Urban Vagabond: Reload

The moment the white-haired old man with the tangled hair stepped out of the darkness, I realized something was wrong.

That’s not Sword Demon.

It was a completely different face from the one I’d seen in that video hundreds of times.

But I didn’t decide he wasn’t Sword Demon just because of that. It was entirely possible he was using a human-skin mask to hide his identity.

I was sure because I looked into the old man’s eyes, slick with killing intent.

A guy like that could never be Sword Demon.

Sword Demon Choi Geon only had the word “Demon” in his sobriquet. As a person, he was basically the very image of the righteous path.

A stubborn man who never compromised with injustice, a swordsman with no mercy for evildoers—he’d once been a terror to the black-path world.

But he was not the sort of person who’d just wave a sword around at anyone.

“Cat got your tongue? You want me to cut your mouth open so you can answer?”

This cackling old man, on the other hand, had just swung his sword with the genuine intent to kill me and Shin Kangheon.

Just because we’d suddenly showed up at his home.

“Hang on! We’re just—”

I held Shin Kangheon back as he stepped forward to try to explain.

“Drop it. He’s not the one we’re looking for.”

“...He’s not?”

“Just look at him. He screams black-path. We just had the shitty luck to step in crap.”

I admitted to myself I’d been complacent.

Why did I assume the only martial artist hiding his identity and living in seclusion would be Sword Demon?

I should’ve approached this more carefully.

Obviously, there were far more black-path than righteous-path martial artists living in hiding. Some of them were bound to be fugitives with warrants out, or scum who’d committed serious crimes and run.

The old man dripping killing intent in front of me was clearly one of that crowd.

“Looks to me like we’ve got a misunderstanding here.”

There was no reason to clash if we didn’t have to, so I cleared things up before he lost his patience.

“We’re looking for someone else and got the address wrong. We don’t know who you are, and we don’t care.”

“Hmph. And I’m supposed to believe that?”

“If we were actually after you, do you think we’d show up making noise like idiots? We’d come in quiet and jump you.”

“...”

Maybe he didn’t think that was wrong. The old man narrowed his eyes and studied us. The tip of his sword was still aimed between my brows.

Can I handle him with where I’m at right now?

I gauged his rough level from the atmosphere around him, the way he held his sword, and the recoil I’d felt when our blades clashed just now.

At least first-rate... maybe even peak-level.

The survival instinct I’d honed in my past life as a vagabond was screaming a full-blown alarm.

Right now, avoiding a clash as much as possible was the best option.

“You don’t gain anything from a big commotion either, right? Let’s just pretend this never happened on both sides. We’ll slip away quiet.”

“Heh-heh...”

The white-haired old man answered with a deflating little laugh.

Just like I had, he must have been gauging our skill.

Maybe he’d decided he outclassed us by a mile, because there was arrogance steeped into that laugh.

“You might not have known who I was at first, but you recognize me now, don’t you?”

“...I told you. We have no idea who you are.”

“Don’t lie! You’ve seen my sword and you still claim you don’t recognize the Nightfiend Sword?”

Who the hell is the Nightfiend Sword supposed to be?

I swore I’d never heard a trashy sobriquet like that in my life.

Judging by the fact he swung his sword at us just for knocking on the wrong door, I could at least guess there was a pretty high chance he’d died a dog’s death before I ever became a vagabond.

“As an apology, each of you cut off one arm yourselves and leave them here. Then I’ll forgive you for disturbing my rest.”

“...You really are impossible to talk to.”

“So negotiations are dead, yeah?”

Shin Kangheon drew his saber and stepped up beside me. When I glanced over, I saw his face was tight with tension.

“You’ve never actually cut a person, have you?”

“You’re insane. Like you have—”

He swallowed hard when he saw my face change for a moment.

He must have picked up, on instinct, that I did have experience cutting people.

The old man, listening to our exchange, gave a cackling laugh and casually took one step closer.

“Dream on, both of you. You think little shits like you could even nick the hem of my robe?”

As he advanced, Shin Kangheon and I took a step back in unison.

The old man carried on leisurely, almost like he was enjoying how stiff and tense we were.

“You look like righteous-path brats... well, maybe one of you isn’t?”

Why is he tilting his head while he looks at me?

Without taking my eyes off the old man, I spoke to Shin Kangheon.

“You run.”

“...What?”

“You’re just going to be in the way. I’ll hold him here and buy time, so bolt. I’ll bail when I see the opening.”

“...”

As Shin Kangheon stood there with his face all twisted up, the old man let out a mocking burst of laughter.

“Hahahaha! You think I’m going to just let you run? Go on, try it! The second you show me your back, you’ll see what—”

While he was busy rambling, excited about the killing he was about to do and looking down on us, I kicked off the ground and charged.

Now.

Acting scared to lower someone’s guard is an old trick, but it works.

