Martial Arts Worlds

"Ngh… Ah… Rgh…"

Arin looked at his broken and twisted fingers, but then he forcefully contracted them into a fist.

It hurt like hell.

"Banish Goblins and Ghouls… One, four, five, seven… Ah!"

With "ah" leaving his mouth, Arin lunged towards Kiernan and reached his hand towards him.

'He is singing?'

Kiernan frowned, confused by the abrupt change in Arin's behavior, and wanted to slap Arin's approaching hand away, but he couldn't move somehow!

'Why can't I move?'

"That singing… Could it be Soul Singing, perhaps?"

Iron Knuckle MacJesus wondered.

"Aye, captain. I could see my martial soul shaking from listening to that. Soul Singing is able to bind the martial soul to the singer's will, making them unable to move!"

Arin grabbed Kiernan's right arm, turned around, and then lifted him high into the air before slamming him back to the floor.

THUMP!

"Urgh!"

Kiernan's back crashed against the floor, and he felt the weight of Arin's power bearing down on him.

It made his body ache all over, but luckily enough, the second attack never came.

"Tch…"

Arin wanted to continue to attack, but he wasn't allowed to, as he was now in the defending role.

Kiernan flipped back to his feet, and as he turned around, he found Arin standing there, his eyes full of determination.

"What are you looking at? Come on, attack me already!"

Arin screamed.

"Watch out what you wish for!"

Kiernan said, and slowly, he sprang forward like a coiled spring and then reached his arm behind him.

The arm wobbled behind him like a rubber band, and at that moment, Kiernan shot it forward, and it came so fast that Arin wasn't ready for it.

"Iron Style, Bullet!"

SMACK!

The fist drilled into Arin's bulky chest with a force that sent him flying back.

While flying backwards, he desperately tried to touch the floor with his feet, but he was already too far off the ground.

CRASH!

Through a wall, Arin went, and he landed in a crumpled heap on the other side—a mark of a fist on his chest.

"You won't win like this, y'know. Punches alone won't kill him."

Iron Knuckle MacJesus called out from the deck.

"…"

Kiernan looked over his shoulder at the laughing pirates, nodded briefly, and then turned back to the hallway.

Thump!

Through a broken wall, Arin walked through with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, and he soon met Kiernan with a fierce glare.

"Supreme Suplex!"

Arin shot forward and reached his arm towards Kiernan's hip—he planned to wrap his arms around his body to then suplex Kiernan onto the ground.

It was a lethal skill that he had mastered.

However, he knew that Kiernan wouldn't just allow him to suplex him, so he had another strategy in place.

Soul Singing.

"Lalala~ The beautiful women of the village are so enchanting~"

Kiernan looked like he froze in place, completely under the spell of the powerful Soul Singing, and then the arms came close.

However, at that moment.

Smack! Smack!

Kiernan's iron-hard hands smacked the arms away—he broke out of the spell—and looked into Arin's eyes with a hard gaze.

"Tch!"

Arin wanted to do another attack, but he couldn't, as his attacking turn had ended suddenly.

'Shit. That was a bad turn, as I couldn't even damage him properly!'

At that moment, Kiernan jumped ahead and made his move—but when he moved, the aura around him started to change.

It felt dangerous, as if a storm was brewing inside him.

"And… that's the game over."

MacJesus grinned and swigged down the rest of the whiskey.

"?!"

Arin's eyes widened in fear, and he could only wonder how someone of the same age could emit such an insane killing instinct.

"How many have you killed?"

Without answering, Kiernan formed a fist with his right, reeled it back, and then slammed it forward.

"Iron Style."

"Magnetar Smash!"

The fist broke through Arin's chest, hit directly into the heart, and exploded it out in one go like a volcanic eruption.

"Cough!"

Arin coughed up a mouthful of blood, and he then dropped on his knees before falling backwards onto the ground, lifeless.

The blood just kept gushing out of the hole in his chest, staining the ground a deep crimson.

"Huff… huff…"

Kiernan looked at his bloody fist, took a deep breath, and walked out of the hallway into the fresh air of the outside world.

The ship was flying through a sea of clouds, and the sun could be seen peeking through the fluffy white masses.

It was an amazingly beautiful scene, making the sky around them look like it was made out of a gold.

Clap~ clap~ clap~

"Congratulations. You're the last one standing and have officially qualified for God Island's main event!"

MacJesus said with a laugh and a clap.

"Fucking yippee."

Kiernan said sarcastically and cleaned the blood off his hands with a damp cloth, but it was clear that he was raging underneath.

He hated when he was forced to kill someone—it made him remember Devil Ritual—if he had to kill, he'd prefer to do it out of his own will.

"Haha. You know, I like you. You clearly didn't want to kill any of them, but once you realized there was no other choice, you didn't hesitate."

MacJesus said with a grin.

"Not many youngsters have that kind of drive. That Arin kid was just psychotic, so he doesn't count, and that Malika chick was powerless, so she had to rely on cheap tricks to win.

"After all, she was from a piece of shit, tier 5 country.

"You are different."

MacJesus said.

"I just have question. Are other Zero Events like this? Where they also have to kill other participants?"

Kiernan asked.

"Haha, of course not!"

MacJesus laughed.

Kiernan's eyes shook, and his eyes turned dark.

"What? You mean that we were the only group to do that? Fucking great, I'll have the stigma of murderer associated with me now."

It made him feel sick to his stomach, and if he could, he would've already started another murder rampage by ripping MacJesus' head off his shoulders.

"None of the Zero Events are like these… because they don't have my ability!"

MacJesus raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and four pearls appeared around him that had miniature people inside.

He then tossed them to the deck, and when the pearls cracked open, four people popped out, looking around confusingly.

"Ah… where am I?"

Malika asked while blinking her eyes repeatedly as if she had woken up from a long nap just now.

Arin, Ishikawa, and Kairo—they all looked around in confusion.