Smack! Smack! Smack!

In the middle of the Feast Hall, a heated fight was happening. The gods and goddesses were watching in silence as two mortals swung their fists at each other.

"…I'll go get some fresh air."

Kiernan said to the Fair One and stood up.

"Alright, be back soon. Your fight is coming up soon."

The Fair One said.

With a nod, Kiernan stepped out of the Feast Hall, the cool night air greeting him as he exited.

The sidewalks weren't empty despite it being night, with winged angels moving about, their glowing wings casting a soft light on the cobblestone streets.

Carriages wheeled down the roads, and from a distance away, music could be heard playing in the background.

'Where is this music coming from?'

Kiernan, out of curiosity, followed the sound of the music and soon found a busy-looking bar across the street.

There were winged angels inside, watching the fights of the Battle of the Champion from a television screen above the bar.

'I didn't know they were broadcasting the Battle of the Champions. I saw no cameras anywhere.'

Kiernan thought to himself, and he then entered the bar and sat down by the counter, and since he didn't have wings, he caught some gazes.

"…Hey, is that one of the champions?"

"…Yeah… Probably one of the losers that now came here to drink his worries away after losing his fight."

"…No, I remember that face! He is that Kiernan Hunter guy, and he definitely won his fight, and he is supposed to fight a second time soon!"

"…That Kiernan Hunter? The Great Robber? Oh shit…"

In that moment, an old-looking angel approached Kiernan. He was the owner of the bar and also the bartender.

It looked like he'd been living in the Heavens for a long time, as angels aged very slowly, like the gods.

Yet, he already had some graying going on.

"What may I get you?"

He asked.

"Water, please."

Kiernan said.

"…Sure thing."

The old man poured some water into a cup and handed it to him, but while watching Kiernan drink, he got curious and asked.

"Didn't Feast Hall have drinks? Why come here?"

"Ah…"

Kiernan let out a sigh of satisfaction after the refreshing water trickled down his throat.

It was easily the best water he had ever drunk, as he had never tasted water so pure and cold.

"Well, the gods are watching my every move. I felt quite oppressed over there. I came here to be able to finally breathe."

Kiernan said with a wry smile.

"Yeah… Sitting next to Death must not be easy."

The old man said.

He was able to see from the screen that Kiernan was sitting next to Death when the camera turned on them a couple of times.

"Yeah… Thanks for the drink."

Kiernan said and thought about paying, but he didn't know if they took mortal money, so the bartender just shook his head.

It was free—just like everything else in the bar was—there was no concept of money in the Heavens.

It was a mortal invention, and such things did not exist in the Heavens, and thus, everything was free.

Kiernan bid his farewells, left the bar, and slowly walked down the street back to the Feast Hall, as he was supposed to fight soon.

"Ahem~"

In that moment, he heard someone clear a throat, and when Kiernan looked to the alleyway, he saw someone leaning against a wall.

That person also didn't have wings. He was also a champion. Kiernan believed that he saw him fight.

"Hey, may we have a word?"

The person said and turned to Kiernan with a smile.

"What do you want?"

Kiernan asked and slowly entered the alleyway, and the person revealed his arms from behind his back.

The person had crooked fingers like they'd broken too many times, and they were covered in tattoos from wrist to elbow.

"It is an honor, Kiernan Hunter. I am from Earth, just like you, and you are a legend that every martial artist knows.

"Your Iron Style was the stuff of legends, but only a couple of your techniques have survived, and there are a couple of dojos that practice the ancient art of Iron Style to this day in remote parts of the world.

"I am one of them.

"I was chosen as champion of one of the Earth's gods, but I happened to lose, but only because my opponent was able to do some superpower shit.

"Well, I don't care about that. I want to try fighting against the true master of the martial arts.

"I want to test myself against you."

He said.

"…What's your name?"

Kiernan asked.

"Jude!"

He said excitedly.

'I didn't know that he was from Earth when he fought, and his martial arts didn't really look like Iron Style.

