As Joey walked into the Martial Arts Center the Air condition hit his body and filled him with a sense of relief, he was so used to the sun burning his skin that he never realized himself baking.
Inside the Martial Arts Center, there were several stages placed throughout the building and many were sparring. The air in the Martial Arts Center was disruptive and a strong breeze zipped and the occasional loud bangs from Martial Artists sparring.
Most of the stages had people around them cheering and people around the corner shouting at the fighter while others were more relaxed and looked like they just wanted to fight. The continuous shouting and windblown from each attack made the atmosphere disruptive.
"Do you thinking Conroe can beat Oricon? "
"Conroe's superpower compliments his hammer, I think he has a small chance to win against Orion"
"No one can beat Oricon. He focuses on Lance Martial Arts, he can keep up with Conroe's hammer any day of the week; strength isn't everything "
"Conroe is able to adapt, so it will be interesting to see who wins the fight."
"I bet 13,000$ on Oricon smashing his head in the first 10 minutes of this Afterlife"
As Joey was looking around he heard some people talking about something that caught his ears, he wasn't able to find who was talking about it due to the sheer amount of people walking around. He gave up and started looking for a book to study Marital Arts.
The walls were stacked with a different type of martial arts and they were divided into different categories for each type: Combat Martial Arts, Weapons Martial Arts and Powered Martial Arts. They were all ranks at Beginner Intermediate and Advanced Tier Martial Arts.
"Huh?!"
Joey looked at the prices and he cried out in disbelief. The lowest pricing Martial Arts book was 10,000$ and this was for the lowest tier of Combat Martial Arts.
Are the combat martial arts really soo good? Why would they price it this high? Joey only had 417$ in his pocket and was years away from affording this. The books were locked and he wasn't able to open them.
Joey was sick and tired of how everything was hard for him then he walked over to the lady at one of the counters. Can I have a look inside this book?"
She moved slowly like she was mimicking a sloth. She had pitch-black circles under her eye although you couldn't tell how old but she was definitely up in age. She looked at the book in Joey's hand a typed in something in the register.
"10,400"
Joey's face went black when he heard that the price was even higher, He looked down at her name tag and smirked, "Ok Ms Twocock can I at least borrow it for a while? I just need to scroll through".
Joey coughed over his laughter and covered his smirk with his hand.
The lady's face turned ugly because of the comical insinuation made at her last name, "This ain't no library kid it's a Martial Arts Center, these are the best martial arts here either buy them or get out!". Ms Twocock Slammed the table in anger.
Joey started dying of laughter and found himself weak on the knees slamming the table, his eyes were watering. He finally kept his chuckling down and tried to remember who he was "I'm sorry, I'm sorry is there any way I can lease one?".
Ms Twocock's mood was sour and she naturally wasn't going to be friendly with Joey. She never got too emotional because attacking a customer was against Martial Creed, she squeezed her knuckle to calm her anger and scowled with a poisonous tone, "Get lost brat!"
Joey looked at her and could see that she was angry and didn't trouble her any more and quickly left. He walked over to another cashier and was met with the same disappointment, Martial book had to be paid in full.
Joey felt depressed, how could he do anything with no martial arts skills?. As Joey was thinking about what to do a scary fight broke out, On the stage, two men were fighting with very different styles.
One man was a burly middle-aged clad in a black combat suit with had a long handle axe that was wrapped in the earth from the ground, He swung the axe with a war cry and cleaved it toward his opponent.
His opponent stood still and waited for the attack to come closer, he looked to be in his 20's and wore a headband in a combat suit his own. He had a thin sabre that glowed bright red, his slashes were fast like a phantom. He countered the man's attack and kicked up a gale storm.
The fight began to develop a crowd of people shouted bets and gambling money.
"I got 3 grand on that pretty boy"
"That brats gonna get his head chopped off, 6 grand on that big guy!"
"Mason is gonna get scouted by the Skyfall Military Base. No doubting it!"
"Give your money here and let's wait and see"
Joey heard gambles being shouted around the stage while the two men were fighting teeth and nail. The ground shook with vibrations as he watched the two men fighting with styles benjamin have never seen before, he found himself immersed in the fight.
He watched the blonde-haired man with the sabre as he threw out a flurry of attack, his opponent slammed his long axe to the ground summoned the earth from the ground. The earth moved like fire and rose from the ground in an instant, the dirt and debris formed into a mucky brown shield.
Boom!
As the hot red sabre slammed into the dirt shield, everyone defended themselves from the hot rock that blew of the stage. Everyone had their own means of blocking the attack but Joey could only shamelessly hide behind someone.
"Watch it brat!"
After he was shunned by the person he stood behind, he watched the men on stage fight. Their weapons sounded like boom boxes and their punches flashes like grenades.
Joey watched in astonishment as the two fighters looked like supernovas. The fighters were tired as beads of sweat doused their tired face. The momentum slowed down and the fight seemed to be way past its climax.
"Afterlife!"
"Yes take them to Afterlife!"
"Let's see those fuckers on the Otherside"
"100,000 on Mason in the Afterlife!"
Joey's face was slightly nervous, the atmosphere became even more boisterous. He would get pushed and manhandled by people rushing to the stage. Even Ms Twocock was hopping over the register with her chest shown in full view shouting.
"I bet my life!".
The Martial Center turned pitch black. People were shouting like maniacs, gambles and absurd bets like their children, wives lives, corporations even someone crazed women offered themselves up.
Joey couldn't understand what was happening.
While he eventually got pushed to the back, by everyone else. Just then a loud brain splitting voice tantamount to a ship horn boomed out throughout the Martial Arts Center.
"Do the fighters wish to see the Otherside"
Both of their faces looked grim, they have been long down spiralling in strength. The fighter gave a weak nod agreeing and the loud explosive voice sounded again.
"Welcome to the Afterlife".