Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 378

Chapter 378: Threat Levels
The statue’s real-looking eyes shook, and then raspy words escaped its mouth.

“Maso Palladino—Threat level: 3.”

“Damone Verde—Threat Level: 2.”

“Arturo Zaccaria—Threat Level: 5.”

Crack… crack… cracks…

Sounds of cracks reverberated throughout the chamber, and at that moment, from the statue’s back, two more arms emerged under the stone shell.

“?!”

Damone’s eyes widened, and at that moment, one of those arms punched him across his face, sending him flying.

The three other arms pummeled Maso all across his body, changing the shade of his skin to purple from all those bruises.

“Urgh!”

Maso collapsed on his knees, and at that moment, the statue kneed him in the face, pushing his head back so far that it felt like he was flying.

“Maso, Damone! Shit!”

Arturo clicked his tongue and saw the four arms heading his way, but he quickly weaved through the barrage of attacks and then punched the statue in the chest.

CRACK!

The chest cracked slightly!

‘I damaged it!’

Arturo gritted his teeth, jumped off the ground, and delivered a roundhouse kick straight at the statue’s neck that didn’t seem to be layered with too much of the stone shell.

“Ghoul Style, Reaping of the Roundhouse!”

The statue trembled to the side, and its neck seemed to crumble apart, but it quickly regenerated back with stronger layers of stone shell than before.

“Arturo Zaccari—New Threat Level: 6.”

The statue spoke, and at its back, the stone shell cracked, and two more arms emerged. It now had eight arms, circling its head like snakes on Medusa’s head.

“You think adding more arms will help you to defeat me? I’ve studied you thoroughly, and today shall be the day that you finally fall!”

Arturo smiled as he lunged, thinking that he had finally come to a whole understanding of the Guard Angel’s true strength.

Silently, Guard Angel shot its arms forward, but Arturo weaved through them with ease and hurled his fist towards its chest.

The arms reeled back and blocked the punch, but Arturo immediately followed with a high kick, but one arm was ready and blocked it.

The free arms shot towards Arturo, forcing him to jump backward, and he quickly parried them with his elbows and forearms.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Arturo breathed heavily, but he wasn’t panicking, as he was easily able to keep up with the arms.

At that moment, a sound that he didn’t want to hear came from the statue’s direction.

CRACK… CRACK…

Four more arms emerged from its back—now it had twelve arms, and they all shot towards Arturo from all angles.

‘Twelve?!’

Arturo’s eyes widened in shock as this hadn’t happened before. It was widely thought that the maximum amount of arms it could summon was ten!

He started weaving through the swinging arms, dodging them as best as he could, but he knew that he was outnumbered and needed to come up with a plan quickly.

‘I can’t keep this up for much longer!’

Arturo thought, and at that moment, one of the arms tripped him, making him fall backwards, and at that moment, two arms came above him, falling towards him.

He quickly crossed his arms, blocked the two punches, and then fell down on the ground on his back.

When he opened his eyes again, all twelve arms fell straight down to him, and their fists were just inches away from his face.

He quickly rolled down to the side while the stone fists broke the ground where he was lying just a fraction of a second ago.

“Yeah… nope!”

Arturo jumped to his feet, grabbed Maso and Damone from their jerseys, and dragged them away while he ran straight towards the exit.

The Guard Angel stopped moving, and its extra arms retreated back to its body, the stone shell quickly covering its broken back.

It stopped moving once more, and its lively eyes turned back to the stone—it was almost like nothing had happened.

Close to the ceiling, hiding, Kiernan frowned and contemplated what he just witnessed.

‘This statue is really strong, but if they just want to access the door, why don’t the masters just come and destroy the statue? If Martial Master is allowed to put up such a good fight, Martial Kings would easily destroy it…

‘Unless the statue grows more powerful depending on who it is facing. It was saying something about threat levels. Greater threat level, stronger it will be?

‘I don’t know how you can defeat it when it will just regenerate all of its damage right away, and it can seemingly summon those arms without any limit in mind.

‘This Arthur fellow… no, it wasn’t Arthur. Something starting with A, if I heard correctly from their talks, was quite strong, honestly, and he clearly wasn’t prepared for twelve arms.

‘The surprise took him off guard, and he was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer force of the attack. If he had stayed calm, I think he could’ve survived longer.

‘I wish he would’ve so I could’ve seen more of the statue’s potential, but oh well, I might give it a try later when I feel like it.’

Kiernan walked back, using the secondary exit to leave the cave. No one else seemed to know that there was another hole in the wall of the mountain, which he used to sneak inside to his very own spectating stand.

He hopped down, planted his feet back on the ground, and started walking back with the light of the moon accompanying him.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

At that moment, a voice came ahead of him, and as Kiernan stopped walking, he saw a couple of young men come from behind some trees.

“…Great.”

Kiernan crossed his arms.

“I asked you a question—what’re you doing here, choreboy?”

Dante asked with a sharp gaze, walking alongside Gunwoo, who was eating a snack bar with a smile on his face.

“Nothing…”

Kiernan said.

“You came from Guard Angel’s cave—that place is sacred and forbidden from outsiders, like you, and especially forbidden from foreigners, like you!”

Dante shouted.

“Yes, I went there. What do you want to do about it?”

Kiernan asked.

“Heh… What am I going to do?”

Dante smirked, pulled up his sleeves, and cracked his knuckles.

“W-wait a moment, Dante, let me eat this quick!”

Gunwoo stuffed the snack bar into his mouth, swallowed it with an audible gulp, and then hopped on one spot to warm up his legs.

“…Sigh.”

Kiernan moved into his defensive stance of Iron Style, and at the same time, his aura image of a black fortress appeared behind him.

“Whoo…”

Dante moved into his striking stance, and his right fist started smoking as if it was about to turn into flames.

At the same time, his aura image of a striker, who was capable of throwing meteors, appeared behind him like a godly figure.

Gunwoo moved into his sprinting stance, and the demon on the wheels aura image appeared right next to him, its wheels smoking with rubber.

The pressures clashed with each other, and every bird escaped to the sky in fear.