Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 296

Chapter 296: Second Time
Pain, frustration, anger, and impatience.

Julian was feeling all sorts of emotions that flooded him all at once. He tried to take deep breaths and calm himself down, but the overwhelming emotions wouldn’t let up.

It was the first time for him to feel all these emotions all at once, and it felt very weird and foreign to him.

With Thorsten’s fists smashing into his guard, he wanted to do nothing but fight back, but he couldn’t.

The poison, lack of blood, and crippling pain all combined to paralyze him.

‘Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’

As Julian gritted his teeth, his neck muscles bulged out and throbbed like they were about to snap.

“Sharpening Ed—”

Julian moved his hands, but Thorsten smacked them away and then buried his fist into his abdomen.

It all failed!

Every single technique he tried to attempt failed. It was as if Thorsten was always one step ahead.

‘My Sharpening Edge also failed? That means even Kiernan’s Rendering Edge would fail, as his technique isn’t better than mine.

‘Is Thorsten simply this powerful? What can I do?’

Thorsten’s elbow landed in his face, and then, like a jackhammer, he punched him repeatedly in the chest to crush his chest in.

His chest turned red and bruised.

“U-urg…”

Julian stopped moving, and his knees neared the ground.

It looked to be over.

Round-eyed audience members jumped to their feet and thought that this was it—the match was over.

Swoosh…

Grayish, steaming smoke billowed from Julian’s mouth, and as if he were a steam machine, the smoke seemed to envelop his entire body in a swirling cloud.

Kiernan’s eyes widened in shock, and slowly, he whispered.

“Flow State…”

Slash! Spurt!

Five, stretching slash wounds appeared on Thorsten’s chest, and the blood sprayed out in a crimson arc.

“What…?”

Thorsten’s eyes widened in shock.

Julian’s crimson fingers reached out, stained with blood.

‘He cut through my body so easily? What the hell is that gray smoke coming from his body? I don’t understand how he was able to move so quickly…’

Julian formed a fist with his crimson fingers and then smashed it through Thorsten’s face.

His head yanked backwards as if someone had just grabbed his hair. A faint fist mark appeared on his face where Julian’s knuckles had impacted.

“Conqueror’s Chop!”

Julian chopped him in the neck and dislocated his shoulder with a sickening crack.

Screams sounded from the stands as the match once again had momentum shift!

“What the hell?! How is Julian now winning the fight?”

“Come on, Thorsten! What the hell are you doing? You were about to win!”

“Where did this sudden strength boost come from? I thought Julian was done for!”

On Kanyon High’s bench, the coach felt like he had just fallen from heaven back to hell.

The victory was seemingly theirs, but it had once again slipped away!

“Come on, Julian!”

“Julian!”

Dominic, and Julia cheered him on.

“What is Flow State, Kiernan? I couldn’t help but hear you whisper that. Is that what is happening to Julian right now?”

Coach Jin asked.

He had never seen something like that.

It was clear that Julian’s tank was empty. It was already surprising enough that he was able to keep standing, but he was now fighting back!

“Flow State is a rare state when a person reaches their full potential, and in that short timeframe, they’ll be their strongest versions. It is extremely hard to reach even once, but even harder the second time.

“Julian once told me that he had reached Flow State before, so this is his second time.”

Kiernan said.

“I’ve never heard about that before… Have you reached that state before?”

Coach Jin asked.

Kiernan let out a deep sigh, and with a wry smile, he nodded.

“Once. I’ve been trying to reach that state again, but something is holding me back. It is a very intoxicating feeling to reach that state, but unfortunately I didn’t reach it during a fight.

“I am certain that using it in a fight must be… a whole different experience.”

In the fight, Thorsten held his dislocated shoulder with an ugly expression on his face and tried to kick Julian, but he caught the muscular leg and pulled him into a headlock.

“Nngh!”

Thorsten tried to rip his arms off his head, but Julian suddenly lifted him up from the ground and slammed him down with a loud thud.

He happened to fall on his dislocated shoulder and immediately let out the scariest-sounding scream of pain that a human could muster.

“I… shit.”

Thorsten turned around to lie on his stomach and tried to crawl away, but Julian grabbed him by the head and slammed him against the concrete ground.

“Ugh…”

His eyes rolled back to his skull.

The steaming smoke covered Julian’s fist as he reeled it back, readying for another punch, but then the referee ran over to him and tried to grab him.

However, Julian dodged the referee’s hand, backed off from him, and reeled his fist to punch him in the face.

‘Why is he attacking me?’

The referee’s eyes widened in shock.

At that moment, arms suddenly wrapped around Julian’s waist and pulled him away from the referee before he punched him in the face.

“Alright, buddy, calm down.”

Kiernan said with a smirk.

Julian turned around, his eyes glazed over, and punched towards Kiernan’s face out of nowhere.

Kiernan suddenly caught the fist, tripped him over, and smashed him into the ground. He then immediately put his arm behind his back, forcing Julian to lie still.

“Calm down… calm down…”

Kiernan whispered.

The rising smoke calmed down and got sucked back inside Julian’s body.

He suddenly looked like he had aged by fifty years, and his eyes closed down in an exhausted state.

“Is he alright?”

Coach Jin jumped into the ring and asked.

“He is asleep.”

Kiernan put him on his shoulder and rushed out of the ring.

“He is very injured. I will take him to the infirmary.”

Coach Jin nodded and followed right after him.

“Uhm…”

The referee scratched the back of his head and then raised his arm high.

“And the winner is Julian Noah—Karuza High advances to the semifinals!”