NOVEL NEXT Chapter 37: Battle
Inside the narrow carriage, the fight exploded.
The world shrank to steel, blood, and speed—the roar of the bullet train vibrating through the metal, fluorescent lights stuttering overhead, casting the fight in flashes of white and shadow. The space was suffocatingly tight: rows of seats, narrow aisles, windows rattling with every mile the train ate up. In that cage, two predators collided.
Oishi stepped in first, his movement sharp, decisive, a man with no plan to backdown. His katana rose overhead, gleaming in the harsh light before slicing downward in a merciless arc. The strike was clean, meant to split Jin down the center.
Jin met it head-on. His right hand moving upward, hardening as he tried to catch the blade . Steel rang against flesh made iron—but Oishi twisted, a subtle shift of wrist and hip, the blade slipping free like a serpent escaping a snare. Jin's hardened fingers closed on nothing but air.
Oishi pressed on, not giving a heartbeat's space. The katana moved like an extension of his will. Steel kissed flesh again and again, the tight carriage amplifying the sound into thunder.
Jin moves in from left . But Oishi read the movement Oishi swung from the right. , tilting his body at the perfect angle, getting space to unleash his blade in a horizontal arc at full force , a tinge of touki on it . The strike landed—Jin caught it across his side. Even with his hardening, the cut was deep, the impact jarring him to the bone. Blood sprayed in a fine mist across the seatbacks.
The duel was brutal in its simplicity. Oishi's offense was relentless, the katana slicing through air, walls, and flesh . Jin stayed patient, waiting, enduring, his claws twitching but his body restrained. They knew the truth—inside , the first man to overextert would be the one to die.
Seats splintered under stray blows. Windows spiderwebbed into cracks.
Oishi didn't relent. His old lungs pumped like bellows, but his strikes never slowed. Each cut was precise, each step disciplined, forcing Jin to defend with every ounce of speed and instinct he had.
Then, a flicker—Oishi drew back for just a fraction of a second, the kind of moment only a predator's eye could catch. A breath. A pause.
Jin pounced. His Hand shot forward like a hammer, crashing into Oishi's chest, the impact denting oishi chest. The old man's breath left him in a grunt, but he did not collapse , collapsing now is death .He used is last reserve of touki to get his body moving . He snapped back with a savage slash, his katana biting across Jin's ribs. The wound was shallow, but blood sprayed, streaking across the silver walls and dripping onto the vibrating floor.
The train roared into a curve. The momentum threw both men sideways, slamming them into seatbacks, but neither let go of their focus. Oishi pressed forward with measured ferocity; Jin endured, every nerve screaming, every sense sharpened.
For the first time, Jin could feel every breath, every shift of weight. His mind was adapting, his mind stretching into some new sense—anticipating Oishi's attacks before they landed, seeing openings he hadn't been able to before.
But Oishi was still a swordmaster.
Jin waited. The old man had to tire, had to draw too deeply on the well of his Body. Age would catch him. All Jin needed was one moment, one slip.
Then it came.
Oishi's blade slowed. His chest rose . Jin moved, claws flashing, ready to finish it. Oishi's eyes calmed , his breath slowed his grip thighten around the handle . His lifetime of experince moves his body without him thinking , his body move with impossible grace.
Oishi move in motion to stab , Jin move accordingle .
It happen in instant, Oishi's katana slid along Jin's hardened forearms.Oishi let jin came close to let him get what he wanted and last movement denied he jerk his sword and burst Jin arm away . Jin's claws, ready to slash, were swept aside, leaving his chest wide open. For the first time, Jin realized he'd been baited.
Both of his arms hung useless at his sides, his torso naked before the blade.
Desperately, Jin canceled the hardening in his hands, pulling it into his chest and face and moving his hand to make the guard. His instincts screamed. His body moved, but too slowly.
The katana pierced him.
Oishi got him .
The steel blade tore through skin, muscle, and bone, punching deep into Jin's chest and out the other side. His heart shuddered around cold metal. The world narrowed to a single white-hot lance of agony. His body convulsed, blood bursting from his lips in a wet cough.
The carriage froze in silence but for the rattling of the train. Oishi's knuckles tightened on the hilt and pushed it in deep , not wanting to take chance. He had struck true.
It mine Victory .
Jin staggered, his knees bending. Ready to fall . But then his head lifted, eyes locking onto Oishi's. Blood streamed down his chin, but his mouth curled into a grin—grim, mocking, savage.
"Should've gone for the head, old man."
Jin drove his claws forward, punching them into Oishi's stomach. Flesh tore, hot blood splattering across the narrow aisle. The old man's eyes went wide, breath seizing as pain overwhelmed him.
Oishi stumbled backward, the train rattling beneath them. Mihwa was there, arms out, catching him as his knees buckled.
The roar of the bullet train filled the silence that followed. Jin stood bleeding, chest heaving, blood dripping onto the vibrating floor. Across from him, Oishi sagged in Mihwa's grasp, his face pale, his breath shallow.
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Okay guys we are at 25 power stone rank 150 , at 60 power stone we will be in 100 . writing another chapter