Mercenary Black Mamba

For a human to cut off a flying fly's wings with a blade, they must be skilled at sophisticated sword-wielding and also have superhuman visual acuity and physical speed. Choe Dosik, with his sophisticated moves that made it difficult to tell fake moves from real moves, directed energy bullets toward Mussang but Mussang lifted the dancing bullets in a half step. It was thanks to his absolute muscular speed and Dimensional Sight filling the entire space.

Mussang never systematically studied sword arts. It was a mishmash of applied moves of Five Combined Movement, modern martial arts, and his Mamluk skills. On the other hand, Choe Dosik was the master of the masters, who practiced the secret ninja ways for 50 years. Logically, Mussang was supposed to be losing but in reality, they were a close match.

The fight forced each of them to act against their own nature. Choe Dosik, who was used to surreptitious ambushes, tried all of his might to distance himself from Mussang. Mussang, who was used to attacking from a distance, endeavored to get close to Choe Dosik. A fight between masters is a fight to take control of more space than the opponent. As one loses more spaces, one became likelier to lose as the fight goes on.

To control more space, one needed to minimize unnecessary moves. When one evaded the opponent's attack, fewer moves meant one was able to retaliate quicker. A master's moves were at the same time offensive and defensive. Efficient moves determined whether that became possible or not. When it came to sword arts, Choe Dosik was like an experienced adult and Mussang a child. With that disadvantage, Mussang had no choice but to get close to his opponent and make use of his strength and speed. Choe Dosik, without sufficient space under his control, had to be limited in his choice of abilities. Mussang didn't earn the nickname The Nightmare of Battlefields in a game of poker.

Fierce hand-to-hand combat empowered by legendary weapons turned murderous. The white and blue sheens of the blades danced between the two superhumans. High-frequency clanks assailed their eardrums. The remaining window glasses shattered at the sound waves. They were each resolute in their determination to kill the other. All the abilities they learned and practiced through their lives came on stage.

A fight between masters was determined by the slightest unbalance in their powers. A single mistake led to an insurmountable outcome. Resolve and willpower had more to do with victory than real combat power. Mussang and Choe Dosik had one thing in common: their limitless confidence and self-esteem. They faced each other and entered hand-to-hand combat at a close distance.

The eardrum-assailing din was constantly heard but no one covered their ears. Most thugs had lost their lives, caught up in energetic whirlwinds and crushed by falling debris. The surviving ones had mostly passed out as well.

In Mussang's words, it was a heartbreaking loss of manpower who would have tended to the windbreak forest in Novatopia. Whales pay no mind to the death of shrimps. The death of the thugs caught up in a fight between monsters did not even merit a 10-won coin.

Mussang distorted Muramasa's trajectory with Resonance Wave. Choe Dosik used Hidden Soul Energy to draw in Chomolungma. They each planned to afflict a fatal strike upon the other but the result was that Muramasa and Chomolungma clung to each other like two magnets. The young man and the old man, longtime nemeses, glared at each other over their blades.

"Your moves are sloppy. Even third-grade yakuza wouldn't use their blade like that. I will not even qualify it as sword arts."

Choe Dosik gritted his teeth and growled. It was true. Subject 37 didn't know anything about sword arts. He never learned from any master or seemed to know the most basic moves. His whole moves consisted of crude dagger-wielding learned in the army and a mishmash of moves he learned from his friends and enemies.

Despite all that, with his keen reflexes and explosive power, he parried Choe Dosik's blade and even countered it. Was this the difference in innate aptitude? Were all his years of training in vain? Choe Dosik was disheartened. A common mouse, if enlarged to a tiger's size, would no longer be a mouse but a terrible beast too.

"I pity you for only considering skills and resolve to be the only things that matter. A real master seeks to do something for others. They seek to protect someone."

Choe Dosik shook his head. Do something for others? Protect someone? Such ideas never entered his head.

"Why shall I ever?"

"A human sees themself mirrored in others. You would never understand. You only see humans as a means for something. Haha!"

Mussang smirked.

'Mirrored in others?'

The young man's words clung to his headspace like leeches. They felt unpleasant. Those were empty words. The only person that mattered was Choe Dosik himself. Anyone else was indeed a tool. Once a bug, always a bug.

