Chapter 1204. Punishment (4)

Chapter 1204. Punishment (4)

They were flooding in.

Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes gleamed sharply as he glared at the seemingly endless number of enemies flooding toward him.

Wasn’t this so strange?

Despite experiencing countless battles where people killed and got killed, this was his first time seeing a spectacle like this.

Yes, he certainly had fought against a higher number of enemies than this before. However, fighting all alone against these many warriors who had fully resolved themselves? Even Kang Jin-Ho had never experienced a situation like this until today.

His heart madly pounded away. It pumped blood nonstop as if to tell him that he must not rest for a second and keep killing again and again!

His body temperature had gone up extremely high a long time ago to the point of almost boiling his brain. As this ridiculously powerful exhilaration washed over him, Kang Jin-Ho bared his fangs in a ferocious smirk.

This... was a real battle. This was the land he called home!

Adrenaline explosively flooded his system, and exhilaration endlessly filled him up like a powerful narcotic.

“Diiiiiie!”

Swords came flying in. Swords came thrusting toward him.

But the hostility filling the swordsmen’s eyes stabbed Kang Jin-Ho much faster than their swords could reach him.

They had never met each other until today. However, on a battlefield, people who had no connections to each other and no real grudges to speak of were allowed to stew in endless hatred.

A steep cliff face where humans utilized every bit of knowledge humanity had accumulated to destroy the other side; a savage land where humanity’s worst forbidden act, murder, was not only justified but encouraged...

A place where the two sides of humanity called rational thinking and primal instincts coexisted, that was the battlefield.

And Kang Jin-Ho could finally feel that he was alive as the battlefield’s viciousness and destructiveness began freezing his flesh cold.

Claaang! Clang!

All the incoming swords shattered and snapped after colliding with Kang Jin-Ho’s swords. And he beheaded the wielders of the broken swords without mercy or hesitation.

Headless bodies, carried forward by their momentum, rammed into Kang Jin-Ho’s figure before plopping down to the ground after their legs gave way.

Kang Jin-Ho’s sword, now dyed pitch-black from waves of demonic qi, slammed down on the ground.

KA-BOOOOOM!

The ground exploded with demonic qi. Everything the pitch-black qi touched blew apart. Nothing could retain their original shape within these explosions—neither human bodies nor souls, not a single thing remained afterward.

Exploding corpses scattered everywhere. These bits of fleshy debris, catapulted by demonic qi, punctured and pierced the bodies of the next wave of Japanese warriors.

“

Kkuuuehk

!”

“

Uwaaaaah

!”

Even as they screamed in pain from their bodies being pierced, the Japanese warriors did not stop charging forward.

There was no ‘afterward’ for them, anyway. Their sole purpose right now was to cut Kang Jin-Ho’s head off and slice his chest open to rip his heart out. It was their only remaining path to life!

A Japanese warrior’s waist was split open in half. Even if he got sliced apart in half, his brain still functioned, however.

People who had already accepted their unavoidable death did not stop moving despite their torsos splitting apart in half. Warriors flung into the air squeezed out every bit of power remaining in their dying bodies to thrust their swords in Kang Jin-Ho’s direction.

Kwa-dududuk

!

Those blades couldn’t break through the flames of demonic qi and got deflected away. However, even if the Japanese had failed to cut Kang Jin-Ho’s flesh, the impact force must’ve still landed on his body.

Their goal of ‘

risking their lives to kill Kang Jin-Ho’

had completely morphed into ‘

throwing their lives away just for a chance to injure Kang Jin-Ho

’.

Their resolve turned into a truly frightening battle strategy.

A Japanese warrior charging in suddenly threw his sword at Kang Jin-Ho before performing a splendid baseball slide.

Crunch!

Kang Jin-Ho trampled the sliding warrior in the gut, utterly rupturing it.

“

Kkeurururuk!

”

However, the Japanese warrior with his lower torso missing still clung desperately to Kang Jin-Ho's leg, his eyes completely bloodshot.

It wasn’t only this warrior, however.

A dozen-plus Japanese warriors threw all caution to the wind and charged in to grab Kang Jin-Ho’s legs.

Since Kang Jin-Ho’s figure was enveloped in demonic qi, merely trying to touch him melted human flesh in an instant.

However, these warriors resolutely clung on and didn’t let go, even as their arms melted down to expose the bones underneath.

Madness! Such obsessiveness could only be described as pure madness. And everyone knew that Kang Jin-Ho was second to none when it came to matters of madness.

While swinging the Crimson Destiny to swat the incoming Japanese warriors away, Kang Jin-Ho stabbed toward the ground with the Azuremourne.

