Urban Vagabond: Reload

Shin Kangheon, now with his mask off, stared blankly at Kim Muhyuk’s back as he cut off the Black Heaven Society’s society leader’s head.

“I thought I’d finally caught up.......”

Even now, the movements Kim Muhyuk had used while fighting the Black Heaven Society’s society leader in tandem with Choi Geon lingered in his mind like an afterimage.

Shin Kangheon imagined himself in that position.

I’d have died a few times over.

He could never have fought like that. If he managed not to get in Choi Geon’s way, that alone would have been a relief.

Someone might say Kim Muhyuk had only been able to kill the Black Heaven Society’s society leader because he had been wielding two sacred weapons.

But Shin Kangheon knew that wasn’t the issue.

No matter how sharp a weapon was, if you couldn’t wield it properly, it meant nothing.

If it had been me......

He would have trusted in the sacred weapons alone, charged in recklessly, and brought the crisis down on himself.

But Kim Muhyuk had been different.

He had judged the situation coldly and had drawn an exact line between the moments when he needed to step in and the moments when he needed to pull back.

Just watching it had been enough to make every hair on Shin Kangheon’s body stand on end.

By watching that fight alone, Shin Kangheon had learned a great deal.

At the same time, he had also realized just how far he still had to go.

Now that he had become a pinnacle expert, he could feel even more keenly just how incredible Kim Muhyuk really was.

“Damn it. Just how fast is that bastard running ahead......?”

At the same time, frustration tightened Shin Kangheon’s brow.

WHOOOOSH!

As his emotions boiled over, the enormous fireball floating above his head blazed even more fiercely.

The Dark Flame whose control he had stolen from the Black Heaven Society’s society leader no longer glowed dark red-black, but a vivid red.

Even after he had drawn the saber out of the flames, it still hovered there in place, blazing like a sun.

“......There’s no need to feel crushed.”

“Huh?”

When Shin Kangheon turned, he saw that the Glacier Priestess had come over.

Looking up at the enormous fireball he had created, she said,

“Your talent for handling fire is outstanding enough to count among the best martial artists I’ve ever seen. You were born with such an affinity for fire that it exceeds even your constitution. No....... More likely, ordinary instruments were never able to judge your constitution properly in the first place.”

The Glacier Priestess had suddenly come over and started praising him to the skies, and Shin Kangheon awkwardly scratched the back of his head with one hand.

“Uh, sorry, but I’m still not going to Sun and Moon Gate.”

“......Hm?”

When the Glacier Priestess looked at him in startled confusion, Shin Kangheon grinned and said it was a joke.

“I already decided I’m going to become the best in the Martial Alliance. And I’m not the type to get crushed just from looking at that bastard. If anything, it just made me burn hotter.”

The Glacier Priestess studied his face closely.

There was none of the despair she had feared—none of a man broken by Kim Muhyuk’s overwhelming talent.

Instead, his eyes were blazing with competitive fire.

She had worried he might follow in the footsteps of Jang Jinmyeong, who had once been crushed by her talent and chosen the wrong path.

But that fear now seemed almost laughable.

“......Good. A man ought to have at least that much confidence.”

Smiling faintly, the Glacier Priestess briefly imagined Sun and Moon Gate with both Yang Hayun and Shin Kangheon in it.

If such a thing were even possible, then twenty years from now, the currently closed Sun and Moon Gate might well become the greatest of the Eight Great Sects.......

But judging by Shin Kangheon’s expression, even if she emptied out the sect treasury, she still wouldn’t be able to bring him in.

“It’s a shame, but I think you’d suit the role of Martial Alliance Leader very well too.”

“M-Martial Alliance Leader? Me?”

“If there is ever anything you need help with, come find me whenever you like.”

The Glacier Priestess showed him a smile full of goodwill, then turned away.

“Martial Alliance Leader Shin Kangheon......!”

As Shin Kangheon stood there grinning foolishly while imagining the distant future, a hand smacked him across the back with a loud crack.

SMACK!

