The four attacks simultaneously collided with Zayn. Through their joint force a sight-stealing smoke screen out of dust formed around them. The crowd could not see anything at all. Everyone was wondering, if Zayn survived these attacks or if he was severely damaged. But immediately after the smoke screen appeared, a scream could be heard.
Vown and Ryu noticed that it was not Zayn's voice who screamed. After the first scream three other screams were heard. These screams were screams of pain and one could clearly hear the pain in their voice. A few seconds after the screams could be heard, they stopped. Only silence could be heard. The crowd was wondering what on earth happened for them to scream like that and why the hell did they stop.
The smoke screen dissipated a short while after the screams stopped and one could clearly see Zayn standing there, untouched by anything. He looked towards the four students and was confused as to why they were lying on the floor.
Zayn himself did not know why the four screamed in pain. Shortly after their attacks connected and collided with Zayn, they started to scream. Even though Zayn was hit by all four of them, he only felt a slight pain. The pain was nothing to mention at all, as it was even weaker than stomach pain. He nervously looked around and could not comprehend the situation.
The crowd finally noticed the four students. They were lying on the floor, unconscious.
"Look! Their arms!" Someone in the crowd noticed something and pointed it out.
The crowd focused on the four's arms and were shocked by the sight. Everyone drew in a breath of air and tried to process the sight.
Their arms were crumbled. Blood spewed out of it and bones could be seen. The bones were shattered and not complete at all. The crowd understood now why they heard the pain in their voice.
How could this happen?
Everyone slowly retracted their attention back to Zayn and noticed that he did not suffer any damage. All of them were shocked and frightened by this feat. He was clearly on the receiving end and could not dodge their attacks, but a few breaths after the attack, he switched places from prey to predator. What in hell's name did this boy do to them? How could there be someone diabolical like that?
Even though the four students destroyed their arms, Zayn still did not break any rule in the tournament. The tournament only really forbade killing. But obviously, they had to stop the tournament first and transport those four out of the arena to the academy doctor.
Zayn himself was bewildered. He really did nothing. He swore on his mother's name that he only defended himself, he did not attack at all. Trying to look for help he looked towards Vown. But Vown only gave him a shocked but also disappointed glance. He tried to convey to Zayn that his actions were immoral and cruel. That Zayn was a monster. Zayn, discouraged, looked then towards Ryu, but he received the same reaction as Vown's from Ryu.
In reality, many noticed that Zayn did not do anything at all. The teachers, including Vown, and many seniors could see past the smoke screen with their cultivation and see and feel what was happening inside there. Even Ryu could clearly see what happened. But the crowd mostly consisted of first graders and they could not see through the smoke screens or feel the fight with their qi.
Vown and Ryu were just trying to mess with Zayn. In the Royal Blue World, injuries and even death are really far too common. There was a saying in the Royal Blue World that if a cultivator was not injured at least once in his life then he was not cultivating at all. As the cultivation centers around qi and the body, it is far too normal to receive injuries. Injuries are perceived as a form of growth in this world. Receiving injuries, you can then learn and understand the reason behind that and grow from that.
The match was postponed for a few minutes, to clean up the blood and transport the four out of here. Zayn used the time to rush to Vown and Ryu and try to explain himself. Before he could start to say anything both of them told him that they knew what happened. They told him that they were just messing with him. Zayn was a bit enraged at first but then got extremely happy. He came in this world so far, that he had people that would mess with him and joke with him. Even though their sense of humor was a bit… extreme. The academy felt more and more like a home.
"Zayn, your body is insane! You sure are a freak!" Everyone that saw really what happened concluded that Zayn's body was tougher than normal. It really puzzled them how a 3-Star Body Refinement Cultivator could have a body that could easily withstand a full head-on attack from four other 3-Star Body Refinement Cultivators, not only withstanding it, also damaging them severely through their own attack. This piqued the interest towards Zayn of the ones who saw what happened
Vown knew of Zayn's strength. He saw it himself when he tested him with the strength pillar. Everyone thought that Zayn only had a tough body, but if they knew of the fact that Zayn was able to jump half a realm to fight against others, they all would lose their shit.
Zayn, Vown, and Ryu started talking about the incident while they were waiting to restart the round. After a while, the whole arena got cleaned up and the four students were transported to the doctor.
Zayn once again entered the arena and only had to fight against one other to advance into the Eight-Finals. The other student really underestimated Zayn at the beginning, he was not even looking over to Zayn and completely disregarded him.
"I have to say, you will be a worthy opponent against me, but don't think that you can win!" Saying that the other student immediately started to attack Zayn.
"Listen, kid, this grasshopper in front of you isn't an opponent for you with his lousy 3-Star Body Refinement Realm Cultivation. But, if you want to win this tournament, I recommend that you use, or better put, abuse every fight possible. You could easily finish him off, but this wouldn't give you much battle experience. So, follow my instructions and only do the things I tell you to do. With this, I will give you a crash course in fighting."
The Infinite Star was surprised when he saw Zayn's ambitious side, it was a good kind of surprise for him. The last thing the Infinite Star wanted was to be bounded to a lazy kid without any real goals. He himself had many goals where he needed the help of his bounded cultivator to achieve them, so he thought if he was going to fulfill Zayn's goal first, he could convince Zayn easier to help him.
"First off, try to dodge every attack of him. While dodging try to feel and read his attacks."
When Zayn heard the instruction he directly complied. At first, Zayn was a bit uncertain about his performance in a real fight. While watching the previous fights he saw really fast movements and complicated fighting styles that only left him baffled.
But right now, when the fist came flying over to Zayn, the movement seemed really slow, easily dodgeable. And he only stepped a few steps away, dodging the attack. Then another fist came flying over to Zayn and another. Zayn just dodged them all.
He understood what the Infinite Star meant with reading the attack and he was trying to do that right now, but he could not understand the meaning behind feeling the attack.
The crowd was excited. The fight showcased Zayn's ability. He clearly had the upper hand in this fight, easily dodging the attacks. The crowd knew that Zayn would emerge victorious after the fight. When Zayn just continued dodging every attack, the crowd burst into laughter. They thought that Zayn was ridiculing the other student and displaying his superiority. But the dodging only continued. And continued. And continued…
The crowd was speechless. What was the boy trying to accomplish with only dodging? Many came up with the idea that Zayn wanted his opponent to give up. But why would he want that?
.
"Good! You are now able to read attacks a bit. Let's continue. Try to intercept his attacks! Also, hold back with your strength or else you will destroy his body."
After a while of dodging Zayn figured out how to read attacks. Even though he learned only a small fragment of it, it was still a huge improvement in Zayn's fighting capabilities.
The next attack came flying and this time Zayn did not dodge. He knew from where the attack was coming and where it was going to. So, he started to intercept his attack. Every time the other student was attacking, Zayn himself was countering with his fist and intercepting him with that.
The nearly sleeping crowd woke up. They saw Zayn also attacking him and got excited. Zayn's attacks connected with the student's attack and intercepted his attack. Everyone thought that now was the time to finish the fight up, but they continued with this kind of fight. Everyone just wanted this round to end. They wondered why the other student did not give up at all. His opponent obviously toyed with him. First off only dodging and now intercepting. Always intercepting. Always.