Martial Arts Worlds

With the engine roaring, a black car carrying the members of the Karuza High drove down a street.

It was an hour before today's matches would officially start.

However, with a car, it was much slower than just walking because of the traffic that plagued these streets.

"Why did we take a car anyway?" Nathaniel asked as he looked out of the window. "It's traffic hour."

"If we had gone walking, we would've been ambushed by your fans." Jin said. "We would never make it to the stadium like that."

"Fans? We got fans?" Timothy asked as he nudged his glasses.

"You gotta remember one thing." Jin looked into everyone's eyes. "We're now in the top 32 of the nation. More eyes will be on us than ever before."

At that moment, it dawned on them.

They reached the round of 32. It meant that there were only 32 teams left in the tournament, and they were among them!

They had already defeated 224 different schools!

Ryan sat with his arms crossed, but then side-glanced next to him, where a black-haired young man was sleeping soundly.

Kiernan, as soon as he entered the car, just took his place by the window seat and started napping.

It seemed like he didn't get good night's sleep.

'No wonder. Klaus' snoring must've kept him awake all night.' Ryan thought.

Within Jin's pocket, his phone started buzzing with messages.

As he retrieved his phone from his pocket, he opened it and went straight to the notifications.

"Everyone, we now know our first match of today." Jin said.

Everyone stopped talking between themselves and turned to Jin.

With a slight flinch, Kiernan's right eye opened slightly, just enough to see Jin.

"It is Liberty High." Jin said. "15th seed of the tournament. They have one High Stage Martial Soldier, one Low Stage Martial Fighter, and one Middle Stage Martial Fighter."

"I've heard about them." Timothy said and nudged his glasses. "They did well in Summer Invitationals. I think they placed fourth."

"Oh, no problem yet." Nathaniel grinned and leaned on the seat. "We already beat Raimei, who won."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Don't underestimate them." Jin said firmly. "I've heard stuff about their strongest fighter. A troublesome stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Klaus asked.

"You all know about Combat Forces, right?" Jin asked and saw some of them nod. "They're part of the Police Force that specializes in martial artist-related crimes."

"They consist mostly of former professional fighters that decided to put their strength to good use in a different way."

Timothy said as he knew quite a bit of Police Force. He also thought about joining them once he'd finished graduating.

"Well, Liberty High's strongest fighter, Tyler Karnage, had already been recruited by them. He is barely eighteen years old!"

"That's rare, no?" Timothy asked. "They rarely recruit anyone."

"A year ago, Liberty High was attacked by a group called the Supremacists. They attacked the school with one goal in mind: to kill everyone."

"I know about that!" Nathaniel shouted. "That was big news a year ago. Everyone talked about it. They failed, didn't they?"

"Yes, while the news didn't specify it for some reason, they were stopped by one student, and that was Tyler!"

"I heard the Supremacists are incredibly strong." Ryan said. "How did Tyler stop them?"

"The Supremacists that attacked that day were the weakest of the group. They attacked Liberty High to prove themselves. Tyler was able to defeat them all on his own, but not without any injuries.

"I heard it took him eight months to make a full recovery.

"Without that incident, I believe he could already be High Stage Martial Fighter."

"Sirs, we've arrived." The driver suddenly said as he drove into the stadium's underground parking lot.

It was reserved for the staff and the fighters.

"Kiernan, we've arrived." Ryan shook Kiernan awake, not knowing that he had already been awake.

"Mm." Kiernan nodded and stepped out of the car. 'Tyler Karnage, huh.'

…

In Liberty High's locker room.

Tyler slowly wrapped his knuckles with the white tape.

At that moment, the coach put his hands on his shoulders and asked. "How're you feeling, Tyler?"

"Well." Tyler said, and finished wrapping his knuckles. "Who will be our opponents?"

Isaiah and Cole looked over. They were the second and third fighters of the Liberty High.

While they couldn't hold a candle to Tyler's strength, they were both skilled fighters in their own right.

The coach took his phone out and stepped to the front of the locker room so they could all see him clearly.

The two reserve fighters stayed silent on their benches and looked over. They were merely Middle Stage Martial Soldiers.

The Liberty High was quite strange in that sense. There were times when their school was strong, like now, and could potentially reach the quarterfinal spot in the nationals.

However, sometimes they were among the worst in the nation.

Liberty High was also the only school in the Liberty region, so they didn't have to do any representation matches so far.

Thus, they had to solely rely on getting good talent.

It was looking dire for them, as in the past ten years, they haven't made it to the second day eight times out of ten.

With a lucky strike, Tyler happened to arrive at their school.

It wasn't far-fetched to say that he was the heart of their school's martial arts circle. Their success was solely on their shoulders.

The coach looked at their opponent on the phone and narrowed his eyes.

"Karuza High will be our opponents."

"Karuza High?" Isaiah frowned and then remembered. "Oh, the school that defeated Raimei High?!"

"Correct." The coach said. "While two of their fighters are weak, they've got a monster in their midst. Kiernan Hunter. I heard that he is only Low Stage Martial Fighter, but his real strength is much higher than that!"

"Well, they're not the only school with a monster." Cole said carefreely. "We have Tyler."

'Kiernan Hunter.' Tyler rubbed his neck and smiled. 'He sounds like a worthy opponent.'