Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 857: Strongest - Part 4

The arrival of solo fighter Kiernan came as a surprise to everyone, as most of the fighters already had groups.

The only solo ones were either idiotic, too prideful to team up, or simply strong enough to not need any help.

"Who is this one, Vikram? You seem to have a vast amount of understanding about the people in the underworld, so who is this?"

James asked.

"This one is a mystery even to me."

Vikram said with a frown.

He'd never seen this face anywhere before and could only conclude that this person was new to the underworld.

"A nobody then."

James said.

"I'll take care of him then."

Zephyr popped his joints and slowly started walking towards Kiernan with a poised and measured stride.

While walking, he was examining the location and every piece of it that he could use as a weapon. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

'There is a little bit of sandy-like dirt under our feet. I can throw it into his eyes and blind him. He is wearing a loose shirt, which I can pull up and tie around his neck to strangle him.'

Zephyr's mind was running quickly.

He made his decision.

With a sudden lunge, he leaned close to the ground, picked up some of the dirt, and threw it in Kiernan's direction.

In that moment, a singular finger pierced through the dirt and jabbed into Zephyr's throat with incredible force.

"?!?!?!?!?!"

Zephyr's eyes widened in shock, and there was suddenly a hole in his throat—it started gushing with blood.

Kiernan just walked past him casually.

With a look of disbelief, Zephyr dropped to the ground, and he twitched and squirmed for a moment before going still, his eyes staring blankly ahead.

At the moment of his death, he still couldn't believe that his death came so soon.

"What…"

James' eyes shook.

"He killed him with a finger…"

Vikram whispered.

He could see one of Kiernan's fingers being covered in blood—fresh blood—and it wasn't his either.

"Hahaha, that was sick!"

Remi laughed and tapped the baseball bat on his shoulder with a grin on his face.

"Hey, you. Want to join our side? Let's kill these two together. It doesn't hurt to have some friends, you know."

Remi asked.

"…"

Kiernan looked at him coldly.

"DON'T!"

At that moment, Wei and Liang shouted.

They looked truly frightened, as if they had seen something horrendous, and they were even peeing their pants.

"What the hell is wrong with the two of you?"

Remi asked angrily.

"H-he is a demon… a true demon… evil incarnate…!"

Wei stammered.

With his special eyes, he was able to see the truth of Kiernan's inner demons—he and Liang saw Bael—and their mortal minds could not handle it at all.

They were gazing into the eyes of true evil.

"We need to fight him together. This one is a demon. A King Demon. None of us can handle him alone!"

Liang shouted with an extremely serious expression.

"What are you lunatics talking about? Maybe you guys should have stayed in that insane asylum."

James said with a scoff.

He didn't believe in demons, spirits, and such. They were just fantasy. And he thought Kiernan looked like a human.

"Such bullshit. I'll show that he is nothing but a human!"

With a baseball bat in hand, Remi ran past James and Vikram—and he then swung the baseball bat at Kiernan.

In that moment.

Kiernan grabbed the baseball bat, crushed it under his hand, and then punched his fist through Remi's chest.

"Cough!"

Remi coughed blood as his body collapsed to the ground.

"I am the demon? Look in the mirror, you filth."

Kiernan scoffed.

However.

In the eyes of everyone now, he truly looked like a demon incarnate with his fist of blood and generally scary face.

Swoosh~

At that moment.

James moved towards him—his fists were tightly pressed against his chest—and he started throwing boxing jabs.

'Rendering Edge…'

Kiernan casually deflected James' punching attempts—none of them were a threat to him—and that was neither James' intent nor his goal in this particular fight.

'He is decent in standing fighting, but what about on the ground?'

James smirked and punched again—it was a feint—he suddenly dropped to the ground and tried to take Kiernan down.

"Knee Strike!"

Out of nowhere.

Kiernan's knee made contact with James' face, and his head snapped back—the nose was broken, and the skull cracked.

"Argh!"

James coughed blood.

'He… perfectly predicted my move… and countered flawlessly…'

It had been said that James' takedowns were the quickest in the entire world, and in all of MFC, nobody had ever been able to stop him… until now.

Then, he saw Kiernan's eyes.

Cold. Emotionless. Ready.

James knew that Kiernan intended to kill him right now because he had shown this same look to many of his victims before.

