The ring was quickly set up by the other dojo students and they had begun to draw a crowd.
The crowd had many people who were both locals and tourists who were interested in seeing an actual martial arts fight in real life. Evan nods to himself as he is using the parks restrooms to use a rental martial arts gi that was provided by a nearby dojo supply store.
He comes out in a kung fu gi and pants with kung fu shoes. He shuffles a bit to get used to the sparring outfit as he isn't used to wearing something like this before.
Zara comes over looking worried and Miu is looking for Alicia as she suddenly disappeared somewhere.
Zara asks, "Evan? Are you sure about doing this? We can always just take the bad publicity."
Evan was both concerned about the gyms reputation and about how worries both Miu and Zara looked as they seemed to be concerned for his safety. After all a 5 man fight gauntlet was still five fights in a row. It posed a risk for harm no matter the martial arts practitioner or even master.
Evan would be lying if he said the gym reputation was the only thing he thought about though. He was kore concerned about Zaras reputation and what other purposes they could use the tape for against her. As he potential boyfriend (As nothing is official yet) he had to protect her and the gym.
He nodded to both girls and hugs them as he says, "Don't worry. I will make sure to not take too much damage it any if I can help it. Based on what I'm seeing of these guys they are all around Naokis strength. Maybe slightly weaker. And in stronger than I was before. So let me see how much I can pull my weight as a member of the main team of our gym. Understood?"
Zara blushes at his manliness but Miu smirks at him and wags her finger, "Okay but if this is just to satisfy something like macho man pride or something you'll be in trouble mister!"
Evan smirks back and nods his head before entering the ring to see his first foe wearing an all green kung fu gi while in the mantis stance.
Evan sweat drops as he thinks, 'Okay... how amateur can you be to announce your style before the fight even begins?'
With a sigh at the inexperience shown by his foe Evan gets ready in his Kick Boxing stance.
The referee rings the bell to begin the match and soon they see Seth seems to shift from his more open stance to a closely guarded stance and even his face seems to grow more stone faced and serious.
The mantis user grits his teeth at this change and gets nervous. Usually people are worried that they will face a fung fu fighter but this guy seems almost excited to fight him. He will show this fighter why their dojo is better than any old gym!
He goes in with a swift mantis hand jab towards Seths throat. Seth casually dodges to the outside of the jab and around to the back of the guys body. The king fu user is shocked for s moment too ling before he suddenly gets an elbow to the ribs making him lean forward from the pain. Then gets a fist to the face in the form of a backhand from tbe same elbowing arm.
He reels back from the two hits. Only for one of his flailing arms to be caught by Seth and used as leverage for a jujitsu throw. The guy screams before it is cut off by impacting the ring floor painfully.
He sees stars before he suddenly feeling his body get flipped onto its back and feeling and arm bar be used in him. He quickly feels it tighten as Seth uses enough strength to make the joints in said arm creak under protest.
He quickly taps out from that and Seth is declared the winner by the referee.
Old man Zong is in disbelief at this and decides to throw his next student at Seth before he can recover too much stamina.
The next three foes didn't last much longer.
The second foe was a crane user. A quick leg sweep and a twin elbow to the guys body like in the blood sport movie made him stay down with cracked bones in his leg and shoulder.
The third guy out up a harder fight. He was a monkey style user and was flipping and spinning to stay out of Evans hands. But instead of getting frustrated he begins to use his visual learner and learning prodigy skills together and started to see the pattern of this guy. Using this moment to refine his techniques he starts using Jeet Kine Do combined with his Dragon Fist to track down the monkey style user. And finally after 5 minutes of watching him flip and spin like a gymnast, Evan catches him on the tail end of a back flip. The foe gasps before getting three cracked ribs from a powerful dragon fore fist punch ability.
He goes down and stays down from a 10 count.
Zong is sweating in worry at this point. He sent in his fourth fighter hoping Seth was getting tired at this point in the fight.
The fourth fighter was a Snake style user with great flexibility and amazing reflexes. Seth actually exchanges quite a few hits and counters with this user. He ends the match by managing to temple kick the snake user during one of their snapping cobra kicks which he ducked down twice as low as you normally would to dodge it. Nailing them painfully in the temple and making them drool from the pain as they laid on the ring unconscious.
