Yoruichi and Ethan had often trained together since the last world, so they were very familiar with each other. There was no need to test the waters, they went all out from the very beginning.
In the blink of an eye, they exchanged countless blows. The spectators at ringside could not see the power behind their punches, but their speed in movement and striking left everyone stunned.
"Ah... ah..."
Krillin's mouth hung open, completely unable to figure out how to evaluate the battle in front of him.
"So strong!"
"Amazing!"
Goku also widened his eyes, feeling that if he blinked, he would miss many exciting moments. While shocked by how strong Ethan and Yoruichi were, he also felt an eager desire to fight opponents like them.
"I really want to fight them."
Hearing that, Krillin and Yamcha looked at Goku as if he were crazy.
"You actually want to fight them? Aren't you afraid of losing?"
"It doesn't matter if I lose, as long as I get to fight people that strong!"
Krillin still did not quite understand what Goku meant by that.
Yamcha, however, had a strange feeling. He had indeed been losing more and more often during recent training sessions with Ethan, but he did not feel upset at all, because he could feel his own strength improving rapidly.
Jackie Chun, who had been silent off to the side, suddenly felt that coming to compete again this time had been a complete mistake.
"I didn't expect these two young people to improve so quickly. If I had known, there would have been no need for me to enter again at all."
In the original story, after discovering that Tien Shinhan's strength was considerable and that he could serve as a rival for Goku, Master Roshi decisively gave up the match and did not participate in the next World Martial Arts Tournament either.
After all, his purpose in entering the tournament was to teach his disciples that there was always someone stronger, and that they should not become arrogant and complacent just because they had gained a little strength.
Now, with more and more outstanding young martial artists appearing, he no longer needed to do that himself.
Jackie Chun was open-minded, but Tien Shinhan did not have such a calm mindset. At first, he and Chiaotzu had not paid much attention to what was happening here. It was only after they saw the Turtle School group gathered nearby that they glanced over.
Then he was shocked.
What was going on? Who were those two people? They were actually this strong?
His eyes could barely keep up with their speed, and compared to the ordinary people around him, Tien was even more aware of how heavy their punches were. An ordinary person would be seriously injured or even killed by a single hit, and even a strong martial artist like him would not feel good after taking one.
"As expected of the World Martial Arts Tournament, there really are such powerful masters here."
This was only a preliminary match. Watching the two fighting fiercely on the stage, the arrogance that had nearly overflowed from him subsided slightly, and he began to watch with a serious expression.
After trading blows for a while, Ethan suddenly took one of Yoruichi's punches head-on. At the same time, powerful and unstable energy gathered between his hands, which he drew back to his waist.
"Such strong energy!"
Ordinary martial artists only felt a gentle breeze brush past their faces and did not think much of it.
Krillin, Goku, and the others, who had learned how to sense energy, could feel a large amount of energy gathering in Ethan's hands, and this energy was extremely unstable.
"That stance... Could it be the Kamehameha?"
"No, it's completely different!"
Ethan's wrists were not pressed together. Instead, his hands were held in a loose cupping posture, and violent blue energy slowly condensed into a sphere between them.
"The stance is a little different, and the way he uses energy is completely different from the Kamehameha."
After taking that punch head-on, Ethan thrust both hands forward. The motion looked somewhat similar to the Kamehameha. Following his movement, the blue sphere of light shot rapidly toward Yoruichi.
The moment Ethan took that stance and mobilized his power, Yoruichi had already reacted. Strong energy also gathered in her hands, and by the time the blue sphere of light reached her, her palms seemed to be wrapped in a thin layer of light.
Facing the incoming sphere, she brought her right hand down in a vertical chop, directly splitting the sphere in half.
Boom!
The violent explosion startled the spectators, and the flash of light made them shut their eyes involuntarily. When everyone looked back at the ring, Ethan and Yoruichi were fighting again, but Yoruichi's style of attack had changed.
She was no longer focusing on fists and kicks. Instead, she attacked with hand blades wrapped in light. As she moved, beautiful yet dangerous arcs of light often appeared around her.
"What a powerful technique."
"That move is very similar to a blast, it's really powerful."
Krillin thought Goku was referring to the move Ethan had just used. He also felt that move was very strong.
"No, the technique Yoruichi is using is also very powerful!"
As soon as he said that, there was no need for Goku to explain further. Everyone quickly came to understand how terrifying that move was. Yoruichi suddenly went all out. The light on her hands surged at once, tracing a beautiful arc as she moved. For a moment, everyone seemed to see the moon in the night sky.
