Martial Arts Worlds

While watching the fight, Coach Jin noticed something and turned to Sabbath.

"Isn't Kiernan acting strangely? It looks like he isn't really looking at Zachary."

"Hmm?"

Sabbath looked over and noticed it too.

It looked like Kiernan was looking at Zachary's shoes, which was very strange because Kiernan had always kept direct eye contact with Zachary during the match.

He then looked over to Kiernan and saw that a tint of his eyes had changed into a white.

Sabbath's eyes slowly widened in surprise, and he then turned to look at Alabaster, who was smirking as if he had done something to be proud of.

'This bastard… He is willing to go to such lengths to win that he is using his powers even on Kiernan. Did he use blindness?'

He gritted his teeth, but there was literally nothing he could do, as he didn't have any proof of any foul play.

If he told the referee, Alabaster would just remove Kiernan's blindness and act all innocent while he would look like a fool.

In the eyes of the country, he was just an assistant coach with zero reputation, while Alabaster was coach of a championship-contending team.

'I can't help you, Kiernan. You need to figure this out on your own!'

It frustrated him because, as Kiernan's master, he should be able to help him whenever he needed it, but he was helpless in this situation.

It was all up to Kiernan at this point.

…

With the crowd roaring in excitement, Zachary made his way down the scorched concrete ground, caused by the lightning bolt.

'Well… well…'

Zachary shifted his stance and formed fists with his hands.

Strike Tactics!

He lunged forward, leaving behind dust, and extended his arm into a powerful straight punch toward the blinded Kiernan.

Kiernan didn't see the fist coming, but he heard the whistling of the wind current and bent his body back just in time to avoid the blow.

Zachary followed with a series of hooks, jabs, and uppercuts, but Kiernan used the Firefoot movement technique to swiftly dodge each strike.

Those hooks, jabs, and uppercuts smashed through Kiernan's afterimages, but they couldn't reach the real one.

"Slippery fuck, aren't you?"

Zachary screamed, then changed stances, and unclenched his fist into a sharp, claw-like hand.

Scratch Tactics!

With a swing of the hand, the fingers slashed through the air and headed towards Kiernan's handsome face.

"Iron Style, Ghost Spring!"

With a step to the front, Kiernan disappeared and reappeared in the air above Zachary, but it wasn't just him.

There were six perfectly identical-looking clones that were impossible to tell apart. Even Karma, his father, couldn't tell which one was real from the audience!

"What the fuck?"

Zachary turned to look at all those afterimages with a look of shock.

"Iron Style, Iron Smash Storm!"

Whistling through the air, the twelve fists came raining down like arrows shot from an army of archers.

'Hah? Most of those punches are afterimages, so when his real one punches me, I know which one is the real one, and I will then crush his head!'

Zachary smirked and then tensed up all his muscles, making himself a fortress of pure muscle that wouldn't be broken.

Bulwark Form!

At that moment, the fists, which he thought were nothing but afterimages, started pummeling him down like a hailstorm of pain.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

'Impossible! Are all these afterimages actually real? What the fuck!'

Zachary thought in a shock while the punches kept landing at his eyes, nose, and mouth. He couldn't do anything except wait for the onslaught to end.

However, it wasn't ending!

"IRON SMASH STORM ULTIMATE!"

SWOOSH!

The afterimages screamed at the same time, and the speed of the punches increased exponentially.

Zachary's face turned bright red as he tried to endure the barrage of attacks, but as if intended, all the punches kept landing at his face.

'He has figured it out!'

Sabbath thought with a gigantic grin.

While he was grinning, Alabaster's face kept turning redder and redder out of anger. He also realized that Kiernan realized Bulwark Form's weakness.

It was the face!

Bulwark Form took advantage of Zachary's muscles, but what was the body part where his muscles were the weakest? The face!

'Kiernan is so fucking smart. He couldn't be accurate with his punches, so what did he do? Use techniques where the chances of not hitting the mark were very small.'

Sabbath thought with a proud smile.

In Kiernan's vast arsenal of techniques, there were only two techniques perfect for this situation—Ghost Spring and Iron Smash Storm.

Alabaster coldly looked, and then his eyes narrowed as he used his Body Manipulation ability once more.

As Kiernan blinked again, his eyes suddenly got assaulted by the bright lights of the stadium as he regained his vision.

'I am not blind anymore? Is there a time limit to his ability?'

Kiernan thought, but he didn't care and kept pummeling Zachary's face, but he had finally put up a guard.

With Bulwark Form, his guard was nearly impenetrable.

'This won't work anymore. He'll just keep guarding till my fists lose their edge.'

Kiernan stopped punching, and the afterimages turned into one singular existence, who was Kiernan himself.

He landed back on the ground and retreated a few steps back.

"Hmph!"

Zachary spat out the blood from his mouth and cracked his knuckles.

'You should've gone down when you had the chance. Now you will have a painful death.'

Alabaster thought, and once more, used his Body Manipulation ability.

'45 degrees Celsius!'

At that moment, Kiernan's eyes shook, and his body started to overheat as if he was standing inside an oven.

Without him realizing it just yet, his body temperature rose from 35 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees in an instant.

Within an instant, Kiernan's body began to feel like it was on fire, and he started sweating so much that his clothes were soaked through in seconds.

It was extremely dangerous, and he had only a few minutes before he could drop dead from the shocking fever.

The human body wasn't meant for such hot temperatures, and his vital organs were already starting to fail.

Heavy Sweating. Weakness. Dizziness. Nausea. Throbbing headache. Cold, clammy skin. Confusion. Seizures. Loss of consciousness. Rapid Breathing.

He was feeling all of those all at once!