Dying would be easier. (5)
Slaash.
The fiend’s claws tore across Jo Geol’s side. The gash split so deep his pale bone showed, and in an instant the torn flesh turned pitch-black.
“Ghh…”
A stifled groan escaped Jo Geol’s lips.
It was a grievous wound, yet there was no time to tend to it. No, in truth, injuries like that were already carved all over his body. Drenched from head to toe in his own blood and that of his foes, Jo Geol swung his sword as if walking a tightrope along a cliff’s edge.
“Ghak!”
His breathing was so ragged it seemed ready to give out at any moment. Even Jo Geol, who always tried to smooth hardship with humor, could not muster a single joke right now.
He swung his sword broadly once more, shaking off the fiends clinging to him.
‘Am I… at my limit…?’
He did not want to sound weak, but the end was all too clear. At this rate he would not last even ten exchanges. If he fell, Hwasan and the Alliance would surely crumble, unable to fill the void he left.
‘No.’
He had to endure just one more move, and with it hold on one moment longer…
Just then, a bizarre sight caught Jo Geol’s eye.
‘What is that?’
The cultists, who had been watching him with the detached gaze of hunters eyeing prey, suddenly wore expressions of confusion. And their attention had clearly shifted elsewhere.
Soon after, a distinct voice pierced Jo Geol’s ears.
“Hwasaaaaaaan!”
Jo Geol involuntarily let out a startled gasp. That voice was surely…?
His head snapped around. Even if the price of that rash action was a hole torn through his back, he could not restrain himself.
“Huh……?”
At once Jo Geol’s eyes went wide as lanterns. The figure sprinting from afar, leading a group of unknown people, looked far too familiar.
“S-Sasuk?”
Baek Cheon. The very Baek Cheon he remembered… more precisely, Baek Cheon before he had been injured.
‘…What? Am I dreaming right now?’
His mouth fell open in sheer shock.
At that moment Yoon Jong, who had likewise been staring blankly at Baek Cheon, suddenly snapped his gaze to Jo Geol. Their eyes met. Yoon Jong’s look also said he couldn’t tell whether what he’d just seen was real.
“Hey, did I really see…?”
“Impossible.”
“Right? It makes no sense, does it?”
“It doesn’t. It shouldn’t. And yet…“
Then who could that be if not Baek Cheon? A sudden thought flashed through his mind, and Jo Geol shouted urgently.
“Th-That bastard! Cheon Myeon Susa! Isn’t that Cheon Myeon Susa?”
“…What does that energy pouring out of his sword look like to you right now?”
“Huh? Well…….”
It were plum blossoms. Definitely plum blossoms. Haha… hahaha. Then it really was Sasuk…
“But still – why on earth would he suddenly show up here?”
“How the hell should I know?”
Both their stunned gazes locked onto the rapidly approaching Baek Cheon.
“Oooooooooh!”
Meanwhile, the Red Dogs’ faces twisted into vicious snarls.
“…..You little whelp.”
Enemies had suddenly appeared behind them, rushing in to stab at their backs. But if something like this were enough to frighten them, the Red Dogs would never have gained such a fearsome reputation.
In truth, the feeling filling their heads now was not fear but annoyance – the irritation of realizing their arrival at their master’s side would be delayed longer than planned.
And the Red Dogs, ever honest with their emotions, saw no need to hold back their fury.
“Kill them!”
“Tear them to pieces!”
Vicious killing intent burst forth like an explosion. A few among them, particularly hot-tempered, couldn’t even muster the patience to wait until the insolent intruder arrived.
Pwaang!
Several Red Dogs, channeling energy into their blades, charged at Baek Cheon, unleashing savage screams and curses.
“Kaaaah!”
A Red Dog, his blade blazing with killing intent, swung to cleave the on-rushing Baek Cheon in half.
Paat!
Baek Cheon’s outstretched sword shook faintly.
Pararararararak!