While he wasn't participating in MFC, he did like doing some underworld fighting, as only the fights to the death interested him.

Thus, he knew the end was nigh.

"W-w-wait…"

In that moment, Kiernan grabbed him, and using just his brute strength, he ripped him apart as if he were paper.

"Ripper!"

James got ripped in half—a truly disgusting sight—and Wei and Liang were already vomiting at the sight.

They had seen a lot of messed-up shit.

Nothing like this.

"88th Technique of the Buddha, Golden Palm Strike!"

Vikram thrust his palm strike at Kiernan.

"Iron Smash!"

Kiernan punched at the palm, the impact sending both men flying back, and their feet slid across the dusty ground.

"L-Liang, we need to leave…"

Wei whispered.

Liang agreed.

But in that moment.

"Get out of the way!"

Kiernan yelled, charging forward with a roar, and his hands sliced through the two demon hunters.

Cut apart, Wei and Liang fell to the ground in shock—unable to move—and then they died.

"100th Technique of the Buddha, Thousand Palm Karma Strike!"

Thousands of the palm strikes flew through the air towards Kiernan, and he weaved through it as if he were weaving through sideways falling rain.

'I can't hit him with this?'

Vikram's eyes widened in shock.

Nobody had been able to dodge this before.

And at this moment, Kiernan's fist flew and landed on Vikram's cheek—with a loud crunch sound—and his head snapped to the side.

With blood gushing from his mouth, Vikram fought back, and fiercely—using all his knowledge of Buddha to fight back.

The Wisdom King of India fought hard. Well. But Kiernan was strong.

The strongest one that the Wisdom King had ever come across before, and all of his techniques failed to reach Kiernan.

'Unbelievable… There must be one technique that will work on him… But which one? I can't decide!'

Vikram's eyes shook.

Kiernan didn't have the same problem in hand.

He knew exactly what techniques to use and when to use them.

And slowly… the Wisdom King of India also fell before his power.

…

[0:00]

"PLEASE, EVERYONE RETURN TO THE SANCTUARY!"

A voice traveled across the hallways, and everyone stopped fighting and returned back to the Sanctuary.

Some were injured. Some weren't.

"Look at him… Wow, so scary…"

Some fighters whispered among themselves.

Drenched in the blood of his enemies, Erik Lundman walked into the Sanctuary—a cold look in his eyes.

It looked like he had been swimming in a pool of blood.

"I wonder if that blood is only his enemies' or if his own is also mixed in…"

Before the Sanctuary doors closed, Kiernan also returned back there and sat down by the wall—away from others.

He looked at his fingers.

They were slightly bruised and were hurting.

For him to use his powerful Iron Style techniques, he is also hurting himself in the process, as his body isn't just strong enough.

'Maybe one day I can throw Iron Smash without hurting myself. But for now, I must endure the pain.'

Kiernan thought with a cold look.

The doors of the Sanctuary then closed, and everyone noticed that there were only about 70 fighters left.

30 had already died.

And that was only in an hour.

"Ahh…"

At that moment, someone sat down beside Kiernan, and very close at that—their shoulders almost touching.

"???"

Kiernan looked at him with a puzzled look.

"Do you want to join my group?"

The man asked with a smile on his face.

"No."

Kiernan responded.

"My name is Michael."

He said with a smile.

"I didn't ask."

Kiernan said.

"And those two over there are Samuel and Isaac. My fellow companions in this journey to death. I hope you join us and we become the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

Michael said.

"I said no. Fuck off."

Kiernan repeated.

"Hehe~ I get it. You want to be alone because what is the point of teaming up? We have to start killing each other eventually, right?"

Michael turned to look at him with a smile.

Kiernan stayed silent, but he was like, "Yeah," as it seemed obvious that there was no concept of "friends" here.

"You are strong, I get it. Most other solo fighters died just now as they were being targeted and they couldn't hold their own. You survived, so I bet you have a lot of skill.

"I'll let you think it over, yeah?"

Michael smiled, then stood up and walked back to his two other companions.

'That guy… I don't like him.'

In that moment, Bael spoke inside his mind.

'Why?'

Kiernan asked.

'He's dangerous. He is hiding something. I can feel a powerful presence inside him. I want you to look into it.'

Bael said.

'And how am I going to do that?'

Kiernan asked.

'Are you fucking stupid? Join his idiotic little group!'