Bare-knuckle clash

With the end of the seventh round and the ice on the field finally melted it is now time for the last match of the day between Kai and Unknown.

"Ok, folks, it's finally time for the last match of the day! Kai vs. Unknown! This one should be exciting because Unknown has gotten his props from our pristine principal! Now it's time to see if he can live up to the hype!"

As everyone gets excited about the last match of the day, Kage returns to the student stands after his battle with Jason.

"Hey, has the match started yet?"

With sweat sliding down his face, Kage looks at Selena.

"No, Kage Unknown's match hasn't started yet, hehe. They're going to start in two minutes."

"Oh, ok, that's a bet!"

Kage takes a seat next to Selena and sees Liz and Dexter sitting above them.

"Hey, Liz, where's Jason? We had a pretty good fight, so I want to talk to him."

"Oh, Jason. I'm pretty sure he went to visit his parents after the battle."

In the east part of Grava City, there's a cemetery full of gravestones perfectly lined up on bright green grass that is perfectly cut. At the right corner of the cemetery, Jason is sitting in front of both of his parents gravestones with his legs crisscrossed.

"Mother. Father. I wasn't able to get my hand on that dagger, but I will never quit. We will be happy together again one day, I promise."

As Jason smiles, tears of sadness start to go down his face at a fast rate.

"I will, I swear."

At the same time as this, the last match of the day is about to start.

"Now, from the right corner, we have Unknown!"

From the right corner of the battlefield, Unknown walks out with his head held high.

"Ok, Unknown just keep a cool head like Mr.Mink tells you! Kai has been sitting near me since yesterday, and I can tell this guy is a stronger fighter. He wears no shirt for crying out loud! If I win this match, our class will have an overwhelming lead, so I will try my best."

Unknown reaches Mr. Zane, and Mr.Brown starts calling the next fighter.

"Now from the left corner is Kai!"

As Kai walks to the middle, he keeps complete eye contact with Unknown. In the teacher stands, Mr.Mink and Mrs.Iris watch Kai closely.

"Hey, Mr. Mink, do you think Unknown can really beat Kai?"

"Of course I do. He's my student after all, but I will admit Kai might be a tough opponent for him. Kai has been trained by Ryuji, who is the strongest hand-to-hand fighter in the world. I've even heard rumors that before Ryuji passed, Kai beat him one-on-one. Yes the two of them might not have been using OGI and Ryuji was far out of his prime but If that's true, Kai would be the best hand-to-hand fighter in the world currently, but what truly worries me is that Kai has inherited Ryuji's power since they are father and son."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. Ryuji's power "7X punch" is the most dangerous in the hands of a master martial artist, and Kai is the best example of that."

"Kai definitely makes me worry, but as long as he keeps close attention to Kai's movements and utilizes his quickly developing OGI control, Unknown can win this battle."

On the battlefield, Mr.Zane has started reading the rules to the two fighters.

"Why do you keep staring directly into my eyes dude?"

"My father was the greatest hand-to-hand fighter on the planet, and he always told me the eyes of an opponent tell you everything you need to know about a person."

"Oh really?"

Unknown looks into Kai's fierce-looking eyes.

"Woah scary."

As Mr.Zane starts to countdown, Unknown gets into a strong fighting stance.

"I know Kai is a master at every fighting technique. I saw his fight in the first round, and he completely destroyed his opponent with pure skill. This will be hard, but let's just hope he doesn't have some crazy power."

Kai also gets into a strong fighting stance. His right foot is positioned slightly outward, while his left foot remains grounded. His knees are slightly bent. His upper body is relaxed, while his right hand is in front of his face and his left arm is tucked next to his stomach.

"I have taken note of you ever since I saw that punch you executed during the survival round, and I hope we can have an honorable battle."

Unknown starts to sweat in the face of Kai's calmness.

From the student stands, Kage yells at Unknown.

"Aye Unknown beat that shirtless gorilla's ass!"

"Gorilla?"