"Bullshit!"

Choe Dosik held out his left hand. The web of Dimensional Sight spotted the surreptitious movement. From his five fingers, gray spiderwebs shot like the teeth of a comb. The space was vaguely lit by moonlight only. A thread as fine as spiderweb wouldn't be visible even if one strained their eyes.

"Huh?"

Mussang, still parrying Muramasa, teleport-retreated a dozen meters at once but still got covered in the spiderweb that flew in explosively. The spiderweb contracted. Mussang, who had been leisurely fighting Choe Dosik as he learned the secret ninja abilities, hadn't expected this.

"What is this?"

"Hidden Soul Spiderweb! Goodbye."

A common man would have been diced like the onions in okonomiyaki. But the opponent was no one else but Subject 37. Choe Dosik, without wasting a moment, kicked the floor and leaped. The blue sheen struck from above.

'Why is he smiling?'

Choe Dosik felt chills down his spine. Subject 37 was smirking. A warning siren blared in his head.

"Huh?"

Choe Dosik kicked the heel of his own right foot with his left foot and glided through the air. Mussang released a whirlwind from his body. It was thousands of blades made of Resonance Wave. The contracting Hidden Soul Spiderweb was disintegrated into dust. Mussang teleported up close and kicked the ankle of Choe Dosik, who was just landing.

In the moment of peril, Choe Dosik didn't have wings but Hidden Soul Leap. His Burberry coat fluttered and he kicked the air and leaped again. That was the only gap Mussang ever needed. Mussang's arms were elongated like an octopus's tentacles. Chomolungma slashed the space.

"Hah!"

A desperate scream was heard. Choe Dosik's chest was slashed open. Blood sprayed everywhere. His Hidden Soul Armor was like a sheet of paper against Chomolungma enhanced with Resonance Wave. Choe Dosik retreated hurriedly. He flashed back ten times as he breathed once.

"He destroyed Hidden Soul Spiderweb..."

Choe Dosik was speechless. Hidden Soul Spiderweb was not really a spiderweb. It was not something that was destroyed easily. It was a recently developed ability, a collaboration between modern biotechnology and ancient magic.

The material used in this ability is the threads the mussels use to attach themselves to rock, near Erimo, where the Japan Trench meets the Kuril Trench. A 1-millimeter thick thread secreted by an Erimo mussel can sufficiently withstand 100 kilograms. Its adhesive strength well surpassed that of industrial adhesives.

When the catalyzed adhesive protein of the Erimo mussels, dihydroxyphenylalanine is injected under the skin of one's palms, one was able to use Hidden Soul Spiderweb. When in use, the protein is compressed by Hidden Soul Energy and shot through the sweat glands. Its strength could even subdue and capture supernatural humans. When contracted, the web turned its victim into thousands of pieces of diced flesh and bones.

"Who are even you?"

Choe Dosik, awestruck, forgot to stitch his chest with Hidden Soul Energy. He was not Subject 37 anymore. No human could escape from the grasp of Hidden Soul Spiderweb.

"I am a beast that beats beasts to death. I am a paradoxical Buddhist that kills mosquitoes!"

Mussang gave a two-sentence, haiku-ish response for Choe Dosik to understand. After responding, he was quite content that the phrase captured his essence quite well. Choe Dosik grimaced.

"You are an animal! How could you even cut me with that sloppy posture?"

Choe Dosik, suppressing his rage, asked. He had retreated reflexively but still was wounded heavily. The bones in a human's arms were supposed to be made of calcium, not rubber.

"When you get beaten up by a bony, bad-tempered old man, you have no choice but to do it."

"You are ridiculing me!"

Choe Dosik reached the end of his patience. The man's tongue was as cutting as his hands. He had a knack for enraging him with mysterious words.

"Do you have any abilities you haven't shown yet?"

Mussang grinned. He felt like he had a complete tour of Choe Dosik's repertoire.

"You are a dead man!"

Choe Dosik, normally psychopathically emotionless, had a fit of rage. He was enraged enough at losing. He couldn't stand Mussang's jesting. The Burberry coat covered the space around him. The moonlit indoor space turned completely dark. Choe Dosik's body melted into the air. It was the epitome of secret ninja abilities, Hidden Soul Assimilation.

