‘What the hell is this guy doing…’

Thor looked at this Master who was standing in front of him. He used to be certain that Jaehwang was a ranged damage dealer but now, he was taking off his shooting glove, which was an essential gear for archers. Then, he started to crack his knuckles, it was a signal that he wants to end this fight with his fist.

Thor frowned. This guy was not using the opposite of his main skill against him. It meant Jaehwang was completely undermining Thor’s abilities.

‘Fine… come at me…’

With everyone calling him a 10-star Hunter, he seems to be scoffing at facing a 7-star Hunter. Thor laughed to himself as he also felt a hit to his ego, wondering what a humiliating impression Jaehwang had of him. Four of his men were ridiculously defeated prior to him, so their leader probably did not intimidate Jaehwang.

‘I will play along with this…” Thor let out a slight grin.

The more the opponent is undermined, the bigger the chance of one making a foolish mistake. Of course, to a 10-star Hunter, a 7-star Hunter must look like a kid in training but Thor had done his homework for this battle. Before he came here, he acquired the knowledge of all of Jaehwang’s skills through his team to run some simulations and analyze its statistics. Thor studied Jaehwang’s fighting patterns and came up with some counter-attacks that he could apply during their exchange. He was ready.

‘The plan is set. I will take the glory of defeating a 10-star Hunter.’

Thor took a quick glance to Emperor who was sitting on the throne. He had heard of Emperor’s challenge to the Archery Master, he must have gone to Jaehwang with confidence because he also saw that Jaehwang was as a superfluous archer.

However, Emperor challenged Jaehwang because he himself witnessed Jaehwang’s battle against the Behemoth and he expected his own battle with Jaehwang to be a loss or a tie at best.

This was Emperor’s tactic, provoke his opponent before the battle and use all of his abilities with sheer perseverance to end it with a tie, then go on to admit his loss and apologize for his shortcomings in his challenge. Emperor already knew that Jaehwang was ahead of him, but Thor did not know any of these plans in Emperor’s mind.

“Oh, are you going to be okay? My Mjölnir would be hard to block with your fist,” Thor said in a worried tone.

“You came to the Invincible Palace, so I should show you the weapon of this place, the Fist of the Invincible,” Jaehwang replied with a smile.

It is true that the Fist of the Invincible was the first technique that every Hunter of the Invincible acquires. They would learn martial arts techniques with various weaponry but in case of losing their weapons in the midst of fights against monsters as well as to train their bodies, all Hunters were taught with fist fighting skills.

The fist is not necessarily a weak form of martial arts, the founder of this skill was the Prince and this was his main attacking skill.

When the referee looked at the Prince from his seat, the bored prince gave the referee a nod with a widening grin on his face.

Hence the battle was set, the referee signaled the commencement of the battle and left the battleground.

‘Just as planned…’ Thor thought.

Through the simulations, he acquired the attack sequence with the highest probability of winning and with the limited space of this battlefield, Jaehwang would not be able to escape either. In various aspects, Thor had the advantage and this was his plan. Since his opponent was fast and good at stealth, he must use a massive blow on the ground as his first attack. Based on his experience, those who have been hit by this attack would react in one of three ways: first, they would just try to stay grounded, second, they would try to jump into the air, and third, for those who know a bit about this attack, would try to escape into the ground.

‘It does not matter how he reacts since all of my plans have been set,’ Thor thought.

“AAHHHH”

Thor threw his Mjölnir with all of his might with its concentrated maximum energy ready to destroy. This attack would be enough to drive even 6-tier monsters crazy and it goes by the name, Rolling Thunder.

But as the Mjölnir was about to crash into the floor…

‘Crack…’

A sound of a breaking bone was spread across the battle stadium.

“Ugh!”

Thor felt a paralyzing shock to his chin, and his neck turning sideways against his will.

‘What happened?’

Instinctively, Thor reversed the direction of his Mjölnir to guard his upper body as a last-minute but great defense, but his opponent was tough. Jaehwang weaved and comes in close, covered with Thor’s attacks but that didn’t stop him from smashing his fist into his jaw, the only place that Thor’s armor could not cover.

Pow*Crack*Boom

“AAAAAHHHKKKK” Thor screamed.

He took multiple hits to his chin that destabilized his brain. Even a quick-healing Hunter, if not given the slightest time to recover, cannot heal himself. Thor kept sliding back, but Jaehwang’s fists did not stop its continuous attack.

Jaehwang’s attack pattern was purely brutal. Thor wondered if this current opponent of his was the Master Archer he had been studying. In the videos, Thor watched Jaehwang with all the care in the world and this streak of savage attacks did not happen even once.

What Thor studied as Jaehwang’s usual battle techniques that were the fruit of his precise planning, but this man that he’s fighting now was…

Thor could not breathe. He had assumed that in short-range attacks, he would be more superior to an archer. His prejudice was completely shattered.

BOOM!

Thor held on by his sheer willpower from knee attack that came from Jaehwang. As expected, Jaehwang started to attack his abdomen. Thor could feel the shock, but it was more bearable thanks to the armour.

“AAGGHHH” Thor breathed in heavily. He could not be defeated like this, so almost as a reflex, Thor went for the blunt technique.

