Bai dodged Chun’s first attack once the announcer called for the fight to begin. Though she had less luck with the second that cut into her shoulder. She tossed out a flurry of needles at her opponent as she backed away again, trying to keep her distance.
Chun didn’t attempt to dodge the attack; three needle-like knives struck his chest. Despite being overcome with the urge to kill, he still felt the blow.
Damage Sustained: 4
No emotion showed in his face as he pressed his assault, not letting his opponent gain any ground. When she threw another handful of needles, he ducked one and deflected the next two. The next swing of Chun’s daggers cut a sizable gash across Bai’s side. He made an attempt at a second swing, but her body pulse with internal energy before her body flickered and appeared several feet back from where she had just been.
Ideas of how to imitate the technique flickered in Chun’s mind, but none of them reached the surface.
Another flurry of needles shot towards the young man, but he leapt to the side and dodged them. He dashed towards Bai again, only for her to flicker out of sight. A second later several needles embedded themselves in his back.
Damage Sustained: 4
Lesser Paralytic Toxin Buildup: 10%
There was more than just the stinging pain from the needles. He could practically feel that toxin working its way through his body. It hadn’t taken full effect, but he could feel his body slow ever-so-slightly.
Chun spun around and ducked as more needles flew towards him. He ran forward again, but dug one of his knives into the ground as he dashed forward and tossed up sand. At the same time, he channeled internal energy into his dagger and activated one of his sorcerous techniques. As he swung up with his dagger, tossing sand towards Bai’s face, his dagger alit with orange fire and cast out an arc of flames towards the woman.
Sorcerous Technique Used: -2 Internal Energy
Bai’s eyes widened as the flame approached her. She flickered away, but not before taking the wave of fire to the chest. When she appeared again, the front of her tunic was singed, though not enough to reveal her torso under its many layers of fabric.
Chun met Bai’s eyes. His expression was completely hollow, but hers was weary. Her opponent wasn’t just some talented martial artist like she’d expected. From the red skin and the veins pulsing in his body, and now to his ability to summon fire with his internal energy; it felt like she was fighting a demon rather than a man.
She channeled internal energy into her needles as she readied another flurry, though she was forced to flicker away yet again as another wave of fire flew towards her. Then she finally threw out her energy-infused needles at her opponent. A smile crept across her face as the needles struck his side, shoulder, and temple. She expected him to fall or freeze right then. But instead he simply righted himself. That’s when she noticed a dense layer of internal energy over his body. It was similar to the Aura Shield technique, but used vastly more internal energy. So much so, that it would have taken a quarter of her entire reserve to use it, whatever it was.
Iron Body Art Used: -5 Internal Energy
Iron Body Art Effect: +10 Durability, +5 Strength
The needles she’d thought had planted solidly into the man’s body, instead fell into the sand, with only a few cracks across the armor-like barrier. She was so stunned, in fact, that she didn’t have time to react when her opponent shot forward and cut an ‘X’ into her torso.
She stumbled back and was about to scream out in pain when Chun slammed his foot into the woman’s chest.
She was sent flying backwards several dozen feet before finally skidding to a half in the sand. She had dropped the needles in her hands and rose to her knees clutching her torso. Her blood coated her uniform as streams of the crimson liquid fell into the sand. She looked towards her opponent only to see him right before her again. Then a pair of daggers pierced down into her shoulders. Her arms suddenly felt numb, and she heard a faint pop as both her shoulders broke from their sockets.
Then a fist struck across her jaw.
Bai was sent spinning across the sand once again. Her jaw had been dislocated and her jaw hung slack. As her opponent stepped forward, she realized with dread that she couldn’t surrender the match. It required either verbal confirmation, or for one to raise an open palm. Neither of which she could now do.
Chun grabbed her by the neck and picked her up. He then took a few steps forward before slamming her into the stone wall of the arena. She tried to retaliate by kicking him in the chest, but it didn’t even make the man flinch.
Chun reared back a hand as he coated it in his internal energy, forming into something resembling a speartip. Then he pierced it into Bai’s stomach. Nowhere it would be immediately painful, but where it would be most painful.
The woman let out a groan of pain that may have been a scream had she had feeling in her mouth.
