On the day of Martial arts competition.
Jon has been practicing non-stop for the past 3 weeks. When he was tired he would use the healing touch to revitalize himself and continue training. The only break he took was 5 hours sleep and 1 hour for daily necessities. His hard work paid off when he got a system notification:
[ NEW ACHIVEMENT: MASTERED INTERCEPTION FIST
EFFECT: INCREASE ALL DEFENSIVE SKILL BY 3 FOLD. ]
'Wow! With this achievement, even the cyborg laser cannon can't destroy my defense.' Jon was surprised.
Even with the increase in defense by 3 fold Jon decided to play it safe by upgrading the healing touch
[ NAME: JONATHAN DAYNE ]
[ REALM: THREE STAR INITIAL STAGE ]
[ SKILLS MASTERED: (EXPAND) ]
[ ACHIEVEMENTS: (EXPAND) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS: 252.457 POINTS]
"Expand skills mastered" Jon said opening the skill panel.
[ BLESSING OF MANA (SKILL): HEALING TOUCH
SKILL LEVEL: LV.2 +
CURRENT EFFECT: HEALS ALL INJURIES OF THE TARGET AND REVITALIZE THEM, ABLE TO SEE ALL THE ILLNESS OF A PERSON.]
.
[ SKILL MASTERY: MANA GUARDIAN
CURRENT LEVEL: LV.7+ (LEVEL CAP EXCEEDED)
CURRENT EFFECT: CONVERTS THE MANA THAT PERMEATES THE INNER BODY INTO AN INVISIBLE ESSENCE WHICH ACTS TO WARD OFF PHYSICAL ATTACKS. UNTIL THE MANA RUNS OUT, IT CAN WITHSTAND ANY PHYSICAL DAMAGE AFTER EXCEEDING THE LEVEL CAP, THERE'S NO NEED FOR CONSCIOUS ACTION, THE ESSENCE PROTECTING THE BODY HAS THE ABILITY TO AUTOMATICALLY DEFEND IT. ]
Jon crossed his fingers and pressed the + sign hoping to get an upgrade of the Healing Touch.
~DING~
His hopes weren't in vain.
[ BLESSING OF MANA (SKILL): HEALING TOUCH
SKILL LEVEL: LV.3 +
CURRENT EFFECT: HEALS ALL AILMENTS WEATHER IT BE INJURIES OR DISEASES, REVITALIZE THE BODY AND RESTORES MANA OF THE TARGET. ]
[ SOURCE POINTS: 2.457 POINTS ]
'It took 250 source points to upgrade to level 3 but it's worth it with the current effect I would never run out of mana.' Jon thought happy with the upgrade.
"Let's go win that competition!" Jon told Mathew, who was waiting for him.
----------------break----------------
The martial arts competition arena. The stadium was fully packed with audience. On the arena Robert who was turned into a Red skull cyborg was facing of against a local martial arts master named Rand.
Robert was turned into a hulking mass of muscle with vein's bulging all over his face and upper body. His right arm which was crippled by Jon was replaced by a robotic metal arm and the left one had grip length and head of bolts sticking out of it.
"Go get him, master Rand!" a person from the stand shouted.
"Hit him! Teach that traitor a lesson!" another spectator yelled.
But all the cheers turned into gloom and boos, as Robert defeated Rand with one hand tied behind his back.
"It looks like it's up to me to teach the traitor a lesson today..." A much older guy said walking up onto the arena.
"Old fools should stay in their graves, and not crawl out to make a fool of themselves!" Robert mocked, not even waiting for the bell to signal the start of the battle, picked the old man up by his throat with one hand and twisted his head backwards with the other hand without any mercy. Killing the old man instantly, .
"Oh my god, that was an instant kill..."
"He didn't even have the chance to do anything..."
The people where in despair.
"Look! This is the power of the Red Skull's science and technology!" Robert declared to all the people present.
"Two of the finest material arts grandmasters selected from all over the Tenro island, can't even withstand a single move from the Red skull cyborg..." a person said in shock.
