Spar Begins

[Owen POV]

I followed Jiyoung to a meeting room where this Park Sanghah person had been escorted.

As soon as I entered the room, I saw a tall man with an angry look on his face.

Though it didn't take a long time to figure out that his anger was directed at Inhyuk, who was smirking wildly,.

'What did he say to him to get him so mad?'

"Mr. Park." Jiyoung said and passed a small bow to him as he stood up and bowed properly towards her.

"Thank you for meeting with us on short notice." Jiyoung said as she walked closer to him.

"Don't mention it." Park Sanghah replied

"Let me introduce you. This is Mr. Owen Knight." Jiyoung said as she gestured towards me.

I walked forward and held my hand out.

"Hi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Surprisingly, he shook my hand immediately. I had expected some hesitation since I had caused a lot of trouble, but instead of being reserved and mad, he actually had a thankful look on his face.

"It is indeed a pleasure to meet you," he said. "I also would like to thank you on behalf of the union."

"Huh?"

"I was briefed about what transpired and how you dealt with the situation. You not only saved the lives of my comrades, but you also rescued them from becoming criminals and prevented them from making the existence of the awakened ones public. For that, the union is indebted to you. Although you overdid it with a few of them, considering the situation you were in, I think it is fair to look past it."

Okay. One more person who has gained a little bit of my respect in this country.

What's with the awakened ones here? They are totally different from the ones I am used to dealing with.

"Wow. I am going to be honest; I expected some backlash." I said

"The backlash won't be coming from the union."

I turned my head to see Jiyoung, who had taken a seat and was gesturing us to do the same.

"Remember, I said the main problem won't be union but Baekdu." Jiyoung said

"Right." I said that and sat down.

Jiyoung looked at Park Sanghah.

"Mr. Knight and I have discussed how to resolve this issue, and the best way to do it will be to stall for enough time to get the confession out of Loberne....."

She spoke about exactly what we had discussed before in her office and emphasised that we will do it in secrecy because entering the union's headquarters as an outsider will make things even worse and will give even more ammunition to that Baekdu group or whatever.

"I don't think all of that will be necessary." Sanghah said

"What do you mean?" I asked

"If we just need to make him admit that he was behind this incident, then doing that is incredibly simple and easy. It's not like he knows that you are in a rough situation. He must think that you are an ally of this country and the Shinhwa group, so he has no need to deny that he did it. In fact, for him, it will be a well-known fact, known by everyone in this country, so asking him to confess will actually make him suspicious." he said

"Um, true," I said while scratching my head.

It turns out that the solution to the problem is simple and easy. Way too easy, in fact.

I don't have to do anything at all.

"Also, I don't trust your interrogating skills at all. Plus, allowing an outsider to enter the country's union headquarters is completely out of the question. Even if you did us a favour." Sanghah said

Well I get where he is coming from, but I do have some intimidation tactics. It's not like I have never interrogated any awakened before. I have.

Though I suppose it is not necessary to mention that.

They don't need to know that.

"Got it. So... I can go? Just like that?" I asked

"Not exactly. While you don't exactly have to do anything, your mother is currently speaking to the chairman and chairwoman of Baekho and Mir. All of them were acquaintances once. Getting them on your side will also put pressure on Baekdu." Sanghah said

"Wait. Chairman of Baekho?!" I exclaimed

Both of them looked at me startled.

"...You know him?" Jiyoung asked.

"Ah, not personally, of course. I have just been an admirer. I heard he retired, and I believe he once had a fight with my grandfather." I said, leaning back on the chair.

"Your grandfather fought against Mr. Seongik Han?"

Park Sanghah asked as if doubting, and even Jiyoung was skeptical of the idea.

Seongik Han had the reputation of completely crushing his opponents without showing any mercy, to the point where recovery was hard.

But my grandfather survived the fight against him. Well, I guess Seongik Han didn't want to kill him either anyway. He still lost, of course.

But apparently that fight actually made grandpa respect Seongik Han, and that is also why he laid his eyes on Korea as well and decided to forge a bond with this country by marrying his son, my father, to a Korean awakened, my mom.

Whether it was because of the same fighting styles and abilities, my grandpa had a lot of respect for Seongik Han.

He never told me how the fight went exactly. He dislikes speaking about the fights he has lost.

But whatever happened in that fight left a deep impact on him. That much is for sure.

And because of that, I also researched a little about him.

Seongik Han, the man who reached the level of the top 50 among the awakened ones, imprinted his name in the global ranking.

