Kiernan and Andre positioned themselves on different sides of the ring.
Rashmi and Shanta raised their heads from their slumped states. They failed to do anything for their team, but if someone could help them win this, it would be Andre.
Seisen High School had been a very mediocre school for a very long time. They occasionally had Martial Fighters, but this year had been exceptionally poor.
They would usually have at least one Martial Fighter and one at the peak of Martial Soldier—in rare cases, two Martial Fighters—now only one and two at the Middle Stage Martial Soldier.
It was poor representation by them. However, they were still hopeful. It was because they believed in Andre's skills.
They expected the first match to be a walk in the park for them. It turned out to be unexpectedly difficult.
"The third match—Andre Mathieu versus Kiernan Hunter!" The referee looked at the two, then nodded and swung his arm down. "Fight!"
Kiernan stepped forward and twisted his waist as if he were about to punch, but Andre quickly tackled straight at his legs and took him straight down to the ground.
Without any warning, Andre mounted on Kiernan's chest and pinned one of his arms down, then began to rain down blows on his face.
Kiernan, with his teeth gritted shut, blocked the punches as best as he could. In the mounted position, he couldn't possibly use his Rendering Edge.
"This is not good!" Jin cried out with an ugly expression.
He warned them not to engage Andre in grappling—it was destined to end in loss—what's worse that Andre already finished his preparations to end the match—he was in his famous mounted position.
Rashmi and Shanta cheered him on. Seisen's coach let out a small smile.
Andre couldn't get one good hit in. He was throwing punches with his left, but Kiernan managed to parry every single one with his right arm—his left arm was still pinned down by Andre.
"Is that all?" Andre asked arrogantly and kept hammering his fist down. "I thought you would be better than that!"
"Watch what you're wishing for." Kiernan said and suddenly bumped his hips up, throwing Andre off balance.
Immediately, Kiernan pulled back his pinned down arm and put Andre into a triangle chokehold with his legs. His legs wrapped around Andre's neck like a pair of snakes.
"Ngh!" Andre quickly placed one of his arms beside his head to stop the completion of the triangle chokehold. It worked, as he was still able to breathe.
"Tch." Kiernan clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Rah!" Andre slowly lifted Kiernan off the ground, slammed him back to the ground, and then tried stomping his head. But Kiernan quickly let go of the triangle chokehold and rolled out of the way.
Immediately after the roll ended, Kiernan jumped back to his feet.
"Damn, that was close!" Nath cried out. "I can barely breathe; everything is happening so quick!"
Andre sprang back to his feet and went for another tackle, but Kiernan suddenly ducked under his arms and attacked his legs. Andre was taken in by surprise and fell to the ground.
This time, it was Kiernan who successfully tackled.
Kiernan slammed down his hammer fist, but Andre moved out of the way just in time. He planned to stand back up, but Kiernan suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him back to the ground.
Kiernan whipped his leg down as he tried to soccer-kick Andre in the head. However, Andre rolled around, covered his head with his hands, and tanked the kick with his back.
Andre, without any hesitation, kicked Kiernan's legs out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground. Kiernan fell down on his back with a loud thud.
"Lumberjack's Backbreaker!" Andre chopped his hand down at Kiernan, but he quickly coiled his legs around Andre's arm and flipped him over.
Kiernan successfully put Andre into a very threatening armlock with his legs. Andre cried out, his face slowly reddening. He realized it was very bad for him.
"F-fuck!" Andre turned and twisted his body around until he had a small opening. With his free hand, he jabbed his fingers towards Kiernan's eyes—he was going for eyepoke!
Such dirty tactics were allowed.
Kiernan kicked the hand away, but it gave Andre enough leeway to slip his arm out of the armlock. After managing to escape from Kiernan's hold, he quickly regained his stance.
Kiernan jumped back to his feet with a casual expression—it didn't look like he was annoyed or disgusted by such tactics.
"Fine, you showed you can grapple." Andre said while breathing heavily. He realized just how taxing it was to fight Kiernan.
'Could it be…' Jin thought to himself. 'Is Kiernan a better grappler than Andre?!'
"I am not a slouch when it comes to striking either." Andre switched up his stance to resemble a Muay Thai fighter.
"Iron Style, Iron Smash!" Kiernan threw his fist with the power of a sledgehammer and punched through Andre's guard, then straight to the face.
Andre's feet slid backwards until he came to stop at the edge of the ring. His nose was bleeding furiously, and his legs were shaking.
Kiernan used Iron Smash!
It was usually his trump card to finish off his matches quickly. Now, he used it without knowing whether his punch would end the match or not.
Now, his hand was bruised. However, the bruise's color wasn't as dark, and it looked like he could still use it fairly easily—the hand didn't break!
The hand was clearly injured, but not to the extent that it was broken!
After reaching Martial Fighter, Kiernan tested a few of his skills and realized that he could use a few more now. The strongest skills were still out of the question, but he could use Iron Smash a few times before his hand broke.
Andre hopped around like a boxer and then rushed in. He wasn't feeling that confident anymore. He already got defeated in his strongest area, and from what he had heard from his coach, Kiernan should be a striker.
'I'll just need to exhaust him. It is much harder to grapple when exhausted!'
Andre reached the striking distance and then threw a series of quick jabs and crosses.
Kiernan didn't even use his Rendering Edge and simply parried the punches away with his rock-solid defense. It was as effective as ever.
Andre lowered his center of gravity and then kicked from low, but his kick soon turned into a high roundhouse kick.
Kiernan shot his hand forward and grabbed the leg—he didn't use his hand to grab it—he only used his fingers that looked like a claw.
"Iron Style, Iron Fingers." His fingers squeezed into the leg with tremendous strength. He could break the leg with his fingers if he wanted to.
It was almost like his fingers were—like the name suggested—made out of iron!
"Shit!" Andre cried out in pain.
The members of Seisen High School paled significantly. They could feel their hope dwindle at visible speed. Even their ace, Andre Mathieu, didn't seem to be a match for this unknown fighter!
"Iron Style, Anatomical Bind." Kiernan, with his fingers, controlled Andre's movements like a puppeteer and forced him down on his knees.
Andre unwillingly submitted to Kiernan's techniques and fell down on his knees.
At that moment, Kiernan clenched his right hand into a fist—however, his middle finger curled up into a hook—and then he punched Andre three times in the face—once in the forehead, once in the nose, and finally at the jaw.
"Iron Style, Triple Point Strike."
Andre's eyes rolled back to his skull, and he collapsed on the ground like a pile of folded laundry.
"The match is over!" The referee jumped to the ring with his arm raised high. "Winner, Kiernan Hunter! The winner is Karuza High!"
With that, the first match ended in dominant fashion.
Karuza High's supporters and members jumped from their seats and screamed one name in their cheers—Kiernan.