"Kill them!"
The lead brute swung a baseball bat and the wood whistled as it tore through the air. Geon-woo inhaled sharply and pivoted his body on his back foot. The bat hissed past the bridge of his nose and missed by an inch.
Geon-woo snapped back like a spring. He threw a heavy right straight into the center of the man's face.
WHAM!
The man toppled backward without even making a sound. Beside him, Woo-jin snatched the arm of a charging thug. He used the man's momentum to slam him into the concrete and then kicked a fallen pipe into the air. He caught it mid-flight.
"You bastards picked the wrong day to mess with us!"
Woo-jin swung the steel pipe in a low arc. It snapped directly into the shin of a charging enforcer.
CRACK!
"Aaaagh!"
The man hit the concrete head-first. Woo-jin did not break his rhythm and thrust the tip of the pipe into a thug's chin. He danced on his toes and spun in a blur of motion. As another man tried to grab his shoulder, Woo-jin slammed a back-fist into the bridge of his nose.
CRUNCH!
"You little piece of—!"
Another man lunged with a knife in his hand. Woo-jin dipped his body deep to the left and raked the pipe across the man's exposed ribs.
WHACK!
The thug was sent rolling across the floor. Woo-jin exhaled a ragged breath and gripped the cold steel. Around him, four or five men lay groaning on the ground.
"Who else wants a piece? Step up!"
Joe stood in the center of the fray with both hands at his sides. He swayed back and forth in his stance. A steel pipe swung for his temple but he dipped his knees to let it sail over him. In the same heartbeat, he threw his right arm toward an incoming fist.
CRACK!
It was a cross counter. Joe met the attacker's force with his own and sent the man spinning before he hit the deck. Three steel pipes whistled toward his head at once.
Joe did not retreat. He lunged inward and turned his upper body into a fluid mass to slip through the gaps. The cold steel grazed his cheek.
SWISH!
Joe's left jab snapped out like a lightning strike. It buried itself under the chin of the closest thug.
THWACK!
It was a piercing punch that held all his weight. As the man's head snapped back, Joe drove a heavy body blow into the solar plexus of the next man.
CRUNCH!
"H-hurrk...!"
Two men hit the floor at the same time. But a third man slammed a heavy kick into Joe's back.
THUD!
Joe lurched forward and tasted blood in his mouth. Four men dived to pin his limbs while another swung a wooden club toward his skull. Joe's fingertips began to vibrate with a tremor and his vision flickered.
He sprang upward like a kangaroo and leaped over the hands reaching for him. Mid-air, Joe twisted his frame and raked his fist across the temple of the man with the club.
CRACK!
"Aaargh!"
Joe hit the ground and reset his stance. Five men charged at once. Joe dropped his hands and swayed his head just enough to let the flurry of fists whistle past. At the exact second their punches crossed, Joe's right arm whipped out.
BOOM!
The counter exploded on contact. The force sent two men spiraling into each other. Every time Joe's hooks and uppercuts connected, men fell like leaves. He had already taken down ten people.
"You monster..."
The remaining goons faltered because they were terrified. Joe wiped blood from his mouth and stared at them with cold eyes.
"Who is next?"
"Split them up! Separate them!"
One of the thugs shrieked the order. The pack began to wedge themselves between the three. Forced apart, the trio was swallowed by the sea of bodies.
Geon-woo's breath burned in his throat as he buried a liver blow into a ribcage. The thugs surrounding him tightened the noose with their wooden clubs.
"Snap his limbs! Make him a cripple!"
Four men lunged. Geon-woo lightened his step and pivoted to the left. He read the path of the incoming club and snapped his head back.
SWISH!
The moment the wood grazed his nose, Geon-woo's compact left hook buried itself into the first man's temple.
THWACK!
The man's body crumpled like paper. Geon-woo drove two body blows into the gut of the man charging from his right.
CRUNCH!
THUD!
The man could not even breathe to scream. Geon-woo twisted and channeled his weight into a right uppercut that caught the next attacker under the chin.
CLACK!
The man was lifted off his feet. Geon-woo's movements were clinical and stripped of all wasted effort. Eight more enforcers swarmed him at once. Backed against a pillar, Geon-woo tracked every movement through his high guard.
THUD!
CRACK!
Impacts hit his shoulders and forearms but Geon-woo did not blink. He waited for their rhythm to falter.
"Move!"
Geon-woo dropped his center of gravity and exploded forward. His fists tore through their lines and destroyed solar plexuses, jaws, and livers. In less than a minute, ten men lay writhing at his feet.
"You crazy monster..."
The remaining goons scrambled backward. Geon-woo exhaled a ragged breath and rolled up his sleeves. He was a hungry fighting dog in the center of the ring.
"Next. Who is it going to be?"
Joe lunged and snapped an uppercut that lifted a man off his feet while Woo-jin swung his pipe with pure grit. But the fallen men were like ghosts. They wiped blood from their faces and scrambled back up.
"What is with these guys? Are they on something?"
Woo-jin spat on the floor and gasped for air. Geon-woo's shoulders heaved with exhaustion. Facing thirty grown men was draining his tank. The thugs saw the opening.
"Now! Take his legs!"
One of the men on the floor snatched Geon-woo's ankle. As his balance broke, a rain of clubs and pipes poured down.
WHACK!
"Urgh!"
Geon-woo dropped to one knee and they swarmed him like hyenas. Three men pinned him down while the rest unleashed a barrage of kicks. A heavy boot hammered into his ribs.
THUD!
SMASH!
Geon-woo curled into a ball to protect his head. Just as one thug raised a wooden club for a killing blow—
WHOOSH!
CLANG!
A fire extinguisher slammed into the thug's temple.
"Hey! There is a limit to ganging up on someone!"
It was Woo-jin. He dived into the fray with a long steel pipe. He swung it in a massive arc that raked across the waists and throats of the men surrounding Geon-woo.
CRUNCH!
SNAP!
"Aaargh!"
The men pinning Geon-woo were sent flying. Woo-jin stood over Geon-woo and stomped his boot into the chest of a fallen attacker.
"Hey, Geon-woo! Wake up! If you pass out here, Juju is going to kill you!"
Woo-jin grabbed Geon-woo's shirt and hauled him up. Geon-woo spat out blood and steadied his legs.
"Phew... thanks, Hyung."
Woo-jin offered a predatory grin. His eyes were shimmering with a battle-hungry light.
"Don't thank me. Buy me some beef later. Now, round two starts now!"
Woo-jin dropped into his stance and pointed the pipe at their faces. Geon-woo tightened his fists. Back-to-back, they rebuilt their line of defense.
Watching from above, Kim Jun-min's eyes narrowed. He was locked on Geon-woo.
"That brat... the one from the cafe."
Seeing his men struggle made Jun-min's lip curl. He backed into the shadows and pulled out his phone.
"It is me. That woman who runs the cafe in the Seongeun Building. Get me her address. Now."