Martial Arts Worlds

Outside the cave, the lanterns kept flickering against the winds of the night.

Since it was dark every waking moment of the day, there were lanterns pretty much everywhere to lighten up the surroundings.

Julian was sitting right next to one of those lanterns, looking at its flickering flame. He was quite nervous, so he wanted to distract himself from the race.

'Please, Kiernan, don't you dare to lose.'

Near the cave's entrance, Drago sat silently, his girlfriend, Roesia, sitting right next to him with a tight-lipped expression.

Fae stood right by the entrance, looking inside with a squinted gaze. She acted casual, but even her heart was beating against her chest.

They couldn't possibly back up from the challenge anymore.

The stuff about their challenge had already reached the school website, and everyone pretty much knew all about it.

If they lost, and Gardner and Drago didn't do the punishment, it would be far more embarrassing than just standing naked in front of the whole school.

It could impact their future even.

'I shouldn't worry so much. Gardner won't lose.'

She thought to herself, but her thoughts were still filled with uncertainty as it looked like Kiernan was only becoming faster.

His first run was decent for a first-timer, but his second run was insane—a whole twenty minutes faster.

It took Drago and Gardner dozens of tries to do a time as fast as Kiernan's, and he did it on his second try!

That's why she was scared of this unknown young man, Kiernan.

At that moment, Julian saw that the seven-minute mark had been reached.

'Three more minutes and the winner is revealed…'

The round-shaped moon hung high in the sky.

Flap! Flap! Flap!

Julian flinched and turned around just in time to see crows take flight towards the peak of the misty mountain.

He followed his gaze alongside the crows, but then his eyes narrowed suspiciously as when the crows disappeared into the mist, he was able to see something through the darkness of the night.

It was hard to see because it was so dark, but he could almost swear that there was someone just climbing the mountain, but it looked like the person was hunched over strangely.

However, he couldn't see that person anymore as if it had completely vanished.

'Am I seeing things?'

Julian shrugged his shoulders.

…

The third challenge was reached.

Gardner pushed through the flying chains, and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that Kiernan started to run up the hill as well.

The distance between them had shortened quite a bit!

'He is running faster than me?' Gardner's eyes shook. 'Ludicrous!'

"Woo! Whoo! Haa!"

Kiernan panted heavily. The words were barely audible over the sound of his labored breathing.

The chains arrived behind him, but he just pushed through the pain and ran faster than the flying chains. Thus, the chains fell short and couldn't quite grab him.

Gardner reached the top and started heading towards the swimming challenge. Without further ado, he dove into the water and started kicking his legs with all his might.

A few seconds later, Kiernan reached the top of the third challenge and saw that Gardner was swimming, but then a smile reached his ears.

'Too bad for you, I will be winning this!'

Kiernan ran off the edge and looked like he was about to fall into the water, but then his feet touched the surface of the water, and instead of falling down, he started running on top of it.

"Iron Style, Water Walking!"

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!

Gardner heard something very strange behind him. He turned around, and to his ultimate surprise, he saw an impossible sight.

'Drago was indeed right? What the hell is that cheat code?!'

"Goodbye!"

Kiernan bolted past Gardner and left him in his dust.

Bewildered, Gardner panicked greatly, not knowing what to do next. He knew that no matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to catch up to him.

As he stopped kicking his legs for a moment, the tentacles wrapped around his legs and brought him down into the depths of the water.

"?!"

Gardner's eyes widened in fear, and he was brought all the way to the octopus, who opened its mouth wide and swallowed him whole.

At the surface, Kiernan ran off the water and weaved through the flying bullets, then, with his arms wide, he sprinted through the cave exit.

As the lantern's glow fell all over his face, the sounds of cheers filled his ears.

"Yes!" Julian hopped on his back again and screamed happily. "Let's fucking go!"

"I-Impossible…" Fae and Roesia whispered to each other.

"…" Drago lowered his face and shook his head.

The students were all shocked, and it didn't take them even a second for their fingers to start typing messages all over the school website.

This was utterly and thoroughly shocking!

At that moment, Gardner walked out of the cave, shaking in fear, his eyes wide with terror. He just silently walked past his friends and left without saying a word.

"Look at your time!" Julian said in shock.

"Hmm?" Kiernan looked over and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

[FINAL TIME!]

[9:59.333]

'I must try one day to improve that time, and I have a way to do it. I must defeat those stone golems somehow.'

Julian patted him on the shoulder and then watched as the last members of the delinquent four left with their mouths shut tight.

"Do you think they will honor the punishment?" He asked.

"I don't know, and I really don't care."

Kiernan said.

"Well, shall we leave, or will you do another run?" Julian asked.

"I am pretty tired, and we still have to walk all the way back to the Foaming Drink Inn…" Kiernan said with a yawn. "Better get going."

"Agreed!"

As they also walked away, the students took another picture of them and posted it on their school website.

Without them knowing, the entire school was talking about them—their school was very high-ranked in terms of strength, and now two of their students were defeated!

All they could wonder was who these two young men were and how come no one had heard about them before!