Samurai Hearts – Chapter 1: For Vengeance (11)
"But everyone… I just realized something. This situation feels oddly familiar to me. My little brother fighting while I watch. Am I imagining it?"
— Total déjà vu LOL— Victoria (26) — Occupation: Livestream commentator— Hello, Kratos-nim, really enjoying your stream^^— Move aside;; I can't see Sword God fighting;;
Dohyeon narrowed his eyes.
His focus sharpened.
The dullness that had built up from sparring with Seung-yeon vanished, and his mind regained its keen edge.
As if a switch had flipped—like the time he faced the Sword Emperor.
"I'll send you to the afterlife as well!"
Gato charged first.
With a thunderous shout, the towering samurai sprinted toward Dohyeon.
Each time he stepped, the weight of his armor crushed into the tatami mats, leaving deep indentations.
Gato swung downward, aiming to split Dohyeon clean in half.
He brought the massive blade down like a crashing bolt of lightning.
"Hup!"
Dohyeon didn't dodge.He met it head-on.
The poor positioning didn't matter.
There was no reason for him to lose to something like this.
CLAAAANG—!
Steel slammed against steel.
A fierce metallic explosion echoed, sparks flying everywhere.
Their blades collided—and Gato staggered back several steps.
The face visible beneath his mask twisted violently.
A look saying he could not believe he was being pushed back.
Dohyeon didn't miss the opening.
He stepped forward and swung.
Gato's chest armor split with a loud crack.
The armor's thicker than I thought.
Dohyeon clicked his tongue.
He had landed the hit, but it barely did any damage.
The armor was simply too thick—his cut was shallow.
But that didn't mean he couldn't win.
Countless ways to defeat Gato flickered through Dohyeon's mind.
Any of them would work.
From what he had seen so far, Gato posed no real threat.
"Uryaaaah!"
Recovering from the stagger, Gato roared.
He gripped his sword with both hands and swung—this time horizontally.
A strike filled with the clear desire to bisect Dohyeon at the waist.
I get the intention, but it's way too slow.
With Sword Spirit strengthening him, Dohyeon could see Gato's movements plain as day.
Block or dodge?
He considered it briefly, then decided not to drag out the fight.
He swung.
CLAAAANG—!
Their weapons collided again, filling the room with another explosion of sparks and metal.
But in a straight clash, Dohyeon had the advantage.
Gato did not have a parry mechanic.
Dohyeon, as a player, did.
A Perfect Parry triggered—Gato's stance collapsed as he stumbled back awkwardly.
"Haaah!"
Dohyeon did not hesitate.
With a shout, he followed through—his sweeping strike aiming for Gato's neck.
His sword was strong enough to split even the thick chest armor and cut the body beneath.
The much thinner helmet was no obstacle.
Dohyeon's blade severed Gato's head cleanly.
Thud— roll—
The head bounced across the floor.
A moment later, the now-headless body toppled backward with a heavy crash.
"Some people can't survive even three minutes, and someone else kills the boss in less than three. Viewers, can you believe this?!"
— Skill Diff.— TA–LENT— That's literally you though…— How dare you compare yourself to Sword God!
"And the 'Make Me a Fighter Project' ended right as it began! I tried so hard, but I didn't improve at all—huh? What's that?"
…Twitch.
Dohyeon paused mid-sheathing.
He thought he saw Gato's corpse move.
Narrowing his eyes, he stared at the body.
Then drew his sword again.
He trusted his senses too much to dismiss the subtle twitch as imagination.
It was that instinct that let him survive their first clash.
FWOOOSH—!
Like water bursting through a broken dam, grotesque tentacles exploded out of Gato's severed neck.
Pitch-black tendrils, like octopus arms without suction cups.
The largest and thickest one lunged straight at Dohyeon—the one who killed its host.
THUD—!
Dohyeon managed to slash the tentacle, but the sheer force drove him several steps back.
"What the hell…?"
He muttered without thinking.
The sight was that bizarre.
Dozens of writhing tentacles surged from the stump of Gato's neck.
The biggest tendrils planted themselves on the floor and lifted the decapitated body upright.
Four tentacles supported the torso like legs, while the rest whipped the air wildly.
Dohyeon had no idea, but this was Honda Gato's Phase 2.
Gato was a vassal of the Nagamatsu clan.
Naturally, he was tied to the clan's "Darkness" and had accepted its power.
Phase 2 meant opening the power he received from the Darkness.
"Grrrk… grrk…"
Gato's severed head also sprouted tentacles.
