Martial Arts Worlds

The stone time tablet reached the thirty-minute mark, but there was still no sign of Julian anywhere.

While waiting for his friend to return, Kiernan looked at his phone with a look of boredom.

He was checking some of the apps that his former self had downloaded a while back—it included some social media apps that he hadn't used since he reincarnated.

'Hmm?' Kiernan raised an eyebrow.

The front page had a lot of politically related posts—it looked like the situation wasn't as peaceful as he thought it was.

Animal Kingdom was feuding with Martial World—thus Animalkin was feuding with humans.

Based on what he read, it looked like that feud had lasted for a few decades already.

Some fearmongers were saying that the war might be near.

'These guys are jumping the gun. From what I read, Animal Kingdom is a big country in the World Seas. Martial World has thousands of countries with populations hundreds of times bigger than Animal Kingdom.

'However, Animalkin are strong—stronger than humans—it's because their physique from birth is already stronger than humans.' Enjoy new adventures from empire

At that moment, there was some movement in the cave.

With a slight limp, Julian stumbled out of the cave with an uncomfortable look on his face, and he then looked surprised that all of his injuries seemed to have disappeared.

He then turned to the time tablet to check his time and sighed in frustration.

[FINAL TIME]

[32:03.451]

'A minute slower than Kiernan.' Julian sighed.

"Alright, step aside, slowpoke." Gardner pushed past him rudely with a smirk. "I was dying out of boredom for having to wait for you!"

"?"

Julian squinted his eyes and grabbed Gardner's shoulder with a strong grip.

"Hey, mind your manners."

Gardner stopped, turned to look at the hand that was touching his shoulder, and looked sincerely pissed.

He suddenly elbowed Julian in the abdomen.

"Argh…" Julian doubled over in pain.

Gardner slammed his fist at his cheek, pushing his face to the side, and then grabbed him by the collar.

He started raining Julian with the punches, and each of them landed with a resounding smack. It sounded horrendous.

The students paled as they watched the sight.

The sound reminded them of a thunderstorm in the distance.

Kiernan pocketed his phone with a cold look and started walking towards the two, but then a red-haired young man stepped in front of him.

"Sit back down." Drago said coldly. "This is not your fight."

"Your friend over there is pushing his luck." Kiernan said with a lofty gaze. "He should be careful not to get himself hurt."

"?" Drago frowned.

Gardner kept punching at Julian with a grin on his face. The blood had started to spill. His fists were making constant contact with Julian's face, leaving him bruised and battered.

It was starting to look ugly.

However, at that moment, Julian grabbed Gardner by his dark blue hair. It was so sudden. The grin on Gardner's face quickly disappeared.

"Ptui!" Julian spat out the blood from his mouth and grinned with his bloody teeth. "You were having fun?"

When his words left his lips, Julian swung his fist and punched Gardner across his face. A few teeth flew out of Gardner's mouth and onto the ground.

Gardner almost stumbled behind, but then Julian yanked on his hair, pulled him closer, and kneed him in the stomach.

"ARGH!"

Gardner gritted his teeth in pain.

"My turn!"

Julian punched Gardner in the jaw. Then at the temple. Then at the nose, and finally at the throat.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"Argh!"

Gardner stumbled backwards, gasping for air. He had four bruises forming on his face, and his dark hair looked disheveled, messily falling over his face like seaweed on a rocky shore.

Julian kissed his own fist and said, "Ready for one more?"

"Bastard…" Gardner gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

As Julian reeled in his fast, someone suddenly kicked him in the waist and sent him sliding across the ground.

He had to let go of Gardner's hair, unfortunately.

"Who the fuck?" Julian frowned and looked over.

Gardner slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at his girlfriend Fae, who had just saved him from receiving an even greater beating.

"Fae, I was going to handle it by myself," he said angrily. "I didn't need help."

"It didn't look like that." Fae said as she blinked with her long eyelashes. "You were about to get pummeled."

SMACK!

At that moment, a horrendous-sounding smack sounded.

Someone fell right next to them, and when they looked over, they saw Drago lying on the ground with a dent in his chest. He looked like he was in horrible pain.

"Ouch…" Drago said and slowly climbed back to his feet. "That guy sure packs a punch."

Gardner and Fae looked surprised, then looked over to Kiernan, whose fist was almost smoking.

"Who the fuck are these two? I thought they would be weak since their times were so shit."

"First-timers maybe?"

Kiernan frowned as he looked at them—there was something unsettling about this.

'These two received a beating, but they look like it barely affected them. They're not some ordinary thugs but have actual skill to back up their arrogance.

'Also, if this ends up in a fight, it will be two versus four, and it looks like their little girlfriends know how to handle themselves. This might be bad.'

"You boys sure like to fight." Roesia suddenly said from the side. "Why don't you do Dual Run?"

'Dual Run?' Kiernan raised an eyebrow.

"Not a bad idea~" Gardner wiped the blood off his lips. "You two, do you know anything about Dual Run? If not, I can explain it to you."

"Never heard of it," Kiernan said.

"Two people will enter the cave at the same time. They will race each other, and whoever completes it first will win.

"Since there's four of you, I will go against this bastard."

Gardner pointed at Julian.

"And then, you and Drago will do the next race. If both teams have only one victory, there will be a third race between the winners.

"However, if I and Drago both win, then we've won the Dual Run. Sounds easy enough?"

"What's the penalty for losing?" Julian asked coldly.

When Gardner heard that, he just smiled.