A Draw?

Taro reached Tabo in seconds, with a speed that didn't match his size.

Before the spear could reach Tabo, he leapt into the air, avoiding the spear entirely, and landed on the spear's shaft, slamming it to the ground.

Without stopping, he ran up the shaft of the spear and leapt over Taro's body as he pulled out his two axes and slashed Taro's shoulders.

"Argh." Taro's anger rose from the pain. He swung his spear up in an attempt to attack Tabo.

Using the spear as a foothold, Tabo leapt away from Taro and flipped in the air before landing softly ten meters away.

"I'll kill you!" Taro shouted, his eyes turning red from sheer anger.

"Calm down, or you'll die from anger before you get a chance to die from me." Tabo grinned.

"You!"

He charged at Tabo with greater speed and thrust his spear forward just like the time before.

"Didn't you learn not to do the same trick twice? Oh wait, you went berserk, so of course you can't think properly! I suppose I'll end this now then." Tabo grinned, preparing himself to dodge the attack and deal the finishing blow.

When Taro's spear was about to hit him, he ducked, allowing the spear to graze the top of his head, before he kicked the shaft of the spear, sending it up.

He slid through the gap between Taro's legs and slammed his foot after reaching the other side. He leapt up above Taro from behind and swung his axes towards his neck.

Before his axes could reach Taro's neck, he noticed Taro's spear flicker from its spot. It appeared next to him, horizontally swinging behind the back of Taro, towards him with incomparable speed.

*Bang!

The impact from the Taro's spear sent his body flying uncontrollably, but he was barely able to regain his footing at the edge of the ring.

He spat out a mouthful of blood as he held his side, which was sunken in slightly.

"How!" Tabo coughed constantly, as if one of his lungs had been punctured.

"Like you said before, let's end this quickly. I don't want to waste anymore time on a shrimp like you." A grin flashed across Taro's face.

"I agree!" Tabo also flashed a grin. He stopped the bleeding in his lung with a small amount of spiritual energy.

Slamming his foot on the ground, he charged forward with both axes in hand, while Taro took his fighting stance with his spear.

Once they were at spear length, Taro took the first strike by swinging his spear, which Tabo blocked with the blade of his axe.

*Whoosh!

This time, Tabo had been prepared, dodging the spear by bending forward. He moved forward, slicing through the Achilles' tendon of his right foot.

"Argh."

Taro nearly fell down to his knees from losing his balance, but he kept himself up. He kicked his left leg back, hitting the dead center of Tabo's chest. As a result, he flew straight up into the air.

"I'll make sure you lose first." He muttered, angling the spear head up as it was positioned where Tabo would be landing.

*Pfff!

Tabo landed on the spear with it piercing straight through his abdomen, rendering him unable to fight as he was on the verge of death.

"I'm not done yet!"

Taro grabbed the spear and began spinning it around in an attempt to throw Tabo out of the ring, but before that could happen, he tripped and fell, further damaging his left foot, which could no longer support him.

Seeing that neither of the competitors could continue the match, the judge stood up and announced, "Since neither of the competitors is eligible to decide a winner of the match, I declare this match a draw."

Many were surprised to hear this, as a draw was considerably rare, with most matches having a winner.

Ignoring the gasps of shock, he continued, "With both of them being ineligible to continue onto the next round, they'll both be disqualified from the tournament. This'll make the number of competitors in total at the end of this round odd. So to make it even, we'll have the one who wins the last round win a free round pass."

The majority of the crowd agreed with this decision, with some complaining, but the judge didn't care about the others' opinions as he was the only one to make these decisions.

"Let's not delay any further; we'll begin with the next match." The judge took a deep breath and said, "The 3rd match, Teijo Nakano versus Toyo Yoshida."