026 — Backfire
In one’s lifetime, there are times when you come across unfamiliar landscapes that don’t match the location at all. Like wild boars roaming around in a pub, elephants rushing into cafes, or a man riding a horse galloping on a highway. Or a charming woman in a white dress flying through a dark forest, breaking thin branches without any consideration for her surroundings.
“Kuhuk!”
In such a situation totally strange with the deep woods, Soo-jeong flew away in a way that did not match the image of a forest. It was only when she collided with a massive tree, a tree that her delicate build could never break, that she managed to exhale the blocked breath with great difficulty. The force that sent her flying had caused an incredible impact, one so strong that she wouldn’t have been able to scream even if she tried.
Amidst the intense pain that felt more like internal rupture than just agony, Soo-jeong vomited the contents of her stomach onto the rotten leaves beneath her, feeling a strong nausea.
Upon witnessing this sight, Ho Chang shouted in anger and charged at the assailant with furious screams.
“You bastard!!”
Although Ho Chang’s gaze was filled with rage as if he had lost his sanity due to his failure to protect, his movements were remarkably swift and precise. His training in the self-defense technique, engrained through countless repetitions, allowed him to maintain precision and control even in a state of chaos.
However, when seen from an outsider’s perspective, Ho Chang’s attack composed of ‘lightning-like’ movements was futile against the assailant’s defenses, much like an adult lightly blocking a kindergarten student’s full-force punch. Despite the fact that his attack, given with all his strength, was futilely blocked, a small smile graced the corner of Ho Chang’s mouth.
‘Good.’His first attack had been a sort of ‘bait,’ expecting the opponent to defend. The moment the assailant grabbed Ho Chang’s fist, Ho Chang’s waist twisted strangely. Then, the leg hidden behind the massive build shot toward the assailant’s solar plexus. When the assailant managed to evade the unexpected second attack, a dazzling series of strikes from Ho Chang followed.
Ribs, solar plexus, forehead, groin, eyes, philtrum, chin, Adam’s apple…
Ho Chang’s movements, designed for successive strikes on numerous pressure points of the human body, weren’t just a sequence of one single martial art. They consisted of various movements that emerged in every situation, considering his stance and his opponent’s stance.
Sometimes like Krav Maga, sometimes like Capoeira, the flashy and unpredictable movements displayed a dazzling choreography of strikes.
However, despite the multitude of attacks, Ho Chang’s efforts ended in vain as he failed to land even a single effective blow, hitting the air fruitlessly.
Awaiting the end of his final sequence of moves was a powerful kick, even stronger than the kick he had used earlier to throw Soo-jeong away.
– Pweeaaaak!! –
The sound that spread outside was like the noise of tapping a pocket with a bat, yet Ho Chang could hear the bone-crushing sound resonate throughout his body the moment the assailant’s foot made contact with his abdomen.
It was a devastating kick that penetrated even Ho Chang’s well-trained abdominal muscles.
Eventually, Ho Chang was sent flying backward, making a sound louder than before, and he crashed into a massive oak tree. As he crashed, he finally realized that the kick had much more force behind it than Soo-jeong’s earlier attack.
Then, the assailant approached him, holding a three-sectional staff and trembling in fear.
At that moment, the intruder turned towards the trembling Byung-tae, who was holding a three-section staff by his side, and asked,
“Are you going to fight back?”
“Will you spare my life if I don’t?”
“That’s not gonna happen. Orders from above are to eliminate all witnesses. But who knows, if you get on your knees and beg for mercy, maybe I’ll spare your life out of pity.”
“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!”
Ho Chang was the strongest person that Byung-tae, his attacker, knew of. He was so powerful that he could easily play with a so-called “gang leader.”
Someone who could effortlessly suppress Ho Chang to such an extent was beyond Byung-tae’s capabilities, which were only good for driving, as he believed it was impossible to overpower Ho Chang with his own skills. But unlike that logic, Byung-tae’s instincts were commanding him to protect himself without submitting to the opponent’s strength.
“To hell with you…”
“What?”
“To hell with you, you bastard. What? You want me to beg? You think Park Byung-tae, the ruler of the world, would kneel before trash like you?”
“Isn’t the person I just threw away is your senior? Just looking at your build, you probably aren’t stronger than that guy. Are you trying to take me on? Do you want to die?”
‘It’s simple. Do you want to die? Will you give up your life? I’ll smash you.’
