Chương 15: Striking a Nerve

Splinters of wood and mangled pieces of wrought iron shot through the air as the first dummy wagon, located at the rear of the convoy, disintegrated into a mess of blood and shrapnel. The attack came right as the departing convoy reached the farthest edges of the foothills of Mt. Culai. The group was about to take their first break of the day in a large clearing, shaded around the edges by what remained of the canopy of mountain pines.

Chae-ha had just stepped out of the supply wagon she was riding in when the shockwave from the impact overtook her. The world seemed to tilt on its edge as the concussive wavefront swept the young girl off her feet. A splintered chunk of white oak collided with her midsection, knocking the air out of her lungs and spinning her over. Bruised and bewildered, Chae-ha landed face first in the dirt.

Coughing and struggling to breathe, she pulled herself up onto her hands and knees, waving her arm in front of her to try and clear the cloud of dust. As she did, the young girl lifted her head and looked towards the wreckage of the wagon. Her entire body stiffened in disbelief at what she saw. Three shadowy figures, dressed in robes the color of midnight and outfitted with functional leather combat gear, were standing on top of what used to be a supply wagon.

Two of them looked reminiscent of the assassin she and Mu-cheon had faced, except that they were equipped for travel instead of climbing. Shadowy veils hid their faces, leather wraps covered their hands and feet, and curved daggers glinted menacingly in their hands. But the third figure was different. This man didn't look like he was trying to be invisible; he exuded presence and bloodlust. Far from being plain, his dark veil was covered in red embroidery meant to look like a haunting multitude of demonic eyes.

His robes were polished silk, trimmed in dark purple, and marked clearly with the scarlet sigil of the Hundred Ghost Pavilion. In his left hand, the man carried a beautifully forged Bi-su, the tip of the ritual dagger dripping with caustic poison. The markings on his clothes were obviously intended to scream this man's identity to the heavens. That could only mean one thing: he was someone who didn't need to hide his affiliation.

Someone the assassin group sent when they wanted the entire world to know exactly who was responsible for what had happened. A High Elder, and likely one of the most wanted men in the Murim. As the air began to fill with the panicked ringing of alarm bells, Chae-ha began to realize that she had grossly underestimated the depth of their enemies' pockets. The guards assigned to monitor the dummy wagon fell upon the three men.

Her plan had been flawless; the alarm bells rang, and the first contingent of guards arrived to engage the intruders, right on cue. But she hadn't accounted for a total massacre. Chae-ha watched helplessly from her spot on the ground as the Ghost Elder and his disciples eviscerated the men who were supposed to be pinning them in place. The two Specters darted back and forth around their master, disemboweling the Tai-shan escort warriors on the periphery while he carved a path straight through their center.

It didn't take long until nine of the ten guards were dead. The one remaining guard struggled as the terrifying figure lifted him with a single hand around his throat, while pulling back his veil with the other. The assassin's voice sounded like the soft, sibilant hiss of a snake as he spoke." Seop-hon-an." The Soul Scouring Eye. The Ghost Elder's right eye glimmered with a faint red light. The guard's pupils rolled back in his skull, leaving only the whites of his eyes exposed.

The man's entire body seized violently as foam began to gather at his mouth. He choked and gasped for air. A moment later, the horrifying figure released his grip, and the final guard dropped to the ground – dead.

"The target is in a carriage near the vanguard. Let's go." The two Specters and the monster they served all exploded into a sudden sprint. With a start, Chae-ha realized they were coming straight for her. Although her body froze in instinctive terror, her mind somehow remained calm. A needle dropped from her sleeve and into her grip. As the assassins approached her at breakneck pace, she willed her body to rise, her breath to return, her feet to step.

But despite her best efforts, the young girl had only managed to just barely pull herself into a crouch before the three men arrived to take her life. Or so she'd thought. Chae-ha's breath caught in her throat as the Ghost Elder dashed right past her, straight down the length of the convoy. Realization bloomed within her as she finally considered what she must look like. A young woman, with no Ki, dressed in scholar's robes. Stunned, bewildered, and probably injured by the explosion.

A meaningless background character in this story, not even worth thinking about when there was still a mission to complete. As one of the two Specters followed his master right past her, muscle memory suddenly took over. Almost without thinking, she shifted her weight to turn and follow him. Her wrist moved on its own with an almost automatic twist. Thwick. With essentially no resistance, her needle sunk into the man's leg." Sin-gyeong-jeom," the young girl whispered.

"Nerve Strike: Fibularis Communis." Hitting a moving target was harder than she'd expected, and Chae-ha could immediately tell she'd failed to sever the nerve. But, from the man's reaction, it seemed she might have hit the sheath around it. The assassin's lower leg seized; his momentum carried him forward as he stumbled and fell, causing him to grind his face into the dirt. A lesser opponent might have broken their nose or lost teeth from such an impact, but the Specter's reflexes were inhumanly fast.

He used his arms to catch himself and soften his fall, suffering only cosmetic damage as the bottom half of his veil ripped open. The man's dagger remained solidly clenched in his grasp. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. The assassin whipped his head around to stare at her as the other two men continued to speed away. He looked down at the needle in his leg and ripped it out, casting it aside with disdain.

He tried to stand, but his ankle and foot still wouldn't obey him. Chae-ha rose to her feet and looked down at her hands in awe, feeling almost as surprised as the Specter. The man finally managed to pull himself to his feet, still awkwardly favoring one leg, and began to limp towards her menacingly. Realizing her death was approaching, Chae-ha steeled her nerves and began to move. She stepped once, and then again." Baek-pal Hwan-yeong-bo," she breathed.

