Chapter 67: To the Snowfield (12)
About a month ago.
Kwonmu-mun Guild Headquarters, Underground Training Ground.
Sa-hyeok had just finished sparring with Sam-gu.
After catching his breath, Sa-hyeok asked Sam-gu.
“Hyeong-nim.”
“Why.”
“What’s the weakness of Gakbeop (Leg Techniques)?”
“It’s weak against strong opponents.”
“Come on, seriously.”
“No, but why are you asking me? You should ask Master.”
“I asked him before and he gave me the same answer as you, Hyeong-nim.”
“Hmm……”
“And besides, you’re the best at using Gakbeop among us. So I thought you’d know the weaknesses well.”
“You’re saying that because you lost to me in sparring today, right?”
“Come on, seriously.”
Sam-gu thought for a moment and then gave his own answer.
“The weakness of a Gakbeop user is, after all, that humans only have two legs.”
“Huh?”
“Just listen. To strike an opponent with Gakbeop, at least one of your two legs has to be off the ground, right? Then how many legs are left on the ground?”
“One.”
“Right. So is it easier to support your body with one leg or two?”
“Two legs, of course.”
“That’s it. Gakbeop constantly forces its user onto one leg. That’s why it’s much more difficult to maintain balance compared to other martial arts.”
“So the difficulty of balancing itself is the weakness of Gakbeop.”
“And on top of that, the repercussions of losing balance are also greater than other martial arts.”
“Then…… to subdue a Gakbeop user, you just need to shake the ground they’re standing on.”
Hearing that, Sam-gu looked at Sa-hyeok with a dumbfounded expression.
Sa-hyeok said.
“What, why?”
“No, it’s just that you said something crazy so calmly.”
“But it’s the right answer.”
“Yeah, it’s the right answer, but…… is shaking the ground an easy thing to do?”
“That’s true.”
Thus, Sam-gu dismissed that day’s conversation as a silly joke.
……But Sa-hyeok didn’t think so.
══════════════════
Back to the present.
Sa-hyeok thought.
‘I broke the gauntlets.’
Now the only weapon left for the man was a pair of metal combat boots.
It was almost certain that he would now rely solely on Gakbeop for the fight.
Of course, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t use his bare hands for Kwonbeop (Fist Techniques), but the probability of that was low.
He wouldn’t want to lose his remaining hand after losing his gauntlets.
Limiting the opponent’s fighting style to Gakbeop.
This was Sa-hyeok’s primary goal, and it had worked perfectly.
……Although the breaking of the Mubuchamdo was unexpected.
‘I shouldn’t use the Mubuchamdo anymore.’
Thud!
The man lowered his hands and lowered his center of gravity even further with Jingak (Earth-Shaking Stomp).
It was a clear preparatory stance for Gakbeop.
Swoosh!
Sa-hyeok unfurled a single strand of metal bandage from each arm.
Like whips.
The man said.
“You’re pulling out another strange trick.”
“A divine technique when used by an ally and a wicked trick when used by an enemy? You guys are so predictable.”
“……”
Tap.
The sound of the man’s toes touching and pressing against the ground.
‘He’s coming.’
Just as Sa-hyeok predicted.
Whoosh!
The man leaped in again.
It was different from before.
An unpredictable, ever-changing trajectory.
If it were like before, he would have allowed the man to approach in an instant, but the situation had changed.
Before, Sa-hyeok also had to approach to some extent.
Because he had to break the gauntlets.
But now there was no need for that.
Now, there was only one thing Sa-hyeok had to do.
‘Escape.’
A systematically calculated escape.
Counterattack or retaliation were unnecessary.
Now all he had to do was keep his distance.
The unfurled metal bandages were for that purpose.
Whoosh!
Sa-hyeok swung the metal bandage in his right hand like a whip.
The whip swept across a wide area, drawing a long arc.
“It’s useless!!”
The man easily dodged the whip and closed the distance.
But Sa-hyeok still had one whip left in his left hand.
Swish!
The whip lashed out even more sharply.
But the man was still at ease.
‘What difference would it make if you swing it a little faster……’
Ping-
It made a difference.
Because the trajectory of the incoming whip suddenly changed.
‘What?!’
Boom!!
