"Match, Start!"
The moment the match started, Jake found himself facing Cheyenne, who had begun closing the gap between them.
Jake blank stared at her, 'It seemed that she has also employed a tactic.'
He went into stance and blitzed in a lightning speed at her, trying to cut her off her pace.
The two met and caused a shockwave that instantly created a crate in the middle of the stage.
The shockwave went further to blow the crowd deep into their seats, but stopped at that, due to a lack of further momentum.
When the scared crowd opened their eyes, they saw what actually caused the shockwaves.
It was the clash between Jake's bracers and Cheyenne's light spear.
Jake distanced himself after the attack.
He had gone a full one hundred and twenty percent(120%) there just to negate Cheyenne's force.
Despite, his new bracers absorbing the impact, his arms still vibrated rigorously.
That was just how strong Cheyenne's full strength was.
Jake didn't standstill. He zoomed behind Cheyenne and landed a dropkick, but the attack didn't meet.
Instead, Cheyenne blocked it with her spear and took a shot at him.
Her spear snaked its way to Jake's chest and missed it.
She thought something was off with her aim, but later realized that Jake was not more in front of her.
Following her instinct, she channeled her [Wind Element] and rampantly blew it in every direction, blasting away Jake who had managed to sneak up on her.
Jake fell on the stage, he waited for Cheyenne to land her attack on him, but Cheyenne never came.
When he stood up, he saw his opponent charging her energy. Without no one telling him, he knew that she was preparing an attack.
So, Jake followed suit.
He murmured to himself, "200%."
Infusing all his energy in his body, his lean muscles, while hiding in his clothes, became more outlined and firmer.
Swiftly, he entered a special stance and readied himself for his opponents.
After Cheyenne was done, she murmured the familiar words, "[Sky Mortal]!"
The colorless winds descended on her body, and once again, Cheyenne showed her full strength to the world.
She took all the eyes of the crowd as she dashed as fast as lightning to her opponent, but Jake already predicted that and did the same.
The action from the two seemed to be a carbon copy of the previous one but heightened by an insanely larger scale.
*Boom* *Boom*
Soundwaves were generated as Jake got closer to Cheyenne. Previously, he had learned how to control the soundwaves, but couldn't do the same for his two hundred percent(200%) speed.
The closer and closer he got to Cheyenne, the more he realized that she was just a little bit slower than him at her full speed.
However, all of that didn't matter as he had devised a plan against her.
When the two met and Cheyenne's tornado-like wind pierced his face, Jake wasted no time, in fear of Cheyenne's incredible reflex, and did something strange.
He converted his speed and threw out a punch with his already-built momentum.
The punch went as he planned and hit Cheyenne's stomach, but it did not do any damage to her.
It was exactly as Jake planned, which made him smile inwardly.
In the next moment, Jake withdrew back his right fist, and Cheyenne's body stuck to it, following his right fist back.
Before Cheyenne could react to this "sorcery", Jake transferred his momentum to his left fist and mercilessly punched her in the guts.
His right fist got free, but this time, it was his left fist that stuck to Cheyenne's bleeding stomach.
Following the routine, Jake withdrew his left fist, transferred his momentum to his right fist, and blew Cheyenne's guts again.
He repeated this strange technique over and over again until he got weak and Cheyenne used her hand to mysteriously catapult Jake away.
Afterward, Cheyenne fell on her knees and clutched her stomach.
Only she knew the strength behind Jake's punches, but the crowd could catch a glimpse of that by spotting the sight of blood Cheyenne continuously coughed out from her mouth and stomach.
With Cheyenne badly beaten up, Jake knew it was his chance to end the match, but he was too weak currently and focused on recharging his [Spirit Droplets].
It couldn't be helped as what he did was overly taxing to the body and required a lot of [Spirit Essence] to keep up the momentum.
What Jake did was something he had learned in his previous world, but rarely did.
It was an unnamed technique that required the user to have attained a very fast speed.
The technique focused on the user manipulating the momentary friction that occurs when a punch contacts an object.
