(IHPM)Chapter 177: Mission Accomplished

Chris almost stood up from his seat in surprise. This was because the entry and appearance of the next opponent were just too surprising to him.


The person just stood up from her seat and literally walked down the vertical wall to go to the dueling ring. 


Also, she happened to be wearing what could only be described as.


"Ninja! Hey isn't that a ninja?!"


Yeah, that was definitely a ninja costume. Black turtleneck, black cargo pants, and a blade that's called tanto or her shoulder.


Fleur, who was cursing in her mind for another strong community suddenly participating, looked at him oddly for his over-excited reaction. 

"Of course. They were mentioned in the notes your dad gave us,"


Chris turned his head to look at her.

"Wait, you actually read those?" He asked in surprise. They were so thick and boring! And his dad's handwriting was horrible. 


Chris had better ways of spending his time. Like playing with Esmee, Gabriel, and Nyxie. Also, Dora was staying at his home those days so… yeah, fat chance of reading those notes for a tournament he already knew he was going to win.


But currently, the point is, 

"Are there ninjas in this world too? Can you tell me what you know?" He asked Fleur, without filtering his words. 


Why was he so reactive right now? 


It's because Chris is, after all, a geek by heart. And his geeking extends to ninjas or shinobis as well. Ninjas and Assassins are just too cool and badass!


Fleur sighed exaggeratedly as she used her occlumency to recall.

"Alright, let me see...ninjas are a community that lives in secrecy somewhere in Japan. Only one ninja village would know another ninja village's location. The magic they practice is called Ninshu or Ninjutsu. They train their young generation very strictly from childhood and their techniques are all very unique and mysterious," she said, but then she frowned.


"They don't usually participate in worldly affairs unless they're paid very high. They especially don't participate in competitions where their skills might be openly displayed. The fact that one is here is quite odd. Is that enough for you?" 


Axel had stopped paying attention to her words when she mentioned the fact that they had their brand of magical spells called ninjutsu. He nodded absentmindedly to her words while focusing on the duel of the ninja girl.


"And What Do We Have Here?! A ninja from Koga Village! AM I SEEING THIS RIGHT?! Even if ninjas don't participate in tournaments, they do have a widespread reputation in the underworld! For those who don't know about them, I don't think I need to do the introduction. I'm confident that you'll see firsthand just how DANGEROUS their skills and magic are!"


*CHEERS*


Chris wanted to cheer with the audience as well but decided that he should keep his mature, chad image and sit quietly while sipping some cola-flavored pure magic potion to calm down since Fleur was already looking at him weirdly after the surprised reaction earlier. 


Even the commentator was heavily favoring the Ninja among all the other contestants standing there, showing that he was also excited. 


"I see that he's a man of culture as well," muttered Chris as he nodded in approval while drinking some magic potion.


"So…" said Fleur conversationally. "You prefer that kind of girl, huh? But… isn't it weird? Her clothes are so tight! The shape of her butt and chest are so pronounced!" She said causing him to choke on his magic potion.


"Phh—*Cough* *Cough* Wha— *cough* What the f*ck are you saying?!"

 

Fleur looked at him with a 'You know I'm right' look.


"What the hell, Fleur?! I don't like ninjas because of their appearance! Man, I'm just glad it wasn't a guy, or you'd have declared me a gay!"


Fleur looked doubtful, "Really? Why did you react like that upon seeing her then?"


Chris sighed as he bowed his head. 

"Milady, it's because of their profession! You must believe me! I already have a fair maiden waiting upon me, I wouldn't dare gaze amorously at another woman!"

 

"...." Fleur blushed, until she realized that the fair maiden he was talking about was not her, but that Nymphadora bitch. She was hit with a depressing feeling after that. 


Chris had his focus back on the duels just in time to see it starting. He saw the girl in black dodging the spells of her opponent with ease. After that, she brought her hands together, as if to attack but she glanced in a particular direction. 


Chris quickly followed her gaze and saw another ninja, a middle-aged man, judging by his build, shaking his head at the girl.


The girl, who flipped out of the way to dodge another one of her opponent's attacks, quickly headed straight for the guy.


Seeing her coming his way, the guy panicked and started firing spells at her as fast as he could while also trying to block her path. 


But, to everyone's surprise except for those who'd seen Chris, the girl dodged all the spells displaying impressive flexibility, agility, and reflexes. 


The wand was kicked out of his hands immediately after which he received a spinning heel kick to his face, sending him flying. 


At that moment, Chris felt Fleur nudging him from the side.


"What?" He glanced at her and found her staring hard at him, as if to see through him. 


"You… you are secretly a ninja, aren't you?!" She asked seriously, as if she was completely convinced. She had only seen one other person dodging spells like that. In fact, his ability still seemed a notch better.


