Chapter 38. Fierce Battle Aboard the Ship (3)
"Puh!"
As sword clashed against sword, a bursting sound rang out.
At the same time, Dong Bong-su's body, caught up in Go San-gong's technique, was flung far to the side.
From the impact, Dong Bong-su involuntarily spat blood from his mouth.
He had suffered internal injuries.
'If the level of Circulating Energy and Performing the Technique had been 1 instead of 2, then maybe…'
He might have died from that single sword strike.
'Stronger than expected.'
There was a difference in level between him and Go San-gong, but beyond that, there was a clear gap between someone formally trained in Murim swordsmanship and himself, who wielded the sword merely as a game skill.
Dong Bong-su opened the status window to check the damage. Even though he had successfully defended, his stamina gauge had dropped by nearly one-tenth. If he had taken it with his real body, it would have meant death.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stood back up. Though he had internal injuries, his expression remained unchanged.
Watching him, Go San-gong clenched his teeth and launched another attack. Believing that there might be more enemies besides Dong Bong-su, Go San-gong intended to finish the fight quickly.
From his hand unfolded the 2nd form of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art, Heavenly Wind Thunderclap.
Like wind striking down alongside lightning, Go San-gong's sword fell straight down from above.
Wooo—!
Since the Heavenly Wind Sword Art itself was a heavy sword style, the wind pressure when the blade cut through the air was tremendous. A sound like a club being violently swung through empty space rang out as the sword descended toward Dong Bong-su's head.
And yet.
Dong Bong-su neither tried to dodge nor block, simply staring blankly at the sight. Looking closely, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, as if he were smiling.
What was so amusing?
A man who showed no emotional fluctuations no matter what happened—what on earth was he smiling at in this moment of absolute peril?
In truth, Dong Bong-su was simply enjoying the situation.
Being wounded like this made him feel strangely good. Everything flowed exactly according to his calculations to the point of emptiness, and he was experiencing a peculiar pleasure he had never felt back on modern Earth, where killing had been too easy and monotonous.
Since coming here, there had been several such moments, and this was no exception.
He had thought he would win easily, yet unexpectedly he was struggling. No—one could even say he was being overwhelmingly pushed back.
That unforeseen result paradoxically filled him with extreme exhilaration.
Perhaps even hunting predators on modern Earth had been driven by a desire for such unpredictable situations. Unfortunately, all those predators had died without fulfilling his wish.
Maybe he could even die happily right here, right now.
But.
Not dying would be… much better.
Because.
In this 'New Murim Online,' there still seemed to be far more unpredictable events and monsters that could entertain him.
Pak—!
Just before Go San-gong's sword split Dong Bong-su's head in two!
Dong Bong-su pulled out a chunk of metal he usually kept in his inventory for emergencies and rolled sideways.
It was a technique-not-quite-a-technique commonly called Naryeotagon here—named after how a lazy donkey rolls madly on the ground.
Of course, Dong Bong-su absolutely did not agree with that name.
A lazy donkey does not strive so fiercely to survive. The name Naryeotagon itself was wrong. Would one abandon their life over something as trivial as shame? That was neither understandable nor necessary to Dong Bong-su.
If necessary, rolling on the ground a hundred or a thousand times was nothing.
Clang.
Go San-gong's sword cut into the suddenly appearing iron plate in midair and lodged itself straight into the deck.
"...!"
Go San-gong could not understand it.
Where had that iron plate suddenly come from? But he had no time to dwell on it. The moment Dong Bong-su finished rolling, he immediately counterattacked.
Swaeek.
With a sharp tearing sound through the air, Dong Bong-su's sword flew toward Go San-gong's side. The skill he used this time was also Straight Piercing the Yellow Dragon.
"Where do you think you're aiming!"
From Go San-gong's perspective, it was laughable.
He had been briefly flustered by the surprise attack earlier, but now he was fully prepared. And yet Straight Piercing the Yellow Dragon again?
Go San-gong pulled the sword embedded in the deck free and lifted it toward the direction of Dong Bong-su's blade. He believed he would easily knock the sword away once more.
But then!
Something strange happened.
At the exact moment when his sword should have collided with Dong Bong-su's.
Dong Bong-su's sword suddenly vanished. Because of that, Go San-gong's blade cut through empty air and swung upward above his head.
In that brief instant, a small opening appeared in his posture.
Swaeak—!
A sharp tearing sound.
The vanished sword of Dong Bong-su was flying back again.
"...!"
Spurt.
Go San-gong barely avoided the novice's sword by a hair's breadth. However, he failed to evade completely, and a long sword wound was carved across his face.
He could not understand what had just happened. A flying sword disappearing and then reappearing—wasn't that something ghosts would do?
But now was not the time to dwell on such things. Dong Bong-su's attack was not over yet.
