The crowd exclaid in shock. The strongest student, the Teen Karate Champion, was thrown to the ground!
'How could you allow him to do that?' The bald-headed master wondered with an ugly frown, but then he had a realization.
'Markus is simply too inexperienced when fighting against opponents who use mixed martial arts. He was too focused on Adam's boxing, or was that slap-boxing, causing him to completely forget the real threat-Aikido!'
Markus coughed a little bit of blood, and his vision turned slightly blurry.
'N-no!'
He quickly threw a kick from his down position and hit Adam in the forearm, pushing him back a step.
Markus quickly flipped back to his feet, then, with a fury-filled gaze, rushed after Adam and started throwing a series of punches.
Adam's expression didn't change, and he quickly slapped the punches away, but then he noticed sothing strange. There wasn't any strength behind those punches!
'Gotcha.' Markus quickly stomped over Adam's feet, stopping his retreat, and then hook punched him in the waist, causing Adam's face to contort in pain.
Markus palm-struck Adam's chest, knocking the wind out of him, then low-kicked him in the thigh and then delivered a powerful chest punch that sent Adam sprawling to the ground.
"Whoo!" Markus stayed in his punching stance, breathing in and out. 'This is a might of karate!'
The crowd erupted in cheers, expecting the fight to be over.
"Ah..." Alice's lips curled down in sadness. For a mont, she thought Adam would win.
At that mont, Adam slowly rose back to his feet, his face sweating and his posture looking shaky. Those attacks destroyed his untrained body.
'Oh, how weak I truly am...' Adam coughed, feeling frustrated and exhausted. 'This is strangely making rember my death...'
At the mont of his death, Adam was clearly in his pri. He had trained for over ten years and had beco one of the strongest martial artists in the country.
Yet he died to soone who was clearly weaker than him.
Why?
Was it because he was stabbed and lost a lot of blood? No.
It was because of his state of mind.
Only minutes prior, his whole life was ruined, and he had lost all hope for his life. He was also suffering from the Pod Syndro as he was inside the ga for about two months.
It was an important stage of the war, and he was needed in Mortal Online, so he didn't bother logging out.
Then he got stabbed and lost a lot of blood.
If his strength was at its peak, he would've been able to survive. It was the sa with his death in Mortal Online-if he wasn't poisoned, he would've managed to escape.
'What an unlucky fucker I am...' Adam chuckled to himself and watched as Markus rushed in with his punch flying in his direction.
'Image Training...' Adam took a deep breath, and at that mont, Markus' figure disappeared.
Instead, in Markus' place, there was the masked figure who killed him.
He used Image Training to change his opponent into an image of his killer.
'This is no longer a sparring match, but instead a match for my survival.'
Adam ford a fist. It didn't look any special, but it looked different from his usual fist.
The masked figure's punch approached him.
At that mont, Adam used his forearm and pushed the attacker's arm away, forcing the punch to miss his face by an inch.
Imdiately afterwards, the masked figure threw another punch with his left. Adam imdiately blocked it with his right arm, and then he pulled his head back and slamd his forehead into the attacker's face.
The masked figure stumbled backwards with his nose bleeding and his posture looking shaky. Adam low-kicked the figure's legs, causing his knees to buckle down. His legs looked bruised and swollen.
At that mont, Adam hooked his arm around the figure's neck and started choking him. Without him knowing, Markus' face had turned pale-white while the crowd looked shocked.
None of that seed to matter.
Adam stopped choking, then started pumling Markus' face with his punches. Smack, smack, smack, smack. It was relentless.
After he threw his last punch, he grabbed Markus by his loose shirt and threw him to the ground with a loud thud. It almost sounded like Markus' back cracked.
He then threw a punch, but Markus quickly rolled to safety. His punch cracked the floor tiles beneath him, where Markus' face had been just monts prior.
This was Adam fighting when he was going for survival!
Markus quickly stood up; he was sweating and looked fearful, with most of his face bruised and bloodied. He felt like he was fighting a wild animal!
'T-this is nothing like in the competitions!' Markus fearfully thought.
His eyes imdiately widened in shock as Adam lunged back at him.
"Eek!" Markus scread, and he crouched down in fear, trying to cover his head with his
arms.
Still, Adam's punch didn't stop.
However, before it could land on crying Markus, a hand appeared that caught the fist in mid-
air.
"That's enough." The bald-headed master said as he looked at Adam with a deep look.
"You've won."
Adam jumped from the floor and launched a high kick, but the bald-headed master caught it with his other hand and twisted his body, forcing Adam down on the ground.
Adam still didn't stop and flipped himself back to his feet. He then started throwing punches
at full speed.
The bald-headed master parried the punches with ease, effortlessly doing so.
At that mont, the bald-headed master took a step forward and stopped Adam's advancent by slamming his foot against his knee, causing Adam to stop completely.
"That's enough!" He shouted with a powerful voice.
It seed to work as Adam's eyes regained their focus and his body loosened up.
"Oh..." Adam pulled back his fists slowly, realizing he had gone too far. "I'm sorry, I didn't an to lose my temper like that."
"That's fine; that can happen in the midst of a heated fight." The bald-headed man said.
"I am also sorry." Adam bowed in Markus' direction, who was still cowering in fear. 'It's not like to lose control like that. I suppose I'll need to start doing ditation once again.'
'Markus had never experienced sothing like this before.' The bald-headed master looked at his best student. 'However, this is a valuable lesson. I don't teach karate just to use in so petty tournants. I hope my karate can save their lives one day.'
Adam stepped off the stage, and walked past the crowd, who fearfully stepped aside. They greatly underestimated his abilities. It was clear that he was a powerhouse if he managed to
beat Markus.
"If you want to learn karate, the doors are open for you!" The bald-headed master shouted to
Adam.
However, he doubted that Adam needed to learn anything from him.
Adam nodded, then joined Alice, who congratulated him with a sweet smile. They then both
departed from the dojo.
The bald-headed master looked at Markus and said, "Co on, stand back up." "W-what was that?" Markus stood up, still shaking in fear. "I felt like he was trying to kill
!"
"You made the greatest mistake when fighting a life-and-death match." The bald-headed master said with a frown. "You started to feel fear and doubt your abilities."
"But there is no way I could've defeated him!" Markus cried out.
"You could've!" The bald-headed master shouted. "Adam didn't suddenly beco stronger
or better!"
"B-but, I couldn't defend, and his attacks hurt like hell!" Markus touched his face, which hurt from where Adam's punches landed.
"You don't think he was hurt from your punches?" The bald-headed master scoffed. "He was
hurt!"
"S-still, h-he was far too strong."
"No, he wasn't." The bald-headed man shook his head. "He is definitely strong, but he wasn't stronger than you, Markus. He used what we call 'Influence' and that defeated you."
"Influence?" Markus frowned and raised his head to look at him.
"The mont his Influence took effect was when he headbutted you." The bald-headed master said. "After that mont, all his attacks began to land. That's Influence. It's ntal warfare that can turn the tide of battle in an instant.
"Those attacks weren't strong or fast. You've fought much faster opponents, and yet all those attacks landed. It is hard to fight against Influence. You can only learn to combat it by fighting
plenty.
"Since this was your first fight when your life might've been in danger, the Influence was very effective."
"Influence..." Markus contemplated. "Can I learn that?"
"It's not sothing that can be really learned." The master said, "I have trained Karate for
thirty years, and I can barely do that. What Adam just did had a very high level of Influence. It
takes a lot of dedication and practice to master it." 'Influence...' Markus clenched his hands into fists.
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