As the three talked, the Female Fighters team and the Psychic Warriors team had already decided who would go first.
Then, King and Sie Kensou jumped onto the emergency-repaired ring.
"Sister King, go for it!"
Yuri cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and shouted up at King from below the ring.
"King, you've got to win the first round!" Mai Shiranui was also waving her fan to cheer King on.
King casually waved at the two women, then walked to the center of the ring, standing face-to-face with Kensou, who was still eating his steamed bun.
Speaking of which, Kensou was probably a starving ghost reincarnated in his previous life, no matter when, he always had a bun in his hand.
At this moment, after the announcer introduced the two of them, he shouted the starting command. But Kensou said to King, "Wait a sec, Miss King, let me finish eating first."
Seeing him like this, the audience around them were speechless, and even the announcer froze for a moment before finally figuring out what to say, "Mr. Kensou has truly inherited the spiritual training of his teacher, the senior master Chin Gentsai. Even in such a tense environment, he can still eat his bun with perfect calm. His future achievements will surely be limitless."
But the announcer was just making things up, and down below the ring Athena was so angry at Kensou's nonchalant attitude that she stomped her foot. "This guy Kensou is way too casual! This is a fight, how can he underestimate his opponent like this? What if he loses later?"
Chin Gentsai, on the other hand, drank a sip of alcohol with complete indifference. "Winning or losing doesn't matter, the main thing is gaining experience. Speaking of which, Kensou is actually really suited to learning drunken boxing from me. It's a pity he doesn't like drinking."
At that point, Chin Gentsai looked back at Aiden, paused for a moment, and then continued, "How's it going with Aiden? Did you manage to talk him into it?"
"It's not that easy, little junior brother is insanely stubborn," Athena said. "But it's almost junior brother's turn to fight. If he doesn't win later, I'll try again."
"That's all we can do," Chin Gentsai sighed and continued drinking.
At this moment in the ring, Kensou had stuffed the last bite of bun into his mouth, but he choked while swallowing and had to pound his chest hard before he could breathe again.
Casually wiping the oil on his hands onto the back of his pants, Kensou struck a stance like Wong Fei-hung and said to King, "Miss King, we can start now."
King had long since run out of patience. Without another word, she lifted her leg and unleashed a three-hit Snake Bite Kick, three energy projectiles formed from qi shooting toward Kensou in a triangular pattern, but Kensou countered with three Psycho Balls formed from his own psychic power.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Three explosions went off midair, the shockwaves blowing up the sand that had filled the big crater in the middle of the ring. In an instant, the entire ring was covered in dust, and both fighters' vision was obstructed at the same time.
But King had been making a living with her skills since she was a teenager; her fighting experience was much stronger than Kensou's. Whether she could see or not, she rushed into the dust cloud relying purely on instinct.
Through the hazy dust she caught Kensou's silhouette. She stomped hard on the ground and delivered a flying kick.
Kensou was still a disciple trained by a true master; his own strength and experience weren't bad. Even though he could only vaguely see a figure, he immediately reacted, crossing his arms to block in front of his chest.
But King's entire skill set was based on her legs, and this airborne kick carried enormous force. Even though Kensou had fully braced himself, he was still sent flying. But while in midair, he quickly adjusted his posture and landed steadily.
Then, with a light tap of his toes, Kensou leaped into the air and dove at King like a cannonball, starting his counterattack.
Because the dust cloud still hadn't dispersed, the audience could only see two figures moving rapidly inside it, with muffled collision sounds ringing out now and then.
Just as the spectators were staring intently, a brilliant flash suddenly appeared within the dust, and then a powerful burst of energy exploded outward, blowing the dust at the center of the ring in all directions.
It was Kensou's special move, Psyche Up.
But after using this move, Kensou immediately felt something was wrong. As the dust cleared and his vision returned, he didn't see King anywhere in front of him.
"Behind me? Or overhead?"
The thought flashed through his mind and Kensou instantly raised his crossed arms toward the top of his head.
Bang!
A heavy force bent Kensou's legs sharply. Just as he was about to shake off the leg pressing hard against his arms, he suddenly felt his arms lighten, the pressure disappeared.
But this wasn't a pleasant surprise, because in the next instant, King's toes kicked his chin, lifting his already crouched body straight up into the air…
"What a fierce leg technique. Even Kim Kaphwan might not match her mastery."
Below the ring, Chin Gentsai calmly said this after taking a drink, not caring at all that his senior disciple had been beaten.
Just as he said before, he brought his disciples here to broaden their horizons, to let them see how strong other fighters were.
"Athena, go. It's your turn."
"Yes, Master!"
Athena bowed to Chin Gentsai and headed toward the ring. As she passed by the carried-off Kensou, she gave him a glare of utter disappointment.
