WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 10 of The God of High School, "oath/meaning," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Aside from a self-inflicted chi-blocking mishap, The God of High School's Jin Mori has largely been sailing through the anime's tournament. Though his toughest opponent, Han Daewi, made him work hard for victory, Daewi is now his teammate, meaning that very little stands in the way of him continuing to dominate the competition. That is, until Park Ilpyo steps into the ring in Episode 10, "oath/meaning." Inspired by Mori's grandpa, the legendary fighter Jin Taejin, Ilpyo thinks he has Mori in a box and for a while, the renewal taekwondo user is indeed flummoxed -- unable to make headway in their semifinal bout.
However, it isn't long before Mori characteristically pulls something completely unorthodox out of the bag, demonstrating once and for all that, out of all the series' colorful fighters, he's still the wildest card in the deck.
Park Ilpyo is a taekkyon user -- an older style of taekwondo that relies largely on kicks to unbalance an opponent. He's just as fast as Mori, with the two exchanging a flurry of blows in the opening minutes of their match. But speed and action aren't Ilpyo's most offensive weapon. It's actually his strategic mind that's his real coup de grâce. While Mori relies on instinct and emotion, Ilpyo is more meditative and forward-planning. He's been coaching his team through each of their matches, predicting their competitor's moves and strategizing the ideal plan of attack in advance. This is no different in his own fight against Mori, as he calmly reveals each of Mori's "weaknesses" to him while they clash. The first weakness is that Mori is bad at close combat; the second is that he preps his techniques beforehand, making him too predictable, and the third is that these techniques place too much strain on Mori's body, tiring him out faster.
"You can never beat me," Ilpyo taunts, then twists the knife: "Your grandpa would be disappointed." Naturally, being verbally kicked while he's down only strengthens Mori's resolve, causing him to do something completely unpredictable to counter Ilpyo's claims. As it turns out, Mori isn't quite as unobservant as Ilpyo assumes -- and he shocks the cerebral fighter by pulling out one of Mira's Swordless techniques, and then one of Daewi's Full Contact Karate moves, the Black Tortoise. From the looks of surprise on Mira and Daewi's faces, it seems that they too had no idea Mori could utilize his teammates' abilities.
It speaks volumes not only about Mori's unpredictability but also his propensity to take things literally. Before the match, Daewi reminded his spiky-haired friend that all three of them have to win to make it through the tournament, not just Mori. It seems that Mori really took this advice to heart, representing not just his individual strength but the strength of his friends, too. And if he can pull these moves out without prior tutelage, who knows what other techniques he can replicate on-sight alone?