Chapter CXXII - The Long Awaited Fight

“So he’s a no-show, huh?” Cho commented to the girls as they stood by the indoor pool, watching the guys stretch for their swim class.

“You think he skipped cuz of the race?” Yon asked.

“Considering it blew up, probably.” Cho sighed. “Can we even blame him?”

“Poor Irene. . .” Jeong said, looking over at Irene, who could hear them the whole time.

She was leaning against the wall, looking at her watch, still not changed for class despite the teacher coming soon.

“Nah, it’s a good thing,” Cho said, crossing her arms. “She gets to see who he truly is.”

“Don’t say that,” Jeong said quietly. “You don’t know if something happened to him.”

Having heard enough, Irene clicked her tongue and walked over to the boys.

“Hey. Has anyone heard from Art?” Irene asked.

“Maybe he ran–” Kun said but stopped halfway after being met with Irene’s cold gaze. “I mean no. . . I haven’t seen him,” he lowered his voice.

She sighed. “Anyone else?”

“The last time we saw him was at school,” Max said, stretching his arms back. “Thought he was gonna wait for you.”

“We should’ve waited. . .” Tjay said.

“You don’t think something happened to him?” Don asked, but Irene was quick to turn around, walking away as nobody knew what she wanted to know.

“Irene,” Eun Ae called out to her while she made her way to the changing room to get her phone to try calling again. “Sorry. . . Amm–”

“Yeah?” Irene stopped in place, looking on edge.

“I think I know what happened to Arthur.”

“You do?” Irene raised her voice, worry beginning to show quite clearly. “Did you see him?”

“I– I did. . . but I don’t know if I should– or better yet how. . .” she started mumbling.

“Take a deep breath and just tell me. . . please.” Irene furrowed her brows and crossed her arms with both hands tucked.

“It’s probably nothing, but–” she nervously kept mumbling before taking a deep breath just as Irene suggested. “I saw Arthur entering a car with Moon just outside of school.”

“What?” Irene’s eyes went wide.

“I’m not saying he’s cheating or anything!” Eun Ae mentioned, raising her hands. “It’s just–”

“Thanks for telling me,” Irene said, running off to the dressing room, fearing the worst.

“I still don’t understand why I can’t give them a call,” Arthur said to Moon as they walked into an underground club swarming with people that belonged to Kyung’s faction.

“I don’t like it either, but understand that they don’t want this being made public,” Moon explained, sighing in frustration. “Just let me talk to that bastard first.”

“You do you. . .” Arthur mumbled, relaxed and focused.

There was loud cheering and a ton of comments being thrown at them as they entered, most thinking he was a poor kid who was about to get his ass whooped.

Arthur welcomed their arrogance, making his job easier despite being in an unfavorable position. He focused quite a bit on healing Ryung the past few days so he could have more time to prepare for the fight later, a tactic that backfired in the end. Still, he had enough outer Qi where he was confident he could win if he didn’t mess around.

Walking up to a clearing encircled by Kyung’s goons, Arthur and Moon patiently waited for her brother to show up, who happened to be a few minutes late, just like last time. Arthur figured it was a scare tactic meant to give him cold feet, but all Arthur cared about was getting it all over with so he could let everyone know he was safe.

“Well, well. . . well. If it isn’t our prized fighter and my dear little sister,” Kyung said, making a grand entrance with four bodyguards surrounding him. “Hi, Moon.”

“You broke your promise, asshole,” Moon was quick to fire insults. “We said two months–”

“A few weeks won’t make a difference,” he said, crossing his arms. “Besides, we couldn’t risk it after finding out our friend over here got some weirdos watching over him and his family.”

It wasn’t all that surprising to Arthur that he found out, remaining unfazed by the whole situation.

“You should’ve talked to me first.”

“Yet here we are– without us talking.” He laughed, snapping his fingers.

Following his command, a bald giant sitting among the crowd suddenly stood up, walking over to the center. He dwarfed Arthur, standing roughly a little over two meters, his arms and neck completely covered in tattoos. Arthur assumed his body was the same underneath the vest he wore.