With a sound akin to thousands of bees flapping their wings all at once, the faint trembling of the blade intensified. In an instant, hundreds – thousands – of plum-blossom petals burst into bloom before him.
‘What in the…?’
The Red Dog who had swung his blade downward widened his eyes to an impossible degree. He simply could not believe what he saw.
But before he could even savor his astonishment, the blossoms multiplied instantly, ultimately engulfing him completely.
“What the…”
All who witnessed this were too stunned to even close their mouths.
Paaaah!
The plum blossoms, swelling as if in an explosion, transformed into countless petals, sweeping through the entire space.
“Kuaaaaaaaagh!”
From the Red Dogs, shredded by thousands of petals, erupted screams so awful a sane mind could barely endure them. Passing effortlessly through their ranks, Baek Cheon leapt without hesitation into the midst of Red Dogs who had faltered instead of charging in.
“Y-You bastard!”
One flustered Red Dog slashed his blade wildly. In that instant Baek Cheon’s sword traced a graceful arc through the air.
Sssht!
The blade, swung with strength enough to split a mountain, veered onto a bizarre path the moment it met Baek Cheon’s sword and struck far from his body.
‘What?’
The Red Dog could not hide his shock.
Deflecting and redirecting a blade’s course with a sword is nothing special – but in that exchange he had felt nothing in his hand at all.
Had he not seen it himself, he would never have known his blade had sliced empty space. So natural was the motion that it seemed like sorcery rather than swordsmanship.
Slash!
Perhaps that was why, even when he saw the sword hurtling towards his own neck like a bolt of lightning, he felt futility before fear.
Kwadeuk!
The Red Dog, pierced through the throat, toppled backward, gasping desperately. Baek Cheon yanked out his sword horizontally, immediately lowering his stance as he spun around.
Baaaang!
Two blades slashed mercilessly through the spot where he had just stood.
Chwaaaak.
Baek Cheon extended his leg, shifting his center of gravity as if pushing the ground away. Anchoring himself by the tip of his foot, he twisted his body and unleashed a broad, sweeping strike.
A crimson sword energy erupted from his blade’s tip. Like a swirling vortex, the energy briefly condensed before scattering countless streams of plum blossom sword energy.
Paaaah.
Flowers bloomed along the path traced by Baek Cheon’s sword.
Faced with this mesmerizing spectacle, the charging Red Dogs hesitated for an instant. Needless to say, Baek Cheon didn’t miss this brief opening.
“Haaap!”
He kicked off the ground, dove straight into their midst, and once more petals erupted from the tip of his sword like an explosion.
“Ghk!”
But they were Red Dogs for a reason. No matter how formidable their enemy was, if they had been so easily overwhelmed by predictable tactics, they could never have earned the title of Jang Ilso’s loyal hounds.
Kagagagag!
The Red Dogs raised their blades, fending off the successive waves of plum blossom sword energy. Prepared for superficial wounds, they used the broad faces of their weapons to guard their vital spots with rigorous precision.
With bodies curled in defense, the Red Dogs clenched their teeth, enduring the endless barrage, waiting for Baek Cheon’s sword energy to cease.
The instant the flow stopped, they would pounce like wolves and sever his neck in a single stroke. Patiently enduring while waiting for that split-second opportunity was their specialty.
Kagagagang!
But contrary to their expectations, the barrage of sword energy showed no sign of ending. As the onslaught continued, their injuries multiplied with each passing moment.
‘W-When?’
They clenched their jaws even tighter. Blood began to seep from their eyes, opened wide from the pain they struggled to suppress.
Kagagagang! Slash! Slash! Slash!
The sound of sword energy striking blades and slicing through flesh echoed without end.
‘Just…one… Just one chance…!’
It would have been kinder had the sword energy offered them no hope at all. Yet, just when it seemed it must fade, it carried on without end – like a thin stream that narrows but never ceases to flow.
“Kraaaagh!”
