Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 793
Chapter 793: The Link
Swing~ Swing~
It was getting later in the day, and the elementary students poured out of the classroom and joined their parents waiting for them in the schoolyard.
Across from the school, in the playground, Ellie sat on a swing, gently pushing herself back and forth in the warm afternoon sun.
She was feeling lonely.
While she loved her mother dearly, she was always busy with the dojo, and they barely had any quality time together.
Thus, most of the time, she was alone.
At times like this, it really made her miss her father, whom she had never met and only seen pictures and videos of.
“…Stupid dojo… stupid martial arts… everything is so dumb…”
She pouted and thought about heading back home.
However, she was starting to feel a little selfish and thought that maybe if she didn’t go home straight away, her mother would start to miss her.
“…Hey, isn’t that Aoi’s daughter?”
“…Yeah, you’re right, she is!”
“…”
At that moment, happening to walk by, the students of Purple Cobra noticed her swinging alone and had a scary thought come across their minds.
“…What if we snatch her and give her to the master? I am sure he knows what to do with her to pressure Aoi into giving what he wants.”
“Let’s do it!”
In that moment, they jumped over the fence and approached the swings, and Ellie started to notice them heading over.
She shrank in shyness, thinking that they were here to use the swings, and thus, she jumped off and started to walk away.
“Wait a minute, little lady.”
In that moment, one of them grabbed her by the backpack, and she flinched and turned to look them in the eye.
They were much bigger kids than her.
“W-w-w-what?”
She asked.
“Why don’t you come with us? We will walk you home since it is getting dark and it can be quite scary!”
The purple cobra kid said.
“I… I can walk home alone…”
She mumbled with a quiet voice.
Her mother had taught her that she shouldn’t go anywhere with strangers, and she wasn’t good with people, especially those she didn’t know.
“Just grab her and let’s go before anyone sees. We’re right outside the elementary school. What if her teachers see?
“We are still wearing these fucking uniforms!”
The young man said.
They were still wearing purple cobra qis, so it wouldn’t take a detective to find out who they were.
In that moment, the purple cobra kid grabbed Ellie by the arm and started dragging her out of the playground.
“Help!”
She shouted but was instantly silenced as one of the kids put his hand over her mouth, and she kept letting out muffled screams with tears streaming down her face.
“HEY!”
In that moment.
Someone jumped over the fence and kicked the one dragging Ellie across the face and roundhouse kicked the other two in the neck area.
“Argh!”
“Who the fuck?”
They turned around and came face-to-face with a scary-looking delinquent with eyes as cold as ice and a gaze that made their blood run cold.
“I knew you purple cobra trash were despicable, but going this far? This is a whole new level of pathetic.”
Jock said coldly.
Ellie quickly hid behind Jock, clutching her backpack tightly in fear, and he could feel her trembling.
It was obvious that she was in a lot of fear.
It only made him angrier.
“…It’s Jock…”
“Shit…”
“Undead Jock…”
The three purple cobra kids flinched and backed away. This was not a person they could handle with just three of them.
“Ellie, do me a favor. Turn around, close your eyes, and pluck your ears, and count to ten like we do when we play hide-and-seek, alright?”
Jock said.
“…Ok!”
Ellie turned around, closed her eyes, plucked her ears with her fingers, and began counting from one.
“One…”
“Two…”
“Iron Style, Iron Smash!”
Jock smashed his fist into the gut of one of the kids, definitely broke a rib or two, and the kid fell to the ground, gasping for air.
“Iron Style, King Lion Scratch!”
With all ten fingers, he cut through the two remaining kids, shredded their uniforms, and made five long slashes across their chests with his sharp nails.
“Iron Style, Patella Breaker!”
With a kick to the patella area, Jock broke another kid’s leg with a sickening crunch, causing hellish pain to shoot through the screaming kid’s body.
“Iron Style, Metatarsal Breaker!”
Jock repeated the brutal move with a stomp to the other leg, shattering the kid’s metatarsal bone.
“Iron Style, Reversal Taekwondo!”
In that moment, he turned into three afterimages—each of them doing a high kick—and kicked them all in the head simultaneously.
The kids lay on the ground in pain, unable to move. They were in so much pain that they couldn’t even scream.
“Eight…”
Ellie was still counting.
“I am not done…”
Jock whispered, and with his spear-looking hand, he stabbed into each of the kid’s bodies in a very precise spot.
In the past ten years, he had been reading a lot about body anatomy, as that’s what Kiernan had done, and he figured out something interesting.
About six years ago, the world’s doctors found quite an interesting find about martial souls, as apparently there was a “link” inside the body that connected to the martial soul.
It was difficult to access, but Jock found a way with one of Iron Style’s techniques—Death Lance.
By attacking that link, it was possible to separate the martial soul connection to the body.
“Have fun without martial arts now, pieces of shit.”
Jock spat in their face, and as soon as Ellie finished counting, he grabbed her hand and started walking back to the dojo.
“How was school?”
He asked with a smile.
“Ah…”
Ellie wanted to turn around to see what happened to those three kids, but hearing that question, she just pouted and looked straight ahead.
“I hate school…”
“You do? I thought you would be the most popular kid in the entire school since you are so cute and all!”
Jock said.
“…I am not popular.”
Ellie pouted.
“Ah, me neither. I was what you would call the ultimate loner. But your father saved me. He gave me purpose.”
Jock said and patted Ellie’s head.
“…How was my father?”
Ellie asked.
“…How was he…? Well, he was our rock that you could always count on. I honestly thought he was invincible.”
Jock said.
The news about the failed Dead World expedition thus was extremely devastating, as they simply refused to believe that Kiernan was dead.
“…But he wasn’t… was he?”
Ellie lowered her head, tears welling up in her eyes, and had some snot dripping from her nose.
Jock crouched before her, took out a napkin, and wiped it off.
“I don’t know, Ellie, but… I believe your dad is alive.”
“You do?”
Ellie said in surprise.
“Yep!”
Jock said.
“…Then why isn’t he coming home?”
Ellie asked.
Jock looked into her innocent face, and honestly, he didn’t have an answer to that, so he just smiled at her.
“I don’t know, but wherever he is, I am sure that he is missing you dearly, and would love to meet you, his dear daughter.”