Martial Arts Worlds

"You sure talk big. I've destroyed your defense, and your striking is inferior to mine. What else can you do with your shitty style?"

Dante asked with a smirk.

"…"

Kiernan stayed silent, sharpened his fingers, and stabbed them through the ground.

Crack~~

The ground cracked slightly.

"Wow, you can stab your fingers through the ground. Congratulations, but what does that matter?"

Dante asked mockingly.

"Iron Style… Worldlift!"

With his feet sinking into the ground, he lifted the ground beneath everyone and then tossed it high into the air.

The block that he threw into the air had Dante and Gunwoo standing on it. They were shaking in their boots, trying not to fall off.

"Argh!"

Dante's feet slid down the flying block. He fell off and landed back on the ground with a thud.

"Oof…"

Gunwoo just smirked, and he moved into his sprinting stance before launching forward like an arrow released from a bow.

"You must've thought that throwing me into the air would stop me from using my speed. I still had a foothold on that flying block!"

Gunwoo neared Kiernan with his insane speed that could only be described as otherworldly. No one could see him moving, not even Dante, who had sharpened his senses to their peak.

At that moment, as Gunwoo was heading towards the black-haired young man, Kiernan suddenly lifted another block up from the ground and tossed it towards him.

He didn't see Gunwoo moving and didn't know where he exactly was, but he calculated that this was most likely the trajectory he was going to use to attack him.

It was because this was the shortest path to him, and if he used a different trajectory, he must land back on the ground first before making another attack.

He doubted that Gunwoo was going to do that as it wasn't his style. He was always direct and aggressive in his fighting techniques.

"?!"

Gunwoo looked at the block in front of him, narrowed his eyes, and punched straight through it, but his speed halted, and he looked like he was just falling from the sky like an ordinary person.

'My speed… is gone? I see… He used that secondary block to force me to come to a screeching halt, and now that I am falling, I don't have any way to use my speed…

'Well played.'

"HYPERION'S SMASH!"

Kiernan appeared in front of him with his spinning right fist and drilled it straight into Gunwoo's chest, sending him flying back through the air.

CRASH! CRACK! CRASH!

Through several trees, Gunwoo tumbled like a rag doll and eventually came to a stop, but he looked ragged with blood oozing from his mouth and nose.

"Argh!"

Dante lunged over to Kiernan and rained punches, but infused the power of his aura image into his punches, and his punches started to look like miniature meteors!

"Rendering Edge!"

Kiernan smacked and slapped the punches away, but his expression looked nasty as if he wasn't having the greatest time.

'It hurts to defend his punches, but I do not care. I cannot let any of those punches hit me. He also said that my defense sucks… I'll show him.'

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"Tch…"

Dante reeled back his right arm. His eyes showed the fury of a thousand suns, and then his muscles ballooned.

His martial soul started pounding, and the flow of the overwhelming energy coursed through his body, using the veins as motorways to channel all his strength into a single, devastating strike.

"Yokai Style, Infinite Collapsing Strike!"

Every fiber of Kiernan's being screamed at him to run away as fast as he could, but against his own judgment, he refused to listen to his own instincts, which was a rare thing for him to do.

'You think I'll run away?!'

"High Rampart!"

Kiernan put his arms in front of him, touching together with his fists facing the sky, and his muscles expanded rapidly, making it look like his arms had turned into a muscle shield.

This was one of his few super moves—the first one was 'High Human,' which he used in his battle against Zachary.

This super move, on the other hand, was completely different. It didn't completely transform into a muscle monster, but it was another type of technique.

"RAAAAAH!"

Dante threw his fist, and when his fist moved through the air, it left behind a trail of flames, and upon impact against the muscle shield, an explosion happened with a powerful force.

Boom~

The ground got peeled off and thrown away like pieces of paper in a storm.

The dust cloud swallowed the two young men, and the sound of the collision was even heard back in Dusk Town.

Within Dusk Town, people woke up and turned back the lights, wondering what the hell that noise was just now.

Back in the Angel Forest, Gunwoo walked back to the scene of the fight and saw the dust cloud with some flames dancing inside it.

'They had all the fun without me? That's not nice.'

Gunwoo crossed his arms, and waited for Dante to walk out of the dust cloud, as he expected him to win with ease.

He realized that Dante used his 'Infinite Collapsing Strike' that had defeated everyone in its path.

Whenever he was fighting Dante, he was making sure that he never stayed close to Dante because of his amazing striking prowess.

Another reason was 'Infinite Collapsing Strike' because he was honestly afraid of that strike, and in Yokai Dojo, he was the only one who had managed to learn it.

Not even the instructors had learned it, which made his feat even more amazing, and that's why Master Arakawa held him in high regard.

At that moment, the dust started clearing up, and Gunwoo, to his surprise, saw two young men still standing in a small crater.

Dante's right arm had turned bruised, and his fist was touching a muscle shield, which had turned red and bloody, but still standing strong.

"…"

Kiernan lowered his arms. He could barely feel anything below his elbow, but still, he raised them back to his defensive stance.

"You… hahahahaha!"

Dante laughed maniacally, his eyes filled with madness, and he reeled back his bruised, possibly broken, right arm to throw another punch!

Swoosh!

Gunwoo flashed past him, and punched towards Kiernan, but he smacked his fist away with his own, making his speedy attack fail.

Skid~

Gunwoo slid through the ground and stopped a slight distance away, a smile playing on his lips.

"Gunwoo, stay out of this! This is my victory!"

"Haha, not happening. I also want to fight!"

Gunwoo said with a smirk.

"It does not matter. You both can attack me. I shall still stand victorious in the end."

Kiernan said confidently, planting his feet into a solid stance.

"You… very well!"

Dante and Gunwoo lunged forward, their screams reverberating throughout the dark forest, and then following that, the sound of fighting reached the starry skies.