Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 434

Chapter 434: The Only Weakness
Within a dimly lit room, the recording of yesterday’s match played on the white wall.

Already released from the infirmary, Gunwoo and the rest arrived this morning to watch the recording.

However, the more they watched, the more one question happened to come to their mind.

How the hell are they supposed to beat them?

“And that’s the end of it.”

Master Arakawa ended the recording and shut down the projector.

A silence enveloped the room as it was a surprisingly short recording, as the matches just happened to end so quickly.

Kitsune Dojo didn’t stand a chance.

“So, we only have information on four of their fighters, and not even much of that since the fights so ended. It is clear that they were keeping their strength hidden still.”

Gunwoo said with a sigh.

“Correct, but it is still better than nothing. Wraith Dojo has been a closed-door dojo for the last year, meaning that everything about their strengths is still secret.

“We only know the names of their fighters, and even that is worthless knowledge, as they all used to be weak.”

Master Arakawa said.

At that moment, Fiona raised her arm high.

“Yes, Fiona?”

“I couldn’t help but notice that every other student in Wraith Dojo seems very… unenthusiastic. It’s almost like they don’t care about the festival!”

Everyone else also noticed that, and they nodded thoughtfully.

“…”

Master Arakawa turned silent, let out a short sigh, and then said.

“I believe they’re suffering from Overtraining.”

It was an unknown term to them, and they all tilted their heads with puzzled expressions on their faces.

“Overtraining means that they’ve been training far too much.”

Goto Yori said.

“How can you train too much? The more you train, the stronger you’ll be, no?”

Ren asked.

“I am not talking about ordinary training. I am talking about training the martial soul. If you push too much on a daily basis, trying to break through the bottlenecks of the martial soul, you’re in danger of damaging it.

“I believe that’s what’s happening with most of those students.

“They’ve been forced to try to advance through the martial ranks, and they accidentally damaged their martial souls in the process.

“Thus, since they’ve pushed martial soul too much, it can have some side effects, such as being unable to feel happiness or joy in their daily lives.”

Master Arakawa said.

Everyone gasped in surprise, as that sounded horrible, but now they understood why they weren’t told to constantly push for advancement.

“Their fighters don’t seem to be suffering from that.”

Fiona said.

“It looks like they managed to advance through martial ranks before their martial souls got damaged. Thus, these seven fighters are the most talented ones they have.

“Overtraining is also a great way to find out the most talented ones from the bunch. Those with talent won’t have as much problem advancing through the ranks.

“I think that was Master Raju’s plan from the start—a shortcut basically to find the seven fighters on whom he should put all his focus while ignoring the talentless ones.”

Master Arakawa said.

“That’s so… evil, though. I don’t understand how he could sacrifice the martial arts career of so many just for momentary glory in the festival.”

Aoi said with a frown.

“I think after last year’s humiliation in the festival, something snapped inside Master Raju’s brain, as he used to be a very respected master.

“Now, he cares only about winning, and he’ll go to any length to do so.”

Master Arakawa said.

“Can you show the recording again? I think I noticed something interesting.”

Kiernan suddenly said.

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise and then watched as Master Arakawa turned on the projector once again.

“What are we looking at?”

Master Arakawa asked as he looked at the frozen image of the recording.

It was showing two people fighting in the sand, but the angle was good enough to show the entire seating area of Wraith Dojo.

“Here.”

Kiernan stood up and pointed at a person sitting in the front row of Wraith Dojo’s area. It was one of the fighters who didn’t fight against Kitsune Dojo.

“That’s Maximilian Gruber—I think he is their ultimate ace, as from what we’ve gathered, he has reached High Stage Martial Master rank.”

Master Arakawa said with a serious look.

When others heard that, they exclaimed.

“High Stage?!”

“How the hell did he achieve that?”

“Their other fighters are already strong, but their ace is also High Stage ranked? That’s an insanely stacked line-up!”

Master Arakawa raised his hand to make them stop talking and then turned to Kiernan to ask.

“What is the interesting thing you found?”

“This person… is also suffering from a state of Overtraining.”

Kiernan said as he tapped Maximilian’s face in the recording.

“Ah?”

They all moved closer and saw Maximilian just sitting with an expressionless face, but it was hard to tell whether he was really suffering from Overtraining.

“Are you sure? He is one of the chosen seven fighters. If he reached High Stage, I doubt his martial soul would be damaged.”

Gunwoo said.

“Gunwoo is correct—maybe Maximilian is just a very… joyless-looking guy?”

Dante said.

“Nope. I kept my eye on him for the whole duration of the recording, and he has definitely Overtrained himself.”

Kiernan said with a smile.

“Uh… even if he is, so what? He is a High Stage Martial Master!”

Jun asked.

“It means that if he is Overtrained, his martial soul is in a fragile state. If you force him to push himself, forcing him to use more power from his martial soul, it will be in danger of being more damaged or even destroyed.”

Master Arakawa said and crossed his arms.

“This might be the only weakness I can notice in Wraith Dojo.”

“Easier said than done, no? Who could possibly force Maximilian to use more power from martial soul than necessary?”

Dante asked.

“I can do it.”

Kiernan said as he scratched his chin.

“You’re insane! You’re only a Low Stage Martial Master! Do you have any idea how vast the gap between you two is?”

Dante asked.

“Kiernan. It might seem that since you two are Martial Masters, the gap is not big, but it actually is a bigger gap than between Martial Fighter and Martial Master!

“The gap gets bigger and bigger the higher martial arts rank you achieve.”

Gunwoo said.

“I am well aware of that fact. Do not worry, I do have a pretty good plan.”

Kiernan said with a smirk.