I pitched my weight so far forward it looked like I might fall, and I swung my sword.

In that instant, my arm and blade seemed to stretch, leaving an afterimage as I aimed straight for his neck.

Clang!

My decisive strike was blocked just barely in front of the old man’s throat.

A few strands of white hair, sliced by my blade, drifted away in the air.

From beyond them, I heard his voice, mixed with shock and anger.

“...Not bad.”

A chilling killing intent seeped out between his clenched teeth.

And now, for the price of failing my decisive ambush, I had to eat the counterattack of someone who was clearly a step above me.

“I’ll rip out those fierce eyes of yours first!”

The old man curled the hand without the sword into a hawk’s talon and lunged for my eye.

But that hand had to swerve mid-flight.

Because Shin Kangheon, who’d already rushed in behind me, was bringing his saber down with enough force to split the old man’s head in two.

Craaash!

The old man knocked Shin Kangheon’s saber aside, but the brute strength behind it forced him backward. I used that moment to reset my stance.

“Who are you telling to run, you bullshit artist?!”

Shin Kangheon shot me a tiger-eyed glare, then brought his saber back up into guard.

“If anyone’s scared, you run. Shin Kangheon, future Korea’s Greatest Blade! Today I cut down a black-path fiend and make my debut as a hero!”

The idiot’s line was so stupidly obsessed with posing that I couldn’t help a little snort.

I knew it.

I’d known from the start that telling him to run would only set his personality on fire even more.

In other words, it was no different than sending him a signal to gang up on the guy without tipping the old man off.

In a losing fight, you make variables however you can.

I could feel the old man’s surprise when the kid he’d expected to bolt suddenly jumped in.

And as the two brats he’d been looking down on came at him a lot harder than he’d thought, that surprise steadily got buried under anger.

“You filthy little brats...!”

His face twisted into something so grotesque, I couldn’t really call him an old man anymore. “Old monster” was more like it.

But we couldn’t afford to underestimate him. A moment later, a translucent aura began to rise along his blade.

Vmmmm...

Sword qi.

The fact it wasn’t perfectly refined meant he wasn’t quite at peak level, but just that alone was more than threatening enough for us right now.

“Watch the sword qi. Your big thick saber won’t slice in half easy, but avoid direct clashes if you can.”

“Worry about yourself.”

Clink.

We tapped our blades together like we were bumping fists, then immediately split left and right.

Kra-ka-kak!

The old monster’s scattered sword qi carved deep lines into the floor right where we’d just been standing. If that had hit, we’d have been cut clean in two.

“If it doesn’t land, it doesn’t mean anything.”

Big, qi-heavy moves always leave a split-second opening.

I closed the distance fast and crashed my sword against the old monster’s.

Clang!

The moment my blade met the edge carrying sword qi, I gently twisted my wrist, letting the force roll off.

It was a little trick I’d picked up as a vagabond with perpetually lacking inner power, to deal with martial artists who could use sword qi.

Good thing this is a thick practice blade.

A sharp live blade, unless it was a seriously high-grade treasured sword, couldn’t hold up to sword qi more than a few times. But a thick, heavy practice blade could actually endure longer.

“I’ll chop you into dozens of pieces along with that sword!”

With a bestial roar, his ferocious sword really was rough enough to deserve the name Nightfiend.

If I’d been fighting alone, I’d have been pushed on the back foot fast and ended up taking hits.

But I wasn’t alone this time.

“Uraaaah!”

From the old monster’s right, Shin Kangheon came barreling in, swinging his saber in a huge windmill arc with a booming shout.

Having tasted that brute strength once already, the old monster back-stepped, using retreating footwork.

For a heartbeat our eyes met, and we both nodded.

I went for his vital points with a sharp, fast sword, while Shin Kangheon used the explosive power from his physicality to rattle the old monster’s center.

Kra-kang!

We’d only crossed blades with him twice, but it was enough for us to understand each other’s styles.

Even though we’d never practiced together, we split roles like we’d worked it out in advance.

“You arrogant little brats!”

Blindsided by resistance this fierce, the old monster lashed out irritably with his sword.

A savage killing intent that would have made anyone’s hair stand on end burst out, but I’d been in situations like this too many times to care. I tore through that killing intent and pressed in even closer.

Shin Kangheon, too, shook off his initial flinch and dove in at the old monster head-on.

Still a bit short.

On the surface, it might have looked like we were driving him back, but I didn’t see things that optimistically.

The old monster was getting more and more used to our combined attacks.

He might not have been peak-level, but he still had enough experience and years on him that we couldn’t ignore.

The proof was that the number of wounds piling up on our bodies was much higher than the ones on his.

Clang! Clang-clang-clang!

Shin Kangheon staggered several times, unable to fully take the weight of the old monster’s sword.

