"Devon Lee, Antoni Silva against Jerry Martínez, Claire Arias," announced the referee, revealing the first matches. Under the watchful eyes of the audience, Devon stepped into the arena alongside Antoni, who had replaced Dash due to injuries. While everyone didn't know who Antoni was, being a replacement for someone like Dash definitely meant he had to be strong.
"We'll start with the women's match, Devon Lee against Claire Arias."
Devon nodded and stood in the arena, while Antoni exited, waiting for his turn to fight. "Old rules: we'll follow the rules of any karate tournament. If you want to surrender, it's enough to announce it to a referee," said the man in charge of announcing the matches.
The referee looked at the competitors and nodded, extending his hands straight up, saying, "Look at me, Bow."
"Look at each other, Bow!"
Devon and Claire exchanged greetings. It was then that the referee started the match. "Fight!"
Just as Devon heard the start of the match, wearing her new black uniform with the emblems of the three dojos representing her school, she looked up and down at her opponent. "She shouldn't pose a problem," murmured Devon as she raised her guard in a style similar to the Kung Fu taught by Mr. Han and took a deep breath.
"Devon, you can do it; finish her!" Behind Devon, Dash, as a spectator, was losing his voice with the powerful shouts he made from the audience.
"Now!" Claire, who couldn't stay still, began the fight by delivering a straight kick to Devon's stomach. Just as Claire's shout ended, Devon's eyes narrowed slightly. In a single step, she charged fiercely against Claire, squeezing the five fingers of each of her hands tightly.
Boom! Dealing with Claire's attack, Devon didn't retreat, using her most powerful martial art, the Northern Dragon. Furthermore, to the amazement of the crowd, she extended her hand forward to grab Claire's right fist, and with her right hand, a powerful blow collided with her opponent's chest, pushing her backward.
"Point!" shouted the referee as Claire showed signs of pain. When everyone saw Devon's amazing martial arts, they couldn't help but cheer in excitement, but all those cheers were drowned out by the trumpet that Dash was blowing from the audience.
"That was amazing!"
"Is she the four-time champion of the Del Valle tournament?"
Looks of astonishment were directed to the center of the arena; even Kim fell silent, seeing Devon's refined martial arts, and murmured, "Claire is not a simple girl; she belongs to the Black Dragon Dojo."
"Yes, Dash used that same attack against me the last time we fought." Jack nodded upon hearing those words.
Devon, on the other hand, retreated slowly, impassively looking at Claire and patiently waiting for the match to resume. Looking at both who had returned to the center of the arena, the referee nodded and signaled, "Ready? Fight!"
"Ahhhhh!" Claire let out an intimidating scream to capture Devon's attention, but that was impossible because she was very familiar with fights.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Using her hands, Devon deflected all of Claire's attacks and, among the punches, attacked a few times, which didn't add up to a point.
"Huff!!!" But despite the not-so-strong punches, Claire felt a sharp pain in her stomach and stepped back a few times. She had received numerous blows in her training, but Devon's blows were sharp.
Seeing that she couldn't advance through Devon's defense, Claire attacked fiercely to test her chances a bit more. When Devon saw a kick heading towards her side, she raised her left leg, blocking the kick, then paused, lifting her right leg with a spin, and attacked forcefully.
Boom! Impacting Claire's defense, Devon took advantage of this and ran fiercely forward. Closing the distance, she elbowed Claire's stomach, and before the referee announced the point, she delivered a spinning kick to the same area.
Crack!
"Ahhhh!!!"
"Point!"
The referee approached Claire, and seeing her moving from side to side in pain, he shook his head and shouted, "Winner, Devon Lee!"
In just a minute, the entire crowd fell silent as they saw how Devon took care of Claire, who seemed to have a good level in martial arts.