Without waiting for me to respond, he instantly starts with a punch. Though it indeed lacking in form. This time even with poor form, unlike the others, he could exert enough force to harm me.

I quickly take a light step backwards, dodging the attack.

A real battle isn’t fair.

As I’m a bit far away now, he follows the punch up with a kick. I dodge sideways while also moving back a little. But the space is limited since this is an arena, I can’t always dodge backwards.

After the kick misses, he charges in and throws another punch. Due to the slightly off-balance nature of his pose right now, I’ll have an opening to attack if I block that punch instead of dodging.

You know that I can’t block that punch, it still has too much force behind it, especially with that charging momentum.

I move as if I’m going to dodge backwards, taunting him to come closer, he stretches his punch out even more as if to try and reach me. I quickly move towards him and grab his arm, throwing him over my shoulder by using his own momentum. Another textbook throw.

He doesn’t waste much time on the ground and performs a roll and stands up.

If he goes outside the arena, then I’ll win by a ring-out. But that wouldn’t be fun. I’ll try knocking him out by hitting one of his vitals.

He performs a leap towards me. I easily sidestep that. That was a stupid move by him, you can’t change your direction mid-air, it’s very predictable.

Another way to win would be to grapple him and knock him to the ground. Then rain punches on him as he doesn’t know how to defend, till he gives up.

I have no intention of grappling him. Especially not a male.

Ignoring that statement, I think of another way to defeat him. A hit to the head with a kick would be nice.

No.

The power boost I would get from performing such a kick would in no way be worth instantly losing 5 levels worth of strength to leave contact with the ground.

Speaking of that. I could wear him down with my increased stamina, but that too wouldn’t be fun.

This time he steps forward bit by bit. Probably so that he doesn’t miss this time.

He throws out 3-4 punches in quick succession, which I mostly dodge. The last punch is the one with the least strength since his stance is too broken to put in any power behind that punch. Enough for me to risk blocking it to test out if I could use another method to defeat him.

His punch hits my arm as I block it and then I step back, once again widening the distance between us. It hurts a bit but the pain goes away in a few moments. It seems I can risk using that method now to get close to him and knock him out with a full-strength punch.

I like to call it ‘actively defending’ instead of just blocking attacks or dodging them. It’s a technique more used in the southern parts of my world. Because the ground there can be muddy, they didn’t always have stable footing, so they could slip and fall if the attack pushed them back, even after blocking it. Thus, they defended against attacks using a slightly different way.

Jeet Kune Do is about taking the best from everything. It’s just a method I really liked, so I learnt it.

He approaches me again, this time visibly enraged by his own poor performance. That hot-headedness would make him even more careless.

He throws a punch, then a kick, then another 2 punches. I dodge them by moving backwards a bit, thus making him move forward, weakening his already poor stance.

Now’s the time.

He starts with a punch, since I predicted that by how he moved his arm behind, in an excessive wind-up, I move faster than him and punch his elbow, making his punch miss the mark. A bit of his momentum does still hit me but as i tested before, nothing i can't handle.

He already has started the motion for kicking and now can’t stop midway. And since I was able to guess that too by how his pattern was very basic, and how he does excessive wind-ups. I moved my leg faster and kicked his knee, pushing his leg downwards.

"Kneel."

His balance is now broken and he’s falling towards the ground. For him, it’s impossible to recover from this position.

As I’m already prepared for it, I quickly pull back and gather all my strength for this one punch. Move downwards a bit and then perform an uppercut straight towards his jaw. It even lifts his body into the air.

A perfect Shoryuken if I say so myself.

A legendary move back in my world.

His body flops onto the ground. He’s out cold. Victory by knockout.

Quest completed.

Young man, good job at defeating opponents who are multiple levels higher than you.

You are directly awarded levels. You have gained 8 levels. You are now level 10.

Option to use magic is now available.

One of your abilities has unlocked extra options as your level meets the requirements. Gaia’s Chosen One

As the one that Gaia has chosen to support. As long as you’re in contact with the ground, physical strength increases by 5 levels, magical strength increased by 4 levels, Healing rate of injuries dramatically rises, stamina increased dramatically, rate of recovering mana is faster.

Is my magic also aided by the system now?

Great. It would come in really useful.

Yeah, and no one would notice grass randomly appearing in the middle of the arena which is packed dirt.

No. I like hearing your thoughts. Don’t ever stop saying things to me.

Even if it’s stupid.

Now that what I came to accomplish here is complete. I quickly walk away from the arena while the crowd is still at shock with what happened in the battle.

I spot Lena, hanging around nearby acting nonchalant as if she wasn’t paying any attention to the fight at all, but obviously failing at acting that way. And walk towards her.

Where should we go now? I need to decide quickly before the crowd realizes what just happened.

Great idea.

“Hey, Lena, let’s go to where the weapons are stored or something.”

“O-okay.”

As we quickly start moving towards another building, away from the arena. I notice that the instructor is running and trying to catch up to us, saying something like,

“You forgot your reward for winning the competition! It’s high-quality cultivation pills!”

I don’t need such a thing. And I doubt it would be any useful to me in the first place.

No, he said earlier that the competition was organized by him. He’s probably paying for those pills out of his own pocket. It would be rude to say that to him.

“My apologies but I don’t deserve the reward. I forfeit the match. I was too exhausted after the last battle. Please continue on with the competition.”

“...Okay, it’s fine if you say so.” He says as he walks back towards the arena.

Why shouldn’t I be?

And I should beat him up for it?

That is what barbarians do. Physical victories don't last. As long as they're alive, they'll keep coming back for revenge. Winning over them emotionally is much better.