'But he lost his first match in the Battle of the Champions, so I didn't have much of an impression of him. I guess earthlings really never win a fight in the Battle of the Champions.'

Kiernan shrugged his shoulders and moved to his fighting stance—Iron Style's defensive stance.

"Fine, show me."

He said.

With a grin, Jude shifted into Iron Style's attacking stance, but it was all wrong, and Kiernan wondered what the hell he was doing.

'He did say that only a few techniques of Iron Style survived, so the rest of the techniques must be their own creations.'

He quickly thought to himself.

"Haaah!"

At that moment, Jude pressed forward, his sandals sliding through the pavement, and he then shot his hand towards Kiernan's chin.

"Iron Style, Palm Strike!"

"Mastered Iron Style, Iron Palm!"

Kiernan shot his hand forward, reached Jude's chin first, and struck him hard on the chin, which made Jude's teeth rattle in surprise.

His head got knocked backwards, and he lost his footing, and he fell to the ground on his butt with a stunned look on his face.

"Ah…"

Jude shook his head, flipped back to his feet, and then started raining punches as if his arms were a Gatling gun.

"Iron Style, Many Punch Storm!"

"Rendering Edge."

Kiernan lazily deflected each of his punches, and since they were all pretty straightforward punches, it was ridiculously easy.

He was even on the verge of yawning because of how easy it was.

In that moment, Jude shifted his stance—it wasn't an attacking or defensive stance—it was completely different.

"Iron Style, Slashing Stance, Five Finger Slash!"

His crooked fingers swooped down in a blur, and at that moment, Kiernan used "Sweeping Catch" and grabbed his wrist.

"Bend of the Wrist."

Kiernan whispered, and twisted Jude's wrist until he fell down on one knee, and then he delivered a swift knee kick to the face.

CRUNCH!

The knee smashed into Jude's nose, and his head got pushed backwards violently.

The nose broke and was bleeding profusely while Jude was battling intense pain and dizziness that threatened to knock him out!

"Argh…"

Jude stumbled to his feet and retreated a couple of meters.

"You've had enough?"

Kiernan asked.

"…You're indeed amazing, Master Hunter. These techniques that you've performed… I can't even imagine doing them so well… You're truly a force to be reckoned with."

Jude said with a tone of respect.

"My masters and I have studied Iron Style for a long time. Every recorded footage of you, even though there wasn't much, we studied it all.

"We thought that we managed to rescue about 10% of Iron Style's total techniques, and the rest of the techniques were modelled after that 10%, but we were wrong.

"I think we only managed to rescue 1% of the techniques, and we can't even perform those techniques as well as you can."

Jude said with a deep, heavy sigh.

"…"

Kiernan looked at him silently, and he then reached out to his inventory, and he pulled out a book.

[Iron Style - Created by Kiernan Hunter]

A title stood out at the front of the cover, and he then tossed it over to Jude, who caught it with a surprised look.

When he opened the first few pages, he noticed that the pages were showing Iron Style techniques and how to learn them!

"W-W-W-Wait…. This is…"

Jude's eyes shook.

"It's all of Iron Style. Every single technique. Take that back to Earth, and make Iron Style great over there.

"One of my bigger regrets was that I never taught Iron Style to anyone on Earth, so I thought it was dead over there, but I am happy that it is still alive."

Kiernan said with a smile.

He first made that book for his students of the Martial Redemption Dojo.

"…Thank you!"

Jude hugged the book against his chest and bowed deeply, with tears falling out of his eyes.

He was feeling thrilled… excited… and beyond happy.

"I will make sure that one day every child on Earth will be learning Iron Style. And everyone will know you, Kiernan Hunter, as Iron Style's only Grandmaster!"

Jude said with reverence.

He was already thrilled about showing this book to his old masters, who were at the end of their lives.

They had lived all their lives dedicated to Iron Style—trying to learn and create new techniques.

Jude was certain that once he showed this book to them, they would cry tears of joy, as this book was worth more than any treasure in the world.

"…Good luck."

Kiernan said and started heading back to the Feast Hall.

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