I’M A Max-Level Regressor [EN]: Chapter 156

Episode 156

Thud!

“Kuh-ugh!”

Swish!

“Keuh-heok!”

“Kang Shin-hwa! Weren’t you so confident? All that talent is useless with such poor reactions!”

The start wasn’t ideal.

Shin-hwa took several solid hits from Mok Jin-woo’s determined attacks.

Thankfully, he avoided any major direct hits, so he wasn’t critically injured.

However, his forearm was cut, and his side was stabbed.

He struggled against Mok Jin-woo’s space-distorting sword strikes, forced to retreat several steps.

‘I’m not using my full power yet, but I can’t ignore the rank difference.’

Shin-hwa bit his lip.

He’d held back, intending to conserve stamina while assessing the situation.

But after taking those hits, Shin-hwa realized that was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

‘A prolonged fight with him is dangerous.’

Shin-hwa always preferred quick battles, but Mok Jin-woo was an opponent who needed to be dealt with swiftly.

Mok Jin-woo’s skills, like a slow-burning fire, only intensified over time.

If his talent utilization was at 100 percent when fully warmed up, it was only around 50 percent now. A significant difference.

‘I can definitely fight him if I go all out. But I need to be careful of his tricks.’

Shin-hwa was wary of Mok Jin-woo’s “trick play,” one of his signature moves.

This involved deliberately exposing a weakness to bait the opponent into attacking.

If the opponent, convinced they’d found Mok Jin-woo’s weakness, attacked,

he would exploit their overreach to deliver a fatal blow.

In his past life, Mok Jin-woo had ended many rivals using this method.

‘It’s a luxury only the strong can afford.’

Whether intentional or not.

Deliberately showing a weakness is impossible without confidence in your abilities.

‘Let’s save the trick play for the final move.’

The trick play was shelved for now.

He planned to twist and exploit the ultimate pattern that Mok Jin-woo was undoubtedly planning.

“It starts now, Mok Jin-woo!”

“Your skills are too insignificant for me to enjoy or appreciate your antics!”

The two clashed again.

Shin-hwa greatly increased his use of magic, pressuring Mok Jin-woo with explosive fist attacks.

Mok Jin-woo aimed distorted sword strikes at Shin-hwa from all directions, mixing feints and real attacks.

Clang! Clang clang! Clang!

But this time, Shin-hwa used his Steel Enhancement talent to block them reliably.

Mok Jin-woo was an opponent ranked far above him.

If he tried to ‘save’ something against him, he would ‘definitely’ lose something in return.

He had no intention of being lenient or conserving stamina. This wasn’t the time for that.

“Impressive!”

Mok Jin-woo quickly widened the distance between himself and Shin-hwa, preparing to resume his distorted sword strikes.

Mok Jin-woo’s strength was his ability to attack from mid-range despite wielding a sword with limited reach.

This gave him an advantage over Shin-hwa, who had to resort to close combat unless he used magic discharge or Wilson [presumably a special technique or weapon].

But just then.

Whoosh!

“……?”

Mok Jin-woo was surprised by Shin-hwa’s much faster approach than he had anticipated.

Mok Jin-woo, who wouldn’t lose to anyone in terms of mobility, had been completely caught off guard this time.

“Well, of course!”

Pow!

“Keuh-heok!”

With a meaningful smile.

Shin-hwa raised his fist vertically, striking Mok Jin-woo’s chin from below.

Mok Jin-woo’s head snapped back, and he would have suffered a series of attacks if he hadn’t reflexively swung his sword.

Only because it was Mok Jin-woo did he block Shin-hwa’s follow-up attacks; anyone else would have collapsed immediately from the barrage.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Bang!

Shin-hwa, who had stepped back slightly to block Mok Jin-woo’s counterattack, kicked off the ground and charged in again.

The speed, amplified beyond imagination using Transcendental Acceleration, was powerful enough to create a fierce sonic boom.

Mok Jin-woo calmly extended his sword, aiming a distortion attack at Shin-hwa’s back, who was solely focused on him.

Clang!

“No……?”

It was a complete failure.

Despite the perfectly concealed attack on his rear using distortion, Shin-hwa blocked it.

This was a response that would have been impossible unless Shin-hwa had anticipated it from the moment Mok Jin-woo extended his sword.

Like flipping a coin, giving up on the front and thinking about the back in advance?

That was also impossible.

If the trick play failed, his heart would be pierced immediately; who would dare gamble with their life?

In the meantime.

Boom!

“Keuh-heok!”

The shockwave of magic released by Shin-hwa, using the gauntlet on his left arm, struck Mok Jin-woo’s chest directly.

Before being hit, Mok Jin-woo considered it a minor shockwave that he could easily withstand in an emergency.

But the moment the shockwave struck the suit that was quite firmly protecting his chest, his thoughts changed.

“Keuh-ugh…….”

With a single magic discharge, the suit deformed grotesquely, heavily pressing down on his right chest cavity.

If he hadn’t been wearing a super-expensive suit, his ribs would have fractured from the impact.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Fssst!

Shin-hwa disappeared from sight. Mok Jin-woo knew what that meant.

He must have obtained the Blink Ring from Park Hyung-san when he killed him.

‘You rat-like bastard!’

Mok Jin-woo didn’t panic and devised a strategy to defend widely, holding his sword to the rear.

A conservative but safe method.

He had just allowed Shin-hwa to land a blow, and his center of gravity was broken, so it was right to be defensive.

But just then.

“Where are you looking?”

