Martial Arts Worlds

Chapter 159 First Run

The followers threw their punches, but before they could land, a black-haired young man stepped in front of them, his hands moving like snakes.

"Rendering Edge!"

With the sides of his hands, he parried all the thrown punches and left the followers stunlocked.

They were already starting to imagine Julian's blood-covered face, but before their punches could land, they were somehow parried with such ease that they weren't even sure whether they punched properly.

"How?!" The young woman exclaimed.

"Heh, that's Kiernan for you!" Julian grinned and then punched at the young woman.

The young woman crossed her arms in front of her face and blocked the punch, but Julian immediately followed up with a low kick that bruised her side.

"Argh!"

The young woman's eyes turned almost red out of anger.

She used the backs of her hands and started pushing Julian a few steps back. Her attacks were quite furious, and even Julian had trouble dodging them.

'She is not weak!' Julian used his Sea Steps to move his body effortlessly on the uneven ground.

At the ground, there were all sorts of mounds, roots that were peeking through the grass, and rocks that seemed to jump out of nowhere.

With Sea Steps, he was easily able to keep his body balanced.

The rest of the students just watched the fight unfold. A few of them even filmed. They expected the girl of the Purist Family to win rather easily.

She wasn't the strongest person around, but she had gotten time under fifteen minutes, which made her decently talented among her peers.

Julian blocked a couple of the punches, but his veins started to bulge out of irritation. He was becoming even more heated.

It was because he started to feel like his martial arts lacked something.

It was a thought he had since his first sparring match with Kiernan.

'I don't know what it is, but maybe I should try that Iron Style?'

Julian narrowed his eyes and whispered under his breath. "Rendering Edge..."

The young woman's punches came through, but then, Julian's hands smacked them away effortlessly.

However, then another couple of punches came through and punched him in the face.

"She got respawned..."

"So she failed..."

He heard some murmurs from the students.

The time on the stone tablet got completely reset.

'You can fail the run?' Kiernan raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Whose turn is it now?" Julian asked the students.

"Whoever wants to go next," the cold-faced student said. "There are no real order."

"What if two people want to go at the same time?"

"That would usually be resolved with a fight."

"Hmm..." Julian caressed his chin and turned to Kiernan. "Do you want to go first?"

"Sure."

Kiernan stepped forward, and as he walked towards the arched pathway, no one else moved. It seemed like they wanted to see what kind of time he would do.

Julian crossed his arms and thought. 'I wonder what kind of obstacles there are. However, none of them should be a problem for Kiernan.'

"The time starts once you enter the cave!"

"..."

Kiernan nodded and tied his shoelaces to make sure they were not going to come undone.

'The speed is key. Don't get stuck in any of the obstacles, and just run through. I do kind of wish now that I had put more into Agility.

'I am sure that would come to great use in this.'

He then stood up, brushing off his knees, and then, instead of starting it slow, he leaned forward into a sprinting stance and took off in a full-out sprint, feeling the wind rushing past him as he let his legs carry him forward.

In an instant, he ran through the darkness, and without him knowing it, the entrance of the cave completely vanished behind him.

It was almost like he had entered a whole new dimension.

At that moment, Kiernan's eyes turned round in surprise as he came across the first obstacle of the Game.