In the past, Ivan was famous among regular GOF viewers as “Angolmois” or “Czar,” but to the Red Mafia in Russia, he was known by another notorious na.
That na was none other than Ivan the Thunder Emperor.
Although he controlled yang-based thunder qi, the lightning coursing through his body had the characteristic blue color of yin qi.
Because of this distinctive feature, there was a joke that even seeing the color blue on the street would make mbers of rival mafia groups tremble in fear.
“Haa. I can’t even rember the last ti I fought seriously.”
If Kim Yu-seong’s qi had the Indestructibility attribute specialized for defense, then Ivan’s qi had the Thunderous Roar attribute specialized for offense.
It was literally a battle between spear and shield.
With blue lightning bursting from his body, Ivan looked like a final boss straight out of a shonen manga.
Even though this was supposed to be a love cody setting, Ivan seed to be the only one drawn in a completely different art style.
‘Ti to make my move.’
Since I had taken the Ghost Pill, the ti I had left was limited, so I couldn’t afford to leisurely watch his transformation.
I had waited for Ivan’s transformation long enough to avoid drawing the crowd’s ire, but unlike before, when I had fought mostly defensively, this ti, I made the first move.
Honestly, it was an inevitable choice from my perspective.
I had to make the most of the 5-minute ti limit of the Ghost Pill.
“Hmph!”
With a step forward, I thrust my fist straight ahead.
It was Direct Thrust, one of the basic forms of Eight Extremities Fist.
Fuma Kotaro had told to forget all the miscellaneous techniques I had learned if I wanted to master Nagi, but I couldn’t betray i Ling, who had trusted enough to teach the Eight Extremities Fist. ʀάɴ𝐎BЕꞨ
And using the Eight Extremities Fist in this situation was ant to catch Ivan off guard, as he likely thought I only knew how to use Hayate.
Boom!!
‘It landed perfectly!’
The familiar sensation of my fist connecting.
With my physical abilities massively enhanced by the raging yang qi, my blow had struck Ivan’s solar plexus, and the impact must have hit his internal organs hard.
But…
“Is that all?”
Ivan stood there, looking down at mockingly.
“Tch!”
Grimacing, I clenched my teeth and began unleashing the strongest barrage of attacks I could, frustrated by how unaffected he seed.
From the 1st Form, Kamaitachi, to the 7th Form, Ryūnobori.
I unleashed all seven techniques of Hayate in one go.
My wind-wrapped palms slashed relentlessly, while my whirlwind-covered fists pumled Ivan’s large body like a moving target.
But—
“Why?! Why won’t you go down?!”
Even though he had taken all my attacks head-on, Ivan stood there unfazed, twisting his lips in a smirk as he listened to my desperate outburst.“It’s nanomachines, kid.“Then, twisting his body, he threw a punch engulfed in blue lightning.
Boom!!
Before I realized it, my body was flying through the air.
Clang!
If not for the battle cage set up to protect the audience, I would have been knocked out of bounds by that attack.
As I shook my dizzy head and stood up, Ivan approached, his footsteps heavy and deliberate.
Raising both hands, he spoke.
“Last sumr, my wrists were damaged beyond recovery. Even the top doctors in the world shook their heads at the severity of my condition.”
“……”
Looking back now, maybe I had gone a bit too far.
If it had been any other body part, it might have been different, but wrists were as vital as life itself to a fighter, and I had shattered his.
Of course, he had tried to kill first, so I considered it self-defense, but life wasn’t always as simple as that.
He had even said himself that he had been sharpening his knife for revenge.
“…So, how did your body recover?”
No matter how much subcultures portray nanomachines as miracle dical tools, that was only after they had been developed.
This wasn’t 2077, and no country on Earth could have developed nanomachines capable of completely healing shattered bones by 2017…
“Because Russian science is the best in the world.”
“Oh, right.”
Since the evidence was standing right in front of , I couldn’t deny it.
“Anyway, since I had the nanomachines implanted to heal my injuries, I thought I might as well test them out. They ca with so rather interesting features.”
Like this one right here.
As Ivan said that, he tore off the tattered remains of his clothing from my attacks.
“What the…?!”
I widened my eyes in disbelief at the sight in front of .
It was because Ivan’s body, which I had just relentlessly pumled, was completely unscathed, as if nothing had happened.