“Su-jin. . .” Moon mumbled, gritting her teeth.

“Seems our little girl is all grown up, huh?” He snickered. “Heard you’ll be working at the club once I beat this kid. Don’t mind if I pay you a visit.”

Moon winced at the mere mention of such an outcome.

“No way in hell is that gonna happen, piggy,” Moon rebuked, turning to her brother. “And you. . . I can’t believe you. This is–”

“It’s fine,” Arthur said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me.”

Arthur’s cold gaze fixed on Kyung.

“You have balls. I’ll give you that,” her brother said. “Sadly, that’s not enough.”

“Stop talking,” Arthur commanded calmly, stepping forward while unbuttoning the shirt at the top, loosening it up. His eyes then traced to Su-jin, the man he’d be fighting. “Is surrendering allowed, or will I have to kill him?”

“Ha!” Su-jin burst into laughter, and so did the crowd. “Big talk for such a small guy. You should know I–”

“Talk a lot and say nothing. I figured.” Arthur sighed, cracking his knuckles. “Guess I’ll find out once I incapacitate you.”

“Boss. . .” Su-jin growled. “Let me kill this kid.”

“No. I want him alive. I want him to watch as I mess around with his sister once all this is done.”

“Then give me a turn as we–” Before he could even finish the sentence, Arthur appeared next to him while he was too busy talking, slamming his fist into the giant’s stomach.

Boiling with rage at the mention of his sister, Arthur infused Qi into his punch, sending him tumbling backward quite a distance, far enough for the crowd to be awed. Kyung didn’t have such luxury as Arthur was already aiming to punch him next, but he was quick to dodge back, smirking confidently.

“I warned you before. Don’t mention my sister.” Arthur glared at Kyung.

The crowd was quick to boo after realizing what happened, dissing the sneak attack and calling him a coward, but were silenced as the giant laughed, sitting up unharmed.

“That’s quite the punch!” he yelled, slamming his fist against the concrete floor, creating a rupture with his bare strength alone.

He stood up and flexed his muscles, unleashing his immense Qi that engulfed his body before being absorbed.

“Even the way you use it is brutish,” Arthur commented, much to everyone’s confusion apart from Kyung and Moon, who knew about Qi and could sense it.

The giant’s use of Qi was quite simplistic, empowering his body to such an extent that his normal durability surpassed human limits, able to tank one of Arthur’s hits with relative ease despite Qi being infused. However, that was all there was to it.

“I’ll enjoy squishing you!” He charged at Arthur without a second thought, swinging wide with both arms, attempting to grapple.

Although his tactic was simple in nature, Arthur couldn’t ignore the fact that his strength could seriously injure him and that his durability was tough to get through. The worst of all, his speed was far greater than Arthur had expected for a giant.

Without wasting Qi, Arthur ducked under his attack and countered with a hook that landed just below the ribs, but the giant showed no signs of pain, not even staggered by the hit, quickly countering and, by doing so, forcing Arthur to take a step back.

Moon was on edge, watching intently, as Arthur made quick work of the giant’s body, but his attacks just weren’t doing much despite being the only one to land a hit.

“Stop running!” the giant yelled, frustrated by Arthur’s slipperiness.

It was but a moment that the giant’s concentration slipped, but more than enough for Arthur to silence the cheering crowd by infusing Qi again, landing two consecutive open-palm strikes on the giant– the first to the stomach and the second uppercutting his jaw. With more power behind it, he sent his opponent flying again, this time grunting in pain.

“Get up!” Kyung yelled, stomping his leg.

“That. Fucking. Hurt!” The giant hit the ground twice, denting the floor.

When he finally stood up, the crowd began cheering him on again.

“Surrender,” Arthur suggested, putting one foot forward with his guard up.

“Die!” He yelled, charging at him again.

It was over. Arthur spent his time learning the openings the giant had, and although he felt the backlash of healing Ryung, it was nowhere near enough for him to lose to someone who relied on pure strength alone. By the time the giant closed the distance, Arthur had already slipped under, throwing a straight right hand infused with all his outer Qi, mixing in a devastating technique Negative Impact, which ignored the giant’s durability, and empowered his strike.