Realizing that, at this rate, the blood loss from their limbs would surely lead to the imminent death, the Red Dogs could endure no longer. The moment they moved their blades away from their vital points, a wave of crimson sword energy surged right toward their throats.
“Wh…”
Kwadeudeudeuk!
“…damn…”
Thud. Thud.
The Red Dogs collapsed, crumpling like rotten straw bundles.
“Haaaap!”
Nearly ten Red Dogs instantly became mere wandering spirits. Riding the momentum, Baek Cheon pushed forward even faster.
“Uaaaargh!”
Driven by his unstoppable advance, the warriors behind him regained their fighting spirit, tightened their grips on their swords, and charged fiercely at the Red Dogs.
“Break through!”
Kwaaaang!
It was as though deafening blasts rolled nonstop across the field.
Led by Baek Cheon, the wedge-shaped formation bit into the Red Dogs’ wide flank at once. Lacking orders from Ho Gamyeong, the Red Dogs had not set a proper formation. They couldn’t properly reorganize and fell into disorder and panic.
The masked swordsmen of Diancang plunged into the Red Dogs’ lines without hesitation alongside Baek Cheon.
“You damned bastards!”
“We’ve been waiting for this moment! Uaaaargh!”
These were the foes who had oppressed them without end. None on this field felt hatred so fierce. It was only natural that they swung their swords like madmen, heedless of their own lives.
In an instant, the tide of battle shifted completely.
Jo Geol blinked.
“That…”
It was unmistakably Baek Cheon. However many times he looked, it was him.
But something was different. It was Baek Cheon, and yet not Baek Cheon he knew.
“How is he that strong? How on earth?”
He had cut down nearly ten Red Dogs in one breath. It was something Jo Geol couldn’t even imagine doing right now. Of course, Jo Geol himself was no longer someone who needed to fear Red Dogs, but even so, this was on another level entirely.
Just then, the words Jo Geol should have spoken came out of Yoon Jong’s mouth instead.
“More importantly – was ‘that’ the Plum Blossom Sword Technique?”
“My thoughts exactly!”
The two of them groaned almost in unison.
Right, where else in the world would you find a sword that scatters plum blossoms, other than Hwasan’s Plum Blossom Sword Technique? Of course it was the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
But it was clearly different from the Plum Blossom Sword Technique they’d always known. How to put it? It was as if someone had shaken up everything inside the grand framework of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique itself.
“…Is that even possible?”
He could grasp it, at least in his head.
Even though it was the same Plum Blossom Sword Technique, Yoon Jong’s version and Jo Geol’s were different. Not to mention Yu Iseol’s. No matter how many people learn the same thing, they can never all be identical. Every swordsman of Hwasan inevitably interprets the Plum Blossom Sword Technique differently.
But even so, transforming it to that extent should have been impossible.
“That… ridiculous guy has actually gone and…”
Jo Geol let out a hollow laugh. He had no idea how to describe this feeling.
He was overjoyed and delighted that Baek Cheon had returned. And yet, at the same time, something inside him was boiling. Was it competitive spirit, sparked by seeing Baek Cheon step into a realm he’d never even approached? Or perhaps, it was a bit more simple than that.
Some kind of burning emotion was heating him from within.
With a short sigh, Jo Geol spun around.
“Hey.”
The cultists, who had been frozen for a moment by Baek Cheon’s sudden display of power, narrowed their eyes and turned at Jo Geol’s call.
With the spine [칼등] of his sword, Jo Geol lightly tapped his own forehead.
“Well….. I probably look like some punk puffing up just because the elder brother showed up, which is kind of funny.”
He no longer cared about the pain radiating from the wounds carved all over his body. The moment he saw Baek Cheon with his own eyes, strength had begun to well up inside him again without a pause.
“Somehow… I feel like I understand things a little better now. So…”
Jo Geol pointed his sword forward and grinned. The mischief that had vanished from his eyes had already returned.
“Let’s go at it again.”
Crimson sword energy began to coil around Jo Geol’s blade.
________
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