Chapter 8: Fight!

As soon as the call for the fight to begin rang out, her opponent charged at her. Not one for fanciful moves, Weiyang wrapped herself in a familiar teal glow and rammed into her opponent. For a moment, they stood still. Then, her opponent was sent flying out of the ring. Returning to a relaxed position, and somewhat bored, her gaze wandered to the other fights going on. She quickly became uninterested again. Luckily for her, the victors of the remaining fights were quickly decided. With this the first round ended, as they were the final group of competitors sent on stage.

Because the number of pairs for the first round was odd, there was now an even number of people in the second round when Weizhe was included. This meant that everyone would be fighting this round. However, before matches began they would all get a couple of minutes to rest and recover.

Returning to Weizhe's side from the platform, Weiyang's let out a low neigh and stomped her foot. She was anxious, while she knew Weizhe's training put him above many of his peers in terms of raw strength all it would take is a clever mind to easily take him down. This also didn't take into account the rules of the tournament, which Weizhe had no way of knowing exactly as he was incapable of understanding the speech given at the beginning; however, she had confidence that he had a general idea of the rules after watching the matches in the first round.

Finally, time was up and the lots were drawn once again. Weizhe was placed in the first group set to fight and his opponent was an ordinary clan member. This eased Weiyang's worries. In fact, she was quite happy with these results, being placed in the first group to fight had it's advantages. Under the assumption that he beat his opponent, he would have more time to recover as there would still be more groups queued up afterwards for their matches. This, of course, was an unfair advantage that caused complaints among the competitors, however the platform was not large enough to support all of the matches going on at once.

The call for the first group to step onto the stage came, and Weiyang prodded Weizhe's side before pointing her head in the direction of the stage. Understanding the meaning behind her actions, he stepped onto the platform and entered an empty circle. His opponent soon followed, a rather average looking male horse who was currently feeling quite excited.

'Haha, it seems as though the heavens are smiling on me! Fighting the resident cripple should be easy, maybe I'll even impress some of the females in the crowd.' Letting out a perverse giggle, his opponent was lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly, he felt an incredible force crash into his side before he was sent soaring out of the ring. While he was indulging in fantasies the matches had begun, and Weizhe seeing the hand fly down signaling the start of the matches instantly began a mad dash towards his absentminded opponent, knocking him out and obtaining an effortless victory. Many among the audience were left stunned by the spectacle, and some had wry smiles on their faces having seen the distracted look Weizhe's opponent had on his face. Surely this would be a major source of embarrassment for his opponent in the future.

Looking proud of himself, Weizhe waited for the matches to end before finally returning down below to rest and observe the rest of the fights. Once again the matches went by with nothing of particular note, thus far none of the truly strong members had been pitted against each other, though one of the matches ended in a draw. This brought the number of people back to an odd number, and thus for the third round one person would either have to fight two opponents or sit out a round.

The name of the person drawn from the first raffle was in fact Weizhe again, causing a small commotion to occur from the audience and youths alike. However, schadenfreude was quickly plastered on their faces as the results of the second lot was announced. Weizhe would be fighting two opponents. Not only so, but these two opponents were very familiar with Weizhe, as they had just beaten him up last month: Weifan and Weijia.

Among the current generation of Murky Whip Horses, Weifan and Weijia were considered to be one of the strongest. All together there were five clan members who many believed had the potential to become the future elites of the clan, these youths were: Weiyang, Weidong, Weimei, Weifan and Weijia. For Weizhe to have to face two of the five strongest was nothing short of incredibly unfortunate. Weijia had strength which was around the eighth layer of the Qi Refining stage and made effective use of the inborn Murky Whisker Whip technique that gave their clan its name. Weifan, on the other hand, was at the peak of a High Rank One beast, having a cultivation equal to the ninth layer, and specialized in close combat, similar to Weizhe.

Luckily for Weizhe his matches were placed in two separate groups which would allow him a short period of time to recover.

The first group was called up. Shooting a worried glance at Weizhe, Weiyang signaled for him to walk up before shortly following, as her match was also placed in the first group. Entering the ring, Weiyang was actually matched with another young female horse. Her opponent was surprisingly tall, even for a horse, and the mane on her back was so large it actually slightly draped below her body. This was actually Weimei, one of the top five.

Meanwhile, Weizhe was currently facing Weifan, who would serve as his first opponent for this round. They are glared at each other. Weizhe impatiently stamped his hooves, and Weifan let out a powerful snort which actually caused some of the dirt that had been brought up onto the stage to be blown away.

A tense atmosphere filled the air, and the stadium was silent for a moment. Then, with a chop of the referee's hand, the silence burst, instead replaced with the whooshing sounds of the contestants meeting their opponents.

Weizhe once again bolted towards his opponent. The dirt on the ground along his path was kicked up and trailed behind him as a result his blistering speed. He obviously hoped to finish Weifan as he had finished his last opponent, however Weifan was much smarter than his last opponent. A ridiculing look entered Weifan's eyes as he turned so that his left side was facing Weizhe. When Weifan was only two meters away, Weifan took action. Quickly, he drew an arc around Weizhe, and ended up behind him.

This scene was very reminiscent of a similar scene that played out only a month prior. Weifan's intentions were clear, he wanted to barge into Weizhe and push him out of the ring. Many in the crowd also gasped and many felt admiration well up seeing Weifan's daring display. It had to be known that for horses, their sides were their weakest point. They could charge at the front or use their back legs to brutally kick opponents behind them but horses had no way of attacking on the sides of their body.

Following through with his intentions, he lunged towards Weizhe. Weizhe, however, would not fall for this trick a second time. Weiyang, during their one month of training, had drilled into Weizhe methods of defending himself and attacking from all sides. Of course, Weizhe couldn't understand speech, so the "drilling into him" in this case was quite literal, as she painfully taught him during their spars. Weizhe, realizing he had failed his initial attack, dug his hooves into the ground and, grinding to a halt, he simply stood there waiting. Weifan, seeing the sudden change, had a premonition that if he didn't slow down he would suffer.

Weifan, trusting his instincts, attempted to stop his charge. This, however, was not quite as simple as when Weizhe had done so. Weifan had instilled spiritual energy into himself to increase the strength and speed of his attack and he not only had to counteract the physical force he used to accelerate, he also had to counteract the force of the spiritual energy. Channeling spiritual energy took time, not much, but in a fight even a split second must be cherished. In this case, Weifan suffered because of the split second he had to take to allow the spiritual energy to move through his meridians.

Weizhe, hearing Weifan draw near, struck like lightning. His right back leg flew out, delivering a fierce kick towards Weifan's front right leg. A wretched cry rang out in the stadium. Weifan awkwardly attempted to limp backwards. Once again, the physique of a horse proved disadvantageous as walking backwards was not what their legs built for. Turning around to face Weifan, Weizhe gave a smug look. In their first exchange, he had come out victorious.