“Call me Xiao Ran!” Xiao Ran’s leg whipped out toward Bing’s shields.

“Ai Bing...” Bing didn’t like the intensity in her eyes.

  A wind-blasting clash erupted from her leg meeting the shields that blew Bing’s hair back but did not move him from his position on the ring. For some reason, she brightly smiled after seeing this. A shiver ran through Bing’s heart. This girl wasn’t a fighting maniac, was she?

“I won’t forget it...” She smiled.

  Xiao’s legs turned into a fierce whirlwind that rapidly clashed against his shields. Bing held his ground and blocked everyone one of her attacks, hoping that she tired herself out. Unfortunately, the things that Bing hoped for usually never came true. Since she couldn’t brute force her way through his shields, she decided to use her brain instead of her legs.

  She slipped past him and arrived at his back with a spinning kick that nearly landed on the back of his neck. Feeling the hair on the back of his neck rise in shock, a fully formed human arm shot out from it and caught her leg before it could land. After catching her arm, Bing tossed her across the stage from the new appendage coming from his neck and rushed after her.

“Hahahaha! What the hell are you!?” Her eyes glowed as she laughed while flying through the air.

  With multiple vertical flips mid-air, she caught herself before she flew out of the stage and immediately ran back at him. She hopped in the air, flipped a bunch, before diving toward him with her foot. Bing readied himself to block her kick with his shield but he saw her smirking! He ordered his skulls to fire at her as he began to block.

  Xiao Ran couldn’t help but smile even wider at the sight of this. Just before her foot made an impact with Bing’s shields, she somehow halted her momentum and sat on top of the shields while smiling down at Bing. She spun on top of his shields and deflected the qi blasts of his skulls with her legs. Then those legs came spinning down at an angle toward his face, forcing Bing into growing multiple arms on the upper part of his body to defend himself.

“Amazing! Amazing! Just how many of those arms can you make?! Can you make things other than arms?” Xiao Ran asked with excitement.

“A few, and probably.” Bing only tried making something other than arms with Devil’s Arms once and he will never admit to anyone what he made.

“Hey, you know, I like strong men.” She grinned at Bing.

“I guess it’s a good thing I'm not a strong man. I’m pretty weak in the grand scheme of things.” Bing continued to block her windmill of kicks slowly coming closer to his face.

“I usually don’t like humble men, but I think I can make an exception this time...” A brief flash of black appeared on Xiao Ran’s legs.

  Bing suddenly felt himself get kicked across the face and sent sliding to the edge of the stage, leaving a path in the stage with his feet. When he tasted the blood in his mouth, he considered forfeiting. He also had no interest in a woman like Xiao Ran, she had none of his preferred parts in a woman! Small breasts, neither gentle nor sweet, a scary personality, and she was a really good fighter. Sure, Bing might not be trying hard or felt all that threatened, but this was only his first match! How could he know there would be a hidden dragon so soon?

“I’m sorry but I'm not interested.” Bing quickly declined her advances with a polite bow.

“..!” Xiao Ran was shocked speechless at how quickly he rejected her. “You... Someone like you...! Dare reject me?!” That black aura now fully covered her body like armor.

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  Bing could no longer see the dirt-colored eyes, weird unusual legs, and tiny but very bouncy breasts of the girl. Now all he saw was a black figure in the shape of a human being. He couldn’t get any sense of her strength from this, meaning he couldn’t tell if this was a martial art or a bloodline. Was he in danger for stating his honest feelings?

  The sudden impact from his ass that sent him flying into the air made him think so. It also didn’t help that additional blows that shook up his internal organs happened while he was still figuring out what the hell was going on in the middle of the air. Bing had trouble believing that she was really holding back this much. He hoped that this technique or whatever of her’s had some sort of drawback. This was starting to get painful...

“Shield Art: Art of Counter.” Bing muttered as he was being tossed around like a ball above the stage.

  Bing’s eyes opened up completely as he gripped his shields tighter. He completely released the qi covering his body for protection, leaving him more vulnerable. An ache came from his right eye that sent a feeling of pain within his left cheek. Bing’s shield rose toward his left cheek and a light impact grazed his shield.

  Bing masterfully caught the momentum of the kick aimed at his shield and turned with it. Xiao Ran’s kick overextended, allowing Bing time to quickly grow an extra limb within a second and snatch it. With her leg in his grip, Bing used his full weight with Devil’s Physique and the two of them immediately dropped back down to the stage with a gigantic crash. The crash filled the stage with dust, rocks, and knocked away the other participants.

  Bing didn’t release his grip on Xiao Ran even when she rapidly kicked at his face with her other leg after she landed back first into the stage. He chose to tighten his grip and slam Xiao Ran multiple times across the ground. Each impact against the stage destroyed it further and cause the audience to stare in disbelief. Xiao Ran’s black armor diminished with each slam along with the power in her kicks.

  Bing continued to slam Xiao Ran into the ground until he felt that she could no longer fight. A feat that took a total of 25 slams before she was truly unconscious. Just to be safe, Bing sat on her legs as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and rubbed his bruised cheek. Out of the 25 slams, Bing was probably kicked 300 or so times in the face.

“Did we win, yet?” Bing tiredly asked the elder watching over the match.

“Match finished! Ai Bing’s team, lost!” The elder announced.

“Lost...?” Bing looked over at his teammates to notice that they’ve been captured by the spellmaster inside a formation. With a disappointed sigh, Bing only had this to say.

“I’m hungry...” Bing got off of Xiao Ran and started to walk back to his friends.

“Sorry, Bing!” Lee shouted at his retreating figure.

  At the sight of his large wide back leaving the stage, the audience cheered at the fantastic fight he showed them.

“Man-Eating Abomination!!!”

“You rocked fatty!”

“You didn’t lose in my heart Man-Eating Abomination!”

“Is it just me or are Qi Gatherer’s getting crazier and crazier?”

“I think it's just because they’re in Heaven’s Angels. All of their Qi Gatherers were insane for some reason.”

“Do you think I should ask if I can join?”

“Not before I ask first.”

“I can’t wait for the Qi Consolidators in Heaven’s Angels fight! A Qi Gatherer from their group completely demolished the stage. Do you think their Qi Consolidators will destroy it into dust?”

“I’m upset and excited that I can’t answer you. That stage is made out of qi-enriched stone. Not just anyone could destroy it like that.

  Lei patted Bing’s shoulders on his return.

“Good effort out there. Ying is making some spirit cakes now and told you to come over and get it whenever you want.”

“Does that offer extend to the rest of us!?” Lin Shu quickly shouted. Lei couldn’t answer her, he didn’t know if it did or not.

“I’m going to go ask!” Lin Shu didn’t even bother listening to Lei’s response as she took Bing’s hand and hurried over to Ying.

“...” Runt looked at the two hurrying figures through the crowd in envy. He really wanted some cakes too.

“Are you hungry, Little Bro?” Jue asked.

“Not really.” He lied. Runt really didn’t want Jue and Yue to meet so soon.

“Okay.” A relieved breath came from Jue’s mouth as she continued eating some of the Geeks he gave her earlier when she said she was hungry.

  The first day of the finale was coming to an end as the sky began to darken from above. All of the Qi Gatherers that made it to the finale participated in a match. The next few days will be continuing with those teams until there is a final three left. Then the tournament will move on to the Qi Consolidators and continue in the same way the Qi Gatherers did.