Zen had adopted the same boxing stance as Ao Li. He had analysed that he was mainly used his hands with little to no kicks. He wanted to test himself by fighting the same style.

They charged at each other.

“Long Fist!” Ao Li threw two punches, their force extending outward in a straight line.

Zen dodged two and blocked the other, causing him to stumble. Ao Li aimed a jab to Zen’s stomach. Zen stumbled back but kept his hands up. He aimed another punch to his stomach but when his fist made contact it was like punching concrete.

Zen grunted at the pain as he withdrew his punch. He dodged two quick punches before one caught him in his abdomen. Zen resisted the urge to crumple up as he spun around to deliver a back fist. Ao Li ducked low and came up with an uppercut.

Zen stepped back but was surprised when the punch turned into a Long Fist attack, which clipped him below the chin. Zen recovered, dashed forward and delivered a Blitz Punch.

Ao Li shrunk his stance, raising his hands higher to protect his head. Zen’s fists rained down on him and Zen grimaces as each punch felt like it was hitting a concrete wall. Zen was about to try again but Ao Li delivered a straight powerful jab to his face, the punch nearly going through his head.

Zen stumbled back from the blow, letting the momentum take him further away and out of the distance and range of the follow up straight punch. Zen thought he was safe but was wrong when a Long Fist attack hit him in the head. He stumbled again as Ao Li sent another to his leg, sending Zen to a knee and a straight punch made contact with Zen, sending him skidding along the ground.

The crowd cheered and hurled insults at Zen as the referee began counting him out.

Zen began to stir when the count reached five and by eight, he was on his feet, stopping the count. Zen adopted the boxing pose again, making the crowd’s boo grow even fiercer.

Li Ao frowned at this. “Why don’t you fight with your normal style?”

“My normal style is to throw punches.” Zen said, “And I have it under good authority that I throw punches with the best of them.”

“Why is Zen’er struggling so much?” Xue Shaonu said. “He is one of the best hand to hand fighters in our class.”

“True,” Deng Ai said. “But Ao Li has made such great strides in his fighting style that I’d say he is also up there with the best. His footwork is the best I’ve ever seen his jabs are faster, he has Long Fist to catch opponents who are far away and his best ki technique, his hardening.”

“Hardening?” Xue Shaonu said. “Isn’t that just a basic technique.”

“Yes,” Deng Ai said. “However, is does have more advanced variations and techniques which could make the technique better. Ao Li’s hardening is one of the best in the school, even better than most of our seniors. While most can harden their bodies to the level of soft wood and others may punish it further to hard wood, Ao Li’s hardening can make it so that his body is as hard as concrete.

“That is his defence. When his opponent attacks, he employs it. I don’t see how Wang Zen can get through it.”

“Ha! That fool has been exposed for the weakling he is.” Xu Hua spat.

“Yes,” Hao Meng said. “It is impressive he got this far with just deception but it seems, all he does have is deception.”

“I can’t believe we were roommates all this time and have never had a sparring match.” Zen said. “We could have learned so much from each other.”

“Tell me about it.” Li Ao said. “I’ve always wanted to test myself against you.”

“Then let’s go!” Zen charged.

“Long Fist!” Ao Li threw the attack.

Zen weaved, dodging two. Then ran to the side to dodge the next before changing his direction on a dime and charging at Li Ao again.

They threw punches, dodged and weaved. More of Li Ao’s punches connected while Zen’s punches were defended by Li Ao’s raised forearm and weaving.

Zen saw an opening. “Blitz Punch!”

Zen’s punches found purchase on his left abdomen.

“Strange.” Jao Cong said.

“What?” Xue Shaonu said.

“That Blitz Punch, it looked different…”

Zen and Ao Li danced around the ring, bouncing, throwing punches and finding openings with their fighting style.

Zen threw his third Blitz Punch. Ao Li grimaced and stepped back as they fought. They danced around again and Zen found two more openings for his Blitz fist.

“Seems you’re getting scared.” Zen said as he advanced while Ao Li tried to keep out of the range of his Blitz Punch. “You know I’ve found a way through your hardening.”

“Those Blitz Punches, they’re not like before.” Ao Li said as he tried to bounce around Zen to his blind side.

