Chapter 17: Piece of Cake (2/2)
The referee consented to Wang Tong not wearing any METAL suit; he did it willingly so, at any rate, a referee's duty was to ensure a fair fight, but not the safety of the fighters.
”METAL, on!”
Stock roared as a piece of crystal strapped on his wrist burst out a shining beacon along which a sharp blade and a set of silver colored armor emerged to cover the vital parts of Stock's body.
Wang Tong watched with curiosity since this was the first time he had seen a METAL suit in live action and it had immediately piqued his interests.
”Hey buddy, don't expect me to go easy on you because you aren’t wearing METAL for god knows what reason. Hope we have a good fight!”
All Capth students were very polite and respectful to their opponents in the ring.
Wang Tong shrugged his shoulders and said lightly, ”Same here.”
Wang Tong then noticed a soft glow pouring out of Stock's body as Stock initiated the Tactics of Nirvana-X, the audience gasped when the glow reached their eyes. Unknown to Wang Tong, this glow was an indication that Stock's soul power had reached twenty ”sols”, in other words, Stock was worthy of the third tier METAL suit whose minimum requirement of the wearer's sol amount was twenty.
(Author's note: METAL suits of different levels have different requirements of the user's sol: tier one METAL suits required one sol, tier two required five, the third tier required twenty, and from there, the requirement grew almost exponentially. For example, in order for one to wear the fourth tier, one hundred sols was required; over two hundred for the fifth tier and the sixth tier METAL suit required five hundred sols. Thanks to this requirement, audiences could estimate accurately a fighter's combat ability based on the level of METAL suit they wore.)
”I knew this guy had reserved his strength; it looks like he has at least twenty-five sols of soul power.”
”Bahk... he should have leveled up by now, he has been too modest in his ascension progress.”
The outcome of the match seemed obvious.
Stock plunged towards Wang Tong, using the striking technique called ”Windward Consecutive Strikes”- a standard martial arts technique that was taught at Capth.
Seemingly simple and unflattering, this technique could strike fear into an opponent’s heart when used right. After years of practice, Stock had mastered it; he delivered the impeccable three consecutive blows which formed a straight line that pointed towards Wang Tong, even the time intervals between the three quick strikes were precisely the same.
This was Stock's coup de grace, he had used it only twice out of nine matches before this one, and in both cases, he used it at the end of the match instead of at the beginning like in this match. Stock did so because he wanted to finish this accession match quickly and splendidly with a total victory.
Unfortunately for Wang Tong, he did not even have the protection of a METAL suit. This meant that once the three blows had reached him, he will have lost this game. Everyone held their breath anticipating Stock’s apparent victory.
“...Stock missed?” The audience fell into a state of disarray.
Stock’s aim was evidently true, but how come the blows had barely even grazed Wang Tong's chest?
Wang Tong didn't pay attention to the fists that had just passed his body. He stepped casually to the side and delivered a blow towards Stock. To everyone's amazement, Wang Tong's blow was aimed directly at the shield on Stock's METAL suit; everyone thought it was grimly comical that Wang Tong was going to try his human flesh against a METAL suit.
Stock thought it was a madcap move as well, but he had no intention of laughing since he was upset and surprised that his coup de grace had been evaded.
Wang Tong's strike fell silently, Stock's face was frozen as he heard two words from Wang Tong’s mouth, ”Too slow.” One moment Stock’s body was still upright and the next moment… ”bang”, his body was erect no more, and his METAL shield shattered.
Everything happened too fast! One second ago, his friends had raised their arms in excitement of the coming victory after seeing Stock had used his coupe de grace. But one second later, their arms were frozen in the air, and their mouths were wide open, but not a single syllable came out of those gaping holes.
”So quiet... what happened?”
”That shield must be a knock-off. A knock-off product in the ATP league?”
”He didn't smash that shield with his bare hand, did he?”
”Is he a real Einherjar?”
It was said that only Einherjars ignored METAL suits in battle, and they seldom used METAL suits due to their already immense destructive power.
Wang Tong shook his hand in pain and thought to himself, “s*it, it hurts, that was a sturdy mother f*cking shield.” He did not notice the audience’s stunned look as he signed off neither did he think that shattering a METAL shield was a big deal. To him, it was just a piece of cake, when compared to ripping apart Zergs alive.