Ivan chuckled, seemingly amused by my reaction, and explained.
“Thanks to the feature that lets harden parts of my body at will, I now possess a defense that’s at least equal to yours, maybe even better.”
In other words…
“It ans that your chances of beating disappeared the mont I activated this.”
It was an incredibly arrogant statent.
It could be seen as a testant to just how confident he was in the abilities of the nanomachines implanted in his body.
Ever since I had taken the Ghost Pill, I’d been keeping track of ti, and I quickly glanced at the digital clock outside the stage to check how much ti I had left.
‘Three minutes left.’
It was a long ti if long, and a short ti if short.
I decided to bet everything on these remaining three minutes.
“Hoo.”
As I closed my eyes and focused, the yang qi in my body began to flow in the direction I willed it.
The first condition for mastering Nagi was to feel the wind flowing within one’s body.
At first, it had seed like an abstract concept, but through training, I realized that wind was essentially the flow of fluids.
The wind flowing through my body.
By being conscious of the circulation of my blood, I could observe my own internal state.
‘Control the wind inside your body perfectly! If you can do that, you’ll beco twice as strong as you are now!’
Whenever the line between consciousness and unconsciousness blurred in the endless battles, Fuma Kotaro would shout at , urging on.
When he did, it was like a fog lifting from my mind, and I could montarily regain control over my body.
Maintaining that state was likely what Fuma Kotaro referred to as the domain of Nagi.
But since I hadn’t fully reached that level yet, all I could do was mimic it like I was doing now.
Flash!
I opened my eyes wide and began moving my arms at the sa ti.
The technique I was using was the sa as before: Hayate.
But it was also Swift Wind.
According to Fuma Kotaro, Hayate and Swift Wind were two sides of the sa coin.
They had different nas but were rooted in the sa martial art.
Hayate fought with fists, while Swift Wind fought with the sword.
If that was the case, then what if…
I imitated the sword with Kamaitachi.
I raised my open palms to a diagonal height.
What I was about to unleash was a technique that Senior Fuma had shown before.
Fuma-ryu Swift Wind, 3rd Form.
Flash Blade.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and lightning for lightning.
Unlike the wind-based Hayate, the lightning-based Swift Wind had slightly faster attack speed than Ivan.
But that was more than enough.
In the world of masters, being “just a little faster” was like the paradox of Zeno’s hare and tortoise—no matter what, the tortoise would never catch the hare.
That’s why…
“Woooaahhhh!!!”
With a roar rising from deep within, I swung both hands.
If one strike wasn’t enough, then I would slash ten tis. If ten didn’t work, I would slash a hundred.
No matter how tough his body was, if I slashed that many tis, at least one cut would land.
“Tsk! Pointless struggle!”
Ivan, whose arms seed unnaturally hard—likely due to the nanomachines—shouted in frustration and imdiately tried to counter.
However, before he could even extend his hand, I used Thunder God’s Step, the footwork of Swift Wind, to retreat, only to rush back in just as he missed, continuing my fierce assault.
As ti passed, Ivan’s guard began to gradually loosen.
Psh! Psh!
It seed that Ivan was finally reaching his limit, as small cuts began to appear on his forearms.
‘Faster! Just a little faster!’
If I just had a little more ti, I felt like I could take down Ivan, the man in front of .
But, exactly five minutes passed, and the overwhelming power surging within began to drain away like the receding tide.
‘This is bad.’
Just as Senior Fuma had explained, I wasn’t entirely incapacitated like before, but the speed at which my yang qi was depleting was beyond anything I’d imagined.
‘It feels like a bottomless jar has ford in .’
The vast ocean of yang qi I once had had shrunken down to the size of a re river.
If this continued, it was only a matter of ti before it shrunk to the size of a pond or puddle.
‘If I’d just had one more minute!’
I could’ve broken through that ironclad guard and delivered a decisive blow to Ivan.
Regret washed over , but there was no way to turn back ti now.
When I stopped attacking and stepped back, Ivan smirked as though amused by the situation.
“So, the effects of that strange drug have worn off, huh?”
“Who knows?”
I forced a grin and tried to bluff, but it clearly didn’t work. Ivan cracked his knuckles as he slowly approached .
“Brace yourself, kid.”
This is going to hurt a bit.
Bang!!
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