Chris looked at her for a moment, then nodded in resignation. 

"Yeah, you caught me,"


After a moment, they both burst out laughing. Though they stopped when they saw Yang Wei getting up from his seat.


"It's your match next?" Asked Chris in surprise as he looked at the matches. Sure enough, it was Yang Wei's turn. 


Yang Wei nodded with a rigid face. 


Chris patted his shoulder, "Don't be so nervous, Wei. Just be calm and give it your all!"

 

Yang Wei nodded with a stiff smile. He wasn't actually the least bit worried about his match. He was just contemplating life. He had lived his whole life training bitterly with sweaty men while brother Chris had fun moments and enjoyed life like this. 


Looking at these two, one would think they had come on a picnic and not on a tournament representing their country. 


One of them had a match against a guy from the dangerous Kimbandia for Wukong's sake! 


"Good luck Yang Wei. Just give it your best." Fleur also wished him luck, thinking he was nervous. 


Yang Wei's gaze went to Wu Mei and even she nodded at him. 

"[There is a chance of me losing. So you can't lose]," she said seriously in Chinese. 


Yang Wei, who wasn't taking the upcoming match seriously, instantly got 101% serious. If Wu Mei said so many words, it means that the situation is serious. 


Chris glanced at Wu Mei. 

"Hey, how do you know that you can lose to him?" He asked since as far as he'd seen, the red guy hadn't shown anything impressive yet. 


"... Just a hunch," she said after a pause. 


The real reason was, that her father had used Chinese divination arts to find out that there was a high chance that she'll lose in the first round. Though she had still come, just to gain some worldly experience. 

She wasn't going to explain all this to Chris. Too many words.


Chris shrugged as he focused on the match. 


"And next, we have Amari Diallo, from Uagadou School of Magic, Africa! It is the largest wizarding school in the world! So, it's saying something if he can qualify to be here among all the others! Uagadou is known for its unique magic casting and transformation magic! Hm… I'm excited!


Amari was an African guy with some tribal markings or tattoos on his skin and face. Chris thought it looked cool. He had on some traditional African jewelry as well. 


"And facing him is Yang Wei from Shaolin Temple, the Heaven of Cultivators! This place is quite mysterious as sometimes it sends out students who are just trainees while sometimes, it sends out talented freaks who'd dominate every fight! No information on Yang Wei has been provided so he has been matched against a strong opponent!"


As explained earlier, these people want the strongest to fight in the later stages to retain the maximum interest from the audience. Since Yang Wei had no info on him, he was thrown into th weak list during the selection to be randomly matched against a strong opponent.


Fleur leaned over to talk to Wu Mei,

"Hey, Wu Mei, why did your school not provide your information? It would be much more difficult to advance now, right?"


Wu Mei shook her head,

"Winning or losing is not the aim. It's about facing the most difficulties, gaining experience, and getting stronger through adversities."


???

Fleur had question marks on her head but Chris understood. 

'Cultivators tend to have masochistic tendencies,' He thought, recalling all the times the Wuxia protagonists would almost die and then come out stronger. 


There were also many who'd laugh in ecstasy while their body is being put through pain since they were becoming stronger.


These masochistic people were called the 'protagonists' of their world and those wise people like him, who took shortcuts to strength using money or other methods were called 'Young Masters' or 'deviants'. 


Though, Chris didn't understand one thing. 

'One-word answer to my question and a detailed explanation to Fleur's? This is discrimination!'


"START!" 


Yang Wei's match had started and all of them watched with interest. Chris even took out popcorn which he used to eat with Dora during the Quidditch matches at Hogwarts. 


Chris watched keenly as Amari made several gestures with the movement of his whole body and beams of light began shooting out of his hands with his gestures, heading straight towards Yang Wei. 


Currently, Yang Wei was also wandless. His hands, however, were covered with fingerless metal gloves. 


Even with the spells heading his way, he looked incredibly focused, taking a stance that looked incredibly cool.


Just as it looked like the spells were going to hit him, a yellow glow appeared around his hands, and he moved. 


*BAAM* *DING* *BAAM* *BAAAAM*






In a blink of an eye, he punched out all of the spells heading his way!


"DAMN! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT? IT'S THE FAMOUS IRON FISTS OF THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE! It seems that ring 4 has become a dangerous battleground! 


Chris sucked in a deep breath after seeing Yang Wei fight. 

"I knew it! I bloody knew it was going to be something great!" He exclaimed while eating popcorn. This guy turned out to be a Danny Rand. 


"You shouldn't eat that,"

Fleur looked at the butter-filled popcorn in disgust. She feared she'd get fat just by looking at it. Rather than the match, she was more amazed at how Chris could have a body like that while stuffing himself with unhealthy food all the time. 


