Chapter 6. Using a Club
by Foreigner Β· 2026-08-21
The forest ended.
The trees thinned, and light streamed in. A downhill slope followed, and beyond it, a plain was visible.
It was something he hadn't seen in over 50 days.
Gihun looked at it for a moment.
Then he turned away.
The path where the orcs had passed was still visible.
It was a band of flattened grass and disturbed earth. Now, he could discern which direction they had gone. A strip about twenty meters wide curved back into the mountains.
Gihun stood there.
'.......'
Going east would lead him out of the mountains. Once out, he would find human settlements. That was his original goal.
The strip curved north.
Gihun looked north.
'They'll eventually head east from there too, I suppose.'
Gihun thought so.
And he walked north.
He explained the reason to himself about three times.
First, he needed to know where they were going.
Second, it was on his way anyway.
Third, it was safer to get ahead of the orc horde before leaving the mountains.
All three made sense.
'.......'
Gihun knew that none of them were the real reason.
He knew it, and he kept walking.
He didn't encounter anything on the first day.
Gihun found that strange.
The belt was clearly new. The broken branch's cross-section was still wet, and the flattened grass hadn't completely dried. It had been a day or two ago.
But there was nothing on it.
'.......'
Gihun quickened his pace a little.
His ribs ached.
It was the fourth day. They still hadn't healed. If he took a deep breath, something in his side would catch, and he'd have to stop for a moment.
Gihun walked, taking short, frequent breaths.
On the afternoon of the second day, the smell changed.
Orcs smelled sour. He knew that now.
What he was smelling now was different.
It was heavy and fishy. It smelled like fresh blood on something old and rotten.
Gihun stopped walking.
And he pressed himself behind a tree.
There was a clearing.
It wasn't that there were no trees. The trees were broken. About six trees, thicker than an adult's forearm, were snapped at the base.
Something was sitting in the middle of it.
'.......'
Gihun looked at it.
It was huge.
It was huge even sitting down. Its sitting height was taller than a standing person. Its back was hunched, and its shoulders rose above its head.
It looked like it would be about four meters tall if it stood up.
Gihun searched Aron's memories.
Ogre.
And a line was attached.
'No known method of λμ upon encounter.'
'.......'
Gihun thought about what that sentence meant.
It wasn't even telling him to flee.
It meant there was no method.
The ogre was eating something.
It took Gihun a few seconds to figure out what it was.
It was an orc.
'.......'
It wasn't just one. There were two more next to it. Those hadn't been eaten yet.
Gihun made a strange calculation for a moment.
'It eats orcs.'
If it eats orcs, it's an enemy of orcs.
If it's an enemy of orcs...
'.......No.'
Gihun stopped that calculation midway.
It just eats anything.
And something was placed next to the ogre.
Gihun looked at it.
It was wood.
More precisely, it was something that used to be wood. The root end was trimmed for a good grip, and all the upper branches were cut off. It was about three meters long and thicker than Gihun's thigh.
It was a club.
'.......'
Gihun looked at his own club.
About human height. Forearm thickness.
'.......'
He looked at the ogre's again.
'Isn't that a bit of a foul?'
Gihun decided to retreat.
That much was certain. He couldn't win this. Aron's memories said so, and his eyes confirmed it. Even twenty trolls wouldn't be able to handle that.
Gihun stepped back.
He stepped on something.
It was a twig.
The sound was very faint.
If it hadn't been Gihun, he wouldn't have heard it.
The ogre raised its head.
'.......'
Gihun froze in place.
The ogre sniffed.
And stood up.
It took time to stand up. It straightened its legs, arched its back, and lifted its neck. The process was very slow, and Gihun watched it all.
It was over four meters tall.
Gihun ran.
The ogre grabbed its club.
Gihun didn't look back. He ran through the trees. If there were many trees, the big one couldn't follow. He had survived trolls that way.
A sound came from behind him.
It was the sound of trees breaking.
It wasn't just one tree.
'.......'
Gihun realized it then.
That thing didn't avoid trees.
Gihun went fifty meters.
Then his side caught.
He couldn't breathe. It was his ribs. He shouldn't have run, but he did, and the price came immediately.
Gihun staggered.
At that moment, a shadow covered him from behind.
He flew for the first time.
The club hit his side. More precisely, the tip of the club grazed him. Yet, his body flew about ten meters and hit a tree.
His breath was completely cut off.
Gihun lay prostrate on the ground, unable to do anything.
'.......'
His body wouldn't move.
The ground shook. It was footsteps.
Gihun rolled.
The club was embedded where he had just been.
Dirt flew up to a person's height.
Gihun crawled back on all fours.
'.......'
Breath.
First, breath.
Gihun took several short, quick breaths. His lungs only opened halfway. Still, it was better than not breathing at all.
The ogre pulled out its club.
He flew for the second time.
This time, he blocked with his arm. It wasn't even a block. His arm was just there.
The gauntlet didn't break.
His arm didn't break.
Instead, his body flew again.
Gihun twisted his body in the air. It was something he learned at the dojo. When you fly, don't fall on your back, fall on your side. If you fall on your back, your breath will be cut off.
He fell on his side.
Still, his breath was cut off.
The third strike missed.
Gihun rolled to the side, and the club hit the ground, sending dirt flying.
At that moment, Gihun saw it.
After bringing the club down, the ogre's arm was fully extended.
And it took time for it to lift it again.
'.......'
Gihun saw it.
'Slow.'
Once he knew, he could see it.
The ogre was strong. Strong, but simple. It only had two moves: lifting and striking down, and there was a long pause in between.
Gihun exploited that pause.
He measured the distance.
