Chapter 7. Humiliation
“Mars, what are you doing?” John’s voice had never been this stern before. It was clear that he was furious at Mars’s behavior.
Mars rubbed the wrist that had just been struck. Knowing that his actions had embarrassed him, he flushed red and shouted in response,
“Instructor John, I was not prepared just now. Please give me another chance…”
“Would an enemy give you another chance? Are you going to beg the enemy for mercy on the battlefield? Or do you intend to spend your entire life fighting nothing but insincere duels…?”
Faced with such insults, Mars knew he could not talk back. He could only endure them silently, his fists clenching tighter and tighter.
“Fulan, are you willing to give him another chance?” John turned and asked for Fulan’s opinion.
“That is fine… I do think he was not prepared. Let him try again… I am confident that I can defeat him.”
Faced with the awkward scene of her opponent being scolded, Fulan did not know how to respond.
She could only say the first thing that came to mind. Only after she finished speaking did she realize—did that sound like mockery?
But her opponent’s fury could no longer be concealed. He glared at her as if he wanted to devour her alive.
John then poured another bucket of oil onto the flames. “Very good, Mars… Now hurry up and thank your opponent for her mercy.”
Mars clenched his teeth tightly and did not utter a single word.
“Hurry up, Mars!” John urged again. His voice was so loud that even Fulan was startled.
“Thank… you… for… your… mercy!” The words forced themselves out from between Mars’s stiff lips one by one, his voice somewhat quiet.
Fulan felt relieved that John finally stopped and did not force Mars to speak louder. But it no longer seemed to matter.
The fury in Mars’s eyes had already reached its limit. His nails had dug into his palm so deeply that they left bloody marks.
John merely instructed both sides to pick up their weapons before coldly saying a single word: “Begin.”
The moment the word fell, Mars stepped forward and rapidly closed the distance, completely abandoning his previous habit of slowly approaching before an exchange.
Fulan, however, avoided his sharp advance. She knew that her physical condition was still far inferior to Mars’s. If they clashed head-on, she would certainly lose.
Instead, she retreated slowly. Every time Mars delivered a strike, she used her agile body to step back and evade it.
In this way, she gradually drew closer and closer to the boundary line of the arena. After several missed attacks, Mars roared,
“Is running away all you know how to do?!!”
Fulan ignored the provocation. She remained focused on evading his attacks, never allowing Mars to land a single hit.
After shouting, Mars’s anger seemed to subside somewhat. He realized that she was getting closer and closer to the boundary. Simply evading would never allow her to defeat him.
If he continued attacking like this and Fulan kept retreating, she would inevitably be forced out of the boundary and lose the match.
As long as he won, everything that had happened earlier would merely make him look a little arrogant. His strength would still be proven, and his reputation would not suffer in Instructor John’s eyes.
Having realized this, he began adjusting his offense. He carefully observed Fulan’s movements, ensuring that she had no chance to counterattack.
Seeing Mars slow his movements, Fulan also understood that her strategy of provoking the enemy had failed. She could no longer wait for a mistake. It was time for a real confrontation.
When she was only two steps away from the boundary, she retreated one extra step while evading another strike, placing herself directly at the edge and leaving a small buffer of space.
Fulan began imitating how she had seen herself using the Breathing Method in her future vision through Astrology.
She did exactly the same thing.
Her breathing gradually deepened, allowing the wind to linger around her body, wrapping and swirling about her…
[You have successfully used the Breathing Method in combat to strengthen yourself. Proficiency +10]
After seeing Fulan step back and create space, Mars hesitated slightly. Instead of attacking again, he assumed a defensive stance, intending to slowly advance step by step.
Watching from the side, John immediately saw what was happening.
That was a Breathing Method.
But how could she possibly know a Breathing Method?
John felt puzzled.
Breathing Methods required a certain level of physical condition before one could practice them.
Different Breathing Methods demanded different levels of physical capability. He had always believed that someone with Mars’s physique represented the absolute lower limit.
It should have been impossible for anyone with an even weaker body to master a Breathing Method.
Yet reality proved otherwise.
Someone truly had learned a Breathing Method with such a weak body.
He could only conclude that Fulan’s Breathing Method must require an extraordinarily low threshold… or perhaps his own experience was simply too limited.
As for the outcome of the duel, he had already reached a conclusion.
After activating the Breathing Method, the wind surrounding Fulan had clearly begun to gather.
If Mars had immediately charged forward and attacked the moment she created distance, he might still have had a small chance of winning.
Learning a Breathing Method and being able to use it in combat were entirely different matters.
When successfully used during battle, a Breathing Method could greatly increase one’s combat power.
Bella, previously the strongest among all the apprentices, was exactly like this. John could tell that Bella also knew a Breathing Method. But if she could not apply it during combat, then even against the current Fulan the odds would only be roughly twenty to eighty. It would be extremely difficult for her to win.
Just as John had expected, Fulan attacked Mars at an astonishing speed.
Mars reacted with a flash of instinct and somehow blocked the first strike—an attack he had not even seen clearly.
But he could not block the second one.
The wooden sword struck his body directly.
After feeling the impact, Mars forced out an ugly expression.
“I lost…”
The apprentices watching nearby immediately began whispering among themselves.
“Did you see what just happened? How did the situation suddenly reverse when she was being chased just a moment ago?”
“No. I only saw a blur flash past, and then the match was over.”
John first stopped Bella, who wanted to challenge Fulan to a duel of her own. He could tell that Fulan did not often use the Breathing Method in combat, and her current condition was not very good.
Then he began commenting on the performance of both fighters during the battle.
“Fulan, at the beginning you should not have kept retreating the entire time. Do not wait for your opponent to make a mistake. You should attempt some attacks of your own. When your opponent was attacking so fiercely at the start, you should not have avoided everything. Sometimes, offense is the best defense…”
“Understood. Thank you, Instructor John.”
Next it was Mars’s turn.
John still believed that there was little Mars could have done differently. If he had been placed in the same situation, he felt he would not have performed any better.
“Mars, your adjustments during the battle were quite impressive. Realizing that you needed to slow down was very good. You only lost because your opponent possessed something more powerful. Continue as you are.”
Mars listened to those words.
But they still left him feeling cold.
Instructor John always offered him suggestions that felt superficial and insignificant.
And everything that had happened today…
To him, it all felt like a farce.
A farce meant to humiliate him.
Unwillingness surged through his blood. As he stared at Fulan, the flames in his eyes seemed ready to burn her to ashes.