Chapter 15: Competition (IX): First Kill

[Preemptive strikes can make or break the tempo of a fight. The decision to attack first could be made in a variety of situation and in different states of mind. It could also be attributed as a fighting style, or a strategy that has to be carried out. Truth it, punching first is neither good or bad, it could either go really right, or go horribly wrong. The secret to it is that, when you want to punch first, you have to make sure you punch smart.

Your first strike should be made to incapacitate if not to out rightly kill your opponent and put an end to an unpleasant fight before it starts. Preemptive strikes are gamble moves, and so is waiting for your opponent to attack. You might give him the advantage either way, so in the end you just have to trust your instincts, intellect and heart.]

Bartholomew Álē

It took about fifteen minutes for the doctors on the platform to give an answer. Thankfully they were able to save the life of Anya's opponent.

The only dilemma now was that no one really knew the extent of his injuries until he has been observed extensively. Also from the looks of things, he might not be well enough to head to the state capital for the next division of the competition. But regardless, the fact that he was alive and made it through the worst seemed to ease Anya's worries a bit, as she calmed down an bit and turned her focus to the next fight.

"Sanusi Rahim step to the stage for your match."

A stocky teenager that looked nineteen rather than the fifteen written on his profile went up the stage. He was almost six feet tall, and his body was packed with really powerful muscles that ripples and glistened under the glare of the late morning sun. He seemed to be at the ninth level of the body refining realm, but which stage was not exactly clear.

"Alexander Feng Matthews step to the stage for your match."

Alex blinked in surprise at hearing his name being called. It seems they wanted to start from the bottom up in allocating the fights, but why does it seem as if the opponents given to Anya and Alex so far had not been randomly chosen or arranged by the previous rank.

It was obvious that their opponents were in the top thirty five, but the first place had to fight the seventieth placement and sixty ninth the second. But Anya's opponent had been the 14th person to be eliminated from the battle royale, and now Alex's opponent was ranked third.

The battle royale did not really showcase the individual strength of a fighter and even if you were the last man standing, the person eliminated first could still be ten times stronger than you. But in the confusion of the battle royale the weaker fighters tend to gang up on the stronger ones and have them eliminated before duking it out amongst themselves. If Anya wanted to claim the number one spot, then this guy would be number 10,and Alex himself would be placed somewhere around 15 to 20.

'I guess I'm not done being schemed against' Alex thought to himself as he made his way up the stage.

"Your woman is quite ruthless and bloodthirsty, I respect a woman like that. You however don't look like much, it's obvious from a glance what the outcome of this match will be, so please forfeit, before I break you." Alex's opponent Sanusi said. Alex cocked his head to the side and said.

"Are you seriously giving a monologue right now. Do you have to be so cliché and ask me to forfeit before you break me, what do you think this is, a movie or some sort of wuxia novel. If you're going to fight, then fool come fight me, what's with all the yammering. It doesn't make you cool, it would only make you look all the more stupid when I shove my feet so far up your ass you wouldn't sit well for a week."

The whole arena went silent again. Alex's choice of words had left quite a few people shocked. Anya gave a whoop from the crowd and thumbs up to signify that she approved. It was not as if Alex had any confidence about beating this guy, but he loved a challenge none the less, it was something he was downright obsessed with.

You put a challenge in front of him, and Alex would do everything in his power to make sure he wins so bad you would not be able to look him in the face to challenge him again. And this brown skinned muscle head was challenging him with his words.

"Those are big words from such a small man." Sanusi said as he came closer and placed his forehead against Alex's in an antagonistic gesture.

Alex's answer to that was to throw a punch right at his opponent's stomach, however the ensuing result was not what he expected.

The moment Alex's fist met his stomach, there was a loud bang as if he had just hit a solid slab of metal and a rebounding force came from his body and into Alex, pushing him back a few steps until his feet was just at the edge of the platform. Alex was rattled as his entire body vibrated and shook in protests.

Alex recognized the move his opponents had just used, or to be honest it wasn't that much of a move, but rather a body training manual just like the [Sky Python Swims In Water] body training technique.

A few years ago, some godly thief had broken into the shaolin temple, and regardless of the thousands of very powerful monks residing there, they were incapable of stopping him as he made away with five of their low level martial arts manual. Two months later, and online site was put up, where those precious manuals were being sold in an encrypted eBook format made with spiritual sense, so when a person bought a copy, he directly learned it in his mind, and was incapable of duplicating and spreading it to other sources.

The [Iron Shirt] was the adapted version of the shaolin golden body manual, it was not as strong, but it was still a peerless technique, and unfortunately it was one of the manual stolen from shaolin temple, and the very technique Alex's opponent practiced.

The [Iron Shirt] made a martial artist immune to damage from blades, knives and even bullets. In the body refining realm all the way to the open dantian realm, this skill was almost invisible and can only be broken through with some special methods. And Alex doubted if he had such a special method available for himself. Sanusi took a step forward, moving at a speed that should not have been possible for a person of his size, he swung his enormous fist at Alex, who was still standing precariously at the edge of the platform.

