Martial Arts Worlds

"…"

Dark emotions washed over Jonathan as he watched the doctors take Dominic away on a stretcher.

It was a solemn mood.

"Alright, Jonathan!"

Coach Jin snapped his fingers in front of Jonathan's face to attract his attention and then said loudly and clearly,.

"Your opponent will be expecting you to use your Sky Drop. Do not use it. I repeat, do not use it, but you can use it as bait!"

"Don't use it? But it is my most powerful technique!"

Jonathan cried out.

"They have studied your technique and have created dozens of ways to counterattack it, I bet. If you use Sky Drop, you'll lose the match."

Kiernan said from the side.

"Shit…"

Jonathan cursed under his breath and hated the fact that his technique had so many weaknesses, despite it being a quite powerful technique.

"Make your opponent think that you're about to use Sky Drop, but then use something else. It can still be used as a weapon if you use it as bait!"

Coach Jin said.

"Bring forth your next fighter!"

The referee said impatiently as they had spent their merry time talking.

"Go on, now."

Coach Jin patted Jonathan on the back and pushed him towards the ring.

With slow and easy steps, Jonathan reached the top of the fighting ring and headed to his corner.

"The second match—Adalric Pieper versus Jonathan Ackers!"

Whistle~

After the whistle, Adalric eased into his fighting stance that looked like he was grabbing air, but he looked very relaxed and confident.

It was as if he wasn't being watched by millions of people.

In this situation, more than a few high schoolers had completely frozen in nervousness and couldn't move even a muscle.

Some couldn't handle the pressure of being watched by millions of people and couldn't focus on the match, which ended up causing them to make mistakes they wouldn't normally make.

Adalric was a strangely calm individual. A look of dead calm in his eyes. It was as if he was just having some random sparring match in his basement or something.

"Huff…"

Jonathan, his heart racing like a horse, moved into his fighting stance. He didn't have the same calmness and fluidity in his moves.

It was clear that he was quite stiff-looking, like a robot.

"Are the two of you ready?"

The referee asked.

"I am."

Adalric said calmly.

"Yeah…"

Jonathan breathed heavily and bent his knees into a lunging stance.

"FIGHT!"

The referee swung his arm down, and the roaring crowd erupted into screams of excitement all around the stadium.

"Hah!"

Jonathan lunged forward and shot his hand towards Adalric's face. He wasn't wasting any time!

"He is already going for Sky Drop? Is he stupid?"

On Kurogami High's bench, Loralei asked with a frowning look on her face.

"It is a bait. A very obvious one."

Dietmar said calmly and shook his head in disapproval.

'You're underestimating Adalric. There is a reason why we put him as our first fighter even though he is stronger than Loralei.

'It is because he is calm, despite the situation, and in these high-tension situations, he doesn't make a stupid mistake like everyone else would.'

Adalric swatted Jonathan's hand away and then took a step back to distance himself from any sudden lunges from Jonathan.

He was being careful for his Sky Drop, and he knew that if he allowed him too close, it would be harder for him to stop his Sky Drop attempt.

All Jonathan needed was to grab his face, and that was easier to do from a close range.

Jonathan's spinning fist strike came flying at Adalric, and he quickly tapped on the ground, immediately vanishing like some kind of ghost.

'Darkland Style, Disappear…'

'It is that strange technique from his fight against Dominic!'

Jonathan quickly thought and spun around to look behind him, but he didn't see Adalric anywhere.

"Behind you!"

Coach Jin screamed.

Adalric appeared behind Jonathan, placed his fist against his back, and sent a powerful strike into his spine.

"Darkland Style, Punch!"

"Cough!"

Jonathan coughed out blood and quickly kicked behind him, but it missed, and then Adalric grabbed his leg and smashed him down to the concrete ground.

CRACK!

"Cough!"

Jonathan coughed out blood once more.

Within an instant, two attacks that caused him to cough up blood rocked his body like a wrecking ball!

'Very smart! Adalric expected Jonathan to think that he would appear behind his back, like he did with Dominic, but instead he did that disappearing technique, and instead of moving behind his back, he stayed in the same position and waited for Jonathan to turn around.

'However, how does he disappear like that?'

Julian wondered with a frown.

It was something they couldn't understand as they were sitting right next to the ring, which was raised several meters off the ground, which made it quite hard for them to see.

However, the audience was able to see how it worked, and to them, it looked like a pretty obvious technique.

Adalric used his amazing acceleration to quickly move to his opponent's blind spot and used it perfectly to make it seem like he had disappeared from the ring.

Jonathan climbed back to his feet, but before he could do even one step, Adalric's punch smashed into his ribs and sent him flying backwards.

"Cough…"

It was useless.

So very one-sided.

The audience was just shaking their heads, and it was obvious the strength difference was simply so vast that it just looked very unfair.

It was only a matter of time before Adalric won.

Jonathan landed back in the ring but fell on one knee, and Adalric's punches rained down on him like a storm of fury.

He couldn't fight back.

In that moment, a white towel landed on the ring, and the ear-piercing sound of a whistle reverberated across the stadium.

"…"

Coach Jin turned his gaze away after throwing the towel down.

Adalric stopped punching Jonathan and returned to his corner.

"Eh…"

Jonathan looked at the white towel, then at the coach, before gritting his teeth and walking off the ring.

It was very humiliating to lose by forfeit. He wanted to fight till he couldn't move.

"Jonathan, if we make it through to the finals, we still need you… So, no point in getting injured, alright?"

Coach Jin said.

"Yeah…"

Jonathan plopped down on the bench and covered his face with a towel. The feeling of being worthlessly weak punched him in the gut.

It felt worse than any of Adalric's attacks.