Jhan's kickboxing and Atid's dojo were akin to natural enemies; utterly immiscible. Each side hated the other and all that they stood for, so it was to no one's shock the manner in which the fight instantly reached its peak right from the get-go. This wasn't a play fight like the one between Luca and Atid. Rather, both sides were playing for keeps, and being able to "accidentally" deal serious injury or even cripple the other side was considered a plus.

This being a true fight, representing essentially the core of what Elizabeth imagined when she first thought of joining a place to learn martial arts, she took extra special care to study the fight with her Timeworn eyes and every speck of her focus. With neither side wielding any weapons, just the strength of their bodies and the force of their Qi, this was as close to a pure battle of martial arts as Elizabeth had seen thus far.

Though Carlos was the one on the side being challenged, he actually kick-started the fight, instantly making it clear to all that his speed was marginally superior to Hou Xin. Though his staring kick was chuck full of flair as he stuck against Hou Xin, more than anything, there were several tons of force behind this first attack.

Hou Xin took the kick and stood as stable as a mountain; not at all fazed by the power Carlos displayed. His arms which formed the cross that barred Carlos' kick from damaging his internal organs blazed to life in weak orange flames, which were just faintly stronger when compared to the potency of Elizabeth's clear red flames.

Carlos kicked off from Hou Xin's arms before the flames of his enemy's Qi could do anything to him, and after bouncing down from the ceiling, he and Huo Xin started trading blow for blow as they were just about equal even after giving their best effort to hit the other.

Bang! Bang! Bang! It almost sounded as terribly as the explosions consequent of Luca and Atid's battle, as punch met arm and kick met leg. Combating Hou Xin's Fire Qi, Carlos used Earth Qi of his own as his body was coated in dense and grainy yellowish-brown energy. Because this fight was limited to just the two partic.i.p.ant's bodies, after their physical attacks didn't yield any results, it didn't take long for all sorts of new tricks to appear and make the already impressive-looking bout all the more spectacular!

"Hmph!" Hou Xin waved his hands and a trail of flames stayed static in the air for longer than they normally would have; effectively masking the movement behind their area of obscurement. The first time he used this new method of manipulating flames, he managed to graze Carlos' cheek with the sweep of his leg as the latter was surprised and almost failed to react in time.

That "small" grazing caused a couple drops of blood to flow out of Carlos' face, and due to the battle's nature, with Carlos' quick movements, small splatters of blood started acc.u.mulating around him in the ring. However, Carlos didn't take this lying down, as his mind charged with adrenaline worked overtime to a.n.a.lyze how Hou Xin's Veil of Flames would be applied as the battle progressed.

Like Hou Xin, Carlos also used his Earth Qi though not to make a veil, but rather, congeal on his person and create an extra layer of armor. He had hesitated until this point to bring out his martial skill as it was a known fact that all martial skills — including his Earth Armor and Hou Xin's Veil of Flames — burned through one's energy reserves at unsustainable rates. This didn't apply if the Pract.i.tioner used abilities of a Stage below their's, but in this true fight of life and death, neither partic.i.p.ant doubted that the other would fight back as hard as possible.

Unfortunately for Hou Xin, Carlos' Earth Armor wasn't just a defensive skill. The properties of Carlos' Earth Armor not only elevated his defense by providing him with an extra coat of protection… The Armor also didn't weigh down on Carlos' body yet made all his attack "heavier."

With dense earth energy powering his ever attack, Carlos started to break through Hou Xin's defense as his every move caused Hou Xin to tremble and his bones to fracture. The rate of Hou Xin's defense decayed faster than it should have given the internal state of his body as judged by Elizabeth, and just when it seemed like Carlos would land the finis.h.i.+ng blow… disaster struck.

DANGER! Elizabeth didn't receive any notifications from her functions but purely based on some sort of instinct, an ominous feeling shuttled through her spine as she watched Carlos' match-deciding punch finally breakthrough Hou Xin's double arm cross guard. Now paying extra close attention as chills in her spine only grew in intensity as time pa.s.sed, Elizabeth could see Hou Xin bite down on something right before he faced sure defeat.

In that exact moment, Hou Xin was thinking 'Sucks that it has to be this way, but f.u.c.k if I'm the one responsible for Master's loss. Dumb kid! Blame yourself for not losing earlier!' His thoughts were fluent as he naturally though in his native language; Mandarin Chinese. With the quick twitch of his tongue, a red pill that had been hiding underneath this whole time landed right between his molars. The pill was crushed and activated almost instantaneously.

The instant Hou Xin ingested the pill, his eyes lit up in a dazzling red light show and what remained of his Inner Strength was immediately turned into Qi with power comparable to the Mid to Late-Phase of the Warrior Stage launching forth from his body. What remained of his reserves could only mimic the strength of the Warrior Stage for a couple instances, but that was all it took to main Carlos permanently…

With Fire Qi now brilliantly burning with a deep orange color, Hou Xin leveraged his Flames to thrust his body right before Carlos and with a single hand covered in orange flames, he singed off Carlos' left arm. It looked effortless, as the orange flames cut through Carlos' Earth Armor like b.u.t.ter, and to add insult to injury, even after becoming the winner, Hou Xin used the last bit of energy left in his body to land a devastating kick right on Carlos' chest before the last remaining dregs of his Qi vanished and his body collapsed in the ring.

...

"Whoa, lucky me~ Now I just need another round to win~" Amidst this tense environment, Jhan's happy-go-lucky att.i.tude after Hou Xin crippled Carlos struck a nerve in the hearts of all those from Atid's faction. Not only was Carlos an old school member of Atid's Dojo, someone who joined when the dojo was built six years ago, but he was also a beloved member of the family-esque system the dojo had built over the years. Jhan's apparent meekness was of insulting proportions, but there was nothing Atid or the others frustrated at the moment could do about it.

Everyone could see that in the final exchange Hou Xin had used all of his power without reserve. To those not paying attention to that one specific action where Hou Xin bit down on the pill, it looked like there was no way Hou Xin would have been able to win without giving it his all. Though resentful, they knew the rules and could do nothing to vent their frustrations.

However, among the lines of people angry at the result, there was a single person who stood smiling. Elizabeth… it seemed that her insanity had been challenged today and she couldn't help but flash her trademark smile of schadenfreude as she went over to help Carlos recover. 'This guy… he fought for me and as a result, he's now a cripple…' She looked like someone who belongs alongside the worst spree killers and ma.s.s murderers of the world, with that smile that spoke volumes of the kinds of sinister thoughts crossing her mind.

Even if this was her first time witnessing the gore of another human, the distributed nature of her actions didn't seem to register in her brain. Not that it should, after all, she had seen and done worse things to several animals of the Shadow Realm. But to some people there was a difference between seeing the gore of another human and that of animals; Elizabeth just didn't seem to belong to this case.

She picked up the severed and maimed arm as well as Carlos' body, not at all minding the blood that stained her clothes, before reaching for her trusty Acupoint kit. As she st.i.tched Carlos' arm back onto his body, not once did the intensity of her demonic smile die down, as the excitement of what was to come next spurred her insanity down further than it should perhaps go…