Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 855: Strongest - Part 2

"…"

Kiernan watched with arms crossed at the man on the flickering screen.

He didn't care about the 100 million prize money, but he was more interested in this Chip, which had become a myth in the underworld circle.

If he could make himself ten times as strong, he would have zero challengers left in his path to the strongest.

"However."

In that moment, the man on the screen continued speaking, and everyone quieted down.

"It won't be that easy. This tournament has stronger warriors from every corner of Earth—from Europe, from Asia, from North America, and a couple are even from Africa.

"This is easily the most competitive fighting tournament in the world—ever."

The man said with a smile.

However, everyone felt like there was a "but" coming. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"But, for this enormous prize, there is also a big price for everyone to pay. You're in a place that we call the Sanctuary.

"You won't be allowed to fight in Sanctuary.

"However, when the door opens, you'll have to leave Sanctuary for one hour. Outside the Sanctuary, everything goes.

"Fight to the death!"

The man laughed, but then his expression turned cold, and his mouth opened one last time.

"Only one shall survive. The rest shall perish."

With that, the screen went black.

It took a moment for those last words to register into everyone's brain, but when they did, they all started screaming.

"What do you mean only one shall survive?!"

"I didn't sign up for this shit! I want to get out of here!"

Kiernan's expression turned dark.

He looked around the Sanctuary and thought, 'They all must die in order for me to survive.'

"Hahaha, you goddamn morons. You think you came here for a picnic? You should've known what you signed up for when you decided to join the underworld tournament.

"MORONS!"

In that moment, they heard a man speak.

They looked at him—he was a dark-skinned man with long dreadlocks—and his body looked like there was zero fat, but every inch was pure muscle.

"That's Tyrone the Destroyer… I've heard that he is currently America's most wanted serial killer. With bare hands, he terrorized New York for five years."

Someone said with a tinge of fear in their voice.

Wherever they looked, there were world-famous people who had reached the peak of success in their respective fields.

Nobody in here was weak.

"You're Tyrone, aren't you? Hehe~"

At that moment, the pretty blond-haired boy approached the scary-looking man, and they looked completely different from each other.

"Who the fuck are you?"

Tyrone asked angrily.

"That's… the Killer of the Women, Adam! He is another infamous serial killer, but for some reason he has only targeted women. I thought he was captured!"

"Adam… The Killer of the Women?"

Tyrone scoffed, as he had heard of him before, and only because Adam happened to kill the president's wife.

It made him the most wanted man in the country, but then he got captured like three years ago, and hadn't been heard of him since.

Until now.

"I thought they gave you a death sentence."

Tyrone said.

"They did, but you see, they were so slow that I got tired of waiting for my death, so I escaped, haha!"

Adam laughed.

"You escaped? How come that wasn't everywhere in the news?"

Tyrone asked.

"Haha, the president didn't want everyone to know. The elections were coming. He must've thought that it would be a bad look for him if his wife's murderer was on the loose~"

Adam chuckled.

"Well, what the fuck do you want from me?"

Tyrone asked.

"There is a reason why this Sanctuary exists. It is so that everyone can rest for a while, but also… to build some alliances.

"The two of us, if we team up, can get to the end without a doubt, and when we're there, we'll decide the winner in a one-versus-one duel. What do you say?"

Adam asked with a smile.

Tyrone looked at him silently, his enormous muscles tensed as he considered the offer, and he eventually nodded.

"Sure…"

He knew that Adam was a very shrewd individual, and he was going to backstab him without a doubt.

However.

That backstab wouldn't happen until it was very advantageous for Adam, so it wasn't going to happen until the very end of the tournament.

Adam was also a really strong fighter.

While running away from law enforcement, Adam was able to defeat hundreds of cops without breaking a sweat.

In the end, the president was done with him and sent America's Five Godly Saints to apprehend him.

Four of those Godly Saints died during the fight.

In the end, Adam was apprehended.

