"I didn't know whales could talk! If you would lose a bit of weight, maybe you would be able to hit me!" The corpse-like boy said to his opponent.
Everyone was amazed by this kind of development. No one really knew much about the corpse-like boy, only that his name was Kayn. He was also the only 6-Star Body Refinement Realm Cultivator in the first grade, who wasn't imposing. He only used the minimal amount of prowess to pass the appliance test. And after that, he disappeared.
The crowd immediately looked over to Zayn. Staring him down in the process. The sentence was identical to Zayn's previous trash talk. Did they know each other? Was the tournament some kind of joke to both of them?
The stares didn't go unnoticed by Zayn. Even Vown and Ryu stared him down. Zayn felt uncomfortable in that kind of situation. He himself was puzzled about the development. What was wrong with that corpse boy? Why was he acting that strange? What's his goal?!?
"I don't have anything to do with that, ok?"
Vown and Ryu stopped staring at Zayn after his response, they focused back on the fight. The others didn't believe Zayn at all, but they also shifted back to the arena.
Kayn was patiently waiting for a reaction. The opponent, however, didn't respond at all. He was confused. The fight was getting crazier and crazier by the minute. Should he just give up? Stop this madness?
'No! Even if my winning chance is 1%, it's not 0!' He affirmed himself back to fight. If he would lose, he would lose, but if he didn't give everything he had in him then he would never achieve greatness.
"Attack me..." Kayn was fueling oil into his opponents fighting fire. "Now." His voice was still lazy and lifeless. Only his eyes were permitting some kind of life sign.
After reaffirming himself, he was ready to continue the fight against Kayn. He rushed forward and executed a punch. The punch flew towards Kayn. It drew nearer and nearer. Kayn saw the fist coming at him and only gazed it down.
His fist being so close to Kayn's face excited him. Only a few millimeters and the punch would connect. 'I knew it! I can do it. I only need to give my best!'
The punch reaching so close to Kayn was an unexpected event in the fight. Still, the crowd awaited the end of it. They believed in Kayn's superior cultivation.
And, if one didn't see that coming, Kayn easily dodged the attack in the last breath. But his approach to dodging the attack left many bewildered.
The opponent himself didn't comprehend the situation. He saw his fist connecting to Kayn's face, but then Kayn just turned into air. His attack flew into the nothingness, the empty air. Kayn just vanished. He looked left and right but couldn't find Kayn. Did he really just disappear?
The crowd, on the other hand, saw clearly what happened. But that also was out of the ordinary. Simply put, Kayn dodged the attack and everyone saw that. But this time he didn't dodge like the previous time, instead, he used real footwork, possibly a Movement Art.
His speed was really fast for the Body Refinement Realm. In the opponent's eye, Kayn just vanished. This lied in the fact that the opponent was really focused on his own attack. He was so sure that his attack would connect, that he didn't think of the Kayn's movement. It also lied in Kayn's incredible speed, but if one would have paid attention one would have seen Kayn move.
Kayn was directly behind his opponent. His eyes stopped emitting any life signs and were replaced by coldness. He stared down on his opponent and seemed really unsatisfied. This stare left even many in the crowd in shudder. Even though, they weren't directly stared down at.
"Kid, did you see his movements? You need to learn as much as possible from this fight. If you learn about his movements, it will become a huge benefit in your fight against him. If only he had a stronger opponent, then we could have seen far more than only a glimpse of his movement. But the opponent was at least able to show his killi-... Kid? Kid?!?" The Infinite Star reminded Zayn but was completely ignored by Zayn.
"Are you serious right now?!? I thought you wanted to defeat that flame kid. With that kind of attitude, you can't even come close..."
Lecturing Zayn, the Infinite Star noticed something off about Zayn's gaze.
"Wait a minute... This is the Zero Heart Realm... Heh, he is analyzing it right now. I wonder how much he got from that one movement..."
