North Sea Martial Arts Warrior - Chapter 11

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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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11. The Weakness of the Iron Scales Shark

“Die!”
A colossal fist descended with Balkar’s roar.
The crushing force of a boulder tumbling from the sky.
Boom—!
The earth itself screamed.
The ground where Airak had stood caved inward with explosive violence.
The crater left behind stretched more than thirty feet across. But Airak was no longer there.
“Heh heh! Fast, aren’t you. Scurrying away like a little rat.”
Balkar lifted his head.

“Running? That’s not running. That’s evasion.”
Airak’s voice came from behind him.
“What’s the difference?”
“Running means showing your back. Evasion means hunting for an opening.”
Balkar spun around.
Airak was already cutting in from the side.
A whisper of movement.
Silent as a phantom, the Curved Blade slipped in toward Balkar’s waist.
Clang!
A dull metallic note—no bite. Yet the blade had made contact.
“Barely a tickle.”
Balkar laughed through his nose.
“Is that the swordwork of a Northern Sea warrior? Child’s play!”
……
Airak’s brow twitched slightly.
The hide Balkar wore—it was the skin of the Iron Scales Shark, a man-eating creature said to dwell in the deepest abyss of the Northern Sea, some ten thousand fathoms below the surface. An absolute defense that even a blade’s edge could not pierce.
Among the fishermen of the Northern Sea, there was a saying: catch an Iron Scales Shark, and three generations would eat well. A single hide of that creature could purchase an entire city in the Central Plains. Yet only three men in all of history had ever hunted one, and two of them died shortly after the kill.
Balkar, conscious of Airak’s gaze, beat his chest as he spoke.
“That’s right. The hide of an Iron Scales Shark from the Northern Sea Abyss.”
……
“No matter how fast or strong you are, if the blade won’t bite, what good is it?”
“So?”
“What?”
“Are you going to keep talking?”
Balkar’s eyes flared.
“This bastard talks even less than I do?”
“No point drawing it out.”
“Fine!”
Balkar twisted his waist and hurled his arm in a sweeping arc.
Whoosh—!
His entire forearm moved like a massive club, a horizontal sweep that tore through the air.
Airak did not retreat. Before the towering storm of force, he dove deeper into his enemy’s guard.
Tap-tap-tap!
Three strikes.
The armpit, the neck, the back of the knee.
“Khahaha!”
Balkar laughed.
“Right, those are the vital points. You’re right. But here’s the thing—my vital points aren’t vital.”
He spread both arms wide. The Bear Embrace—the stance of a bear crushing its prey.
Pop!
Airak stamped down on Balkar’s knee and launched himself skyward.
Spinning once through the air, he drove downward.
Crash—!
The Curved Blade and Fighting Gauntlets met head-on.
Sparks erupted—and Balkar’s knees sank into the snow. But that was all. Airak’s Internal Force pressed down upon him, yet failed to overwhelm.
‘The pinnacle of the External Gate Qi Art.’
Airak analyzed coldly.
The man’s muscles were not simply thick. They were structured to absorb and disperse force itself. To break through head-on would require strength three times his own.
“Weak. Are you wielding a blade or fanning yourself with a feather?”
Balkar sneered and lifted his arm.
Airak was thrown back, landing ten paces away upon the snow.
……
“What? Nothing to say?”
“Tiresome. Your mouth moves faster than your blade.”
“What?”
“Strong arms, but far too many words.”
Balkar’s eyes flashed with fury.
“You bastard!”

* * *

“Look at that.”
Arko, watching from a distance, muttered.
“The chief’s provoking him.”
“Provoking?”
Taikan narrowed his eyes.
“The chief is?”
“You know how much he hates when that bear talks too much. He’s baiting him on purpose.”
“Why?”
“When he gets angry, he leaves openings.”
Garkan interjected.
“The chief never loses his composure. That’s his strength.”
“But that bear already looks rattled?”
Harku chuckled while wiping blood from his face.
His ribs hadn’t fully mended, but his mind was sharp enough.
“The chief’s a master at psychological warfare.”
“Still, brother—that bear’s really something tough. The chief’s blade won’t cut through.”
Arko tilted his head.
“It’ll cut through eventually. There’s nothing the chief can’t sever.”
Taikan spoke matter-of-factly.
“But look at that hide. Every time the blade touches it, sparks fly.”
“Still—this is the chief. Our job is to trust and watch.”
Garkan spoke firmly.
“…Understood, brother.”