"Tenro Island is really done for. We should heed Robert's advise and surrender as soon as possible..." A person said in fear of the Red Skull.
"No, it's not over, the Interception Fist Dojo is still yet to fight." A woman in the crowd shouted.
"Master Mathew will not go down without a fight!" The woman declared.
"Give it up, didn't master Mathew turn tail and run when the Red Skull confronted him?" An old man standing near her asked with a disappointed expression.
"We haven't seen master Mathew for such a long time that he's either dead or is too afraid to come..." some answered to the old man's question.
"Nonsense, I have been busy training my new disciple for the competition after my old one turned traitor." Mathew announced entering with Jon by his side.
Everyone was surprised by the appearance of Jon and Mathew.
"Master!" Even Robert was surprised with their appearance.
"Master Mathew and his disciple is here!" Everyone had a new ray of hope in their hearts.
Seeing the appearance of Mathew and Jon, the Red Skull soldiers present readies their guns but was stopped by their commanding officer.
"Stop! Don't shoot. They came just in time. The more people put their hopes on them, the more despair they'll be in when he's knocked down. Then we shall publically execute his master making our victory complete." Commanded the same officer who was almost killed by Jon and Mathew.
"Robert! Look at yourself you're not even human anymore. Is this what you wanted?" Mathew asked Robert as Jon walked up onto the battle arena.
"So as to make people give up their futile resistance and to end this quickly I was left with no other options. Just like how I have no other option but to completely crush your new disciple." Robert tried to justify his reasons.
~ding~
The bell signaling the start of the match rang.
"Now that it has come to this, I can't look back anymore! so prepare yourself!" Robert shouted throwing a right hook at Jon.
Jon grabs Robert's wrist, turns around and smash him onto the floor with his own momentum.
"You are only capable of using brute force after becoming a cyborg. Even I, who has only studied the Interception Fist for less than a year can counter you. What happened to everything that you have learnt over the years?!" Jon asked Robert who was on the ground.
Robert jumps back on to his feet.
"A Red Skull cyborg can topple 10 martial artists. In the face of absolute power, the so-called techniques are meaningless. I couldn't take your single punch last time, but now that I'm a cyborg, I'm not afraid of your power anymore!" Robert declared to Jon going in for a straight punch with his right metal arm.
"Don't get too full of yourself!" said Jon side stepping the punch and taking a step forward to get inside his guard and knees Robert in the abdomen.
Robert spits out spit from his mouth and kneels over in pain from the strike.
Jon followed up with a upper cut to Robert's chin and a round house kick to the chest, throwing Robert across the arena.
"You only became a little bit stronger and you got so proud of yourself. You betrayed your master for this meager amount of power? Robert, you are a disappointment to your master!" Jon smack-talked to a downed Robert.
"Pant... Pant... Pant..."Robert was getting up panting and was spouting bruises every where Jon had hit him.
"Robert use this weapon!" The officer commanded, as a cyborg near him threw a huge gatling gun towards Robert.
The people where outraged.
"Shameless!"
"That's cheating!"
"Isn't this a martial arts hand to hand competition? Why is he using a weapon?!"
The people kept on shouting at the blunt display of misconduct.
"No matter how strong a martial artist is, the body is still made of flesh." Robert told Jon pointing the gatling gun at Jon.
"You forget that I'm also a mage." Jon reminded Robert.
"No matter, under this kind of firepower, no matter who it is, they will all be ripped to shreds!" Robert declared opening fire at Jon.
Jon showed no reaction as the bullets just bounced off him.
"You already know from last time that bullets has no effect on me." Jon said walking up to a still firing Robert and crushed the firing nozzle of the gun causing it to explode.
Seeing that the bullets where not effective the officer of the Red Skull gave the cyborg with laser cannon attached to it's arms to fire at Jon.
The cyborg fired it's cannon straight for Jon, even though Robert was also in the line of fire. The laser beam exploded on contact with Jon, covering the entire arena in smoke.
'My defense has gone up 3 fold from last time.' Jon thought as a red Mana Guardian image formed behind him and the laser beam had no effect on Jon.
