Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1434

Willie Reese felt that the situation was going completely wrong.

If you only looked at what was happening, nothing had changed. Kang Jin-ho was just observing the skills of the 15th Special Operations Battalion of the Special Operations Command in the H26 area, as he had initially planned.

However, a subtle emotional battle had begun as a step was added before that.

‘This isn’t the development I wanted….’

Even if Kang Jin-ho was practically the king of East Asia, Willie thought that if he saw the H26 area with his own eyes, he wouldn’t be able to deny their strength. That’s why he came to the largest area, H26, right?

Willie thought that if Kang Jin-ho acknowledged them, future conversations would be easier. He thought there might be a reasonable show of force in that process, but….

‘That idiot….’

Jimmy had completely lost it.

This would be the first time he had ever heard someone belittle the Special Operations Battalion. Soldiers have a lot of pride, and martial artists have a lot of pride too. So, of course, Jimmy was also very proud.

It seemed like that pride had been properly ignited.

The moment Willie Reese was about to say something, Jimmy spun around and shouted in a loud voice.

“Attention!”

Willie covered his face with the hand he had extended to stop Jimmy.

‘Damn it.’

If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have brought him along.

“Today, we have a guest visiting! As I said yesterday, he is a very important person, so you all need to give him a proper welcome!”

At the same time as he spoke, those who were training gathered in the center and lined up. Those who were in a separate training room quickly got their gear in order and rushed out of the training room at full speed.

Seeing them line up in perfect formation in an instant made him involuntarily exclaim.

‘Wow, the Americans are good at this too.’

Lee Hyun-soo watched the scene with a look of wonder.

He thought that this kind of drill was a specialty of people like North Korea, but seeing it with his own eyes, the United States was no joke either. He had a bit of a fixed idea that the US military wouldn’t care about such things and would act naturally, but that feeling was shattered at that moment.

“The training is good.”

“It seems so. It feels good to see them like this.”

Kang Jin-ho and Wiggins admired the sight honestly. But that was it.

This was the reaction of someone who had seen a circus, not the reaction of someone who had seen a powerful enemy.

Jimmy turned his head to look at Kang Jin-ho and quietly opened his mouth.

“If you change your mind now, we don’t want to embarrass you. After all, you are a valued guest of the country. We don’t distinguish between real combat and practice.”

“Good words.”

The corners of Kang Jin-ho’s mouth twitched.

‘He looks like he’s about to die laughing.’

Lee Hyun-soo, who could now guess Kang Jin-ho’s mood just by looking at his expression, accurately grasped Kang Jin-ho’s psychology. That was the face he made when he kept laughing but tried not to laugh out of consideration for the other person’s feelings.

“Are you really going to do this?”

Kang Jin-ho took out a cigarette without answering.

Then, he snapped his fingers to light the cigarette and slowly exhaled the smoke.

“Don’t waste time, if you’re going to do it, start quickly. Are you going to attack all at once?”

A vein popped out on Jimmy’s forehead.

His gaze quickly turned to Willie.

‘Why me again….’

That’s how martial artists are.

“It seems like the people from Korea don’t understand the situation at all?”

Jimmy said, as if grinding his teeth slightly.

“To prevent any unforeseen accidents, we will first indirectly show you what kind of training we have done and how strong we are. If you still don’t understand, then we’ll try a different method.”

He meant that he would flip the table right now, but he would hold back once for Willie’s sake.

He didn’t know whether to be tearfully grateful or to curse him for proceeding with things as he pleased when his superior was here.

‘I should have brought my direct superior.’

If the commander of the Special Operations Battalion had been here, there would have been a way to deal with it, but Willie had no way to do anything. His exact affiliation was with the Ministry of National Defense. Moreover, the SOB (Special Operations Battalion) was a unit directly under the commander within the Special Operations Command, so they had no obligation to follow the orders of others in the first place.

“Harry! Barton! Come forward!”

As soon as he finished speaking, two of the people who were lined up ran forward. Then, they stood facing each other.

“We don’t usually offer this kind of courtesy. But since there seems to be a big misunderstanding, we will show you a simple demonstration. Ready!”

The two men took their stances.

Watching the scene, Lee Hyun-soo casually spoke to Kang Jin-ho.

“What are they doing?”

“I don’t know.”

“It looks like they’re going to show us something.”

“Maybe.”

Kang Jin-ho answered indifferently, taking a drag from his cigarette.

And at that moment, the two men in front began to attack each other.

“Oh!”

Lee Hyun-soo exclaimed slightly as he watched the scene.

They were fast.

Because they were wearing military uniforms, it was hard to picture them as martial artists, but as soon as he saw their movements, the image he saw and the image in his head began to match.

‘They’re better than I thought?’

Lee Hyun-soo narrowed his eyes.

The movements of stabbing and retreating were very natural. In terms of speed alone, they were mid-level at the General Assembly… no, upper-level?

‘Anyway, the Heavenly Country is hopeless.’