Seth took a breath and tried to see how fast he was healing from the bruises he got from that last bout. They weren't bad but they would definitely sting for at least another 4 hours more until he fully heals from them. He loved his enhanced healing but he will need a bit of help in upgrading his various rank 1 skills to rank 2 or 3. Maybe he should go for a large lotto ticket next to gain hopefully 100k to splurge. If he gets that lucky that is.
He shakes his head as the next foe steps into the ring.
This guy looks like their ace with a tiger styled gi on him but his stances mixes the dragon stance with tiger style clawed fists.
Seth readies himself in Jeet Kune Do to prepare for anything.
Zara gasps and says to Seth, "Be careful! This guy is Zongs son! His name is Hyo! And he is a very skilled fighter! He gives me an actual challenge when we meet in the tournament!"
Seth refocuses on Hyo to see the man smirking at the admittance of Zara to show she is not the invincible superwoman everyone locally makes her out to be.
The bell goes off and both fighters clash hard in the middle of the ring.
The first blow is a tiger palm strike meeting an elbow strike. Then a fist meeting a knee. Then another knee meets an elbow.
And soon both fighters are speeding up and matching each others speed and skill level. Only thing is Seth was slowly losing ground.
Seth grits his teeth as he barely dodges another tiger palm strike that scratches his cheek leaving a bad friction burn and a small drop of blood.
It heals up a bit after that but Seth gets another one on his forearm next. Seth is losing more ground as he keeps fighting and is having trouble taking down this fighter.
Seth thinks before ducking and rolling away from his foe before getting back up and changing to a Jujitsu stance. However it is crushed before a proper defense could be mounted as Hyo rushes in and strikes Seth mid stance set up in the ribs and thighs.
Seth coughs out in pain as he wobbles from all the back to back hits. He then ducks low again at another strike aimed for his face with a knee.
However the leg suddenly extends and changes into a hammer kick that lands squarely on Seths shoulder.
Seth coughs out on pain as he falls to the ground from the accumulated damage.
Hyo smirks and returns a few paces away waiting for the ten count.
As it begins Seth goes over in his mind.
'Damn it! He is more skilled! Stronger! And faster! The terrifying trio of any martial arts fight! I can't best him as I am! I need an edge to give me a helping hand here!"
Suddenly Seth hears a notification from his system.
Peeking he looks up at the count reaches 5.
*Due to pushing yourself and training hard you have gained a rank in 4 skills and have gained some stats!
Thanks to your visual learning skill and the application of it you have learned 3 new styles!
Thanks to your learning prodigy skill you have gained a boost to affected stats and skills!
Frank dux karate 2 ranks gained!
Tiger fist 2 ranks gained!
Jujitsu 2 ranks gained!
Jeet Kine Do 2 ranks gained!
+4 to str
+4 to agi
+4 to end
+3 to int
+6 to sense
First martial art to reach rank 5 recognized! Martial arts prodigy shall be upgraded!
Name: Evan McLean
Race: Super Human
Level: 20
HP: 260/400
MP: Locked
Ki: 80/80
Str: 45 (+39)
Agi: 48 (+31)
End: 48 (+43)
Int: 56 (+15)
Sense: 50 (+27)
Skills:
Uncanny luck: Boosted luck that makes you seem like the luckiest guy in the world
Martial Prodigy 2: For each martial art you learn you gain bonuses to your stats based on each style and their rank. And you have the skill to match. Each rank in the martial art is equal to 2 years of training in them.
Goto ryu Karate III: +6 to str and end
Muay Thai III: +6 to str and end
Kick Boxing III: +6 to str and end
Tiger fist rank IV: +8 to str and end
Jujitsu rank IV: +8 to agi and sense
Dragon fist rank IV: +4 to all stats
Tae Kwon do rank II: +4 to agi and str
Jeet Kune Do Rank V: +5 to all stats
Wrestling rank I: +2 to str and sense
Frank Dux Karate II: +4 to str and agi
Ki Initiate (Rank II ki user): Gain ability to empower yourself with ki. 1 ki point add +1 to strength or endurance. Any amount of ki used only stays for 2 minutes at a time until more ki mastery is gained
Tough stuff II: Your body grows healthier and is now tougher +8 to end, +10to HP per level
Healing factor II: Regenerate 4 HP per minute, recover from exhaustion 20% faster
Learning Prodigy V: You are now able to learn things both body and mind related much faster! Your body is now at the super human level of adaptation! X10 learning speed.
