Fire Fist

Back to the fight, as Owen was once again blasted off with another one of Jiyoung's attacks, he used Sky Walk to stabilize himself and landed on top of a small building that hadn't been damaged to a huge extent to give himself a little time to relax and catch his breath.

He took a few deep breaths and looked around him.

There was destruction everywhere. Almost every structure in the area was damaged beyond recognition. Of course, the place where the audience had been watching their fight was an exception.

'If the top 50 are capable of this, no wonder the top 10 are considered a natural disaster.' Owen thought

"Should we end this now?" Jiyoung asked as she continued to use her ability to float mid-air.

Owen had no intention of calling it a day.

Ever since the first time he was smacked away, his focus has been increasing more and more.

So much so that he felt that if he just pushed his limits a little more, he might enter the 'zone'.

'Zone' was something he had experienced the very first time he unlocked his Haki. His vision was clear, his mind was calm, and it felt like all the unnecessary information had been cut.

He was able to focus only on his fight and his enemy.

It was the state he had been trying to reach in every single one of his fights.

Instead of giving a reply to Jiyoung, Owen vanished instantly, arrived at her back, and delivered a punch.

He was once again blocked by the barrier of wind that was surrounding Jiyoung.

'This is damn annoying!'

Owen yelled internally.

Even though he knows that there is no way he can defeat Jiyoung, this difference in strength is just a bit too much to stomach.

Jiyoung released a sigh as if annoyed and then did something...different.

In an instant, Owen's paths were blocked by high-speed winds from all sides, slowly narrowing into a cage to trap Owen inside.

He can't outrun wind itself.

Even if he somehow manages to do that, Jiyoung will launch the same attack again and again until he is captured, which will ultimately end the fight.

The cage will most likely be just as strong as the wind barrier surrounding Jiyoung.

Owen continued to run in the same direction, with these thoughts running through his head.

The only way to get out of this is to break the cage before it is completely formed.

With that in mind, Owen sped up.

He released his fastest speed and came right in front of the fast-approaching wall of wind.

He was going to do the same thing he did at the beginning of the fight when he charged at Jiyoung, only to be swatted away with a flick of her hand.

But Owen had realised why he had failed that attack.

While his speed had been adequate, the transition in his stance from stopping and delivering his punch had been slow, and not only that, the speed of his punch itself was lacking.

Since then, he has been trying to work on that, which is why he has only been using the same strategy as before without even thinking about other ways of fighting.

He had failed to perfect the attack in his previous 20 attempts, but this time, it was all or nothing.

Either he would destroy the incoming wall of wind in front of him or he would fail and end up shattering his arm completely.

Arriving in front of the wall, this time he stopped and launched his attack.

This time, in his perfect form, without losing any speed or delay.

However, as if expecting Owen to do that, Jiyoung had also made her move.

She had sped up the speed of the wall and now Owen was already surrounded in a small circular cage, just a few inches taller than him.

'Here goes nothing!'

Owen landed his attack.

This time perfectly.

Perfecter than perfectly.

However, right as his fist reached it's highest speed, an unforeseen thing happened.

A spark ignited in thin air, slowly turning into flames, burning Owen's haki-covered fist.

It touched the wall and instead of breaking through it as originally planned, the entire cage exploded with Owen at it's centre.

The explosion shook the entire area they had been using as their battlefield, leaving everyone shocked and worried.

Shocked because this was completely out of their expectations.

Worried, since Owen was at the centre of the explosion, he must have faced the full brunt of this explosion.

Jiyoung was visibly shocked at the outcome.

The explosion was by no means a small one.

Even for someone like Owen, who had a really good defense, there was no way he wouldn't be seriously hurt by this attack.

 Then, with a small burst of wind clearing all the dust in the air, Owen came out of the explosion and landed on top of a small building.

His clothes were almost completely burned away, and both his arms were scorched by the heat, but not just scorched; they were also shattered.

His face, too, had visible burn marks.

Everyone observed his condition and thought the same thing: "He could have died in that explosion!"

He was far too careless this time and her mother had full intentions of scolding him and even smacking his head to make sure his brain is still working.

Jiyoung moved closer to him in concern but what she saw made her frown.

'He is... smiling?'

Out of all the reactions, this was the least expected by everyone who had been witnessing this fight.

No one in their right mind would ever smile or laugh after suffering those injuries.

Jiwoo recalled all the times he had shattered his arm in order to land an attack with power that his body couldn't handle, and while winning was nice and all, it hurt like hell.

The only reason he would feel good after that experience was the joy of winning. However, Owen did not win, at least according to Jiwoo and everyone else.

But winning was never an outcome or desire in Owen's mind anyway.

He simply wanted to reach a new level in his Haki and finally evolve it to the level of internal destruction. Something he had wanted to do for a long time yet failed to do.

He felt it in his fight against the Klein brother that he had gotten closer to evolving his Haki, but he was still at the bottleneck.

There was a requirement of a fight that would push him beyond his limits to allow him to increase his strength further.

However, instead of evolving his haki, he managed to find a new strength.

Just by increasing the speed of his punches to a high level, he managed to create enough friction with the air in order to set it on fire.

But he hadn't given up on evolving his haki yet.

Just one push was needed for him to enter the 'zone'.

And he felt it this time.

He looked to his surroundings, finding Jiyoung in his sight.

The 'Blue Aura' that his eyes made him see was clearer than ever.

He could see how she was manipulating the wind around her as if it weren't invisible.

He also looked at her expression, not understanding why she had that look on her face until he saw his arms.

He hadn't realised the amount of damage he had suffered. He didn't feel any pain at all.

In fact, after seeing his injuries, he just started laughing more.

His laugh had almost turned hysterical. Making everyone think that he had just lost it.

He never seemed like a sane person anyway, but this time he seemed truly gone.

Jiyoung this time was serious about putting an end to this fight, as it was taking a turn for the worse.

However, before she could say anything, she felt a large amount of energy welling up in Owen's body, which should not be possible right now, as he had already expended a large amount of his energy in the fight.

Slowly, a strong gush of steam emerged from his body, more specifically his arms

'His arms are... healing!' Jiyoung thought.

Having a healing ability wasn't common in the world of the awakened.

Simply because they would rather focus on their strength than an ability like healing.

While healing was important, it was mainly used only by people who had an affinity for healing.

No one was free enough to waste their time on healing since they could become strong enough that healing isn't required.

However, the speed at which Owen was healing himself was astonishing.

Instantly, the burn marks on his face faded to the point where it looked like he will heal in just a day or two.

But his arms healed incredibly fast as well.

It was unclear to Jiyoung just how could he heal so fast? and how could he produce that much energy even after spending so much of it in their fight.

So many questions!!

Yet while everyone was pondering, Owen healed his arms to the point where they could be functional in the fight.

They were still not fully recovered, but Owen had no intention of letting of this sensation he was feeling.

Finally after such a long amount of time, he was in this state again and it felt like pure bliss.

"Ready for round 2?" Owen asked.

Jiyoung looked at him, but before she could say anything, Owen disappeared from where he was standing.