I Thought I Was Bullying a Nobody, But He's a Martial Arts Genius - Chapter 42

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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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Fighting Genius Bullied Without Knowing It | Episode 42
Ding!
Round 2 began as the bell chimed.
Lee Woo Seong kicked off hard from the corner.
It was different from the start.
There was no probing.
He gave no time to read his breathing.
His body dropped low, then exploded forward in an instant.
Thump!
His front foot planted on the mat.
His right shoulder torqued sharply back.
His entire frame rotated like a baseball pitcher launching a throw.
Right Overhand.
The form was exactly the same as Round 1.
The crowd stirred in unison.
“There it is again!”
“Don’t block it!”
Flashes of Round 1 lightning-streaked through Do Yoon’s mind.
The Overhand falling over the guard.
Seo Jun’s vision cut off.
Lee Woo Seong vanishing beneath it.
A perfect Double Leg Takedown.
Slam!
His back crashing into the floor.
Do Yoon’s face twisted.
“Watch out!!”
His shout struck through the Cage.
Seo Jun saw it too.
Same shoulder.
Same foot.
Same trajectory.
But this time he didn’t raise his guard.
He suppressed the instinct to bring his arms up.
Instead, his feet moved first.
Pop!
Seo Jun’s body snapped backward.
Backstep.
It wasn’t just a retreat.
He bent his knees and pushed off the mat with his toes.
His body lifted briefly into the air.
Whoosh—!!
Lee Woo Seong’s Overhand whistled past Seo Jun’s face.
Slicing through empty space.
Seo Jun’s vision remained open.
Unobstructed by any guard.
Beneath it.
He saw Lee Woo Seong’s true body.
Right after the punch was thrown.
His upper body was already dropping.
His head preparing to dive below Seo Jun’s waist.
Both arms spread wide to snare the legs.
The same trap as Round 1.
But this time, he saw it.
That brief instant when Seo Jun’s body was pushed back through the air.
Their eyes met.
Lee Woo Seong’s pupils trembled ever so slightly.
It was the first time.
A different emotion flickered through his normally cold gaze.
Surprise.
Brief, yet unmistakable.
Seo Jun saw it.
‘He read it.’
His toes touched the mat.
Tap.
The moment his feet landed, his knees bent.
Seo Jun’s upper body snapped forward.
Lee Woo Seong was still low.
The Overhand missed.
The Takedown entry thrust into empty air.
His jaw hung open.
Seo Jun’s right foot moved first.
Short distance.
No need for a sweeping kick.
His knee rose.
His toes extended straight.
A Front Kick.
Like an oblique kick that pierced sharply, the foot drove in a straight line.
One target.
Lee Woo Seong’s jaw.
Crack!
The toes shot up from below Lee Woo Seong’s field of vision.
Lee Woo Seong’s eyes moved again.
Too late.
Seo Jun’s foot thrust upward toward the jawline.
Do Yoon in the corner clenched his fists.
“Yes!”
Tae Soo gripped the Cage mesh.
“He’s got it!”
The distance at which Lee Woo Seong’s jaw would shake.
Seo Jun’s toes tore through that gap.

* * *
Thud!
The impact sound exploded.
The crowd surged to its feet as one.
But Lee Woo Seong’s jaw didn’t shake.
Seo Jun’s toes never touched the jaw.
Just before that, Lee Woo Seong’s hand had clamped around Seo Jun’s ankle.
Overwhelming reflexes.
Even mid-fall, even in a failed entry.
He caught the kick.
Seo Jun’s eyes went rigid.
‘Caught.’
Lee Woo Seong said nothing.
He poured more force into the grip.
At the same time, his other hand shot out.
Behind Seo Jun’s calf.
He hooked deep.
A One Leg Takedown.
One entire leg was locked.
Lee Woo Seong’s shoulder drove into Seo Jun’s thigh.
And he pushed.
Crash!
Seo Jun’s body was driven backward.
He had to hold on with one foot.
“Ugh!”
Seo Jun stamped the mat with his remaining leg.
He bounced back like a spring.
Once.
Twice.
His balance nearly crumbled.
Lee Woo Seong’s pressure never relented.
He yanked the captured leg upward.
Drove his shoulder into the hip.
Twisted his upper body to force him down.
Seo Jun clenched his teeth.
He couldn’t end up on the mat like the first Round.
If he went down again, it was over.
That single thought kept him standing.
Backward.
Back again.
Thud!
His back struck the Cage’s steel mesh.
The mesh shuddered.
Seo Jun barely suppressed the instinct to grab the mesh with his left hand.
Instead, he drove his elbow inward.
Pushed Lee Woo Seong’s head away.
He tried to free his leg.
It wouldn’t come loose.
Lee Woo Seong’s grip was a vise.
[Lee Woo Seong catches the kick and immediately transitions into the One Leg Takedown!]
[But Seo Jun holds firm! He’s been pushed back to the Cage, but he hasn’t gone down!]
Do Yoon’s voice cut through.
“Drop your hips! Push with your head!”
Seo Jun endured, breathing hard.
Lee Woo Seong’s shoulder drove in again.
Bang!
The mesh rattled.
But Seo Jun did not fall.
In that instant.
Lee Woo Seong shifted tactics.
He appeared to release the leg he’d been holding.
The moment Seo Jun went to pull free.
Lee Woo Seong’s hands came up.
Behind the neck.
Locked in deep.
A Neck Clinch.
Seo Jun’s head was wrenched downward.
A sharp breath escaped him.
Lee Woo Seong’s knee drove up.
Crack!
The face.
His chin snapped up.
Seo Jun’s vision flashed white.
His face burned instantly.
The second Knee Strike came.
Seo Jun slipped his arm between them.
Crack!
Blocked it with his forearm.
The impact sang through bone.
Lee Woo Seong didn’t let go.
He pulled the neck down.
Drove the knee in.
Pulled again.
Merciless.
Each Strike was clean.
Nothing like Hwang Dae Gun’s messy Clinch work.
This was trained violence.
Precise destruction.
Tae Soo’s voice broke out desperately from outside the Cage.
“Watch your eyes!!”
The words hammered into Seo Jun’s ears.
“If that wound opens, it’s over!”
Seo Jun thought of his left eye.
The sutured scar.
He’d been cleared by the doctor, but if it tore open again, he was done.
He threw his left arm up desperately.
Shielding the wound.
Lee Woo Seong’s Knee Strike drove down onto it.
Bang!
His arm pressed against his face.
But the eye was safe.
Another Knee Strike.
This time to the body.
Thump!
Seo Jun’s breath caught.
“Ugh…….”
Do Yoon shouted.
“Straighten your neck! Get your inside hand in! Loosen the Clinch!”
Seo Jun drove both hands inside Lee Woo Seong’s guard.
He tried to straighten his neck.
Lee Woo Seong’s hands tightened deeper.
His head was pulled back again.
Another Knee Strike rose up.
Seo Jun didn’t shut his eyes.
Through the guard.
The wrist wrapped around his neck.
The angle of the rising knee.
His opponent’s foot placement.
He saw it all.
Even as he was hit.
Even as he was pushed back.
He was hunting for the opening to escape.

