How to Live as a Fencing Genius Hunter - Chapter 5

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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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How a Fencing Prodigy Lives as a Hunter
Chapter 5
Awakener Jeong Jae-ha (4)
It was a group training camp, apparently.
Everyone here had been called a prodigy in their own school’s fencing club, their own fencing academy’s youth division.
When all these talents gathered from across the nation, the atmosphere naturally became sharp and cutting.
‘That guy’s supposed to be that good?’
‘Should we go a round?’
They measured each other up and down with their eyes.
Whenever our gazes crossed, we flinched.
Some of them scoffed or clicked their tongues, engaged in silent psychological warfare.

Then the coach running the training session decided to give the three loudest kids the chance to wield a new blade first, handing them each a sword.
They faced the newly arrived coach one by one.
All three, even by my standards, had the skill to back up their noise.
But all three failed to score even three points against the coach before being overwhelmed.
‘Wait, what?’
When they removed their fencing masks afterward, I realized their opponent was an Olympic Silver Medalist.
The coach must have called him through his connections, anticipating this kind of behavior, intending to crush our spirits before we got out of hand.
I hated watching those kids—who weren’t stronger than me, who didn’t love fencing as much as I did—drag down the atmosphere like that, so I had to admit the coach’s strategy was brilliant.
But the same thought also occurred to me.
What if I had stepped forward instead?
Could I have won?
How strong was the national team, and how thrilling would a match against such a powerhouse be?
“Are there three volunteers?”
Several years had passed since then.
Today, I stood in that same feeling, watching the platform.
Could I defeat Jack O’Lantern?
There was no one left among humans who could challenge me, but how much would fighting that monster thrill me?
“Five points isn’t a small score. We’re just being generous on the first day.”
Ji In-hwi, the Hunter, smiled brightly at us.
No hand rose.
It looked like a light laugh, but everyone had felt the immense weight behind those words, so no one dared step forward carelessly.
“Me.”
Then a hand shot up.
It was Kim Gang-o.
“Oh, may I have your name and rank?”
“Third-degree black belt in Kendo. Kim Gang-o.”
“Informal speech? Ha. Quite the charmer, aren’t you? Fine then. With a Kendo background, you’ll be using a Katana?”
Ji In-hwi gestured to the weapons laid out on one side.
A long table atop the platform held an array of large and small blades.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Kim Gang-o climbed onto the platform.
All eyes turned to him.
“This one.”
Kim Gang-o picked up and tested several Katanas in turn before selecting one.
“Very well.”
Ji In-hwi moved his feet lightly.
A wide circle roughly thirty meters in diameter was drawn with Jack O’Lantern at its center.
“Once you step into the circle, the match begins.”
“Got it.”
Kim Gang-o turned his head and glared once at the pretty-faced one standing beside the monster.
Then, as if searching for someone, he looked around the crowd here and there, and when his eyes found me, he widened them and scowled.
It was pathetic.
Not just because of the objective gap in our abilities.
It was his attitude—standing before this creature he’d never seen, a species he’d never encountered, yet still conscious of those around him—that was contemptible.
I tilted my head slightly in his direction. Forward. That’s where you should be looking.
“Tch!”
His face twisted sharply, and he turned to face Jack O’Lantern.
“I’m going to rip that pumpkin bastard’s head clean off in one blow!”
Kim Gang-o rolled up both sleeves and raised his sword toward the sky.
“Ohhh!”
“Come on, Gang-o!”
“The Venom Kim Gang-o!”
The scorpion tattoo writhed across his thick forearms as his gang cheered wildly.
Jack O’Lantern turned his pumpkin-carved head to glare at him.
Kim Gang-o stepped into the ring.
“Yah!”
He stomped the ground with a loud battle cry.
Whoosh!
Even I had to admit—his speed was solid, his power decent.
The distance between Kim Gang-o and Jack O’Lantern closed rapidly.
Slash!
The blade he drew caught the light like a glimmer of moonlight.
Thunk!
“What?”
The katana carved roughly a third of the way through Jack O’Lantern’s neck, like an axe biting into an ancient tree.
“Wh—what?”
Jack O’Lantern didn’t scream or thrash.
[“—, —!”]
Instead, it simply raised an arm bristling with thick spines, emitting a subsonic frequency that made muscles freeze solid.
“Gah!”
Kim Gang-o tried to wrench the katana free, but it was wedged too deep.
Crack!
Jack O’Lantern lashed him with a spine-covered tendril.
“Ungh!”
Kim Gang-o flew backward like a bowling pin struck head-on, tumbling across the floor.
Once he landed outside the ring, Jack O’Lantern didn’t pursue.