* * *

“Tiresome, you say?”
Balkar ground his teeth.
“Yes.”
……
“You came to fight—so fight. You came to talk—so leave.”
“Arrogant little worm!”
Killing intent erupted from Balkar’s entire frame.
Heat that seemed ready to melt the snowy field itself.
“Fine. No more words—fists only!”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Balkar advanced.
With each step the earth groaned. The snow split open; ice shards scattered upward.
“You know why I’m the First Master of the Three Northern Seas?”
“No.”
“Don’t care?”
“Don’t.”
“…You really are something.”
Balkar ground his teeth.
“Fine. I’ll tell you. Undefeated. Three hundred twenty victories in a row. Won every single one with these fists. Among them were elders from the Frozen Palace, swordsmen from the Central Plains. Masters from heterodox schools, Dharma Protectors from the Demonic Sect. All of them died to this fist.”
Balkar clashed his Fighting Gauntlets together.
Bang—the sound rolled out like thunder.
“Want to count which corpse number you’ll be?”
Balkar flexed his powerful forearms.
“And?”
“I don’t need techniques or forms. Crush them in one blow and it’s done. And I can do it.”
“Simple-minded.”
“What?”
“Are you stupid? Did fate smile on you? You’ve never met your match.”
Balkar’s face flushed red and purple.
“You arrogant little—”
“It’s not arrogance. It’s the truth.”
Airak shrugged.
“In everything you’ve said so far, not a single thought behind any of it.”
……
“Just ‘I’m strong’, ‘I finish in one blow.’ Is that all you have?”
“Shut your mouth!”
Balkar exploded.
“You’re exactly like your master.”
“What?”
“Didn’t I mention it? Looking at your movements, that’s Tara’s technique—your master, right? I met Tara thirty years ago. When I was young. Even then he was as stubborn as you are now.”
“You bastard!”
Balkar bared his teeth.
“When Tara ran away, he said, ‘If we meet again, I’ll kill you.’ Ha ha! You think a disciple will win with a technique his master fled from? Oh, should I not have said that? For the sake of Tara’s honor.”
“You son of a—!”
Balkar’s eyes flashed blue.
Whoosh!
Airak vanished, leaving only an afterimage.
“Hmph! Parlor tricks!”
Balkar spun and threw a punch at the space behind him. But it met nothing but air. His fist sang through the emptiness with a boom.
“Here!”
Below.
Airak dove low, targeting the man’s legs.
Swish!
A strike aimed at the ankle tendon.
Screech!
Blocked again.
“Got you!”
Balkar lifted his foot and stomped the ground.
Shaking Foot.
Crack-boom!
A pillar of ice exploded inches from Airak’s face.
“Ugh…”
Airak was driven backward.
“Running your mouth while you’re nothing but a coward! Come on!”
Balkar charged. Iron Mountain Lean.
There was no space to evade.
Behind him: a cliff. Left and right: avalanche terrain. Airak raised his Curved Blade vertically.
In that instant, white frost seemed to shimmer across the steel. A barrier formed on the blade’s surface.
Crash-boom!
Collision—and Airak’s defeat.
The force drove Airak’s body upward, and he smashed into the cliff face.
Rock splintered like spiderwebs.
“Cough…”
Airak fell to the ground.
Dust rose. Then silence fell.
“No… surely not.”
Arko’s face went pale.
“The chieftain was pushed back?”
“That’s impossible.”
Harku spat blood but scrambled to his feet.
“I’ve never seen the chieftain lose. He… he took that hit on purpose.”
“Chieftain!”
Taikan cried out, and Garkan lunged forward.
“Don’t come.”
Airak spoke.
His voice didn’t tremble—it was calm and measured as always, utterly composed.
“Don’t interfere. He’s my prey.”
Airak rose unsteadily.
“…It’s been a while.”
“What are you talking about?” Balkar asked.

“This taste.”
Airak licked his blood-stained lips.
“I haven’t tasted blood in thirty years.”
“Kekeke. Yes, that’s the spirit.”
Balkar laughed with satisfaction.
“Now it’s finally worth killing you.”
“Worth killing? Hehehehe! You’ve come this far and you’re still talking nonsense? You just got beaten by me.”
Balkar grinned as he spoke.
“Just loosening up after all this time… I was testing to find where your hide is thinnest.”
Airak shook off his Curved Blade.
“Now I know.”
“This bastard never stops running his mouth!”
“Is that so?”
Airak lowered his blade to his hip. Blade Drawing Stance.
“Your eyes. That’s where I’ll strike.”
…….
“Your eyes aren’t covered in hide.”
Balkar’s face went rigid.
His left eye—that place where an ice sphere was embedded.
“How dare you…”
“How dare I?”
Airak’s lips curled upward.
“What’s so hard about plucking out one bear eye?”
“Ridiculous! Your arm will be severed before my eye feels the blade!”
Balkar roared.
“We’ll see about that.”
Airak dropped lower into his stance.
Martial Asura Seal, Seventh Form. Frozen Flash.
He gathered all his strength into a single point of the blade. Not cutting—piercing.
“Come on!”
Balkar bellowed.
“Stab whatever you want! Your skull will burst before you get there!”
…….
Airak moved without answering.
He burst forward simultaneously.
This time he left no afterimage. A speed that not even the wind could follow.
Balkar’s eyes widened.
‘He vanished?’
No.
He was right there.
The blade tip, close enough to touch his nose, blazed with blue light as it aimed for his eye.
‘Fast!’
Balkar instinctively raised his arm, shielding his eye with the Fighting Gauntlets.
Clang!
Sparks erupted.
The blade tip scraped across the gauntlet and its trajectory bent away.
“Blocked!”
Balkar shouted.
“See that? No matter how fast you are, you can’t outpace my reflexes!”
“…….”
Airak stepped back.
His eyes remained cold as ice.
“How pleased you are—blocking just once.”
Airak’s voice was flat, measured—like a hunter confirming the escape route of his prey.
“Your reflexes are quick, but they’re predictable. You raise your left first, then your right. The instinct to protect your eyes is etched into your body.”
“……!”
Balkar’s eyes wavered.
He was being dissected, analyzed in real time.
“What?”
“I was curious whether this could pierce Iron Scales Shark Hide. As I thought—it can’t. The hide is formidable indeed. But now… it’s time for what you’ve been wondering about. The Ultimate Yin Technique. I’ve waited long enough.”
A razor’s edge of tension.
A blood-soaked fight where neither would yield.
The battle of the Northern Sea’s mightiest was reaching its crescendo.
A blizzard wrapped around the two figures.
A wind of blood and ice swept across the field.

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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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