This was something his body did instinctively. Half a step forward the moment the opponent extended its arm. One step back before it retracted it. That's what he had done on the mat for twelve years.
Gihun moved inward.
And kicked its knee.
It was a front kick.
Something hard caught his instep.
The knee didn't bend.
'.......'
Gihun retreated and looked at his foot.
His instep hurt.
'I didn't put enough power into it.'
Gihun knew it.
A front kick is linear. It only uses the power of bending and extending the knee. That's enough when fighting a person. A person will fold with one front kick.
This wasn't a person.
'.......'
A voice echoed in Gihun's mind.
'You don't kick with just power.'
It was Master Kim.
He had said it a hundred times to his students. Gihun had grown up hearing those words, and later, he himself said them to the kids.
'You kick by turning. It goes as far as your body turns.'
Gihun looked at his leg.
'.......'
When was the last time he did a roundhouse kick?
He couldn't remember. He had never done it with this body. On the first day, his groin tore from a single front kick, and he hadn't even thought about trying it again since.
But 50 days had passed since then.
He had practiced for an hour every night. He screamed while doing it, and trolls had even come because of his screams, but he kept going.
He had learned that method from Mina.
She was the captain of the women's division, her leg went the highest in the dojo, and she was the only person Gihun could never defeat.
'Your leg won't go up with just strength.'
Mina had said.
'You have to trick it a little every day.'
Gihun had tricked it for 50 days.
Gihun lifted his leg once.
It went up to his waist.
'.......'
On the first day, it didn't even reach his knee.
The ogre raised its club.
Gihun jumped back.
And went around a tree.
The club came sideways. The tree split in half. It was about two meters from the base and wasn't completely cut. It was half-split, and the upper part tilted.
Gihun looked at the tree.
Its thickness was such that an adult could embrace it with two arms.
'.......'
And he looked at the split part.
Gihun took three steps back.
He set his pivot.
Left foot forward. Right shoulder back.
'.......'
Gihun stood in that posture for a moment.
And then he turned.
It was a back kick.
It's a kick where you turn your body completely and hit with your heel. It's the most powerful kick in Taekwondo, and therefore the most difficult. If your axis shakes, you fall over yourself.
Gihun had kicked it a hundred times a day for twelve years.
His heel went into the cracked spot.
Snap.
The tree fell.
A ten-meter tree fell onto the ogre.
It wasn't exactly on top.
It was on its shoulder.
But it worked.
The ogre knelt. The tree pressed down on its shoulder, and its legs buckled under the weight. The ogre raised its arms to push it away.
Both hands went to the tree.
The club fell to the ground.
And the ogre's head came down.
It was at Gihun's eye level.
'.......'
Gihun saw it.
For the first time in 50 days, something was at the right height.
Gihun ran.
Three steps for a running start.
He kicked the ground with his left foot and spun his body in the air.
It was a jumping spinning kick.
His waist spun, his shoulder spun, and all that rotation went to the tip of his leg. It was the first time this body had performed this move. His muscles screamed.
But it worked.
The instep of his foot landed on the side of its head.
The sound was short.
The ogre's head turned sideways. Its neck turned to an angle it shouldn't have, and in that state, its entire body fell sideways.
Gihun landed.
His knees buckled as he landed. There was no strength left in his legs.
'.......'
Gihun knelt, supporting himself with one knee.
The ogre didn't move.
Gihun looked at the ogre's club.
It was lying on the ground.
Gihun grabbed it.
It was heavy. He had to lift it with both hands. All his strength went into lifting it. His arms trembled.
Still, he lifted it.
Gihun raised it over his shoulder.
He brought it down the first time.
It hit the head.
The ogre toppled forward.
Gihun lifted it again.
The second time.
The third time.
Around the fourth hit, the movement stopped.
Gihun struck a fifth time.
He struck a sixth time.
After the seventh strike, his arm wouldn't go up.
Gihun let go of the club.
The club fell to its side.
Gihun gasped for breath.
He stayed like that for a long time.
Then he looked at what he had done.
'.......'
It had ended at the fourth hit.
The remaining three hits were unnecessary.
Gihun knew that. He also knew it had ended around the third hit. But he kept striking.
'.......Why did I do that?'
Gihun stood there, grappling with that question.
No answer came.
More precisely, an answer came, but he refused to acknowledge it.
Gihun looked at his hands.
'.......'
His hands weren't trembling.
Gihun stared at them for a long time.
When he had caught the troll, they had trembled. Two of his fingernails had come off, his finger joints were all scraped, and his hands had trembled.
When he burned the thirty-seven people in the village, they had trembled too.
He had vomited the day he killed the wolf.
But now, he felt nothing.
'.......'
Gihun opened and closed his hands.
They were perfectly fine.
Gihun sat there.
The sun was setting.
'.......'
Gihun wondered what he should be feeling right now.
Should he be happy he won? He wasn't.
Should he be relieved he was alive? He wasn't relieved.
Should he be scared?
'.......'
Gihun felt a little bit of that.
But it wasn't the ogre he was scared of.
Gihun opened the sack.
Inside was a single shoe.
'.......'
Gihun didn't take it out.
He just looked inside the sack for a moment, then tied it up again.
That night, Gihun lit a fire.
He roasted some meat. There was something edible among what the orc had left.
As he ate, Gihun looked at the sky.
There were two moons.
'.......'
Gihun looked at the moons and spoke aloud.
Aron: Toban.
His voice sounded a little strange.
Aron: His daughter's name is Mina. Twelve years old. Good at math.
Aron: The village name is Gern. Twelve houses.
Aron: A well in the middle. A tree next to it.
Gihun repeated it once.
Then he put out the fire.
The next morning, Gihun did not go north.
He went east.
He didn't explain the reason to himself.