Silver Sword Dream

"Wipe out those pirates!"

"I'll split those bastards' skulls wide open!"

"Hup!"

"Waaaaaah!"

Burren, Marta, and Runaan charged the river pirates, pouring out fierce sword aura. The swordsmen of the Light Wind Squad plunged in behind their squad leaders, driving into the startled pirates and cutting them down.

The two forces collided head-on, and a storm of blades swept across the deck. The Light Wind Squad unfurled the Great Light Wind Formation; the pirates answered with a formation of their own, vast enough to match it.

It looked as though the Light Wind Squad were charging straight into the jaws of the beast called the South-North Alliance — but the swordsmen shattered those fangs and drove the pirates back.

"Don't treat them as human! Show no mercy!"

Burren split the pirates' openings with sword aura laced with the force of wind.

"You don't even deserve the air you breathe!"

Marta smashed their formation with a sword strike so densely packed with power it looked as if she meant to sink the entire ship. She held nothing back.

"Fall."

Runaan scattered frost until the pirates' movements slowed, then cleanly severed the neck of the one standing at the front.

"Y-you little—"

"What the hell are these kids?!"

"How are they this strong?!"

The pirates outnumbered them nearly two to one, and still they were being crushed without an answer by a Light Wind Squad riding a wave of momentum.

Raon smiled as he watched Tiller's face twist.

"We trained for fighting on a ship. There won't be any surprises."

He kept his sword trained on Tiller and opened every mana circuit in his body.

"Well. One, maybe. If you put me down, things would change. But…"

Raon stepped forward with the Supreme Harmony Footwork. He wound the extreme speed of that footwork into the Heavenly Sky Sword and brought it down.

"That's something that will never happen."

"You arrogant little—!"

Tiller roared and whirled his spear. Blue energy flared along the blade in writhing streams.

A crash like a ship splitting in half tore the air, and a gale of ganggi roared toward the sky.

Raon grinned at Tiller, their weapons locked — Heavenly Sky Sword against spear-blade.

"If we keep fighting here, we'll kill the kids' momentum. Let's move."

"What?"

"Get lost."

He twisted the Heavenly Sky Sword and kicked Tiller square. Every ounce of physical power he had went into it, and Tiller smashed through the deck and went flying toward the Rable River.

"Ghhk!"

Even in his shock, Tiller traced a circle through the air, bled off every bit of force, and settled lightly onto the water.

"I can trust you, right?"

Raon wasn't looking at the grinding Tiller. He was looking at the Light Wind Squad.

"Of course."

"Just worry about yourself."

"Mm."

He smiled at Burren, Marta, and Runaan's answers, then dropped from the ship.

He fell from a height that should have swallowed him whole — and didn't even sink. The water didn't so much as splash. Tiller's face crumpled further.

"You know what they call me, and you still want to fight on the river?"

Tiller spun his spear. The blue energy rippling from shaft and blade surged together with the current.

"You're holding a funeral for yourself!"

He brought the spear down, and a wave came with it — a wall of ferocious ganggi.

"Don't worry."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Raon snorted at the colossal wave that looked ready to swallow the ship whole.

"I was planning to break you in your own house from the start!"

He drew up the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation and unfurled a flowing, linked sword art. Blade-light poured down like starfall and shredded the wave of ganggi without mercy.

"Tch…"

Through the splitting red and blue aura, Tiller's eyes burned with irritation.

He's not serious.

Tiller was holding back, saving himself for Rimer. Beating a man who wasn't even using his full strength would mean nothing.

"Quit wasting time and come at me properly."

Raon snorted and flicked his fingers.

"Huu…"

Tiller covered his eyes with his palm and let out a murky breath. His shoulders shook with a low chuckle, and then he dropped his hand.

The face beneath was twisted like a demon's. It suited him far better than the greasy smile he usually wore.

"Fine. Zieghart's Mad Sword or whatever the hell you are — I'll finish you first."

He stretched his left foot far forward and took the spear in one hand, as if it were a sword.

"I'll tear your head off, just like you wanted!"

The words hadn't even finished ringing in Raon's ears before Tiller vanished. The residual shockwave on the water told him where the man had gone.

Right!

Raon pivoted on his ankle and turned. Tiller appeared as if he'd teleported and drove the spear in. Spiral-rotating ganggi erupted from the pale-blue blade.