Cracks like spiderwebs were slowly spreading along my practice blade.

This won’t work. Either I throw in a kill move, or I look for a chance to bail...

I was in the middle of racking my brain for a way out of the losing situation.

“Uraaaah!”

Suddenly Shin Kangheon let out a shout and just straight-up charged the old monster.

Why?

My head couldn’t make sense of what he was doing, but my body was already moving on instinct.

I tucked myself in right behind him, using him as cover and sticking to his back.

“You— you wild boar of a brat!”

Flustered, the old monster stumbled backward, slashing his sword.

The half-formed sword qi looked like it would cleave Shin Kangheon in one blow, but he didn’t dodge. He raised his saber like a shield and just made sure to protect his vitals.

Slash!

The trajectory of the old monster’s sword, which he’d sharply changed mid-swing, cut across Shin Kangheon’s unguarded side.

“Ghhk!”

While Shin Kangheon took the old monster’s sword with his body and bought time, I brushed past to the side and swung my blade at the old monster’s face.

Fwoooosh!

Blood sprayed from the old monster’s face, and a scream full of pain ripped the air.

“Gyaaaaah!”

I immediately grabbed Shin Kangheon by the shoulder and hauled him back, checking his wound first.

“What the hell were you thinking taking that with your body, you dumbass?!”

“...A wound on the back is a disgrace to a martial artist.”

His face was pale as a corpse, but since he still had a dumb line prepared on his tongue, it didn’t look like it was a fatal cut.

Looking closer, blood was seeping slowly from what I’d assumed was a deep gash in his side, but it wasn’t at a dangerous level.

And over it I could see a torn, thin black vest.

“I, uh, actually put on a stab vest underneath.”

“...Does that make it not hurt?”

The way he grinned even after taking a stab made me want to smack him hard upside the head, but instead I propped up his staggering weight and muttered low.

“Now. We run.”

“What?”

I didn’t bother answering. I just broke into a sprint, heading for the stairway down the building.

That was when the old monster’s bellow rang out behind us.

“You think I’ll let you get away—?!”

When I glanced back, the old monster’s cheek was split wide open, blood pouring down as he chased us.

Whoosh!

We dodged a swipe of sword qi that whistled over our heads and leapt down the stairs.

We grabbed the stair rail once on the way to slow our momentum, then slid down and jumped off together.

Thud-thud-thud!

We rolled several times across the ground to bleed off the impact, then sprang to our feet.

My whole body throbbed, but it didn’t feel like I’d broken anything.

I supported Shin Kangheon, who was clutching his side in pain.

“Can you run?”

“Ugh...! Hahaha! This is insane, this is fucking hilarious!”

“You think this is funny?”

“Isn’t it? You’re not laughing? And I can run by myself, so let go.”

With Shin Kangheon’s laughter—not that I could tell whether it was from pain or because he’d lost his mind—the nighttime chase began.

“I’ll tear you limb from limb and kill you! Stop right there!”

We sprinted full speed through the winding alleys, running from the old monster on our heels.

To the people cracking their windows to peek out, we shouted warnings.

“Don’t come outside for no reason! Just call the Martial Alliance!”

“You think they’ll get here before I kill you?! I’ll take this chance to kill everything that annoys me and disappear!”

The old monster, apparently so insane with rage he’d lost all °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° reason, refused to give up and kept coming after us.

He filled in his lacking stamina with inner qi, and the distance that had opened up began to shrink again.

“Damn it...”

“Huff... huff...”

To make things worse, we took a wrong turn into a dead-end alley, and suddenly we were blocked front and back.

“Heh-heh-heh. I feel like this pain will only settle if I kill you, chew your flesh, and bathe in your blood...”

The old monster, now fully turned into a demon, strode toward us.

We raised our weapons again and braced ourselves for one last fight.

“Kyaaaah!”

Just then, something like a black cotton candy puff came flying down from the sky and jumped the old monster.

Startled by the sudden attack, the old monster slashed wildly at the air.

“Gaaaah! What the hell is this now?!”

The familiar wandering spirit only I could clearly see.

And with a humming ripple of qi, a welcome redhead landed lightly from above.

“The freelance spell-caster who’s got both looks and skill, Red Rabbit, has arrived on the scene.”

Shin Kangheon and I stared at Kim Bokja, mouths hanging open in disbelief.

“What are you?”

“...How did you even know to come here?”

“My fortune-telling came out ominous.”

I couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious, but it was definitely a situation where she felt like an army of reinforcements.

“Gyaaaaaah! Get the hell off me!”

I glanced back at the old monster, who was still frantically slashing his sword at Biter.

“With three, the story changes.”

I rolled my neck side to side and stepped forward. Kim Bokja and Shin Kangheon moved up to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

“You called yourself the Nightfiend Sword, right? I hope there’s a nice fat bounty on your head.”