“Do you think he can win?” were the words that came out of Liam’s mouth.
Both Simyon and Liam had been knocked away from the fighting platform and were now watching from the outside. What they didn’t realize was just where they had landed.
“Of course, he can’t win,” one of the yellow headband wearers replied. He was sitting in his seat, arms folded, not taking his eyes away from the match ahead.
They were the ones who were meant to go up against the red headband wearers, but with what had occurred today, what had happened, they weren’t even sure if they would be able to fight at all.
“I’m telling you now, Ricktor is not just the grandson of the Principal here; he’s also a genius,” the yellow owner continued. “He’s a Stage 3 Pagna warrior, the highest the academy has ever had as a third-year.”
Many of the yellow headband owners were nodding their heads in agreement.
“And I bet all of you losers would have said the same thing about him going up against the others as well,” Liam commented. “He is definitely going to win because he’s got a cute sister that he needs to protect.”
Immediately, a heavy foot hit Liam’s side, causing him to scream in pain. It had hit his already sore and broken-down body.
“Why did you kick me?” Liam shouted.
“Because you’re an idiot,” Simyon replied. “But you’re right about one thing, for some reason, I don’t think Raze is going to lose. Do you remember what he said earlier? I think we are all going to witness something today, and we should all watch carefully.”
There were things that Raze could do that were out of this world.
“Yeah, right. Ricktor is able to perform visual Qi. Do you even know how impressive that is?” the student asked.
Both Liam and Simyon looked at each other because they really didn’t, leaving the yellow owner to let out a big sigh.
“When you perform your techniques or the skills you learn, the books usually give an image in one’s head that they need to remember. For example, your Elephant strike, you are to imagine your attack like that of an elephant’s trunk.
“If a person is skillful enough with their Qi, when using the techniques, it will form an image in the real world. What we saw with his last attack, we could see the image of heat coming off from his body, produced by the Qi used by his technique. Sometimes, not even higher-stage Pagna warriors can do this.
“This is something that can only be done when one has completely mastered the technique that is taught to them.”
Both Simyon and Liam never knew of such a thing because they had never even seen it. That’s how rare it was. Of course, those like the main five clan heads would be able to do such things.
But for those in the blue headband groups, their clan leaders would have never been capable of performing such a thing.
The invited guests, the teachers, the clan head disciples, Dame, all of them were watching carefully at what was about to happen. Ricktor had already gotten off the first move, delivering a decisive blow.
“Since you managed to survive the last attack, then I’ll go ahead and show you something that you will never be able to achieve, just to show you how much of a difference there is between us!” Ricktor shouted.
Swinging his sword and swinging his fist in a figure of eight together, intense heat was starting to come off from his body again. The heat flowed fiercely around him, as if a volcano had erupted.
His wooden sword, the tip of it was now glowing red with power as well. This was visual Qi being used, and it was one of the Erupting Fist Clan’s powerful techniques. It wasn’t a single skill per se, but a technique that would empower every single strike of his.
With the red-glowing wooden sword, Ricktor dragged the tip along the floor and left a deep black line in the tiles. The sword had cut right through it.
“Hey, if the kid gets attacked like that, he’ll be killed!” Gunther said.
“The students are able to quit anytime they wish,” Murkel commented. “I believe my grandson has shown him his power, to allow him the chance to quit. If he wishes to continue, then that is down to him.”
Raze stopped right in the middle of the stage; he no longer moved forward, and he didn’t say anything as he just held the sword in his hand, with both of them carefully. It didn’t look like he was about to perform any type of technique at all.
“Fine, you made your choice!” Ricktor shouted as he charged forward, a trail of his visual Qi could be seen as a red aura was left in the air where he moved. The sword was in his hand, and he was ready.
At that moment, Raze lifted up his foot.
‘The first descending step!’
His foot slammed onto the ground, and the Qi from it dispersed outward. It hit Ricktor but did next to nothing to slow him down. Right after slamming his foot, though, Raze proceeded with the second step, kicking off.
It was faster than the time before as the Qi flowed in from the first to the second step. 𝑶𝓋𝓁𝐞xt.𝗇𝓔t
‘The second formation, the Devil’s stinger!’
Combined with the second formation, a strange spark of energy flicked out from the air, slowly covering the sword slightly. The tip of the sword crashed right into the side of Ricktor’s, and the two powers collided in the air.
“What is this…his power is actually able to match up to Ricktor’s!” Gavin shouted. “Is that even possible?”
Dame was no longer pretending to watch as he had lifted up his upper body, looking at the sight.
‘He used the second formation with the second step flawlessly…it has so much power, and he managed to combine the steps.’
However, Raze wasn’t done there. The third descending step was produced, as he flipped back in the air, and his foot kicked Ricktor right in the chin. With the added Qi from the first two steps, it was too fast for him to react.
When landing on the ground, Raze used the fourth descending step right after, kicking off with both his feet. The large amount of Qi had broken several of the tiles where his feet were, and they flew back behind him.
The sword was shoved forward, hitting Ricktor right in the stomach; he was unable to block in time.
‘The fifth descending step!’ Raze then kicked off from one foot and slashed right across, hitting Ricktor on his body. A loud thud came from around him, and Ricktor felt as if there was a large weight right on top of his body.
‘The sixth descending step!’ Raze did the same but from the other side; he kicked from the side, going in a single path. The Qi exploded to his right, and even from where the red headband wearers were, they could feel the massive amount of Qi.
Raze swung the sword again, hitting him on the other side, and a large line of Qi was visible in the air after crashing into Ricktor. Blood spewed out of his mouth, and the red energy he had around him, his visual Qi, was starting to fade.
Instead, something sinister was becoming visible in the air. An image was forming right above Raze’s head.
‘6 of the descending steps, and he’s managed to perfectly let them flow one into the other!’ Dame couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘He was able to reach the pinnacle of the steps that I was able to reach.’
Little did he know, Raze had no plan to just stop there.
“He’s going to lose,” The principal said.
“What, are you saying your grandson has some type of backup plan?” Gavin asked.
“No, Ricktor is the one who’s going to lose,” the principal commented.
He could feel the Qi building up with each of the steps and the destruction on the floor, and there was still more to come.
‘The seventh descending step!’
Raze jumped up in the air, with such force that it was shaking the entire place. Now in the air, visual Qi was starting to form around him. It looked almost like two large eyes had been made by his side, but the way they were positioned made them look like wings.
‘The eighth descending step!’
Raze started to spin his body in the air, and did so rapidly that a tornado of Qi had been created; he continued to go straight down.
Ricktor, not giving up, seeing all of this, he lifted his sword, and his Qi was erupting.
‘The first Devil’s formation!’
With the added spin, Raze swung the sword down with both of his hands. A wave of dark red appeared in visual Qi with the strike almost looking like that of blood; it was so thick.
It smothered all of the power that Ricktor had produced, and the attack came crashing down. As it hit Ricktor, the tiles on the floor were pushed to the side.
Ricktor’s body was seen flying in the air, blood spilling from his mouth, his body incredibly damaged, and before he fell back down to the floor, he had thoughts running through his head.
‘What was that power… is that really what a 2-stage Pagna warrior should be capable of? And why does my whole body feel like it wants to crawl out of my skin.’ Ricktor thought, and lastly, when he hit the ground and his eyes were turning to black, he realized.
‘I… I… I’ve lost.’