"You know nothing, Delacour. Real men don't need to lose fat. When they train, the fat has to lose itself for them. Now let me eat my popcorn!"


On the ring, after hitting all the spells away, Yang Wei settled back into a stance with the palm of his one hand extended forward while the other clenched into a fist and cocked back, ready to strike. 


Amari didn't stop. Looking a bit irritated, this time he went for a more powerful attack. 


"#$-#$##@£" He chanted and did a weird dance and the red and orange bright beam of light headed towards Yang Wei with incredible speed. It was clear that this beam of light was going to be much more destructive and powerful than the previous ones.


Meanwhile, Yang Wei wasn't idle either. The glow surrounding his fists intensified and he punched the air with a shout. 
"HA!"

A compressed mass of bright yellow light zoomed through the air, its intensity rivaling Amari's spell, but its speed much faster.


*BOOOOOOM*


Their spells collided and a big explosion happened. A second later, Amari's pained shout was heard since Yang Wei hadn't punched the air once, but twice in succession, hiding a weak attack behind the strong one. 


Surprised exclamations were heard all around. No one had thought their match would be over so quickly, and the winner would be the Shaolin guy!


"THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE! This boy is casting the famously difficult Iron beams like it's nothing! It seems that the Shaolin Temple has sent out a hidden dragon this time! 


Fleur turned to Wu Mei, "How is this done? The attack was so fast!" 

It was true. The attack was at least twice as fast as Amari's spell.


'Very good, Fleur,' thought Chris as he mentally gave her a thumbs up. 

He would have also liked to ask that, but he had a feeling the black-haired girl wouldn't answer him with more than a word, so he didn't ask. 


To Fleur, Wu Mei really answered in detail,

"In attacks, the Shaolin Martial artists don't not use magic. We use 'Qi'. Qi is a strong force that can only be used effectively by talented individuals who've cultivated intensely under a Qi Master's guidance for years. 

When we attack, we're not channeling magic. We're gathering Qi, and throwing it out with all the power of an attack that has been trained for years. Thus, it is much faster than wizard's spells."


Chris looked at the girl in shock,

"You can actually speak fluent English?!" He asked in surprise. He had thought that she must have been so quiet due to a language problem, but even if she had an accent, she was still speaking fluently. 


She looked at him.


*Nod* 


'The heck?' This time he didn't even get a verbal response. Only a nod. Now it was confirmed. This was discrimination. 


Fleur laughed. Now even she could see it clearly.


Fortunately, Yang Wei came back at this moment.


Chris quickly stood up and patted his shoulder, "Wei! You were amazing, brother! That was some powerful fisting you did there! That guy couldn't even take two thrusts!" 


If there was a native English speaker here, he'd have been floored by Chris's words. Fortunately, these Chinese and French innocent people didn't understand the horrible pun.


Wei scratched his head embarrassedly. 

"Thanks, brother Chris, I've been trained in it by my master since childhood."


'Now, on to the main business,' Chris inwardly grinned like a villain since he was about to execute his plan. He was indeed right to invest his time here. And he was now going to reap the benefits.

He put on a curious expression.
"Hey Wei, can you show me the Qi? It was so amazing! I want to see it up close,"


Wei nodded enthusiastically. 

"Of course, brother Chris. Here," he extended his hand, which was still clad in the fingerless metallic glove, and clenched it tightly. And soon, a yellow glow emerged, covering his fist in an almost solid sheen and also flowing outward. 


By now, Chris was already grinning like a madman. You could call him Light Yagami. 


He put on an impressed expression. 

"Damn, can I touch it?" 


Yang Wei shook his head. "I'll not recommend it. It's hot and destructive in nature."


Chris extended his finger. "Just a finger. I'll withdraw it quickly."


By now, Chris didn't wait for his reply and quickly touched the Qi, feeling it with his magic sense.


"Look out, Brother!" (Yang Wei)


"Don't do it!" (Fleur)


Chris withdrew his finger, which wasn't burnt at all. No shit, he had high Flame Resistance from Esmee and high magic defense from Selena and Cynthia. 


"Chris? Are you hurt?" Fleur quickly took his hand in hers and checked his finger in worry. 


But Chris didn't answer. He had his head down and his hair was hiding his eyes. But,  


'HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!'


Inside his head, he was laughing like a madman.


'Years of training and cultivation, huh? Don't make me laugh...' he thought even as his mind thoroughly memorized the feeling. 


In an instant, his trigger got activated and in the next instant, a pure Gold glow much more intense and thicker than Yang Wei appeared on his free hand which he had hidden behind his back.

Mission Accomplished.

***

A.N.: How was this one? Worth the wait?