Martial Arts Worlds

It turned silent like in a library in the narrow hallway of the Flying Andorian Ship, with only the occasional creak of the old wooden floorboards breaking the stillness.

"Haa… haa…"

Arin breathed heavily under his breath and kept glancing at the red-handled knife in Kiernan's hand.

Its blade was sharp, glinting under the dim flickering light of the ceiling, and Arin could feel his heart pounding in his chest.

'I patted him down to make sure that he wouldn't have any weapons, but where the hell did he pull that from? Shit.'

Arin looked at the bloody knife in Kairo's lifeless hand and thought about using it, but he then shook his head.

He didn't know how to use weapons of any kind, and it would just make him weaker in the end.

'I knew trusting anyone on this ship would be a mistake, but I didn't expect that there would be someone that is nonchalant about killing.

'He does remind me of my old self, quite a bit.

'If it was anyone else, I am sure he would have an easy time being the last one standing, but I also don't have any problem with killing.

'My Iron Style is made for killing, after all, and so far, I've had to use my style in a way that I wouldn't accidentally kill someone.

'No more.'

Kiernan thought and twirled the knife in his hand—he put it into a slashing stance and was ready to make his move.

At that moment, the door behind Arin opened up, and the bright light of the morning sun flooded the hallway.

Iron Knuckle MacJesus stood at the threshold, his heavy black boots caked with dirt and dried blood.

"…"

He looked at the two corpses. Then turned back to the two young men. He didn't seem to mind the smell of the corpses.

"…My word is law!"

Kiernan's and Arin's eyes widened in shock as some strange ability took hold of their movements.

"This is my martial ability—Word Is Law—and with that, I can change the rules of combat at will, and to decide the winner of the Zero Event, I thought about spicing things up.

"My word is law—no weapons allowed!"

Kiernan unwillingly let go of the red-handled knife, and it fell down and then stabbed through the floorboard with a loud thud.

"Hah…"

Arin's mouth smirked up.

Kiernan's eyes turned cold.

"My word is law—round-based fighting!

"One of them will be the attacker, and one of them will be the defender. After each round, they will switch roles, and the match will only end when one of them is dead.

"If one of them runs away, that person's heart will stop beating."

MacJesus put his fingers against his forehead and whispered under his breath.

At that moment, those combat laws activated, and the two young men could feel that something in them changed.

'I can't… clench my fist?'

Kiernan looked at his hands and tried to clench them into fists, but his body refused to listen. He stared in disbelief at his open palms.

'This must mean that I am the defender.'

MacJesus stepped away from the hallway, but he kept the door open, and outside, the flying pirates were seated around tables.

With drinks in their hands and laughter leaving their mouths, they were putting money down on the table.

"1000 gold on that Arin fellow!"

"Hah, 5000 golds on Kiernan's victory!"

"500 on both of them dying!"

Laughter rang out across the open air.

Arin's and Kiernan's eyes shook as they listened to them betting on their deathmatch as if it was some kind of game!

'Insanity, but I shouldn't have expected anything more from fucking pirates!'

Kiernan clicked his tongue.

"We don't have all day. Start fighting!"

Iron Knuckle MacJesus shouted and sat down on one of the tables with his legs crossed, and pulled out a flask of rum.

Beautiful women sat on his knees and rubbed his stiff shoulders while he swigged the rum straight from the bottle.

"You're the unlucky one. The cards of fate are on my side today."

Arin said, raised his slapping hand, and whipped it towards Kiernan's face.

It was moving through the air with a chilling swiftness that made Kiernan's blood run cold, and with that slap, he had been able to defeat hundreds of opponents.

A few of them even had their necks snapped!

"Arin is from Morida, a small yet mighty tier 3 country, and in his homeland, he is a legendary talent.

"A word is that there hasn't been a talent of his scale in Morida for centuries, and they have a lot of hopes of him conquering the Junior Martial Arts scene.

MacJesus said coldly.

Kiernan saw the slap headed his way, and he wanted to dodge, but his body wasn't listening to him for some reason.

'I can't dodge?! So defending is the only way?'

Kiernan quickly put his arm in the way of the slap, but it landed with a flesh-smacking sound and sent him flying at the wall.

The wall dented and made him slide down to the ground in pain.

When he looked at his left arm, it was very bruised and ached in pain like he had never felt before.

"Huff!"

Kiernan jumped back to his feet, shrugged off the pain, and clenched his hand into a fist at last.

Arin, on the other hand, couldn't clench his hand into a fist anymore and instead just moved to his tank-like defensive stance.

"Rock n' Roll!"

Kiernan screamed, dashed forward, and with his hands turning around like drills, he whipped them towards Arin's neck.

However, Arin slapped the attack aside with ease, but at that moment, a few of his fingers twisted around like a Twister popsicle.

"Ahh!"

Arin screamed in pain.

"…"

Kiernan jumped backwards and clicked his tongue.

'I went for the kill, but he was able to stop my attack. Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong way to defend, and I was able to break a few of his fingers.'

However, it was either a few broken fingers or a broken neck.