Raon dropped his stance so he wouldn't be driven back and raised the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation. A heat-laden blade broke the spear's rotation.

Sword-tip and spear-tip locked, and the ganggi between them twisted. The riverbed gouged deep, then surged upward, and clotted water came down like a cloudburst.

"Hah…"

Raon resonated the Ring of Fire and caught his breath.

Manageable.

Tiller's martial power sat a rank above his own, but between the Cheonhonghwan and a flawless defense, he'd taken the blow without internal injury.

"That was just a greeting!"

Tiller glared and whirled the spear. A wave even vaster than before rose beneath his feet.

He rode it forward and thrust. Ganggi steeped in the principle of Silk-Reeling Force rolled along a spear-blade that shot out like a bolt of light.

"Kh…"

The pressure pouring off the spear felt as if it would strip the flesh from his bones. It was a thrust packed with a power that made the skin crawl.

Raon rolled his shoulder back and drew the Heavenly Sky Sword behind him. He drove the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation to its peak and thrust a blade burning scarlet.

Blue wave and crimson dragon collided, and a colossal explosion tore the air. Water and fire contested each other until white steam rose across the entire river.

"Huu…"

He caught his breath fast. Meeting that force head-on made his chest lurch. He was compensating for a lower martial realm with raw physical ability, and the first signs of internal injury were inevitable.

Still doable.

He was gathering himself to fight again when a chill bloomed at his back. But that wasn't the real attack.

Raon raised Revolving Heaven of the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation toward his left.

The rotating flames along the blade knocked aside a spear that had come down on a diagonal.

A exquisite marriage of power and deception — an attack worthy of a martial artist approaching Mid-rank Master. But it wouldn't work on someone who had already seen through the Gambling Monster's tricks.

"Is this you actually trying?"

Raon smiled at the savage eyes that emerged from the steam.

"Come at me with everything you've got."

"Don't worry. I'll end it right here!"

Tiller dipped the spear-shaft into the water and leapt. He rode the wave that surged up with the shaft and thrust.

This time it wasn't only the ganggi on the spear that spun — the spear itself rotated in Tiller's grip. The shaft hummed loud enough to ring in the ears. Raon had never seen a martial art carrying Silk-Reeling Force of this caliber.

He burned the rotation Tiller was generating into his eyes and kicked off the water.

He froze the river as if riding the current and fell back.

"Where do you think you're running?!"

"Running?"

Raon thrust the Heavenly Sky Sword forward in both hands, the corner of his mouth curling.

"That word isn't in my dictionary."

The instant the storm-spinning shaft closed in, he concentrated his aura into the Heavenly Sky Sword. A round sphere bloomed on the pure-white tip and threw off a tremendous spark.

Rotation and weight maximized in an explosion of ganggi, and a colossal waterspout of mixed wave and aura roared upward.

Raon kicked the water as if shoving it away. He rode the wave with the Garam Footwork and charged Tiller.

"You insolent little shit!"

Tiller seemed to have the same idea. He stomped the wave and brought the spear down. The spiraling Silk-Reeling Force swelled until it was as thick as a man's torso.

Raon smiled coldly and reset his grip. With a blazing ganggi that would scorch even the waves, he cut for Tiller's throat.

"Hmm."

Rimer rolled lightly onto the balls of his feet and climbed onto the warship.

The deck was carpeted with pirate corpses. A few who looked like officers had clung on stubbornly, but it wasn't long before Burren, Marta, and Runaan's blades turned them into restless ghosts.

The only people left on the deck were the Light Wind Squad.

"Waaaaaah!"

"We won!"

"This is Zieghart!"

"The South-North Alliance isn't even a match!"

The Light Wind Squad thrust their swords at the sky and erupted in cheers. There were quite a few wounded, but none of the injuries were serious. Calling it a perfect victory wouldn't have been an exaggeration.

No sign of Garam.

The boy who'd been on the deck was gone, but he was probably talking with the Chungru Tribe members who'd come back to their senses. Rimer didn't go looking.

"Everyone, over here."

He pointed at the waterspout devouring the river and climbing toward the sky. Inside it, Raon and Tiller were clashing sword against spear.

"This fight is as important as any real battle. Don't even blink. Burn every bit of it into your eyes."

"Yes, sir!"

They wouldn't be able to see much from here, but even grasping the flow of those attacks would be a tremendous help.

Hmm…

Rimer felt the energy spreading from inside the waterspout and frowned.

