I Thought I Was Bullying a Nobody, But He's a Martial Arts Genius - Chapter 45

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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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Unaware He’s a Combat Genius, Gets Bullied – Episode 045
Ding!
The bell for the third round sounded.
Both fighters stepped forward simultaneously.
As if by agreement.
Center of the Cage.
Crack!
Their feet clashed.
Lee Woo Sung’s jab came first.
Baek Seojun parried it with his left hand.
Crack!
Immediately followed by a right.
Baek Seojun slipped his head and let it pass.
In that gap, a short counter.
Lee Woo Sung leaned his torso back.
Whoosh.
The fist skimmed past the tip of his nose.
The first round’s rhythm came alive again.
Jab.
Parry.
Sway.
Counter.
The sound of gloves bouncing off the guard erupted in rapid succession.
Thud! Crack! Thud!
The crowd roared back to life.
[Maintaining this speed even in the third round!]
The commentators’ voices rose.
[Especially Baek Seojun—this is his first three-round bout since his debut. Yet his stamina and focus are remarkable!]
[He was pinned for three minutes and thirty seconds in the first round, unleashed explosive offense in the second, and his eyes are still sharp!]
Baek Seojun’s breath came ragged.
But he didn’t break.
He was watching.
Lee Woo Sung’s shoulders.
The tips of his feet.
The height of his chin.
The center of gravity before the punch launched.
Lee Woo Sung felt it too.
Baek Seojun wasn’t going down easy.
So he changed tactics.
Feinted a right hand.
His gaze dropped low.
Snap!
A low kick slammed into Baek Seojun’s shin.
Baek Seojun’s body swayed slightly.
That instant, Lee Woo Sung drove in.
Clinch.
His hands began to wrap around the back of the neck.
Baek Seojun’s eyes turned cold.
Hwang Dae Gun.
A face smeared with blood.
The Steel Cage.
That filthy shoulder pressure.
The elbow.
The curses.
That ugly breath came rushing back.
‘I’ve seen this before.’
Baek Seojun didn’t pull his head free.
Instead, he drove in his inside hand first.
He pushed his elbow through Lee Woo Sung’s collarbone.
He raised his chin before his neck could be grabbed.
Lee Woo Sung’s short hook came up from the inside.
Baek Seojun tilted his head just barely.
The fist grazed his cheek.
It wasn’t a clean hit.
Baek Seojun’s left hand drove straight into his solar plexus.
Thud!
Lee Woo Sung’s breath caught short.
Do Yun shouted from outside the steel cage.
“That’s it! Don’t close your eyes in the clinch!”
Lee Woo Sung’s eyes hardened further.
Through striking.
Through clinching.
He wouldn’t be tied down easily.
He dropped immediately.
A solid Takedown this time.
His shoulder drove beneath Baek Seojun’s waist.
Both arms extended toward his legs.
Images flashed through Baek Seojun’s mind, layering over one another.
Oh Gun Woo’s tackle.
Jo Min Sung’s grappling pressure.
The Wall Walk drilled again and again at the Gymnasium.
The sensation of being thrown by Ryu Jin Hyuk.
The nightmare of being dragged through the first Round by Lee Woo Sung.
All of it surfaced at once.
And his body moved first.
Baek Seojun kicked his legs back.
Sprawl.
He pressed his hips down heavy.
He drove Lee Woo Sung’s head downward and wedged his elbows inward.
He broke the grip before it could lock.
He didn’t slide toward the cage.
Instead, he twisted to the side.
Lee Woo Sung’s shoulder scraped through empty air.
[He’s blocked it! Baek Seojun stops Lee Woo Sung’s tackle!]
[That defense was textbook! Experience is building! He’s growing right before our eyes inside the Octagon!]
Lee Woo Sung tried to drive in again.
Baek Seojun stepped back first.
And he didn’t stop.
Left jab.
Tap!
Lee Woo Sung’s forehead.