Using those tendrils, the head crawled across the floor, returning to the body.
But bizarrely, it reattached to the chest, not the neck.
Probably because the neck was currently occupied by tentacles.
With the head lodged in the torso like that, the grotesqueness doubled.
Well… whatever.
Dohyeon didn't care how grotesque the enemy looked.
He still had to kill it.
"Grrrk… kill… grrk… kill you… grrk…"
Still, he was a bit surprised when the head—now stuck on the chest—rolled its eyes around and spoke directly to him.
The moment Gato finished speaking, all the tentacles froze—perfectly still.
A sure sign of an incoming attack.
As Dohyeon tensed—
One tentacle lashed toward him.
A trunk-thick tendril sliced through the air with terrifying pressure.
Dohyeon stood his ground.
He gripped his sword with both hands and slashed with full force.
SHRRK!
Steel met flesh, and a sharp slicing sound echoed.
The tentacle's power forced Dohyeon back two steps, but he was unharmed.
Meanwhile, the tentacle was split open, dripping clear fluid.
In that direct clash, Dohyeon clearly had the upper hand.
Curiously, the parry mechanic didn't activate.
Likely because the tentacle was considered part of the body, not a weapon.
"Grrrk… that… grrk… won't be enough… grrk! To kill me… grrk!"
As Gato rasped, the wound Dohyeon left on the tentacle began slowly healing.
Dohyeon frowned.
He had thought he'd struck perfectly, but somehow only left a shallow wound.
Something felt off.
His thoughts and his physical movement hadn't aligned perfectly.
WHOOSH—!
Gato swung the tentacles again.
One tendril whipped through the air like a massive whip.
Dohyeon cleared his mind and twisted his body.
The tentacle scraped by with a paper-thin miss, and he used the opening to slash it again.
"GRRAAAHK!"
Gato shrieked as he yanked the tentacle back.
But the limb Dohyeon struck was now nearly half-severed, dangling loosely.
Ignoring Gato's gurgling noises, Dohyeon clicked his tongue.
He was displeased.
I intended to cut it off completely.
The tentacles were stronger and thicker than he expected, so he failed to sever them fully.
He had cut deeper this time, but since they still writhed casually, the damage seemed minimal.
Given their log-thick size, perhaps that wasn't surprising.
That was Dohyeon's reasoning—but Gato clearly felt differently.
"GRRRRK— YOU… grrk… DIE!"
With a furious roar, Gato swung all his tentacles at once.
Aside from the four supporting its body, every other tendril whipped toward Dohyeon.
Each one was as thick as a tree trunk, and the pressure was overwhelming.
"What's with the tentacles?! Why tentacles all of a sudden?! Ugh, gross."
— Yeah that's Phase 2— Sudden tentacle atmosphere— Tentacles are so annoying; they cut easily but you can't parry them
"Phase 2? Ah, this is Phase 2? Tentacles? If I were alive for this part, I'd definitely have died instantly. Not that I even survived long enough to see this!"
— The bigger picture— Admiration— So you died early specifically to avoid the tentacles?— 'If you suicide I'll kill you myself' energy— Veteran streamer instincts never fade
Dohyeon's eyes trembled faintly.
The talent that had blossomed once before bloomed again—perfectly—faced with danger.
His hyper-focused awareness made the virtual world slow down.
He saw everything. He perceived everything.
And the physical body strengthened by Sword Spirit expanded the realm of what he could do.
He could do anything he wanted.
Like cutting down all eight tentacles lunging toward him.
This time I'll cut them clean.
The first tentacle dropped from above.
The air shattered from the sheer force packed inside it, producing a chilling noise.
Dohyeon's response was simple.
A sidestep—and an upward slash.
His horizontally angled blade met the tentacle head-on, and the tendril impaled itself on his own force, slicing cleanly apart.
FWOOOM—
The second tentacle whipped toward his flank.
This too was simple.
He twisted his body, drew back the upward slash, and split the sideways-swinging tentacle in one motion.
The third, fourth, fifth…
Dohyeon dismissed every subsequent attack with ease.
Each strike severed a tentacle, sending wriggling pieces crashing to the floor, dripping transparent fluid.
Even the sixth and seventh attacks failed to touch him.
"Grrrk—grrk!"
Gato's face twisted hideously from the pain of losing so many tentacles.
He let out a guttural, monstrous shriek.
Then the eighth, still-intact tentacle twitchingly stretched toward the ceiling.
At the same time, all the severed tentacles were sucked back into the stump at his neck.