Raon's being pushed back, as expected.

The gap in the years they'd spent building their martial arts was enormous, so it was only natural Raon was behind. He was holding on with monster-level physical ability and stamina, but it looked like a struggle.

The way they fight on the river is the exact opposite.

Tiller crushed the river as if he owned it. Raon rode the waves as if he were part of it.

Tiller's higher realm meant he was overwhelming Raon for now — but given time, the one who followed the flow of nature would climb higher.

What a ridiculous kid.

Rimer snorted and rolled his shoulders. He kept his focus on the fight so he could step in at any moment.

But the battle didn't end easily.

Even as he was driven back head-on, Raon clung on to the very end, swinging his sword.

"Huh?"

Rimer narrowed his eyes at Raon knocking Tiller's spear aside. The crash had carried all the way here, but that wasn't what had startled him.

What is that…

The rotation in Tiller's ganggi and spear only grew stronger as time passed — and yet Raon was knocking the spear aside, or slipping it, more easily than he had at the start. A Low-rank ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Master was gradually seizing the advantage against a Tiller who had reached Mid-rank.

Wait. Don't tell me…

Rimer turned his head toward Burren. An old memory surfaced. The first time Raon had ever made him go cold with shock.

"That brat's doing it again!"

Raon swept the Heavenly Sky Sword — steeped in the formulas of the Mad Fang Sword — up to meet the spear driving for his heart.

The Heavenly Sky Sword bounced far harder than the spear, and a gap opened at his waist.

"Die!"

Tiller whipped the shaft at that opening. The lack of a blade was no reason to be careless. That shaft carried rotating ganggi too — a hit would tear a body in half.

Raon stepped the Garam Footwork and slipped the shaft's path. Tiller followed as if he'd expected it, but Raon leaned his waist back and evaded. The shaft grazed his chest, and shredded uniform scattered into the air.

"You rat bastard!"

Tiller gripped the mid-shaft and launched a spear-strike. A rotation that spiraled on like the waterspout swallowing everything around them. Raon watched the principle of Silk-Reeling Force — force that would crush steel on contact — all the way to the end.

Right-hand rotation.

He read the direction of the ganggi spinning on the spear-blade, then spun the ganggi on the Heavenly Sky Sword the opposite way.

A sound like the river splitting rang out, and Raon and Tiller were thrown clear of the waterspout.

"Kh…"

The instant Tiller's feet touched the water, he charged again, as if he couldn't believe it. He held the spear in both hands at his waist and thrust. The speed and power were enough to make Raon's lips tremble.

It's fine.

He swallowed the lurch in his gut and forced his eyes up. If he could just see it properly, he could block anything.

This time, left.

The moment he saw the rotation spinning the opposite way from before, he raised Glacia. He bent his thighs and detonated the energy he'd drawn up from his ankles at the sword's tip.

Raon and Tiller were driven back at the same time, and an ice wall raised by Frost Lotus surged up between them.

Tiller smashed the wall with his shaft and came on. It wasn't only his eyes that had gone red — his whole face looked ready to burst.

"What did you just do."

"What?"

Raon shrugged, easy as you please.

"How are you blocking my spear! My aura is higher, my martial arts are higher — so why the hell are you—!"

Tiller's hands shook on the shaft, as if he couldn't make sense of it.

"I've done this before."

Raon reset his grip and snorted.

The same thing I did when I was educating a certain arrogant brat.

The moment he'd seen Tiller's Silk-Reeling Force, he'd thought of Burren in his cocky days.

If you can't beat the rotation, just cancel it out.

He'd applied the principle of the Hollow Guard Fist he'd picked up from Burren, feeding in the opposite rotation to neutralize Tiller's spear-strikes.

The man's Silk-Reeling Force was unique enough that it had taken a little work, but fighting him continuously had been enough to finish reading it. The internal injuries he'd already taken were unavoidable — but from here on, he could fight as an equal.

"That's impossible! This doesn't make any sense!"

Tiller drove power into the left foot he'd planted forward. The spear spun savagely, and a sound like a swarm of bees filled the air around them.

The enormous rotation rising from Tiller's spear felt as if it would drag Raon's body in.

Raon stamped as if he meant to drive his feet into the riverbed, raised the opposite rotation with the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, and held.

A crash like thunder, and the spear-blade came down. He concentrated aura into his lower body so he wouldn't collapse, then drew Flower Spirit.

