Martial Arts Worlds

CRASH!

Kiernan crashed into a wall, leaving a proper human-sized dent in the rock wall.

"Argh!"

The stone golem threw another punch and buried him even deeper into the rock wall. The black-haired human disappeared within the rock debris.

However, then the rock debris exploded off him, and Kiernan's leg landed on the stone golem's neck.

The kick pushed the stone golem's head to the side.

However, another stone golem's punch headed in his way, but Kiernan jumped over it and smashed his fist into the golem's face.

CRACK!

The punch cracked its face and sent it stumbling back.

A big, rock hand suddenly crashed over Kiernan and pushed him down to the ground, but he pushed his arms against the hand and held it up so it wouldn't crush him.

Kiernan's knees began bending down, but he then front kicked at the stone golem's knee. The kick crushed the stone knee, causing the stone golem to fall down.

"Rock N' Roll!"

With his twisting hand, he touched the stone golem's head and made it turn around to face away from him.

The stone golem looked like an owl now. However, it couldn't survive that and slowly fell down to the ground.

The second golem defeated!

The word "Valor" vanished from his second finger.

'Two stone golems left, and only one tattoo attack left. I don't know if there are more challenges after this, but hell. It isn't looking good.'

Kiernan turned to face the two silent-lipped stone golems and slowly moved into his famous fighting stance—the cat stance of Iron Style—and motioned for the stone golems to make the first move.

The first stone golem was on him at a heartbeat. It brought its boulder-sized fist down in a very straightforward attack.

Kiernan placed his hands on the incoming fist for only a millisecond, then sprang off the ground and flipped himself up on top of the golem's arm.

The arm was big enough for him to stand on.

The stone golem turned its silver eyes at Kiernan, but then came across his whip-like kick that smashed through its face and pushed its head to the side.

If there was any bloody material on its body, that kick would've definitely brought some crimson spilling out. However, as it was a construct of pure stone, there was no blood to be seen.

The stone golem stumbled to the side.

Kiernan rushed past it and headed towards the second stone golem. It didn't take even a second for him to reach his target.

The second stone golem reacted just like every other golem did. With a straight punch. However, since it wasn't the fastest attack, Kiernan easily dodged it.

'These stone golems have a scary amount of strength, but their attacks are very obvious and slow!'

Kiernan gritted his teeth hard. He planned to end the stone golem now. Thus, he twisted his waist, took a step ahead to inch closer to its body, and then slammed his fist into the broad chest of the stone golem.

"Iron Style, Straight Impact!"

CRACK! CRASH!

The stone golem exploded into a million pieces, leaving nothing but rubble behind. It all fell apart.

The third, and the last word—Mortality—vanished from his third finger.

THUMP!

At that moment, the ground behind him shook as the last stone golem stepped towards him.

Kiernan leaped off the ground, and without even looking at his target, spun in the air and kicked the stone golem across its face.

The kick carried such momentum and power that the stone golem's head was knocked clean off its body. It didn't let out a single sound as it just kept standing without its head.

However, it was clear that the stone golem was already dead!

"Haa! Haa! Haa!"

Kiernan breathed heavily, but he then turned around and started running straight towards the next challenge without taking even a second to catch his breath.

'I wasted so much time!'

He was getting quite panicky, and he hoped that this would be the last challenge, but he had a feeling that this was only the beginning.

It made him wonder how some people managed to beat this time trial in six minutes. He was almost certain that it already took him like six minutes to beat these two challenges, if not way more!

'I must admit that I underestimated the people of this island. I thought that with everyone on equal rank, I could easily beat them in the time trial, but clearly I am still lacking in so many things.

'My endurance is horrible. My speed is subpar. My strength is meager. I have lots of work to do to improve my body!'

While he kept thinking about different ways of improving himself, he saw something appear in the distance.

The smooth, straight path was ending, and instead, there was a steep hill ahead.

'A hill? It looks like I can just run up that.'

Kiernan thought, and then picked up his pace slightly even though his lungs were already on fire. Every fiber of his body wanted him to stop for a moment, but he brushed off the pain and arrived at the hill.

Immediately, he began running up the hill.

This time around, the end of the hill was quite visible. It was probably only fifty meters away.

'If this is the third challenge, pretty easy, I would say.'

However, as if to clown him, the hill started to shake, and something came behind him without him noticing.

That "something" wrapped around his forearms and tried to drag him down the hill.

'What the hell?'

Kiernan looked at his arms and saw that steel chains were wrapped tightly around them, binding him tightly.

He then looked back and saw that those chains came from the ground. Not sure where they were attached to.

'If you think this is enough to stop me, you're mistaken!'

Kiernan howled in pain and started walking up the hill. He couldn't run. Every step was painful and difficult.

The chains were digging into his flesh with each movement.

At first, the hill's top looked to be near, but now, he wasn't exactly sure how he could reach it with the chains wrapped around his arms!