His opponent was a woman of fairly slight build. She was quite tall, almost Orion’s height, so around 175 cm. She was dressed in a grey tank top, black sweatpants, and combat boots. Orion was forced to admit the woman was stunningly beautiful, with jet-black hair and piercing blue eyes, which stared at him like he was a helpless sheep about to be devoured by a mighty wolf. Although the clothes in this world resembled earth in many ways, except for the guards dressed in mediaeval armor, he remarked that her clothing was particularly Earthen.
The referee lifted up his arm to silence the crowd and shouted out, “A reminder of the rules: no eye-gouging and no killing. If your opponent taps three times or shouts out ‘I surrender’, the match is over. Please play fair. Begin!”
Orion quickly glanced at the man who he planned to murder later to make sure he was still there and then turned his eyes back to his opponent. She had no cultivation base, but her body was very toned, and she stood in an experienced fighter’s stance. He let his arms droop at his sides and slowly began approaching her. She mirrored his movements. With no warning, she dropped to the ground and swept her leg across the floor in an attempt to knock Orion down. He simply backed up a step and easily avoided her attack. She sprang back up with speed that even rivaled his, even though she was mortal. She was clearly a seasoned fighter who focused on speed. He dropped down into a crouch and sprang at her with all the power he could muster, shooting at her like a bullet. Her almond eyes widened in surprise as she barely managed to move aside to dodge the oncoming strike. Although she had evaded his attack, she still stood within his range, so he got up and got into his now familiar fighting stance, stepping towards her and launching a jab. He accidentally put more power on it than he meant to, so even though she successfully blocked the strike, she was still pushed back and almost lost balance. He used this opening to move in and fire off a quick succession of lighter punches. Although she blocked most of the blows, a couple hit true. As soon as he paused for a second, she somersaulted backwards to gain some space and recover. The two opponents simply stood facing each other for a few seconds. The stalemate was broken when Leina took a deep breath and settled into a crouched fighting stance, her arms crossed behind her back. Orion tried moving closer to her, but she suddenly twisted and shot out a side kick. Even with his enhanced reflexes, he barely managed to move out of the way in time. Leina had resumed her strange defensive stance while Orion once more crouched down on the floor. He desperately wanted to experiment using his aura to speed up the attack but did not want to be identified as cultivator. He sprang at her, ready to take the kick he knew she would deliver. His prediction was correct, and she let loose a massive spinning side kick straight towards him. As Orion was flying through the air, he had no way to dodge, but he could still defend himself. He grabbed her leg and put all his weight on it. Both fighters went crashing to the ground, but Orion ended up on top. He quickly used the body’s former inhabitant’s fighting knowledge to lay next to her, place her arm between his legs, and put her in an arm lock.
“Do you yield?”
His shout came out louder than he was expecting, and although his opponent was clearly in pain, she refused to yield. She tried everything she could to get out of the hold, but nothing worked.
“If you do not yield in three seconds, I will shatter your arm!”
Orion fully intended to follow through on this threat, and that intent was mirrored in his eyes, allowing her experienced senses to pick that up with no difficulty. She struggled for a couple more seconds, but just as he was about to break her arm, she shouted, “I yield!”