Right Straight.
Crack!
Through the guard.
Lee Woo Sung’s head snapped back briefly.
Baek Seojun clenched his teeth.
Every punch he’d taken.
Every moment he’d been pressed.
Every second he’d endured.
All of it was converging now at the end of his fists.

* * *
Midway through the third Round.
Lee Woo Sung’s breathing had grown ragged.
It was the first time.
Every move he’d thrown was being shut down.
Boxing.
Clinch.
Dirty Boxing.
Tackle.
One Leg.
All the way through the entry to ground control.
Baek Seojun was caught at first.
Dragged down, unmistakably.
But he was fighting back up.
Once a path was opened, he didn’t walk it twice.
‘What on earth.’
Lee Woo Sung’s eyes wavered.
‘What is this monster?’
He’d faced countless fighters up to now.
Men with nothing but striking.
Men with only Wrestling.
Men who relied solely on their toughness.
Rookies blazing with raw talent.
Veterans holding firm through experience.
He’d fought them all.
He’d rarely felt hemmed in by a wall.
Exactly one person.
The current Korean Champion, Lee Sung Jun.
Two defeats.
A Decision Loss.
A Third Round Technical Knockout.
That’s when he first understood.
Even inside the same Cage, there were heights you couldn’t reach.
That face surfaced in his mind.
Cold, impassive, those eyes that wouldn’t crumble.
Those eyes, in that moment, overlapped with Baek Seojun’s.
Lee Woo Sung clenched his teeth.
“No.”
He shook his head.
He forced his focus upward by sheer will.
Not yet.
This man isn’t the Champion.
He’s not finished yet.
He can still be brought down.
In that instant, Baek Seojun came in.
Left Jab.
Tap!
Over Lee Woo Sung’s guard.
Right hand immediately after.
Smack!
Threading through the gap in the guard.
A short, clean One-Two.
Lee Woo Sung slipped his head and let it slide past.
But he was too slow.
Baek Seojun’s left leg came around low.
Crack!
A Low Kick landed hard on the outer thigh.
Lee Woo Sung’s leg instantly went slack.
His knee buckled inward.
His balance shattered.
The crowd erupted.
[There it is! A Low Kick from Baek Seojun! Lee Woo Sung’s legs are starting to give!]
[Now! He has to go now!]
Baek Seojun saw it too.
The legs were dead.
The upper body lagged behind.
The guard dropped half a beat too late.
Perfect timing.
Baek Seojun’s right foot pressed off the Mat.
Crack!
Right Straight.
This time he drives it all the way through.
The moment the punch is about to fly toward Lee Woo Sung’s jaw.
Lee Woo Sung’s right shoulder jerks back sharply.
Baek Seojun’s eyes snap wide.
Overhand.
A massive Right Overhand drops from above.
Round 1.
That moment plays out all over again.
Baek Seojun raises his guard on instinct.
Both arms cover his face.
Bang!
The Overhand crashes down on his guard.
His arms numb.
His vision closes.
Black Gloves.
Forearms.
Narrow darkness.
Just a split second.
That brief moment—Lee Woo Sung has been waiting for it.
His body disappears downward.
His upper body drops until it nearly touches the Mat.
Both arms reach toward Baek Seojun’s lower body.
Two Leg Takedown.
The nightmare of Round 1 unfolds again.
A gasp erupts from the stands.
“No!”
“He’s caught again!”
Team Jugjak corner.
Tae Soo’s face has gone deathly pale.
A Yeon swallows hard.
Lee Woo Sung’s arms reach out toward Baek Seojun’s legs.
Do Yun’s eyes widen.
“Seojun!!”
In that instant.
Baek Seojun’s body responds first.
His guard drops.
His vision opens.
Lee Woo Sung’s head is right in front of him.
Too low.
Too deep.
Baek Seojun’s right knee shoots up.
Crack!
