Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Ke Sui studied Yi-hyeon carefully.

Could that bastard be Song Yi-hyeon?

No. For one thing, his appearance was completely different. The man he'd seen in numerous photographs had a handsome, polished face and an irritating smile. This fellow standing before him was tall, but his face bore no resemblance whatsoever.

In that case···

There was no reason to hesitate. He simply had to kill the man in front of him and escape.

Ke Sui quietly flicked his right wrist, releasing the dagger strapped to his forearm. It was a long, exceptionally narrow and lightweight blade, commissioned from a master craftsman on the mainland. It had taken six months to make and had been transported to Korea inside the Chinese embassy's diplomatic pouch.

The dagger settled perfectly into Ke Sui's hand. In close combat, it could slash vital points such as an opponent's throat, armpits, or femoral arteries. It could also be thrown to disable an enemy.

With this dagger in his hand, Ke Sui feared no opponent in the world. Except, of course, someone firing at him from a distance.

While Ke Sui watched for an opening from behind his two subordinates, Yi-hyeon observed the men charging recklessly toward him. His instincts had already marked Ke Sui, standing a step behind the others, as a threat, but he didn't turn to look at him. He intended to respond when the man made his move.

Meanwhile, Yu Min-seon was also fighting fiercely. She had encountered enemies near the entrance to the stairs leading down to the basement. Before she could even draw her pistol properly, they had collided in close combat at a corridor corner.

Three opponents.

Crack!

Yu Min-seon dodged the hands reaching for her upper body and drove her forehead straight into the face of the man directly before her.

"Urgh!"

Although the collision happened in an instant, the impact was so solid that the man collapsed with a muffled scream. His nose and mouth were probably crushed.

"You son of a bitch!"

Cursing viciously, Yu Min-seon tried to raise the pistol in her right hand. But the distance was simply too close. Another man immediately pressed against her and grabbed her shoulder and side. These bastards were trying to overpower her through brute strength.

"Hup!"

Yu Min-seon exhaled, twisted her waist, and thrust her right arm outward. There was so little space that she could only straighten her bent elbow, but that was enough.

With their upper bodies nearly touching, the force generated by her twisting waist drove her elbow squarely into his jaw.

Thump!

A sudden, violent movement. That took care of two of them. Unfortunately, the impact had knocked the pistol from her hand.

One left!

"Hiyah!"

Yu Min-seon charged with a furious shout. Without bothering to check her opponent's weapon or measure the distance, she threw herself straight into his reach.

Perhaps her ferocity startled him. The man faltered for a moment. She was clearly a woman, but she was behaving like a complete lunatic.

Yu Min-seon seized the flustered man's collar and drove her knee upward.

"Aaagh!"

The hurried strike landed perfectly. With one final scream, the man's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed. She had struck him squarely in the groin.

"Who's next?"

Yu Min-seon looked around with eyes so bloodshot that she hardly seemed sane. Worse still, when she'd headbutted the first man, her forehead had apparently collided with his teeth, leaving blood streaming down her face.

The return of the 'Witch of the Capital Defense Command'!

Anyone who knew her and witnessed this scene would have muttered those words before discreetly backing away.

"Li hai···."

Someone appeared behind Yu Min-seon.

"Who the hell are you, bitch?"

Yu Min-seon spun around and shouted, her eyes blazing. A peculiar woman stood before her. As an NIS operative, Yu Min-seon had undergone extensive education and training. She spoke English, of course, along with basic Chinese and Japanese.

She understood perfectly well that the suspicious woman had just said 'Impressive' in Chinese, but she had no intention of acknowledging the compliment.

Instead, she grew slightly tense. Despite being so worked up that she was practically out of her mind, Yu Min-seon had immediately noticed something unusual about this woman.

For starters, her expression was perfectly calm amid this blood-soaked battlefield. Even a hardened man might shudder at the brutality surrounding them, yet she remained utterly composed.

That alone was irritating!

"Where did you come from?"

This time, the woman spoke in clearly pronounced Korean.

Yu Min-seon steadied her breathing. Looking more closely, she realized just how unusual the woman was.