“Why the hell are you grinning like some creepy pervert?”

It was Kim Bokja.

She looked utterly exhausted from having spent most of her energy breaking the spell formation.

SHRRRRRRRK.

And behind Kim Bokja’s back, the large unfurled scroll floated in the air as though escorting her.

Watching it with obvious envy, Shin Kangheon grumbled,

“You two are playing dirty, hogging all the good stuff for yourselves......”

Kim Muhyuk was bad enough, fighting while swinging around two sacred weapons, but it looked like Kim Bokja had gotten herself some incredible new spellcraft tool too.

A martial artist shouldn’t want to blame tools, but envy was envy.

“Jealous?”

Kim Bokja grinned smugly and tilted her chin up.

Even so, she only came up to Shin Kangheon’s chest.

“If it pisses you off that much, go get yourself a master and ask for one too.”

“Tch. Is there no insanely strong, unparalleled saber master out there somewhere?”

“I’m dying from the heat, so deal with that first.”

Kim Bokja pointed at the giant fireball still spinning above Shin Kangheon’s head.

WHOOOOSH!

Just walking close to it required a protective spell, yet Shin Kangheon stood beneath it bare-bodied and looked perfectly calm.

“Wait a second.”

Shin Kangheon gripped his saber with both hands and glared up at the flames.

Now that the demonic energy of the Dark Flame Demonic Art had been stripped away, the pure fire itself could no longer harm him.

But even so, it was still a massive force that was difficult to control purely by its nature.

“Huuuuup.......”

The veins along Shin Kangheon’s forearms bulged thickly as he drew in a deep breath.

Gathering all his strength, he swung his saber like lightning.

“URAAAAAAAH!”

Twisting his waist, Shin Kangheon lashed the saber up from below, and the fireball whirled like a tornado of flame as it shot into the sky.

KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA!

The flames rose high into the air, then exploded above the city and split into hundreds of small bursts of fire.

PBBRBRBOOM—! PBBRBRBRBRBRBOOM—!

It looked like a grand fireworks display announcing that the fight was over.

*****

After I cut off the Black Heaven Society’s society leader’s head.

I stood there blankly for a moment, then suddenly staggered and vomited blood.

“KHK—!”

The instant the tension drained out of my whole body, the backlash from forcing myself through that fight hit me all at once.

I had driven the Five Elements Divine Art far past its proper limit, and even that hadn’t been enough, so I had swallowed synthetic azure crystal milk to forcibly stoke the energy inside my body.

On top of that, I had handled the powers of two sacred weapons at once, something already overwhelming even with just one.

That was why my internal injuries were worse than the wounds covering my battered body.

I’m lucky my lower abdomen held together and didn’t rip apart.......

I threw Phantom Dream away immediately.

The cursed sword’s wicked energy wouldn’t do my internally injured body any favors.

That’s so mean......!

Leaving Phantom Dream’s wounded complaint behind me, I used the Namcheon Sword like a cane to support my collapsing body.

FWOOOOSH—

Its demon-subduing power gently helped drive the demonic energy that had built up inside me out of my system.

As expected, when it came to calming body and mind, a sacred object of the orthodox faction was far superior in effect.

Hmph. That brat isn’t even useful to his master.

The Namcheon Sword’s spirit stood there with its arms folded, wearing a smug expression as it looked down at Phantom Dream lying where I had thrown it—

when Choi Geon spoke.

“Sit down in meditation.”

He supported my staggering body, sat me upright, and placed his palm against my back.

As an emergency measure, he sent qi into me and helped circulate it through a full cycle.

“KHK! KHK......!”

After coughing up dead blood two more times, I looked at my master and forced out a smile.

“Whew....... I feel like I can finally breathe again.”

“You are badly mistaken. From where I’m standing, it wouldn’t be strange if you dropped dead at any moment.”

“Huh?”

“For now, just sleep.”

Sounding almost angry, Choi Geon tapped one of my pressure points lightly.

Thud.

I blacked out on the spot and collapsed sideways.

