Chapter 53 - Choi Jiwon Is Too Strong (4)

Choi Jiwon's plan was simple.

Her opponent was overwhelmingly powerful. Holding anything back would be absurd.

But going for her weakness while she was freshest—right at the start of the fight—was unlikely to work.

Then Jiwon would clash with her at full strength first and wait for an opportunity to strike at her weakness. Monstrously powerful or not, she was still human. There had to be an opening.

"Whew..."

Having roughly worked things out in her head, Jiwon gripped Whoosh's hilt.

Whoosh slid smoothly from its sheath. Just as the blade cleared it completely and its edge glittered in the sunlight, Jiwon charged so fast that she seemed to vanish.

'Head.'

She raised Whoosh overhead and brought it crashing down.

The downward strike was the most fundamental of fundamentals, not just in kendo but in swordsmanship in general.

There was a reason it was taught first. It was simple, but just as efficient.

The movement began at her toes, traveling through her waist and arms before flowing fully into the tip of her sword.

A perfect strike, without a single scrap of wasted force.

"Oh, not bad..."

The city's ruler drew her sword and easily deflected the powerful downward blow. But...

'Head.'

In kendo, the frontal head strike was the alpha and omega. Anyone striving to learn kendo properly had to master it through repetition before anything else.

And when it came to putting in effort, Jiwon was confident.

WHOOSH!

Her sword swung along precisely the same path as before.

"Do I look like an idiot to you?"

The city's ruler curled her lips, as though asking whether Jiwon thought she was stupid enough to fall for the same move twice.

"... Huh?"

Yet, absurdly enough, she was forced to block the strike in exactly the same stance, in exactly the same way. The attack had come half a beat sooner than she expected.

The interval between drawing the sword back and swinging again was ridiculously short.

'Head.'

As though determined to give the flustered ruler no time to think, Jiwon swung her sword diagonally this time.

"Ngh..."

The city's ruler stepped back and twisted slightly at the waist.

WHOOSH!

The sword swept past right in front of her nose.

Jiwon's blade missed her by a literal paper's breadth. That step demonstrated the ruler's innate gift for judging distance, but...

"Ghk!"

She apparently hadn't anticipated Jiwon's spinning kick. Carried by the momentum of her sword swing, Jiwon turned halfway around and shot her rear leg out, forcing the ruler to hurriedly block with her right arm.

There had been no weight behind that diagonal slash. Jiwon had swung with the kick in mind from the outset.

"... Whew."

The city's ruler quickly smoothed the dismay from her face.

She had intended to toy with her at first. That was why she had gone into the fight so casually...

She had never imagined anything like this. A climber who had only just reached Floor 2 could display this much skill? The white climber she had fought about a month ago had possessed far better stats and traits, but he had been somewhat clumsy at using them.

This woman was different. Her stats might be inferior, but her combat instincts were absurd.

Instead of dwelling on this ridiculous situation, however, the city's ruler decided to calm herself first.

She was an experienced warrior, and she knew full well that heated emotions were of no use whatsoever in combat.

Having regained her composure, she began fighting by the book.

A fight between knights began with probing the opponent. Know yourself and your enemy, and you need never fear a hundred battles.

She opened enough distance to avoid a lethal blow, launching probing attacks to gauge her opponent's skill.

"Ngh..."

Once the city's ruler began taking the fight seriously, the situation abruptly reversed.

She had superior physical abilities.

Her mastery of swordsmanship ran deeper as well.

Jiwon had been at a disadvantage from the start. She had only managed to land a blow because the ruler had completely let down her guard.

Now Jiwon was being driven helplessly back. Every step the ruler took forward forced her one step back. Cuts began accumulating on her leather armor.

To any observer, the ruler was clearly dominating. Ironically, their private thoughts told the opposite story.

'...'

The city's ruler gritted her teeth.

There was something strange about this woman. She was uncannily fast. Her sword carried more force than it appeared to, sending stinging jolts through the ruler's grip every time their blades met.

When she saw Jiwon evade attacks from her blind spots as though she had eyes in the back of her head, she had nearly sworn on reflex.

She had intended to overwhelm her with pure swordsmanship first, without using mana... but things weren't going as she wished.

For the moment, the city's ruler's swordsmanship was still superior.

But with every clash of their blades, Jiwon was catching up in leaps and bounds.

Of course, once the ruler began using mana in earnest, the situation would change completely...

Her pride, which demanded she win through swordsmanship, warred fiercely with her growing anxiety that Jiwon might catch up at this rate.

'I can do this.'

Meanwhile, Jiwon and Whoosh were smiling inwardly.

She had a trait that let her locate powerful enemies.

According to that trait, the woman before her was an unbelievable monster. That was why Jiwon had been so tense.

But once they actually crossed swords, she understood.

