Ye Mo fiercely pounded Ha Jun's head.
Ha Jun could only raise his arms and protect himself under the waves of fists crashing down while he strongly moved his waist to make Ye Mo lose balance and fall on the side.
Still, Ye Mo was stable, and although he would jerk at times, he was firmly clinging to his position.
However, Ha Jun's defenses were astonishing, and as he protected his head like a turtle, he took little damage from Ye Mo's strikes. The latter's strength was simply insufficient against the iron body of his opponent, yet he kept striking continuously without faltering.
"What is he doing? He's just tiring himself out."
"Once he runs out of energy, Ha Jun will dismount him and win this fight."
"Good riddance. If I knew even stupid nobodies like him could join an Institute, I would have registered myself."
"You dumb brats, don't you see what's going on right now!" Three youths were talking with each other when an old man who heard their conversation rebutted them harshly.
"What… What is it?" The young men were about to flare up when they saw the colors of the Tiger Martial Institute on the old man's outfit.
They quickly swallowed down the words that were about to leave their mouth. This person was a member of the Tiger Martial Institute, he should not be offended easily.
"This Ye Mo's strategy is not to knock out Ha Jun, he's obviously just buying time."
"Time? Why would he do that?" The three young men were even more confused.
"Sigh… Kids these days don't know anything. Then let this wise one instruct you."
The old man cleared his throat then continued, "For such amplification battle skills like Ha Jun's one, there's usually two ways for them to be sustained. One is with qi, with each second passing, Qi would be consumed until the reserves are completely depleted, then the user would revert to his original form."
"The second one has a fixed set of time. The user only needs a certain amount of qi for activation without additional consumption, but when the time's up, the cultivator would lose the effects of the amplification battle skill."
"So what you mean is that Ha Jun's opponent is just waiting for the advantages of his battle skill to wear off?" One of the young men said in realization.
"That's right, he must have understood it himself at some point. For his age, I must say he's really a perceptive kid hehe.."
Unbeknownst to some spectators, the battle became a question of time where the first contestant to show a weakness would be the loser.
Back on the stage, Ye Mo didn't leave Ha Jun any room to maneuver as he made one fist after another heavily fall on him.
"Damn it, I can't do anything besides defending. My legs are unusable since he's on top and I can't pull even half my strength lying on the ground like that. If I try to grab him, I leave my head uncovered, so he tries to bite my throat and plunge his fingers in my eyes."
Ha Jun deeply protected his head with his arms, and shots to the body didn't make him waver at all, even so he felt hard-pressed by Ye Mo.
If the situation didn't change, his defeat was assured.
"I didn't want to kill you, but you don't leave me any choice!" Ye Mo heard Ha Jun shout when he saw his hand coming towards him with indescribable strength.
Wild Fang Implacable Chop!
Ha Jun moved his hand with overwhelming might and the wind hurled before the strike as it neared towards Ye Mo.
"This is not something brute force alone can accomplish, it's a battle skill!"
Ye Mo was a cautious person by nature, and at the slightest trace of danger he would retreat and reorganize himself. He quickly dismounted Ha Jun and tried to evade, but it was too late.
Bam!
Ye Mo was sent rolling on the stage for a dozen steps before he slowed down and finally stopped.
He wanted to quickly get up and ready himself, but only one hand supported his body. His left arm wasn't responding, and when he looked at it, he saw his bone protruding from his shoulder. It was dislocated.
His head was dizzy, and he vomited some blood, but he held on and grabbed his shoulder with his remaining hand.
Kachak!
With his enormous strength, he forcefully placed back the bone inside the socket. A gut-wrenching pain shot up his shoulder before it quickly faded into a dull ache.
Ye Mo fell in thought as he made circular movements with his left shoulder "It's still painful but at least, I recovered the mobility of my arm. Body refinement combined with battle skills is incomparably powerful, if I didn't turn around at the last moment to block with the back of my shoulder, I could have died there. No wonder he can fight people a layer higher than himself."
Ye Mo knew his shortcomings and used this competition to ingrain in his mind every bit of knowledge he could gather.
He had a hard time standing. The shock he received on his shoulder traveled through his whole body, shook his brain and inflicted light injuries to his organs.
"Give up, you can't beat me, it's already fortunate for you to have survived my attack. I wanted to keep my battle skills as trump cards against the young masters, but now I don't care anymore. If you give up, you can still bide your time and grow stronger, but if you persist in obstructing me, you will die." Ha Jun tried to persuade Ye Mo.
He could see his opponent was very young. It was already great for this kid to become a member of the institute, he should be satisfied with this result. But Ha Jun had high aspirations, he wanted to reach at least the top five with his battle strength and make his master proud.
With the resources earned in this competition, he will grow quickly and complete his cultivation of the Iron Skin body even sooner than his master predicted. At this point, he would return to give him a surprise.