Medical staff members waiting on the sidelines rushed forward, hoisting the convulsing Kim Gang-o onto a stretcher and carrying him out.
* * *
I knew it would happen.
I watched Jack O’Lantern extract the katana from its neck and murmured to myself.
It had been absurd to think you could sever a three-meter-tall monster’s neck in a single stroke from the start.
Swordcraft had never evolved as a system designed to face monsters that size.
“Damn. How the hell do we beat that thing?”
“It doesn’t even bleed.”
“We can’t do it with what we have?”
The air in the gymnasium turned cold.
“Is there anyone else? Don’t you need the points?”
Ji In-hwi, the Hunter, smoothly scouted for the next sacrifice.
Awakeners exchanged glances before dropping their eyes.
“I need the points.”
That’s when I raised my hand.
“Jeong Jae-ha?”
Hong Si-yu looked at me with eyes that mixed confusion and dismay.
“…Oh! You’re here, I see. But are you sure? As you just witnessed, this one’s no pushover.”
Ji In-hwi paused for a moment, then asked in a goading tone, as if he’d already made up his mind.
If a gold medalist like me got knocked out in one blow, at least we’d set the tone early on.
I felt a twinge of guilt at inadvertently disrupting the event.
“If I think I’m going to lose, I’ll just run away.”
But the excitement was stronger than that.
The five-point score mattered, sure, but it was seeing the stage, the crowd, the blade—seeing all of it that made the competitor in me boil over.
How strong was I right now?
How strong was that monster?
Could I beat it?
I’d had no rivals among people, but what would a fight with that thing make me feel?
That was all that filled my mind.
“Come over here and choose your weapon. You were a fencing champion, weren’t you? Though we don’t have fencing swords prepared.”
“That’s fine.”
Step. Step. Step.
At Ji In-hwi’s summons, I climbed onto the platform.
“A gold medalist has arrived.”
“Think he’ll manage it?”
“Fencing—what kind of martial art is that? Just poking like a mosquito, and then the tentacles grab your ankle and send you flying. I’d bet both his hands it happens.”
“Why are you betting my hands?”
“Cut the crap. Do I look like an idiot to you?”
“Whenever some rookie fresh from the academy joins, all these blockheads punch their way to first place—is it funny to mock the top-ranked athlete?”
The Awakeners hurled their judgments at me.
Envy, jealousy, yearning, admiration.
That familiar emotion, those familiar voices, those familiar stares—all descended onto my shoulders with the warmth and weight I’d longed for.
Trembling at the sensation, I chose a sword from the table.
“I’ll take this one.”
There was no Fencing Sword.
But there was one endlessly similar to it.
An Estoc.
A blade shaped like a long awl, specialized for thrusting.
Unlike ordinary swords, its blade’s cross-section came out as an ellipse or diamond, so it was characterized by having essentially no edge at all.
In this place right now, this was my hand.
“It’s a blade without an edge—are you certain? I can offer you a different choice.”
Ji In-hwi asked.
“What kind of sword is that?”
“Isn’t it just an awl?”
“He won’t be able to do any slashing attacks at all, will he?”
The Awakeners stirred with unease.
“Jae-ha, wouldn’t it be better to choose a Longsword instead?”
Hong Si-yu stepped forward with a smile forced so bright it seemed unnatural, trying to block my path.
I could sense the goodwill behind it.
“I’ll take this one.”
Which made refusing him feel a little guilty.
Swish.
I pointed the Estoc forward and felt its weight distribution.
Pleasant heft, rigid and smooth yet warm to the touch.
Without thinking, I closed my eyes for a moment.
“Is that really okay? Shouldn’t we tell him to switch?”
“His expression looks confident though? Maybe it’ll be fine……?”
I had longed for this for such a very long time.
“Shall we begin right away?”
“Yes.”
Since I insisted on the Estoc to the end, both Hong Si-yu and Ji In-hwi finally stepped aside.
I crossed the small step on the floor and entered the ring.
Thump-thump!
My heart pounded like a drum with tension and excitement.
I had waited four years.
I thought I would have to wait ten.
I thought perhaps I would never do it again.
Yet the times and circumstances had returned this warmth and weight to my hands once more.
[“–, –!”]
Jack O’Lantern lifted its head and looked at me.
In that instant, a narrow strip fourteen meters long and two meters wide overlaid my vision.
‘Jeong Jae-ha, Jeong Jae-ha, Jeong Jae-ha!’
Phantom voices echoed in my ears, and I saw a vision of Olympic rings billowing in the sky above.
I murmured softly under my breath.
Now, let’s have some real fun.
