Got a Gallery in the Wild

Title) Ludwig vs. Lackey

WildGrills

(Photo of Ludwig and Lackey facing each other)

A human capable of defeating a gorilla versus a gorilla trained in human martial arts.

Who do you think will win? Personally, I think Ludwig will win.

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) I think that Ludwig fellow will win too.

ㄴWildGrills) But Lackey is pretty strong too.

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) That’s true, but I’ve heard Ludwig has already reached mastery. Besides, Lackey’s problem is that he gets carried away too easily when he gets excited.

ㄴSwordmaster) I don’t think Mr. Ludwig will lose either. I had a sparring match with him a long time ago, and his techniques were truly outstanding.

ㄴWildGrills) Did you beat him?

ㄴSwordmaster) I can’t say. Since it was a sparring match, it’s difficult to determine a winner. Though I can say he gave me quite a hard time.

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) Then she lost! As far as I know, the only person who has ever cleanly defeated Mr. Ludwig is Ash!

ㄴWildGrills) Every time I see you all talking about him, I feel like you trust Ludwig a lot.

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) Because he’s the Holy Kingdom’s greatest Holy Knight! Countless Holy Knights were trained under his guidance!

ㄴWildGrills) That’s a relief. It looks like I just have to learn everything Ludwig teaches me.

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) While you’re at it, why not learn a little faith too!

ㄴWildGrills) No.

ㄴLook how blunt he was. LOL.

ㄴRather than Grills, I wonder if Ludwig still has any faith left. LOL.

ㄴI think he does. After all, he found Grills in that hell.

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) Stop saying such horrible things!

ㄴDemonPrincess) Aren’t you betting points this time?

ㄴWe’re screwed. The point addict is here. ;;

ㄴSeriously, isn’t she addicted to points? LOL.

ㄴHonestly, I kind of want to bet too. LOL.

ㄴGrills, hurry up and open the betting!

The match between Ludwig and Lackey attracted quite a bit of attention.

Just as the title said, it was a confrontation between a human capable of defeating a gorilla and a gorilla trained in human martial arts.

Having fought both of them myself, I gave Lackey a slight advantage.

I had two reasons for thinking so.

The first was his eyesight, which had previously been his greatest weakness.

Now that he wore glasses, that problem had practically disappeared.

The second was Ludwig’s mobility.

He still couldn’t have fully adapted to his new prosthetic leg.

And Lackey would most likely take advantage of that very weakness.

“Wonmo, who do you think is going to win?”

“Kyuu?”

I sat down some distance away with Wonmo in my arms.

Wonmo tilted his head at my question, but as soon as I scratched under his chin, he started grinning from ear to ear.

He was definitely our shelter’s mascot.

He was so adorable that I couldn’t help wanting to keep petting him.

Whoosh.

Meanwhile, the fight began.

Lackey was the first to move.

Even though he couldn’t use mana, he was still incredibly agile.

I suppose that was also part of some martial art.

Ludwig had displayed very similar movements a little while ago.

Whoosh!

A palm the size of a person’s head shot straight toward Ludwig’s face.

Surprised by the speed, Ludwig’s eyes widened slightly.

But only for an instant.

Just before the palm reached him, he turned his head.

And in doing so, he naturally linked it into a counterattack.

“Ugh!”

The moment he saw the counter coming, Lackey made a huge leap backward.

Apparently, he had already expected the counterattack to come immediately.

Right after that, Ludwig rapidly closed the distance and slashed with his sword.

Being a gorilla, Lackey had a much larger body.

That meant even a simple attack could deal considerable damage.

Clang!

However, Lackey reacted with astonishing skill.

He struck the sword with his iron-hard fist.

I already knew his fists were tough, but I had never imagined they would produce a metallic sound upon impact.

‘If that thing had hit me head-on, my head would’ve exploded.’

Ludwig also seemed to realize that Lackey’s strength and technique were anything but ordinary, as he narrowed his eyes.

And the same could be said of Lackey.

He was using a completely different fighting pattern from the one he used against me.

Before, since he could barely see, his accuracy had been terrible.

Because of that, he always repeated the same cycle—taking a stance, throwing a punch, resetting his stance, and attacking again.

He still did that whenever he was about to throw a powerful strike.

But now he had added something else.

Before every heavy blow, he threw quick, light attacks, almost like jabs, maintaining constant pressure on Ludwig.