"Hehe…" Kensou rubbed the back of his head awkwardly on the stretcher, then somehow produced another bun and started eating…
———
Like Kensou, Athena was also a psychic fighter. But Athena's psychic power was a strange spiritual energy, one could call it telekinesis, or the power of the Phoenix.
So her way of entering the ring was unique. She pressed her palms together in front of her chest, and in the next moment, she teleported directly in front of King.
Naturally, King was startled by this special ability, and the audience and fighters below the ring all gasped in amazement.
"Instant… instant movement!"
The announcer's voice rang out at that moment.
"Who would've thought that Miss Athena, despite being a teen idol, would have such a special ability? Now Miss King is in some real trouble…"
"Tch, it's just teleportation. Big Sis can do that too."
Hearing the announcer's praise and the audience's astonished voices, Chizuru curled her lip in disdain.
"Man-turtle can do it too?" Aiden looked curiously at Maki.
With Aiden, Maki was the type to answer anything, if he wanted to know, she'd tell him.
"It's one of the abilities of the Yata Mirror." Maki took the little mirror hanging from her chest out from between her breasts and handed it directly to Aiden.
Feeling the small mirror in his hand, still warm with the temperature of a young girl's body, Aiden had no intention of looking at the mirror at all, instead, he looked straight at her chest.
And the girl blushed.
———
In the ring, after King and Athena saluted each other, the battle began.
Normally, the senior disciple of a school should be stronger than their juniors, but Athena and Kensou began training under their master around the same time, so their overall fighting strength was about equal.
But Athena's psychic powers were simply too practical in real combat, especially her teleportation. Even though there were signs before she used it, it still made King extremely annoyed to deal with.
But teleportation only annoyed her, what really gave King trouble were Athena's long-range throws and binding techniques.
Athena's psychic power could freeze King in place from more than ten meters away, or push or pull her from afar. Even though King, after powering up, could resist the control for almost a full second at longer distances, even that tiny bit of time was a lot for fighters.
So, after multiple failed attempts to get close to Athena and no solution in sight, King chose to surrender.
Next was a substitution, and Yuri Sakazaki stepped onto the stage.
But Yuri's strength was still slightly below King's. If even King couldn't deal with Athena, then Yuri definitely couldn't.
After powering up and using her Haoh Shoukouken, blowing yet another crater into the ring, she also surrendered.
With two teammates losing in a row, the women fighters' team could only place their hopes on Mai Shiranui.
Taking off her kimono, Mai jumped onto the stage amid cheers, wearing a slightly more conservative battle outfit compared to before…
"All right, no need to watch. Mai and the others aren't familiar with Athena's fighting style. Losing is inevitable." Aiden withdrew his gaze from Mai and said calmly.
Not being able to get close to your opponent was basically a nightmare for fighters who mainly relied on punches and kicks. Unless your energy was overwhelmingly stronger, or you caught Athena in the brief moments her psychic abilities had downtime, you couldn't beat her. And obviously, Athena, trained by a true master, was stronger than most.
Plus, that strange psychic power of hers was simply too strong, freezing an opponent from a distance… mm, that was pretty cool.
Most likely, after this match between the two teams, many fighters would begin studying how to break through Athena's psychic offense and defense system…
Soon after, the announcer declared the winner of the third matchup, the Psychic Warriors Team.
———
"Next, we invite the fourth matchup's teams to the stage."
As the announcer's voice sounded, Aiden and the Kagura sisters stood up at the same time.
But Aiden didn't walk toward the ring. Instead, he walked straight to Mai and her teammates.
They had just gone through a loss and needed comfort.
At the moment, Mai and the others were sitting gloomily in their seats. Seeing Aiden approach, the three women instantly looked even more aggrieved.
They all cared a lot about winning this tournament, one wanted to use this chance to gain fame and revive the Shiranui-ryu dojo, one wanted to prove herself to her father and brother, and one desperately needed money.
But just as Aiden was about to speak and comfort them, Andy rushed over as well.
Seeing Aiden, Andy frowned. "Why aren't you going to your match? What are you doing here?"
"Of course I'm here to comfort my women!" Aiden smiled. "As for the match…"
He glanced at Maki, who had teleported onto the ring, then continued, "With Maki alone, it's enough."
Andy glared at him. "You rely only on women. In the winners' bracket this afternoon, if we meet you, go up first if you have the guts."
"Sure," Aiden shrugged casually. "But when the time comes, you're going to lose miserably."
"Don't talk big." Andy jabbed a finger at him. "We'll see who loses miserably. I'll even fight you with one hand."
"If you're going to say it like that, tsk, then let me tell you something too, if I can't beat you in one move, we'll surrender," Aiden pointed at the Kagura sisters.
"Our whole team will surrender and hand you the spot in the finals."
Hearing that, Mai quickly spoke up, "Aiden..."
"Mai, trust me." Aiden cut her off.
"But…"
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.