As time passed, the matches became increasingly brutal, with stronger fighters emerging, making the battles more challenging even for the most experienced participants. Dash and Devon had been dominating their one-on-one fights, just like their teammates, who had not shown any weaknesses in their respective encounters.
Friends like Miguel, Robby, and Hawk had struggled through the rounds, and they were the only duos left to compete. From Terry's school, only Danny's pair and two other students of Kim remained.
All of them were performing very well, but they still faced significant challenges in each of their matches, which was concerning as the rounds progressed and the opponents grew stronger.
"Last phase of elimination." It had been at least an hour and a half since the first elimination phase, and now they were at the final stage. This was made easier by the fact that it wasn't hot in the place where they were fighting.
This time, Devon and Dash would face a Japanese pair, a man named Akira Yuki and a woman named Pai Chan. Both were very capable, having won their training matches easily.
"A truly amazing opponent..." Dash remembered seeing him fight at least once before, so he knew exactly how he had won.
Devon looked at Dash and said in a serious tone, "Show no mercy, just as they won't with us; finish it quickly."
"Don't worry, darling, I'll finish him quickly." Dash smiled slightly and turned to walk toward the mat, where fighter Yuki was waiting for him.
"It will be a pleasure to face you." While looking at the young man with a fierce expression, Dash secretly smiled, feeling excited.
"Bow! Ready? Fight!"
After hearing the start of the fight, Dash kept his gaze on Yuki, who raised his guard towards him.
"He must be very fast, so I need to keep my distance."
Yuki was known for his lack of mercy, according to Devon's understanding of his Taekwondo, which was the only fighting style among the competitors that remained unique and rarely seen.
"Now!"
In an instant, Yuki was not going to let Dash evaluate him for long, so he was the first to start the fight. Just as Dash was evaluating his opponent, Yuki slid towards him.
In front of him, Yuki attacked with a quick kick aimed at Dash's ribs while simultaneously changing positions to avoid hits to vital points.
"Up and feint." Seeing Yuki's quick attack, Dash concentrated, raising his guard to defend against the attacks and pushing Yuki back, who had started very aggressively.
Shortly after, a series of punches and defenses were heard throughout the mat.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Sakura Bushido against the Japanese?" After being the only fight that hadn't ended, many in the crowd were amazed as they watched Dash fight on par with Yuki.
It wasn't that it was a great fight, but many didn't expect a Taekwondo fighter to have made it this far in the tournament, where most were well-rounded fighters in both defense and offense.
"Sakura Bushido?" Jake Kim looked at the logo of Dash's Kung Fu school, and, after seeing that they were from the same school as the other very capable fighters, he knew one of them would be his rival.
"Do you know who he is?" Jake looked at Alice, his partner in this tournament, hoping to get answers.
"The Dojo is from abroad; it's said he's a well-rounded fighter, so we need to be careful if we face him."
Thud!
Under the crowd's gaze, Dash and Yuki exchanged their fastest strikes, causing everyone to focus on each of their combinations.
But at that moment, when Dash had stabilized his posture, a straight kick was launched from the front by his opponent. However, the expected outcome didn't happen because, when Yuki launched the kick, he was met with a fierce counterattack that left him on the ground.
Thud!
Landing a blow on Yuki's shoulder, Dash, who had started sweating, looked at the result with a smile.
It wasn't that he couldn't finish the fight earlier; he was evaluating Yuki's Taekwondo since there were rivals from other categories who had something in common among the fighters.
To gain the advantage, what Dash had been doing was adapting to Yuki's style and learning as much as he could before advancing to the quarterfinals, as he had never fought a Taekwondo practitioner before.
"Point!"
"Ah…" Yuki held his shoulder and looked at Dash with absolute fury, feeling the shame of losing a point.
"That was really a great counterattack!"
"It seems it will end soon," thought Devon, seeing how Dash had fully adapted to Yuki's fighting style and was struggling to get up.
"Let's finish this!" Dash extended his fist, opening and closing his fingers in Yuki's direction.
Facing Yuki, Dash's eyes were firmly fixed on his movements, and when the fight resumed, he ran towards him without stopping.
Since he couldn't reveal his entire fighting style, what he was about to do was finish the fight as quickly as possible, now that he had learned what he wanted.
As he ran towards Yuki, the latter tried desperately to maintain control of the fight, but in a brief instant, everything got out of hand when Dash's strikes became faster.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
In an instant, Dash had breached his opponent's defenses and landed a punch to Yuki's stomach with his right hand.
"Ah!"
Yuki, who wanted to counterattack, felt the pain of the blow and stepped back. Before he could recover, a double kick hit his leg and shoulder.
Thud! Thud!
"Point!" shouted the referee, stopping the fight.
When Dash, breathing rapidly, saw Yuki on the ground, he smiled a bit and bowed respectfully.
"Winner!"