Choe Dosik was defeated in Mt. Bangtae because he lost track of Mussang when he used Camouflage. Begrudged, he developed a new ability, that allowed him to be one with darkness itself.

"You must be kidding."

Mussang laughed. Dimensional Sight started to scan a wider area. Dimensional Sight was no ordinary supernatural detection ability. It was a spiritual ability that could detect Kkamdung even when he melts into space. It was on a much higher level than a ninja ability, that merely fooled people's senses to one's benefit.

Any being with life force couldn't conceal themself in the interference field. Choe Dosik could have tried all his might but still wouldn't have fooled Dimensional Sight. Hidden Soul Assimilation merely fooled the senses. It was of no use within Dimensional Sight.

Below the ceiling above Mussang's head, two yellow eyeballs appeared. Muramasa soundlessly started to go down. Choe Dosik grinned. No matter how powerful the man was, he still couldn't parry an invisible blade. Choe Dosik minutely tweaked the speed of the blade not to disturb the air around.

'I don't have all day! Be quick, please.'

Mussang was completely aware of Choe Dosik's moves. Choe Dosik would reveal himself at the moment of strike. Mussang was going to subdue him at once then and end this fight. He had to be compassionate about the shrimps waiting around them.

'Goodbye, then!'

When it was a few centimeters above Mussang's head, the blade struck down. Billion Water Armor tapped the flat side of Muramasa's blade.

"What?"

Choe Dosik's glaring eyes widened. Before he had time to be properly astonished, a gigantic hand made of energy filled his field of view. Choe Dosik clenched his eyes shut and concentrated Hidden Soul Energy on both cheeks. A sound akin to an ax striking hard oak log was heard.

Choe Dosik, freshly slapped, turned like a top in the air. Unable to completely shed the momentum, he struck the wall and fell. Muramasa, broken in half, fell to the ground too. Mussang attacked without giving him time to recuperate. Vicious vermin required swift treatment. If one allows them to flee, things get complicated.

"You monster!"

Choe Dosik lifted his right arm, which he hadn't used up until now.

"What?"

Mere five meters in front of Mussang, a pitch-black hole faced him like the entrance of hell itself. Mussang kicked the air and retreated like a grasshopper encountering a mantis. Choe Dosik's right prosthetic hand emitted flames. Heavy gunfire echoed in the space. The same gun, when held by a master, becomes as destructive as a missile. The speed of Choe Dosik's shooting reflexes matched Mussang's evasive maneuver.

Blood splashed from Mussang's body and concrete shards rose to form fog. Mussang's silhouette flashed across the space several times. Bullets followed him like a guided missile. Mussang, suddenly covered with bullets, rolled on the ground and took cover behind a pillar.

"Fuck!"

He hadn't expected Choe Dosik's prosthetic hand to be an automatic rifle. The bullets struck with tremendous momentum as well. Determining from that, they must be JSP bullets, enhanced from standard 5.56-mm bullets. His upper body was protected by the vest made of Bossaurus's hide but his limbs caught several bullets. For someone who asserted the way of the samurai, the attack was quite some dishonor. But Mussang himself hadn't been playing fair either.

A fight between life and death was their reality, not some Hollywood film. All kinds of maneuvers such as shoving the enemy to a pool full of alligators, tying them to a hot air balloon, or pushing them off a cliff were unnecessary tricks only seen in films. In reality, a bullet to the head often sufficed. Choe Dosik did what he had to do. Mussang himself was to blame.

It was a fight between a mercenary and a ninja. Black Mamba was a war machine suited for efficient massacres. Choe Dosik was a psychopathic ninja that wouldn't hesitate to kill his own parents for his own cause. Fair play was a joking matter. The way of the samurai was not to be found in this scene. A ninja could use a gun. The victor dictated justice. Spitting in the eye or hanging from the opponent's balls, the end justified the means.

A JSP bullet sacrificed its penetration power to amplify its destructive capability. When it entered flesh, the tip was detonated and sesame-seed-sized shrapnel buried themselves throughout the tissue. Mussang made use of Dimensional Sight.