She could win. Without using mana, the city's ruler wasn't the monster she had imagined.

Her opponent had the advantage in strength and agility. Her technique was more refined, too.

But Jiwon was still growing, even now. As they exchanged moves and countermoves in fractions of split seconds, she felt as though her brain were sparkling with inspiration.

What she had lacked was practical experience fighting other superhumans.

If this continued for just ten more minutes...

She was confident she could win.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Moving at extraordinary speed, the two figures intertwined in a beautiful dance across the square, brilliant sparks embroidering the air.

"... I can't follow them at all. Can you see anything?"

"..."

I gave a small nod without answering firefighter Park Cheoljin's question.

In truth, I couldn't see much either. The two of them were so fast that all I could do was track their movements through blurry afterimages.

Still, I could get a rough idea of how things were going. Jiwon had seemed to have a slight advantage at first, but now she was being pushed back.

Except she was holding out far too well. That was a problem.

"Oh, whoa... That's fucking awesome..."

"Holy shit... What is this, an anime? Is this fight for real?"

"Absolutely legendary..."

While the other Players marveled, I could only purse my lips in dissatisfaction.

The plan had required Jiwon to be losing.

Then, at the decisive moment, she would land a devastating blow. Just before she went down in a blaze of glory, I would step in and finish things.

But Jiwon wasn't struggling as much as I'd expected. And the city's ruler didn't seem to be letting her guard down, either.

The plan had gone a little off course.

The reason was simple.

'... I think Jiwon's stronger than I thought?'

Choi Jiwon was too strong.

Since Michael Jeter had said he'd been toyed with, I'd naturally assumed Jiwon would get utterly thrashed, too.

Whether it was a favorable matchup or she was simply that overpowered, I hadn't imagined she could put up a relatively even fight against the city's ruler.

Of course, the absence of lightning raining down everywhere made it clear that the ruler was holding back...

But even so, wasn't it absurd that Jiwon could hold her own at all?

Choi Jiwon. I'd wondered since the tutorial, but just what was this woman?

Was this the might of an SSS-class swordsmanship family's eldest daughter? I felt like I'd become an extra...

"Junho?"

Firefighter Park Cheoljin soon interrupted my wandering thoughts.

"Take a look over there."

The two fierce combatants had come to a stop.

"... I can't beat you on technique. You really are a genius. And I used to get called one myself."

Rolling her aching wrist, the city's ruler shook her head in disbelief.

Her instincts told her that if the fight continued like this, she would lose.

She didn't think she'd ever seen anyone with such perfect fundamentals.

Mind games didn't work. Jiwon's sense of distance was outstanding, nearly equal to her own, and whether it was good intuition or something else, she blocked every attack from her blind spots.

Even the depth of swordsmanship, where the ruler had maintained an advantage, had now been completely matched. Jiwon was predicting her movements, while she couldn't read Jiwon's at all.

In short... she had lost completely.

"I'll give credit where it's due. In swordsmanship... you've beaten me."

But hers was by no means the voice of someone conceding defeat.

"Whew."

The city's ruler closed her eyes. When she opened them, her pupils began glowing faintly blue.

Electricity began flowing over her body and armor, while blue sparks swirled around the blade in her hand.

"From now on, I'll be using mana in earnest. This will be completely different from what you've seen so far. Overwhelming mana is my specialty."

Swordsmanship wasn't my strength to begin with. Beating me at it wasn't such a great achievement.

Having made that declaration, the city's ruler settled into her stance, ready to resume the fight. Just then...

"Wait!"

Jiwon abruptly held up a hand, stopping the ruler just as she was about to charge.

"...?"

"Just a moment... I need to get something."

Interrupting the fight, she walked straight over to firefighter Park Cheoljin, who had been watching from an alley, and casually held out her hand.

"Hand them over, please."

"... Of course."

Park Cheoljin handed her the specially made leather gloves and arm guards he had prepared beforehand. Jiwon matter-of-factly put the leather protection on both hands and arms, then walked back toward the city's ruler.

"... Leather?"

"Leather doesn't conduct electricity very well, does it?"

Whoosh was a sword, and therefore metal.

That meant that as long as Jiwon held Whoosh, all the ruler's lightning would be drawn toward it.

Then what would happen to Jiwon's arms as she held the sword?

This was the city's ruler, who had subdued even Michael Jeter in an instant. There was no way Jiwon would come out unscathed.

"That's why we prepared... these thick, specially made gloves and leather arm guards."

We had decided to take on the city's ruler. Surely we wouldn't have come unprepared.

All that pestering of the liberated residents before coming to the square was paying off.

"Shall we try again?"

"... Let's."

Choi Jiwon versus the city's ruler.

Round two had begun.

A Word from the Author (Afterword)

Sorry I'm late...

How was the fight scene? I hope it didn't feel awkward!

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