Though Byung-tae had heard countless threats throughout his life, he had never experienced a threat with such a deep sense of menace, like the one he was hearing now. It was because this threat emanated a sense of intention unlike any he had heard before. It was different from the casual threats of thugs he had encountered, an authentic psychopath’s manner of speaking that had no reservations about murder.
For someone with a weak heart, just hearing it could make their legs go weak from fear, but Byung-tae tightly gripped the three-sectional staff in his hand. He forcibly moved his aching leg and charged towards the opponent.
“Dieeee!!!”
Unlike Ho Chang’s powerful strike, which felt like watching a scene from a martial arts movie, Byung-tae’s attack looked like a clumsy rush, almost like an amateur trying to attack.
The assailant, seeing this, let out a deep sigh and then kicked his leg again.
And the result was…
– Pweeaaaak!! –
Similar to Ho Chang, Byung-tae was sent flying, his body crashing into a tree dozens of meters away.
“Uweeeek!”
As Byung-tae vomited like Soo-jeong had earlier, Ho Chang struggled to regain his footing. He blocked Soo-jeong’s view and wiped the blood flowing from his mouth.
“F… f… fucking…”
“Miss, can you stand up?”
“Kuh… cough…”
“Don’t focus on the pain. Open your mouth wide and take a deep breath to inhale oxygen.”
“Huuuh… cough! Cough!”
“Can you move?”
“A little… I think…”
“Good. Then run away while I restrain that guy.”
“What?!”
“If we keep this up, all three of us will die. Didn’t you say your boyfriend would come to rescue us? I’m not sure how strong this so-called boyfriend is to make you believe he can defeat that guy, but there must be a reason you brought us here. When I look at it, that guy’s strength isn’t human. No matter how much humans train, they can’t reach that level of strength. He definitely has some inexplicable power. And your boyfriend probably has that power too, or something similar.”
“To be precise, he came here to gain that power, but it’s similar.”
“Then let’s be afraid of that. While I buy time, find your boyfriend and come back.”
“Are you sure?!”
“I should be fine. My real strength lies in defense, not attack.”
Ho Chang took a deep breath and assumed a unique stance, expelling all his strength.
“A unique stance.”
Seeing this, the assailant commented to Ho Chang.
“It must be a technique you’re seeing for the first time.”
“You think you can stop me with that?”
“I can probably buy some time with it.”
Then, Ho Chang shouted toward Soo-jeong, who was hesitating behind him.
“Go!”
Soo-jeong forcefully nodded and wiped her mouth before starting to run deeper into the forest.
‘Please survive.’
Ho Chang muttered those last words left by her and smiled faintly. Then, he yelled at the assailant charging at him.
“Come on! You bastard! You’ll have to trample over my corpse to get past me!”
*********
How much time had passed?
Ho Chang barely regained his senses as the impact of the hard shoe sole hitting his head woke him up. He then internally cursed as he felt the thick sensation of liquid on his face.
‘Monster bastard.’
Even if he had fought against a UFC champion, he wouldn’t have been pushed back in such a futile manner. The ‘technique’ he used against the assailant allowed him an absolute advantage in defense against any attack.
“A worthless guy like you is making a regular person fight seriously.”
“This… Regular person? It’s as if you’re talking as if you’re not a normal human.”
“Oh? You’re still alive? Well… that’s impressive. Impressive… If you took that kind of hit, your nose would’ve broken.”
“Get your foot off my head.”
Surprisingly, the opponent obediently removed the foot that was on Ho Chang’s head.
Then he stepped back and waited for Ho Chang to get up.
“To be capable of finishing it yet you choose keeping me alive, does that leisure come from the absolute strength?”
“Leisure… no. It’s not that. I just wanted you to experience the feeling of absolute despair, as your previous self wasn’t completely broken. Honestly, if I were an ordinary person like you, I wouldn’t have stood a chance against you. The me before awakening was much weaker than you are now. However, as someone who once pursued strength and still pursues it, I wanted to show my respect to you for becoming strong enough at the level of an ordinary person to reach this point.”
The opponent’s words were really something. Even though he didn’t reveal his full power, it was absurd for an ordinary person to block an Awakener’s attacks. Fundamentally, in terms of combat abilities, Awakener not only acquire special abilities but also greatly enhance their basic physical capabilities.
