Standing on the platform, Alyssia was able to see many of the participants that awaited their turn but also many others within the crowd that looked towards her.
Some of the groups of people had someone strong with them or a couple of them and they had a murderous aura surrounding them while some were better at hiding it.
Although she had yet to reach the stage where she could read her enemies completely, she could sense that their intentions towards her held their murderous intent towards her.
Many of these people that seemed to wish to fight were those that she could not recognise but also some familiar faces.
The drums began to be played by the people at the side signalling the start of the competition allowing the challengers to step forward.
As if waiting to see her power before challenging themselves, many stood back and waited as many others walked towards the stage.
This type of competition was always best to those who joined later because the winner would be faced with many injuries or become tired after their many wins against each opponent.
Nobody has unlimited stamina and even if they were superhuman, there would be a time where they would be forced to surrender because they can no longer continue or there will be a lapse in judgement after fighting to the point of exhaustion or suffering an injury during a previous fight.
First an old man stepped forward and took up a weird form as he reached the platform.
He seemed to be very focussed towards keeping his body low and keeping his legs bent ready to leap almost like a frog.
However Alyssia did not like the look in his eyes which contained a gleam of murderous excitement.
After checking the rules and knowing that this allowed many types of weapons, she remembered that not everyone would play according to the script.
Hidden weapons although frowned upon, were not banned so she had to be careful of her opponent when she believes that victory is ahead.
This man gave her a feeling that he had killed many people.
The announcer shouted to the crowd. "Alyssia Lucine will begin the Lei Tai! She is accepting all challengers one by one. The first challenger is the final master of the toad style Po. His reputation is widely known for being ruthless to his enemies and also being a hired assassin. Now the battle will begin!"
The moment the fight begun, Alyssia began to circle him and prepare to kick as he made a move within her range.
The old man continued his strange movements as he took on the form of a toad and began to keep his hands flat on the ground until he kicked his body to a standing stance to begin the fight.
According to the rules of the platform, no time wasting was allowed and the battle must go on without any delays.
He looked like he was going to kick at Alyssia but instead turned his body so that he would land in the same position as before but as he was landing both of his back legs began to kick out before landing down low again but Alyssia had already grasped his style and techniques after collecting his skills in her system.
Most of his kicks were developed to be shaped like toad or frog legs so they would either be done from a jumping position facing forward or backward but also several other kicks would include flips or turns that would land on his back or front to allow kicks from below to catch her by surprise and staying out of her line of sight or a simple variation of a side or hook kick.
At first she had been unable to grasp this strange style and was sometimes on the defensive but it did not take long before she showed her superior skills and strength.
As the old man was changing between low, medium and high kicks, she began to do the same and matched his moves but as the old man stood up she got close enough as his knees were bent to bring his body up and stepped on his knee to vault her body up.
She kicked off his knee with her right foot which caught him by surprise then as she was close and rising up her left leg went upwards across his face.
As she had completed the second foot movement or kick that went from the knee to face, her body continued to turn giving her enough of a rotation to use her other leg with her back facing him to perform a back kick to his face and push away.
The old man tried to recover from the hard kick to the face as he was an experienced veteran with a powerful will and resorted to his final trick.
As the old toad master, his final trick was his hidden weapon.
The concealed needle was wrapped by his tongue and acted like a blow dart, just as he was about to use it, Alyssia could faintly sense that he was not finished.
The tail that had rotated overhead the old man to provide more of a spin to her body came downward.
The mouth that was opened was sealed shut not letting the needle escape his mouth but also causing himself an injury inside his mouth by the force of the needle that was blocked by the inside of his mouth.
The hit from her tail carried a lot of force and aimed to the top of his skull almost like a whip striking downward and then what followed was a ruthless back kick that was not held back in the slightest.
The blow to his skull was enough to cause him severe injury, a broken skull or even brain damage but what followed was enough to end even the toughest of bodies.
Instead of pushing her foot off his face or chest to go into a landing position after ending the fight with a knockout or pushing him out of the ring, she struck his throat with her heel without mercy.
The old man's body fell back out of the ring after suffering this four move combo.
His eyes rolled back as he fell and his hands made an attempt to grasp at his own throat until he fell down from a large height and hit the ground with a large impact.
His body twitched a little and then the cheers began from within the crowd.
The people below the stage checked his condition and found that the poison needle within his mouth had been coated with a special type of toxin or venom that he seemed to have built an immunity to but his enemies would die from if they had been pierced by it.
Immediately the crowd began to display their displeasure for him and expressed no sympathy towards his death.
This wasn't the first time using her tail in a fight but this was the first time that she had used it's full power against someone that wasn't one of the Minks to attack rather than using it to reduce the force of a fall, keep her balance or help increase the spin while in the air.
Kangaroos are five limbed creatures and the tail is a part of the lower body, she had gained many insights into how to use her tail during combat thanks to her talent and sub profession but she had also made sure to not slack on training to strengthen her tail along with the rest of her body which made it so much easier to balance herself but also use it as another limb to attack with if it is needed.
Her act of not using it was merely to hold back a deadly card and she was unable to hold back once she had begun to use her tail to attack as it had become a deadly weapon once whipped and slammed down upon her opponents.
She had realised her opponents intent to kill her early as his every move was made to harm her but she still held onto that single shred of mercy until that final moment.
She looked down at his dead body and said to herself. "A worthy opponent has died just like that.. but this is also my respect towards an old master. He deserved a worthy death."
Rather than dwelling on her first kill, she wished to focus on the lesson that Chinjao had been providing her.
Killing or injuring an opponent in this ring was not to be thought about in a bad way but instead as a thing that every martial artist must face in their life.
Every battle will be hard fought and one will come out as the winner, often times it is better for the loser to die rather than live on in disgrace.
On this platform, life and death are not guaranteed upon stepping upon it.
Her opponent also showed no intent to back down or give up on trying to kill her even if it was at the risk of his own life so she had to put an end to the fight before she was hit by something dangerous.
Upon hearing that it was a deadly needle capable of killing her, she steeled her will and no longer took this platform as something to be looked down upon.