Chun finished everything off by causing a flame to engulf his hands, and by extension, Bai’s organs. The small flame quickly grew until it glowed so violently that it could be seen through Bai’s skin. But by that point it had begun to fade.
Chun let go of Bai’s limp corpse and removed his hand from the body. He grabbed his two daggers from the woman’s shoulders and began towards the exit as the announcer’s voice stammered to life in the air.
“That was.. A brutal fight to be sure!” He shouted, trying to keep the energy of the tournament. “But we all expected to see bloodshed in these tournaments, didn't we?! With only one contestant leaving this arena it is doubtable on who is the victor: The sponsor of the Rose Treasury Pavilion!”
In the hallway leading from the arena to the lobby, away from prying eyes, Chun set a hand on the wall and promptly threw up in a corner. While his mind may have taken a backseat, he still saw everything that he did. It was odd though, he’d killed before. He’d killed Heiyin without feeling much of anything for the man. And he certainly hadn’t let his Dark Urge run free then. Maybe it was simply how he’d killed the woman in the arena. He’d completely mangled her, made her helpless. Then cooked her from the inside. That was what disgusted him.
The fight with Heiyin had still been a fight, despite the difference in power. Both could have technically fled, or attempted to. Or forfeit. But Chun wasn’t given the opportunity. Even more than that, Heiyin had undeniably deserved his death. Bai, likely, hadn’t. She was simply fighting for a mercantile company, just like Chun was.
Chun took a shaking breath before righting himself and continuing down the hallway, making a silent vow that he’d only ever let his urge break free on people who deserved it. People who deserved nothing but a painful death. And in the world he created, he was sure he’d see many such monsters.
***
“That was rather gruesome,” Kanta said as Chun had entered the spectator’s room. He’d had half the mind to clean the blood and sand off him before entering. “And you’ve shown me quite a few interesting techniques.”
Chun said nothing, but took his seat next to the woman, putting a hand against his forehead like he had a headache. “I did what you needed me to do.”
“You did, good boy.” Kanta smiled.
The shock of bliss that went through Chun’s body at those words nearly overrode the discomfort he felt after killing the woman. “Thanks.” He let out, trying not to let his emotions on either end of the spectrum show.
Julian had returned to the room at some point while Chun was gone; she now sat next to Kanta’s chair, her head resting on the woman’s thigh.
“Don’t tell me I’ll have to kill anyone else,” Chun said more as a demand than a question.
“I will not. There is only one fight that is left for you. The foreigner, Sariah. You may surrender if you’d like.” Kanta stated. “You’ve already shown your worth to me and everyone else who’d taken an interest in you.”
“The gangs?”
“And likely the Pearl Wave Company. You did just kill their sponsor. It is very rare for a first stage martial artist to go toe-to-toe with a fourth stage, let alone win. I do wonder how strong you’ll be with the proper resources. How strong will you be once reaching just the second Martial Stage, or the third?” Kanta’s eyes roamed over the man in front of her as she thought.
“How long until the next fight? I’ll try to beat Saraih if I can; I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I’d already shown most of what I had with Bai.” Chun said as an idea formed in his head as to how he could distract himself from what he’d done in the prior match, as well as increase his chances against his upcoming opponent.
“Roughly twenty minutes, why?” Kanta cocked her head to the side.
“Can we have sex before the match?” Chun asked, not meeting the woman’s eyes. The question still embarrassed him slightly. “Well, make me orgasm specifically.”
Kanta raised a brow, and Julia even lifted her head from her owner’s thighs at the question. Then Kanta let out a laugh. “Rather forward for you. But you do deserve a reward for killing my competition. But might I ask why this can’t wait?”
Chun opened his mouth to explain why. But the quicker half of his mind told him not to explain the whole bit about the system, and how he gained temporary boosts after having an orgasm. So instead he said the next most possible thing. “A good orgasm is good before or after a fight.” It wasn’t entirely wrong after all.
Kanta smiled at the answer. “Martial artists do all have their quirks, don’t they?” She said, mostly to herself. Then he patted her thigh and looked Chun in the eyes. “Come here, boy, let me reward you.”
Chun did as he was told. With some guidance from Kanta, he sat up on her lap to straddle her. Her tits grazed his chest.
Kanta grabbed the sides of Chun’s pants and tugged at them with a finger. “Get these off as well. Julian, be a dear and help him.” She said as she tapped her storage ring. A glass bottle of clear liquid appeared in her hand.