Stab!

The warriors clinging to his legs spasmed violently after the sword stabbed them in their backs.

One of the spasming warriors looked up at Kang Jin-Ho. And all he could see was... darkness!

On that face covered in pitch-black darkness were eyes glowing in an eerie crimson hue. However, even at this terrifying sight, the dying Japanese warrior cracked a blood-stained smirk.

“I’ll go first and...”

That was when shadows leaped out of the darkness around Kang Jin-Ho and clung to him before detonating their explosives.

KA-BOOOOOOM! KA-BOOM!

The ensuing series of explosions instantly turned all the Japanese warriors clinging to Kang Jin-Ho into nothing more than bits of blood.

With Kang Jin-Ho in the center, everything within the three meter radius was vaporized into nothingness. The explosions also flung the ownerless katanas into the charging Japanese warriors and mercilessly stabbed them.

“

Kkeeeuhk!

”

“You! Son of a biiiii*ch!”

Even as the blades stabbed into their bodies, these warriors did not stop their charge. Despite witnessing their comrades getting blown apart by Kang Jin-Ho’s kicks, dying from sword cuts, and getting swept up in the explosions, they didn’t retreat.

Rather than retreating, they madly charged in with foam gushing out of their mouths!

The madness of war had blinded them all.

At least in this very moment, things like one’s will, loyalty, and even the desire to survive had completely vanished from their minds. Only the hatred telling them to kill Kang Jin-Ho tainted their minds in pure darkness.

They had no problem viewing the battlefield.

The bombs the Japanese used didn’t create balls of flames like in movies and only created powerful shockwaves. As such, they could clearly see the monster enveloped in black flames staggering unsteadily.

Once the truth of their enemy being injured registered in their brains, all thought processes came to a standstill.

“Now, kill himmmm!”

Jumping inside a well was a suicide. However, what if dozens were jumping in? What about hundreds? Thousands?

No matter how deep the well was, it’d eventually be filled up with corpses. Once that happened, no one would drown in that well ever again.

These warriors succeeded in gradually hurting Kang Jin-Ho by offering up their lives. Insignificant scratches and nicks gradually grew larger and more grievous until blood freely flowed out, and bones underneath were left exposed.

Mindless animals pounced on their target from every side. Animals that didn’t care about anything blindly charged in!

An expert at Kang Jin-Ho’s level shouldn’t have a problem simultaneously dealing with enemies attacking him from all sides. However, dealing with an endless wave of enemies was a different problem altogether.

Especially when...

Whoooosh!

A Japanese warrior, whose body had been cleanly severed from his shoulder to his waist, somehow crawled all the way to Kang Jin-Ho and stabbed his sword into Kang Jin-Ho’s foot. The hostility burning in his eyes was so intense that even Kang Jin-Ho flinched slightly.

They weren’t powerful. None of these warriors were strong individually, yet their forceful momentum was still quite extraordinary and easily rivaled all the powerful experts Kang Jin-Ho had encountered until now.

Their determination to run straight into Kang Jin-Ho with zero regard for their own lives! Their boiling enragement and madness even sucked Kang Jin-Ho into their paces.

“

Hu-waaaaaah

!”

Kang Jin-Ho roared loudly while cutting and chopping down all those pouncing on him. His way of fighting devolved into street brawl-like rough and unrefined techniques.

Even then, shadows still found openings within these unrefined movements to pounce on Kang Jin-Ho.

After literally splitting apart a shadow appearing behind him in half from head to groin, Kang Jin-Ho unleashed a torrent of demonic qi from his body.

KABOOOOOOM!

As long as he knew where the explosion was coming from, he could defend himself. He still got hurt, but compared to getting hit without knowing, the damage he received was much more manageable.

Throb!

Kang Jin-Ho clenched his teeth at the extreme pain shooting up from his arms.

What a strange feeling this was. There was something different about the impact forces from bombs going off compared to those from martial art techniques. Despite the impact not transmitting anything, Kang Jin-Ho still felt intense pain.

It was as if something was missing. Hollow. Empty. But these empty ‘pains’ still shaved away at his vitality.

‘There’s no end to them.’

The Japanese continued to pounce on him, one wave after another.

Even though they could see Kang Jin-Ho remained standing even after getting stabbed and swept up in explosions, these warriors still came at him without a shred of hesitation.

White foam bubbled out of their mouths, while madness burned fiercely in their eyes.

In short, they were all lunatics. No, rather than living, breathing lunatics, they were more like zombies.

The sight of nearly a thousand lunatics turning their bodies around stiffly and pouncing from all directions should leave even the most brave people wetting their pants.