Papat—!
Go San-gong hurriedly retreated backward.
Dong Bong-su immediately pressed forward and this time executed Sweeping the Thousand Armies, the first form of the Three Talents Sword Art.
[Three Talents Sword Art 1st Form Sweeping the Thousand Armies Lv.4
Proficiency: 33.0%]
A sword art extremely common in the martial world. Even ordinary people without internal energy can learn it.
Sweeping the Thousand Armies is an enhanced version of a horizontal slash.
All action bonuses of this skill are related to proficiency in related skills and whether sword energy / sword force is activated.
Current applied level: Lv.4 (The player can adjust this skill's level.)
Horizontal Slash range bonus: 4%
Horizontal Slash attack power bonus: 4%
Horizontal Slash casting speed bonus: -3%
True energy consumption per use: 60 JP
Like Straight Piercing the Yellow Dragon, Sweeping the Thousand Armies had also reached level 4.
Judging by its outward form, Sweeping the Thousand Armies looked very similar to Heavenly Wind, Flowing Clouds, the technique Go San-gong had used earlier.
This time, Dong Bong-su was attacking and Go San-gong had to defend—the situation was simply reversed.
Now Go San-gong raised his sword with its tip angled downward to block Dong Bong-su's blade. Or rather, he tried to.
Once again, Dong Bong-su's sword vanished at the very moment the blades were about to collide.
At the exact instant Go San-gong stood there dumbfounded, trying to bring his sword forward—
Swaaaak!
Dong Bong-su's sword reappeared. But now it was held in his left hand, not his right. His right hand had already passed Go San-gong's front, cutting through empty air, and the sword that had been in that right hand was now in the left.
The rotational force from the swing had been preserved intact, so the sword's power remained unchanged. Only the hand holding it had switched.
Once again, Go San-gong had no time to think and hastily raised his sword sideways to block the novice's blade.
"Keuk!"
Because it was an impromptu defense rather than one made in preparation, he failed to fully transmit his internal energy into the sword. As a result, Go San-gong was blown sideways just like Dong Bong-su had been earlier.
Pak.
Unlike Dong Bong-su, Go San-gong slammed hard into the side of the ship. He did not suffer internal injuries, but the psychological shock was immense.
'What kind of demonic art is this!? '
It was a sword art he had never heard of or seen before.
No—could this even be called a sword art?
He did not know.
Swaeek—.
The sound of air being torn rang out again as Dong Bong-su's assault continued.
Though he was barely managing to avoid the attacks, once Go San-gong grasped the irregular patterns of the unconventional strikes, he was able to block or evade them more easily than before. To deal with the unpredictable attacks, he switched tactics, maintaining as much distance as possible.
For a while after that, Go San-gong's Heavenly Wind Sword Art and Dong Bong-su's Three Talents Sword Art, supported by the Inventory Divine Art, collided repeatedly. At a glance, it was hard to determine who had the upper hand.
But in reality, Dong Bong-su was being driven into a corner.
'One minute left.'
[Circulating Energy and Performing the Technique Lv.2 Proficiency: 38.9%]
A training method that artificially guides the energy accumulated in the dantian through the meridians distributed throughout the body.
When activated, attack power and defense temporarily increase.
Duration / Cooldown: 5 / 10 (minutes)
True energy consumption per use: 200 JP
Current skill bonus: 60%
The duration of Circulating Energy and Performing the Technique was only five minutes, while its cooldown was ten.
Four minutes had already passed. In just one more minute, he would have to fight for five minutes without it.
Death.
Under the current circumstances, wasn't that word synonymous with being told to die?
'What should I do?'
Dong Bong-su was fighting using almost everything he had at his disposal. Even so, he could not suppress Go San-gong. There were one or two things left he could try, but there was a high chance they would not work either.
He had been conserving them while waiting for an opportunity, but now that Go San-gong had identified the weaknesses of the Inventory Divine Art, he repeatedly retreated instead of blocking and then launched counterattacks.
Did that mean this was the end?
Even while continuing the battle, Dong Bong-su's mind never rested for a moment. He analyzed the enemy's behavior patterns, predicted future attacks, and continuously thought about how to kill Go San-gong. Yet no easy solution came to mind.
Pak—!
Perhaps because his attention was divided, an opening appeared.
Seizing the chance, Go San-gong's sword slipped in and lightly grazed Dong Bong-su's arm. A stinging pain traveled through his central nervous system, making his body tingle slightly. At the same time, his stamina gauge dropped by a tiny amount.
'…The stamina gauge dropped? The stamina gauge… the stamina gauge…!'
Seeing the stamina gauge decrease slightly, a lightning-like thought flashed through Dong Bong-su's mind.
At last, a way to eliminate Go San-gong came to him.
'There's no time. I have to act immediately.'