During his time, he was also the only person to represent his country on a global level and managed to save his country from foreign influence by himself.

He was considered a monster of close-range combat.

Although he did declare his retirement after losing to Kayden Break, who is unofficially considered to be on the same level as that of the top 10.

His whereabouts and what he has been doing since then have been unknown.

"Yeah. It was a long time ago." I said this to both of them.

"That's a surprise. Little is known about Mr. Han during his fighting days, even by us." Park Sanghah said.

"I see. I'd love to meet him if it were possible. But let's leave that for some other time." I said

"Right." Park Sanghah got up from his seat and said, "I will take care of this matter. You all rest easy and just lay low."

Wait. Lay low?

What about the spar with Jiyoung, then? I don't plan on having an indoor spar. I want it to be real.

I looked at Jiyoung. As if reading my thoughts, she just nodded her head as if to say not to worry.

'Finally!'

***

An hour later.

We stood on the terrace of Shinhwa's building on opposite ends.

I sensed a large amount of energy coming from Jiyoung.

Just a moment later, her eyes flashed with a bright glow, and the energy she had accumulated spread throughout our surroundings.

Me, her, and the audience had been surrounded by the domain isolation created by her.

I looked around and realised just how huge her domain isolation was. It was at least 50 times bigger in radius than what I had created to fight those hypnotised guys from the union.

I think she could have made it even larger but chose not to after thinking that this would be enough for our fight.

Oh, and the audience consists of Inhyuk, my mom, Jisuk, Subin, Jiwoo, and his.....cat.....fat cat....for some reason?

We met Jiwoo on the way to the spar after Park Sanghah left. Then he told the other three about the fight.

Jisuk and Subin decided to come and watch even though they were still injured, but they still insisted on coming here since their injuries weren't severe.

Wooin, on the other hand, had to stay in the hospital because of his fractured skull, even when he wanted to come here. But these guys ordered him a few servings of Jajangmyeon, and he was happy with that.

Anyway, while waiting for them to come here from the hospital, my mom texted that she would be here soon as well, so we then waited for her, and that's how we wasted an hour.

Anyway, back to the present: Inhyuk and the others moved to a different building far away from us, whereas Jiyoung and I revved up our powers.

A pale blue aura enveloped her body as currents of wind started flowing, making my jacket and hair flutter.

My green aura also manifested to envelope my body as I covered my arms in my haki, and my eyes glowed a brighter shade of blue as I activated my observation haki at my full power as well.

I can't afford to make any mistakes or hold back against her.

No, not afford, I am incapable of holding back right now.

I do not have that privilege.

As soon as Inhyuk gave the signal by yelling "Go," I dashed at her at my full speed to deliver a punch.

Judging by her personality, she will try to block and gauge my strength and then adjust her power output accordingly so as to not go overboard and hurt me, so this is an attack that she will not dodge or counter but only defend against.

This is the best chance I have to do some damage.

I really put my all into this attack by using my highest speed and power. Yet, as I got closer to her, it became harder to move forward.

However, when my fist collided with what I was assuming was a wall made out of air.

As crazy as it sounds, it was there. Just a wall of air, or, actually, let's call it a barrier.

As soon as my fist collided with the barrier, a huge shock wave was released.

Jiyoung had a surprised expression on her face.

It looks like she didn't expect me to have this much output.

But I had no time to be happy. My fist had almost shattered through her barrier and was about to destroy it completely and reach her stomach. I decided to strain myself and apply more force.

The barrier crumbled away.

But, when my fist was just a hair's breadth away, I sensed the same amount of energy from her when she performed the domain isolation.

Since my eyes had somehow been influenced by my observation haki, I was able to see her energy and the air, which usually should be invisible, but as long as it was manipulated because of her powers, I could see it taking shape.

She planned to just slap my whole body away immediately.

My attack had already lost it's speed, so it was better to give up on it and focus on dodging.

I decided to back away and create some distance between us, but before I could even start to move away, she had sent her unfinished attack at me, and I was forced to augment my entire body with haki.

"Argh!"

The next second, I was flung away and crash landed on the wall of a building right behind me, and a hole in the shape of my circle appeared on it as I went through the building and landed on an open field somewhere close to it.

Pain assaulted me as I felt the full burn of that attack.

Even though my haki had protected me from severe damage, I was still feeling a little dizzy.

I looked up in the sky to see Jiyoung floating mid-air, looking down at me with the same indifferent look on her face as always as she held her palm in my direction and prepared another attack.

'Damn. This might have actually been a pretty dumb idea.'