* * *
Lee Woo Seong didn’t stop.
He’d finish this before the Clinch could break.
That intent radiated from his body.
Pulling the neck.
Driving with his shoulder.
His elbow rose from the inside.
Whoosh!
Seo Jun twisted his head.
The Elbow Strike grazed past his temple.
Sharp wind whistled by.
Straight into a Short Hook.
Thump!
Over the guard.
Then the body again.
Thump!
His breath shattered.
Seo Jun’s body was driven against the Cage.
Lee Woo Seong allowed no space.
His strikes were compact.
No wasted motion.
Jaw.
Ribs.
Temple.
Eye socket.
Every attack drove toward something vital.
[Lee Woo Seong is applying immense pressure in the clinch!]
[Seo Jun needs to escape! If he keeps taking strikes like this, he won’t hold up!]
Seo Jun’s head snapped back.
His breathing turned ragged.
His arms felt leaden.
But his eyes remained sharp.
Between the guards.
In that narrow gap.
He watched Lee Woo Seong’s shoulders and wrists.
Whoosh!
Right Elbow Strike.
Seo Jun tucked his chin.
The elbow grazed his hair.
Thud!
Left hand body shot.
He blocked with his forearm.
The impact resonated through his ribs.
Thud!
Short uppercut.
Seo Jun turned his head slightly to the right.
The glove grazed his chin.
It wasn’t a clean hit.
The crowd gasped.
“He dodged that?”
“While they’re locked up?”
Do Yoon’s eyes widened.
“Yeah. Look.”
Another scene flashed through Seo Jun’s mind.
Hwang Dae Gun.
A face caked with blood.
Dirty clinch work.
The man who drove his shoulder into chins, wove elbows in, and spat curses.
That pressure had been sloppy.
Hard to read.
You never knew where it was coming from.
Hwang Dae Gun had no form.
That’s what made him dangerous.
‘Dirty Boxing is.’
Seo Jun’s eyes went cold.
‘That bastard Hwang Dae Gun was far faster and messier.’
Lee Woo Seong is different.
He’s strong.
Heavy.
Technical.
But that’s exactly why it showed.
To land a Short Hook perfectly.
His center shifts to one side before striking.
His shoulders close before he folds the elbow.
His feet plant, ever so briefly, before the hook.
Precision has a sequence.
When there’s a sequence.
It can be read.
Lee Woo Seong pulled the neck clinch again.
Seo Jun’s face was drawn downward.
His left knee feinted upward.
A fake.
The real attack was the right-hand hook.
Lee Woo Seong’s shoulder pulled back ever so slightly.
An instant.
Seo Jun’s eyes caught the opening.
‘Now.’
He didn’t retreat.
Instead, he compressed his body forward.
Into the narrow space between Lee Woo Seong’s chest and arms.
A gap so tight no person could fit through.
Seo Jun drove his shoulder into that crevice.
The force pulling at his neck slipped away in an instant.
Lee Woo Seong’s Short Hook was coming.
But it was too late.
Seo Jun’s left hand moved first.
He didn’t swing wide.
The arc was barely visible.
His elbow stayed bent.
Only hip rotation behind it.
A point-blank Short Hook.
One target.
Lee Woo Seong’s jaw.
Crack!
A dull, splitting sound burst from inside the Clinch.
Lee Woo Seong’s head snapped to the side.
The flawless pressure finally broke.
The grip around his neck went slack.
Seo Jun’s body pulled away from the Cage.
Lee Woo Seong’s legs buckled.
Like gelatin.
His feet lost the Mat.
One step.
He was driven back hard.
The crowd erupted.
[Incredible! Seo Jun landed a Counter at point-blank range!]
[Lee Woo Seong is shaken! Truly shaken for the first time!]
Do Yoon gripped the Cage mesh.
“Yes!”
Seo Jun gasped for breath.
His face was flushed red, his arms heavy.
But his eyes were alive again.
Lee Woo Seong wavering.
The first opening.
Seo Jun’s foot struck the Mat.
Tap.

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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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