Most of them knew my past record of who I had defeated, whom were genius Martial Artists at the Ranker level.

But nevertheless most of these challengers didn’t care, as they either thought both of my opponents were overrated, or that they themselves were plainly on another level and superior to even the best of the City's young Elite.

One by one they all stepped up, and one by one I had to show them how wrong they truly were.

Many of the young challengers truly were geniuses, existences that my former self before learning Kemoros and Yupows Martial Arts, could never hope to match.

But now things were different, maybe for a moment it would seem like their attacks were stronger or perhaps they were as quick as the wind, or maybe their Martial Skill was so profound it was hard to find an opening, but a pattern and weakness slowly revealed itself before my eyes after every bout.

I found with almost all of them an undeniable reality, which consistently granted me victory, and handed them defeat after defeat, which was their poor understanding of the basics and fundamentals.

A situation that led to their Martial Fighting Style and execution to be incomplete, and full of holes, regardless of their talent, and which gave me opening after opening to take them down.

Even if you ignored ground fighting most of the City’s young Martial Artists, who wanted to defeat me, lacked in more than just that aspect.

Most of them hardly had any knowledge of clinch fighting, had no understanding of stance fluidity, or the vitality of posture, and worst of all, despite widespread knowledge of a warriors biggest weakness, completely lacked any ranged attacking options.

A game plan of go in, go fast, go strong, overwhelm and annihilate seemed to have taken over as the City's principal fighting dogma, and all of them followed it to the tee.

Or at least that's what it seemed they were getting taught.

Although Speed and Decisiveness were big factors in fighting, if not possibly the biggest, they weren’t the all deciding factor in the outcome of a fight.

Everything Kemoro had taught me about fighting had played out before my eyes, and so far at least up until now, I knew precisely how to react appropriately with whatever challenge or opportunity presented itself in the midst of a heated battle.

Everyone in this City, or at least that majority of the youth, were too married to their Martial Style and Art making them become rigid and predictable, unable to adapt and change to the dynamicity of a real life fight.

Perhaps some had traveled abroad and managed to defeat a low level Ranker through their superior skill and attack power and felt like they were on top of the world, but once their close range and stance effectiveness was neutralized they became like fish stranded outside of the water.

Even If weapons could mask or minimize some of these lethal deficiencies, a time would come if such flaws were not fixed, when a more adept and intuitive Expert will know how to exploit and take advantage of these weaknesses, and unlike me, at that time such an Expert will show no mercy.

Kemoro had seen through the dangerous and deadly habits and philosophies that permeated the City and had made it his life's mission to rectify it, and by extension save his fellow Martial Artist lives, and help them improve and grow stronger.

Yet the people of the Citadel were stubborn and hard headed, too proud and stuck in their ways.

The long glorious history of Martial Heroes and Champions who achieved success in the Seeiers Global Rankings, were seen as the norm, and not the exception of a Martial Tradition that was increasingly handicapping each generation's growth, and foolishly giving young talented Experts false hopes of greatness.

A once in a blue moon insightful and fortuitus breakthrough like that experienced by “Martial Hero Juffs the Unstoppable Finger” is not something a self respecting Martial Expert should ever rely on.

Yet that was the current state of Martial Citadels Martial Art Culture, hoping and welcoming a gamblers like dream, of encountering life altering fortune, and rejecting common sense philosophical reforms like those Kemoro so passionately pushed for.

Indeed it seemed that without an impactful City-Wide change of heart, the Warrior Path that is known by the name of Martial Artists, was doomed to become obscure and forgotten as was the Path of the Pugilist, Brawler, and Tanker; old forgotten Warrior combat classes that are nothing but a death wish to most who wish to try and rise the Ranks with such a mantle.

“True Martial Sword School” Genius Disciple, “Profound Staff Weapon Art School” Top Rank Student, “Inner Fist Academy” Head Disciple and F Ranker, “Agile Body Forging Dojo” Youngest Officer and F Ranker, “Martial Skill Art Temple” Generational Skill Art Savant and F Ranker, the list of those who fell before my complete understanding of Martial Arts fundamentals only got bigger as the days went by.

Eventually my reputation grew and I started to notice some people actually started to treat me with respect.

Unfortunately other people only started to treat me worse, as my Dueling fame only earned me infamy among certain circles.

I saw that fame carried on with me during my merchant hours as well, since no matter where I went a following of people came not just to shop and check out my stuff, but to converse with me and offer me business deals.

Almost all I rejected, but some I did accept business cards from, some of the deals they offered were hard to say no to, and might come in handy in the future.

The popularity of my stand as an Expert hang out spot not only increased my sales, business connections, and social circles, it also fostered the growth of a new Martial Culture as many youth were genuinely intrigued by the principles behind my Martial Philosophy.

As a result deep down in the recesses of my head a new idea started to brew, the details of which had not solidified yet, but that I knew would become reality eventually.

Whether Kemoro would approve of the plan I had in my head, I had no idea but in my opinion this was precisely the natural outcome of the course he had set me on.

Whether he approved or not became irrelevant.

After the sheer amount of duels I was involved in, eventually I got a good understanding of where I stood in terms of my level and skill when it came to combat focused hand to hand fighting amongst my peers in the City.

Despite the City’s flawed Martial Art philosophy compared to my own, there were a couple individuals in the City, who through sight and experience alone I could tell would most definitely kick my ass.

Later on I came to find out most of these guys were Geniuses amongst Geniuses, who at their very young age had already achieved a D rank in the Rankers list.

Most of those individuals were too proud to challenge me themselves, but there were few who were looking for trouble.

If ever I found one of those Geniuses was looking to challenge me, I did my best to avoid them at all cost, and if I failed I had no shame in refusing their challenge due to an injury, medical reason, or physical exhaustion.

That didn’t save me from my enemy’s taking the opportunity to try to rip my reputation to shreds amongst various Expert Social Circles, calling me coward, and duel dodger, or a disgrace to Martial Arts, but now that I had an extensive winning record, I had no problem ignoring such provocations even if they were somewhat right.

Still those Martial Experts with common sense, didn’t judge me for avoiding conflict with any one of those D Rank Monsters, they themselves would probably do the same.

Due to my intelligent duel picking, to the anger and surprise of many, I managed to keep my undefeated record intact.

It was an impressive feat as 9 out of 10 challengers that came to challenge me, I would accept their offer.

As long as it wasnt one of the people I had blacklisted, I took any oncomers, and despite a couple close calls I always came out on top.

But still many of my victories came via Submission, Ground Forfeit, or Ground knockout.

Giving many of the Martial Organizations top members and brightest young talents a public defeat, via the Techniques and Method they abhorred and felt disgusted by the most, only doubled their animosity and purposeful ridicule of everything I represented.

Soon Combined Fighting Method became a Martial Philosophy many people suddenly took to consideration.

A spark in a darkness of ignorance fueled by the rising prestige of a newcomer who found an audience amongst the most disenfranchised of the City.