And the eighth—now the only one remaining—grew thicker, thicker, thicker, with a cracking, flesh-tearing noise.
It was disgustingly revolting.
"Die, grrk… huh…?!"
Now five times its original size, the giant tentacle whipped toward Dohyeon's head like a massive lash.
The air itself split from the sheer pressure.
Like a colossal pillar sweeping across the room—overwhelming.
The kind of blow that made Dohyeon's spine shiver because he wasn't even sure he could cut it cleanly.
I have to strike first.
Meeting an attack of that scale head-on was suicide.
Dohyeon lowered his stance deeply.
His target: Gato's head.
He put all his strength into his legs and kicked off the ground.
His Sword Spirit–enhanced body launched like a cannon shell.
FWOOOOSH—
The massive tentacle brushed past the ends of his hair.
A terrifying near miss.
But that meant Dohyeon had successfully evaded the attack.
Gato sensed danger and tried to move using the four tentacles supporting his body—but Dohyeon was far faster.
PUUK—!
"GRRAAAAAH!"
Dohyeon's thrust pierced Gato's head—and then his heart.
Blood-red tears poured from the eyes of the head impaled through its forehead.
It was grotesque. Revolting.
Dohyeon didn't want to look at scenes like this any longer.
"Hup!"
He put power into his arm.
Still impaling Gato's head and heart, he brought his blade down in a merciless cleave.
The blade split Gato's torso open, spilling streams of pitch-black fluid.
All remaining tentacles spasmed violently once—then shriveled up like dried squid legs.
Even the four supporting tentacles lost strength; the bisected corpse collapsed to the floor with a dull thud.
…Is it dead?
He was uneasy, since the boss had already revived once.
If revival was possible once, it could be possible twice.
So Dohyeon, expressionless, proceeded to hack the corpse apart repeatedly.
Just in case.
He only stopped because Seung-yeon, revived after the boss fight ended, called out to him.
"It's completely dead, so you can stop."
"Oh, it won't revive again?"
"Viewers say it only revives for Phase 2. Anyway, it's dead now, so stop."
Dohyeon nodded and sheathed his sword.
Meanwhile, Seung-yeon began preparing to end the stream.
The boss was dead, so it felt like a good time to wrap up.
And quite some time had passed.
"Did you all enjoy the stream? I'm sad because today I realized the true limit of my physical skill. I might cry after I turn off the stream."
— Oh, she's ending stream— Wait, you're stopping here?!— Perfect cliffhanger cutoff— Victoria crying over a game LOL— I just got here though…
Chat flooded with comments.
Many were disappointed, but that was always the case.
Smiling gently, Seung-yeon continued smoothly.
"Thank you so much for watching today. I'll be back with an even more fun stream next time. Thanks for tuning in! Bye-bye! Little brother, say goodbye!"
"Thank you for watching."
— Big bye!— Kr-bye!
And the stream ended.
However, they hadn't closed the game or shut down the VR system, so Dohyeon and Seung-yeon remained standing in the boss room.
Seung-yeon, having turned off the streaming software, was about to quit the game when Dohyeon called out, deep in thought.
"Noona."
"What?"
"Is there a way to remove this delay?"
"Delay? What delay?"
At her question, Dohyeon explained the sense of disconnect he had felt earlier—and was feeling even more strongly now.
Back during the tutorial, he had told her that it was frustrating how his body didn't move exactly as he intended.
At the time, he had brushed it off.
But now that his physique was enhanced by Sword Spirit, the discrepancy felt even worse.
His strengthened body made the mismatch larger, so he sensed the discomfort more intensely.
His body should've moved much faster, but it didn't.
And during the fight with Gato, several times he thought he had cut perfectly, but only left shallow wounds.
As he continued improving Sword Spirit via Yul, the disconnect would only worsen.
So he wanted to fix it now.
"Ah, that…"
Realizing what Dohyeon meant, Seung-yeon gasped softly.
But she had never felt that kind of disconnect herself, so she couldn't offer a direct solution.
Instead, she decided to introduce him to someone who might know.
After all, that person had recently made an interesting proposal.
"I do know someone who might be able to help… but that person is a streamer."
"Ah, really?"
"He saw you fighting the Sword Emperor before and said he wanted to do a collab sometime. Want to join me for a joint stream and ask him about it? You can ask him other questions too."
"…Should I?"
Dohyeon thought for a moment, then nodded.
It wasn't a bad suggestion.
And so, the next stream schedule was set.