'I've seen all his fight videos because Alabaster made me watch them. For some reason, he thinks of him as a great threat in the nationals, but I don't see it.'
Zachary thought to himself with a scoff, and with the crowd cheering his name, he took a long lunge forward and chopped his hand down, like a sword.
Kiernan grabbed the chopping hand, but Zachary immediately brought his elbow towards his face.
This was part of his style. Always bringing the fight to close quarters, then unleashing his knee and elbow strikes with precision and force.
However, in this case, it was a mistake.
Kiernan placed his right fist against Zachary's chest.
A powerful force smashed against Zachary's chest, making his eyes bulge. His body lifted off the ground slightly as he got sent flying backward.
It felt like he was hit by a sledgehammer!
'What in the world was that?'
Zachary coughed painfully and quickly raised his arms back up in defense.
In the close quarters fights, Kiernan was the strongest with his Iron Fist technique!
Trying to shake off the pain, Zachary laughed as if that previous attack didn't do anything to him. His arrogance and ego didn't allow him to look weak, no matter what.
Zachary slowly approached Kiernan. He saw the backpack lying on the ground, and without thinking twice, he kicked it up from the ground and straight towards Kiernan.
Kiernan smacked the backpack out of the air, but immediately after, Zachary's fist came flying towards him like a bullet released from a gun.
It was fast and powerful!
With only his right arm, Kiernan effortlessly parried away the strike. He didn't even bother to use his left arm.
Zachary didn't stop and kept punching like a relentless machine.
Every single one of his punches got parried away effortlessly. It didn't even look like those punches were anywhere close to landing!
The crowd's expression started to change into awkwardness. They couldn't believe that there was such a huge gap between the two.
'Is Kiernan really this strong?'
Julian wondered as well.
He thought that they were pretty close, but it looked like something happened that made him jump several levels above him!
Another punch came flying in.
This time around, Kiernan used his left arm, pushed it to the side, and then ducked before smashing his elbow against Zachary's abdomen.
Zachary coughed up some blood.
Without a moment of stopping, Kiernan followed with a backhand slap to Zachary's face, making him stumble backward with a bleeding nose.
Because of Zachary's tough conditioning, he would usually be able to handle those two attacks like it was nothing, but not this time.
Those two hits landed with such force that his whole body was reeling in pain!
Like a broken machine, Zachary just kept laughing as if that would change anything and kept rushing at Kiernan, trying to use every cowardly tactic in his book to gain the upper hand.
He tried eye-poking, but with Kiernan's defense, he easily blocked the attack, causing Zachary to stumble backward in a daze.
'Is that so? You shouldn't push me to this extent.'
With his right hand, Zachary picked up his pocket knife from the ground and swung it at Kiernan, but he quickly pulled his head back.
The pocket knife barely missed his throat.
The crowd and the teacher looked shocked. This wasn't a joking matter anymore. This could end in actual deaths if this fight lasted any longer!
Zachary tossed the pocket knife out of the broken window. He smirked, then started hopping off the ground like a boxer and put his arms in front of him.
'Haha, this is it! Zachary has three tactics in his arsenal. The first one is cowardly tactics, the second is strike tactics, and no one knows his third one, but he said that it exists…'
Mateo thought with a smirk.
He thought that the fight looked bleak, but he knew that Zachary was just playing around. He wasn't using his true strength.
Cowardly tactics were his weakest style.
'Alabaster told me to keep my striking hidden, but fuck this. How can I hold my head high if I fucking lose? I'm not some pussy-ass bitch!'
Zachary dashed forward and then reeled back his right arm before throwing it forward with a straight punch.
Kiernan kept calm and just parried the punch away, but then another punch came, which he also parried. Then the third punch came, and he parried that as well.
Zachary's jabs rained down like machine gun fire, and anyone else would be reeling in panic, but not Kiernan.
The unbreakable defense didn't break!
With Rendering Edge, he stopped the jabbing storm right in its tracks. It didn't matter how many punches he kept throwing. None of them were going to land!
'Yeah, keep defending like a pussy. That isn't going to work!'
Zachary suddenly lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Kiernan's head. It happened very suddenly.
Then, with his knees, he started repeatedly driving them into Kiernan's midsection.
With Iron Human, he tanked all the kneeing strikes and then punched Zachary in the face, pushing his face to the side, but he just grinned, pulled back his head, and headbutted Kiernan in the face!
Kiernan's nose started bleeding, but his eyes turned cold, and he grabbed Zachary by the hair before headbutting him straight in the nose.
The two young men's eyes turned white with rage as they engaged in a heated fistfight.
Zachary punched Kiernan in the side of his head, but then he placed his fist against Zachary's chest and unleashed the powerful Iron Fist strike!
Zachary grinned through bloodied teeth and elbowed Kiernan across his face. The sharp elbow cut through his skin like a knife.
Kiernan tightened his facial muscles, made the bleeding wound close down, and then smashed his palm into Zachary's face.
The strike rocked Zachary's brain back and forth inside his head. It was like a pinball, bouncing around erratically.
It made him lose consciousness for exactly half a second.
When he regained his consciousness, a fist landed against his face.