Genius Archer’s Streaming - Chapter 788

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Archer’s Streaming Season 3 Episode 258
85. The Blade (2)
Honda’s sword strike landed precisely on my neck.
My body recoiled backward at the waist.
For a moment I nearly lost my balance, but my legs shifted back once more, allowing me to hold firm.
A limbo-like posture.
Drip.
Blood flowing from my neck traced down my jaw and dripped from the tip of my nose.
Instinctively, I touched my throat.
I could feel it.
Yes. I was still alive.
[Health 45%]
I had barely escaped being completely severed.
My eyes gradually lowered as I identified the one who had struck me.
[Honda]
It was Honda.
As our eyes met, Honda muttered.
“An Assistant Commander, then.”
With the Samurai faction’s [Severance] ability, even a glancing blow to a vital point meant death.
Especially for a Chataemeen wearing light armor.
But since I didn’t die, I must have inherited the Assistant Commander position.
An Assistant Commander from the 4th Era had substantial health bonuses, making it practically impossible to die in a single strike.
The enemy likely took only slightly more than half damage.
“So you’ve also wagered everything on me.”
Honda thrust his blade forward even as he spoke.
Shwaaash!
The Japanese sword cut savagely through the air.
I quickly raised my torso from the limbo position and held my blade diagonally upward.
Kiiiing!
The blades clashed, sending sparks flying.
“…!”
Honda’s foot nearly slipped.
Should I call this luck?
It was due to the uneven terrain.
Only slightly, but his center of gravity wavered.
I seized that instant to spring upright properly.
Tap.
I successfully secured enough distance to face him properly.
“Phew.”
A brief moment of standoff.
I took a deep breath and adjusted my grip on the sword.
Tremor… tremor…
The blade’s tip quivered ever so slightly.
Beyond it lay anxious eyes.
‘I could have handled him with the bow.’
I had faced Honda directly and won before, but this was my first time fighting with a sword.
I had personally defeated all the so-called gifted individuals from the Civil Empire and climbed to the top.
But that was all with the bow.
Not just the Civil Empire—my entire life had been a continuous process that began with the bow and ended with the bow.
I had faced every hardship with the bow, and every obstacle had been pierced through by arrows.
‘This time…’
But this time was different.
I could no longer fire the bow.
Neutralizing the defense tower had been my limit. If I pushed any further, I would end up unable to even properly wield the sword.
A sense of helplessness washed over me.
There had been times in my life like this before.
Times when I couldn’t solve things by firing the bow.
“You wrote this as a report? Really?”
As a member of this cold yet affluent society, I had been deemed unfit.
For the single reason that I couldn’t fire the bow, I had lost all value.
Every day I dreamed of a time when I could fire the bow, but such a day didn’t come easily.
Not until I made a great resolve.
Not until I took one bold step forward.
‘This time too…’
Tap—
My foot stepped forward first.
I had made my choice.
After all, I was the one in a hurry.
Honda’s goal was likely to buy time.
──Whoosh!
My body surged forward along with the blade.
Drawing on the considerable mobility befitting a Chataemeen, I swiftly thrust toward his opening.
Clang…!
It had been a clear opening, yet sparks erupted from that very spot.
“!?”
His sword blocked as if it were the most natural thing, so I swung my blade toward another opening.
‘Again…’
Clang!
It felt like hitting a wall.
‘Again!’
Clang!
Everything is blocked.
“….”
Honda didn’t utter a single word, nor did he take a single step.
I have no room to speak.
With such starkly different reasons for silence, this space was suffocating with desolation.
However, behind my back, sounds were still coming through.
“Grraaaaaaah!”
“Break through!”
“Hold the line! Hold it!”
A desperate struggle was unfolding on the front lines, each side fighting for another step forward.
If I drag out time here, or if I lose, morale will shatter completely.
Everything will crumble to nothing.
Everyone is watching only my back, not the enemy before them.
Whether I break through or not.
The entire tide of battle will shift.
Gulp.
Anxiety sends a dry swallow down my throat.
‘How much time is left?’
I must eliminate the Supreme Commander faster than Japan does.
I was acutely aware of this.
But I had no way of knowing exactly how much time I had.
‘Blade against blade is disadvantageous.’
Joseon, an archer civilization, facing Japan in close combat was already unfavorable.
That thought kept making me more anxious.
Then it happened.
Ding.
‘What?’
Surprisingly, an order came through.
[1 minute]
It was a very brief message, but the intent was immediately clear.
I had been given one minute.
‘Time is….’
There is no time.

* * *
Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!
“Is it done, is it done?!”
Bread glanced back over his shoulder as he urged his horse forward.
The Supreme Commander had suddenly needed to enter Commander Mode, and in doing so had lost consciousness as he gazed upward.
The Supreme Commander could issue commands from outside the palace by briefly entering Commander Mode if he wished.
However, controlling production was impossible, and his physical body became defenseless as his soul departed.
