Chapter 10
M-Mr. Boss.
Win! Win and save us!
With Kim Yang and Lenia cheering me on, I faced Geum Taemin.
Even in a standoff, Geum Taemin was relaxed.
“I’ll let you go first. No point in you grinding your teeth and barely scraping out a win now, only to be embarrassed, right?”
“That would be nice.”
I wasn’t about to refuse just because he was trying to save face.
Geum Taemin spread both arms wide, ready to take me on.
The moment that sly smile lifted his lips, I immediately raised my leg and kicked between his legs.
Paaak!
“......!”
My ace-in-the-hole groin kick.
I had put everything I had into that blow—
“Y-you son of a bitch-!”
He blocked it by clamping both knees shut in the middle, in a grotesque way.
W-wow.
I thought this was a knife fight!
If you can land a blow, the basics say you hit the surest weak point.
I was just sticking to the basics.
Not only Kim Yang and Lenia, but the other thugs looked flustered too.
Meanwhile, Geum Taemin kept glaring at me in that same pose.
What kind of move is that?!
I never thought you’d block it...
You said knife fighting!
Does knife fighting mean you only fight with knives? It includes hand-to-hand too.
At my words, Geum Taemin pushed his face forward as if he wanted to argue, but he couldn’t say anything.
I wasn’t wrong.
You dirty bastard. You said you’d let me go first, and then blocked it right away?
Shut up.
The knife swung with the resolve not to be toyed with anymore.
Geum Taemin was definitely different from five years ago.
Fast. Precise.
But because he was a hunter who relied on gravity manipulation, his hand-to-hand fighting hadn’t improved all that much in five years.
The dagger, held in a reverse grip, came straight for my throat.
There is nothing dumber in knife fighting than blocking a dagger with a dagger.
A dagger is a weapon with a short reach, so its attack points are clearly limited.
I knocked away his wrist with my fist and slashed forward with the dagger in my hand.
Smoothly switching between offense and defense is basic knife-fighting technique.
Clang!
But he, too, easily knocked my wrist aside with his other hand.
A sharp pain ran through the blood vessels in my wrist.
Before long, we were trading blows back and forth like two armies fighting over a piece of territory.
O-oh. B-boss! H-hang in there!
Hang in there! Crush that bastard good and proper! Honestly, he looks so damn annoying!
Their cheering didn’t seem to give me much strength.
Tch!
A groan slipped through Geum Taemin’s tightly clenched teeth. He’d wanted to win without using his gravity-manipulation ability.
Actually fighting it out and finding they’re evenly matched must feel disgusting.
Especially since he’d spent five years grinding and clawing his way to that position.
And yet here I was, someone whose combat instincts had dulled from running a matchmaking agency, in a similar state.
His pride was already crumbling in real time.
Boss! Hang in there!
You can do it!
Because Kim Yang and Lenia were cheering, the thugs must have felt like they couldn’t just stand there, so they started cheering too.
It was pretty funny watching a bunch of big guys clench their fists and chant like idol fans.
Shut up, you son of a bitch!
......
......
What kind of cheering is that when we’re fighting this bastard!
Even that was a blow to Geum Taemin’s pride.
The thugs fell silent.
And Kim Yang and Lenia, beside them, started cheering even more fiercely.
F-fighting! Fighting! B-boss! Hang in there! Win!
Win! Win! If you come back, I’ll give you a kiss!
Gah!
For a moment, my legs wobbled, and his knife almost nicked my shoulder.
A bright smile spread across Geum Taemin’s lips as he saw the opening.
Why is that bastard staggering just because I said I’d kiss him?! Hey, blond bastard! Get out here! I’ll fight him!
Calm down, Grandma!
Kim Yang hugged Lenia from behind and held her back when she tried to rush me.
Even in that situation, our fight was nearing its end.
This is what it comes down to. Over five years, you got rusty, and I grew.
Clang-!
Our knives collided.
In the end, my grip couldn’t hold out, and I dropped my knife.
Spinning!
The knife dropped to the floor and spun like a top. Geum Taemin grinned viciously and, with easy confidence, drove his dagger toward my throat.
Die, you bastard.
When you’re knife fighting.
Blocking a dagger with a dagger is stupid.
Because switching between offense and defense is hard.
Squelch!
The dagger pierced my shoulder.
It should have been my throat, but I deliberately thrust my body forward to make the point reach me faster.
With the dagger diverting his attention now.
I swung my fist right away.
You bastard, all this time-!
I didn’t give him time to talk.
First, the temple.
Smack!
The hook punch landed squarely on his temple.
The guy frowned, startled by the force he hadn’t expected.
Kuhk!?
A strangled groan.
This time I struck the point of his chin, and he staggered back.
Upper lip, ear, under the cheekbone, between the brows.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
He tried to hunch up and defend himself like a turtle against the relentless assault, but—
I immediately grabbed his hair and yanked him up so he couldn’t duck.
Upper lip.
Smack!
Aaaagh!
A death scream burst out.
The nosebleed streaming down and his hideous face looked ready to admit defeat at any moment, but...
When he waved his hand, the pressure crushing my entire body forced me to my knees.
Fuuuuuck!
Thud!
A cry full of humiliation and hatred rang out in front of my kneeling form. The hands he used to wipe away the blood were trembling violently—not from fear, but as proof of rage he couldn’t contain.
You bastard! You! How dare you-! Me!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
His fists and kicks rained down on me as I knelt there. Because of gravity manipulation, even as I took the hits, my body couldn’t be pushed back or knocked down.