The whip left a long trail of destruction on the floor.
The man dodged the incoming whip by a hair’s breadth.
“What the……!”
But Sa-hyeok’s whip didn’t give the man a chance to be angry.
Because he started to lash out indiscriminately.
Swish!
Bang!
Crack!
Crash!!
The whip lashed out, striking everywhere.
But despite its ferocious appearance, the whip didn’t inflict any significant damage on the man.
After all, Sa-hyeok had never specifically practiced whipping.
But it didn’t matter.
Maintain distance from the opponent and keep luring him this way.
That was enough.
“You bastard……!”
Thud!
The man took a stance.
Sa-hyeok thought.
‘A new technique?’
Correct.
The man began to unleash a barrage of kicks towards the incoming whip using Gakbeop.
The counterattack had begun.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The metal combat boots and the metal whip clashed, creating a sharp, tearing sound.
It was Gakbeop that was practically acrobatic.
Speed that was hard to follow with the eyes. And accuracy that was hard to believe.
He had neutralized all of Sa-hyeok’s whip attacks with just kicks.
This meant that he had grasped Sa-hyeok’s whipping pattern in just a few seconds of confrontation.
His observation skills were terrifying.
Thus, the distance between the two decreased by the second.
Despite all his efforts to run away, the distance between them was now less than 5 meters.
‘This is it.’
Sa-hyeok retracted the metal bandages and wrapped them around his arms.
‘This is the end!’
The man changed his stance.
He intended to kill Sa-hyeok with the next blow.
‘Cheomsalkak (Piercing Killing Kick)!’
A kick that pierces as if to penetrate with the tip of the foot.
Its power was enough to easily pierce through rocks or steel plates.
But Sa-hyeok didn’t even try to dodge.
He didn’t raise his guard.
Swish-
He just raised his right fist.
The man was puzzled.
‘What’s he doing……?’
He looked at where Sa-hyeok’s right fist was aimed.
The man was dumbfounded.
Sa-hyeok’s fist was aimed at the ground.
‘Is that bastard…… trying to shake the ground?!’
For a Gakbeop user, shaking the ground was a significant threat.
But that was only if it could be shaken.
‘The thickness of this floor is almost 5 meters.’
No matter how hard he struck, it would only break at the point of impact!
……Thinking that, the man smirked.
The man kicked at Sa-hyeok.
One foot aimed at Sa-hyeok, and the other pushed off the ground strongly.
In that split second when he became one-legged.
Bang!
Sa-hyeok slammed his right fist into the ground.
At that moment, something unbelievable happened.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The floor collapsed, centered around where Sa-hyeok had struck.
“What……!”
The collapsing ground.
The man instantly lost his balance.
And he fell with the collapsing floor.
His decisive blow plummeted down with the crumbling floor.
‘How…… the thickness of the floor should be at least 5 meters……!’
At that moment.
Thud-
Sa-hyeok’s fist landed squarely on the man’s abdomen.
“Ugh……!”
An intense pain as if his bones and internal organs were being twisted at once.
The man felt his consciousness fading-
Splash!
He fell into the water below the floor.
══════════════════
Sunang (Water Sac).
A special organ possessed by this white giant tree.
A kind of water bag that stores water absorbed by the roots.
The Sunang is located throughout the inside of this tree, and one of them was located below the floor here.
Therefore, the thickness of the floor where the Sunang was located was only about 50cm.
It was thin enough that Sa-hyeok’s fist could easily break through.
Sa-hyeok knew that the floor at this point was particularly thin.
Because while he was detecting the ground with his telekinesis, only this point resonated differently.
Sa-hyeok wrote the scenario of the battle from there.
First, he destroyed the weapons on the man’s hands to induce him to use only Gakbeop.
Then he lured him to this point where the ground was thin, and at the timing when the man was about to use a Gakbeop technique, he collapsed the ground.
He drove the man into a state of complete loss of balance, and thus, complete incapacitation.
And a single decisive blow delivered at the timing of that incapacitation.
That one blow decided the match.
Splash!
The man fell into the water collected in the Sunang.
And Sa-hyeok……
Splash-
Stood on the surface of the water.
Instead of sinking into the water, he stood on the surface with both feet.