She was slightly shorter than Yu Min-seon, with a naturally slender, elegant figure. Despite the winter weather, she wore a light beige two-piece suit: a tweed jacket and a short skirt that left her shapely legs exposed. She was even wearing high heels.

One glance was enough for Yu Min-seon to recognize that everything the woman wore was from a luxury brand. She might never wear such things herself, but she was still a woman and knew enough to recognize them.

The woman parted her red lips beneath her delicate features and repeated her question.

"I asked where you came from."

"Go ask your father, bitch."

Yu Min-seon snapped back and charged. There wasn't likely to be a single innocent civilian in this building tonight, so she felt no hesitation whatsoever.

Whoosh!

With no time to retrieve her fallen pistol, Yu Min-seon was unarmed. Nevertheless, she was confident.

Who was she, after all? Blessed with exceptional physical strength and athletic ability from childhood, there was hardly a sport she hadn't tried or couldn't master. In particular, she'd sought out famous instructors throughout the country to train in hapkido and kendo, and she prided herself on having nearly mastered both arts.

She'd never had any particular need for formal ranks, but military requirements had led her to earn fourth dan in kendo and an instructor's certificate. She had also become the first woman to earn fifth dan at Songmugwan, a school regarded as one of the orthodox lineages of Korean hapkido. Unlike many modern schools, it paid no attention to the colored-belt ranking system popularized by taekwondo. Even now, its tradition required instructors in their fifties to wash rags in cold water and scrub the wooden training floors alongside their students at dawn.

And on top of that foundation, she'd spent fifteen years in the military learning and refining every conceivable killing technique. Why should she fear a delicate-looking little fox of a woman?

But the moment that foxlike woman began to move, Yu Min-seon's heart sank. She had lowered her stance, used a slight feint, and launched a powerful middle kick toward the woman's pelvis. Yet the woman smoothly retreated two steps, effortlessly avoiding Yu Min-seon's swift, thoroughly practical attack.

The failed kick immediately left Yu Min-seon exposed. Sure enough, the woman spread the fingers of her left hand into hooks and reached for Yu Min-seon's unguarded waist.

Yu Min-seon caught a glimpse of the woman's pink-painted fingernails and violently twisted her upper body. It was an extreme movement that placed tremendous strain on her nearly airborne torso, but she had no other choice.

Something about those pink-painted nails was deeply unsettling. Almost simultaneously, she swung her elbow toward the woman's hand.

Crack!

Yu Min-seon's elbow collided with the woman's left hand. As she landed, Yu Min-seon seized the instant to roll across the concrete floor and escape the woman's reach.

"Urgh···."

Yu Min-seon's eyes burned as she glared at the woman. She had suffered a serious disadvantage in that brief exchange.

Her elbow had collided with slender fingers, yet it was her own elbow that had been injured. Unexpectedly, this woman could wield internal energy—and at a remarkably advanced level.

Yu Min-seon's left elbow was already numb and useless.

"Still want to continue?"

The woman spoke quietly as she straightened her posture. Her movements were composed, and her breathing remained perfectly even.

"Of course, you bitch!"

Yu Min-seon spat the words through clenched teeth and charged again. So what if her left arm was broken? She still had two perfectly good legs and a right arm.

"Tsk."

The woman retreated and casually launched a kick. The sharp tip of her high heel aimed straight at Yu Min-seon's solar plexus. Despite the height of her heels, the woman's movements showed no strain whatsoever. Even her tight miniskirt seemed to offer no impediment.

At that moment, Yu Min-seon's sheer stubbornness came into play.

"Hngh!"

She blocked the woman's pointed shoe with her senseless left arm while reaching for her throat with her right hand.

"Kh!"

"Hup!"

The two collided before either could make another move, then sprang apart.

"Y-you vicious···."

The woman muttered in a low, pained voice. Yu Min-seon, meanwhile, sat on the floor, coughing blood as she laughed.

"You bitch! Do you have any idea who I am? Ptui!"

Blood sprayed from her mouth as she spoke. Although she'd blocked the kick with her left arm, the internal energy from the previous exchange had already damaged it so badly that she couldn't exert any strength. Most of the impact had therefore passed through to her abdomen.