Su-jin vomited blood on impact, tumbling to the ground for the third time, except there was no getting up from such a technique. His rib cage cracked, internal organs were injured, and violent Qi raged through his body, leaving him incapacitated. He was only alive thanks to his intense training, and even then, he was left on death’s door, in need of immediate medical care.

“Had enough?” Arthur coldly asked, approaching slowly before stepping on his head while pressing down with his weight. The giant screamed in agony, grabbing Arthur’s foot with little to no strength, forced to grovel before his feet. “Beg.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but he couldn’t. Arthur knew but didn’t care.

“Enough!” Kyung yelled, his face saying it all.

“Disappointing,” Arthur sighed, taking a step back, but the giant had already lost consciousness by then.

The fight was over. Arthur won.

“Fuck yea!” Moon yelled, running over to Arthur, jumping on his back cheerfully. And although uninjured, fatigue caught up quickly, making him almost fall over when she jumped him. “Damn, pretty boy. . . If you weren’t dating blondie, I’d snatch you all for myself.”

“This isn’t over!” Kyung yelled, bursting into laughter maniacally.

“Huh?” Moon looked back, letting go of Arthur. She was just as confused as he was. “You lost. Don’t make a fool of yourself.”

“Come on, Moon.” He kept smirking. “ You didn’t actually believe I’d let him go, did you? Let alone let you lead.”

“We had a deal,” Moon reminded him.

“It was just one fight,” he chuckled, looking at the crowd. “Let’s put it to a vote. Everyone who wishes for Moon to be our next leader, raise your hand.”

Of course, nobody did.

“You’re lying,” Moon mumbled in disbelief, clenching her fists. “You wouldn’t. . .”

“But I would,” he grinned, snapping his fingers again. “Don’t worry. I have a little surprise for you, Arthur.”

Following orders, the guys in the far back knocked loudly on the metal door, and when it opened, Arthur’s body went cold. Two large men entered the club, carrying a girl in a J High school uniform, bound by rope and with a sack over her head. She screamed and kicked but was too weak to break free.

“This wasn’t exactly how I planned it, but better safe than sorry. Wouldn’t you agree?” Kyung asked, slowly being surrounded by his goons for safety. “What was it you said? Beg?”

“Kyung!” Moon yelled again, horrified by her brother. “Let go of her.”

“Is the sack in the way?” Kyung turned, snapping his fingers again. “Remove it!”

Arthur had assumed the worst, but the truth was no better as they removed the sack.

“Yeona!” Arthur yelled, seeing her in tears, mouth taped shut. “Kyung, I’m warning you!”

He hated admitting it, but he felt like sighing in relief.

“No.” He burst into laughter again, waving them off.

Immediately one of his men charged from behind, feeling confident he could reach Arthur before he could react, and he was right. Fatigue caught up to Arthur, slowing down his reaction while already distracted; however, before he could tackle him, Moon kicked him in the face, making him lose consciousness.

“Moon. . .” Arthur was caught off guard that she helped.

“Get them!” Kyung ordered before stepping into the crowd of over fifty men and getting lost.

Surrounded, Moon grabbed Arthur’s shirt, commanding, “Get the girl and get lost. I’ll try and hold–”

Before she could finish, a few goons rushed in, swinging wildly. Both were quick on their feet, with Arthur showing significantly more combat experience, dodging with ease and taking out two in a blink of an eye. While not infusing Qi as he was all spent on outer, he still used techniques and had enough power to incapacitate anyone who got hit cleanly.

“Don’t go one at a time!” yelled one among many before they began circling him like wolves, all bark and no bite.

Arthur ignored everyone around him, locking eyes with Yeona, whose tears ran down her cheeks, fearing for her life. Knowing he had to save her, he took a step forward but was soon stunned by a loud bang that echoed throughout the club.

It was a bullet– fired by Kyung.

Chapter End.

Thank you for reading.