The next two battles results were not surprising. In the third battle of the 2nd round, Lernean attacked ruthlessly and harshly, defeating his opponent in just 30 seconds.
The next battle was between Yao Mun and an unnamed person. Yao Mun defeated his opponent in just a single move, similar to before.
Yao Mun's battle concluded the second round of fighting. What remained were the last four competitors.
Ying Xiong, Hong Yen, Lernean, and Yao Mun were the last contestants remaining.
After another brief break, Ying Xiong and Hong Yen walked up to the stage.
Both stood still with confidence as the numbers counted down. Ying Xiong was no longer as nervous as before, but he was wary. Hong Yen had never been nervous, but she too was wary of Ying Xiong.
The very moment that the number one turned into the word fight, Ying Xiong burst across the stage. A golden light covered his body as he moved.
Hong Yen did the same thing, a bright red flame bursting from behind and a layer of red covering her body. As they reached each other, they both punched out.
A bright flame covered Hong Yen's fist, while a golden light covered Ying Xiongs. When their punches collided, a strong wind burst out from between their fists.
In that moment, both got the first taste of each other's power. They continued to push their fists together, trying to force the other back.
After a few seconds, both repelled from the others fist. In just a moment, they came towards each other again.
This time, Ying Xiong punched at the stomach, while Hong Yen aimed at the face. Without dodging or adding extra defense, their fists hit their targets.
Ying Xiong was sent flying backwards, doing a few flips in the air, and Hong Yen was sent to the ground as she rubbed against it.
Both had been protected by their Qi's touching their bodies, but there were still slight injuries on both of them.
As soon as they regained balance, they launched at each other again. As they collided, multiple fist were thrown in an instant.
They were pushed back again, then came back again, repeating this brutal scene of brute strength for an entire minute.
Eventually, they stood across from each other, injured to different degrees in different areas.
Ying Xiong had a bloody and broken nose, while Hong Yen was clutching her stomach. After a moment, they began to fight again, but this time with intelligence.
Ying Xiong activated the buddha phantom. He stood where its legs crossed, still on the ground.
The flames covering Hong Yen's body suddenly expanded with an explosion. In an instant, she seemed to be set on fire as an immense heat covered the arena.
Ying Xiong charged forwards at her, but Hong Yen moved backwards and kept her distance.
As Ying Xiong tried to charge towards her, she used multiple techniques, sending out things such as fireballs and flame waves.
Ying Xiong struggled to advance the entire time. He was constantly dodging and defending.
As he slowly got closer, Hong Yen used different and stronger techniques. One of them sent a flame phoenix soaring towards Ying Xiong. Another created a flame giant that contended against his buddha phantom for a few moves.
As time passed, Ying Xiong slowly got more and more frustrated and annoyed. Hong Yen's fighting style had done a complete 360.
She went from crudely contending against him, to evading him and attacking from a distance.
The Qi usage of the buddha phantom was no joke. There had been multiple times where Ying Xiong had to deactivate it in order to regenerate some Qi.
Unfortunately, he could barely even defend himself against Hong Yen without the buddha phantom. Her casual attacks were nearly enough to overwhelm him.
Just as Ying Xiong was thinking of giving up, he saw her breath falter for just a moment.
'She is getting exhausted as well!' He thought to himself.
All he could do was hope that he was right. He started to push Hong Yen harder in an attempt to make her more exhausted faster, but it was also taking a burden on him.
By the time he was nearly on the ground from stamina loss, Hong Yen was starting to heavily pant. Her long range attacks took a lot more Qi than close range attacks.
The only reason she was outlasting Ying Xiong was because the buddha phantom truly cost too much Qi.
Ying Xiong rapidly tried to think of different moves.
The yellow piercing sword finger was the entire human race's trump card, but it was truly too profound. Even Ying Xiong could barely show a thousandth of its true power.
Since Hong Yen knew about it, she had surely kept a defense in mind. Even if he used it, he may not harm her.
As for the Qi expenditure, it was more terrifying than the Buddha's phantom. A single attack would drain 25% of his Qi. He had only successfully used it before by squeezing his body dry.
While Zhou Fan had originally created it to expend a relatively small amount of Qi, he had only kept in mind his amount of Qi.
Compared to others of the same realm, Zhou Fan had much more Qi. He was the most talented for a reason.
Although Ying Xiong had more Qi than Hong Yen, he did not have as much as Zhou Fan would at his level.
Therefore, he could only try some more theoretical techniques.
Ying Xiong deactivated the Buddha phantom and used all his stamina to dodge Hong Yen's attacks. He did so in order to replenish some of his Qi before his final strike.
After 5 minutes of recovery, he could not hold on any longer and jumped in the air.
Seeing his actions, Hong Yen warily watched. Ying Xiong held out his palms and a face with a wide open mouth appeared.
It didn't quite look like the face of a buddha, but similarities could be seen. Hong Yen was confused until a roar was heard from the mouth of the head.
Then, a soundwave hit her and sent her flying. She quickly grabbed onto the ground and ran towards the head.
She knew that she could not survive under its roar for long.
'I need to destroy it now!' She yelled inside her mind.
The soundwave was rupturing her insides and causing blood to pour out of random places on her skin, as well as her mouth, eyes, and nose.