
"Hoo."
Back when Chae Jin had put me through the wringer, I'd managed to deflect even the punches she flicked out at a feather-light fraction of her strength, so I'd figured this much was within reach. Damn. It actually works. As expected of the ace tutor of Chae Family Taiji Quan. Can't count her way out of a paper bag, but the woman sure can teach!!
Black flame and soot had traced the pattern of the Taiji across the ground. Standing at its center, I watched the last of the Fire Tiger scatter, then smiled at the two girls gawping at me with hanging jaws and saucer-wide eyes.
"Hot, hot, HOT!"
And beat the last embers from my sleeve.
Tsk. Chae Jin would pitch a fit if she ever found out. Couldn't even properly block one measly little fireball. …She's not about to add more training hours over this, right?