Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 416

Chapter 416: Wrestler vs. Kicker
With the two dojo masters appearing in front of the temple priest, he rolled the coin in the back of his hand, moving it with his knuckles across his skin.

“Since Master Sifu chose first. It’s your turn, Master Arakawa.”

The temple priest said.

“I’ll choose heads.”

Master Arakawa said in a serious tone.

With a toss, the coin reached high in the air and then came back down, spinning rapidly, and eventually landed on the temple priest’s hand.

It landed on tails.

“Tails. Master Arakawa will choose his fighter first.”

The temple priest said and pocketed the coin.

With a nod, Master Arakawa returned back to his seating area and looked at every fighter of his.

Everyone returned the gaze with a mix of excitement and nervousness.

It was difficult to start as the first fighter, as whoever won first had momentum on their side, but now that they lost, being the second fighter was equally bad if not worse.

No one wanted to be participating second, because if they lost, they would be down by two, and they would make it harder to come back and win the match.

“Jun Taesoo. It is your turn.”

Master Arakawa said.

The fair-faced young man stood up, nodded softly, and entered the battle sand, trying to hide the displeasure from coming to his face.

‘I can’t lose now!’

Jun Taesoo stopped at the middle of the battle sand and gazed towards Ghoul Dojo’s area, wondering who they would send to be his opponent.

“You can do it, Jun!”

Cheers reached his ears, but they didn’t improve his mood and made his heart beat even stronger against his chest.

“…”

Master Sifu pondered for a moment and moved his gaze across his chosen warriors until his gaze landed on a buzz-cut-haired young man.

“Kourosh. Your turn.”

Kourosh jumped to his feet, stepped into the battle sand, and with a cheek-growing smile, he approached the center of the battle sand.

It didn’t look like he was nervous, but instead he seemed to enjoy the pressure of tournament.

“Kourosh Bahrami vs. Jun Taesoo!”

The temple priest said, and with the sound of a gong going off in the background, he waved his arm down.

“FIGHT!”

Jun shifted the position of his feet on the sand and felt its coarse texture beneath his bare feet, but despite its unbalanced nature, it didn’t seem to bother him.

‘We’ve been practicing for the tournament our whole martial arts career. It doesn’t matter if we’re fighting on sand because we’ve trained for all types of terrain!’

Jun jerked his leg forward and threw his front kick straight towards Kourosh, but Kourosh seemed prepared for it as he crossed his arms in front of his body to tank the kick.

However, at that moment, Jun pivoted his hip outward, turning the kick into a snapping side kick that caught Kourosh off guard.

“Yokai Style, Karakasa Geri!”

It headed towards his neck, but Kourosh managed to dodge it at the last second by ducking down, and then he lunged forward into a tackle aimed at Jun’s midsection.

‘Jun specializes in Yokai Style’s kicking style, which is why I chose Kourosh as his opponent, as he has mastered the art of wrestling!’

Kourosh wrapped his muscular arms around Jun’s thin waist, lifted him high up, and then slammed him down onto the ground with a powerful body slam.

THWACK!

“Urgh!”

Jun coughed out blood, with his vision blanking for a moment as all air left his lungs.

Kourosh slowly stood up, his back cracking in satisfaction, and then he turned his gaze back down to Jun.

He formed a fist with his right hand and launched it at Jun’s face with full force, but at that moment, Jun swiped his feet out from under him, causing Kourosh to stumble and fall to the ground.

With a backflip, Jun rose back to his feet, and as Kourosh raised his head to match his gaze, he lunged forward and kneed him in the face.

“Yokai Style, Oni Knee!”

Kourosh’s head got blown back, but with just a nosebleed, he stumbled back to his feet and raised his arms to return to his fighting stance.

“Ptui!”

With a spat of blood, he growled angrily.

‘I know that Ghoul Dojo’s spies have gathered information about every student of mine, which is why I told everyone to keep some of their moves hidden and never show them. Not even to me.

‘Which is why even I don’t know the real true potential of all my students.’

Master Arakawa thought to himself.

They also knew an equal amount about Ghoul Dojo’s fighters, and he had already told every fighter of his everything to know about their fighters.

Jun knew that Kourosh specialized in wrestling, which was an oddity in Ghoul Dojo, because most of their fighters focused on striking techniques.

He knew that Kourosh would go for a tackle, and that’s why he left himself very open. It was a risk he was willing to take, as he wanted to compete in grappling.

Grappling was his trump card, and it was something he had never shown anyone. To everyone, it just seemed like he was just a kicking specialist.

However, strangely enough, Kourosh didn’t want to mount him and go for grappling. Instead, opted for striking.

Thus, he had to change his plan, but it worked nonetheless.

“You wanted to grapple, huh? It was pretty obvious, as you’re a skilled kicker, and you left yourself so open. It was clear that there was something you wanted to do on the ground.

“Do not underestimate my intelligence just because I am a wrestler.”

Kourosh said with a cold tone.

“Haha… Noted.”

Jun chuckled awkwardly, and he thought to himself that it was quite obvious what he was doing, but still, he did a faint kick, and he thought it would be enough to sway Kourosh’s thought process.

In the end, it didn’t really work, as that kick itself was pretty obvious, despite the feint, and a skilled kicker would never leave them so open.

Especially knowing that their opponent was a wrestler!