They can easily dodge bullets with their speed and crush iron pipes with bare hands with their strength. Ho Chang dealt with an awakener’s attacks purely through ‘technical superiority’. He struck at the joints, which were the key to attacking vital spots, altering the trajectory of punches.
Though there were many martial arts that included a similar technique in their moves, the martial art Ho Chang used was his unique secret art that combined only the strengths of those techniques. Thanks to this technique, he could easily avoid the opponent’s attacks initially. However, as soon as the opponent started attacking with full seriousness, Ho Chang’s defense became powerless.
It was impossible for a human to change the trajectory of a bullet with their bare hands, no matter how strong they were. Ho Chang endured a series of continuous blows that defied the impact of rubber bullets propelled by gunpowder, doing his best to parry the attacks to prevent them from hitting his vital spots.
He received attacks on his thick thigh muscles to endure hits, like attacks on the solar plexus absorbed by trained shoulder muscles.
However, the assailant’s attacks had a level of force that exceeded the limit his trained muscles could absorb, so this method of defense quickly reached its limit.
‘I won’t be able to lift my arms for two months.’
Looking at his arms that had turned black from bruises, Ho Chang murmured to himself.
‘Even if the reward was 1 billion, I shouldn’t have taken this commission.’
However, thinking about how if he hadn’t bought time, it would be Soo-jeong, a slender girl who seemed to lack a single strand of muscle throughout her body, lying there in his place, he realized that collapsing like this in her stead wasn’t an entirely foolish decision. None of these people having any intention of sparing the lives three of them. This method was the most likely one to increase their survival chances.
One in a thousand, no, one in a million, if the words of that girl, possessing a unknown power, are true, then her boyfriend’s return might be able to save everyone’s lives. Ho Chang was in a state of putting everything on that low probability, like a scene from a comic.
“Uh… Are you okay, hyung?”
At that moment, as soon as the battle began, Byung-tae, who had rushed the assailant with a scream and then collapsed after just one blow, spoke in a soft voice.
“I’m not dead. And you should call me ‘boss.'”
“Wow, you’re still alive even after taking those hits?”
“Did you pretend to be unconscious even when you saw the boss get hit?”
“I’ve been saying it since the first day I started working here. I can only drive.”
“I didn’t expect anything from you in the first place. Then keep pretending to be dead. Why are you getting up?”
“What else can I do, asshole? They won’t spare us even if I pretend, and since the boss looks like about to die.”
Seeing Byung-tae gradually getting up, Ho Chang said with a smirk, “Just stay down.”
“I can’t do that. To be honest, if you were about to die from half of the blows, you’d have pretended to be unconscious and lying down, but since you’re not, and not just pretending, it would be troublesome if you actually died.”
“Are you unexpectedly showing loyalty? Don’t come forward, just lie down!”
“I’ve been loyal from the start. I’m just not capable of fighting.”
Saying that, Byung-tae blocked Ho Chang’s path and spoke to the assailant.
“Tag out. I’m next.”
Hearing their conversation up to now, the assailant expressed disbelief and said with a strange tone, “You are really going to die.”
“Anyway, after killing my hyung, weren’t you planning to kill me too? Since I’ll eventually be killed, I am trying to die with dignity while maintaining my pride.”
The attacker assumed a clumsy stance and snapped his fingers while looking at the nervous Byung-tae, purposely cracking his knuckles to make a crunching sound. Then, in a voice oozing with a menacing vibe, he spoke.
“Ah, is that so? If that’s your wish, then why don’t I start by killing you.”
As the shadow of death slowly approached him, Byung-tae forced himself to calm down, his trembling legs steadying under his desperate effort. Perhaps it was to preserve his last shred of dignity in this moment that might become his final one.
And at that moment, suddenly, something occurred to the attacker, and he opened his mouth.
“Oh! Before that, I want to tell you one thing, since you’re about to die anyway.”
“What is it?”
“The girl you believed escaped first. It’s better not to pin your hopes on her. You might not have noticed it, but among the pursuers who came after you, there was one with the ability to completely deceive human sight, a stealth specialist. By now, that comrade might have dismembered the escaping girl’s body. So don’t cling to any illusions and just die. The chances of you surviving here are close to zero.”
After delivering his words, the attacker spread his legs and extended his palm, performing a unique gesture.
It was the very technique that had turned Ho Chang, who had adeptly defended against most attacks moments ago, into a mere mass of flesh in an instant – the gesture of that technique.
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