"108 Phantom Steps." The panels of her scholar's robes bloomed into deceptive motion. Perhaps deciding to just deal with the interruption as quickly as possible, the assassin threw his dagger straight at her head. His awkward advance halted momentarily in stunned disbelief as the blade sailed past her nose, missing its target by a finger's width. Growling gutturally, the Specter kicked off his good leg and exploded forward with all the speed he could muster.

He lunged towards her, his arm thrusting out into a wicked palm strike that would undoubtedly shatter her ribs if it connected. As the blow went whizzing through her sleeve, Chae-ha suddenly realized just how unlike her sparring sessions with Mu-cheon this was. The assassin wasn't pulling his punches, and the stakes were a lot more than a few bruises. One other thing was different: the Specter didn't retract his arm. Instead, he changed his motion mid-air, shifting from a strike to a snatch.

Chae-ha watched in near slow motion as the Specter's gloved fingers closed around the fabric of her sleeve. Through the tattered edge of his torn veil, the visible portion of the man's lips curled into an obvious sneer. He had no tongue, and no actual words came out, but it was very obvious what he was saying as he gave the fabric a hard tug. Got you. The frantic clanging of alarm bells penetrated the thick walls of the Young Master's carriage.

"It seems the assassins have finally struck – the first wagon, by the pattern they're using. Our young Inspector was right to place that one closest to the rear guards." Elder Ma rose from his seat inside the carriage, his long, wavy hair tumbling all around his chiseled face.

"Please excuse me, Young Master. I should go and ensure the intruders have all been properly detained." Mu-cheon drummed his fingers on his knees restlessly. He hadn't been allowed out of the carriage all day, for fear of giving away his location. Sitting back while others fought his battles for him didn't sit well with the young man.

"You know, I might as well go with you at this point. If the trap has already been sprung, there's no real meaning to me staying here." The Diplomacy Elder smiled softly.

"I'm afraid I must insist. The Sect Leader's orders were quite clear: you are not to come out until after the threat has been neutralized." Mu-cheon rolled his eyes – but remained seated.

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that. I'll stay put." As Elder Ma exited the carriage, several groups of guards making their way down from the vanguard rushed past him. The High Elder took a moment to retrieve his monstrous Cham-ma-do from an attendant, slinging the enormous blade over one shoulder. With a steady, even pace, he began walking towards the source of the trouble. The carriage wasn't even out of sight yet when the elder noticed something was amiss.

A hazy sheen gathered around his eyes as he peered into the distance. Elder Ma was just barely able to make out a pair of black blurs speeding down the length of the convoy, dodging between the groups of escort warriors wherever they could. The shadows grew larger rapidly as the men approached with terrifying speed.

"Stand your ground!" the Diplomacy Elder shouted to the guards around him.

"The enemy is coming!" Elder Ma invoked the first mnemonic of the Chuk-ap-gyeol. The definition in his muscles began to disappear as his entire body expanded slightly. His skin became taut and firm, and his arms rose up almost of their own accord. The unwieldy Cham-ma-do started to move in his hands like its weight had been cut in half. The Diplomacy Elder's hair whipped around his head as he began moving his upper body in a tight circle.

Taking advantage of the motion, he swung the massive sword around his head, carving out an unbelievably wide arc in the area around him. As the momentum built, the slashes came faster and faster. He wasn't trying to kill anyone – not yet. The motion was simply preparatory. The Ghost Elder streaked into view, his focus clearly on the carriage at the front of the convoy. Elder Ma saw the man trying to skirt around the range of his strikes." Pa-ji-bo," he breathed.

"Earth-Breaking Step." The Diplomacy Elder shot towards the intruder with an impossibly long, single stride. His heel pierced the hard, dry ground as he landed, like an iron pillar being hammered into sandstone. Jagged cracks appeared in the earth all around his foot, his leg now anchored firmly in place. His swirling blade descended, sundering energy crackling menacingly along its length, aiming to split the intruder in half.

The Ghost Elder scrambled to a stop and leaned backwards, barely escaping decapitation as the blade passed in front of his throat. The assassin regained control of his momentum and turned the maneuver into an elegant flip, landing on his feet several steps back from where he had tried to pass. Elder Ma's spinning blade came to rest atop his shoulder as he moved to block the man's path. He looked the assassin up and down, assessing his attire.

"You must be Sa Jeong-gwi. The one they call An-sal-ma – the Eye Demon of Shandong. What inspired one of the twenty most wanted men in the Murim to come visit our humble convoy?" Sa Jeong-gwi chuckled.

"Don't worry, Master Ma Cheol-mi. I'm just here to negotiate with you. You see, I need to terminate a certain contract." With that, the assassin launched himself towards the Diplomacy Elder, his poisoned blade twinkling as it passed through the beams of light radiating down from the mountain pines. Elder Ma blocked the strike easily with the flat of his blade, further converting the motion into rotation in order to begin his whirlwind anew.

Now close, the intruder pulled back his veil, his right eye already glowing with a soft blue light." Bak-hon-an." The Soul Binding Eye. A black blur passed by as the remaining Specter made a break for the carriage. Elder Ma willed his legs to move, to go and intercept the threat – but his muscles refused to obey. The Diplomacy Elder found himself momentarily transfixed, unable to look away from the soul-piercing glow.

"Oh, no you don't," the Eye Demon whispered softly.

"You're staying right here with me."