Seeing the fist heading for his face, Alex ducked down, built some strength at his calves, and pushed his shoulder into the gut of his opponent.

There was a dull thump and a muffled scream from Alex as he felt his left shoulder get dislocated , it was rather stupid to go head on with a person whose defense was so fierce, but Alex achieved what he wanted as he was able to push his opponent back three steps. He took the advantage to pivot and twist his body, until he was standing at his opponent's back, safely at the center of the platform.

At his current strength, it should be virtually impossible for him to break through Sanusi's defense, not unless he discovered a weak point. But to do that, he would have to engage him, however he might get beaten to a pulp before that weak point was discovered.

The only thing he could do now, however was to try and draw out this battle as long as he could. While it was known that cultivators had monstrous stamina, Alex was the captain of his village soccer team. He was used to playing the entire ninety minute game without rest, and still perform to the best of his abilities. And that was when he had not been consciously cultivating, only God knew how monstrous his stamina now was.

Sanusi advanced and started throwing monstrous punches that left whistling sounds in the air, he was very fast for his size, about equal if not a little higher than Alex. At first all Alex could do was evade, but eventually he was cornered and he had to deflect. That was when the profoundness of the [Viper Evades Buddha] palm art came to bear. At first Alex was scared he would not be able to keep up, because it was not just defense and speed, this guy opposite him also had great strength.

But with every hit he threw, Alex was able to deflect with minimum effort and in the fastest way possible. [Viper Evades Buddha] was more than just a simple defensive palm art, it also countered, and it was not until this fight that Alex realized this point. When he had learnt it, the manual had stressed about the proper use of force, and it was not just to deflect attacks, but to dissipate the power behind it.

Even though the move gave out light slaps to push away attacks, what happens when you keep hitting the same place over and over again, accumulating damage and dissipating the force of an attack from one particular point.

Alex understood this secret immediately and began to focus solely of his defense. To the untrained eye, it would seem as if Sanusi was raining down blows upon blows on Alex and all he could do was defend.

But as this fight went on, it was obvious to see that Sanusi was loosing his edge as it became more and more painful for him to throw a punch. There was no way to breach his defense, so Alex had focused on a single point. Not to mention he was rapidly running out of stamina.

Alex noticed a lull in the barrage of punches, and took advantage, he angled his hands upwards and folded his elbow, and then he brought it down, right on the weakened wrists of Sanusi.

There was ear piercing crack as his wrist bent at an awkward angle, and sanusi gave out a loud shout of pain. Alex could not react fast enough as in his anger, Sanusi shot his foot forward and slammed it onto Alex's chest, throwing some of his bones out of alignment and causing a great deal of pain as he came crashing down on the battling platform.

"Arghhhh! My wrist. You bastard! I'm going to kill you!" Sanusi raged in anger as he held his broken right wrist in his left hand.

Alex shakily got to his feet and looked at Sanusi, grinning while also spitting out blood from his mouth.

"Seriously that was just a love tap, don't be such a baby. Now come on, let's finish this." Alex taunted and he raised his palm and made a come one gesture.

Alex was quite limited in the techniques he could use in fighting this boy, his martial arts were not on equal footing with the [Iron Shirt] of shaolin temple, his moves like the [Python Crushes Rock] style were completely useless in that regard. There was only one move left, but it posed as much danger to Alex as it did to Sanusi, not to mention, Sanusi's defense might actually be strong enough to weather the storm of that attack. But there was no other choice.

Sanusi began to march towards Alex with murder in his eyes, Alex could tell that all his opponent had in mind right about now, was how to hurt him, and put him in a position that he would feel that pain for a very long time. So Alex spread his legs and took a deep breath, he held his breath in as he built power from the sole of his feet, all the way to the middle of his chest.

Then Alex let the power flow and gather throughout the length of his right hand. Then he waited for Sanusi to come close, building more and more power in anticipation of their final clash. And when Sanusi finally got to his front, Alex couldn't help but shout out.

"Iron Viper Strike!"

"BANG!!!"

After Alex's fist made contact with Sanusi's chest, there was a dull but rather loud bang, and a dispersing of air in a ripple like formation, with them at the center. Alex had his entire fist bloodied as even his bones could be seen sticking out of the top of his hand. But he was stuck there for a few moments, unable to move his hand away from the chest of his opponent. Sanusi had his arms out stretched, as if to grab a hold of Alex, but he too was frozen in that motion.

Then blood began to seep out of both their mouths, but in mere seconds it became obvious that Sanusi was the more injured of the two as blood began to pour from his eyes, nose, ears and even out of the pores of his skin. Then he fell backwards with a bang, and right there on his chest was an imprint of a fist. The entire arena was silent until the announcer broke it.

"Winner Alexander Feng Matthews!"

And then the crowd erupted in a clamor at the abrupt end of the fight. However five minutes later, Sanusi was pronounced dead by the doctors on duty. The cause of death, was the entire liquidation of his internal organs. Alex has just brought about the first death in the competition.