After hearing Kage's encouraging words, Unknown turns his attention back to the battle at hand.

"Right!"

"Fight!"

The second the match starts and Mr.Zane moves to his special stands, Unknown throws a punch at Kai's head with his right fist. Kai blocks his punch with his right arm, and then Unknown tries to punch him again with his left fist.

"Damn, you're like an unmovable wall!"

"Yeah, and your punches are as strong as I expected."

Kai slams his right knee into Unknown's ribcage. Unknown instantly backs away from Kai and falls to his knees while holding his ribs.

With Unknown's head now wide open, Kai jumps up and spins in the air.

"Kiai!"

Kai kicks Unknown directly in the chin and sends him flying to the right. Kai lands on both of his feet and gets back into his fighting stance. Unknown jumps up while grabbing his face.

"He moves so fast!"

Unknown looks back at Kai, who is telling him to come at him with his hand.

"Tch! Fine, if that's what you want!"

Unknown applies the flex technique to his arm muscles and starts using the accelerate technique to run around Kai.

"Wow, impressive! You're handling two level-one techniques at the same time pretty well."

Kai closes his eyes and starts using the sense technique with his ears, nose, and skin.

"I want to test how far I have come with my sense technique, so please come at me with all your might."

Unknown stops running right behind Kai and whispers to himself.

"If you want to close your eyes, fine."

Unknown rushes towards Kai's back with full intent to punch him in the head.

"So from behind me."

Kai moves his head to the left to avoid Unknown's punch.

"You're joking!"

Kai uses his left hand to grab Unknown's arm, which is currently over his shoulder. Kai then slams his right elbow into Unknown's lung five times.

"Shit!"

With Unknown struggling to breathe after receiving damage to his lung, Kai grabs Unknown's arm with both of his hands and flips him over his shoulder. While he's mid-air, one thing goes through Unknown's mind.

"This dude's strong!"

Kai slams Unknown on the ground so hard that his body bounces up off the ground. Kai then jumps up and slams both of his elbows on Unknown's stomach. Kai jumps off Unknown and instantly gets back into his fighting stance.

"I have to admit your durability is admirable."

With bruises on his body, Unknown slowly stands up.

"There's no way he did all of that with his eyes closed. Ok, what do I have? The charged technique? No, I can't afford to be slower or weaker against this guy. Then what the hell can I do? I can't predict his movements at all! I know he's a master at every fighting technique, but it feels like every time he attacks or defends, I'm fighting a new person. He completely outclasses me in hand-to-hand combat."

Unknown starts to remember all the times he fought Kage in a hand-to-hand fight.

"Tch! I know! I know!"

Unknown rushes at Kai.

"Oh, so you decided to go in headfirst."

With his eyes still closed, Kai blocks the first and second punches. Unknown throws a third punch to his torso, but Kai uses his right arm to block and then swiftly backhands Unknown across the jaw to break his focus.

"Kiai!"

While Unknown's head is still flying backward after receiving a backhand, Kai hits him with an uppercut. The uppercut almost sends Unknown flying off his feet, but he stands his ground and sweeps Kai's legs, causing him to fall to the ground.

"I didn't see that coming."

Kai opens his eyes and quickly hops back on the defensive. Unknown applies the charged flex technique to his arm muscles and swings ruthlessly at Kai.

"Rah!"

Kai jumps off the ground and uses his left arm to block Unknown's punch. Even with his blocking, Kai gets pushed back.

"How do you like that, Kai!"

"A pretty strong I will sa—"

As he speaks, Kai feels a sharp pain in his left arm.

"That punch fractured it."

Kai shakes the injury off and gets back into his fighting stance.

"I'll just have to punch and block with my right arm for now. I got about a minute to get the next punch through."