Orion released her arm and stood up, more tired than he expected. The spectators were left completely speechless after the incredible match, and even the host did not know what to say. Leina stood, casting him an angry glance before turning away and leaving the brawling house. The host made his usual announcements, and the bar went back to its previous commotion. Orion stayed for a few more rounds while he waited for the man to leave. The only interesting match he saw was a battle between two very fat men of unimpressive stature. It looked like two balls rolling at each other over and over until one ball lay sprawling on the ground defeated, the other standing over it, panting. After about an hour of this, Orion saw the man finally stand and prepare to leave the bar. He heaved a sigh of relief as he was starting to get tired of watching the somewhat repetitive fights. He waited until the man had exited to quickly rush towards the door and follow him. He had entered the tavern in the late evening and had stayed about an hour and a half, so it was fully dark out. Thankfully, this meant that fewer people walked the streets, so following the man would be easy and no one would see him. Additionally, it meant visibility was low, so it would be easy to push him into a dark corner. Orion followed the man for a few minutes, and right as they were about to exit the pleasure district, the man spun and shot towards Orion. Not expecting this, the youngster could only raise his arms in a helpless defense. He was knocked backwards and barely managed to recover and prepared to face the man head-on. Clearly, the man had no problems alarming the public as he released the complete might of his aura, causing many mortal civilians to simply turn and run. Now, only Orion and the man remained within the dark street. Orion released his aura as well, quickly overpowering the old man, who felt his battle power drop under the assault. With a growl, he once more leapt at Orion, who now stood at the ready. When the old man’s figure almost reached him, he grabbed him by his cloak and spun, throwing the man into the pavement with full force. His measly level 1 cultivation was not enough to break the pavement, but it would have shattered the man’s body if he hadn’t reinforced it with cultivation. He still sustained some pretty serious injuries and spat blood after he stood up. His hood had now fallen, revealing the face of a deeply old man, at least 90 years old.
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“What have I done to offend you? Why do you seek my death?”
“Old man, your death is a stepping stone to me. We have neither enmity nor grievances, but I must seize your life as a tool for my rise.”
“Never has the world seen such a cruel youth! Die, bastard! ‘Flaming Spear’!”
A two-meter lance of fire appeared in the man’s right hand. With his new weapon, he once more launched himself at Orion. He took out his dagger and prepared to meet the old man head-on. As the fire spirit neared, he stabbed at Orion with his lance, who deflected with his dagger. The man landed next to him, resuming his attack. He swung his spear in an overhead swing meant to split him in two, but Orion quickly raised his dagger to deflect the strike, but was still thrown off-balance. This ‘Flaming Spear’ was clearly no joke and massively improved the man’s battle power. Unfortunately, Orion’s only offensive skill was ‘True Form’, which he couldn’t risk using in public. The man gave him no respite as he attacked Orion with a vicious stab to his gut. Orion barely managed to dodge the spear and step back. He had created space and killed the old man’s advantage, but he was clearly the underdog here. Suddenly, he remembered the system’s lessons on aura. He tried pushing his aura into his legs and it came as naturally as breathing, and he found that he felt unbelievably light and agile. Overjoyed with this result, he also experimented with pushing his aura into his eyes, hoping that it would help his reflexes, and was successful. He dashed towards the man with incredible speed and swung his dagger, hoping to end the fight with a surprise attack. Unfortunately, the man was not so easily killed. He met his blow and counterattacked with a swipe at Orion’s throat, which Orion ducked under and replied with a stab at the man’s gut, but he danced back, avoiding the blow. The fight continued in this stalemate for another thirty moves until the man…coughed. A fit of hacking took the man over, causing him to lose all focus and double over. Orion saw his chance and stepped in close, stabbing the man in the stomach with his dagger. The flaming spear disappeared, and the spirit’s arms fell to his side. Blood fell from his mouth like a waterfall, dirtying Orion’s sandals and covering the floor in a sticky, red pool. Orion withdrew his dagger, and the spirit let out one last grunt before falling to the ground, dead before he hit the floor. One thing was still very unclear to Orion: why had the man broken out in a cough at such a critical moment? Suddenly, realization dawned on Orion and he smiled happily. The man was old, and coughing was nothing impossible, but Orion suspected that his luck stat had given him this opening. This thought made him very happy with his decision of investing in luck.
A massive surge of power entered him once more, this one twice larger than before. He directly broke through the fourth step and felt himself nearing the fifth. He stripped the man of his cloak and a few coins since he thought that the cloak would be useful to conceal his identity during future public conflicts and money was always useful. He sped away to his hideout and once more sat down on his ruined mattress. He took off his cloak and shirt, carefully folding them and placing them on the floor next to his bed. During the day’s commotion he hadn’t had time to steal any food, so he opened a can of the magically preserved food. That particular dish was called Lukei. It just looked like a neon blue soup but actually tasted quite good and quickly filled him up. He finished about a fifth the can before putting it back where he took it from. He sat cross-legged on his bed and called the system.