The train's whistle echoed throughout the train station.
"The train for Irio is about to depart!" The conductor shouted, waving his hand in the air to signal for passengers to hurry.
At the first sound of the whistle, the passengers hurried inside the train, but since Irio wasn't the most popular destination, the train was quite empty.
At that moment, people started whispering within the train station, and everyone's eyes followed a wheelchair-bound young man as he was helped into the train.
"Here," Jin gave the conductor a couple of tickets and then pushed Kiernan onto the train.
The conductor tipped his hat and checked Kiernan briefly, as this young man had become quite popular in New Rakuya.
'So, that's the young man who challenged Johan Yeager,' the conductor thought for a moment before moving on to another passenger.
Ryan and the rest followed behind Jin as they took their seats at the front of the train.
With some difficulty, Kiernan hopped off his wheelchair and took a window seat while Jin folded the wheelchair, placing it in the overhead compartment.
The rest took seats around Kiernan, excitedly looking out of the window towards Tiamut's calming landscape.
After another whistle, the train began to move down the tracks, slowly picking up speed, and the windows started showing the passing landscape.
Kiernan looked away from the windows and turned to Klaus and Timothy. They didn't leave Tiamut without injuries either.
Klaus had a cast on his left arm, and Timothy had a white eyepatch with a neck brace.
"What happened to you two?" He asked out of curiosity.
"Haha…" Klaus awkwardly laughed. "Well, after your match, the tension was quite high, and after seeing you do everything you possibly could in the match, we felt inspired to do our absolute best as well."
"However, that didn't turn out too well." Timothy said with a chuckle. "Yves was equally inspired, and he obviously didn't want to disappoint Johan, so he pretty much crushed us."
"We tried, tried, and tried." Klaus sighed. "We tried pushing him off. Biting at him. We tried every trick in the book, but we couldn't move him. It was like trying to move a mountain."
"These two rascals almost jumped into the ring after you." Jin patted Ryan's and Nath's shoulders. "Luckily I managed to stop them. Otherwise we would've been disqualified!"
Ryan and Nathaniel scoffed.
After seeing Kiernan's fight, they didn't want to just keep sitting on the bench while watching their school lose. They also wanted to fight!
Nathaniel scrolled on his phone and said, "The fight between you and Johan had become quite famous on FightTube with over 100,000 views already!"
"Oh?" Kiernan asked, intrigued. "May I see the video?"
"Sure!" Nathaniel handed him his phone.
Kiernan pressed play, and watched the fight in silence.
While in the eyes of others he was just watching, he was actually criticizing him over every move.
'Why did I do that?' Kiernan frowned. 'That dodge was awful, so awkward. It was because I couldn't use my Rendering Edge, so annoying.'
The more he watched, the more annoyed he was with himself.
"It sure was shocking to see you not be able to use your defense,"
Ryan said and stretched his arms above his head.
"We've gotten used to you using your rock-solid defense, and no one was able to break it, but Johan was able to, and so easily even. I guess you can't defend if your opponent is physically much stronger?"
"Rendering Edge redirects the attacks away." Kierna showed the movement with his hand. "Either with slaps or the sides of the hand, I push the attacking punch away from my body."
"So, if you can't push the incoming fist away, your defense will be nullified?" Jin asked.
"Sort of," Kiernan said. "It's true that his overwhelming strength made it hard to use it, but I still could've if I wanted to."
"How so?" Ryan asked.
"If I had used all of my strength to push those punches away, I could've." Kiernan said. "However, Johan's skin was so tough that I would've injured myself that way. A defense where you get injured is no defense at all, so I just switched to offense."
"With that logic, you could've injured Johan as well?" Nathaniel guessed.
"Yes, if I slapped and chopped the attacks away with greater strength, Johan would've also gotten injured, but with his Superhuman physique, I don't think it would've mattered much."
"Damn, that physique is such a cheat code!" Klaus exclaimed.
"That's what I said." Jin chuckled. "However, that is just how this world is. In the stronger countries, there are thousands of people like Johan with unique bodies and abilities that give them an advantage."
"In the end, my body is weak." Kiernan showed his cast-hidden hand and said, "I'll need to increase my body conditioning. I want my hands to be as hard as steel."
"If your hands were as strong as steel, how do you think the fight would've ended?" Ryan asked out of curiosity.
"If I had my steel hands…" Kiernan smiled and raised a finger towards the ceiling. "With my Rendering Edge, I would've broken Johan's arms."
"Can that be achieved?" Nathaniel asked. "That kind of body conditioning?"
"Oh, yes…" Kiernan said and looked at his hands. "And I will achieve that."
His words made others think more about Iron Style and where Kiernan could've possibly learned it.
To their knowledge, they don't remember anyone using it before, at least not in Irio.
They didn't really believe that Kiernan created it himself, as he was only a sixteen-year-old kid, as it usually takes years of practice and study to develop a new martial arts technique.
However, Kiernan hadn't just created a technique; he had created an entire style that would usually take a lifetime to create!
Especially a style that was so powerful.
'If I had received the True Iron Style pill instead, I would've won the match right there and then.'
'However, I want to be able to use the true strength of my Iron Style without any help from pills or this system. I must reach that level.
'I hate to be this… incomplete. My mind always gives me better options to defeat my opponent, but I can't use those techniques without breaking my body.