Ranking Duel(4)

There isn’t really anything that could be called martial arts in the goblin clan’s fighting using the body.

Unlike humans’ formalized and specialized martial arts like boxing, karate, taekwondo, etc., there is no such set framework, so to speak.

A goblin’s fight is just crude and intense.

Goblin fighting was about overwhelming the opponent with superior strength and breaking through all attacks with even more powerful attacks.

‘But what I’m going to show isn’t just this.’

However, because the goblin’s fighting style had no such framework, what I told Neon to watch and learn well wasn’t this aspect.

What I told Neon to watch and learn was my movements.

‘There’s nothing better than this to liberate that still stiff and simple body.’

Although goblins may not have ‘martial arts (武術)’, at least there existed a ‘method (方式)’ of using this overflowing power extremely efficiently.

What I was going to show and teach Neon was this method.

However, even though it’s expressed as a method, it wasn’t a formalized movement like martial arts, but an infinitely free movement.

This method was just starting with a posture suitable for each individual and flowing freely along a path with only moderately flexible frameworks set.

Some people called this.

It was the goblin clan’s movement called Gwiheng (鬼行).

---

Clang—!!

Se-young’s sword that was swung down is helplessly deflected.

If it were once, it could be called a coincidence, but consecutive sword strikes are also deflected in vain just the same.

And in such a situation, Se-young, who was swinging her dual swords with a desperate feeling, bit her lip so hard that blood seeped out.

‘Why won’t it hit…! Why on earth!!!’

She had long since realized that there was a difference in skill between Shin-yeon and herself just from the very first punch.

Even if Se-young was a thoughtless fool, she wasn’t so stupid that she couldn’t measure the strength of an opponent she had fought directly.

But no matter how much difference in skill there was, this was strange.

Shin-yeon lightly flicking her wrist to strike the blade surface, deflecting the sword that Se-young swung with all her might.

‘What kind of nonsense is this…!’

Although Se-young’s skill was far from S-rank, she could at least be certain that this was a technique that even an S-rank couldn’t do.

It was a sword strike swung with all the might of herself, the former A-rank 1st.

It was a sword strike so fast that even considerable monsters would be cut without being able to react, yet not only did she accurately strike the blade surface not even 10cm long, but she also exerted more than Se-young’s full power just by flicking her wrist.

“Hmm……”

“You… fucking bitch…!”

Moreover, Shin-yeon, who was blocking her swords, was glancing elsewhere without even counterattacking.

What trampled Se-young’s pride most miserably was none other than that fact.

Therefore, Se-young swung her swords while forcibly pushing down the feeling that she was about to fall into an abyss, but just like until now, they bounced off meaninglessly without even making a small scratch on Shin-yeon’s skin.

“Fuck… Fuck, how on earth…!”

It clearly looks like she’s just moving normally, but how could such a result happen?

Se-young chewed over curses involuntarily at the unbelievable sight even though she was seeing it clearly with her own eyes.

Just when it seems the sword will touch, her posture changes like a ghost, and the sword repels violently as if brought against a huge waterfall.

However, when you look at the movement slowly, it’s just extending her hand moderately quickly, moving her feet, and thrusting out her legs.

It was a bizarre movement that could be described as something even ghosts would weep at, without exaggeration.

“……I wonder if she’s grasped the feel by now.”

“What?”

“It’s nothing important, so you can ignore it.”

And after about 3 minutes of just defending like that.

Shin-yeon suddenly muttered incomprehensible words and focused her gaze on Se-young, which had been glancing around.

Then Shin-yeon’s aura changed clearly from just now.

Unlike just now when she didn’t pay any attention to Se-young herself, this time it felt like she was constricting her whole body with just her gaze.

“Kugh…!”

Naturally, her body started to stiffen at that aura that felt even physically.

At that, Se-young swung her sword again, filled with mana, trying to attack while she could still move somewhat smoothly, but…

Kaaang—!!!

“Fuck…!”

Seeing her own sword blade shatter and fly up, Se-young swallowed a curse for who knows how many times.

In fact, from the moment Shin-yeon’s aura changed… no, even before that. She had guessed she wouldn’t be able to win from the moment she was hit by the first punch.

However, after seeing her dual swords get hit by a fist and break, only then did Se-young admit it.

That she really couldn’t beat Shin-yeon.

But as she admitted it, a sticky emotion rose up, tearing at her chest.

Seeing the fists that started flying in next, all Se-young could do was inwardly promise ‘revenge in the future’.

