Martial Arts Worlds

Through the fog, Kiernan walked out of the forest and was greeted with the roaring of the audience on the stands.

He turned around and looked at the screen—he was currently standing in 8th place.

'Eight…'

He frowned—not quite satisfied with it—and then looked ahead, where the maze with its winding paths lay in front of him.

It only had one entrance, and the walls of the maze were so high that it wouldn't be possible to climb them, and even if they tried to do so, there might be some ways to stop that from happening.

Kiernan then got into a run, entered the maze, and took the first right turn he saw—he disappeared from the view.

…

Irio, Hunter's Household.

"He is doing really good…"

Karma said while biting his nails.

"Hmm, I believed it was fishy that he lost so early in the second event, but he must've gotten injured while fighting Zachary."

Julian said while patting the head of the dark blue-furred creature in his lap—Fen, whose size had grown significantly, looked towards the screen with a shiny gaze.

Whenever the broadcast showed his master, he barked excitedly and wagged his tail against Julian's chest.

They were listening to New Rakuya's commentary instead of the global one, as the local one was very passionate.

Whenever the commentators saw Kiernan's position increase, they excitedly commented on it with energy that was contagious.

"It's the maze's turn, but…"

Karma looked at the screen and saw that his son was very close to encountering trouble—there were few people waiting for him in the maze.

"I don't understand their obsession with Kiernan. Shouldn't they focus on, you know, winning the event, instead of trying to sabotage him?"

Julian said with a clicked tongue.

…

Kiernan slowly made his way down the maze—he stopped running after realizing that just mindlessly running around wouldn't get him anywhere.

When he reached a crossroad, he looked left and right—he took left, walked a little distance away, but then stopped, turned around, and took the right path instead.

He felt like the left path was heading closer to the dead end, so he thought the right path was better because it led closer to the center.

After all, the tower wasn't at the end of the maze—it was right in the middle—and they could see its silhouette over these tall walls.

Snap~ Snap~ Snap~

He kept snapping his fingers, creating friction between his fingers, and thought to himself:

'Seeing Seo's style made me quite curious whether I can also do the same thing that he did—it looked like he just snapped his fingers, and air bullets flew out.

'It wasn't that simple—he created friction, pushed the air particles between his fingers, and then with the snap, released them.'

Thus, Kiernan was just snapping his fingers to create the friction first, then tried pushing the air particles between his fingers, and did one more snap.

The sound of the snap was loud, but nothing flew out of his fingers—the technique ended in failure.

'Not enough friction.'

Kiernan thought.

Crackle~

At that moment, he heard the sound of the crackling lightning above him and skipped forward—he dodged the falling lightning bolts and turned his gaze to the sky.

Zeus landed in front of him, his eyes crackling with lightning, and his smile stretching across his face like a thunderbolt.

"Your obsession with me must be studied. I shouldn't be that of an interesting person."

Kiernan said.

"Heh~ I just find the whole thought of you doing well in the championship absolutely ridiculous~ Thus, I shall sabotage you."

Zeus said with a smirk.

With that, two more people appeared behind him—they were Jason and Justus—they wore cold expressions on their faces.

"Three of you. Well, that is just great."

Kiernan wryly smiled.

A shout of the commentator resounded out of the speakers into the audience's ears, and on the screen, everyone saw the three ganging up on Kiernan.

"It looks like something is happening in the maze—it looks like Zeus and the Arcanielago brothers have teamed up and are going after Kiernan Hunter!"

Kiernan heard the commentator's voice in his ear, turned around, and started running deeper into the maze.

"Haha, where do you think you're running?"

With blue lightning surrounding him, Zeus chased after Kiernan—he almost tackled him—but then Kiernan turned left.

Zeus stopped himself by planting his feet on the wall and pushed off with all his strength, propelling himself forward with even more speed.

"…"

Jason and Justus looked at each other, nodded, and chased after the two.

"Huff! Huff!"

Kiernan turned to the right, heard the crackling of the lightning near him, and immediately turned left.

He was much slower than Zeus, and it was clear to everyone watching.

"How the hell did you beat me in the Game with your pitiful speed?!"

Zeus asked angrily, reached his hand towards Kiernan's black hair, but he ducked under his hand and rolled towards the right path.

He rolled back to his feet and kept running, but in the end, he reached the dead end of the right path.

"Shit…"

He turned around and tried to run away, but then Zeus and the brothers appeared in front of him, blocking his escape.

"Haha…"

Zeus smirked.

"…"

Kiernan slid his right hand inside his pocket, kept snapping his fingers, and looked around the narrow path of the maze.

There really didn't seem like there was any escape, unless he punched through the wall, but he could tell that this wall was created to handle the power of Martial Master's attack.

It didn't matter if one was a Martial Grandmaster even—one would need to be probably a Martial King to even make a dent on it.

"Let's jump him, boys."

Zeus said with a smirk.

At that moment, Jason and Justus took a step forward—but instead of attacking Kiernan, they grabbed Zeus' arms and held him down.

"Attack him now, Kiernan!"

Justus screamed.

"What the fuck are you two doing?!"

Zeus asked angrily.

"…So that's your plan?"

Kiernan pulled out his hand from his pocket, pointed his fingers towards Zeus' head, and snapped his fingers.

An air bullet shot out from his fingers and smacked into the middle of Zeus' forehead—it left behind a very ugly-looking bruise.

It wasn't as destructive as Seo's, as his martial rank was greater, but it would still hurt greatly.