Speed… Speed… Speed… Speed…

'Plan C… If I can't beat him with any other method, I'll brute force the victory. He is not that fast, so let's see if he can dodge my attacks now even with the future sight!'

Kiernan thought.

Prisoner's hair was standing on end, and he lowered his stance as if he was preparing for whatever was going to happen next.

It was silent for a moment.

Then.

Swoosh!

Kiernan speared through the air toward Prisoner, who was already taking steps to dodge, but it looked like he was moving in slow motion.

"Iron Lance!"

Kiernan's spearhand came fast and furious.

It stabbed into Prisoner's left arm, cutting through the thick muscles, and the blood sprayed onto the ground in a crimson arc.

Prisoner's left arm got detached from his shoulder, and it fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

"Huh…"

He just had a simple "huh" as a response, as there was nothing else to say.

He saw this attack coming five seconds in advance, but there was nothing he could've done to evade the attack.

'This is truly… Insane!'

Prisoner turned around and punched forward, as he knew with the help of the future sight that Kiernan would be in that spot at this exact moment.

Kiernan crossed his arms, blocked the punch, and immediately countered with a swift kick to the chest.

It was far too quick of a kick, and thus, it landed in Prisoner's abdomen, and he doubled over with the food almost coming back up.

'I shouldn't have eaten that much… Shit…'

Kiernan sped back up, moving circles around Prisoner, and his future sight simply couldn't keep up with him.

In that moment, Kiernan moved to attack, and even though Prisoner knew it was coming, he couldn't do anything.

"King Lion Scratch!"

Deep bleeding wounds appeared across his body.

"Hahaha…"

Prisoner gritted his teeth and kept punching into empty air, as he expected Kiernan to appear there with the help of the future sight.

However, Kiernan was able to dodge those attacks even though Prisoner had his future sight to help him.

"Strong Drive!"

Kiernan drove his feet into Prisoner's chest and sent him flying at the barrier, which stopped his flight like a brick wall.

Prisoner felt like his entire body was getting crushed, and he already had some serious internal bleeding.

"Cough…"

He coughed blood.

Everyone in the Feast Hall knew that the match was in the closing stages, and it would end very soon.

And it looked like the winner of the match was pretty clear by now.

"Ptui!"

Prisoner spat out blood and chopped his hand down, but Kiernan slipped under his hand and punched him in the jaw.

The teeth clattered, and the brain inside his skull shook.

At that moment, Kiernan's combo of a low kick to the thigh, a knee kick to the abdomen, and an uppercut to the chin brought him down to his knees.

"Haaah!"

Kiernan grabbed Prisoner's head with both hands, and he then reeled back his right leg way back as if he was about to deliver a knee kick.

"Knee Kick!"

His knee smashed into Prisoner's face—the muscles on his leg rippling with power as he delivered the blow.

"Ptui… Ah…"

Prisoner's head got snapped backwards, and his vision turned hazy with lack of blood and oxygen.

He was wishing that this was only one of the futures that he was seeing right now, but that wasn't the case.

This was the present.

Kiernan kicked him in the thigh, and it sounded horrendous—thudded!—as if the flesh got crushed by a mallet.

Prisoner couldn't feel his legs anymore, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Are you forfeiting? If you aren't, I have to kill you, and I'd prefer not to do it. Even if you tried to kill me. So what do you say?"

Kiernan asked.

He already had a horrible reputation among the gods and goddesses, and to improve it slightly, he hadn't killed anyone yet in the tournament.

Meanwhile, every other champion in the tournament had at least killed one.

"Ptui… Ah…"

Prisoner turned his head to the side, saw Death sitting silently at the table, and he could already tell that his misery was only about to begin.

"I had one chance… To change my life… and I failed, haha… Very well… I lost, so I'll forfeit…"

In that moment, the barrier vanished.

"The match is over—we have the winner, and the winner is Kiernan Hunter from the Martial Arts World!"

The winged angel announced.

The gods and goddesses slowly clapped.

