Chapter Sixty-Seven: Counterattack
“What...!”
The warrior barely had time to be startled before the roaring wind rushed down his throat.
Still pinned to the right half of Bai Tangjing’s body, Wakatsuki Takeshi was at the mercy of the boy’s sudden surge of strength. His 193-kilogram frame was accelerated so quickly it left a blur behind!
(Brothers without training experience, don’t even try swinging dumbbells with a punch—thank you.)
Like a rag doll, he was violently smashed against the concrete wall behind the boy!
Boom!
The solid wall, which had just been dented by the boy’s power, now burst open again, forming a human-sized web of cracks.
“Ugh—”
In all the years Wakatsuki Takeshi had been protected by his dense muscles, never had the back of his head suffered such a blow! So much so that this hard-edged man let out a cry of pain as he nearly fainted!
Though in his career as a combatant, he had lost to both “Floating Cloud” Izumi Hatsumi and “Fang of Destruction” Kano Agito, those defeats came from masterful jujutsu and submission holds that dismantled his joints and subdued him. Never before had he taken such devastating hits from striking techniques!
The fragile human nervous system does not allow a person’s muscles to stay taut while the back of the head is struck. The legs clamped around the neck—muscles powerful enough to crush bone—suddenly went slack.
The boy slipped free with ease, not pausing for an instant.
He twisted his waist, spun, and kicked backward!
Thunk!
A penetrating stomp from Jeet Kune Do, threatening to pierce the chest and abdomen, crashed straight into Wakatsuki’s body, which was still suspended horizontally in midair!
He was embedded sideways into the concrete wall!
But Bai Tangjing, from their previous exchanges, had learned that attacks capable of instantly killing ordinary people meant little to this monster clad in muscle armor.
He did not let his guard down. A puff of dust rose from the sand as Bai Tangjing’s figure closed in once more on the warrior pinned in the wall.
He adopted the Jeet Kune Do stance, left hand guarding his jaw, powerful right hand poised forward.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jeet Kune Do’s famously rapid straight punches, in Bai Tangjing’s hands, were like “Battle God” Gaolang’s thirteen jabs in a second from the previous match!
The speed was so intense it made spectators feel as if the world itself was lagging!
A flurry of punches enveloped the upper half of Wakatsuki’s body.
The collision of fists and flesh echoed through the arena.
Under the boy’s force, far surpassing Gaolang’s, each impact widened and deepened the cracks on the concrete wall behind Wakatsuki.
Fine dust was shaken loose from the fissures by the relentless blows, engulfing Wakatsuki’s upper body and the boy unleashing the barrage in front of him.
Only Wakatsuki’s legs protruded from the haze, twitching reflexively with each hit.
“What the hell... what kind of monster is that kid?!”
The thought of facing such a creature after his next victory made Guan Linjun’s molars ache.
It wasn’t quite fear, but to go up against a man who couldn’t be locked down even by Wakatsuki’s level of strength in a submission hold—what could he possibly do?
Beside him, Izumi Hatsumi said nothing, but watched Wakatsuki’s legs outside the cloud of dust, narrowing his eyes.
As a master of ancient jujutsu and modern aikido, Izumi Hatsumi’s understanding of the human body rivaled the best surgeons.
To him, those movements didn’t look like simple reflexive spasms, but rather as if Wakatsuki was using the twitch as a cover... to adjust his angle?
Bang!
From the deathmatch arena’s stands, one could see Wakatsuki’s leg, after a twitch, suddenly drive his knee into the cloud!
With a thunderous collision, a hand—left palm smoking—was blasted out of the dust by a huge impact.
Trailing wisps of smoke from his sleeve as he flew.
Then the burst of air scattered the concrete dust.
Revealing Wakatsuki Takeshi, still embedded sideways in the wall, now in a hip-thrusting, knee-lifting posture.
“Luckily I kept my left hand up for defense instead of going for a double-punch barrage,” Bai Tangjing smiled as he was knocked out of the haze, casually brushing the smoke from his palm. “Otherwise, if that hit landed on my head, it’d be terrifying, old man.”
“Ptooey—what’s so ‘terrifying’ about it, ha!” Rolling out from the wall’s depression, Wakatsuki spat a mouthful of bloody foam, eyes locked onto the young man nearby. “You’re the terrifying one!”
“That’s hurtful, old man,” the boy’s lips curled into a wicked smile as he bounced lightly. “Though, I can’t really argue with that, huh—”
The sound of his foot scraping against the sand rang out.
Wakatsuki’s pupils contracted sharply. He searched desperately for Bai Tangjing, but found nothing except the spiral pattern left where the boy had just stood.
“That’s... the same move Kiryu Setsuna used last round...?!”
The boy slipped into Wakatsuki’s blind spot, and reappeared within arm’s reach!
His rotating palm collided with Wakatsuki’s hastily raised left arm.
Slap—ugh!
The crisp impact unique to the Rakshasa Palm mixed with Wakatsuki Takeshi’s suppressed cry of pain.
Even muscles at fifty-two times ordinary density were far too frail before the specialized destructive technique and Bai Tangjing’s strength!
The entire solid left arm seemed wrung out like a soaked towel; fingers, palm, and forearm muscles were twisted into a tangled bundle!
“It’s over.”
The boy thought to himself.
A fierce exchange of punches, a blow to the back of the head, a barrage of super-heavy straights for nearly thirty seconds, and finally the left arm mangled into a mess.
Forget muscle armor—even a solid iron man should be smashed to pieces!
Yet after delivering that Rakshasa Palm, Bai Tangjing discovered that, despite pain akin to shoving his arm into a meat grinder,
Wakatsuki Takeshi—this dense, solid man—had not a flicker of doubt in his eyes!
Within them, the fighting spirit and hunger for victory burned like wildfire... truly the “Tiger” in name and nature!
Blood streamed from between his lips.
His body creaked like a worn-out machine.
Yet in such a state, he twisted and stomped down on the boy’s retreating foot.
“Luckily, Master Takemoto found the counter to this footwork.” In a murmur, Wakatsuki’s resolute face faded away, like morning dew evaporating.
In its place—was the ferocity and wildness of a true combatant!
He clenched his right fist.
“Kid!”
“Try this punch!”
He pinned Bai Tangjing’s left foot, making it impossible to move, and since he struck with his right hand, he couldn’t form the reverse stance needed for the super-heavy technique.
Did he think a common straight punch could knock him down?
With dragon’s blood coursing through him, Bai Tangjing felt no threat from this punch.
But suddenly, on his retina, the AI’s marked motion model of Wakatsuki Takeshi shifted into a familiar pattern.
Deep within that dense web of muscle, an inconspicuous bundle began to climb toward the red zone marked “high energy”!