‘That’s really good, but now that I look at it, I can see other weaknesses too.’

The Gorilla Chief had a similar problem.

His legs were too short.

Because of a gorilla’s anatomy, he almost always had to support himself on his knuckles.

So when he stood upright using only his two legs, he inevitably lost some of his balance.

Tap!

Ludwig took advantage of that very point.

He feigned a sword slash, but instead swept Lackey’s leg.

And not with his good leg.

He did it with the mithril prosthetic.

It was practically the same as smashing someone in the shin with a hammer.

“UOOOOGH!!!”

Forget balance.

After taking such a blow to the shin, Lackey couldn’t help screaming in pain.

Even Ludwig hadn’t expected that, as he jumped back in surprise.

“It hurts!”

“@#%$#”

Hearing Lackey’s complaints, Ludwig raised a hand apologetically.

Either way, the fight resumed.

Surprisingly, Ludwig had quite a difficult time.

Perhaps because Lackey had learned from the Blood Demon, he knew exactly how to fight a human.

‘That makes sense. His sparring partner was the Blood Demon. Compared to him, Ludwig must seem like a relatively manageable opponent.’

I didn’t know exactly how strong the Blood Demon had been, but I did know he had been the greatest villain in the history of the Central Plains.

He was a man who killed people as casually as others ate.

And in order to bring him down, practically every martial artist in the Central Plains had to join forces.

The aftermath had been so severe that the average level of martial artists declined tremendously.

‘Neither of them can use mana. This is a purely technical duel.’

The longer I watched, the more I realized the level of the fight was far higher than I had expected.

Honestly, it made me want to sit down with some popcorn and watch.

Claaang!

Lackey’s fist collided head-on with Ludwig’s sword.

I didn’t know whether it was thanks to the mithril prosthetic or simply because Ludwig had an unbelievably solid foundation.

The fact was that Ludwig held his ground without taking even a single step backward.

“#$%#”

Ludwig muttered something.

As always, I couldn’t understand a single word.

But Lackey seemed to sense that something was wrong and made a huge leap backward.

Fwoosh!

“Huh?”

The instant Lackey retreated, Ludwig shot after him at astonishing speed.

He was much faster than when he had fought me.

Was he really someone incapable of using mana who also had a prosthetic leg?

The more I watched, the more curious I became about just how strong he had been before entering the forest.

‘How does he do that technique?’

The way he glided forward as he advanced was truly striking.

Was that the famous qinggong martial arts novels were always talking about, or was it another technique?

Whatever it was, everyone agreed on one thing.

Footwork was the most important thing.

Both HeavenlyDemon and SwordMaster had told me so.

I hugged Wonmo tightly as I watched the fight in fascination.

Whoosh. Swish. Whish.

The sound of the sword slicing through the air rang out clearly.

In other words.

Ludwig was completely dominating Lackey.

Every time an attack came, Lackey retreated.

But that was no longer accomplishing much.

‘Wow! Is he attacking and moving at the same time?’

As he glided forward, Ludwig continued slashing without stopping.

Now that I thought about it, I almost always attacked while staying in the same spot.

And Lackey did something similar.

Since he had trouble retreating quickly, he usually preferred circling around his opponent.

Ludwig, however, freely utilized not only the front and back, but both flanks as well.

‘…How the hell did I beat Lackey?’

Was his poor eyesight really that much of a handicap?

Or was it thanks to my ice?

Watching him fight now, I couldn’t understand how I had managed to defeat him.

Though there was one thing I was certain of.

Swish.

“…He lost.”

“#%##”

Ludwig was technically superior to Lackey.

The moment he started getting a little serious, Lackey became completely helpless.

Although he looked frustrated, he accepted his defeat cleanly.

If he had lost to me, he probably would have made a huge scene saying it was impossible.

But in front of Ludwig, he showed profound respect.

“#$%%#$%%”

“I don’t understand. Learn my language.”

Ludwig said something else.

Lackey replied briefly before walking away with heavy steps.

Afterward, Ludwig took out his notebook again and began writing.

It looked like he was about to give his evaluation of the fight.

Honestly, I was curious about what he had written.

“%$”

“Thank you.”

I took the paper and immediately entered the Gallery.

To summarize, it said something like this.

[I don’t know what lunatic taught martial arts to a gorilla, but it’s clear he was an extraordinary martial artist. However, it’s still a gorilla. Its lower body is far too short and weak. Every gear works wonderfully on its own, but none of them fit together properly.]