Through the space where ganggi bared its teeth against ganggi, a blue spear-blade punched in. An ambush almost impossible to predict. But Raon's senses had already seen it coming.

He pulled his right foot back, turned his body, and raised Glacia's cold to its peak in the Heavenly Sky Sword. He listened to the river freeze and loaded the blade with Silk-Reeling Force of extreme speed.

Aura-laden sword-edge and spear-tip bent as if they would snap, then bounced apart.

Raon and Tiller were driven back, unable to bear the energy on their weapons. The path they'd passed through split white, as if the river itself had been cut in half.

"Huuuk…"

Tiller wiped the river-water from his face and cocked his head. His eyes glittered with killing intent.

"You erased the rotation on my spear…"

"You're slow on the uptake."

Raon smiled faintly and nodded.

"Talent. Insane talent."

"It's not that much."

"I've never had killing intent rise this high."

Tiller spun the spear on his fingers. The shaft that had been turning as lightly as a pinwheel gathered speed until it was spinning too fast for the eye to follow.

The higher the spear spun, the higher the water climbed, until it had risen far enough to touch the sky.

"That smile is the last one you'll ever wear."

Tiller seized the spear roaring with vast rotation and kicked off the water. The wave gathered at his back moved with him, and the entire field of vision filled with his ganggi.

Raon bit his lip.

See it properly.

The power itself was terrifying, but the underlying principle hadn't changed much. The problem was that the rotation never stopped shifting.

The solution is simple.

He raised the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation in the Heavenly Sky Sword in his right hand, and with his left he drew the Requiem Sword from his back and ran Glacia through it. He set a different rotation on the ganggi of each blade and stepped forward.

The instant the Torrential Sky Spear closed in, he crossed both swords. A perfect linked strike of Frost Lotus and Revolving Heaven neutralized the Silk-Reeling Force in the spear, and the wave of ganggi split in a cross.

"Hah—!"

Tiller's eyes warped in the torn wave. A wound identical to the one that had split the water opened across his chest, and blood sprayed.

"H-how could you…"

Tiller clutched the sword-mark on his chest, his jaw trembling. He looked as if he couldn't believe his own supreme art had been broken.

"You showed me too much."

Raon hooked the Heavenly Sky Sword over his shoulder and sheathed the Requiem Sword.

"If you'd fought without holding back from the start instead of now, I'd be the one in that state."

Tiller had kept glancing at Rimer the entire time, conserving his strength as he used his spear arts. The Ring of Fire had made reading those arts easy — which was why things had ended up like this.

"Time to finish it."

Raon leveled the Heavenly Sky Sword at Tiller's throat.

"Th-this doesn't make sense."

Tiller screamed and charged. Even in his rage, the spear work overflowed with power and precision. It was a martial art you could have believed belonged to an heir of one of the other Six Kings, not a pirate.

Not that it matters.

Raon set a reverse rotation on the Heavenly Sky Sword and knocked it aside as if it were nothing.

Tiller's spear-arm shook as if it would break.

"Shit!"

He clenched his teeth and launched spear-strikes in a chain, but Raon slipped every one of them and unfurled the Mad Fang Sword.

The shockwave of the Mad Fang Sword snapped the end of the shaft and cut Tiller across the waist.

"Ghk…"

It had gone deeper than the wound on his chest. Red blood ran down from his waist.

"Hah…"

Tiller gripped the shortened shaft and spat ragged breaths. His body and aura still had plenty left — but his face said he'd reached his mental limit.

"I told you. It's over."

His bones felt like they would snap. His muscles were as wrecked as they could get. He kept swallowing the blood that reverse-flowed from the internal injuries. He didn't let any of it show. He just smiled.

"Yaaaaah!"

Tiller fell back and raised a wave. The largest yet — large enough to affect not only Raon, but the people behind him.

"I'm tired of this too."

Raon stamped. A bone-chilling cold erupted from the Yongcheon point in his foot and froze the sky-reaching wave in a single instant. The power of Water Lily, pushed to its extreme.

The frozen wave lost its force and collapsed where it stood. But Tiller, who should have been behind it, was gone.

Don't tell me—!

Raon snapped his head left. Tiller was cutting through the waves, sprinting toward a small fishing boat that had been stopped dead by the runaway water.

"That insane bastard!"

