The guards attacked with everything. Ma Yung tried to flee, but a spear pierced his leg. Gwan Taejin, however, was different. He roared, and three warriors flew backward with a single strike of his blade.
He was strong. Very strong.
Even with numbers on our side, we were losing.
Then I took a step forward.
"Enough," I said.
Everyone stopped.
"You?!" Seong grabbed me. "Are you crazy? He will kill you!"
"Maybe. But monsters don't die from arrows. They die from courage."
I looked at Taejin.
"A duel. Man to man."
Taejin smiled.
"You're wounded. Dying. And yet you challenge me?"
"Even so."
He accepted. A circle opened. The rain fell.
And I advanced.
In a straight line.
No tricks. No hesitation. Just one decision: to finish what I started.
Taejin raised his sword. His blow hit my shoulder. It tore flesh, muscle, the pain screamed inside me—
But my sword was already moving.
I cut his throat. Then his head.
Gwan Taejin's body fell. His head rolled.
Silence.
I took a deep breath, struggling. Blood dripped from the wound in my shoulder, but my words came firm:
"The drink... I gave you... was poisoned," I whispered. "A poison that blocks the flow of Qi."
I saw the frozen surprise in his dead eyes.
"It doesn't affect me. I... never had Qi to begin with."
Taejin had lost control of his own body. His movements were slow, uncoordinated, as if fighting against his own existence.
"I chose the right poison... for the wrong body."
Seong looked at me as if seeing a stranger. The guards lowered their weapons.
That night, I bled inside and out. But the path to the top was clearer than ever.
And I — bleeding, wounded — was standing.
"Now… choose." My voice echoed. "Who will truly lead the Jaegal Clan?"
The Jaegal Clan had withstood the attack.
But the poison…
was already planted in its heart.
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Note: Gwan Taejin was Level 5 — Shattered Truth.