"Whoo… Whoo… One more match…"

Kiernan whispered under his breath, and he walked back to the table, where the Fair One was waiting with a smile on her face.

"Good job!"

She said, but she was slightly intimidated at this new look of Kiernan—he still was using the "High Speedster" technique.

However, as soon as he sat down, he slowly returned back to his old self, and he looked quite exhausted.

With this, Kiernan was officially in the grand finals of the Battle of the Champions, and his opponent was the winner of the A-Block.

'When… do I have to fight my next match?'

Kiernan wondered.

"And now… it is time for the grand finals!"

The winged angel announced, and the winner of the A-Block, who had a decent amount of time to rest, climbed to the stage.

Since Prisoner and Kiernan's fight lasted a while, he had a good rest and thus, an enormous advantage.

"You have to fight right after? This is very unfair. Your opponent got plenty of time to rest!"

The Fair One exclaimed.

"It… doesn't matter."

Kiernan said aloud with some exhaustion, and he just drank some water from the table and headed straight to the stage.

His legs were trembling, sweat trickled down his body, and he was panting like a thirsty dog.

It was obvious that there wasn't much left in the tank, as High Speedster was a very exhausting technique to use.

"Are the two of you ready?"

The winged angel asked.

"Yes!"

The winner of the A-Block, Antonio, said with a confident smile on his gold-brown skinned face that was quite handsome.

Since he was able to reach the finals in such a competitive tournament, it meant that he was extremely strong.

One of the strongest mortals in the universe.

"Yeah."

Kiernan said, and he moved into his defensive stance.

"FIGHT!"

"Huf!"

Antonio lunged forward and thrust his hand at him. Kiernan met it with Rendering Edge.

Yet, when Antonio's finger touched him, Kiernan felt something he had never experienced before.

"Go to your knees!"

Antonio ordered.

While trying to resist the order, eventually, Kiernan's knees met the ground under their feet, and a look of shock came to his face.

'When he touched my body, it felt like I was completely under his mercy. It does feel like the Anatomical Bind technique, but a much superior version.'

Kiernan thought.

Antonio was just smiling.

He was the ultimate ruler of Beast Realm, where there was all sorts of beasts that could threaten the entire universe if they were not kept under control.

In that world, there were mortals like Antonio, who had been oppressed by such beasts for millions of years.

In the end, they—mortals—started fighting back against the beasts, and were able to create their own mortal city there.

And Antonio was its 98th king—a title given to the strongest mortal of the Beast Realm—and he was the sole protector of the mortals.

To give the mortals a chance to live in peace and not in hiding, the king's job was to defeat any threats that entered the city.

And Antonio had been able to defeat ten different beasts, who had the power to destroy the entire world if they wanted to.

"Iron Smash!"

Kiernan punched at him, but Antonio caught it and flipped him over before slamming him down to the ground.

Weak…

He felt extremely weak, as it felt like all of his strength was sucked out of him whenever Antonio touched him.

"…Heh."

Antonio smiled.

However, in that moment, a small drop of blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth, and he quickly wiped it off.

'…He is also injured…'

Kiernan jumped back to his feet and stared at Antonio, whose complexion had turned slightly paler.

'Of course he would be injured…'

Kiernan thought.

Everyone had to fight many battles to get to the grand finals of the Battle of the Champion, and Antonio also faced many extremely strong foes.

Especially in the finals of the A-Block, where he almost lost and got some really serious injuries in his organs.

Even though Kiernan and Prisoner's fight lasted a while, it wasn't long enough for him to somehow regain the energy he needed to fully recover.

'Yes… We're both exhausted… I'll fight till my last legs!'

Kiernan screamed inwardly.

"Ghost Spring Ultimatum!"

In that moment, countless afterimages of Kiernan appeared around Antonio, and he just gritted his teeth and punched through them all.

"Hyperion's Smash!"

The real Kiernan suddenly appeared and drove his spinning fist into his chest, and the ribcage shattered on impact.

"Cough!"

Antonio coughed out blood, and his eyes widened in shock.

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