Chapter 131 - 131. Another Challenger
"Didn't you say you were going to challenge someone? Don't sit there flirting while making me wait here." Harvey's voice embarrassed both Asher and Jane but it did make him jump up and head towards the nearest group.
"Any of you feel like trying your luck?" The small group of campers had been watching matches until this point. Now they recognized Asher and looked hungry.
"So you're challenging us? Then I'll go first." A muscular boy with form fitting clothing stepped forward from the group. "My name is Jarred and I am in the body sculpting club. Good luck."
Asher would have been impressed by the muscle mass if not for the fact that Jarred was from the muscle sculpting club. The simple reason was that the club revolved around specific muscle building, it was all for vanity and no strength.
"Then I challenge you." Asher shouted to Garnet, "this guy and I will spar!" The two moved themselves to an open spot in front of Garnet, it was clear she wasn't moving herself.
Asher's eyes rested on Art and Jane, 'watch how much I've improved in just a few days.' His hope was to show off his new style and encourage his rivals to come at him.
Adding the pressure to himself before a match would push him to be better and his exact goal. His two friends became more serious and focused seeing his look. They wanted him to win of course, but they also were watching for his flaws so they could beat him themselves.
Garnet checked their readiness before fighting. With both fighters' approval, she was ready to start, "fight!" Garnet stepped back and the two opponents approached each other.
Asher was staying back since he wanted to let the muscle bound Jarred take the first move. He did not wait long and did make the first move, he came forward with a basic punch easily dodged by Asher.
He siding even need to step back to dodge the punch, it was so slow that it was like watching in slow motion. Asher knew he was not that fast and attributed it to the weight of the muscles on Jarred weighing him down.
Asher had a brilliant idea and pushed inwards with soft hits. He rained down four soft punches in just a few seconds. This did exactly what he wanted; it angered Jarred.
The soft punches were too obviously held back that Jarred couldn't help but notice. His frustration that he was thought to be so weak even though had had all this muscle made him push forward to prove himself stronger.
This was exactly what Asher wanted, and the next punch had all of Jarred's weight behind it. Asher grabbed his wrist and elbow, his body twisted, and Jarred learned to fly.
The moment Asher had popped up his hips Jarred had left the ground, however, it was a short lived flight. With a sickening thud of a body hitting the ground, Jarred lay flat on his back with all the air knocked from his lungs.
"Winner is Asher!" Garbet announced this the moment she saw the muscular Jarred hit the ground. She knew that he would be spending a while getting up.
"Nice match, hope you feel better soon." Asher felt a little bad using his newly practiced throw on the boy, but he needed practice.
"So you can make people fly now...bro...no fair" Art was jealous, he had not learned throws yet or even thought about learning them.
"That was awesome, but we didn't even see your style." Jane had wanted to see more but the match ended much too fast.
"Sorry, he just stepped in to the throw after I tempted him. I couldn't let the chance to practice my new move go." Asher was a little embarrassed but was more excited knowing he could show these moves to his friends.
"That was the right move. He was too quick to come forward. If he had waited and watched as you did then he could have found a better move. It is clear he only has experience watching fights on television. The muscles aren't hardened either. Safe to say you got very lucky, but that doesn't mean you were perfect. Your didge was good, but I saw you twist your wrist when you punched those soft punches. You need to straighten that out or it will lead to a lot of problems down the line."
Asher knew he wasn't perfect, but he thought he had already greatly improved his punching technique. Finding that he was still far from perfect made him want to go and practice it immediately, but that wasn't much of an option.
Jarred's friends had seen him get taken down and were looking to get a little revenge. They needed to stand up for their friend and fellow club members. "We four would like to fight all of you." One of the buff campers leading them announced.
Laura looked about to run when Garnet set sights on her, "Remember if you refuse a challenge then you lose a point." Her smile made Laura whimper as she accepted her fate.
"You can't challenge Asher, he is still the battle master, go win ten matches and one of you can fight him." Garnet would not budge o the rules.
"Jarred just fought him, and he had only won one match." the boy leading them looked fairly agitated by this. To him, everyone should be fair game.
"Asher challenged him, it was a fair challenge from him not TO him," Garnet explained this like talking to a five year old. This only went to anger the boy more.
"Fine, channeling me then. I will wipe the floor with you and show everyone that you just got lucky." Asher couldn't help but smile at the phrasing.
"Then how about I show you just how lucky I am? I challenge you to a sparring match. Be ready to fly buddy." Asher did his best to make his voice taunting and mighty. Naturally, the boy fell for this and became red faced.