'Zachary Lokiah. That name rings a bell. I think he is a fellow Martial Champion, a talent that crawled out of the shadows for that Junior Martial Arts Championship.'
Kiernan wasn't all that impressed.
"You see, the coach said to not 'antagonize' you, but since you're here, already making enemies of us, I have every reason to smack you around."
Zachary said, cracking his knuckles with audible pops as he stared Kiernan down.
At that moment, the school's bell started ringing throughout the entire school. The next class was starting.
"I don't have time for this."
Kiernan turned around, turning his back to them, and began walking away. He didn't care about proving himself to Zachary. He planned to do it in the nationals.
Zachary smirked, ran after him, and whipped his fist towards the back of his head. He was going for a nasty, cowardly cheap shot!
'What the hell is Zachary doing?'
Mateo wondered with a shocked look.
They didn't expect him to go straight for a cheap shot, but after a moment of thinking about it, this was Zachary they were talking about.
Of course he was going to fight dirty!
Kiernan moved his head out of the way. The fist barely grazed his ear. It still made the ear sting for a moment.
He quickly realized that Zachary was going for his nape. With a strong blow to the nape, he could've broken his neck or caused serious injury to his spine.
It wasn't a laughing matter.
Zachary didn't lower his smirking face and then twisted his waist before raising his knee and then snapped his leg into a high kick.
Kiernan placed his left arm in the way. Blocked the kick. The impact reverberated through his arm, but he didn't show any sign of pain.
With his improved body condition, he could handle blocking such kicks with relative ease.
At that moment, Kiernan grabbed Zachary's leg to his surprise, lifted him up from the air, and then threw him into the air as if he weighed nothing at all.
Zachary crashed into the vending machine, smashed through its glass, and landed in a heap on the floor.
Mateo and Lazaro screamed in a shock.
The vending machine kept spitting out snacks and drinks on the ground, but then Zachary rose from the ground with the same smirk on his face.
Zachary formed a fist with his right. He then took a big step forward and threw a wide swing at Kiernan.
The punch looked sloppy.
Kiernan slapped the punch away with a cold look.
With his left arm, Zachary suddenly took off his jacket and tossed it towards Kiernan to block his view. He couldn't see anything because of the brown jacket blocking his view!
Kiernan slapped the brown jacket away, but then Zachary's low kick headed straight towards his groin!
He quickly crossed his legs and used his knees to block the dangerous kick towards his groin.
A rageful punch slammed into Zachary's block and made him slide through the ground.
"Ouch, that's a strong punch."
Zachary shook his arms to regain feeling in his numb hands.
"Are you done? This fight is pointless."
Sure, he was annoyed by all the cowardly tactics from Zachary, but in the end, he didn't really care.
He had fought all kinds of people before, and some of them tried every cowardly trick in the book, but in the end, it never helped them in the fight against him.
Zachary erupted in maniac laughter and then lunged at Kiernan, then started throwing those wide, sloppy punches that no way in hell would land.
Kiernan used his left arm and just smacked the punches out of the air. His left arm moved like a blur, deflecting each blow effortlessly.
Zachary then shortened the distance even further, and this time, he threw a straight punch. It was a surprising change in pace after throwing only those wide, slow punches.
Kiernan sidestepped past the straight punch, turned his right hand into a spear hand, and thrust it towards Zachary's chest.
The spear hand was about to hit him in the chest, but at the last moment, Zachary grabbed his hand by the wrist, twisting it slightly to redirect the force of the attack.
"That was going to be dangerous. I had chills running down my spine. I couldn't let that attack land, y'see, or I'd be in big trouble."
Zachary said with a large grin and pushed Kiernan off balance, but he quickly recovered and stepped backward.
'It looks like the cowardly tactics weren't all that he has. He definitely has some talent, but that isn't a surprise. He is hiding a lot of things from me.'
Kiernan thought to himself.
Zachary let out a deep breath, scratched his head, and then threw his arms up in the air.
"Alright, alright, coach, I am leaving."
Kiernan raised an eyebrow, then turned around in surprise, and someone stood not that far away.
It shocked him to see someone else here since he couldn't sense anyone else nearby. There weren't many people that could just sneak close to him without him knowing.
"You kids should go back to your classes."
Alabaster said with a cold look.
He was staring straight at Zachary. Once again, he went against his words, as he often did.
'That worthless arrogance of his will be the end of our plan some day.'
"We will be seeing each other."
Zachary waved his hand at Kiernan and walked away while humming a lullaby. It was almost like he didn't have a fight just now, but just a stroll in the park.
Kiernan turned around as well and walked in the opposite direction. He could feel his phone making noise in his pocket.
'Julian must be calling me. The class has started, I guess.'
While he walked away, Alabaster kept looking at his back with a narrowed gaze.
'As I expected, he will be the greatest adversary of the nationals. Kiernan Hunter. I don't underestimate you, even if Zachary does. But I cannot allow you standing in our way either.'