Raon kicked the water. He alternated Garam Footwork and Supreme Harmony Footwork and ran with everything he had.

I didn't think he'd be this much of a piece of trash.

In a fight where life and death hung in the balance, he'd leave the opponent in front of him to go take a hostage. Among everyone Raon had ever met, this man ranked among the worst.

Damn it. Too slow…

Tiller had started first. There was no catching him. Raon turned it over in his head, and there was nothing.

He was grinding his teeth and chasing when the fishing boat and the people in it vanished like mist. The energy he felt was immediately to his right. Under the water, Garam had his hand outstretched.

He did that?

Raon didn't know what the boy had done, but from the way the water mana had moved, Garam had hidden the boat and the people.

"You monster — you get in my way to the very end!"

Tiller realized it was Garam's doing and ground his teeth.

"Well done! Now run—"

Raon shouted for him to flee, but Garam's eyelids fluttered as if his strength had given out, and he went still.

"You stupid little—!"

Tiller used a wave to snap his direction in a single motion and seized Garam as the boy started to sink. He laughed, kh-heh-heh, caught Garam by the throat, and turned.

"Now look at this. You tried to get in my way, and this is where it got you."

"I-it's okay."

Garam's voice barely came out with the hand on his throat, but he smiled faintly.

"I-I knew you'd do this. Because you're a dirty human."

"You little—"

"Y-you can cut me down with him. I don't care. Kill Tiller…"

The boy smiled as if he didn't have even the smallest lingering attachment to life.

"A lot of my people and a lot of humans died because of me. It's okay. Cut us both."

"Garam…"

Raon frowned. Garam had known that making the boat vanish would leave him unable to move — and he'd still said cut me down without a shred of hesitation.

"Wh-what kind of bullshit is that!"

The moment Raon tightened his grip on the hilt, Tiller shook his head wildly.

"Didn't you call him a friend? You're going to kill a captured friend just like that?"

He clenched his teeth, as if he couldn't afford to lose the chance he'd barely seized.

"You're the Frost-Flower Sword Hero, aren't you! Is a chivalrous hero going to kill his friend just to cut down an enemy?!"

Tiller forced the corners of his mouth up.

"If you want to save this monster, throw away your sword! Right now!"

"Garam."

Raon didn't throw the sword away. He looked at Garam. A face that seemed to have no attachment left to living. Round eyes full of original sin and pain.

"I-I've committed too many sins. I-I even made a friend, so now it's really okay. Please, just like this—"

"Shut up!"

Tiller smashed Garam across the mouth to stop him talking.

"Throw the sword away! Throw it away!"

"……"

"You're not going to? I knew it. Chivalry! What a hollow, ridiculous word! I've got it stuck to me too, and I've never once thought about what chivalry even is!"

He grinned as if he were proud of it.

"Not throwing your sword away here means you're the same as me. Of course you are! There's no such thing as a human who values someone else more than himself. Chivalry doesn't exist in this world."

"Maybe not."

Raon nodded and slid the Heavenly Sky Sword into its scabbard. He had never once thought about chivalry. Just as Sylvia had said, he had only walked the path he believed in — the path his chest told him to walk.

With those words, he threw the Heavenly Sky Sword — scabbard and all — into the river.

The sound of it hitting the water hadn't even finished ringing before Tiller moved. He thrust the spear with the fastest speed and the most extreme power he had shown yet.

"You stupid bastard!"

Even with every last scrap of energy poured into the strike, he still held Garam close, braced for a counter. An annoying man — but the movement was exactly as expected.

A red flash leapt in Raon's eyes.

The Glacia energy he'd loaded into the scabbard in advance spun, kicked the water of its own accord, and came back.

The water-soaked scabbard slapped into his left hand just as Tiller's spear-blade arrived at the tip of his nose. He felt the keen spear-force peeling the skin from his face.

The Ring of Fire resonated at its peak. The world slowed. He could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feel the blood and aura flowing in time with the beating of his heart, exactly as they were.

He split an instant of an instant, stepped his left foot forward, and took the hilt in his right hand. He felt a cold touch that seemed to wake the mind itself, and drew a short breath.

The scattered, disordered principles of the Hidden Sword and the Phantom Sword found their last missing piece — rotation — and thunder crashed through his mind.

Feeling a supreme thrill run down his spine, he drew the Heavenly Sky Sword.

The melody of every martial art he had built until now stretched out as an auspicious light.