Martial Arts Worlds

Chapter 45 Ashworth Family Style

"The first match, Nathaniel Waters vs. Kornelius Ashworth!" The elderly referee shouted.

"Are both fighters ready?"

"Of course." Kornelius shadow-boxed with a confident smile.

"I am." Nath replied with less enthusiasm in his voice. 'Triple Technique... Triple Technique...'

"Fight!" The referee shouted and swung his arm slowly, as if his joints were rusty.

"Ashworth Family Style, Spirit Cutter!" Kornelius rushed in, his arms crossed into an "X," and slashed both down as if they were swords.

Nath blocked them with his arms, but then his skin ruptured and blood splattered everywhere. There were two deep cuts on his arms, as if he were cut by a knife or some kind of sharp machete.

'He is going all-out straight away!' Nath thought with a pale face.

'Ashworth Family Style is a dangerous style.' Jin thought with a frown. 'Rumors say that Ashworth used to be a family of assassins and thieves. That's how they managed to amass their immense wealth. Their style originated thousands of years ago.

'Ashworth Family Style is basically a style made for assassinations.'

Kiernan sat quietly without changing his expression. It was unclear what he was thinking about, but it must be deep based on the small frown on his face.

"Ashworth Family Style, Spirit Punch!" Kornelius threw an over-shoulder punch and smashed it straight into Nath's arms.

Spurt!

Again, Nath's arms burst with crimson blood, and it clearly hurt him, but he tried to keep calm and collected. He kept thinking about his Triple Technique, but he didn't want to miss the timing.

The outcome of the match depended on it.

"Ashworth Family Style, Spirit..." Kornelius tapped his hands together—one hand facing upward and the other hand facing downward—and then smashed them straight at Nath's chest.

"Unleashment!"

Spurt!

Crack!

The attack sent Nath flying like a comet. He was on his way to fall off the ring, but at that moment, his feet grew a few centimeters and landed back on the ground. It gave him enough traction to stop himself at the edge of the ring.

However, it was looking bad.

Nath's chest was bleeding furiously.

The elderly referee narrowed his eyes. He had a duty to stop the fight if it was going to threaten the life of one of the contestants.

"Nath..." Klaus and Timothy grinded their teeth. It was looking horrible.

It was a room inside the Ashworth family's mansion—they lived in Raimei, where it was mostly snowing all year round.

At that moment, the door swung wide open, and an angry-looking gray-haired man stepped inside.

Kornelius turned around and whispered. "F-father..."

"You lost in the tournament, huh?" The father raised his hand high and slapped him across the face. "What an embarrassment to the Ashworth family! We, Ashworths, don't lose!"

"I..." Kornelius, with his cheek swollen red, tried to explain. "I-I win next time... I'll train harder, a thousand times harder!"

"No, you already made our family lose face; you're disowned!"

As those words rang across Kornelius' ears, he fell down on his knees, tears running down his face. His whole life was falling apart around him.

"Wait..." Kornelius looked around the cozy room and frowned. "The walls are grayish. Didn't we just get them painted red-brownish? Also, the sofa feels low quality."

He thought to himself while touching the sofa. It didn't feel as soft and comfortable as it used to.

"Wasn't I in the stadium just now?" Kornelius slowly stood back up with a frown. "How did I get in here?"

The walls and the ceiling started cracking.

The feeling that something was wrong turned stronger, and then Kornelius grabbed a vase and threw it at the wall. That caused the entire room to fall apart, and he appeared back in the ring.

A punch was flying in his direction.

Kornelius quickly grabbed the punch mid-air and twisted it till Nath flipped over to the ground.

"W-what?" Nath grunted as his back touched the ground. 'H-he destroyed my hallucination?'

"A hallucination?" Kornelius picked him back up with just one hand and smirked. "There were a few mistakes—your hallucination manages to make my own memories fight back against me.

"The room was based on my memories, but I hadn't visited that room ever since it got repainted. Also, your hallucination can't mimic the exact touch of the items if I have only a faint recollection of them.

"Without seeing the wrongly painted walls, I probably wouldn't have realized that the sofa was all wrong. However, it helped me to see a little bit past the hallucination, so seeing the error in the sofa was easy as well."

"S-shit..." Nath kicked up his legs, but then Kornelius tossed him aside like a piece of garbage.

Nath rolled and tumbled around in the air and eventually fell to the ground, outside the ring.

"Winner, Kornelius Ashworth!" The elderly referee quickly announced.

"Ah~" Kornelius stretched his arms with a smile. "That was unexpectedly difficult."

Karuza High's side looked sour-faced. After seeing that Kornelius was completely stuck inside his fears, they thought Nath would win. However, in the end, the fight ended as expected.

And the worst thing was that Kornelius wasn't really injured either. That's the flaw in Triple Technique. It had a lot of steps that could fail and only one of the techniques that could actually hurt the opponent.