But the already severely injured Robert was not strong enough to survive the blast.
"Even if you're a mage against the Red Skull's technology you are nothing. Resistance is futile, accept the Red Skull as your new Overlord. No one can save you from the Red Skull army." The officer announced to the people, who where in the depths of despair.
"What a despicable sneak attack." Mathew yell in anger with his fist clenched.
"There's no need to talk about chivalry with you lowly races." The officer mocked Mathew.
"Is this how low the proud people of Tenro island has fallen to? To think you would all stand by and watch as a person who was fighting for our honor and freedom is wronged! May be he is right we are lowly races!" Mathew yelled for all the people to hear standing between where Jon should be and where the officer and cyborg who shot the laser cannon is.
"Titan, the mage shouldn't be dead yet finish him off along with this fool." The officer ordered the cyborg.
"We can't do nothing and watch as both of them die!" the woman who previously talked in favor of Mathew said jumping down from the gallery on to the arena floor.
"Ya let's help master Mathew"
"Let's show the Red Skull what we are made of."
"We are not going to let our benefactor die!"
"Come let's do this!"
"Count me in!"
"We are the proud people of Tenro island!"
One by one a the people started to come down from the gallery.
"What's going on? What happened to these ignorant Tenro people? Weren't they as docile as cattle before? Why are they acting like this today...?" The Red Skull officer was getting nervous with the turn of events.
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (APPRECIATION): 0.01 POINTS (MATHEW) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (REVERENCE): 0.01 POINTS (MATHEW) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (APPRECIATION): 0.01 POINTS (MONICA) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (REVERENCE): 0.01 POINTS (MONICA) ]
...
...
...
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (APPRECIATION): 0.01 POINTS (EVAN) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (REVERENCE): 0.01 POINTS (EVAN) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (APPRECIATION): 0.01 POINTS (ROCSAN) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (REVERENCE): 0.01 POINTS (ROCSAN) ]
...
...
...
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (APPRECIATION): 0.01 POINTS (EMILY) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS OBTAINED (REVERENCE): 0.01 POINTS (EMILY) ]
...
...
...
All the people gathered with Mathew to protect Jon.
'I must have induced very strong emotions in thousands of people all at once!" Jon was surprised at the flow of source points. He never had this much flow of source points ever before.
"What's that?!" Asked a Red Skull soldier, pointing to Jon's manifestation of Mana Guardian.
"Thank you everyone for trying to protect me. Now then... Let's deal with this Red Skull bastards." said a unharmed Jon with his Mana Guardian standing behind him.
Seeing an unharmed Jon with a red giant standing behind him lifted everyone's spirit by a 100 folds.
It had the opposite effect on the Red Skull soldiers, the frightened grunts dropped their guns, got on their knees and started to beg for mercy.
"What are you all doing? That's just an illusion! All of you on your feet! Open fire! get rid of all this scumbags!" the officer barked orders.
Hearing the orders most of the grunts got on their feet. The Titan cyborg prepared to fire the laser cannon once again. But Jon stopped it by appearing before him and crushing the laser cannon with his bare hands causing a huge explosion kill the Titan cyborg.
Jon's action started an all out battle as all the people started to attack the Red Skull soldiers. The few disheartened soldiers stood no chance against a mob of thousands of people.
The officer retreated to the back with 5 cyborgs.
"Fire all at once and keep firing!" the officer commanded the cyborgs.
Many Red Skull soldiers perished under friendly fire. But Jon was unharmed.
"What's the matter? Is that all you got?" Jon asked not taking any damage.
Jon went straight for the cyborgs killing each cyborg with a single blow.
"Is this all the Red skull world domination firearms amount to? The Red Skull cyborgs are nothing but chickens in my hands!" Jon mocked the Red Skull officer who was on his knees begging for mercy.
But the angry mob of people showed him no mercy as they tore him up.
The mob led by Mathew and Jon went straight for the Red Skull base.
----------- END OF CHAPTER ----------