Zen quickly adjusted and dodged Li Ao’s punch and used Blitz Punch. “You protect your head real well but not your abdomen because its protected by your hardening technique. So I’m going to break through your hardening with a variation of Blitz Punch that I’ve been working on. Instead of throwing 100 punches at different spots, this variation throws all the punches in one spot. I call it Focus Blitz Punch!”

As he said it as one hundred punches slammed into Ao Li’s abdomen in a few seconds.

“That won’t work!” Ao Li said, throwing a flying punch that Zen blocked while stumbling back.

Zen and Ao Li danced for a few more moments before Zen found another opening. Zen sent another 100 punches but noticed that the hardening had now increased. It was like he was trying to punch steal.

Zen withdrew and ate another punch to his face while retreating.

“What-What?”

“That’s my original hardening technique.” Ao Li explained. “It’s called Steel Hair. You focus all your ki in one place and make that place impenetrable. I guess you can call it Focussed Hardening. You can’t beat me if you can’t overcome my defence.”

Zen kept trying. His Focussed Blitz Punches were being countered by Focussed Hardening. Zen kept fighting, knowing he was fighting a losing battle as Ao Li’s punches were causing more damage than Zen’s.

Zen found another opening. “Blitz Punch!” Zen’s fist found a place in Ao Li’s abdomen. After his punch touched the spot, Zen felt it hardening under his knuckles.

Ao Li’s eyes widened, realising that he had been tricked. Zen had not really activated Blitz punch.

“Blitz Punch!” Zen aimed at another spot of Ao Li’s body, this time with a real Blitz Punch. Now that Ao Li had hardened one spot, the rest of his body was vulnerable, allowing Zen’s focussed punches to hit him.

Ao Li stumbled back, spitting out a lot of saliva while holding the spot that he had been punched in.

Ao Li looked up at Zen in confusion. “You faked me out.”

“Yeah, I noticed you hardened the first spot my punches hit.”

“Why didn’t you press your advantage?” Ao Li said as he. “You could have hit me a few times and taken me down.”

“Cause I know I can beat you, so get up.” Zen said, adopting his stance. “If you can.”

“Alright, but just to warn you, I already know how to counter your move.” Ao Li said.

“Show me.”

They clashed again Zen found another opportunity to do some damage.

“Blitz Punch!” He punched one area and when he felt the hardening take place, he targeted another area with another fake punch. Then the third spot was the real attack.

Ao Li was able to defend against it.

Zen was hit and he stumbled back.

“Now you can see, I can switch the spots that will have Focussed Hardening. Sure, I’ll take about 20 punches but the rest will be ineffectual. I just need to decrease it from 20 punches.”

“You’ll never!” They fought and much to Zen’s surprise, Ao Li’s technique was improving. From 20 punches to 18, then 15, then 10, then 6.

Zen had not lost hope yet. “Blitz Punch!” His fist found a spot. Then he activated normal Blitz Punch. 100 punches hit Ao Li at different places of his body.

Before Ao Li realised what was happening, he had taken most of the punches.

Ao Li smirked. “This is getting a bit complex.”

“I know. All the more fun.”

They laughed together for a moment before charging at each other. They danced around, traded punches and ki techniques, testing each other to the fullest. While fighting, Zen saw an opening that he had never seen before.

“Gotcha!” he shouted as his fist slammed into Ao Li’s head, sending the boy’s head snapping back.

“Blitz Punch!” Zen delivered 8 more punches to his face before Ao Li angled his head down so that his hair pointed to Zen’s fists. His hair became as hard as steal, taking the brunt of Zen’s punches before Ao Li dived forward, his iron hair making contact with Zen’s stomach and sending him rolling back before Ao Li himself fell face forward.

Both boys laid face down on the ground as the referee began to count.

Bot boys got to their feet at the count of 8. They both looked at each other with great respect. To the booing spectators, their fight looked like a simple slugfest but both knew the amount of intelligence both had to put to not be defeated by the other.

“Looks like it will come down to the toughest of us both, Ao Li.” Zen said.

“No.” Ao Li said, fixing his hair delicately with his hands. “I’m going to end this by using my final ki technique.”

“What?”

Ao Li slammed his fists together and began humming. Balls of ki came out of his body and formed 6 spheres.

“Let me show you, Exploding Dart!” Li AO said, punching out and sending a ki sphere speeding towards Wang Zen…