"Haha, panicking already? If you're scared, don't waste my time and get out of my sight." Ye Mo chuckled, his confidence unwavering.
Ha Jun's words sounded like the whimpers of a dog in his ears, begging him to leave him alone. Although the odds were clearly against Ye Mo in this battle, he wasn't the least bit scared.
"You asked for it!" Ha Jun looked grimly at Ye Mo as he spoke in a low, muffled voice.
Immediately he charged at his opponent!
His speed increased greatly, and the battle stage shook under his steps.
Great Bull Furious Stampede!
His qi churned in his body as Ha Jun unleashed another battle skill.
"He's actually faster than me." While keeping his sight on his opponent, Ye Mo quickly darted to the side, avoiding Ha Jun's battle skill.
Ha Jun, seeing Ye Mo evading, stopped for a fraction of a second, then turned around and charged at Ye Mo again.
Ye Mo evaded another time as this situation kept repeating itself again and again but while using the Great Bull Furious Stampede battle skill, Ha Jun was faster and as such, he was getting closer every time until only a few meters separated them.
"He can only run in a straight line, but when I dodge, he cancels his battle skill and instantly faces me before using it once again. It's clever, but this method should consume a lot of Qi."
Throughout the battle, Ye Mo kept analyzing his opponent and finding clues and defects in his abilities to defeat him.
"Since I can't escape, I should as well face it." Ye Mo suddenly turned around and rushed head-on towards the charging Ha Jun.
"Look at this kid, haha, seems like he turned mad under Ha Jun's pressure."
"He's crazy, the instructor must intervene right now, or he's gonna die!"
"Watch out guys, a bloody show is coming."
The audience was stunned but mostly excited by this turn of events.
Most of them had no care for the well-being of these two, but breaking the stalemate to resume the action was well asked for by the audience, especially when one of the fighters was willing to entertain them with such a bold move.
Both sides collided; Ha Jun was stopped right in his tracks while Ye Mo was sent flying across the stage before heavily falling on the stone tiles.
Fortunately, the arena was very wide, and Ye Mo led his opponent to the center before the collision hence, he wasn't directly sent out of the stage.
He barely had the time to wipe the bloodstains off the corner of his lips when Ha Jun was already speeding towards him.
Ye Mo's injuries were not light, and there wasn't one inch of his body that wasn't painful, but he gritted his teeth, stood up and evaded.
"This kid is really resilient, to think he survived until now."
"He's like a cockroach, pestering you and still clinging to life when you crush him."
"He's just delaying the inevitable, with his battle skills, Ha Jun surpasses him easily. He should listen to him and give up, there's no point going this far when you already joined the Tiger Martial Institute."
The situation repeated itself until once more where Ye Mo was pursued by Ha Jun for some time until he was sent flying once more. His whole body was covered in blood, and his nose was broken, rendering his breathing difficult.
However, he stood up and kept going until a dull thud resounded and he fell on the floor yet again.
"He's so hard to deal with, most people would have died after one crash, but I sent him tumbling several times, yet he is still standing up. I am almost out of qi, I can't keep going this way or I will be the one in trouble. I definitely must finish him with my next move!" Ha Jun thought with determination. The spectators cheered for him, but only he knew truly how critical his situation was.
He repeatedly used battle skills one after the other, and he already used his amplification technique not long after the fight began. His qi reserves were falling dangerously low, he couldn't allow the fight to drag on any longer.
Ye Mo slowly stood up. He looked like a crooked old man unsteadily walking. Only his gaze had no change, sharp like the edge of a blade.
He vacillated at first, but one step at a time he gradually started trotting, then sprinting!
Ha Jun chased after him. Ye Mo wasn't as fast as before, while Ha Jun was still in good shape and quickly caught up.
"This is the end for you!" Ha Jun roared as he raised his right leg above his head and made it fall towards Ye Mo.
Crushing Waterfall Kick!
"This is a high-tier Yellow Class battle skill! The kid won't survive this strike even with his strong body." The instructor started circulating his Qi on the side, prepared to save Ye Mo's life at the last moment.
The kick was incomparably powerful, exploding even the air around it as it fell down. As the heel neared Ye Mo's skull, the latter suddenly turned around and spat a clump of blood.
Ha Jun didn't expect this from his opponent and received the blood on his face, obscuring his vision. The trajectory of his kick slightly deviated, while Ye Mo didn't stand in place either.
Boom!
The kick fell on the stage, destroying the stone tiles under Ha Jun's foot and shaking the arena.
Ye Mo was beside Ha Jun, silent like a ghost.
Swift as an arrow, he jabbed!
Pshhht!
A deep stream of blood trickled down Ha Jun's face.
Between Ye Mo's fingers was a bloody eyeball, the optic nerve still attached to it.
A profound quietness invaded the arena for an instant before a heart-wrenching scream resounded, jolting the stunned audience awake.