I could only endure the blows silently, like a stone statue.
Kyaaah!
Don’t do that! What do you think you’re doing!
Kim Yang and Lenia tried to rush over in a panic, but the thugs blocked them.
Move! Move, I said! Boss! Are you okay?! Run!
E-eek! Do you know who I am! I’m Lenia Barlosa Decklen Fiola—well, anyway, the elf queen!
A tearful voice came from behind me.
In the meantime, Geum Taemin seemed to have barely gotten his emotions under control, because he took a breath.
Haa, haa... You bastard. So this is how it ends after all. Knife fighting? Screw that. The one who survives is the winner, isn’t he?
He picked up the knife he had dropped.
Still crouched down, he tapped my cheek with the knife.
Phew. Life is really twisted, isn’t it, Juseon? Because you always came out on top, you got singled out by Yuye-na, the Association president’s daughter, and couldn’t even get your hunter license issued.
......
Because you were too sharp, you found out things you weren’t supposed to know, and that’s why your life is getting taken away like this too.
Geum Taemin shook his head with a sneer.
Didn’t they say geniuses die young? Fuck, you’re exactly that, aren’t you?
......
Look at you, keeping your mouth shut just to protect your pride. Fine, die with honor. I’ll survive in disgrace and enjoy everything there is to enjoy.
He held the knife in a reverse grip and raised it.
Goodbye, top student.
The instant he brought it down toward my brow.
In the split second it took for the liquor bottle to hit the floor amid Lenia’s rampage.
Squelch!
The knife tore through flesh, and blood gushed out.
But it wasn’t Geum Taemin’s knife. It was the folding knife I always carried for self-defense, stuck in Taemin’s chest.
Tap.
The cold blade against my brow could no longer come any farther.
H-how?
Fear settled over Geum Taemin’s face as he staggered back, eyes wide.
A look of utter disbelief.
D-don’t bullshit me! Don’t bullshit me, I said! What was that just now?! What are you? You were an acceleration-type ability user?
Thud!
My legs definitely felt heavy as I stood up.
Ugh, gravity manipulation uses a lot of stamina, so usually I only use the minimum force needed to restrain someone. That makes it easy to fool people if I pretend to be pinned a few times.
If I’d used gravity at full power, he wouldn’t have been able to move, but until now—
Geum Taemin had pinned me down with gravity, and he must have figured out how much force it took.
And that was his mistake.
As I rolled my stiff shoulder, Geum Taemin shouted in frustration.
Shut up and answer me! Were you an acceleration-type ability user? You hid that, all this time?!
......Ah.
I wondered what he was talking about, since I had never hidden it.
Then I realized why he hadn’t known.
You never used it when you sparred with me.
Geum Taemin looked up at me in bafflement, and I clenched my fist.
Ha, haha... You beat me without even using your ability?
Now was the chance, while his injuries kept him from focusing.
Gravity manipulation is annoying, so I needed to make sure he was firmly subdued.
If you get up, it’ll be the holding cell.
Even if you get out of here... even if you kill me. It’s already over. Baekdu Pharmaceuticals will never let you live.
I’ll take care of that myself.
Hahaha. You son of a bitch.
Bang!
The accelerated punch hit him dead-on, and Geum Taemin collapsed unconscious.
Leaving the limp bastard behind, I turned my head—and surprisingly, Kim Yang and Lenia had already subdued the thugs.
......What? How did you do that?
B-boss! Boss!
Kim Yang threw herself at me and wrapped her arms around my waist. I could feel faint dampness on my chest.
Looks like she was crying because it scared her more than I thought.
While I was patting her back, Lenia puffed herself up and said,
Ahem. This queen is still the elf queen, after all. I have one or two hidden trump cards.
......What did you do?
At my question, Kim Yang answered.
I-I kicked him in the balls.
......
B-boss taught me.
Thank goodness.
More importantly, what are we supposed to do now? I know Baekdu Pharmaceuticals! It’s a huge company! Meracle is smaller than a Baekdu booger!
That’s fucking humiliating.
And the fact that it’s not wrong makes it even more humiliating.
Can’t be helped.
Haa, guess I’ll have to take them on in the same weight class.
I took out my phone.
I hadn’t thought I’d be calling this number again, but—
The dial tone wasn’t long.
- What’s wrong?
A cold woman’s voice.
With a short sigh, I asked for help.
If you have time right now, could you come? I got caught up in a bigger incident than expected at work.
- ...Explain.
After I briefly explained the situation, she nodded and answered.
- 5 seconds.
What?
- I’ll be there.
Click.
After I hung up.
Exactly 5 seconds later.
BOOOOM!
The building shook hard, and I could hear people’s screams.
Kyaaah!
W-what is this?! Who did you call?!
Startled by the sudden blast, Kim Yang and Lenia clung to me. I hugged both of them and reassured them.
I called someone incredibly strong.
Not just someone strong in a simple physical sense, but someone even Baekdu Pharmaceuticals has to be careful around.
A moment later.
The door opened.
A woman in a suit that went perfectly with her long black hair stepped inside.
A frosty aura that felt strangely out of place in a club like this.
She glanced at the two people clinging to me and, as always, said calmly,
Let’s go.
B-boss, who is this lady?
Ahem, say hello. This is Yuye-na, my classmate. She’s the Hunter Association vice president now. One of the Seven Extremes.
At my words, Yuye-na placed her hands over her navel and bowed politely.
Our Juseon has been in your care a lot. I’m Yuye-na.