CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Not One Hit

"Fight me with your best."

The long smooth curly orange haired man who wore a long ash and green fine robe which seemed to be like an armor spoke while getting on a fighting stance ready for a good fight.

Young simply stared at him while waiting for the match to start. The crowd was chanting out the name of the man while looking forward to the fight.

"Atres!! Atres!! Atres!!" The crowds chants went on as the match finally started.

Atres had maintained his stance as the match started waiting for Young to attack first.

"That student of yours had always been a tricky one, I doubt the man will last long." Randall said laying back at his sit.

"Why don't we bet on who is going to win?" Callaghan had a smile as he said this words.

"What do you suggest?" Adam looked at him suspiciously.

"Well maybe giving out something of important to the one who wins." Callaghan spoke as he stared with intent.

"Oh that is one hard bet, you are sure you want to do that, Callaghan?" Falcon asked while having the face of being interested.

"I am positive, Falcon." Callaghan earned a sneer as his reply as Falcon went on to put his bet on Young.

Adam had followed choosing Young as well while Gretha, Callaghan and Lenny had bet on Atres. The rest simply ignored their actions focusing on the fight instead.

Young had stood for a while yet Atres had made no move to attack still maintaining his stance. He was expecting for Young to strike first and seeing his reluctance, Young didn't disappoint him as he immediately charged at him. However the speed at which he moved shocked Atres who had immediately put his hand to block the attack before it landed.

"He has become faster." Was Atres thought as he sent out a punch while jumping backwards making Young to go back evading the punch.

Young went on the attack again jumping in the air while throwing out a punch which Atres had dodged moving to the right and then moving quickly aiming to throw a kick at Young. He had to stop however as Young whose fist had hit the ground opened resting on the ground. Using it to lift himself, he twisted his body throwing out his legs in strong kick which made Atres to withdraw. He didn't go far when Young using the hand to push himself of the ground had arrived in front of him with his leg a few meters from his head.

The kick landed on his head and the force sent him staggering backwards.

"Just how strong is he?" Young seemed to always show something new as the fight continues.

Atres decided to strike as he dodged Young's forward kick while sending one of his own which Young had caught hold of. Seeing this, Atres had lifted himself with his other leg to kick Young causing him to leave his leg moving backwards as Atres fell on the floor. He didn't stay for long as he lifted from the ground performing a one leg twist putting a lot of strength on his leg as he sent a downwards kick at Young who had crossed his hands together to block the attack. The attack was powerful causing Young's knees to bend at it's strength.

Pushing it away, Young had struck at Atres once again with a punch but Atres had simply moved sideways while using his hand in diverting the punch while he countered with a punch of his own.

He had grabbed Young hand to keep him in place while throwing his punch yet Young had raised his other hand catching the fist and quickly jumped throwing out his legs kicking Atres away. This caused him to land with his hand and legs in a crouched position which he tightened his grip on the floor and then used the momentum in sending himself forward while twisting in the air sending his legs downward which Atres had managed to block with crossed hands but of which brought him to his knees. For a moment, he might have heard the sound of something crack as he gritted his teeth trying to fight the pain.

"It seems you are about to loose something of huge value to you, people." Falcon and Adam were literally laughing at the other three shocked face.

"He had not even been given a chance to do anything." General Gerald protested with gritted teeth.

"This was not as expected." Randall voiced out thanking his luck he had not involved himself in the bet.

"He could even best the general's student, who is that man?" Nelly asked also surprised at what she had witnessed.

By now, Young had turned Atres to a punching stomp and by the time he left him, he looked like he was about to faint. A straight kick to the face had him flying of the stage getting him eliminated to the shock of the crowd.

"Atres was defeated."

"He didn't also get a hit on the man."

"What great strength."

The people whispered amongst themselves in awe at how good Young was.

"Hmm, you want to go fight hi..." The fat man from earlier was not able to finish his words as the one he was talking to had already moved towards the podium the moment Atres was kicked out.

"Oh oh, how interesting to see him fight once again, ha ha ha."

The next man to step into the podium was a man with short blonde hair which was covered by the green hat he wore. His shirt was a little tight fitted having strips like that of leaves the same with his pants and boots. Like Young, he also had a blank look on his face as his deep ocean blue eyes stared at Young like he was some bug.

Surprisingly for the first time through out the fights, Young had taken a fighting stance with his knee bent a little and hands forward with the right one curled up in a fist.

At that moment, the people watching knew that the man was a better opponent than the rest people who came on the stage.

Although Young had gotten in that position, the man seeing him with just having quarter of his guard up felt he would either be very arrogant or he was simply not an opponent to him. Of course this was just a simple hand to hand combat fight and the man seemed to very good at it.

"I am Phathon." The man introduced himself right before he dashed at Young sending a straight kick at him.

The people was awed, one moment he talked and the other moment he had already reached Young with a kick. However that was not the shocking thing. What was shocking was that the kick had connected to Young but it was only an after image and the real Young was standing behind Phathon.

"Impressive, he is really good." The fat man laughed out hoping to see a real good show.

"Well it seems we have some outstanding people we know nothing of in our midst." King Splinter suddenly spoke up with a meaning to his words causing the other people around him to feel a little bit scared.

One thing they knew about the king was that the good king had a very heavy distaste towards lack of knowledge about things. He loved his kingdom and treated the things he didn't know as problems. No one could blame him, the world had made everyone become more cautious towards the things they knew not about. For it was widely known that the unknown was the most frightening and the most dangerous in the world, before and now.