This powerful attack, because he trained hundreds and thousands of times a day and night while thinking of beating the Emperor, had almost become a second nature for him to execute.

Jaehwang backs up slightly at this attack.

“My turn now!” Thor screamed.

Thor pushed Jaehwang out with the heavy armor. He had accepted that he won’t be able to give his answer in a flat out fight, so he aimed to deliver a non-stop attack to reverse their situation.

Jaehwang was getting farther away, it was like he was giving up on close-quarter combat so Thor clenched his teeth and went after him.

‘Hmm! It’s going a medium-range random attack while using stealth now,’ Thor thought. ‘This is what I have been waiting for anyway.’

He clenched his fist with Mjölnir in hand.

Thor has an attack that no one had seen as of yet and it was a secret attack that he had prepared. His arm that held onto the Mjölnir swelled up twice its size.

He was not simply flexing. This hidden skill allowed him to manipulate his own skills, but of course, there was a limit. He could increase 3 to 5 stats instantly and through his rigorous discipline and training, although it is momentary, Thor could increase his stats by 10 now. His default stat was 20, and now, with a whopping 30 stat muscle power, Thor threw his Mjölnir.

BAMM!

The Mjölnir broke through the speed of sound, and a fierce sonic boom ripped the air around it as it went for Jaehwang who was retreating.

It was a perfect shot to his loophole.

Thor was confident. This attack could severely injure even an 8-tier monster and a long-range shooter would not be able to bear this attack.

‘Bulls-eye!’

While retreating, Jaehwang was hit right on with the Mjölnir and Thor’s best attack turned out to be a success.

But…

“HUH?!?”

The Mjölnir went straight through Jaehwang and his form scattered in front of him.

‘An afterimage? Thor could not believe his eyes played tricked on him. He could even escape a hail of bullets and he was taken aback by the fact he had lost his opponent from his sight.

And at that moment while he was startled, Jaehwang came up under his nose.

BOOOM!

Thor’s neck bent back to the point of breaking from Jaehwang’s uppercut, which hit him faster than he had stepped back.

‘Ah..Ah…’

Thor closed his eyes with a sense of his chin breaking. It was over.

‘What is this!!!!!’ Thor thought. He was not even hit by the opponent’s main weapon. If he had a cold weapon in his hand right now, Thor would already be a pile of blood on the floor.

BOOM*PUNCH*BAM

Jaehwang only attacked for Thor’s head and by then, he realized he was completed defeated. He was so sure that he knew his opponent and he even trusted his best secret attack, but his opponent was way above him. He had challenged someone way out of his league.

“Haaahh…”

Thor, now unrecognizable, rolled on the floor, covering himself with dirt as the others held their breaths. Only the referee’s call broke their silence.

“Game, over!”

#2

The quite impactful battle between Thor and Jaehwang ended with a commentary by the martial arts master Choi Jin-Ha as having been “nice and energetic”.

Based on the horrifying results, the guests from the Phoenix Raid Team and the Blackthorn Raid Team was worried that the Invincible had intentions other than a good fellowship between the teams, but it was brushed off when the Prince assured that that was an average level of sparring at the Invincible Palace as he poured drinks in Jaehwang’s cup.

“A fight is a journey towards which one finds his weaknesses. I hope both Jaehwang and Thor, through this competition, found something they can improve themselves up on. Moreover, if anyone opens their mouth again about the outcome of this battle, the Invincible will go after them!”

Since the Prince himself was the one to settle the results of the battle, everyone at the stadium decided to remember this fight in their memory. No outside reporter could enter this palace anyway, so only the direct witnesses had to be quiet.

Furthermore, Thor himself said nothing in regards to this fight. Instead, he pleaded to the Prince to let the entire members of the Berserker Raid to have a special training at the Invincible Palace. The Prince rejected it initially, stating that he cannot do that to visiting guests, but Thor insisted, saying that the Prince can treat the Berserker Raid Team as he wishes. As soon as he received permission from the Prince, Thor cancelled all the following plans for his group, and he decided on a long-term stay at the Invincible Palace.

Even after such an embarrassing defeat, Thor walked around the Invincible with his raid team, laughing and marvelling at the masters of the place. Watching this Thor, Emperor must have thought, ‘that was supposed to be my plan!’

#3

“Thanks in advance for this month!”

Jaehwang looked at this blonde man in front of him with distaste. He was just coming back from his morning training when he ran into the Berserker Raid Team. His eyes caught that of Thor, who was at the front and he tried to ignore him. But with Thor not wanting to pass him, he interrupted Jaehwang and bowed his head.

“What?”

“I received permission to train at the Invincible Palace for a month! It’s my honor to train with you!” With such loud and thick voice, Thor bowed his head with all of the stocky men behind him following his lead.

“Yeah… sure… good luck with your training.”

Jaehwang tried to pass through them. He had his own training room, so he would not be running into them during his own training.

“We ask you to train us!” Thor exclaimed and Jaehwang frowned before asking,

“What, are you going to try me yourself?”

Jaehwang was provoking Thor as if he was nothing. He was about to whip him again if Thor takes his provocation but Thor understood Jaehwang’s intentions. His face beamed and he yelled, “Thank you!”