Chapter 69: Uphill Battle

Zen felt something well up from his throat. He spat it out onto the ground only to see his blood on the ground and have that iron taste linger in his red stained tongue. He looked up at Jiahai, with spiky fists and knees, truly he had felt that attack.

He ran! A wide convex, Zen was hoping to get back onto the flat plain and rob Jiahai of his higher ground advantage. Jiahai acted accordingly and ran down the slope to close him off. Zen could not quite get to his full speed because of his injured knee and as a result, Jiahai closed him down rather easily, raising his knuckleduster knee. The move was sudden and Zen leaned back to dodge the unavoidable attack, so at the last second he raised his forearms to block. The attack made contact and he was sent tumbling back with a yell of pain.

Zen had to quickly get up and throw himself out of the way as Jiahai’s left fist planted a hole into where he used to be. Zen had to shake his arms vigorously to get the numb and trembling sensation out of them. He knew that blocking Jiahai’s attacks were a bad idea.

Jiahai made his way down, not too quickly which saddened Zen. It seemed he knew the dangers of charging into your opponent only to have them side step you and take the high ground. When Jiahai was upon im, Zen had regained control of his arms and was able to divert Jiahai’s attack while trying to land some of his own. A fist found its way into Jiahai’s core, sending him a few steps back. Zen tried to follow it up with a kick but Jiahai intercepted with his knee and the blow sent Zen tumbling back. Zen had instinctively kicked with the leg with the bad knee and Jiahai’s attack had only exasperated the injury. Zen struggled to get up on his bad knee and had to limp to stay horizontal. His injury was now apparent to Jiahai from the way he was moving.

Jiahai made his way lower, a little slower this time. Zen could not help but think that his opponent would walk him down to the base of the mountain while beating him up along the way. A pang of sadness hit his heart, for the thought that Jiahai was his opponent and enemy hurt him.

Zen backed away, trying to maintain the distance between him and Jiahai while he thought of a plan. Jiahai had the higher ground and a powerful attack. Zen was starting to wish that he had learned Meteor Kick, like he had planned at the beginning of this year, as that attack was much stronger than Jiahai’s Knuckleduster fist and even his Knuckleduster Knee. He shook his head vigorously, no use thinking of what he could have done but now he must think of what he could do.

As he shimmied back Zen picked up a stone and threw it at Jiahai. Jiahai easily smashed it apart with a well-timed left punch. He threw a few more stones, all smashed apart with the left fist.

Zen found it strange that Jiahai was using his left hand when he was right handed. His right arm got hurt when we rolled down the hill! Zen realised. That is one thing I can exploit but Jiahai still has the higher ground and two good knees.

He looked at the sky, the ultimate higher ground. If he jumped high enough, he could neutralise his knee strikes for just a moment and in that moment, Jiahai would be forced to use his fists… fist.

Zen almost fell backward when he stepped on loose gravel. He sighed in relief, as that was exactly what he needed. He dropped down and sending his qi into meridians, he activated his technique while lying flat on the ground.

“Blits Fist!” Zen’s punches throttled out at great speed. The punches were all directed by the ground beneath, allowing him to punch into the loose gravel, sending out a shower of projectiles at Jiahai.

Jiahai smashed the rocks, while moving forward closer to Zen to finish him off. He was stopped when a rock hit him in the forehead and another made contact with his stomach. He smashed a few more. He became aware of a presence above him. He looked up to see Zen above him!

Zen made sure to be Jiahai’s right side, where it would take Jiahai longer to defend with his left fist. To Zen’s surprise, Jiahai’s qi knuckleduster right hand shot up. Zen raised his good leg, the leg that he had used to jump, up and joined it with his arm while crumpling his body around the spot where he expected the punch to make contact. He also sent his qi into the spot to harden but because of the crude method and his poor qi control, he lost 30% of the qi he sent there, which took the form of a light grey shield-like swirl in front of his body.

Jiahai’s fist pummelled through the swirling grey qi, dissipating it before it slammed into Zen’s body. Zen grunted as he took the punch, however his grunt was nothing like Jiahai’s scream of pain as his arm buckled.

Jiahai was now defenceless.

“Blits Fist!” Zen shouted as his fists shot out, most of them finding Jiahai’s chest and face. His last punch sent Jiahai sliding into the ground. When Zen landed on his feet, his knee buckled and he fell forward.

Jiahai woke up to see the stars twinkling above. He rolled onto his belly where he saw Zen sitting some distance above him.

“Zen?” Jiahai said as he rose to his feet. “You stayed with me after… after you defeated me?”

“Yeah,” Zen said. “Well, I also couldn’t walk out here.” He pointed to his injured knee, which wouldn’t hold up his weight. “Are we good now?”

Jiahai held his right arm, hanging uselessly on his side. He looked at Zen and said, “We will never be good.” He turned around and began to walk away, hearing Zen scream behind him.