Chapter 5 | Final test part 1: Clash of the Moons

"The sound of both blades clashing and interrupting each other's cut sends a loud BANG, piercing everyone's ears. Just as fast as the fight started, it was over. The two contenders stood at opposite ends of the field, opposite to each other, and opposite to where they started."

It's warm. Comfortable. I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my days here. Not because of where I am, but because who I'm with. My gang chief, he practically saved me from my miserable life, that I almost took myself. He was a shining light in my dark dark hole. The one I admire the most, the one I respect the most, the one I am most loyal to, what was his name again? Oh right, Seondeok. I remember everyone in the gang laughed at how he was named after a queen, those were good times. Wait, why am I reminiscing when I'm still experiencing those times?-

Yi wakes up in his bed. Which is really just three blankets piled up on the floor. Jung-Pal offered to get him a real bed, to which Yi responded with,

"No thanks, this reminds me more of home. Honestly I don't think I could sleep on an actual bed anymore"

Yi opens his eyes, and takes his first breath of the day.

"Was I having those dreams again? The ones where I ramble in my sleep? I must've been, I always wake up covered in my own saliva whenever that happens. It's funny though, I never remember the dreams…" Yi says to himself.

Jung-Pal walks in the room, and to his surprise he doesn't have to wake Yi up. It's raining outside, the clinking of the droplets on the window fully wake Yi up. The clinking is loud, it must be raining heavily, it sounds like a blacksmith hammering iron, Yi thinks.

The clink, clink, clink, clink, is all Yi can hear. Yi stares blankly out the window, watching as the droplets fall, and clink on that window. He wonders how many lives he's killed and thrown away just like those droplets. Clink, clink, clink. He was once like those droplets, wanting to just fall and end it all. Clink, clink, clink. All Yi can focus on are the droplets, until Jung-Pal finally says something, reverting Yi's attention back to him.

"Today's the day, the day that will change your life forever. Either you die failing, or you live joining the ranks of some of the strongest warriors in the world, look sharp" Jung-Pal says, winking.

Yi had been training for only about 3 weeks, like Oh-Jin's prediction had warned, however it was heavy intense training that made Yi very confident. However Yi still could not beat Jung-Pal in swordsmanship.

5 days before the present, Jung-Pal had also made an order for Yi's uniform, to wear into battle. Yi had completely forgotten, however now Jung-Pal was leading him to the room where it was on grand display. By grand display, I mean a closet with a Jang Bong rooted into the ground, which the uniform hangs off of. However, it was still enough to amaze Yi. Yi had never seen such clean, new clothes that he was allowed to wear, it felt freeing in a sense. Recently Yi had been discovering many new things, and he enjoyed it too. Fighting with someone who is stronger than you, training with the intent to train, actually striving towards beating something, and wearing clean clothes. The uniform was a simple matte black hanbok, with navy blue lining, and accents. The vest wasn't tied together, in fact the middle was left open to reveal the navy blue undergarment. The belt was big, and tied the vest and loose black pants together. It was accompanied by a gat, and one more box on the side.

"Open it," Jung-Pal said, while noticing how Yi was staring at the box.

Yi slowly stepped over to the box, approaching it with caution like a puppy does it's new owner, and firmly grasped the lid of the box. Yi opened the box, to which he was greeted with a nice surprise. A new, matte black Hwandudaedo, his favorite weapon.

"I remember how you said that was your weapon of choice back in our match, so I ordered for you to get a matching one with your hanbok. I hope you like it, now come on we don't have much time, we're all supposed to meet up at the monarch's palace ASAP" Jung-Pal announced.

"Monarch's palace, is that the big building we met inside last time?" Yi asked, curiously.

"Yes it is, our boss is the Monarch of Joseon, therefore all official duties must be discussed in his area, preferably with him. Last time was an exception, to get rid of a traitor, however it was disguised as the Monarch's birthday so everyone would attend," Jung-Pal responded.

With that, Yi quickly put on his uniform, with the assistance of Jung-Pal's instruction of course, and they headed out towards the Monarch's Palace. When they arrived, Yi was in his new uniform, to which the Musa guards didn't stare at this time. They walked up the stairs, and took a left, then entered a new room. When they entered, Yi was surprised with how small it was. It looked to be no more than half the size of the meeting room they were in last, however it had many utilities. A big map was at the back of the room, and a small table in the center. All 7 other Ssaurabi were there.

"Welcome, welcome. I hope your training went well, as you should too otherwise you'll die today! Hehe, I presume you're delighted to see me again," Oh-Jin boomed proudly with a grin.

"Yes, in fact my training did go well. I hope it'll prove quite useful today, otherwise all that suffering would have been for nothing," Yi responds, to which Jung-Pal giggles.

"Well, now that we're all here, including the Monarch, I'll start explaining our plan," Oh-Jin said.

"The Japanese are going to attack us right here on the border, to which we will respond by doing…" Oh-Jin says while pointing at a border surrounding Joseon on the map.

"Absolutely nothing! That's right, we're gonna make it seem like they have the upperhand, and we're busy trying to set up a counter attack. That will make them be on guard for our counter, while also pushing forward at us strongly. This will then allow us to send in two Ssaurabi from the side, they'll sneak in,"

Two Ssaurabi are sprinting inside enemy lines while just out of view, and they both slice up five enemies, to which they enter the enemies' encampments.

"Then, once those two successfully infiltrate the enemies' encampments, I'm going to send the rest of the Ssaurabi to counter Japan's new elite combat militia, or bootleg Ssaurabi for short. However, number 6 and 2 will stay back, to shoot the foot soldiers with their bows to cover the rest of the Ssaurabi,"

Ssaurabi 6, and 2, climb up a hill in the distance from the encampments. They grab their arrows, and start to take aim on the foot soldiers. Ssaurabi 6 is shooting fire tipped arrows, while Ssaurabi 2 is shooting five arrows simultaneously.

