Wang Zen watched the sphere change into a spheroid as it sped towards him. He dived to the side and the sphere exploded. Where he had been standing.

He looked at Ao Li in shock.

“It was fun sparring with you but now, I’m not letting you anywhere near me!” He said, before sending out another sphere.

Zen dodged, the sphere exploding next him, before could recover, one of the spheres hit him in the chest. It exploded and sent him rolling back on the ground.

Zen struggled to his feet. He was forced to dodge one but two caught him while in the air and exploded, sending into the air a cloud of debris.

The crowd cheered at Zen’s demise and booed when he sprinted out of the cloud of debris. His mask already had a crack running horizontally but he still charged forward.

Ao Li slammed his fists together to create the technique again. Ki explosives were gathering but it did not seem they would form before Wang Zen was upon him.

Zen tried to punch him but Li Ao weaved out of the way and jumped back from his follow up attack. One of his bombs was formed and he threw it at him while in the air. Zen dodged the bomb, used the explosion to gain more air and flew faster towards Ao Li.

His fist shot forward and Ao Li lowered his head, and took the hit on his hardened hair. Ao Li sent to bombs out that hit Zen, sending him away before he landed.

Zen rolled out of the way from 3 more bombs before he charged at him again.

“Seems Li Ao has switched tactics.” Jao Cong said.

“Yes.” Denga Ai said in confusion. “It seems his fighting style ewas not having as much success against Zen. This is the first time in the tournament Ao Li has switched from his closed range fighting to his long-ranged tactic.”

“This is a real uphill battle for Wang Zen.”

Zen danced around two explosives and got closer to Li Ao. He feigned one Blitz Punch before hitting a Focussed one that he moved across Li Ao’s body, another variation of Focussed Blitz Punch.

Li Ao grunted at the pain out his defences but he was able to direct his explosives to explode at Zen and push him back. Zen got up. Part of his mask had been blasted off diagonally, exposing his eyes and nose.

“You’ve really pushed your Blitz Punch to beat me but I have transcended past that! If you can even lay a hand on me, the damage you cause will not compare to what I can do with my explosives.” Ao Li said. “You should save yourself the pain and give up.”

“If you were me, would you give up?”

Li Ao smirked. “No.”

Zen charged forward again.

Li Ao did his best to keep a step ahead while forming his explosives.

Zen got close to him just as his explosives formed.

“Don’t!” Li Ao said.

Zen threw a punch made contact with Ao Li taking the attack with his hardened hair.

“Dazzling Jab!” Zen shouted, his fist sparkling in ki before it made contact.

Ao Li was stunned for a moment by the attack. His loss of concentration caused the bombs to explode around them.

“He’s done it!” Jao Cong said.

“That was Dazzling Jab.” Xue Shaonu said.

“Yes. Dazzling Jab is not a hard attack. When it makes contact, it stuns the opponent, even if they are using a hardening technique.”

“Yes,” Deng Ai said. “But that does not mean Zen has won. If he had done that before Ao Li started using his explosives, maybe it would have been better. But now when he does it, he is damaged by the explosion.”

“But he is not the only one.” Xue Shaonu said. “They both now take the damage when the explosion detonates.”

Li Ao wiped the spittle from his mouth. “Dazzling Jab. That’s smart and it also makes me lose concentration for long enough that my explosives detonate.”

“Yeah,” Zen said. “I told you it would come down to which one of us is the toughest.”

“You could have used Dazzling Jab earlier. It would have given you an advantage. Why use it now.”

“Foolish pride.” Zen said. “I got here by lying. I wanted to prove, to myself, that I could get further with skill. If my plan did not work, then I would have pulled Dazzling Jab at the last moment to close out the round.”

“Kind of like how you’re doing now?”

“Not exactly. I still have another trick up my sleeve.”

“Let’s see it.” Ao Li slammed his fists together, creating more explosives.

Zen chased after him.

Ao Li tried to stay away. He threw one fully formed bomb but Zen flipped over it, getting close to Ao Li.

“Dazzling Jab!”

This time Ao Li did not bother to block it with his hair, he simply hardened his whole body and hoped that the hardening would take the brunt of the explosion.

Dazzling Jab hit and Ao Li lost focus.

“Focussed Blitz Punch!” Zen throttled nearly 100 punches into Ao Li’s exposed abdomen before the explosions around them detonated, covering the debris.

Ao Li stumbled from the debris smoke. “He-He actually hit me with a Focussed Blitz Punch before the explosion hit him?”

From the smoke, Wang Zen walked out. Half his mask now gone and blood trickling out from some of his bruises on his face.

Ao Li made his technique again. Zen rushed him down. He hardened his body before Zen could reach him.

“Dazzling Jab!”

Ao Li lost focus.

“Focussed Blitz Punch!”

100 punches throttled into Ao Li’s body.

The explosives detonated around them.

They both stumbled back. They were unsteady on their feet.

“No ways you are winning,” Ao Li said. His clothes had been ripped apart, his hair dishevelled, his body bruised. “My hardening will make sure I outlast you. You do that again and you will eb going down.”

Zen’s clothes were equally damaged and he was equally bruised, standing on shaky legs. “From where I’m standing, it does not seem like you can take anymore.” Zen raised his fist. “I suspect this will be the last attack.”

“You are right,” Ao Li focussed his ki and double the number of explosives were now forming. He also added more ki to his hardening.

Zen charged forward.

“Dazzling Jab!”

The punch found its target. Ao Li lost consciousness.

“Focussed Blitz Punch!” Zen shouted at the top of his lungs, punching longer than 1 second, sending more than 100 punches into Ao Li’s concrete hard body while the explosions detonated around him, damaging him and covering the arena in debris.

He could hear a rumbling in the darkness. No, not a rumbling. It was a chorus of voices, a sea of boos. His eyes slowly, painstakingly opened and the light showered his pupils. He looked out and was disappointed at the sight he saw. The referee had raised Wang Zen’s face in victory.