With a grim expression, Choi Geon caught me and laid me flat on the ground.

“Are they both all right?”

“Treat the injuries first!”

Seeing that, Yeo Pilgeuk and the Azure Sky Sword Elder hurried over.

After checking on his disciple, whose face had gone pale as a corpse, Choi Geon said stiffly,

“......I’m fine, but Muhyuk’s condition is worse than I expected.”

Just what kind of mental fortitude was this supposed to be?

Muhyuk’s state was so bad it was hard to understand how he had even been standing upright until just moments ago.

When Choi Geon placed a hand on his forehead, he found him burning with fever.

He was still barely breathing, but it was faint and unstable.

Blood was still trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Yeo Pilgeuk and the Azure Sky Sword Elder examined Muhyuk’s condition alongside Choi Geon and let out grim sighs.

“He was exposed to that vicious demonic art for far too long. Demonic energy has seeped into his wounds like poison.”

“The fact that all the pressure points throughout his body held together after handling two sacred weapons at once is already a stroke of heavenly luck. Feed him this first!”

The Azure Sky Sword Elder pulled out the sect’s secret internal-injury medicine and fed it to Kim Muhyuk, while the Martial Alliance Leader personally began pressing and kneading his body to stimulate the circulation of qi and blood.

“We need to draw out the residual heat left inside him.”

The Glacier Priestess came running over as well and expelled the lingering heat of the Dark Flame Demonic Art from Muhyuk’s body.

“Did Kim Muhyuk get hurt badly?”

“Hey! Get it together, you crazy bastard!”

Shin Kangheon and Kim Bokja also rushed over with grave expressions and began kneading Muhyuk’s arms from either side.

Only after all five of them had clung to him and performed emergency treatment for more than ten minutes—

Fuuuuuu......

did Kim Muhyuk’s pale complexion slowly begin to return, and his breathing start to stabilize.

Confirming that, Choi Geon finally let out a breath and said,

“I think he’s past the worst of it.”

“That is a relief. A true relief.......”

“He’ll be okay now, right?”

“If we get him to a hospital quickly, there should be no major problem.”

Everyone let out sighs of relief—

and then Kim Muhyuk murmured weakly, like he was talking in his sleep.

“Ugh...... this won’t do......”

Thinking maybe he was in pain somewhere, everyone turned to him with serious expressions.

But with a frown on his face, Kim Muhyuk went on mumbling to himself.

“We all said...... we’d have dinner together......”

While Yeo Pilgeuk, the Azure Sky Sword Elder, and the Glacier Priestess tilted their heads, unable to understand what he meant—

“You crazy bastard......”

“This kid’s really not right in the head, is he?”

Shin Kangheon and Kim Bokja, who immediately realized what he was talking about, shook their heads.

And—

“Hahahahaha!”

Choi Geon suddenly burst into loud laughter.

The three of them all knew what Kim Muhyuk was thinking about right now.

Because that morning, when they had left the Blue Wolves Office after finishing the operation meeting, all of them had seen the Post-it stuck to the first-floor café.

< I’ll make something delicious. Invite your crew friends over and let’s all have dinner together at home. >

Remembering the warm, affectionate note written by Kim Muhyuk’s parents, Choi Geon gently stroked his disciple’s pale cheek.

“Even at a time like this, you are exactly yourself. So very yourself.”

If word got out that someone barely twenty years old had killed a supreme master of the unorthodox faction, the whole world would be thrown into chaos.

And that was before even mentioning the talent to handle two sacred weapons at once, and to use their powers freely.

Kim Muhyuk was walking a path that couldn’t be found anywhere in the history of the martial world of the Korean Peninsula.

But to this brat, none of that would matter in the slightest.

“Come on. Let’s go home now.”

Choi Geon scooped Kim Muhyuk up into his arms.

Rather than anything else, this was the kind of person who first thought about going home and eating dinner together with his parents and the people he cared about.

“Let’s go back and all eat a warm dinner together.”

More than anything else, Choi Geon was proud that his disciple was that kind of person.