After that brief flash of light, Ethan, who had already anticipated it and leaped backward to avoid it, still ended up with a long bloody gash on his body.
"What happened? Did he fail to dodge it?"
"No, he dodged it!"
At this moment, Jackie Chun once again fulfilled his role as a teacher, explaining what had just happened to the bewildered Krillin.
"With an attack like that, simply retreating outside the range of the strike is not enough to avoid the damage completely."
Just as a punch can carry air pressure, this kind of attack also carried wind pressure, and an extremely sharp one at that. Being cut by that wind pressure was no different from being slashed by a blade.
"Still, achieving something like that is not easy."
The strength of those two on the stage had already surpassed everyone present by a wide margin.
Master Roshi had already reached that conclusion in his heart. It seemed he really could just enjoy this martial arts tournament casually. With opponents like these around, he no longer had to worry about his disciples becoming arrogant and complacent.
On the stage, Ethan looked at the diagonal wound on his body. His vest was not only weighted gear, it also had fairly good defensive capability, yet it had still been cut open so easily by the wind pressure. Yoruichi really was not holding back at all.
However...
"You made a mistake."
Yoruichi said nothing and only panted for breath. She had also realized that she had made a mistake.
"You were too focused on trying to overpower me."
Ethan had only used one move, and Yoruichi had rushed to answer it with a powerful technique. Her method of compressing energy into her hands to form sharp hand blades consumed too much in her current state.
Especially that final move, Moonlight Saw. It was incredibly powerful, but it also used up a massive amount of energy. Yoruichi did not have much stamina left.
"Hmph, I originally wanted to finish you in one move!"
"When you say finish me, you don't mean literally chopping me to death, do you?"
"You're not that easy to chop to death!"
Yoruichi knew she was going to lose, but she still did not give up. She continued fighting until all her strength was exhausted, and only then was she naturally knocked out of bounds by Ethan's punch and eliminated.
"As expected, real combat is very different from normal training."
She rarely used these "big moves" during training, which caused her to misjudge her endurance in actual combat. The solution to this problem was either to keep getting stronger and increase her energy reserves, or to use these high-consumption finishing moves more carefully.
After standing up and putting her jacket back on, Yoruichi knew that her journey in this martial arts tournament had once again ended early.
"Am I really destined to never make it into the main tournament?"
Even she began to wonder whether she had somehow gained some strange trait after coming to this world.
"Yoruichi, you're amazing!"
Just as she shook off that unreliable thought, she saw Goku standing in front of her and staring at her.
"I really want to fight you, but unfortunately, there's no chance this time."
"What does it matter? If you want to fight, we can do it anytime after the tournament ends. We don't have to fight only at the tournament."
Goku froze for a moment, then immediately realized that Yoruichi was right. Besides, she lived at Bulma's house, so it was not as if he could not find her.
"It's settled then. After the tournament, you have to fight me!"
He did not mention Ethan, because Ethan had already defeated Yoruichi. Judging from the current situation, Ethan was almost guaranteed to pass the preliminary round, which meant they might meet in the main tournament.
"I actually hope I don't run into Ethan in the main tournament."
Krillin suddenly looked at Yamcha beside him, as if remembering something.
"Yamcha, you've been training with them too, right?"
"Yeah!"
"Looks like I need to pray that I don't run into you right away either!"
Krillin's thoughts moved quickly. Yamcha had been training with Ethan and the others. Even if he was not as strong as Ethan and Yoruichi, the gap should not be big.
Considering that Ethan and the others had been far weaker than Yamcha back then, it was possible that Yamcha was actually the strongest among the three.
"There are only eight people in the main tournament anyway. We'll run into each other sooner or later."
Ethan, who had also just stepped off the ring, casually wiped the blood from his body. As for the wound, it was only a cut through skin and flesh, and it had already stopped bleeding by now.
"Still, it's better to run into each other later."
"I'm going to find Bulma and the others first."
Yoruichi chatted a little longer and watched a few more matches, but after seeing everyone win so easily, she lost interest.
Aside from their group and the two from the Crane School, the remaining people here were simply too weak to be worth watching.
Moreover, only she and Ethan had met early. The others were in different brackets. If they wanted to see exciting matches, they would have to wait for the main tournament.
That was indeed the case. Other than Ethan and Yoruichi's match, the remaining fights were not very interesting. Ethan even advanced all the way and qualified for the main tournament without needing to use a second move.
After the preliminary round, he would draw lots with the other seven qualifiers to determine the main tournament bracket.
"Who will I be facing?"
Unsurprisingly, Yamcha, who was destined to be eliminated right after qualifying, became Ethan's opponent.
(To be continued.)