Chapter 10: Sung Ki vs Sumi - Collision of Concepts
The boulder beneath Sumi crumbled without warning. Large fragments hovered around her in midair, shattered by an unseen force. Her violet eyes locked on Sung Ki, who stood calmly on the opposite edge of the field, hands buried in his coat pockets.
He hadn't moved. And yet the destruction was undoubtedly his doing.
Sumi began to fall with the debris, her skirt fluttering as gravity claimed her. But as she descended, the scattered rock fragments suddenly reversed direction—drawn to her like planets to a gravitational center. They slammed together, encasing her in a perfectly round, compressed sphere of stone. The ground trembled beneath their weight. Shockwaves burst outward, howling past Sung Ki like hurricane winds, rippling the grassy field into waves.
"I know that's not enough to kill you," Sung Ki muttered, voice steady.
The sphere exploded.
From the debris erupted Sumi, a violet blur in the air. She rocketed forward, leg extended in a forward drop-kick. Sung Ki raised his arm in defense. Her foot collided with his forearm—
CRACK.
The ground beneath him imploded as the sheer force sent fissures screaming outward. The blow launched Sung Ki across the grassland, his body tumbling violently through earth and stone before slamming into a rocky ledge. He landed hard, skidding backwards, boots carving deep into the soil as he fought for balance.
Chunks of shattered boulder still hovered midair, frozen in the ripple of their moment.
But Sumi had already moved.
She stepped once—
—and in the next instant, she was in front of him.
Reality fractured.
Sung Ki's eyes widened. A shimmering barrier of prismatic lines and glyphs shimmered around him— [Ability 1: Dimensional Refraction] A defensive field bending the local narrative space, preventing outside existence from interacting with the target's immediate dimensionality.
Sumi's fist pierced it.
SHATTER.
The shield burst like glass, her strike grazing his cheek as he narrowly tilted his head. Sung Ki ducked low, countering with a rising uppercut. She danced sideways—
—and retaliated with a flurry.
Fist. Elbow. Knee. Kick.
Sung Ki blocked the first two, but a sweeping knee caught him in the ribs, lifting him off the ground. Sumi spun—her other knee striking upward into his chin. Before he could recover, she rotated midair, planted her foot on his chest, and kicked.
The sonic boom cracked the air as Sung Ki shot backward like a missile.
His body tore through several stone spires before landing in a heap. Dust settled. His coat was torn, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
He wiped it away, breathing heavily.
"I'll die if I don't go all out."
His eyes ignited.
Glowing bright cerulean, his pupils became geometric symbols etched in starlight. Blue fractal glyphs traced across his arms and neck like a celestial circuit board.
[Ability 2: Chrono-Space Imposition] Imposes artificial constraints of space and time onto a target or environment. Functions within story-based metaphysics by editing the "local story rules" around the opponent.
As Sung Ki raised his hand, reality around Sumi distorted. The ground beneath her feet seemed to stretch endlessly. Her body vibrated slightly—her perception of distance and time skewed by his manipulation.
"You're enforcing space-time laws directly onto me," Sumi said, calmly.
"You're fast. But now, you'll have to think before you move."
"Oh, I see now," she muttered, eyes gleaming.
She vanished.
No sound.
In the blink of an eye, she reappeared in front of him—his hand still raised—her knuckles already buried in his side.
Blood sprayed.
"You're already late," she whispered.
Sung Ki coughed, smirking.
Then his wounds rewound, flesh and bone snapping back into place.
[Ability 3: Narrative Reconstruction] Allows the user to revert their personal story to a previously written "state"—rewriting recent injuries, positioning, or events within a bounded narrative timeline.
The air behind him warped.
A black mist swirled violently, forming a whirlpool of void—a rift of collapsing alphabets and fading punctuation.
Sumi gasped as it pulled at her, warping not just her body but the story around her.
"What is this...?"
"A void narrative," Sung Ki said. "Erasure through unwritten ink."
The mist swallowed Sumi, shrinking rapidly, dragging her image into a spiral until it vanished like the end of a page turning to black.
Silence.
Sung Ki dropped to one knee, panting.
He looked to the sky—where the shattered debris of their fight floated in pause.
"I know that's not the end for you," he said. "But let's see if you can rewrite your way out of that."
The wind blew through the ruined field. Grass whispered across fractured stone. And somewhere, far beyond the arena's metaphysical borders, a page turned.
[End of Chapter]
--
To be continued