It was a straightforward explanation, just as one would expect from someone who had trained countless Holy Knights.

In other words.

Martial arts were optimized for the human body.

By adapting them to a gorilla’s body, mismatches inevitably appeared.

Especially in the lower body, where its weaknesses became far too exposed.

‘Would the Gorilla Chief have the same problem?’

I conveyed those exact words to Lackey.

Since he still couldn’t read, I had to explain them to him verbally.

It took quite a bit of effort because the text was full of metaphors.

“Understood. I’ll fix it.”

“You understood it?”

“It means the proportions don’t match.”

It seemed this guy really was very intelligent.

Afterward, I informed the Gallery about the outcome of the match and thought everything was over.

Or rather.

That’s what I believed.

“#%#%^”

Ludwig suddenly pointed at Sloth, who had been watching the entire time.

He even raised his sword and pointed it directly at him.

My jaw dropped.

But, to my surprise, Sloth slowly began walking toward him.

Apparently, he had already guessed Ludwig would eventually challenge him.

Slow…

Very slow…

That said, he was advancing painfully slowly.

In the end, I carried him myself to save time.

And so Ludwig and Sloth stood facing each other.

Ludwig was probably curious about what a sloth was doing in a place like this.

Well, I could understand Wonmo being there as the group’s adorable mascot.

But Sloth was another matter.

‘Has he already realized how strong Sloth is?’

This wasn’t the time to think about that.

I couldn’t keep such a bizarre scene all to myself.

Title) Ludwig vs. Sloth

WildGrills

(Photo of Ludwig and Sloth facing each other)

Who do you think will win this time? Honestly, I have no idea.

ㄴHeavenlyDemon) Even I can’t be certain. It’ll be an interesting fight.

ㄴSwordmaster) They both have tremendous combat experience. It’s difficult to say.

ㄴI think Sloth will win.

ㄴCome on, no matter what… Ludwig, obviously. LOL.

ㄴWith those claws, Sloth will turn him into Lu/dwig. LOL.

ㄴHeroDontThrowAway) Mr. Ludwig will win!

ㄴDemonPrincess) What about the points?

ㄴKingLeor) That’s enough… ;; You’re really going to become a gambling addict.

ㄴWow. It’s the first time I’ve seen KingLeor trying to stop DemonPrincess. LOL.

ㄴThat’s what real gambling addicts are like. LOL.

Even HeavenlyDemon and Swordmaster admitted they couldn’t predict the outcome.

Meanwhile, Ludwig and Sloth remained motionless, staring at each other.

Neither one made the first move.

It seemed as though they were both waiting for the perfect moment.

‘Who will be the first to…?’

Then.

Fwoosh!

Without any warning, both of them disappeared at the same time.

Good thing I had trained my dynamic vision.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have been able to follow their movements.

And when I finally managed to see them.

“……”

“……”

Both had their weapons pointed directly at each other’s vital points.

Sloth’s claws were aimed at Ludwig’s heart.

Ludwig’s sword was pointed at Sloth’s head.

At first glance, it looked like a draw.

But when I looked more closely.

I realized there was already a winner.

‘…Sloth’s claws are slightly closer.’

Ludwig’s sword had stopped a few centimeters away.

Meanwhile, Sloth’s claws were barely brushing their target.

Both were speed specialists.

That was why the duel had been decided that way.

It resembled an old western showdown, with two gunslingers drawing at the same time.

“%$%^”

“……”

Both withdrew their weapons.

Sloth kept his usual relaxed expression.

Ludwig, on the other hand, had a somewhat stiff look on his face.

Then he took out his notebook again, wrote a few lines, and handed it to me.

“%^%^?”

“Huh?”

“%^^@%”

As always, I couldn’t understand a single word.

Though bewildered, I uploaded the message to the Gallery.

And then I more or less understood what Ludwig was trying to tell me.

ㄴHe says there’s a real monster here.

ㄴWildGrills) A real monster?

ㄴYes. He says that even if he had been able to use mana, he thinks he still would have lost.

ㄴWildGrills) ;;;

How the hell did you manage to survive?

With a monster like that roaming around, it’s incredible that you’re still alive.

After reading that question, there was only one thing I could answer.

‘I survived by offering him tributes, that’s all.’

Definitely.

I’ve been incredibly lucky.