However, Kang Jin-Ho laughed at this sight instead.

He couldn’t have imagined it. To think that in the modern era...!

He never knew he’d experience an event like this in a world where primal savagery and madness had been largely eradicated.

These people’s naked hostility could be sensed in full. This hostility, this intense and overriding will to kill Kang Jin-Ho, no matter what!

Their determination to exchange their lives for one more wound on Kang Jin-Ho’s body was palpable in their eyes and roars.

Who would remain standing at the end of this battle? Would it be the gravely injured Kang Jin-Ho? Or the few remaining Japanese?

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly threw the Crimson Destiny and the Azuremourne forward. The two swords viciously spun around and cleanly cut through human flesh in front of their master like sharp sickles cutting through ripe rice stalks.

“

Fuu-huph

!”

That was when the burning light of madness also gushed out from Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes. With his fists containing explosive amounts of demonic qi, he punched, grabbed, and ripped apart his enemies.

In the blink of an eye, every enemy around him was ripped apart to shreds to create some breathing space. But it didn’t last long.

“Diiiiiie!”

A warrior descended on top of Kang Jin-Ho. At the same time, three shadows leaped up from the ground.

Turning these four into meat paste shouldn’t be difficult. However, doing so mattered little in this situation.

BOOM! BANG! KABOOM!

Another series of explosions went off. Two explosions came from his sides, while the last one happened right above him, right in the center of the Japanese warriors surrounding him.

Kang Jin-Ho kicked one away in time, but couldn’t evade the other two. His consciousness instantly faded away from the pain akin to a sledgehammer hitting him in the skull before returning with a vengeance.

“Heh...”

For some reason, he couldn’t stop smiling. Maybe he had finally gone insane.

It felt like his life was clinging precariously to the edge. How could he smile when every part of his body was screaming in pain?

Even Kang Jin-Ho himself couldn’t understand. However, it was impossible to stop the smile forcibly etching itself on his face.

That was when this happened.

Shuffle...!

Along with the subtle sound of clothes rustling in the breeze, someone suddenly appeared right next to Kang Jin-Ho. The glare in Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes grew cold instantly.

That was because Tsukikage had finally decided to join the fray.

Kang Jin-Ho reflexively tried to reach out, but Tsukikage was faster than expected. Catching the Japanese shinobi would’ve been easy had his body’s condition been fine, but that wasn’t the case right now.

Tsukikage retreated smoothly while tossing some things held in his hands.

A dozen-plus items covered in unidentified brown objects accurately landed around Kang Jin-Ho. The identities of these items were rather obvious at this point.

Kang Jin-Ho could clearly see the lengthy wires attached to all these bombs connecting to a trigger in Tsukikage’s hand.

‘I should cut the wires and...’

“Have a pleasant trip to Hell, Kang Jin-Ho!”

Before Kang Jin-Ho could respond, Tsukikage activated the detonator.

KAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The thunderous booming noise akin to the destruction of the world resounded out, followed by a terrifying blast mercilessly sweeping past the surroundings.

The Japanese warriors madly charging in couldn’t withstand the force of the blast. Their bodies were flung back viciously and crashed into the ground far away.

KWAAA-BOOOOM!

Nearby buildings vibrated while the ground screamed.

The destructive force of the bombs was scarcely believable. The ground, now completely upturned in the blink of an eye, kicked up an enormous cloud of dust and obscured Tsukikage’s view.

BANG!

Even Tsukikage couldn’t withstand the blast and tumbled around in the dirt. This explosion ended up being way bigger than he had anticipated.

“

Ptooi

!”

Tsukikage spat out the blood pooling in his mouth before urgently standing up.

Kang Jin-Ho must’ve died. No, it was obvious that he died from that blast!

Anyone capable of surviving that explosion couldn’t be human. Whether he was a martial artist or not didn’t matter. Humans made of flesh and blood should never be able to survive that.

‘He’s dead, right?’

Tsukikage’s brain said yes, but his heart still couldn’t be sure.

Without confirming the mangled corpse of the monster with his own eyes, his heart could never be at ease. Although, it was unknown if anything recognizable had survived that incredible blast.

The dust cloud slowly settled down, and the spot where Kang Jin-Ho used to stand revealed itself.

Tsukikage’s brows slightly rose up.

‘It’s not there?’

Did Kang Jin-Ho’s corpse break apart from the...

But then, this happened.

Grab!

Tsukikage shuddered in dread when he sensed something grabbing his leg. A figure rapidly broke through the ground and grabbed Tsukikage by his throat.

CRUNCH!