Rushing ahead, my body feels light, turquoise Qi converging at my fingertips. My open palm is ready to grasp the masked tough man to my left. Meters are crossed in an instant, and as my left hand is within range, the opposing man grunts before sending his very own palm strike.

A clash ensues, the turquoise energy digging into the red glowing palm. Grasping his hand, my fingertips, glowing a multitude of shades deeper yet brighter, force his skin apart. "Kuh!" Sensing the danger, I see his eyes widen behind the mat black mask. "What are you two doing?! Let's not forget he's two layers above me!" With the hint of my superiority, I push further, clutching his hand harder. "Let go of me!" Roaring, the man tries to gather his Qi near the back of his hand, but only aids me, thinning the red glow within his fingers. Following this, said fingers echo with cracking sounds, growing more and more uncomfortable for the ears as moments pass. "Die!" To my rightmost, the fake monk guy is trying to get behind me while the second voice's owner has already jumped at my head with a clawing hand.

Frowning, my muscles tense, the red guy's hand beginning to relent under the continuous pressure. Just as I raise my right arm to counter the claw glowing a deep blue, I notice the red guy's leg kicking at my stomach from the corner of my eyes. Thankfully, despite the strange effects of the challenges completely sidelining my own stats and martial prowess, this body's owner must be pretty good. In a heartbeat, my left hand breaks the opponent's with an abrupt surge in strength, before shifting the flow of Qi there to go back and cover my tightened abdominals. Soon enough, I'm slightly offset by the clawing hand landing on my right fist, grasping it. My wide stance is however solid, ignoring the damage I still sustained from the kick's shockwaves. Letting go of the broken hand, I attempt to turn around, but the man's blue hand doesn't let me.

Knitting my brows, I grit my teeth as my Qi was barely sent fast enough to cover my whole back. But due to the large spread, the turquoise Qi was not thick enough to absorb the Qi crashing there. With a roar of my own, I put Qi into my right pectoral, arm and ribcage before pulling the man closer to me. Obviously bewildered by the sudden force ruining his balance, the man is flung to me with widened eyes.

Trying to let go of my hand, I use this opening and completely ignore the third man's danger. Like a fencer, I transform my right fist into a different form, only letting my index and middle knuckles forward. With my entire weight and momentum behind it, along with a large amount of Qi, the knuckles dig deep into his retreating palm, soon piercing right through his thinning layers of protection.

I watch him wince in pain, clutching his hand as he falls to the ground grunting. Meanwhile, another blow hits my back, this time enough to force the air out of my lungs. Luckily my spine wasn't damaged, but some of my ribs on the left side might have. But now freed from the two rivals, I spin toward the fake monk bastard with my right elbow in tow. My eyes soon discovering his exact position, I see his yellow Qi in turmoil, his mind unable to focus on the fight.

With a smirk, I shout at his peeled eyes and trembling body, his Qi dispersing as my elbow collides with his defenseless cheekbone. With an audible crack, he is sent spinning midair while I can already see his head make a full rotation, the neck twisted like a towel. "Little Qi Refining Realm bitch! Think you can beat me?!" After a few words to let off some steam, I ignore the dead man, since an internal decapitation is pretty tough to survive in his state. "Now there's just the two of you left!" With an intimidating stance, I check my status.

DT | ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⊚⦿⦿⦿⦿ | (41.5 / 74.9)

Less than I thought, but more than enough. Especially since now this is no longer a three versus one. "I have a sore spot for such situations. But now that one is gone, I feel much better!" Clenching my fists, I take a stance, not worried about my health that is nearly full.

It seems that, even after being hit from behind without protection, the blow on my abdominals was still more dangerous. Perhaps it's due to the enemy not yet being in the Foundation Establishment Realm. In any case, with both having one hand injured each, the fight should be fair. The red Qi guy's right fingers are broken, while the blue Qi guy's right hand has a big hole in the middle, crippling most of his fingers and the use of his palm.

Not only that, but their health is declining fast, especially the blue one. A hole in one's hand may not be fatal in most cases, often due to early treatment, but there are arteries thinning the further into the hands. Be it as it may, arteries, even if thinner, are still arteries in the end. The sheer volume of blood flowing through them is much higher than a regular vein, making a big hole like that a potential critical danger. This is proven at the puddles of blood forming at his feet, while the red guy doesn't seem to be bleeding out. But judging by his health declining steadily, his bones must have ruptured quite the amount of blood vessels.

I could hear the red guy's gnashed teeth as he pulled his mask off, revealing a grim expression. He had, matching his red Qi, eyebrows and hair of the same color. His eyes, as I saw them clearly before, were a bright yellow. "What are you doing?!" This was a surprise move for both of us, forgetting our fight for a moment. "It's fine! I can't see anything with how thick the mask is! Besides, he already knows who we are anyway! What's the point? It was just a useless precaution to begin with." Not letting any of us recover from the twisted logic only hiding a restless body, he lunged at me, clawing with his remaining left hand.