Kai goes on the offensive and rushes toward Unknown. Unknown deactivates the charged technique and also rushes forward. When the two of them meet in the middle of the battlefield, three of their punches clash. Unknown dodges the next punch, and Kai does a backflip to get out of Unknown's sight. Once Unknown turns around, he is met with two punches to the chest, and when he falls to the ground, Kai hits him with another uppercut, forcing him to stand back up on his feet. While Unknown is dazed, he comes to a realization.

"His punches are getting stronger."

"Thirty seconds!"

While Unknown is standing in a dazed state, Kai punches him in the stomach, sending him flying.

"Ten seconds!"

Kai chases Unknown down and hits him with another punch to the jaw while he's still in mid-air.

Using the flex technique to cushion the impact of the attacks Unknown quickly fixes his position in mid-air and lands on both of his feet. He instantly spits up blood after receiving so much damage.

"What the hell! Why do his punches keep getting so much worse?"

Unknown looks at Kai, who is using the accelerate technique to move at top speeds toward him.

"Two seconds left!"

Kai's power is "7X punch," a power that gives Kai's punches 7 levels of power. Each time Kai directly punches someone or something, his punching power goes up by 100 times. Each time a punch makes contact and he goes up a level, he has a shorter amount of time to execute the next punch. To execute the second punch, he has two minutes; for the third, one minute and a half; for the fourth, one minute; for the fifth, thirty seconds; for the sixth, ten seconds; and for the seventh and final punch, he has three seconds to execute. Once all seven punches are executed or Kai goes past the time limit, it restarts the process. 

As Unknown sees Kai coming at him, he gets up to get out of the way. With one second remaining to execute the final punch, Kai pulled his right arm back so fast that the movement wasn't even visible. As Unknown tries to move out of Kai's way, his body all of a sudden gets pulled towards him. With his feet off the ground, Unknown makes an observation.

"I'm getting pulled towards him! What is this? It almost feels like I'm being forced to gravitate towards him!"

With Unknown directly in front of him, Kai looks him directly in the eyes. His right fist starts to glow a fiery yellow.

"Vacuum Punch!"

Kai Punch's Unknown directly in the stomach.

"Ahhh!"

The second the punch hits him, Unknown feels multiple bones in his body break, and he feels his stomach get destroyed. Unknown spits out massive amounts of blood and gets sent flying into the wall right behind him.

As Unknown's body slides down the wall, Kage screams "Unknown!" in concern. Mr.Brown also reacts to Kai's punch.

"There it is folks! The legendary Vacuum Punch created by Ryuji himself! The punch that bends the wind to your will!"

On the battlefield, Kai is breathing heavily after putting a lot of OGi into his last attack. Mr.Zane is in his special stands watching Unknown making sure he's down, but to everyone's surprise, Unknown stands up with a blank look in his eyes. As Unknown slowly walks to Kai's front with his stomach spilling out blood, Kage goes crazy in the student stands.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, Unknown! Show him your part of class one!"

Unknown walks to Kai's front with nothing but determination in his eyes.

"I'm still not down yet!"

Kai grins after hearing Unknown's statement.

"I knew you would be a worthy opponent."

Kai gets back into his strong fighting stance.

Unknown also gets into his fighting stance.

"Let's fight to the end!"

Kai is about to move but hears a voice.

"Stop!"

Kai looks behind him and sees Mr.Zane walking onto the field.

"Wait, what is it, Mr.Zane?"

As Kai questions Mr.Zane's disruption, Unknown falls to his knees and then falls face-flat on the ground. After hearing Unknown's body go "thud" on the ground, Kai turns back around with a shocked expression.

"What!"

Mr.Zane grabs Kai's shoulder and says, "The battle was over when you hit him with that final punch. The only reason he stood up just now is because of pure determination. If I let the match go on, Unknown would have definitely died."

Kai looks down to Unknown with a saddened expression.

"I'm sad our legendary battle had to end, Unknown but I'm sure we will clash again one day. You truly are a worthy opponent."

"That's it, folks! That match ended the second round with a bang! Unknown of class one is down, which means Kai saves his class from elimination and moves on to the third round!"

Chapter 124 end