Chapter 20 20: A Short Fight Worth 500

Yoze didn't have to wait long before meeting with the director's son, Jackie once more. After a year had passed Jackie had undergone a transformation.

He was no longer the skinny kid that looked like he would cry from a paper cut. Jackie had worked hard to build up a physical body that put most martial artists to shame.

Simply standing in his presence allowed bystanders to feel the heat radiating from his body. Face stern and ready to battle to the death, Jackie met the monster of his nightmares and the one he dreamed of defeating.

Standing at 6 feet tall and packed with so much muscle that he looked like a wall of muscles, Yoze gave off the impression of being heavy yet at the same time he never made a sound as he walked as if he walked on marshmallows.

"Yoze, I came to challenge you to a battle. Regardless of the results of the match, I'll give you 500 as compensation." Jackie knew that he had to give something to make Yoze interested and immediately offered up money.

"Sounds good, do you want to fight here or elsewhere?" Yoze accepted the duel since Jackie offered to pay him five months of his salary. That was enough so he didn't have to sell his house.

"Here is fine."

"Okay." Yoze nodded his head as he wondered how strong Jackie had become in a year.

"I heard that you had been training to beat me, I wonder how strong you got after a year." Yoze felt his heart race as he wanted to use this to see if his training to push his techniques to the limit and beyond had been useful in shortening the gap between them and the higher quality martial art techniques he saw on the second floor of the Court Yard's library.

"I'll give you an introduction then. I am practicing the Blazing Furnace martial arts set. It contains the Blazing Furnace Body Cultivation manuals and several martial arts techniques to complement it. After a year of hard work and constant training, I reached the Burning Skin Stage which makes me a peak third rate Martial artist."

"That's incredibly fast, you must be talented," Yoze said with sincerity.

Yoze always appreciated the natural talents that people had. And to reach the peak of a 3rd rate Martial artist in slightly more than a year was impressive.

It marked that Jackie had reached the same stage as Yoze in the Big Golem body Cultivation manual and they should both be 3rd rate Martial artists and be each other's equals.

Of course that was simply based on body cultivation alone. To calculate how strong Yoze's and Jackie's combat abilities were they needed to fight. This was especially true for Yoze, ever since he had started his martial arts path he had an advantage in skill over all his opponents.

This was his first match against someone of the same rank as him. Yoze couldn't help but feel his heart race at the excitement.

"Grewn start a countdown," Jackie ordered Grewn to start the process of the battle.

"3...2...1...Go!" The moment Grewn said go, Jackie sprinted towards Yoze closing the small gap between them instantly.

"Take this Burning Fist!"

Jackie punched at Yoze's gut with a fiery passion, the mere act of his punch sent a gust of hot wind on Yoze's stomach. Just as Jackie's punch was going to land Yoze's knees bent slightly before he jumped over Jackie with ease.

Jackie wasn't one to be underestimated as he stopped his punch and sent a kick while Yoze was in mid-air. Knowing he couldn't dodge the attack, Yoze crossed his arms preparing to block the attack.

"Bang!"

The moment that Yoze and Jackie's leg came in contact Yoze felt his skin burning and the smell of burning meat filled the air. Luckily, Jackie's weight had absorbed most of the force and Yoze was able to land with his legs.

Yoze looked down at his arms and saw that a hole had been burned through his clothes and that his skin had been charred black and had third-degree burns all over his arms.

"Incredible!"

The pain coming from Yoze's arms made his blood boil, he had never been this hurt ever since he practiced martial arts. The taste of the Blazing Furnace martial art set that Jackie used was incredible to make the human body hot enough to cause severe burns.

And Jackie was merely on the Buring Skin Stage so he hadn't cultivated his inner Vigor set. So the heat radiating from Jackie was bound to get much more deadly.

Knowing that he couldn't remain defensive or he would lose Yoze threw his Blood Bear Fist at Jackie. Yoze's entire arm turned dark red and his veins popped, his entire potential was thrown into that one attack.

"Boom!"

Jackie couldn't react in time and took a defensive posture to block Yoze's punch and disturb the force. The moment Yoze's fist came in contact with Jackie's hands, his skin began to sizzle and burn, however, Yoze could barely feel it due to the pain generated by Blood Bear and squeezing out 100% of his potential into one attack.

"Bang!"

Jackie was sent flying several dozens of feet from Yoze's punch and heard an audible crunch come from his hands. Saving him rolling on the ground Jackie stood and couldn't feel his hands.

Taking a look he saw that even using the force distribution techniques part of the Blazing Furnace martial art set couldn't stop all the force in Yoze's terrifying punch, ending up having the bones in his hand broken.

"Whoosh,"

Suddenly Jackie felt a gust of wind blowing and he looked up to see Yoze's overbearing body over him throwing several Blood Koi Fists.

After losing his hands, Jackie gritted his teeth and forcefully increased the temperature of his skin. He could only rely upon his offensive defense to stop Yoze.

However, Yoze was not interested in stopping at all. All pain in his body had been reduced to an after thought as he squeezed out his potential to increase the force in his Koi Fists combo.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three solid hits of Blood Koi Fists with each having 1% more of Yoze's potential behind them compared to the previous, sent Jackie reeling as he was once again sent flying again.

"Thud!"

The sound of Jackie's body landing on the ground unable to stand up, signaled the end of the battle.

"Good fight!"