"Ha!" Taku gave a battle cry as he was the first to charge aiming a palm fist towards Benji.

Benji seeing how slow the attack was, even though it seemed quick to others, quickly and deftly dodged the attack. Seeing an opening he unleashed his own palm fist towards Taku's side.

"!!!" Taku seeing this opened his eyes wide in shock as he tilted his body a little bit so he would have enough time to dodge the attack. Already thinking of a counter, Taku using the initial force of his tilt made it become a full turn. Slowly bending down, he brought his leg up as he tried to give Benji a roundhouse kick.

"Eat this!" Taku said as he aimed at Benji's face.

However, Benji already saw it coming as he spun and kicked with his own leg too instead of trying to dodge the attack.

POW

"Ugh!" Taku cried out as he felt himself being overpowered. Not wanting to risk any injury to his leg, he immediately spun the opposite way so he could withdraw his outstretched leg.

Seeing how his opponent was now in a defensive stance, Benji would naturally no longer be passive. He switched his style into that of an aggressive one like he usually did when he was going against Elise who used her bow.

With a quick step, Benji had already closed in the gap between himself and Taku. Seeing the boy in shock from his sheer speed, Benji used the opportunity to give him a punch to the stomach.

"Pfft!" Taku took a blow to the stomach as he spat out saliva slowly slumping down onto the floor as he coughed in pain.

"Match over! The challenger is the victor! He may now have the opportunity to challenge the intermediate disciples!" The old man said as he declared the match over.

"You and you, bring him to the nursing center. He probably has some fractured ribs from that blow." The old man said right after declaring the match over.

"Yes, grandmaster!" The two disciples said as they went over and picked Taku who was now unconscious from the pain he was receiving and hurriedly went to the nursing center.

"Now then boy, are you going to challenge the intermediate disciples or no?" The old man asked as he turned around to look at him.

"I will be challenging the intermediate disciples." Benji said as he looked at the old man unfazed by the question or his victory at all.

"Alright then, follow me. We keep all the disciples apart from each other due to the type of training on what they do at certain ranks." The old man said as he lead Benji into another room.

"Here we are." The old man said as he paused in front of a door after walking down several hallways.

"This is where the intermediate disciples fight. And you will be required to fight on their terrain." The old man said as he opened the door. What was past the door was literally an excavated terrain with only tall poles which one had to jump on.

"You will be required to technically trade blows in the air. Once you touch the bottom, you are considered out. The only way you can move is by jumping from pole to pole without losing your balance. This is also why we separate this room from the beginner's." The old man explained as he looked at the disciples that were so fixated on training.

"Attention!" He yelled loudly.

"Grandmaster!" The disciples all stopped training as they stepped onto a pole and faced him. They all then bowed at him showing their respect for him.

"We have a challenger! He has already defeated a beginner disciple. It is now up to you all to regain our reputation!" The old man said as he looked at them all.

"Yes, grandmaster!" They all nodded as they looked up to look at the challenger, who was of course Benji.

"Now, who will be the one that will face him? There can only be one!" The old man said as he looked at the intermediate disciples.

"Rock paper scissors!" The intermediate disciples all went as they played a small game to decide who would go first. They all did this in a group of three so it would be easier to narrow down. After a few games, they finally narrowed it down to only two disciples who would get a chance to go against Benji.

"Rock paper scissors!" They both said at the same time as they brought their hand down.

"Rock!"

"Scissor!"

"Dang it!" The disciple who played scissors cried out when he lost the game.

"Alright, I will be your challenger then." The disciple who won said as he looked at Benji. He then went to the opposite side of Benji.

"You will start from here, while he will start from there. He will not go past the halfway section, as they have all the time in the world unlike you." The old man said as he looked at Benji before patting his back.

"The match starts now!" The old man said as he started the match.

As the old man had stated before, the disciple had only made his way to the halfway section before stopping. He calmly waited for Benji to make his move.

"Alright then." Benji said as he also made his way to the halfway section without any difficulties. The moment he landed on the long pole, the disciple immediately jumped in the air and threw a sideways kick at him.

Benji not expecting him to attack him like that immediately flipped over the disciple as he landed on a pole before leaping towards the disciple who had just landed.

Seeing this, the disciple immediately jumped to another pole as he did not fully regain his balance to be able to defend himself.

"Oh, that challenger is pretty nimble." The other disciples watching the fight said as they complimented him.

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Author : yawn

*poof*