Martial Arts Worlds

"Yeah, enjoy being in the front row, dick sucker. It will be your last time!"

Zeus shouted from the left, a number four etched at the front of his brown tile, and it clearly rubbed him the wrong way that he had a lower number than Kiernan.

"…"

Kiernan side-eyed Zeus, then looked back at the front, clearly ignoring him.

"Zeus-chan, what's with you and this pumpkin, hmm? I wonder how you, the prince of Nightingale, have a past with him."

Sun asked with a smile from the number two spot.

"None of your business, Sun. You shit-eating, chipmunk-looking bastard… Toad-face, ugly gossiping piece of garbage…"

Zeus murmured under his breath in anger.

"That's not very nice, Zeus-chan, but… Why the hell is there a number two in front of me just now? I am tied in first, so why am I second?!"

Sun asked and looked at Seo Donghae next to him—he wasn't reacting to anything happening around him.

"Hey, Smug-chan, why are you first and not me?"

He asked.

"…"

Seo stayed silent.

"Hello? Smug-chan?"

"I don't know who you're addressing. I know for a fact that you're not speaking to me, because my name's not Smug, and definitely doesn't include 'chan'."

Seo said coldly.

"Heh… I didn't mean anything bad by it."

Sun said with a smile.

"…"

Seo glanced at him briefly and turned back to the temple at the front.

"Yaaaaaaaaawn!"

Frown Man yawned loudly in the fifth spot and scratched his back lazily, right in the spot between his shoulder blades.

"Horse stance, huh. That's such an outdated training method, and we have to do that shit? Who in the hell would find that exciting?"

"You're thinking one-dimensionally, pirate. It's not just horse stance. There will also be plenty of battling."

Prince Leonida said with a smile.

He had wild-looking blond hair that reached all the way to his lower back—the hair looked like spikes of an explosion—and had a generally very attractive-looking young man's face.

"Battling? How could there possibly be battling? We're just standing in horse stance, and I heard the all conditions will change, blah blah. A little bit of rain? Windy, perhaps? It does not matter. I can stand in horse stance for an entire month if I want to!"

Frown Man declared.

"One-dimensional, like I said, pirate."

Prince Leonida said with a chuckle.

"I don't like the way you put emphasis on the word 'pirate.' You dislike my profession?"

Frown Man asked with a smirk.

"You call that a profession? Haha. I do generally hate pieces of shit human beings that earn their living by making innocent people suffer."

Prince Leonida said.

"Mighty walls surround the capital city of the Leonida Kingdom. In those walls, heads of criminals have been placed on spikes.

"Leonida Kingdom happens to be on the borderline between pirate-infested waters and neutral grounds, so we get quite a few pirate visitors.

"However, everyone who bears the mark of the pirate will find their heads on those spikes pretty quickly.

"Maybe I'll take your head with me over there and place your head right next to the front gate. How do you like that?"

Prince Leonida asked.

"Hahahaha. Your hatred towards pirates is strong, I see. Oh, who did we kill close to you? Your little mommy or daddy?"

"A sister. You pirate filth defiled her and left her corpse in a small boat drifting towards the shore."

Prince Leonida said coldly, rubbed his hands together, and then looked into Frown Man's disgusting face, who was smiling with his tongue out.

He had hair like seaweed—green and matted—and his eyes were the color of a stormy sea. The tongue of his was long, and the letter 'P' was etched into it with black ink.

"And how is this event also battling? You asked. The cameras and the force field shielding the audience have been added with extra material.

"With the help of that material, they can see our Aura Images. Thus, when the event starts, the usage of Aura Images is allowed.

"Physical attacks are forbidden, but not the mental kind. So, good luck. I will attack you immediately."

Prince Leonida said coldly.

"Immediately? Using Aura Image will drain your stamina, so if you attack right away, you'll just ruin your event."

Frown Man said.

"Do you think I care? My mission is to ruin your event. In the name of the Leonida Kingdom, a representative of the Pirate Kingdom will only reach the top 10 once hell has frozen over!"

Leonida said with a low growl.

"Oo, I am so terrified. Good luck then, little prince. I've killed princes before, and they always had one thing in common—they pissed their pants at the sign of fear, you know."

Frown Man said, crouched, and put his hands on his knees.

"Welcome to the second event!"

The commentator's voice sounded from the large screen's speakers.

"It's time for Horse Endurance—in this event, every representative is required to stand in horse stance, and only in that.

"Those who leave the perfect horse stance even for a moment are out of the event. The conditions will keep changing, but we'll save those as a surprise for now.

"Any physical attacks between the representatives are forbidden. Those are the only rules. So, let the best representative win!"

Dong! Dong! Dong!

A gong sounded.

"Horse stance, now!"

Hundreds of representatives all crouched down, had their legs at a ninety-degree angle, and had their arms stretched outward to face the front.

Their back was straight—it wasn't arched even for a little bit—and their eyes were focused straight ahead.

The timer started on the large screen, and every representative started to get points—finally, those with zero score scored their first points of the championship.

When the lower-ranked representatives saw that, they breathed a sigh of relief, but they still felt humiliated having to be in the back rows.

It was a place where no representative wanted to be, as it meant that they were the worst talent in the competition.

It was a horrible feeling to have.

"…"

Kiernan had a calm look, but his right leg was screaming in pain, and so was he—almost.