Behind Chun, Julian's hands grabbed at his waistband and began pulling them off him. It had taken a little maneuvering on the man’s part, but by the next minute the lower half of his gi was resting on the chair next to them.
In the meantime, Kanta had poured some of the clear liquid onto her hands and rubbed them together like lotion. Though Chun could tell that the liquid was some sort of lube by how freely it flowed.
By the time Kanta actually reached her hands down to slowly stroke Chun’s shaft, he had already begun to stiffen.
Chun tried to keep his breathing steady as Kanta’s hand slowly moved about his shaft while the other massaged his balls just enough to not hurt. Annoyingly, neither hand made any attempt towards his tip.
Regardless of this, Chun’s unnaturally high sensitivity still made him shiver despite the otherwise slow and gentle strokes from the woman. Only a minute after, his cock had begun twitching involuntarily; dripping precum.
A few seconds after that, as Chun began to grind himself on Kanta’s thighs to increase the feeling of her hands, she let go.
“Why'd you stop?” Chun asked, his voice sounding much more pleading than he'd expected.
Kanta responded by slapping Chun’s thigh. “Silence, I'm working.” She said.
The slap hardly stung, but Chun still did as he was told, though he put his head into the crook of the woman's neck just as she began to stroke again, this time slightly faster.
Chun let out a shaky breath as her hand rose up to barely touch the head of his cock before descending down the shaft again. It would have been an agonizing experience had he not loved the feeling. At one point, several minutes into the session, Kanta raised her hand up just enough to graze her finger over a bundle of nerves where his tip met the shaft.
Chun choked down a whimper of pleasure as his cock twitched.
When she raised her hand again, she moved her palm atop his tip and simply rested it there for a moment.
Chun tried to thrust his hips forward to get some friction between himself and Kanta’s hands, but she kept them from rubbing him.
“Julian, could you help him orgasm? Put some of the lube in your fingers. I'm sure you know what to do.” Kanta ordered.
Chun was about to turn his head to see what Julian was doing, but Kanta held his head against her neck.
A moment later, Chun twitched as he felt two lubed fingers rub against the rim of his anus. But he relaxed himself, knowing it was merely Julian.
The foreigner inserted two fingers into Chun and curled them slightly. Immediately, Chun felt a pressure inside him that nearly spilt out. His prostate was being pressed.
“Now, Chun, relax,” Kanta ordered as she gently rubbed the head of his cock with her thumb. At the same time, Julian’s fingers began to move slowly.
Chun did his best to relax. But the sensation of being pleasured at both ends made his breathing stagger.
Unlike the other times Kanta and Julian had pleasured him, they didn't aim for overwhelming sensation. This time it was the opposite: agonizingly slow buildup.
The way they pleasured him was very gentle; to a normal person it would have been a soft hum of pleasure to relax them. It still was, for someone as oversensitive as Chun, but he couldn't deny the random jolts of pleasure that shot through him as he got closer and closer to a climax.
Chun lost track of how long they'd built up his orgasm for. It felt like half an hour, but he knew that was wrong simply due to the knowledge that his fight would've started by then.
“I-I-” Chun began to stammer out as he realized his climax was quickly approaching. He didn't get out the full phrase when Julian pressed harder on his prostate. At the same time, Kanta had gotten more ferocious with her hand movements, not stroking his tip quickly.
Ultimately, this turned Chun’s stammer into a loud moan as his body shivered in ecstasy. Half a second later, cum erupted from his cock, coating Kanta’s hand and part of her robes.
Julian removed herself from Chun, but Kanta gave a few more brushes of her thumb on his cock, the movement causing one last shiver across his body.
Finally, Kanta removed her hand and whipped it off with a handkerchief she produced from her storage ring. She then removed the mix of cum and lube from Chun’s penis.
“One orgasm, as requested.” Kanta smiled.
Chun’s body still tingled from the sensation he'd felt, but he still got off Kanta’s lap and put his pants back on.
Orgasm Bonus: +3 all physical and mystical stats (duration 15 minutes)
“Now get going,” Kanta stated, gesturing to the ring below them. “Fight seriously, but don't kill yourself. I've put quite a bit of time and effort into you. It'd be a shame for that to be a waste.”