The said friction is so fast that it disappears almost instantly. So, what the user had to do was, with his speed, grab the friction and forcefully drag it back, making the user's fist stick with the object.
Then, the user would need to convert the momentum of the first punch and transfer it to his/her other hand for an attack.
This would force the target to absorb the attack as the target would be stuck to the user's other hand, thereby prohibited from being punched away.
After a load of attacks, the target would eventually fail to absorb the attack and would be overloaded with a ton of attacks which would utterly devastate the target.
This was astonishingly hard to execute, especially when the target was a cultivator.
However, Jake possessed all the required attributes. Also, he had extensive knowledge, due to his [Sword Drawing Technique], on how to convert speed and momentum.
Still, the unnamed technique was not without its fault.
The revised version which Jake made to adapt to the body of cultivators required a massive energy reserve.
It also puts a strain on the body.
Yet, Jake had to say that, looking at Cheyenne, the gains surpassed the loss.
After minutes of recharging his energy, Jake attempted to finish the match as Cheyenne was still in tremendous pain, but was stopped in his path.
He found it hard to move his body. Every of his body parts wouldn't listen to his command, as if he was paralyzed.
Focusing on his opponent, he knew why he was experiencing something this strange.
His eyes glinted as he thought, 'It is her. That strange technique she used to win against Jaya.'
'Hmmmmm…..this can be taken care of,' Jake thought.
He closed his eyes to confirm his previous guess, 'I'm right. This is gravity manipulation. It is very weak, but enough to hold me down, while she takes care of her body.'
'Interesting! It is quite easy to take care of this, I just need to go faster and break the chains of gravity.'
'Normally, this would be impossible, but since this "gravity bind" is quite weak, but efficient enough to manipulate my body, I can do it,' analyzed Jake.
He murmured to the deepest part of himself, "1000%!"
His bones started to break, but he ignored it and bet everything on his current attack.
Jake disappeared into a blur that raced to Cheyenne in no time.
He was about to punch through her when he was stopped again in his tracks.
He checked his opponent again and saw an extremely high amount of [Elemental Spirit Essence] dancing around her body.
Instantly, he recognized the phenomenon. It was that of a [Realm-2]!
Jake now knew why he felt that Cheyenne was not giving it her all. It turned out that she had long achieved [Realm-2].
Jake didn't give in to surprise but instead focused on Cheyenne's outward hand that pointed at him.
He was able to figure out that Cheyenne used all her energy to stop him, despite his speed.
She pointed her finger down and Jake fell like an egg on a rock, breaking his bones in the course of action.
Jake drained his remaining energy and escaped from the bind.
However, he didn't attack Cheyenne but distanced himself away from her.
He looked at the referee and voiced out without an ounce of emotion, "I forfeit!"
After his declaration he left the stage, putting his bones back to their normal place with each step.
He was not sad at all, rather, he knew it was not worth it to continue as the outcome became hazier and hazier.
"Match, End. Cheyenne Aztec - Fifteen Points(15). Jake - Twelve Points(12)."
"Joshua Vargas, freeroll - Three Points(3)"
The referee continued, "Silence. Dean Forst and Jaya, wherever you are, should come to the stage."
He waited a while after Cheyenne had left, and Jaya and Dean had arrived looking totally healed up.
He spoke to them, "You have an option to fight to ascertain your ranks. Or to share your rewards with each other, anyhow you want. Pick one."
The two glanced at each other and spoke in unison, "the first choice. We will prefer to fight it out."
"Ok."
The referee smiled and announced, "Match, Start!"
The two opponents quickly began an intense battle, but due to the battered state of the stage, they couldn't navigate well.
After ten minutes of dished attacks, the battle got to its peak state and the two began to sweat profusely.
They seemed to be equal in strength, despite not being equal in cultivation base, but in a genius-like manner, Jaya creatively utilized her [Moon Ray] technique and defeated Dean.
Afterward, she was crowned as the winner, and the ranks were finally announced.
"First - Cheyenne Aztec
Second - Jake
Third - Jaya
Fourth - Dean Forst
Fifth - Joshua Vargas."