They don’t even have the know-how to train martial artists, so he couldn’t understand how they could raise such martial artists.

Reading Lee Hyun-soo’s surprised expression, Jimmy continued to speak in a slightly relieved voice.

“We have combined traditional mana training methods with modern martial arts. Basically, the martial arts used in the past are outdated and not suitable for modern times.”

Lee Hyun-soo looked at Jimmy with a strange look.

“Modern martial arts? Jiu-jitsu? Martial arts?”

“It’s closer to special forces martial arts.”

Lee Hyun-soo frowned.

He had already experienced something similar once. The Chinese government forces also used a new martial art focused on knives.

But this and that were different concepts.

The martial art used by the Chinese military was more like a throwing knife technique than a modern martial art. The goal was to minimize the inconvenience of carrying a weapon and to maximize destructive power in close combat.

It made sense at first glance, because if the distance was far, you could just use a gun, so there was no need to use other martial arts. But they were saying that they had combined basic mana training methods with modern martial arts.

‘Ah, that’s right.’

He thought they were fast, but the following attacks were closer to boxing than martial arts.

They quickly threw jabs, weaved, and adjusted their distance with footwork. That was a method that didn’t exist in Eastern martial arts.

Lee Hyun-soo narrowed his brow.

Short, sharp attacks and quick movements. It was definitely powerful. Moreover….

“Knives!”

The two men stepped back, pulled out military knives from their thighs, and faced each other.

‘Oh, that’s right.’

Basically, knife fighting is similar in concept to boxing.

Since a knife with a blade can damage a person’s body just by grazing it, you don’t have to swing it with force. The best way to fight is to keep your distance, approach quickly and swiftly, cut short, and then create distance again.

In sports terms, it was somewhere between boxing and fencing.

The soldiers, with their non-knife hands extended forward and their other hands lightly gripping their knives, faced each other, looking for an opening.

A cold tension began to fill the space between the two men.

“Hoo!”

With a short shout, knives with blue aura were extended towards each other at a terrifying speed.

Swish! Swish!

The sound of the knives cutting through the air was eerie.

The sweat that came out each time they extended their knives scattered into the air and fell to the floor with a thud. The sweat was proof of how focused they were right now.

“Hot!”

In an instant, one knife knocked away the other’s knife. Then, with the speed of a ray of light, the knife reached the other’s neck.

“Stop!”

Jimmy shouted briefly, and the two men stepped back and straightened their postures.

“What do you think?”

Lee Hyun-soo narrowed his brow.

What did he think?

“It’s excellent.”

He sincerely wanted to applaud.

Training martial artists like soldiers and finding a combat method that suits them was definitely not an easy task. Even Lee Hyun-soo had trouble controlling the martial artists of the Yeongnam Association and had to resort to a reign of terror.

Even in Korea, where obedience to superiors was ingrained in the culture, it was not easy to control martial artists. But to see such a thoroughly trained appearance in the United States of all places was truly amazing.

Jimmy said a little proudly.

“As you have seen, our soldiers are strong. We will not be defeated by any country in the world. No, I believe we will overwhelm them.”

“Hoo…”

At that moment, Kang Jin-ho blew out a puff of cigarette smoke.

“Is it over?”

“……Yes?”

“If it’s over, let’s wrap it up. What do we do now?”

Jimmy looked at Kang Jin-ho in confusion.

“What do you mean, what do we do? Are you thinking of fighting? Even after seeing this?”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Stop playing children’s games. It’s starting to get boring.”

Jimmy’s face hardened coldly.

“Lord Kang Jin-ho.”

“Do I have to prove it?”

“……Yes?”

“I’m asking if it will be resolved if I prove how pathetic this is.”

Jimmy gritted his teeth.

“Okay. Prove it. If you can defeat five of them at the same time, I will admit that all of our training is wrong.”

“Five?”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“No. Let’s make it one.”

A sneer appeared on Jimmy’s face.

“I thought you would have some pride as the king of the East, but are you going to save face by fighting just one soldier?”

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not me who’s fighting.”

Jimmy and Willie’s gazes turned to Wiggins.

“If Knight Wiggins fought an ordinary soldier, the world would laugh. At least three would be needed to balance it, wouldn’t it?”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

“Not three, but thirty. Or is it three hundred?”

Wiggins waved his hand.

“I’m getting old now. Please be considerate. My back hurts.”

“Stop being dramatic.”

Jimmy urged with a slightly annoyed face.

“So, what are you going to do? If you want to save face by fighting one person, I’ll let you do that. But you have to earn our children’s respect…”

“Be quiet.”

Jimmy’s mouth stopped open. He didn’t even know why he had frozen like this. His body just moved on its own.

Watching the scene, Lee Hyun-soo clicked his tongue.

“I told you not to mess around too much.”

“Lee Hyun-soo, get out.”

“Yes. I’ll get… Huh? Who? Me?

…Huh?