Merun looked at her more closely. Her snow-white and flawless skin gave shivers to his wrapped tail. Her intense, wrathful state bore a hole into... his heart.
He'd never seen someone that beautiful. Where did she come from? How old was she? What will happen to her in the future?
Stuck between very 'close-in-importance' questions, he asked:
"How old—"
The thought didn't even finish before a powerful attack slammed into his gut.
BOOOOOM
It was the hardest hit his raw body had experienced so far. The impact sent him whistling through the air, his boots trailing uselessly in the snow.
He smashed through a line of frozen pines, the wood snapping like dry kindling, before cratering into the center of a snowy clearing. A massive cloud of white powder and mist kicked up, swallowing his vision.
A blur of white entered the mist.
CLANG
The second strike followed immediately, but this time the blur leaped out of the settling clouds as Hwayeon landed softly on the ice. She stood there, frowning as she shook her bruised fist.
"You practice the same technique as Nanouk?" she said, her voice flat and metallic.
The smoke cleared. Merun was sitting in the middle of a jagged crater, laughing as he spat out a glob of blood. He scratched the back of his head, his tail twitching irritably.
Shit, I can't believe I let my guard down just because she has a nice face. Even my tail warned me!
"Stop distracting me," Merun said, standing up and dusting the ice off his shoulders.
Hwayeon tilted her head, looking genuinely confused.
Merun didn't wait for her to start again. He moved.
He cleared the ten-pace gap in a heartbeat, a blur of motion that left a vacuum in his wake. He didn't bother with a flashy technique, he just aimed a straight, heavy lead punch right at that porcelain chin.
He pushed every preconceived notion out of his head. So what if she's pretty? She was a martial artist, the strongest squire in the present he'd seen or heard of.
Hwayeon didn't flinch. She didn't even lift her arms to a guard. As his fist came within inches of her face, her body suddenly slid. She moved like a puck on air, her feet barely skimming the snow. Merun's fist whistled through empty air, the sheer force of his own momentum carrying him a step too far.
He spun on his heel, throwing a backfist meant to catch her temple. Again, she wasn't there. She was drifting three feet to his left, her expression still fixed in that look of haughty boredom.
"You are fast," she said, her voice cutting through the wind. "But... predictable."
"Is that right?" Merun grunted.
RUMBLE
He stomped his leg, sending a shockwave through the permafrost that made the earth crack and uprooted the nearby trees. He didn't give her a second to breathe. He unleashed a barrage—a rapid-fire series of strikes that would have turned granite boulders into fine dust.
Left, right, low sweep, high kick. He was moving so fast his limbs were just dark streaks against the white backdrop of the forest.
But Hwayeon moved in ways that made no sense. Her style was odd, almost amateurish in its lack of structure. She'd lean at an angle that should have sent her face-first into the dirt, then suddenly appear upright behind him. She'd drop toward the ground and bounce back like a coiled spring without any visible muscle tension. Every time he thought he had her cornered against a tree or trapped in mid-air, she simply wasn't where the physics said she should be.
Her attacks were too disorganized. It felt like fighting random bullshit.
Merun was about to laugh when she tapped him.
It was just two fingers against his shoulder as he whirled past.
ZZZT
Merun felt a jolt of raw, vibrating energy scream through his arm. It felt like a high-frequency blade stabbing through his shoulder, piercing all the way to his collarbone, aiming to rattle the bone into splinters. He grunted, jumping back and clutching his shoulder as the limb went momentarily dead.
"What the fuck?" Merun muttered, shaking the numbness out of his hand.
What the hell is her Martial Path? Is it related to her weird fighting style? She has no pattern nor fixed stance. That technique even penetrated through my passive ki defense!
He looked at her, then back at his shoulder. His new technique Sanchin: Root of the iron Pillar or just 'Sanchin', worked by finding the most optimal stance for balance, and then clenching your muscles to its very limit, condensing every muscle into a steel-like state.
He'd been trying to play it smart, trying to time her hits perfectly to trigger Sanchin at the exact moment of impact. That's how Nanouk taught him. It was efficient and It saved energy as the downside of the technique was the significant burden it had on the user's stamina.
But Hwayeon's attacks were too random, too non-linear to time. Every time he braced for a hit, she hit somewhere else, or she hit a fraction of a second later than she should have.
Wait, Merun thought. Why am I trying to be efficient?
Nanouk was ultimately a human, even with his Martial Body. Using Sanchin for more than a second was incredibly taxing on his human heart and lungs. After all, a battle is not just a sprint, but a marathon.
A martial artist here on Panama is extremely efficient with how they use and apply energy.
But Merun wasn't human. He felt the heavy, thrumming engine of his Saiyan heart. He had more stamina than this entire village combined... one day, possibly more than the entire country.
He took a deep breath and centered his weight. Instead of waiting for the impact, he simply flooded his entire frame with the hardening pressure of Sanchin. He didn't turn it off. He locked his muscles, his skin, and his very skeleton into a solid, unyielding block of dense matter. He turned himself into a statue that could move.
It was significantly exhausting... but he was a Saiyan!
Hwayeon drifted in for another strike, her fingers aimed at his throat.
CLANG
The sound echoed through the trees like a hammer hitting an anvil.
Hwayeon's eyes widened. The vibration she sent out didn't pierce his skin. Instead, it hit the impenetrable wall of his constant Sanchin and reflected right back into her own arm. She recoiled, her fingers trembling from the raw physical shock.
"You..." she started, her metallic voice finally showing a hint of strain as she realized what he did. "You think you can defeat me before your stamina runs out?"
Merun answered with an annoying smirk. He took a step forward, the snow groaning under his feet.
She tried a flurry, her strikes coming from angles that defied geometry—ribs, kidneys, temples. Each time, the result was the same.
CLANG CLANG CRACK
Hwayeon let out a sharp hiss, pulling her hands back. The knuckles of her right hand were already turning a deep, angry purple. The untouchable beauty was suddenly looking at her own bruised limbs with genuine shock.
"What's wrong, Princess?" Merun's voice was a low rumble. "Is everything alright?"
He didn't need to dodge anymore. He was nowhere even near being tired.
If the Vajra Tyrant Style is already this strong only with its first technique... what happens after I complete it?
Won't I be... truly invincible?!