Visual Learner Rank I: Using your higher than average intelligence and reflexes as a fighter you can copy any movement you see and recreate it using your own body. You will need to practice it to make it natural. But you will not forget the action easily. If you don't perform the action within 8 hours of seeing it you will lose the action and have to rewatch it being used to remember.
Gymnast II: Your body is way more flexible now! And you are more aware of your space, +4 agi and sense
Strategist II: +6 to int from thinking fast and better now!
Enhanced Reflexes II: React faster! +4 agi and sense
Enhanced Human Physique: Stat limit of all stats has risen from 100 to 200!
Super Human physique: Stat limit of all stats has rise from 200 to 400!
Evan suddenly breathed easier as his endurance increased and he could deal with the pain. In fact his body felt lighter and his muscles felt stronger. He heard the count reach 8 and he leaped to his feet.
Hyo was shocked at this and threw out a hasty combo to deal with Evan. Thanks to his increased int and sense stats he saw where the hits were going and weaved in between each one.
Hyo began to sweat as he out more effort into trying to catch Evan in even one of his combination attacks that had felled many foes before. Evan ducked a pair of fists here, slid around a knee there, even bent backwards nearly in half from a full roundhouse kick.
Then suddenly Evan righted himself and caught the offending leg making Hyo gasp as the strength in the grip he felt.
Evan now realized this guy used to be about 6 to 7 stats above him in every stat. But with his recent gains. He was now just slightly above him. He was going to use every bit of strength he gained to take him out.
Hyo wrenches his leg free and comes at Evan with a drill knuckle punch of the Dragon Fist style to end him. But Evan smirked and readied himself in a certain stance that allowed him to be ready for it.
Miu and Zara both gasp at the stance as they weren't expecting Evan to be able to use that stance here and now so soon after seeing a movie that used it!
Evan was in the monkey stance.
He was swaying like a monkey and hoping around like one too. He even began to do little swatting movements around his head like a monkey that was annoyed by some flies.
He saw the fist coming and leaped in a mid air somersault over it. Hyo was shocked at this as Evan landed on his shoulders and slammed him into the ground.
For a coup de grace he came in with a double head chop making Hyos brain rattle a bit in his skull.
Hyo was dizzy and nauseous from the blow that was usually meant to break open coconuts barehanded. And tries to flip over and get to his feet.
But he barely makes out the count as he hears. 1, 2, 3... and the numbers kept going up. Hyo goes to get a leg under himself but a fresh wave of vertigo hits him as he falls again. The count hits once more at 8. He knew he wasn't going to get up again so quickly so he slumped and realized that the better fighter won today.
1p was called out and Hyo was still on the ground. Everyone cheered at the one who defeated the gauntlet. Well everyone except Zong who was busy crying as he deleted the blackmail footage.
Evan watched Zong keep the bargain of the videotape being deleted. And even though he wasn't the one deleting it he was happy as long as it was gone.
He then shocks everyone and stumbles over to Hyo. Evan may have gotten stronger but he was still feeling sore and hurt from the battles. He kneels down and brings Hyo over his shoulders in a kind of fire mans carry.
Hyo mutters out, "Why are you helping me? I was your enemy! And one of the ones trying to blackmail your gym!"
Evan clicks his tongue at that reminder and tells it straight, "Even if we are enemies now. Doesn't mean we can't become friendly rivals later! After all you got the skills! And you got the strength! Just hone it more and you can become a national ranked fighter I think!"
Hyo stops at that and thinks into himself at how he seemed to have been swept up by his fathers thinking and figured he had reached his limit. But if Evan the very man who beat him could break his limits mid fight like that. Then that means he could break his own with harder training!
Hyo smiles and tell Evan, "Then allow me to be your personal rival from the Zing Que Kung Fu dojo to raise a hand in potential friendship and training partnership!"
Evan smirks and shakes the hand. Though it is a bit awkward as Hyo was still on Evans shoulders. They both just laughed at that.
With that solved one worry for the gym was gone. But there still remained the worry of the mysterious man who made Alicia do this trick in the first place.