Hearing them talk, it made every other fighter also very active as they started to look for alliances.

Soon, groups of two—sometimes groups of three and four—emerged. As if the whole Sanctuary had been split into factions.

However.

Kiernan was still alone with no intention to team up with anybody, and he was already being targeted by a couple of groups.

"…He is planning to be all alone."

"…When we leave the Sanctuary, we can get rid of him quickly."

Blaaaaaaareeeeeeeee~

In that moment, a horn went off.

In that moment, a huge door opened up, and it got lifted all the way to the ceiling—there was now a way out of the Sanctuary.

At the screen, the timer also started.

[59:59…]

[59:58…]

The temperature suddenly started rising in the Sanctuary, and gas started to slowly fill the Sanctuary.

"There's gas!"

"We need to get out!"

Chaos ensued as everyone sprinted out of the Sanctuary, and when everyone was out, the Sanctuary behind them exploded in a massive fireball.

"What the hell…"

"If we stay at Sanctuary, we will be burned to a crisp!"

They all looked around themselves, but it was so dark, so they couldn't even see in front of them without bumping into something.

At that moment.

The lights suddenly turned on, and they saw where they were.

Concrete walls. Everywhere they looked. And the place around them resembled that of a maze, but with multiple floors.

There were hundreds of staircases, leading to different places in the facilities. Many hallways, hundreds of them.

At the end of each hallway, there was a door. A sign above each one. The signs were all written in the English language.

"Look, there are weapons!"

In that moment, someone shouted, and in the middle of this open space, there were crates of weapons.

Not guns or anything like that.

Melee weapons—such as swords, axes, maces, spears, and much more.

Seeing them, the eyes of the fighters rounded up in greed, and they all started eyeing each other.

They realized that this was it—the start of the Devil's Ritual—and now they were going to fight to the death.

"Mine!"

Someone shouted, lunging towards the crates, but before he could get to them, someone kicked him out of the way.

"Fuck off!"

Tyrone laughed.

There were several people that tried attacking Tyrone, but Adam defended him, and scratched them with his nails.

"Ah, fuck!"

"This bastard scratched me!"

Adam even scratched one of them into eye—which destroyed the eye—and made the person half-blind!

"Hahahaha!"

Adam laughed with his bloody fingers.

With a smirk, Tyrone picked up an axe and noticed a person tried to steal one of the swords in the crates.

"Fuck you!"

Tyrone swung the axe and chopped off the person's head.

In that moment.

A person started walking over to them—he was tall, maybe two meters—with blond hair and blue eyes.

Very scandinavian-like man with the normal features that one could find from Norwegian, maybe Swedish descent.

"Oh? You look like you can put up a fight!"

Tyrone looked at the man with a grin on his face.

The man's eyes were still cold. Like he had ice in his veins. And he didn't treat Tyrone as any sort of threat.

"Wait a moment, Tyrone. Not him."

Adam quickly said and pulled Tyrone out of the way of the man.

"Huh? What the fuck are you talking about?"

Tyrone asked angrily.

"We shouldn't fight him when he is at his full strength. Let's have someone else deal with him."

Adam said with a wry smile.

"Huh?"

Tyrone frowned, and just watched as the man picked up one of the weapons from the crate, and walked off.

"Who the hell is that guy?"

Tyrone asked.

"That's the champion of the Europe's death matches, Erik Lundman—a series of matches organized by Europe's biggest crime syndicate.

"The members of the underground fight each other till death, and each fighter bets all of their possessions on the line, including their lives.

"The winner gets everything that the loser possessed—which can even be a wife, children, and such—and so far, that man has won every single fight.

"Three hundred victories. Zero losses. We don't want to fight that guy when he is at his full strength, even if we can win.

"We will suffer some losses, and getting injured this early on would be disastrous for our chances at victory."

Adam said with a serious look.

"Tch… Fine."

Tyrone clicked his tongue.