It was not something one should attempt while fleeing for their life, yet he had done it anyway.
The command had been that important.
“It’s done.”
Crack.
The Supreme Commander regained control of his body.
It hadn’t taken long.
“What kind of order in the middle of—”
——Whoosh!
The moment he spoke, a bullet whizzed past Bread’s vicinity.
The Japanese army had detected their position and was pursuing them.
Japan had never deployed cavalry before, yet suddenly there were mounted soldiers everywhere.
“Damn it. They even built a stable here, it seems.”
Bread cursed to himself, then glanced back and asked.
“Can you ride a horse alone?”
Sarang nodded.
“Then….”
Bread leaped from his horse without hesitation.
Thud!
She drew her sword and intercepted the charging cavalry.
She held her blade steady and steadied her breathing.
The enemies’ gun barrels were still aimed at the Supreme Commander, not at Bread.
However, that changed the moment she charged forward.
“Kyaaaaaaaa!”
Her blade swept past one rider, unhorsing him, while another blocked with his body.
Boom!
“Ugh, what?!”
Neeeeiiiigh!
The horses reared up, and for a moment everyone came to an abrupt halt.
As samurai and arquebus soldiers tumbled, she swung her sword without restraint.
Swhiiiing!
Swhing!

* * *
Inside the hospital room.
Though this space was meant for everyone to rest comfortably, there was one person who couldn’t find that ease.
“It’s urgent. So urgent.”
Not quite restless, but far from comfortable either—I sat on the bed in a tense posture, staring at the screen.
I was Hee-cheol.
[Almond! Honda is blocking Almond!? Nooooo, he’s going over the mountain!]
[Can this work!? Choi Sun-sin is already being chased!]
The Japan match had descended into an elimination scenario in an instant.
As the Supreme Commander of this team, I couldn’t possibly watch this with a calm heart.
“I understand why it’s urgent… but just a bit longer. Take it at a steady pace. Almond…”
I focused more on Almond than on the Supreme Commander fleeing across the screen.
In truth, this was far more critical.
Ringo would almost certainly die without landing a single blow if he faced Almond.
I hadn’t deployed Honda, an Ace, to defense for nothing.
It was a completely different strategy from Choi Sun-sin’s belief that he could endure no matter what.
Right now, it was hard to say which of us was right.
In the end, the victor would be proven right.
The winner is always right.
That’s the way of competition.
Right and wrong hang on the edge of a single blade.
“How can we win with a sword? Against Japan, no less.”
Hee-cheol’s Girlfriend, watching beside me, covered her mouth anxiously.
“We can win. We’re wielding a 4th era sword, and they’re still using a 3rd era one. At minimum, we won’t be at a disadvantage. The problem is Almond needs to understand that. He probably has almost no experience with it.”
Currently, Almond was a 4th era commander, while Honda was a 3rd era commander.
Regardless of how differently their civilizations prioritized development, Almond’s conditions were objectively superior.
Yet he wasn’t aware of that advantage.
Almond was fundamentally an Archer. An Ace Archer at that. There was no way he’d prepared for the scenario of wielding a sword by the 4th era.
Joseon was an archery civilization to begin with, so it was even more unlikely.
But…
“That’s what war is.”
Cookie repeated words I’d once frequently told my teammates.
“One nation’s swords are strong, another’s bows are strong… of course, the differences are significant at first.”
Looking at history, especially the history of warfare, that was true.
“But as wars repeat, both sides eventually learn from each other’s strengths. What belongs to Joseon, what belongs to Japan… those are distinctions made by later generations. The people living through it had no reason to worry about such things when survival was at stake.”
Weapons began to resemble each other.
Discarding weaknesses, learning strengths.
“Our swords are no exception.”
So if Almond continued fighting at his own pace, he had a chance to win.

* * *
“Haah… hah….”
I couldn’t break through.
Honda still held his ground firmly.
Time flowed mercilessly, like an indifferent metronome.
‘Thirty seconds remaining.’
I gripped my blade tightly with trembling hands, never letting my eyes leave his sword.
I couldn’t predict when Honda would counterattack. Though I was on pure defense now, if I showed even the slightest opening, there was no reason he wouldn’t go for my throat.
‘Huh…?’
But as I watched his blade,
I noticed something strange.
‘They’re similar.’
Our two swords were so alike it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where they differed.
I could have sworn the curved swords from the 3rd era were slightly different from each other.
I examined my own blade for a moment.
It was a long-bladed Taedo.
The Taedo was a Joseon curved sword that had absorbed the advantages of Japanese blades after the Japanese invasions.
「The Civil Empire called it Taedo. Its exact original name had never been definitively established.」
Then I recalled something Hee-cheol had said.
「Just as a blade grows stronger the more it’s hammered, so too does a nation grow stronger through war.」
War is a matter of life and death.
The simplest and most irresistible problem all humanity faces.
We take the enemy’s weapons, study them, and investigate the reasons for defeat.
