Martial Arts Worlds

With slow and quiet steps, Kiernan trekked to the middle of the sand and looked straight into Gruber's eyes.

"…"

Maximilian stayed silent and looked at him with no light in his eyes.

"The Martial Gods are satisfied with this decision. Have a good match, and don't disappoint them."

The temple priest said, and then shouted.

"Maximilian Gruber vs. Arakawa Kiernan!"

With his arm, when the gong sounded, he swung his arm down.

"FIGHT!"

Maximilian jumped forward and punched ahead, but from his wrist to the shoulder, it started wobbling like a jellyfish in the water.

It made the punch's trajectory far more difficult to understand!

"Rendering Edge!"

It didn't matter to Kiernan, though.

With the sides of his hands, he smacked the punches away as if they were nothing and stood still like an unmovable fortress.

In the eyes of Maximilian, a mighty black fortress stood behind Kiernan that was bigger than the temple itself and had a dark cloud raging over it like a storm waiting to be unleashed.

"Intriguing."

Maximilian quickly shifted his stance and kicked horizontally like a crane's beak, but Kiernan parried it effortlessly.

It didn't seem to faze Gruber, as he kept moving ahead and kept attacking with calculated precision.

Parry! Parry! Parry! Parry!

Yet.

The punches kept being shot down from the air, and yet Gruber showed no sign of slowing down, as he kept moving ahead.

It made Kiernan take a step backwards, and it made the black fortress shift slightly. It was moving even though it shouldn't have been possible!

'I am being pushed back, which is not a good sign. I need to find a way to stop this before it's too late.'

Kiernan narrowed his eyes and forced his feet to stop moving backwards.

With his hands parrying away Maximilian's punches, he suddenly started moving forward and stopped Gruber's advancement in his tracks!

"Ah!"

Aoi's eyes widened in shock.

"Wait, while parrying Gruber's attacks, Kiernan is actually advancing forward as if he were the one attacking? How dominant!"

Gunwoo cried out.

"Easier said than done."

Master Arakawa said coldly.

At that moment, Maximilian stopped moving together and increased the speed of his punches, which stopped Kiernan's advancement, and he had to put all his effort into parrying those punches.

'He stopped my advancement so easily. With just a slight change of pace, he forced me to focus on defending and not moving.'

Kiernan thought to himself with a frown.

At that moment, Maximilian stepped forward and threw a quick combination of punches that Kiernan had to put all his effort into parrying.

It forced Kiernan to start backstepping like crazy, and soon he reached the walls of his mighty black fortress that showed signs of wearing down.

"Maximilian is pushing him back!"

"Why the hell is this foreigner only defending? You cannot win a match with defense only!"

"I knew it! Yokai Dojo should have played the strategy game instead of trying to go against Gruber. So foolish!"

At that moment, Kiernan stopped moving his hands, dodged Maximilian's quick combination of punches, and then jabbed his hand towards his throat.

Maximilian weaved to the side just in time, but then Kiernan threw a few punches towards his chest, but he managed to block them all.

Swoosh!

Gruber sent an elbow, which Kiernan ducked under, and drove his fist towards his ribs, but he was met with a powerful uppercut from Maximilian.

Without having any other choice, Kiernan stopped his punch and dodged the uppercut with barely any room to spare.

Maximilian smashed his leg at Kiernan's thigh and bruised it with a loud smack that echoed through the temple.

"Urgh…"

Kiernan frowned, and jumped backwards, but Maximilian chased after him like a hungry wolf.

"It's really not looking good!"

"Maximilian just keeps forcing Kiernan to go on the back foot. He wasn't a match for his offense, and then he tried to move close to attack, but Maximilian was too quick for him!"

Worried voices sounded in Yokai Dojo's stands, and for a good reason too, as Kiernan was struggling to keep up with Maximilian's relentless attacks.

"What do you think, Aoi?"

Master Arakawa asked.

"Kiernan is… I am not too sure. I helped him to get used to his strange movement techniques back in the dojo, but so far, he isn't using any of that.

"I don't really know what he is trying. Maximilian isn't really using much of his martial soul's power. It is clear that he knows the dangers of using it carelessly in his current state."

Aoi said with concern evident in her tone.

Maximilian swung his fist left and right—it missed—but he crossed to the right, stopped Kiernan from dodging in that direction, and then landed a powerful blow to his guard.

Kiernan stumbled backwards, clearly feeling the impact of the punch, and then touched the sand with his bare feet to steady himself.

At that moment, Maximilian's fist came flying straight towards him.

'Now!'

Kiernan's eyes widened, his feet slid across the sand as if he were on ice, and he appeared behind Maximilian, grabbed him by the back of his head and jaw, and then he flipped him over.

He landed on the sandy ground with a loud thud.

"?!"

Maximilian quickly jumped back to his feet and distanced himself from Kiernan with cold sweat running down his back.

It was clear that something frightened him.

"What did you just do?"

He asked.

"Oh, you can talk?"

Kiernan chuckled and moved into his striking stance.

"What the hell was that?"

Master Arakawa cried out.

It was strange to hear him lose his composure like that, so his students just looked at him in surprise.

"That's it… It was what he was using against me, but I can't quite wrap my finger around the exact technique he used… or what it actually does."

Aoi said.

"I don't understand how something like that is just a technique that can be performed by humans. I thought for a moment that it was Martial Ability."

Master Arakawa scratched the back of his head.

"What was it, grandpa?"

Aoi asked.

"I guess… you would call it Void Step."