My opponent today was Jack O’Lantern.
A formidable foe with four spined blades and a height of three meters.
I could feel it from years of experience.
The distance between us now was roughly ten meters.
One or two aggressive Advance steps would normally have closed it.
And now even a simple Lunge could bridge it.
Lunge.
I drove forward with my right foot extended, pushing off the ground with my left.
Whoosh!
I closed the ten-meter gap as though skimming the earth itself, launching forward.
“Huh?”
“Whoa!”
“He’s flying?!”
Thunk!
I poured all that momentum into my blade’s point and drove it straight into Jack O’Lantern’s eye socket.
Crack!
[“—–!?”]
The pumpkin head snapped backward violently.
The three-meter frame staggered hard.
A sweet recoil raced through my wrist as the blade pierced the pumpkin skull clean through.
It landed.
The fact that my technique worked on this thing sent fireworks of joy exploding through my mind.
Everything I’d honed and perfected wasn’t wasted after all.
Of course, I hadn’t expected it to go down from just this.
This was the thing that recovered instantly even with nearly a third of its neck severed.
Whoosh!
Retreat.
So I stepped back immediately.
The counterpart to that forward step—Advance—I’d displayed in front of Medic Kim that day after rising from the wheelchair.
I pulled my body back exactly the distance I’d just rushed forward.
[“-, –!”]
Shhwiiip!
The next instant, four thorn whips came lashing down toward the exact spot where I’d been standing.
I wasn’t startled.
I’d never been a Bayonet technique soldier—I was a Fencing athlete, so the situation of an opponent not being neutralized by my attack was already familiar territory.
Only the satisfaction that my prediction had proven correct bubbled up like sparkling wine.
“Hah.”
My blade was about a meter long, but those thorn whips were over three meters.
An absurdly unequal rule, but I held no complaints.
I was too exhilarated to complain about anything, and besides, showing up knowing full well meant I’d accepted the Penalty Match.
Moreover, since my attack was getting through regardless of what weapon the opponent carried, it was at least fairer than my retirement match.
So then—if I just strike faster than the other guy, regardless of what weapon he’s got.
Whoosh!
Advance.
I lunged once more and drove the Estoc into this pumpkin bastard’s other eye.
Crack!
Jack O’Lantern’s head snapped backward exactly as it had before.
* * *
Advance.
Retreat.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Lunge.
Retreat.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
I repeated the cycle of advancing and retreating, driving the blade deep into Jack O’Lantern’s head and neck, then wrenching it free.
“Ha!”
Facial muscles that had gone too long without smiling suddenly drew taut, my lips trembling.
The sensation of sweat trickling down my forehead, brushing my eyes—it was uncomfortably vivid.
I could have lived my whole life never doing this. The thought made my skin crawl.
This—this was what it meant to be alive.
[“—–!?”]
Each time I pushed off the ground, bark scattered from Jack O’Lantern’s body and green fluid gushed out.
As the blade struck its neck more and more times, the creature’s movements grew progressively slower.
“Wow.”
“See? What’d I tell you? It’s no match for him!”
“He’s insane.”
I felt eyes on me.
That ticklish, sticky, sweet intangible pressure washed over me.
Below the stage, the Awakeners gazed up at me in reverence.
Kim Gang-o’s gang and even that pretty-faced man stared transfixed, as though under a spell.
“Are you deliberately moving slowly right now?”
“Surely not. Why on earth would I do such a thing?”
Hong Si-yu and Ji In-hwi exchanged whispers as they watched.
Their bewildered expressions resembled the vacant stare of the opposing coach so perfectly that I felt a grim satisfaction.
I was an athlete who inspired admiration even in my opponent.
It seemed I had become that again.
“How can a newly injected Artificial Awakener—a former fencer at that—possibly defeat Jack O’Lantern? Seriously?”
“We don’t know yet. One hit from that whip and it’s all over.”
Not that I had room for carelessness, nor any inclination toward it.
An athlete stays focused on their opponent until the very end.
Whoooosh!
Jack O’Lantern’s barbed whip struck with tremendous force.
Balestra.
I evaded it gracefully with a lateral leap and prepared my counterattack.
Crack!
The sharp sting of a barb grazed my cheek.
My background as a Foil fencer proved invaluable now.
Unlike Épée or Sabre, Foil restricted target area to the torso alone.
That meant I saw the barbed whip as a weapon to parry, not as a target area to strike.
Such a perspective made more practical judgment possible.
Yes.
Now.
Again, his chest lay open.
Thrust!
Lunge.
I leaped forward, driving my Estoc toward Jack O’Lantern’s throat.
Thunk!

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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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