Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 858: Strongest - Part 5

"What did he say?"

Samuel asked after Michael came back.

"He will think about it."

Michael said with a smile on his face.

"I know that you want to get more guys to join us now that Samuel got injured… But why him?"

Isaac asked and glanced at Samuel's injured left hand.

It was broken.

Thus, Isaac was already crossing out Samuel from the competition, as he was now at only half-strength.

He was most wary of Michael.

"It was either him or that guy."

Michael looked over to Erik.

There were groups that tried approaching Erik but were scared off by his powerful aura, and it was obvious he planned to stay alone.

The other solo fighters were being taken away by other groups as they realized that being solo in this competition was foolish.

"What if he is completely useless?"

Isaac asked.

"Nobody in here is completely useless. He doesn't have to be the strongest to have some use. There is power in numbers."

Michael said.

"He is coming over!"

In that moment, Samuel shout-whispered as he noticed Kiernan slowly walk over to them with a cold look on his face.

"Oh?"

Michael turned around with a smile.

"You already decided?"

"Yeah… I'll join."

Kiernan said.

With a smile, Michael patted him on the shoulder, then said, "Welcome onboard."

"…"

Kiernan looked at the three of them—but didn't see anything special about them—and only found weaknesses.

"This one is Samuel and Isaac."

Michael patted the friends of his two companions, and they greeted him with quite a lack of enthusiasm.

'Samuel has a broken hand. And this Isaac guy… has asthma. Michael also looks quite average at first glance.'

Kiernan thought.

He was able to tell that Isaac had asthma because of the inhaler that was poking out from his pocket.

'Should keep that hidden. You'll be screaming to everyone—hey, I have a big weakness. Come kill me!'

Kiernan thought.

If it wasn't for Bael, he wouldn't have joined this average-looking squad.

"I haven't asked your name yet."

Michael said.

"Kiernan."

He said.

It wasn't a common name, and they also hadn't heard about a person with that name in the underworld circle.

'A newcomer, huh.'

Michael thought.

In that moment, he looked around the Sanctuary and asked with a smile.

"What have you discovered about this place yet? You found all those different doors that lead to strange rooms, right?

"I know that some people managed to find weapons inside one of the rooms. One of those assholes managed to break Samuel's hand.

"We got them to back off, thankfully."

Michael said and looked to the corner of the Sanctuary—a group of five was gathered there—some of them had weapons.

When they met them previously, they also only had three, but it looked like they had recruited two more people.

"I haven't been in the rooms."

Kiernan said and crossed his arms.

He was just looking for people to kill, as he didn't want to stay here any longer than necessary.

"I think we should go explore the rooms. Maybe we can find some good weapons. There is still some time left, though."

Michael looked at the clock on the wall.

[51:55…]

[51:54…]

It was about fifty minutes until the door of the Sanctuary opened again, and they would be thrown back to the combat.

"Yeah, I'll just follow your lead…"

Kiernan sat down on the ground—with his one knee up and the other leg stretched out in front of him—he looked quite relaxed.

Michael and Isaac started talking about something.

Meanwhile, Samuel was just tightening the wrapping around his broken hand with a grimace on his face.

The "bandage" was actually just a makeshift one made out of his t-shirt.

'He is earning looks from other groups. If you have a broken hand, you should try to hide it, not flaunt it.'

Kiernan thought with a sigh.

…

"Mmh~"

Adam smiled to himself.

He was sitting on the ground, and Tyrone was cleaning the bloody blade of his axe right next to him.

"What are you humming for?"

Tyrone asked angrily.

It sounded annoying to him.

"I was thinking. I hum when I think."

Adam said.

He was, for some reason, looking for the lonely-looking Erik, who was scaring off everyone with just his mere presence.

"Thinking about what?"

Tyrone asked.

"What if we try to recruit Erik to join our group? I can't think of a stronger teammate for now."

Adam said.

"He won't join us. Just look at him. He is a berserker and loner. Even if he joins, he'll just end up causing more trouble than he's worth."

Tyrone said.

"I just don't think that two of us can make it to the end."

Adam said.

"What the hell? Where did your confidence go off to? You can piss off, and I'll do this alone if you're like this."

Tyrone said angrily.

"I was confident… before I saw him…"

Adam looked at one of the people in the Sanctuary and had a very serious look on his face.

Tyrone followed his gaze and saw him look towards a group of four—nobody looked that good—there was a young guy, a guy with asthma, a guy with a broken hand, and an ordinary-looking guy there.

"Which one?"

Tyrone asked.

"That one."

Adam pointed straight at Michael, who had his back turned on him and was just laughing and joking with Isaac and Samuel.

He didn't really come off as strong.

"Are you serious?"

Tyrone asked.

His opinion about Adam was dropping drastically as he thought that he might be a complete coward.

"He doesn't look all that special, but do not underestimate him. With just two of us, I am not sure if we can beat him."

Adam said with a serious look.

"If so, why is he teaming up with those weaklings? I swear that he chose three of the weakest guys to be his partners."

Tyrone said.

With a quick look, he could see that Isaac and Samuel were among the weakest—he had the same thought at the start of the tournament.

Before they left Sanctuary for the first time, he checked out every competitor in the tournament.

Tyrone was very proud of his ability to quickly analyze people, and even before then, he thought Isaac and Samuel were very weak.

He joined with Adam because he seemed strong, but he had gotten his analysis wrong before as well.

When he looked at Kiernan, he didn't get a decent reading, so he thought it was because he was also weak.

"I don't know. Meat shields, maybe? You shouldn't underestimate him, though. He doesn't need teammates."

Adam said.

"What did he do that makes him so strong in your mind, huh?"

Tyrone asked curiously.

"When I broke out of prison, I had nowhere to go, and I was being hunted down. I had to go somewhere.

"I found myself in America's Underworld, and since I had no money to my name, I started doing some shady jobs.

"Assassination jobs, et cetera.

"In one of my jobs, I had to protect some Black Market merchant as he was going to make a deal with a dangerous gang.

"Simple enough.

"I wasn't the only one that he hired. There were five other guys with us. I think they were all strong enough to compete in this tournament.

"…If they were alive."

Adam chuckled.

"They died?"

Tyrone asked with a frown.

Adam nodded and continued.

"We were a day away from the meeting location and decided to stay at a motel for the night. I went to sleep first, and I was supposed to be woken up in couple hours when it was my turn to keep watch.

"I did wake up, but not how I expected. I woke up with him staring into my eyes and holding a knife to my throat.

"The merchant… The other guards… All died without making a single sound. I had excellent senses too, which I honed during my run from the law.

"I can sense an ant crawling on the floor. I can wake up from the slightest sound of breath. I've even been able to wake up if there was someone looking at me.

"However.

"I couldn't sense him at all."

Adam said with a frown.

"Why didn't he kill you?"

Tyrone asked.

"He framed me as the murderer. The black market merchant's friends started hunting me. I was blacklisted from the Underworld.

"I kept investigating, and I found close to a hundred eerie assassination cases—similar to that one—and I think he has assassinated over a hundred targets.

"Never been killed."

Adam said.

"I still don't get why he would reveal himself to you. He could've framed you without showing himself."

Tyrone said.

"I don't know why he showed himself, but I want to find out, so now I finally have time to get some answers."

Adam said.

"Sounds like he is a good assassin, but is he a good fighter? I know he can be sneaky, but what about pure fighting?"

Tyrone asked.

"I don't know, but I'd rather fight someone like Erik than someone I won't even see coming."

Adam said.