Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 318: Calm Yourself

"Rargh!"

Zachary threw a wild haymaker at Kiernan, but he swiftly circled around and landed a few quick jabs at the exposed ribs.

"Is that supposed to hurt?!"

Zachary asked with a scream and swung his arm at Kiernan as if his arm were a club, but Kiernan ducked just in time.

With his knee raised high, Zachary followed with a quick front kick, but Kiernan twisted his body to the left and avoided the blow entirely.

"Wait… Kiernan is dodging? I remember him saying to me that he is not entirely comfortable with doing so."

Coach Jin said with a frown on his face.

"It only means that when Kiernan uses his rock-solid defense against Zachary, he couldn't do it without being completely unharmed either. Therefore, he was left with no choice but to switch to dodging."

Sabbath said with his muscular arms crossed.

"That sounds bad if Zachary is able to force Kiernan to do something he is not comfortable with. It means the winner of the match is far from decided!"

Coach Jin said with a serious expression.

"There is also something else currently happening in the match. At the start of the match, Kiernan intentionally resorted to trying to humiliate Zachary, which didn't really hurt him but made him really angry.

"I think that was intentional by Kiernan to make Zachary angry so that he can't really think straight."

Sabbath said.

"Young Kiernan really did all that?!"

Coach Jin asked in shock.

Others on their bench also heard it and couldn't believe their ears.

"…"

Alabaster looked at the scene with disgust and saw Zachary's attacks just failing while Kiernan kept landing a few shots.

While the damage wasn't great, it still didn't leave Zachary completely unharmed, and slowly the damage started to accumulate.

This was exactly what Kiernan planned to start his fight with!

At first, anger Zachary so that his emotional state was a mess, then when he started to swing wild attacks, he would keep dodging while delivering a few attacks every now and then to accumulate the damage shortly.

The accumulated damage would show its prowess at the later moments of the fight.

'That's enough. Calm yourself.'

Alabaster's pupils shrunk, and at the same moment, Zachary's breathing slowed down suddenly, and the rising anger slowly dissipated from his stance.

It all happened so suddenly!

'What was that?'

Zachary frowned and looked at Kiernan, but he suddenly didn't feel that intense rage as before.

He could think perfectly straight and noticed the strange stinging sensation around his ribs. It was where Kiernan landed his attacks to hurt him slowly.

The realization hit him—he was tricked by Kiernan!

'Wait, what is with his look? A look of perfect calmness.'

Kiernan's eyes shook, and he quickly jumped backwards to distance himself from the muscle monster.

'I don't get it. He looked like he was about to explode out of anger only a second ago, but now he is in perfect control of his emotions?

'Sabbath also said to me that those power drugs affect Zachary in a way that it is really hard for him to control his emotions. All his emotions will be amplified beyond what is normal, so this makes even less sense to me!'

Zachary formed a fist with his right and immediately swung it towards Kiernan, who resorted to Rendering Edge and pushed the fist away.

"You think I haven't noticed you shaking your hand whenever you parry my attack? It is hurting you to parry my mighty attacks. Therefore, as long as I keep attacking, you'll break eventually!"

He said with a grin and rained punches onto Rendering Edge.

"…"

With a cold look on his face, Kiernan rooted himself on his spot and kept parrying the brick-sized fists without stopping.

Behind him, the Aura Image of a mighty black fortress appeared that seemed to resonate with his determination and power.

'What the hell is that fortress? Well, it doesn't matter. I'll just punch straight through!'

Zachary grinned and launched himself at the fortress, fists flying.

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Kiernan quickly crossed his arms in front of him as a guard and blocked the punch, but it rocked him back a few steps.

Cracks appeared in the fortress walls!

"Unbelievable! Kiernan's defense has been broken for the first time in the match. We usually witness him parrying his opponents attacks away until they're left despairing about the fact that they cannot hit him.

"However, with brute strength, Zachary was able to punch straight through and forced Kiernan to guard instead!"

Luca shouted from the commentator's booth.

"Shit!"

Coach Jin grimaced.

"This is bad."

Julian's eyes shook with worrying thought appearing in his mind. He couldn't help but think about the possibility of Kiernan losing.

Such a thought disgusted him as he believed Kiernan was his best friend and closest rival, so he didn't want him to lose to anyone else!

"Punching your body sure feels great!"

Zachary smirked evilly, and then his right hand twitched. He raised it and swung it towards Kiernan's cheek.

He was trying to pay back the humiliation with a slap of his own!

"Iron Style, Firefoot."

While leaving behind hazy-looking afterimages, Kiernan swiftly circled behind Zachary, and then smashed both fists into Zachary's back in a double hammer blow.

"Iron Style, Fire Rush!"

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

It was constant and relentless, each blow landing with precision and force.

However.

"What kind of mosquito bites are those?"

Zachary turned around, looking unamused, and punched at his cheek.

"Iron Style, Water Skin!"

With sweat quickly moistening his cheek, Zachary's punch just slid off as if it were soaped, but the punch still left a mark on his cheek.

Kiernan stumbled a step back, and his cheek started to slowly swell, but with Water Skin, he was able to avoid most of the impact.

If he hadn't done that, the punch could've very well knocked him out cleanly.

"You sure are full of tricks."

Zachary took a few steps to cool his head after his failed punch and then turned to look at Kiernan.

"Moistening your skin with your sweat to make it slippery. Quite a crazy idea, and it actually worked. I don't know how you were able to force your body to sweat, but in the end, it doesn't completely protect you."

Kiernan listened to his explanation with a cold look on his face.

'I guess all those muscles didn't suffocate his brain. It is as if he is a completely different person from all those previous fights. It was as if a switch was flicked inside him that completely brought back his reasoning that was stolen by power drugs.'