After all, having failed here, she had nowhere to retreat as she would be kicked out as an exclusive hunter.

Shin-yeon’s fist approached right in front of Se-young’s nose in a moment shorter than blinking.

Kwaaang—!!!

What Se-young heard next was the roaring sound of the wall breaking and the sensation of her own body collapsing.

Feeling that intense pain in this belated acknowledgment.

Se-young slowly let go of her consciousness.

---

Kwaaang—!!!

Shin-yeon, who had been blocking Se-young’s attacks with simple and ordinary but seemingly flashy movements.

And when she switched to offense, the outcome of the duel was decided with just this one exchange.

To be precise, since one attack was used to break the dual swords, it would be correct to say it was decided with just one exchange.

Anyway, as a result, Se-young was hit by a fist containing incomparably more powerful strength than the first time and flew into the wall.

Seeing that, Arashi, who had been watching, clapped her hands and burst into laughter.

“Ufufufu! It was a fight without much to it, but it was still an interesting fight. To create such a pleasurable duel to watch despite the one-sided difference in skill. As expected of Shin-yeon.”

“It certainly was a fight with much to see. I’m glad the Ancestor is satisfied.”

Seo-hyun nodded her head while agreeing with Arashi’s words.

However, Seo-hyun was making quite serious eyes as if she really had several things she felt from watching this duel, not just going along with Arashi’s mood.

“I have some business to attend to, so I’ll be going for a moment.”

And Yeon-ah, who had been quietly listening to Arashi and Seo-hyun’s conversation, stood up saying she had some business to take care of for a moment, and Neon waved her hand once to Yeon-ah before turning her gaze back to the duel ground.

What she saw then was Se-young, who had recovered all her body’s wounds with ghoul power but lost consciousness and was being carried out on a stretcher, and Shin-yeon watching that.

Certainly, as Shin-yeon had said before the duel started, Neon was able to learn something from the duel she showed.

“……It was quite interesting.”

Although Arashi, Seo-hyun, and Yeon-ah didn’t seem to perceive it properly, Neon, who had a goblin’s body, could see.

How Shin-yeon’s body was moving.

What she had told her to watch and learn.

The efficient use of goblin power.

Shin-yeon had shown Neon herself one by one in practice the path for this.

Memories that seemed vividly imprinted on her body even as she recalled them one by one again.

At those memories, Neon clenched and unclenched her fist a few times and then lightly shook her hand.

“I should try using it sometime later.”

Since Shin-yeon taught something like that, somehow her body was itching and she couldn’t stand it.

Anyway, since Shin-yeon had plenty of time to spare, Neon thought she should ask her for a sparring match later as she looked down at Shin-yeon, and after keeping her gaze like that for a while.

“……Ah, right!”

Neon suddenly stood up from her seat, clapping her hands at the memory that came to mind.

“Hm? Is something wrong?”

“Ah… I just remembered something I had forgotten. I’ll go to the flagship for a moment.”

When Seo-hyun turned her head and asked like that at Neon’s sudden action, Neon gave a simple answer and quickly left the room.

She just now remembered that she had left behind the item Yeon-ah told her to bring in the flagship.

Makgeolli, was it? The item Yeon-ah had put in the refrigerator in the flagship and told her to make sure to bring.

Neon had completely forgotten about it and left it behind.

Therefore, before Yeon-ah returned, Neon left the room and started running down the corridor to quickly retrieve the item she had left in the flagship.

Sniff sniff—

“……Huh?”

While running down the corridor, Neon tilted her head looking at the gap stairway in the corridor at the familiar perfume scent that passed by her nose.

“Where on earth did she go?”

Where Yeon-ah’s perfume scent continued was none other than the lower floor of the gap stairway.

The gap stairway was a staircase connected to the corridor leading to the duel ground, so Neon couldn’t help but wonder at Yeon-ah’s perfume scent leading there.

But only for a moment, Neon hurried her stopped steps again, recalling a reason she could understand if it was Yeon-ah.

“Well, she probably went to meet Shin-yeon.”

If it’s Yeon-ah, she’s the Ancestor’s devotee known to everyone in the General Management Team, isn’t she?

Shin-yeon had just finished the duel, so she must have gone to her, Neon thought indifferently and started running again, and because of that, Neon didn’t know.

The fact that Yeon-ah and Shin-yeon had not met until Shin-yeon came out of the duel ground and returned to the VIP room.

And the fact that there’s no way Yeon-ah would forget something related to Shin-yeon.