Back on the arena, Kayn was still staring his opponent down. At first, his opponent didn't notice Kayn, but he then turned around and saw Kayn standing there. Immediately after seeing Kayn, it got cold around him, he started to shake. He got frightened. Each second passing got worse than the one before.
"Wrong..." Kayn's lifeless voice ringed again in his opponent's head. His cold gaze disappeared and everyone affected by it regained their composure. He began to stare towards the ground.
"wrong, wrong, wrong..."
"i don't know how he did it... it seemed fun... why won't it work... why?... did i do something wrong? ... he started with that sentence... i did the same thing... am i the problem?... no, i did everything right... it's not me who is the problem... it's..."
While Kayn was monologuing, his opponent also held a monologue in his mind. He was at first confused about Kayn's gaze, how it affected him and many others in the crowd. What was that, to easily frighten him and many in the crowd. His opponent this time sure was weird.
After frightening him with a gaze, he didn't even attempt to use it and attack him. And immediately afterward he stopped his gaze, started to stare at the ground and was whispering to himself.
In a way, he could abuse Kayn's monologue and launch a surprise attack on him. This could ensure his victory in this round. Kayn's concentration seemed really sloppy, it was definitely possible. But he couldn't do that.
First of all, he had a fragment of fear still inside him. The gaze was directly aimed at him and was a really terrifying experience. Even though he thought, that he had well built mental strength, he still couldn't take it that easily.
Second of all, and more importantly, he had his pride. He could overcome his fear, only if Kayn didn't start his gaze again, but he was able to attack him. He knew that the gaze was too strong and that he wasn't able to overcome it, but without it would be possible to launch a surprise attack. The thing that really stopped him was his pride. For him, such a surprise attack was only the coward's game. He wanted to win fair and square, even if his winning chance was nearly non-existent. He thought of himself as a righteous person and would only act accordingly, so he only played with the thought of launching a surprise attack.
"It's YOUR fault!" Again Kayn voiced out some nonsense. This time however it was voiced with a hint of life and anger.
This startled Kayn's opponent. He was now sure of it, Kayn was a nutcase. Only spitting out nonsense. He didn't take Kayn's word seriously. He just brushed them off again.
What he didn't expect was Kayn's charge. It was far too fast for him to react to it. In a flash, he appeared in front of him. Kayn's fist came directly flying towards him. Nearly everyone in the crowd, and also his opponent, only saw a blurry flash connecting to Kayn's opponent. Only those at a higher cultivation than Kayn saw the movement. The higher their cultivation, the clearer they saw the fist. That was nothing out of the ordinary, as a cultivator at a higher realm was stronger in every regard than those at a lower realm. Even having better reactions and better senses. This only showed once more that normally the cultivation stage of a cultivator displays his also his battle compress.
But of course, there was an exception. Zayn, having a lower cultivation than Kayn, also saw the attack. Not only that he saw it pretty clearly. In his Zero Heart State, he even began to analyze the attack.
Kayn's opponent really didn't have any time to react at all. The only thing he was able to do was to form a thought.
'Too Fast...'
The punch itself didn't harbour Kayn's full power. His full power was likely to cripple his opponent, as in Flint's case.
*BOOM*
Everyone tried to track the young boy, after Kayn's punch. The sound was really loud, so the crowd thought that he would be flying quite far, but nothing came out of the smokescreen. Questions and Confusement arose.
After the smokescreen cleared out, they saw the boy lying on the ground. He was lying on his original position when he received the attack. He only fell down.
Those youngsters and the unknowledgeable didn't comprehend the situation. Why was he lying exactly there? Why didn't the force of the punch sent him flying far away?
Kayn couldn't care less about their puzzlement. After the smokescreen dissipated, he only stared at Zayn, who was now out of the Zero Heart Realm, for a few breaths and then left the arena, which left Zayn in bewilderment.
With this fight, Kayn's reputation soared to new heights. Everyone agreed that the final fight of this tournament was Flint against Kayn. They were really excited to see more of Kayn's prowess.
Kayn was obviously declared the winner of this round and with that, the next fight was announced.
Zayn's next fight.