The battle in the ring had become more fierce. Phathon had surprised the people by quickly matching Young's speed. Unlike the before matches, they could see that Young was not casually dodging but was actually being a little serious than before.

As the match continued, Phathon had been the one of the attacking side giving out punches and kicks. People who knew well the ways of fighting could see as Young speedily ducked and evaded Phathon strikes.

Young had just knocked away Phathon's kick and was about to punch out when he noticed something that made him withdraw instead. Phathon seemed to have caught Young's glimpse and did not move forward to strike him immediately.

"Hmm, he noticed." The fat man was a little surprised.

What Young had noticed was that at the moment he was about to strike, a small blueish green line seemed to have gone pass Phathon's fist and he could tell that the fist was not the same as before. Seeing this, Phathon's lips curled in a smile as his speed suddenly increased with him dashing forward aiming to punch Young.

To the people watching, it seemed to them that Phathon had had turned into a blur with only those people good at fighting being able to catch up his movement. Still they were also almost not able to see him clearly.

Phathon's punch had been too fast that by time his legs stopped, he had only about moved in a blink. Everyone had concluded that he had finally gotten a hit on Young but was surprised to see that instead of Phathon's fist to be on Young's face, it was instead Young's fist on Phathon's belly. At the time when Phathon had moved, Young had already crouched down and punching out to which his blow sent Phathon moving backwards with a little shock on his face.

"What??" One of the people sitting near the fat man could not keep the words of shock in his mouth.

"Haha, this is one interesting talent." The fat man had dropped his wine up for the first time, his face brimming with excitement.

Young had not rushed in to attack instead he stood straight waiting for Phathon's next move. Phathon smile widened as he prepared to take this fight up the notch.

He moved, this time he sent out flurry of punches that was as fast as blinks taking Young unaware. Even the others watching were not prepared for such outstanding move, his hand were nothing more than blurs with the punches so strong it seemed to be cutting the air.

"Incredible." Adam eyes marvelled not because the moves were good but because he could tell that Phathon was not using his full speed in the strikes.

"Interesting warriors."

"I don't understand why you all are so caught up with this." Randall sarcastically voiced out. "This is just a simple hand to hand combat, no body who fought had even thought of using ten percent of their strength in fighting. This is just a show."

"You are right, Randall." The General spoke. "This is not a match were everyone uses a good amount of strength, yet with using that ten percent and not even being able to touch the man already speaks volume of how good that man is."

"Well said, Gerald." Falcon commented.

Young had surprised the people again as he effortlessly dodged the punches without even moving. He did not wish to drag the fight longer as this was simply just practice to him and he knew well that this was not a real self straining fight so he had decided to end it already.

Phathon had already seen that his punches would not connect so he decided to send out both fist at the same time striking faster than before and it seemed his punch would hit when Young had amazingly raised both hands catching both punches and then with a straight kick at Phathon, Young had successfully brought the man moving backwards and falling to his knees with his hand holding his stomach as he tried to not cough out blood from the pressure of the kick.

He was finally eliminated as another kick sent him out of the ring.

Once again no one had managed to land a punch on Young and it seemed that Young had finally gotten bored and was ready to leave the podium. Yet he was stopped again as a huge man stepped into the podium. This man was actually eight feet tall and his entire body was packed with muscles. Anyone who saw him would think that he could possibly kill an elephant with a punch from those thick muscles. He was over built.

"Harriet!! Harriet!! Harriet!!" The people screamed as the man came into the stage.

Harriet was a man in the army who had already been recognized by the people as one of the strongest in it. That was because they had heard that in one of the battles he fought, Harriet had used his own body to throw of balance two four horned giant bulls that were used in riding a war chariot. This four horned giant bulls were actually two times bigger than normal bulls and four times stronger and heavier. Yet with all that strength, Harriet managed to throw of balance not one but two. For the people, that was already two monstrous.

"I will try to go easy on you." Harriet proclaimed as he attacked Young. For his size he was amazingly fast. However his opponent was Young who actually killed monsters every single day when he was back in the black forest.

Young already wanted to leave so he did not waste time in moving in on Harriet. He dodged Harriet's punch moving behind him and then jumping up brought out his palm and them sending it down like a knife hitting Harriet in his neck.

Peng!!

The sound was heard and after that the crowd could only watch as The mighty Harriet lost his vision and slumped onto the ground with a bang. The part where Young had struck was actually a weak spot and Harriet had actually left his guard down so him falling to just a strike from Young was all his own fault. Young however was actually amazed as he had noticed that if he had struck any other part of Harriet's body, he would have probably have to rub his hand as it will had become numb from how tough his body was. Even now his hand still stinged from the hardness of the place he had struck. Luckily he had seen the weakest spot easily or the match would have taken a very long time.

As Harriet slumped on the ground, everywhere became silent in shock. One strike and Harriet was down. Even if the fighters were not using ten percent of their strength, for him to be defeated in just one strike was still enough to leave the people in bewilderment.

"Now I want to know who that person is." King Splinter eyes squinted with curiosity speaking out the words in everyone's thoughts.

The person who they were actually talking about had instead walked down from the stage with his head down as he signed. He did not like it when attention was focused on him yet his spirit to have a good fight had won and he ended up fighting outstandingly. From his fights he could tell that some of the people who had fought him were extremely strong and he would have struggled if both had parties had decided to go all out in a fight.

With this final fight and incredibly unbelievable performance, the gathering for the festival had finally been concluded with people going back home having different thoughts and plans as they left.