Suddenly, Jin was within inches of Gunnar’s throat, his hand already gripping the hilt of his weapon as it materialized in his palm.

It was the perfect ambush. The distance, the timing, the momentum all manipulated by the man who caused a fuss all over the player community.

Jin swung. The blade whistled through the air, aimed at the gap in Gunnar’s heavy fur mantle.

CLANG.

Gunnar didn’t use his axe. He caught the blade with his hand.

The metal screeched under the pressure, sparks flying as the Viking’s sheer physical strength halted the Ranker’s strike.

"Are these the strongest?"

Gunnar sneered, his breath hot and smelling of ozone.

"A man throwing another man like a toy?"

Gunnar’s fist collided with Jin’s stomach. The blow was like a battering ram.

Jin gasped, the air leaving his lungs as he was sent tumbling across the floor. He hit the far wall with a bone-jarring impact, his red Avatars flickering out of existence.

Gunnar turned his gaze to Kang Min.

"And you. You have a troublesome gift. But you are out of items, aren’t you?"

Kang Min looked at his empty hands. He looked at the wreckage of the training dummies and the scorched floor. He looked at Jin, who was struggling to stand up.

"I’m never out of items," Kang Min said quietly. "In a room full of things you’ve broken, everything is an item."

Gunnar roared and charged. He didn’t use a skill this time and instead used the raw, terrifying weight of his body. He swung the axe in a wide, horizontal cleave that covered half the arena.

Kang Min didn’t move. He waited until the blade was inches from his neck.

[Skill - Exchange is in use!]

Kang Min swapped with one of the scorched pieces of Gunnar’s own armor that had been chipped off earlier in the fight. He appeared behind Gunnar’s left heel. At the same time, he reached out and grabbed the edge of Gunnar’s massive fur cape.

He swapped the cape with Kim Jin.

Jin, who had been reeling from the punch, found himself suddenly pulled into the center of the fight, standing right behind the Viking. He didn’t hesitate. He poured every ounce of his remaining mana into his blade.

A dozen red Avatars appeared in a circle around Gunnar. They merged and turned into a single, massive pillar of red energy that spiraled around Jin’s katana.

Gunnar sensed the danger. He tried to bring his axe around, but he was off-balance from the previous swing. He channeled everything into a desperate defensive shout.

「Valhalla’s Aegis!」

A dome of gold and blue electricity erupted around the Viking.

CRACK.

The red energy and the blue lightning collided, creating a vacuum in the center of the arena. The pressure was so intense that the observation windows above finally shattered, raining glass down onto the floor.

"The axe!" Jin screamed, his voice cracking from the effort of maintaining the strike.

Kang Min saw the opening. Gunnar’s axe was being used as the anchor for his shield. If that anchor was moved, the shield would collapse. Kang Min didn’t have any steel balls left. He didn’t have any daggers.

He looked at his own shoes.

Kang Min’s right shoe swapped with the head of Gunnar’s axe.

It was a ridiculous, desperate move. For a fraction of a second, Gunnar was holding a worn-out leather boot instead of a divine weapon. The Valhalla’s Aegis flickered. The anchor was gone.

Jin’s red-lit blade tore through the weakened defense.

The sound of the impact was like a lightning strike hitting a cathedral. A massive explosion of red and black energy threw everyone backward. When the dust finally settled, the arena was in ruins.

Gunnar was on one knee, his chest heaving, a thin line of blood trickling from a cut across his shoulder. He was holding his axe again, the exchange had ended but the lightning was gone. He looked exhausted.

Kim Jin was face-down on the floor, his mana completely depleted. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t going to be standing up for a long time.

Kang Min on the other hand was sitting on the floor, one foot bare, looking at the Viking with a weary, lopsided smile.

"I think," Kang Min panted, "that counts as a win."

Gunnar looked at the bare foot of the man who had just used a shoe to dismantle a Viking’s ultimate defense. He looked at the Ranker who had been used as a projectile. Slowly, the giant began to laugh. It wasn’t the arrogant roar from before. It was a deep, chesty chuckle of genuine appreciation.

"A shoe," Gunnar muttered in English, shaking his head. "I have fought across three continents, and I have never been defeated by a man with one shoe."

He stood up, using his axe as a cane. He looked toward the observation deck, where the Guild Master was staring down in absolute silence.

"You!" Gunnar shouted, pointing a finger at the Guild Master. "This man...He is wasted in your country. And the Swordsman... he has potential, but he is too stiff. He needs to learn that a blade is only as good as the hand that throws it."

Gunnar turned back to Kang Min. He didn’t offer a hand. He knew he was too tired to take it but he inclined his head in a sharp, respectful nod.

"I will leave your country tomorrow," Gunnar said. he looked at the unconscious Jin.

"...you are a lucky man to have a star watching your back."

Gunnar turned and walked toward the exit, his heavy boots clunking on the broken alloy. He didn’t look back. He had found what he was looking for.

While to other this must have seemed trivial and/or of no concern or importance but to Gunnar this was not just a fight, but proof that the world was still full of strong people.

Just thinking about made his insides churn with joy.

Kang Min crawled over to where his shoe had landed and pulled it back on.

He looked at Jin, who was starting to groan.

"Jin-ssi," Kang Min whispered.

"When you wake up, don’t mention the shoe. My reputation can’t handle it."

The lights in the arena flickered back on, revealing the true extent of the devastation.