While the university faculty somehow managed to smooth the situation down and end the day on a peaceful note, though unfortunately, they couldn't give out a prize or reward to the winner of the martial arts tournament. The four of them, Luke and Nate along with JC and K, were now inside the topmost room in K's dojo.
Students and trainees were confused, heck, even the junior teachers were confused as well as curious as to what was happening, what could possibly involve K and JC. Luke and Nate weren't aware of JC's real identity but that wasn't the case with the members of K's dojo, they knew that he was someone close to K and they were also aware of his real identity, after all, JC showed up multiple times since the dojo opened up, it was mainly to chat with K but sometimes he would even correct or teach some of the students.
"Hey Luke...you're sure about this right? like 100%??" Nate whispered to Luke who was stretching and warming up, at first Nate was confused seeing him warm up after the martial arts tournament but he figured it was because Luke didn't even try or he probably was just casually moving around.
"Yeah, don't worry I'll never lose...cause that's my Ninja way!" He said while grinning and holding his thumb up.
"Why'd I even ask.." Nate grunted.
"Oh, come on, just sit back and relax,"
"Okay okay,"
The room was emptied out and nobody other than the 4 of them was there, obviously, this was recommended by Luke and naturally, JC didn't miss out on the opportunity to try and provoke him once again, soon, the 3 of them were ready, Luke stood a little bit away from K and JC who stood next to each other, while Nate just sat down in the corner and watched.
"Before we begin, it seems I've forgotten, I'm Jace Cirillo, let's have a good fight," Jace said as he removed his mask.
A bulky man, he had an almost identical build and the same hair as K but that's as far as the similarities went, while K was someone who had a resting scary face but was much quieter and not reckless, Jace or JC had a kind looking face but his personality was the opposite, he was rash and usually someone who does what he feels, fortunately, he was around K and could somewhat be kept in check.
'Cirillo...? where've I heard that before...'
"I'm Luke it's a pleasure to meet you as well and yes hopefully we have a good fight," Luke said before bouncing, ever since he copied Trey's bouncing, Luke realized the feeling was quite liberating and fun.
'Wait, Cirillo?? no way...doesn't Luke realize...surely he should've figured it out..' Nate thought as he focused his attention on the fight that was about to begin.
"Let's see how much you've improved kid.." K said, he was feeling anxious, to be more specific, he was feeling excited and restless, he genuinely wanted to see how much Luke improved over the year, he couldn't help it, any fighter would feel the same.
What were they feeling? the two of them, K and Jace, they were known all over the world as Legends in combat sports, Jace's son was currently the world champion, it was said that Jace was the one who trained and brought up Hector. They've been at the top for years, possibly decades, naturally, for such battle addicts it would be exciting to find out that there's an opponent who could play around with them, an opponent they couldn't beat no matter what, an opponent they could go all out against and not worry about anything, an opponent who was not only capable of taking on one of them but someone who was capable of taking on both of them at once, it was most definitely an incredibly rare chance.
*????????????????????*
Luke dashed towards K and kicked him right in the center of his chest, the only possible way to defend such an attack was to block it and hope the damage wasn't too much and that was exactly what K did, Luke was just too quick. Once Luke's leg connected, K was immediately pushed back several meters, while this only slightly grazed K, it bought Luke time to attack Jace and not worry about getting hit from behind, even if it was just a second or two, it was enough.
After all, he knew how K fought, and he was somewhat experienced when it came to adapting to new fighters but this didn't apply to legends such as Jace, of course, Luke didn't know his real identity, it was only a hunch, fortunately, that hunch was spot on.
The second he turned around, he could see a punch aimed right at his face, it had enough force to knock out a bear or possibly even fatally injure one, without hesitating, Luke crossed his hands in front of his face, but that wouldn't be enough to fully protect him. This was when his animal-like instincts kicked in, while the punch was only an inch away from his guard, Luke jumped back but that wasn't enough as well, as the punch would still connect, he then kicked Jace's leg, the leg that held most of his weight. Even though the kick had very little power in it, due to the punch and its technique, the leg was used for rotation meaning if it were to even slightly move then the force behind the punch would considerably reduce. Of course, this was inhumane, so this would never work in a real fight where both fighters possessed human-like reflexes.
*????????????*
The punch held enough force to push back Luke, even with the kick and the countermeasures, it managed to leave a red spot on his hand.
'Those reflexes...that countermeasure....in a split second, of all the countless counters, he managed to use the best one and he executed it perfectly...' Jace thought.