Shin-hwa’s words came from the direction of Mok Jin-woo’s head.

He had switched positions by using Blink in succession.

At that moment.

Mok Jin-woo realized for the first time in his life that he could break out in a cold sweat just from hearing someone’s voice.

Because he realized he had been completely caught off guard. It was the worst position, unable to defend in any way.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

As expected, Shin-hwa’s relentless offensive began, taking advantage of the gap.

Mok Jin-woo, unable to respond with sword strikes or defensive stances, was like a sandbag.

He didn’t have a defensive talent that created barriers.

The fact that he, whose life depended on unconventional swordsmanship that brilliantly utilized space, had completely exposed his rear to the enemy was truly the worst situation.

Pow! Whack!

“Keuh-eo! Keuh-eo-heok!”

Shin-hwa’s explosive fists began to strike Mok Jin-woo’s face, chest, and abdomen relentlessly.

Mok Jin-woo was clutching the Full Moon Sword, but he couldn’t take any counterattacking action at all.

The basics of swordsmanship required ‘securing vision,’ but he couldn’t come to his senses because Shin-hwa was attacking his face first.
Hoping against hope, he tried to unleash a sword strike, seeing only Shin-hwa’s silhouette in his swaying vision.

Whoosh!

It only cut through empty air.

And in return, he received Shin-hwa’s strike that ruthlessly targeted the exposed gap for that time.

Explosive Fist.

Shin-hwa’s martial art, which he was experiencing for the first time, was truly destructive.

It was cleaner and more powerful than other named Awakened [individuals with supernatural abilities] known to enjoy using martial arts.

To be honest, it felt like facing a fist that could shatter a rock as large as a mountain.

He barely endured it, but in fact, Mok Jin-woo almost lost his mind with the first blow.

He never expected that a single blow, that one fist, would be so powerful as to make him lose consciousness….

Not at all, not even 1% of anticipation. He had been greatly caught off guard.

He kept getting his moves read by the enemy.

Mok Jin-woo had never seen an Awakened who had cornered him and beat him up like this before.

Of course, there were opponents who had poured out overwhelming firepower from the start of the battle and pushed him quite a bit.

However, he had only been strategically cornered, and Mok Jin-woo had never allowed a single blow there.

In other words, he may have entered a defensive position out of necessity, but he had never been unilaterally hit or anything like that.

But Shin-hwa was an exception.

Not only did he force him into an unwanted defensive position, but he also poured out relentless attacks in that state.

Frankly, it was very humiliating.

Wasn’t his ‘noble’ body the one that no one had dared to treat carelessly since he became an Awakened!

The integrity and reputation he had built up until now were collapsing like a sandcastle in the face of Shin-hwa’s brutal attacks.

Boom!

“Keuh-heo…….”

Mok Jin-woo’s body, finally succumbing to Shin-hwa’s strike, the Gwaedang Fist [likely a specific martial arts technique], flew helplessly into the air.

During the brief moment of flying in a parabola, Mok Jin-woo recalled all his memories.

‘Is Kang Shin-hwa really a B+ rank?’

That was the most fundamental question.

No matter how Awakened with unique talents, it was impossible to overcome three ranks.

‘How can he catch my trick plays faster than I can?’

This was the next question raised.

Mok Jin-woo was one who avoided attacks with stereotyped repertoire more than anyone else.

Isn’t the sword strike of space distortion a mass of variables that make it difficult for the opponent to even predict in the first place?

But Shin-hwa had perfectly found his gaps.

As if he knew some ‘habit’ that even Mok Jin-woo himself didn’t know.

‘That’s impossible.’

Mok Jin-woo’s denial was a natural reaction.

How could someone who wasn’t a transcendent being, someone he was fighting for the first time, know some habit that even he himself didn’t know?

He wasn’t so easygoing or full of loopholes.

At that time.

Tingle.

Mok Jin-woo’s fingertips trembled regardless of his will.

It was fear and terror shown unconsciously, regardless of inner emotions.

Mok Jin-woo was greatly shaken by Shin-hwa’s attack to the point that such emotions themselves were considered very humiliating.

Thud! Bang! Thud!

Eventually, Mok Jin-woo, who had rolled on the ground, barely managed to plant his feet and regain his balance.

“Cough!”

Unable to withstand the accumulated internal injuries, he coughed up a handful of dark red blood that had finally regurgitated.

It seemed certain that somewhere in his internal organs had suffered a serious injury, although it was impossible to specify.

“Hoo.”

Shin-hwa let out a rough breath.

Certainly, when he suddenly drew up magic and poured out a relentless offensive, the overload on his entire body was considerable.

‘Yes, this is the feeling. This feeling of pushing myself to the limit and fighting when facing a stronger enemy than me!’

Some might call it perverted, but Shin-hwa liked the feeling of realizing the limits of his body and pushing himself hard.

He could feel magic recovering explosively just by breathing.

The magic lungs, liver, and heart repeatedly pumped in close coordination, filling the magic void.

“Damn it.”

Meanwhile, Mok Jin-woo, who had risen to his feet, wiped the blood from his mouth and glared at Shin-hwa fiercely.

Mok Jin-woo’s eyes, stained red.

It was a sign that his body was now fully warmed up and a signal that a major offensive would follow.

‘He must be furious that the opponent has seen through his habits that he himself doesn’t even know.’

Mok Jin-woo will now virtually enter a state of awakening.

From now on, he really needs to induce a short-term battle.

How do you induce a short-term battle against a guy who has pulled up his strength to the fullest?

The method is simple.