Town Competition (8)

Khoru went back to his seat shortly after the match ended and completely ignored the arrogant and annoying remarks of the crowd around him. He silently thought to himself about the match.

'I wonder what rank her Martial Spirit is. It would be pretty strong for a rank 1 but pretty weak for a rank 2 Martial Spirit. It all comes down to the rank.'

A few minutes later, the next match started. Long story short, number 32 won.

...

'Hm, why did the matches stop?' Khoru thought to himself as he looked at the stadium. Numerous different matches had passed and he was particularly entertained by it despite not having the chance to fight again.

Granted, he wasn't too sure if he wanted to fight in another match.

The announcer of the competition appeared in the middle of the stadium again and said, "Alright everyone. The individual matches have concluded and now we'll move on to the next form of matches. Two against two!" The man's words sparked the flame of excitement in the hearts of the crowd.

Khoru, on the other hand, was a bit shocked and felt uncomfortable. He had never fought with a partner or against two people at once. Co-operation wasn't his specialty nor was it something he was too fond of.

He let out a heavy sigh. 'What do I do now?' He thought.

"Addresser, you know the deal!" The man said before disappearing from in the stadium.

"The two versus twos are finally here! I've been waiting for this! Some of my favorite fighters paired up and against each other. We'll finally be able to actively compare their Martial Spirits!" Multiple people jumped around in their seats.

The Addresser was expectant as well as he said, "Number 14, Number 19, come to the stage. Number 1 and Number 30, come to the stage."

Khoru's body stiffened when he heard the Addresser call out his number.

'Already? This is the first match...' Khoru let out an extremely heavy sigh before getting up and going to the stadium. After he entered it, his partner came shortly after. It was a man with black hair and golden eyes, his temperament was odd.

Khoru didn't like the feeling his partner gave off but he had no choice but to work with him if he wanted to beat his opponents.

The enemy team came to the stadium a moment later, which shocked Khoru greatly.

'Hao Jianyu? She's participating in the competition as well? Why...' Khoru instantly regretted entering the stage when he saw Hao Jianyu. He already knew she was at the 5th stage of the foundation building realm while he was only at the fourth.

Either way, he had to suck it up and get ready to fight.

The Addresser then called out, "Three! Two! One! Fight!" His words rang throughout the entire competition grounds, causing the crowd to cheer in excitement and exhilaration. Khoru immediately watched his surroundings.

He knew all about Hao Jianyu's Martial Spirit so at least he had some sort of heads-up about her power. Regardless, she was still stronger than him.

Her teammate, who Khoru didn't know, immediately rushed at him. Khoru took his mind off of Hao Jianyu and focused on that person. They had grey hair the went down to their shoulders, it was a man.

He immediately summoned his Martial Spirit in order to prevent Khoru from resisting. Khoru summoned his blue sword and shaped it into a cross blade once more and repelled the man's attack.

The man's martial spirit took the form of a red and yellow hammer that boasted amazing power. Because of this, the man was shocked when Khoru repelled his attack.

"Hmph." Khoru's gaze was sharp as he swung his sword forward, leading it downward onto the handle of the hammer. The man was startled and immediately withdrew his hammer, only to smash it down from the sky.

Khoru's PTSD regarding the hammer devil had resurfaced just when he started to forget about it.

"You bastard!" Khrou evaded the hammer smash and jumped atop the hammer and into the air with his sword. He waved it through the wind as if he was drawing a river, and slashed it downward.

The man's reflexes were better than imagined so he managed to hastily block the swing his hammer. Despite that, he still felt small recoil.

'What the hell? I thought he won that match against Pan Meli because of some fluke!' The man severely regretted going for Khoru first. If he knew how strong he was, then he might've just headed for his teammate.

Speak of him, he and Hao Jianyu were fighting. Hao Jianyu swung her giant morning star through the air, smashing it into the stadium ground repeatedly. Khoru's partner was never hit even once though, as he evaded every last hit.

He had his Martial Spirit out, which was a jade lantern that was painted dark blue. The fire within it burned tenaciously.

"Spiral Kite!" He exclaimed before the lantern's fire raged and flew out of the lamp. The lid burst open as a result of the overbearing force of the fire. The fire grew and grew until it formed a spiral in the sky.

Hao Jianyu felt pressured and suddenly used her moves as well.

"Morning Star of Decimation! Ha!" The illusory picture of an amazing morning star that possessed amazing power encompassed Hao Jianyu's morning star for a brief moment. She slammed her morning star into the ground which unleashed a massive shock wave and destroyed a small bit of the stadium.

"Wow!"

"Who is that girl?"

"Her power is amazing! She just destroyed so much of the stadium with one attack!"

"That guy is even better, he just created a spire of fire!"

"He evaded every attack that girl dished out as well."

Khoru's partner smirked before he gently waved his lantern, causing the spiral of fire to bend, contort, and whip through the air. It flew down with a mind of its own and penetrated the stadium near Hao Jianyu.

The fire spread out across the stadium and gradually burned everything.