Lee Woo Sung cannot stop what’s already in motion.
The momentum of his entry.
The speed of Baek Seojun’s response.
Two forces collide head-on.
Crack-!!
A sickening, bone-chilling fracture echoes through the entire Octagon.
Lee Woo Sung’s head snaps backward at a grotesque angle.
Crimson blood sprays through the air.
The crowd freezes.
A beat later, screams tear loose.
“Ahhhhh!”
“It connected!”
[Knee Strike!!]
The Commentators’ voices shred.
[Baek Seojun’s Knee Strike has struck the face of Lee Woo Sung—who was driving in—with direct impact!!]
Lee Woo Sung’s arms claw at empty air.
The leg he needed to grab vanished.
His body lurched forward.
But his head snapped back.
His center of gravity shattered.
Baek Seojun didn’t take it like he had in the first round.
This time, he saw it.
And he struck.
At the most dangerous moment.
At the closest range.
A perfect Counter.
Lee Woo Sung’s vision washed red.
Sound receded.
The roar of the crowd too.
The coach’s shout.
The Referee’s movements.
Everything blurred as if underwater.
Beyond the blood-soaked haze.
Baek Seojun was closing in.
Cold.
Unwavering.
To finish.
That figure overlapped with another.
The man who had once broken him.
Lee Sung Jun.
The current Korean Champion.
A wall he could never reach.
Those eyes that had trampled over him twice.
Those eyes were now in Baek Seojun’s face.
‘Ah.’
Lee Woo Sung’s lips moved.
No sound came out.
‘In the end.’
Blood flooded down his throat.
His breath caught.
‘I could never reach that place.’
He tried to grasp his footing.
He tried to recover his collapsing center.
He had to hold on.
He had to reach the Champion.
This was his last chance.
The Belt.
Revenge.
His pride.
All of it was shattering before his eyes.
Baek Seojun’s right foot tapped the Mat.
Tap.
Lee Woo Sung heard that sound.
Strangely clear.
Seojun’s right shoulder pulled back.
This time there was no deception.
No feint.
No leg to slip away to.
No center to spill.
No guard to raise.
Baek Seojun’s Right Straight extended.
Short.
Straight.
Heavy.
Crack!
The fist buried itself in Lee Woo Sung’s jaw.
His head snapped to the side.
In that instant.
Lee Woo Sung’s vision went black.
Crash!
The sound of a great tree falling.
Lee Woo Sung’s body collapsed onto the Mat.
The Referee’s eyes flew wide open as he rushed forward.
Before Baek Seojun could land another blow, the Referee’s body cut between them.
“Stop! Stop!”
The Referee’s arms swept wide.
“That’s it! Fight’s over!”
Baek Seojun lowered his fists.
He stepped back, breathing hard.
His chest heaved as though it might burst.
His arms felt leaden.
His legs trembled.
But his eyes never left Lee Woo Sung.
Lee Woo Sung lay motionless.
His face swollen.
Blood at the corner of his mouth.
His body sprawled across the Mat.
The veteran who had seemed like a monster lay broken.
Then the Stadium erupted.
Rooooooaaaaaar!
The roar tore through the ceiling.
Team Jugjak’s corner exploded.
Tae Soo hammered the Steel Cage, screaming.
“Baek Seojun!!”
A Yeon covered her mouth with both hands.
Do Yun couldn’t speak.
He simply gripped the Steel Cage, his eyes locked on Baek Seojun.
[Baek Seojun!!]
The Commentators’ cry shook the Stadium.
[He’s defeated the monster Lee Woo Sung and becomes the victor of the Final!!]
[Three Rounds from Debut! His first crisis! His first ground hell! He has broken through it all and delivered the Finish!!]
[Baek Seojun has opened the path to becoming Champion!!]
Baek Seojun slowly raised his head.
On the scoreboard above.
His name appeared.

In that moment.
Baek Seojun’s fist rose quietly into the air.

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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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