Upon connecting his first swift kick, Dash returned to his position and coldly eyed Silva, who was getting up while holding his cheek, looking at Dash with resentment.
"Let me see you!" The referee didn't initiate the combat until Silva showed him his cheek. Upon seeing only a red mark, he nodded and prepared to start the fight again.
Dash paid no attention to the glares directed at him since his expression wasn't the friendliest. He sensed that everyone displayed that ferocity to intimidate the enemy or appear more ruthless.
Easily resolving the first point, his eyes shifted to an old man behind Silva, who was weakly smiling. At this point, Silva also felt his Sensei's gaze, so he remained unfazed by his opponent's impressive skills and prepared to start the fight once more.
"Fight!"
Silva cast him a discreet glance and began approaching slowly.
"Dash, you got this, finish him!" Behind him, Devon clenched her fists with excitement, sending him small shouts of encouragement.
Under the watchful eyes of the audience, Dash began assessing the distance against Silva and approached slowly while evaluating his movements.
Knowing that his speed was his greatest asset, Dash wouldn't miss any chance to win in attacks that didn't suit his opponent in this competition.
At one point, they both moved and started exchanging blows, each trying to score a point to win. Before the fight, Silva thought he could defeat Dash without causing harm, but seeing that his skills were clearly inferior filled him with a great sense of weakness.
After a few seconds of fighting, the audience's gaze was in complete silence. No one wanted to blink, eager to know what would happen seconds later, and everyone witnessed Silva's fist colliding with Dash's defenses. Dash shook his hands as he tried to assess the form of attack.
Pum! Pum! Pum!
The tremendous sounds of the punches hitting Dash's arms could be heard in the silent surroundings. But at one point, knowing the trajectory of his opponent's attacks, Dash released a low attack, causing Silva to land just outside the permitted combat perimeter.
"Point!"
"He was out of the perimeter, how the hell is that a point?"
"The impact was inside, there's a point in favor of Hale!" said the referee, addressing Kuskre karate's Sensei.
"Do you think I don't know the rules?" Sensei Santiago glared at the referee and, with his gruff voice, drew everyone's attention in the surroundings.
Silva, noticing that the referee's attention was on Santiago, saw Dash's back as he retreated to his place and said, "Hey, I'm learning a lot in this fight!"
Dash stopped, turned slightly, and looked at Silva, who was still sitting on the ground and getting up. He simply nodded, and in the moment he turned again, Silva took advantage and ran towards him.
Devon, who was delighted that Dash was winning effortlessly, was about to talk to Mr. Kim and find out where she could improve. But at that moment, behind Dash, she saw Silva moving towards him.
What's happening?
The same question crossed many people's minds. Obviously, the fight had not yet started, so why was Silva attacking Dash from behind?
"Dash, behind you!"
Looking at the expressions everyone was giving him, Dash's alert senses heightened, and the moment he turned his body to the side, he saw Silva approaching running.
"What the hell?!"
Dash had seen the crowd behind Silva roaring with anger. The seconds seemed to become even slower, and knowing what was happening, he became furious. How dare you attack from behind, especially in a competition?
"I'm sorry..."
Finishing these words, Silva didn't want to execute any karate move and instead attacked Dash with his elbow at the vertex of his brow. At least there, he landed the first blow.
Dash, who had reacted slowly, received the blow. The impact was powerful, and for a moment, he felt like his world was spinning. But knowing that another blow was headed for the same spot, he decided to fall backward, grabbing Silva's leather as he continued to deliver continuous elbow strikes.
Crash!
Feeling that his forehead was covered in a hot liquid that wouldn't stop dripping, Dash soon saw blood on Silva's elbow. At that moment, Dash's dazed look filled with fury.
No, there was no fear on his face or anything related to that. All his plans could be ruined today, and it was because of an attack from a stranger he never thought would strike him from behind.
Seeing that Silva didn't seem to stop, Dash quickly maneuvered his legs using Jiu-Jitsu techniques. Being on the ground, he tightly gripped Silva's neck with his legs and used his right hand to prevent further strikes.
Silva felt the air becoming more difficult to obtain, so he used his left hand to try to push Dash's leg away, but that was a fatal mistake.
Influenced by adrenaline, Dash threw consecutive punches at Silva's forehead. His blows were aimed to cause double the damage he had received, and all the anger he tried to contain whenever he fought was now completely unleashed.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
In less than a minute, Dash, who knew Silva was bleeding from the forehead, didn't hold back and continued to attack. His expression was anything but satisfied; it was ferocious, and his grunts matched the rhythm of his blows.
When the referees, who were far away, saw Silva's sudden action, they all ran. And seeing Dash's reaction, as they approached, they tried to pull him away.
"Do you want to fight dirty? I'll teach you a few things about that," shouted Dash as he continued to hit the area where Silva was bleeding.
"Let him go now!"
The referees held Dash's right arm, who continued to hit Silva with force and brutality, unleashing all his anger.
"Dash, stop now!" Mr. Kim, who had jumped into the arena immediately, pulled him away, smiling as he saw Silva almost unconscious and bleeding just like him.
Paying back in the same coin, that's what he had just done.
"Let me see!" Mr. Kim saw all the blood dripping from one part of Dash's face, who was full of adrenaline.
But Dash, who was looking at Marcus from Kruske Karate, smiled at him in the same way he had done before. At this point, he didn't want to process what had happened, but if this damage was attributed to anything, it was to one of the books of Kruske Karate, and Marcus belonged to it.
"See you in the final!" Dash murmured before turning his gaze away.
"It's not a deep cut; you just bleed a lot!" Mr. Kim said as he looked at Dash, who seemed to have controlled his impulse.
Devon, by his side, held his arm as if fearing he would launch himself again at Silva, who was bleeding even more than Dash. At least, this prevented her from going straight to that coward and attacking him.
"He apologized..." Dash murmured, feeling even more confused.
"Was that before or after he hit you?" Mr. Kim asked as he took Dash out of the arena and led him to the infirmary.
"Before he attacked me, I heard him apologize..."
Devon, who was beside him, asked, "Does that serve as an apology for what he did to you?"
"No, but I have a feeling those weren't his personal intentions... Could it be an order from his Sensei to give the victory to his Dojo?" Dash, sitting on a cot, watched as a doctor examined the small cut that had bled a lot.
"It makes sense now that you mention it that way, but most likely, both will be disqualified anyway..." Mr. Kim wasn't being pessimistic; it was just that the state in which Silva ended up after attacking Dash was three times worse than what he had caused.
"That would be terrible; no one from the audience would be satisfied with that decision, and the tournament's reputation would go downhill. Now that it has this abundant audience, it's impossible for the committee to choose to expel Dash!" Devon argued with Mr. Kim, still feeling furious about how that coward attacked her friend.
"The first thing to consider is whether he can continue fighting. Aren't you thinking the same?" The doctor asked while applying some kind of liquid to Dash's wound.
"Of course, I'm going to fight!" Dash interrupted the doctor, showing a calm expression.