While 6 and 2 pave the path for the rest of the Ssaurabi to walk on, the rest of the Ssaurabi start to sprint onto the front lines.

"Once we deploy all the Ssaurabi, I'm sure they'll deploy their new combat militia"

The Ssaurabi hear a horn, and louds yells coming from the encampments. Announcing that something is about to come, most likely the Japanese's militia. 10 warriors ride out onto the field, stemming from the encampments, on horseback. They all have heavy clinking armor, and whenever they move on the horses they sound like the falling rain drops. The rain drops, turn into banging Changgo, furiously banging. All 10 warriors come to a halt in unison, just in front of the Ssaurabi. The warriors dismount from their horses, and bow to the Ssaurabi.

"We are honored to meet you, Ssaurabi from Joseon. We are the new Japanese combat militia, designed for special combat purposes, the Samurai"

"Ho, Samurai? Ssaurabi, Samurai, doesn't your name come from ours? In fact, doesn't your whole concept come from ours? Heh" Oh-Jin remarks.

"Maybe so, but we are better than you. Out with the old… In with the new" A samurai says, with a gruff deep voice.

"You seem to be older than all of us combined, old man" Oh-Jon returned, sharply.

Almost as if a gong sounds, resonating on the battlefield, they all assume stances and shift the grass blades they stand on. Their combined presence seems to almost pause the rain, and Yi can feel that this is a life or death moment. Kill or be killed.

The Samurai all 'kiai' (A Japanese yell coming from your stomach, to harness your spirit).

"We seem to outnumber you, heheh, how about we make this more fair? We'll do this tournament style, 1 on 1 matches. The match ends when all of one team's contenders have lost. The match ends when either one of the contenders dies or surrenders," One of the Samurai says.

"Why should we agree to your terms? We could easily beat you all right now, even with being outnumbered," Oh-Jin exclaims.

"Well isn't it more fun this way? Heh" The samurai with the gruff voice says.

He's smart, smart but not smart enough. After all, no one's intelligence rivals mine! Oh-Jin thinks triumphantly, while grinning.

"Right, right. Well, I speak for all the Ssaurabi, all the time, so I'll say, yes we'll take you up on your kind offer," Oh-Jin says while smiling the biggest Yi has ever seen him.

"Good, good, heh" The Samurai with the gruff voice says, while also grinning.

"Our first contender will be number 8, Jung-Pal, the Crescent Moon Ssaurabi. He is a swordsman, so keep that in mind while picking your contender,"

"Me? Alright, this should be fun" Jung-Pal responds.

The Samurai discuss, and the one with the gruff voice steps up,

"We have chosen, number 6, the Blood Moon Samurai, Kenshin Raizo"

The two contenders walk up to each other, do their individual bows. Jung-Pal unsheathes his sword, and holds the handle with his left hand, and the back of the blade with his right hand, and holds it vertically and parallel to his body. Kenshin Raizo unsheathes his sword, and holds the handle with his right hand, and the bottom of the blade with his left hand, while holding it horizontally, parallel to his eyes. They both perform a 45 degree bow to their sword. They then sheath their swords, and perform a 90 degree bow towards each other.

The changgo start to pound, and stop as a gong silences it.

"AAAAAEEE (kiai)" Kenshin yells, while charging at Jung-Pal with his katana in an overhead strike position.

Jung-Pal starts to exhale all his air, and the air concentrates into a mist, which gleams in the moonlight along with his hanbok, and the mist gravitates towards Jung-Pal's left hand which is on his jin-geom's sheathed handle.

He pushes forward his jin-geom a little bit out of the sheath with his right thumb, and grips the handle loosely with his left hand, while whispering something under his breath.

"Waxing Crescent Moon strike, 80 percent…"

Jung-Pal leans down forward, and sinks deeper into his stance, while putting all his weight on his left foot.

"FULL BLOOD MOON STRIKE" Kenshin yells, as he squeezes his pinkies so hard it gushes out blood, which is sucked to the back of Kenshin's katana blade.

Kenshin Makes an overhead cut, purposely out of range, missing, then spins his whole upper body to the left and down, while carrying the momentum from the first cut to spin around again and cuts full power at Jung-Pal's head. The cut forms a full circle, with Kenshin's blood, and almost resembles a full moon.

Jung-Pal dashes forward with his right leg, using the weight on his left leg to boost the dash. Simultaneously there is a flash of light that blinds everyone, coming from Jung-Pal speedily unsheathing his sword, causing the moonlight to reflect off of the blade, and Jung-Pal performs a side slash aiming for Kenshin's waist. The mist forms a quick waxing crescent moon, and disperses. The sound of both blades clashing and interrupting each other's cut sends a loud BANG, piercing everyone's ears. Just as fast as the fight started, it was over. The two contenders stood at opposite ends of the field, opposite to each other, and opposite to where they started.

Jung-Pal flips his sword in his left hand, and sheaths his sword, as you can hear a clink on the floor, this time not from rain drops but from Kenshin's blade falling to the ground. Kenshin's stomach then spouts out blood, as he falls to the ground leaving a trail of blood in the air like that of his cut. Jung-Pal broke Kenshin's blade in half, which allowed him to cut Kenshin's stomach. Kenshin was swinging high, so Jung-Pal swung low.

"One to zero, the Ssaurabi are in the lead" Oh-Jin says while keeping his smile from earlier.