The speed of their exchange was getting faster and faster.
Tien Shinhan’s attacking rhythm had distinct layers, rotating between his fists, elbows, and knees.
Every strike did not pursue absolute strength, but instead wedged into the gaps of Kami’s changing stances, forcing him to constantly adjust his center of gravity.
Kami handled it with ease.
His boxing style was dense and his footwork was agile.
Every attack from Tien Shinhan was neutralized by him with minimal movements.
Tilting his head, misaligning his shoulders, and twisting his waist, the range of his movements never exceeded the necessary scope.
Twenty moves.
One hundred moves.
Hundreds of moves passed.
The movement trajectories of the two in the Arena were getting larger and larger, and cracks appeared on the surface of the stone slabs stepped on by their feet.
The Tournament Announcer’s voice was completely out of tune: “Oh god! Ladies and gentlemen! How many clashes has this been already!”
Both sides are going back and forth, and the conversion between offense and defense is so fast that my eyes completely cannot keep up!
This is truly a textbook-level offensive and defensive battle!”
In the audience stands, everyone stood up.
No one was mocking that old man anymore.
However, as time went on, the situation in the Arena began to show subtle changes.
Yamcha was the first to notice.
Tien Shinhan’s breathing rhythm hardly changed.
Three years of cultivation had polished his physical fitness and Qi to the extreme.
For this intensity of counter-attack, he was still far from his limit.
But Kami was different.
His footwork was still exquisite and his boxing style dense, but his breathing rate had already increased noticeably.
Kami’s possession had limitations, and after all, the body of ordinary human Shen could not bear Kami’s full power output.
“Tien Shinhan is bound to win.”
Yamcha said in a low voice.
Goku turned his head to look at him, without refuting.
On the Arena.
Another dozen moves passed, and Kami’s panting was already clearly audible.
He took a few steps back and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
Tien Shinhan stopped his offensive and stood three meters away.
He did not press the attack taking advantage of the momentum.
“Senior,” Tien Shinhan’s voice remained calm, “Your stamina is reaching its limit.”
Kami took a few breaths, the smile still hanging on his face, but the light in the depths of his eyes was much heavier than at the start.
“Young man… you observe very carefully.”
“You should still admit defeat,” Tien Shinhan said.
Kami shook his head.
“No way, I came here because there is something I must do.”
Tien Shinhan did not pursue the question.
“Then pardon me.”
Tien Shinhan’s hands crossed abruptly and covered in front of him.
“Solar Flare!”
The entire Arena was swallowed by a ball of light, its intensity far exceeding the version from three years ago.
The people in the first three rows of the audience all covered their eyes, some screaming and shrinking backward, and even the Tournament Announcer wearing sunglasses shoved the microphone onto his face to block the light.
Kami’s pupils shrank drastically in the white light, and his visual System instantly overloaded.
He instinctively retreated backward, with his arms protecting in front of him.
But Tien Shinhan had already disappeared.
“Behind!”
Kami locked onto Tien Shinhan’s position by relying on his Qi sense—it was behind his back.
The Qi approached from the right rear, extremely fast.
Hand chop.
Kami’s body turned sideways instantly, flashing and disappearing the moment before the hand chop came down.
The speed of his movement, even though his eyes were blinded by the Solar Flare, still precisely escaped the attack range.
Tien Shinhan’s hand chop missed, but his expression did not have any surprise.
The next second, Tien Shinhan’s figure also disappeared from where he was.
The Arena was completely empty.
The audience exploded.
“Where are the people? Both of them are gone!”
“What’s the situation? Is this a magic show?”
“Quiet, look above!”
A sharp-eyed audience member pointed above the Arena.
Two figures intersected and collided in mid-air, so fast that only intermittent afterimages were left behind.
Every collision was accompanied by a sound of Qi explosion, and the shockwave diffused downward.
Krillin clenched his fists, his gaze tracking the trajectory in the air.
“Ah, Tien Shinhan, this is forcing him.”
Krillin said in a low voice, “Every time they exchange blows, he is driving that old man toward the edge of the Arena.”
Son Goku nodded.
In the air.
Kami’s vision had recovered by more than half, but the consumption of stamina caused his reactions to begin to show delays.
Tien Shinhan seized this window.
He suddenly stopped abruptly in mid-air.
Clenching both fists.
Kami perceived that Tien Shinhan’s Qi instantly underwent an abnormal change.
“Multi-Form Technique.”
Tien Shinhan’s body split into two from the center, and then split from two into four.
Four identical Tien Shinhans appeared in mid-air, surrounding Kami in the middle.
Kami’s pupils constricted.
He had seen the Afterimage Technique.
Afterimages are false, without physical entities, without Qi.
But these four in front of him…
Every single one had Qi.
“This is not the Afterimage Technique!” Kami blurted out.
Before his voice fell, the Tien Shinhan on the right threw a punch first, and Kami blocked.
The Tien Shinhan on the left kicked at the same time, Kami turned his body to dodge, and the Tien Shinhan in the front pushed his palms forward, the Qi force pushing Kami back two steps.
And the fourth Tien Shinhan had already circled behind his back.
Kami turned around, palm wind swept out, and the fourth Tien Shinhan did not dodge.
He opened his arms and directly pounced up.
Two arms firmly locked Kami’s waist, his whole body hung on him, and his center of gravity suddenly dropped.
“You!”
Kami instantly understood Tien Shinhan’s intention.
The fourth Tien Shinhan hugged Kami, falling straight down from above the Arena, the direction being outside the Arena.
Kami struggled, but the Clone’s arms were clamped extremely tight, and at the same time, the Qi force of the other three Tien Shinhans pressed in from three directions, sealing off all his angles of breaking free.
The two figures smashed onto the ground outside the Arena, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The whole audience was silent for a second.
The referee rushed to the edge of the Arena, lowered his head to confirm the landing point, and then his voice trembled.
“Contestant Shen, landed outside the Arena! Contestant Tien Shinhan wins!”
The scene exploded.
Cheers, screams, and stamping feet merged into one, and the entire building was shaking.
“How brilliant!”
“Contestant Tien Shinhan used an unimaginable Clone technique to drag Contestant Shen out of the Arena! The champion of the previous tournament is indeed well-deserved!”
The three Clones turned into spots of light and dissipated, and Tien Shinhan’s main body fell back to the edge of the Arena, his breathing slightly heavier.
He stood up and looked down at Kami below the Arena.
Kami lay on the ground, looking up at the sky, silent for a few seconds.
Then he smiled.
“Four physical Clones…” Kami muttered to himself, “Unheard of.”
He slowly sat up and patted the dust off his body.
“The fighting style is eclectic, meticulous, and moreover… completely out of routine.”
Kami looked up at Tien Shinhan’s back on the Arena, his gaze profound.
“Today’s young people are truly getting more and more formidable.”
“It seems… the matter of sealing Piccolo doesn’t seem to need to be so rushed either.”
Not long after.
The venue broadcast sounded again.
The Tournament Announcer took a deep breath, using up all his lung capacity.
“Next is the third match!”
“Contestant Yamcha, versus Contestant Son Goku!”
The temperature inside the entire venue suddenly rose at this moment.
Son Goku turned his head and looked at Yamcha.
“Yamcha, I have waited for this match for a long time.”
Yamcha smiled slightly and loosened his neck.
“What a coincidence.”
“Me too.”