With red glowing nails, letting much more of the potent glow compared to skin, his blurry figure appeared near instantaneously. However, my realm was still higher than his, and so was my reaction time. With a side step to my right, I dodged the vertical claw, the man trying to alter the course mid-attack. Not giving him the chance, I used my left hand to hold his wrist in place, thereby locking the entire arm with the tightness of my clutch. Trying to bend it out of the way, as well as twisting it, he could do neither, an even grimmer, darkening face shown as he could already tell what was bound to happen.

To confirm his guess, I swung my right arm back before palming the back of his elbow with all my strength. On impact, his Qi reinforced elbow broke, snapping the other direction as I could hear his gritted teeth. Ignoring the tears in his eyes, I nearly shift all the Qi I was using to my right temple before adding some more to my head and neck muscles. Taking a more stable stance, rooting myself down, followed by my center of gravity, I let go of the man's elbow as he spoke with alarm. "Dumbass!" He looked like he wanted to say more, but had no time as the tip of a boot landed on my temple with incredible penetrative force.

The entire weight, as well as a lot of Qi hidden inside, from the other man came on my right temple, his figure seen from the corner of my eyes, having jump kicked me mid-air. The shockwave our collision emanated was enough to force a miniature dust storm, my body nearly falling over. Regardless, with my Qi in the way, my neck and skull were stiff as a rock, and my head therefore didn't move at all comparatively to my whole body. The earlier shockwaves were however an omen for the mess my brain was hit with. But with the mitigation of my Qi and the non-existent movement of my head, I barely felt lightheaded.

In the meantime, during the blue man's descent from gravity, my right fist was already on its way toward his extended left leg. Having just kicked me, it was the closest, as well as the most vulnerable.

This counter was most likely what the other guy shouted for, feeling his ally to be reckless with the sneak attack.

To this I can't exclaim much, but don't mind, my powerful, Qi filled fist already digging into his calf. Since the man had used Qi on the foot of this same leg, the travel was short lived enough to protect his shinbone, but only so much. The difference in cultivation was apparent, and the quality of our Qi surprisingly potent. I could feel my Qi devour his, destroying every layer of protection before properly snapping his tibia and fibula right in half. The man frowned with visible agony, screaming still mid-air before falling down with closed eyes. His audible pain didn't diverge my focus, leaning back to avoid a roundhouse kick from the other cripple.

With another roar from him, he swung his loose arm at me, trying to use it as distraction, which was too obvious from the red glow apparent on his other arm. To this, I reacted on instinct and grabbed his left wrist, flailing loose along the broken elbow, before spinning around. "Wai-!" Shocked by the pulling force, his Qi began to spread all over his body, from head to toe, in preparation for the impact nearing.

As I spun around diagonally, I used his entire body, held by the wrist, like a whip, and swung him at an exponentially growing speed toward the ground behind. In a fraction of a second, I watched his Qi vanish without a trace, most likely due to his panic protection emptying his reserves fully, as even I wouldn't dare use so much at once. He was slammed right after, just when his protection faded away, crashing with the back of his head first. The ground was dug out around him, forming a small crater burying his now limp body.

"One more down." The entire thing was so fast, his ally couldn't even react to it. Thanks to the system, I could confirm whether or not someone or something was dead or alive.

Unfortunately, in the whole fight, and mostly because of the blue bastard, I ended up losing even more Qi.

DT | ⊚⦿⦿⦿⦿⊚⦿⦿⦿⦿ | (7.50 / 74.9)

Widening my eyes at my status, I swiftly recover my facial expression but remain shocked. I knew I used a lot of Qi, despite reneging on upgrading my arm some of the times it should have been required. But even after all that, with my arms and pectorals sore from certain moves, I was only left with so little. I honestly expected to have at least double that left.

This is pretty bad, since I still have that fool left to deal with. Seven and a half is barely enough for one second of full powered hand plus forearm. Thinking that, it's only for the worse, since I never used more than half maximum to fight them. Preserving Qi is very important in drawn out fights like these.

Looking around, I can't find anyone else nearby, despite the commotion. "Now there's only you left." I watch him sweat profusely, questioning whether or not to retreat, clear from his flickering eyes.

"Are you planning to run?" It doesn't matter to me if I have so little Qi. He's only in the first layer, while I'm in the fifth. He has fifty-one maximum HP and DT, not only that, he's bleeding out said HP like a fountain. Since my leisure appearance now, he took his time to get back up on one leg, shivering most likely from the damage. "Look how pale you are. Isn't your future looking a bit bleak right now?" I slowly make my way toward him, readying my next strike.

He is very obviously panicked, looking all around for help, but only meets my glowing fist right in his face. "Plea-"