Joseon was no different.
「Even though it seems like Joseon always lost….」
From a broader perspective, Joseon’s history could appear as nothing but a series of defeats, yet ultimately, we survived.
「After all, we survived. That means we grew stronger.」
Invisibly, we continued to grow stronger. We cultivated our inner strength from within.
If Japan’s blades were strong, we melted them in furnaces; if Mongolia’s bows were formidable, we brought them back and studied them.
If I couldn’t do it, my descendants would. If they couldn’t, their descendants would.
The blood spilled by our ancestors seeped not only into our children but into this very land, continuing on endlessly.
New seeds were sown upon that soil, and though some never saw the light and suffered humiliation,
others finally sprouted and bore fruit.
‘This too….’
One of those fruits was now held in my hand.
‘Long, with similar reach.’
I hadn’t realized it because I was handling a 4th era blade for the first time.
The very threats I’d always kept in mind when facing Japanese swords were now in my grasp.
That instant—
“!”
A path revealed itself to him.
「When wielding the hwarang sword, stepping back one more pace is acceptable.」
He remembered Bread’s words flowing like water.
He had been holding the hwarang sword.
It was about how to close the distance when facing the Japanese with the hwarang sword.
However, she had mentioned a very brief exception.
「If the lengths are similar, then something like this becomes possible.」
Whoosh.
Almond had already recreated her movements exactly.
He had realized it.
‘There’s no need to charge in.’
There was no reason to close the distance.
Even if his situation were more desperate, if both sides had equal reach, he could strike without moving greatly from an equal distance.
Crack…!
His foot stamped the ground once, shifting his weight.
That weight traveled through his waist, becoming rotational force, which flowed through his extended arm, transforming into cutting power at the sharply honed blade’s edge.
Flash.
This was the right way to describe it.
Everything happened in an instant.
“──!”
After a span of time barely long enough to close and open his eyes.
His wide-open eyes reflected it.
Thud.
Honda’s head falling to the ground.
Not a single moment of hesitation—0.01 seconds of doubt.
Savoring the joy of disposing of him or admiring the achievement was a luxury.
He had to run immediately.
So he ran.
Thud-thud-thud-thud…!
He sprinted madly toward the path marked in red.
’12 seconds.’
Time began counting in his mind.
Countless pillars rushed past.
The red path grew shorter.
’10 seconds.’
All the audience members stood up.
The commentators too, and Hee-cheol in the hospital room, rose from their seats.
Bread collapses and falls in battle.
Thump─
Horse hooves trampling her corpse gradually drew closer toward Sarang.
Sarang appeared exhausted. Riding a horse properly required using one’s lower body, which she could no longer manage.
The distance closed rapidly.
Clop! Clop!
Almond’s feet had already reached the end of the crimson path.
‘Here.’
Creak!
He thrust open the door to the room where Ringo was with brutal force.
‘Gone.’
Ringo was not there.
Almond quickly scanned the floor.
Footprints were visible.
He chased after them like a madman.
‘6 seconds.’
The promised time was running out.
Sarang finally placed her hand on her sword.
Click.
Those wielding arquebuses aimed at her in unison.
Thanks to Bread’s eliminations, their numbers were not many.
Three.
One charging with a sword, two with arquebuses.
Sarang made her decision.
Whoosh…!
She dashed backward while drawing her blade.
Slash!
Her sword severed the samurai’s neck.
Bang!
Simultaneously, a bullet from an arquebus pierced her abdomen.
“…Ugh!”
Almond’s eyes widened.
‘There…!’
He found him.
Ringo, fleeing on horseback.
Whether prepared in advance or not, he had already created considerable distance.
If Chataemeen rode a horse, he would be faster, but it was hopeless.
Because—
‘3 seconds.’
Bang!
A second shot fired at Sarang.
She couldn’t even attempt to evade or deflect it. Her sword was already committed to cutting down the samurai.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
[Health 20%]
Even a grazing shot from an arquebus would spell certain death.
My only hope here is Almond.
Whether he strikes first—that’s everything.
Pew!
But the bullet missed.
By a considerable margin, no less.
‘An arrow?’
It was an arrow.
Someone had shot the enemy’s arm.
It was Pangeo.
He had survived the ship’s sinking and now galloped toward us on horseback.
Beside him, Maratang charged forward on another horse, wielding Waldo overhead.
The arquebus soldiers hastily retrained their sights on Sarang.
‘Two seconds.’
Breathe.
I held my breath and drew the bowstring taut.
That’s right.
I had drawn my bow.
Grrrrgh…!
‘Just once.’
My right hand trembled violently.
The arrow’s point wavered as it aimed, tracing a cross pattern through the air.
Upper right, lower left, upper left….
I closed my eyes.
‘One second.’
I released the string.
The arquebus soldiers pulled their triggers in unison.
Boom!
The arrow tore through the wind and soared forth.
In the next instant, a deafening roar erupted from the crowd.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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