In return, Yu Min-seon's right hand had practically clawed the woman's throat. Her tweed jacket and blouse were torn and fluttering, exposing several distinct bloody scratches across her snow-white skin.

* * *

While Yu Min-seon and the woman, Mei, were fighting on the first floor, Yi-hyeon was bringing the battle in the basement to an end.

Two men charged him almost simultaneously. They were clearly well-trained, aiming at different targets. One threw a sharp punch toward Yi-hyeon's face, while the other attacked his lower abdomen. The second man was more dangerous.

He held a jackknife with a blade roughly the length of his palm. Although the blade was only slightly longer than a finger, a skilled fighter could easily kill with it. A short blade was no less lethal for its size.

Yi-hyeon stepped beneath the fist aimed at his face and drove his shoulder forward.

Thud!

The man whose chest collided with Yi-hyeon's shoulder collapsed, unable even to draw breath. At the same instant, Yi-hyeon caught the hand holding the knife just before it reached his abdomen. More precisely, he seized the wrist.

Crunch!

"Aaagh!"

The man's wrist bones shattered instantly. He staggered backward screaming, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide with disbelief that Yi-hyeon had broken his wrist with such a casual movement. Then he sank to the floor. He couldn't even stand, because Yi-hyeon had sent energy through his wrist when breaking it, violently disrupting his internal balance.

"You're Ke Sui, aren't you?"

Yi-hyeon grinned, showing his teeth, and casually kicked aside the man whose chest he'd struck earlier. The fellow had managed only to cling weakly to Yi-hyeon's leg. Now the only people standing in the room were Yi-hyeon and Ke Sui.

Watching the hesitant Ke Sui, Yi-hyeon placed the Beretta he'd been holding on the conference table.

"Come here. I have a lot of questions for you."

The gunfire outside had almost stopped, which reassured Yi-hyeon somewhat. The outcome of the battle was already decided.

After all, the NIS's domestic counterterrorism team and the handpicked members of Yi-hyeon's Nonhyeon-dong team had joined forces. There was no way a mere MSS detachment could withstand them.

Ke Sui's heart began racing when he saw Yi-hyeon put down the pistol. The bastard had let his guard down!

Now he would make him pay. If he killed this man and escaped through the secret door in the western wall, he could get away safely.

Ke Sui gave a crooked smile and raised his right hand. With a faint whistling sound, his hand began dancing through a dazzling series of movements.

Swish, swiiish!

Yi-hyeon watched Ke Sui's blade work with interest. As the leader of this group, the man ought to possess some skill, so Yi-hyeon decided to see what he could do.

Whip!

Ke Sui's dagger technique was indeed lethal. The blade that had been flowing along the back of his left hand suddenly flashed like lightning and thrust toward Yi-hyeon's chest.

"Not bad."

Yi-hyeon smiled as he twisted his neck aside to avoid the blade.

This man knew how to fight. Even now, the dagger had passed from his left hand to his right almost imperceptibly before stabbing toward Yi-hyeon's throat. His upper body had barely moved throughout the sequence. Even a highly skilled martial artist might have been caught in an instant.

And··· there was qi flowing through the man's blade.

Yi-hyeon had safely evaded it with a gap of about two finger-widths, yet his neck still stung. He had avoided the metal, but the qi carried by the blade had grazed him.

Yi-hyeon had seen enough.

"I'd like to play a little longer, but I'm out of time. Here."

Before he even finished speaking, Yi-hyeon glided toward Ke Sui.

"Huh?"

Whoosh!

Yi-hyeon stopped directly in front of Ke Sui, practically nose to nose. Startled, Ke Sui instinctively thrust out his hand. The dagger swept horizontally across Yi-hyeon's throat with perfect precision.

A truly masterful technique!

Got him!

Ke Sui rejoiced inwardly. He could already see the blade about to connect with Yi-hyeon's exposed neck.

But in the next instant, a violent pain exploded across his face, and the light before his eyes went out. He had lost consciousness.

Yi-hyeon approached the fallen Ke Sui and murmured,

"I need to catch that woman, not just this bastard··· Is she upstairs?"

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