Early that morning, Luo Ya arrived at the venue, eager to see how much he had improved. The feeling of getting stronger every day had him hooked.
That was why Luo Ya enjoyed even the tedious training and meditation. If school had progress bars that filled up as you learned things, people who loved studying would probably be even more enthusiastic.
Besides Luo Ya, the other semifinalists were Annajia, who had won the first match, and two young men from the Norberto Kingdom's city guard.
The brothers were built like Schwarzenegger.
Luo Ya had thought he'd get to warm up a little before facing Annajia in the final, but both brothers forfeited.
When he asked why, he learned that besides Luo Ya beating Brownbeard to a pulp, Annajia had also fought brutally. She hadn't been as ruthless as she'd been against Luo Ya, but both brothers had still been seriously injured and would need at least six months to recover.
The brothers figured they had no chance of winning anyway, so they might as well let the two of them go straight to the final.
The crowd grew excited as soon as they heard the news, eagerly anticipating the championship match.
Luo Ya and Annajia slowly climbed into the ring. Annajia wore a fitted black cheongsam, black stockings, and high heels, accentuating her curvy figure.
Before Luo Ya could admire her any longer, the referee finished announcing the rules, and the match officially began. They both attacked at once.
Luo Ya's right hand, transformed into a pitch-black dragon claw, shot toward Annajia with a sharp whoosh. At the same time, Annajia raised her right leg and kicked straight at him.
Bam! Instead of catching Annajia's right leg as he'd expected, Luo Ya was knocked back two steps.
Luo Ya shook his numb left hand, then hurriedly crossed his arms to block Annajia's side kick.
Pfft! He had no time to worry about the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Luo Ya hardened both hands with Armament Haki, forming sharp claws at his fingertips.
He met Annajia's spinning kick, delivered immediately after her side kick.
The woman's kicking technique was exceptional, and her long legs made her even harder to deal with. Luo Ya was kept on the defensive, taking hit after hit.
Hasshoken also had powerful shock waves that spread out on impact. In other words, it used a special way of generating force that could break through a surface with a focused blow.
That was why her kicks could injure Luo Ya even when they landed on his arms.
Under Annajia's relentless barrage, Luo Ya was completely suppressed and could only keep defending.
Every time he tried to close in for hand-to-hand combat, she kicked him away.
A front kick, a side kick, a high roundhouse followed by a spinning back kick. The few times he managed to attack, she blocked him with her arms. The match had become a one-sided beating, with Annajia pummeling Luo Ya.
The cheers from the stands never let up. After all, a beautiful woman who could fight was bound to be more popular than a lunatic like Luo Ya, who routinely smashed people's heads in.
This can't go on. I have to risk it! Luo Ya thought. He concentrated his Haki on the left side of his head and took a high roundhouse kick head-on.
Thud!
Even with Haki protecting him, Luo Ya was left dizzy and nauseated. Gritting his teeth, he turned his left hand into a claw and clamped it tightly around the long leg pressed against his face.
"Finally got you." Luo Ya yanked hard with his left hand and clawed at Annajia's face with his right, his fingertips roiling with black Haki.
He didn't know whether the counterattack would put Annajia out of commission, but it would definitely scar her.
Annajia stayed calm in the face of danger. Her captured right leg suddenly tensed as she crossed her arms in front of her face. Then she bent her left knee, gathering a large amount of Haki and Hasshoken's shock-wave force around it, and slammed it into Luo Ya's abdomen.
"Ugh!" The knee strike sent Luo Ya tumbling to the ground. With the earlier kick to his temple, it was too much for him. He could no longer hold back and braced himself on both hands as he vomited a mass of blood mixed with half-digested food. It looked like he'd had buns for breakfast.
Annajia shook the blood from her arm. "If you surrender now and see a doctor, there's still time. With your physique, your internal organs are probably just damaged, not ruptured."
Luo Ya wiped the blood from his chin. "I was outmatched. Heh, I surrender." Black flames rolled over his body, and he stood up as if nothing had happened.
Annajia stared at him in shock. "What kind of Devil Fruit is that? Have your injuries all healed?" As she spoke, she reached out to touch his chest.
"Doesn't do a damn thing. If we keep fighting, I'll just keep getting beaten up. And it's frustrating as hell when all I can do is take hits without hitting back." As he complained, Luo Ya slapped away the little hand roaming over him.
"The champion of this year's Bare-Hand Fighting Tournament is Annajia, from the Flower Country!"
"Annajia, you're amazing!" "What incredible kicks!" "Goddess, I want to have your babies!" "Those legs are worth a decade!" "I'd marry Annajia in a heartbeat. I'd even become the Pirate King for her!" "You really don't ask for much, do you?"
As the referee's announcement rang out, a tidal wave of cheers swept through the stands, though some rather strange comments seemed to be mixed in.
King Brunen then announced a grand feast to celebrate the birth of the new champion. Amid the crowd's rapt attention, he presented Annajia with the prize: a Zoan Devil Fruit.
As for its type, Luo Ya didn't know enough to recognize anything but the especially powerful ones.
Of course, that was because he hadn't planned on eating a Devil Fruit himself. Otherwise, a copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia was fairly easy to find.
After Annajia received the fruit, King Brunen invited her to the palace for the feast. As a loser, Luo Ya leisurely headed back to the hotel to eat dust.
"Please wait, Mr. Luo Ya. King Brunen has invited you to the palace for the feast as well. Come with me first to bathe and change." A guard in armor called out to him.
Luo Ya scratched his head. "All right." He followed the guard to the venue's changing room, washed up, and changed into the new clothes they had prepared.
After all, his old outfit was covered in footprints and blood, not to mention a few bits of food. It was definitely beyond saving.