He was controlling the flow of the water beneath his feet with his telekinesis.
Bubble, bubble-
Bubbles rising to the surface.
The breath exhaled by the submerged man.
He had received a fatal blow to the center of his upper body, but the man’s eyes were still shining fiercely.
They were not the eyes of one who had accepted defeat.
“Why don’t you just give up.”
Splash-
The man forcibly suppressed the pain and began to swim towards the surface.
He had a tenacious spirit.
“Gasp!”
The man finally poked his head above the surface.
Of course, Sa-hyeok wouldn’t just stand by and watch.
Swoosh-
Sa-hyeok used his telekinesis to make a portion of the water rise above the surface, forming a lump.
And he used that lump of water to cover and crush the man’s head.
“Gurgle……!”
He had barely managed to surface.
The man was immediately pushed back underwater.
Every time the man tried to come up, Sa-hyeok would cover and crush him with water.
The man couldn’t breathe.
That alone rapidly drained the man’s stamina.
No matter how trained and strengthened his body was, there was no way he could withstand having his breathing cut off.
“Gulp……”
The man felt his consciousness fading.
Amidst his blurring vision, a single question became clear.
‘What is that guy……?’
He emits lightning, controls water, moves objects without touching them, and even uses martial arts.
‘How can such a thing exist……?’
At that moment.
Splash!
At that moment, the man felt his body being pulled out of the water.
Thud!
He also felt his body being thrown onto the ground.
The man looked through his blurry vision.
He saw Sa-hyeok’s face looking down at him.
‘Did he save me? Why……?’
A moment later, his question was answered.
Crack.
“Argh!!”
Sa-hyeok broke his left knee.
“Why…… why!!”
Crack!
Instead of answering, Sa-hyeok shattered his right knee as well.
Followed by his right arm, then his left arm.
Only after turning all four limbs into a mess did Sa-hyeok open his mouth.
“Why? Don’t you remember trying to kill me?”
“Ugh……!”
Sa-hyeok took a potion bottle from his waist.
“Now, it’s the same as before. Answer my questions and you’ll live, or you’ll die.”
“Ugh……!”
“First, you guys opened the portal and entered this dungeon, right?”
“……You already know, so why ask again……!”
So it’s true.
“Why?”
“Because we needed the blood of the dungeon boss.”
“Good, then what’s your affiliation?”
The question he was most curious about.
But the man completely shut his mouth at that question.
Sa-hyeok sighed and asked.
“I’ll cut off your ears one by one if you don’t answer within 3 seconds. One.”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, should I cut it off that way?”
Crack.
At that moment, the man pulled out a tooth from his mouth with his tongue.
A pre-planted implant.
With the extracted implant in his mouth, the man said.
“For peace.”
Those were the man’s last words.
Crunch!
The man crushed the implant by biting down on it.
Before Sa-hyeok could do anything.
Whoosh!
A white flame erupted from the broken implant.
The flame instantly burned the man’s face and even his bones.
Splash!
Sa-hyeok quickly scooped up water from the Sunang and poured it over him.
But the white flame didn’t go out and burned even more fiercely.
That wasn’t the end.
Whoosh!
Flare!!
The same white flames erupted from the corpses of the healer and the archer.
‘Destruction of evidence……!’
Sa-hyeok turned his eyes to the man’s corpse.
He had to salvage something before this flame burned everything away.
Crackle!
Sa-hyeok used his telekinesis to tear off the man’s clothes.
He tried to salvage the clothes, but they quickly burned and disappeared.
There was nothing Sa-hyeok could do.
The fact that he couldn’t control the fire with his telekinesis couldn’t have been more frustrating.
At that moment, when the hard-earned evidence was about to disappear before his eyes.
Sa-hyeok inadvertently looked at the man’s upper body.
He noticed a tattoo on the man’s chest.
A symbol that looked like the letters A and N combined.
The moment he saw that symbol, Sa-hyeok’s eyes wavered.
Because he knew which group’s logo it was.
“……Antenon?”
The world’s largest arms manufacturer and a multinational corporation with the world’s best dungeon-related technology.
And the very group that kidnapped Bang-ul-i and turned him into a Colonnio.
“Why are you guys here……?”
The situation had taken an unexpected turn.
