I dodged all the balls of fire that were thrown at me and started to run towards the beast.
The beast also started running towards me, and it spit a wall of fire and crashed into it.
It got fire all over its body.
I think this was too quick of them to use it at the beginning of the match.
Well, they are that confident that they would be the winners.
Now I need to bring out ki to defeat the beast which used its special move, and I can only maintain it for at least ten to fifteen minutes and not more than that, as it drains your energy.
Bringing it out during a battle is not impossible, but it's risky.
If a single mistake is done, you'll give your opponent an opportunity to strike you.
But during training, old man Genji said, "If you want to bring out ki during a fight, you need to understand your ki flow in your body, as ki flows at different speed for each person.
For example, my ki flows very slow, while your grandpa's ki flows at high speed, and Mikoto's flows at the speed of the blood in the body.
When you understand the speed, you use minimum pressure required to push it and bring it into the sword.
Do you know why you can't bring your ki out and maintain it with your bare hands and can do it with your sword?"
"No, because we weren't designed to do so."
Even swords or other weapons can't bring out ki.
But it was discovered by a blacksmith in the sixteenth century in the EDO period, when he got an order from THE MIYAMOTO MUSASHI.
He was almost depleted from the materials at that time, but he was lucky as he found a material which the blacksmith's son brought home.
He used it as a substitute material and made a sword.
When Musashi was cornered in the fight, as the sword was different from his swords before, he closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing to think of a solution, and a different kind of energy came out of the sword, and it was named KI.
Coming back to the topic, you need to understand your ki speed when you try to move it.
You can't increase or decrease the speed, so understand your speed and give a light push to it.
Most people don't understand their ki flow speed, so they misunderstand it for their breathing and try to push it, and when it won't come out, they leave that feeling and catch another one.
So, if you master this, you can bring out your ki anytime in a battle."
Now, I think he went back to bring his ki out.
Before he brings it out, I will kill his beast.
It pounced on me with its powerful paws.
I can't dodge it in my position and can only block it, so I brought my ki out and blocked its attack and pushed it back with a ki push.
Ki push means a sudden burst of ki which pushes both the user and the opponent.
By using it, I made some distance between us.
The advantage of learning how to know your ki flow is we stop it whenever we want and bring it whenever we want so that we can fight for a long time.
The beast launched an attack.
Using its tail, it hit the ground and the whole ground shook, and I lost my balance.
As it is a perfect opportunity, it fired fire balls again.
This time it increased its power output.
As I could not dodge, I blocked the attacks with ki, and it came running and gave me a full body dash.
I went back flying and left the ring and crashed into the wall.
The impact and power were so high that I think I broke a few ribs.
I got up, and when I took two steps, I vomited blood.
The referee came to me, asked if I was okay, and am I willing to continue the fight.
I stood up and said that I would continue.
I rushed back to the court, and the man completed bringing his ki out.
Now this battle is a battle till death until I give up.
Even if I make him give up, he would be killed right here and now by the referee.
We resumed the battle.
Both of them bounced on me.
I took a few steps back and took the iaijutsu sword drawing stance.
The beast came first.
I used the technique with ki.
It was a clean hit, as it thought that I won't move.
The man came at me.
I took on the attack and used the ki push.
We both went back flying.
I landed on my feet while he landed on his back and rolled.
Then suddenly something hit my back, and it felt very hot that even my guard got burned, and I fell down.
So, I turned back, and the beast is still alive.
I don't understand why it's alive, but I hit it cleanly.
I think I should try again.
And I rushed towards it and used my clan's fourth form, the "jusan'yo".
It is a technique which increases your speed and vanishes and appears in front of the target and strikes strongly.
I went in front of the beast and struck it.
This time it got hit clearly.
But to make sure it won't get up again, I attacked it again.
It fell down where it stood before I had even stricken it.
I went near it and cut its neck.
But the place where I slashed before isn't wounded at all, but it lost its consciousness.
I made a good decision by making sure.
Now all that is left is its master.
Surprisingly, he didn't speak a word until now, and he didn't feel sad when I killed his beast.
It's as if he doesn't care.
Well, it's easy to kill these kinds of people without holding back and without any guilt.
He took a stance, and it looks like the iaido stance.
To give him the taste of my sword, I also took the iaijutsu stance.
And within zero point one second, I took the stance.
We both crossed our swords, and I hit him.
I turned back to see if he was standing or not.
Again, to my surprise, he was standing without any injury, as I cut his guard.
Ahh, this is so frustrating.
Now I have to do this again.
We took our positions again.
This time I will use my full power while releasing fifty percent of my ki power with its full speed.
Speed and power of the ki can be controlled once you master bringing it out.
After learning it, it's like fixing a speed regulator to the fan.
We can control the ki speed and output.
Output is nothing but the ki power.
Output differs for each person, same as speed.
Now we both released our swords again.
This time I didn't make a mistake, as I combined the iaijutsu with our clan's first form, the 'Shingetsu', as it is the fastest move second to the 'jusan'yo' out of all the eight moves.
This time, when I turned back, he was still standing, but the upper part of his body from the chest, where I cut him, to the head was lying down, and the whole floor became red from all the blood here and where the beast was killed.
The referee announced that it was my victory.
I gave the sword back to him and went out.
I stepped out and went towards the fifth floor waiting room.
As I entered it, Kenji, Akiko, and Keiko were waiting there.
"What took you so long?" Kenji asked.
"I was fighting an A rank beast and its owner, so it will take time," I answered.
"Even Keiko fought against an A rank beast and its owner, but she came out quickly," he replied.
"What?
Keiko took the beast license exam?" I asked with a shocked expression and voice.
"Yes, you didn't know?" he asked.
"No," I answered.
"How did it go, Keiko?" I asked her.
"It wasn't that hard," she answered in a cool way.
"Oh, great. Mine also would have been completed quickly if the beast had died quickly.
It took me three strikes to kill it," I answered in a dull voice.
All of them were in shock, and Keiko asked, "Did you really kill the beast?"
"Yes, but it didn't die for the first and second strikes, but it fainted for the second one, then I slit its throat," I answered with a confused expression and tone and continued, "But I didn't understand how it survived my two strikes before."
"Dumbass, A rank beasts can manifest ki on their bodies if they feel any danger so that they won't get hurt, but you didn't know that and you fought it. You were lucky it lost consciousness, or else it would have been a big problem, and there's no rule that you have to kill the beast," Kenji said with an angry face and voice.
"I forgot about that part, and there's no rule to kill the beast?" I asked.
"Yes, and there's no rule saying that you shouldn't kill the beast. As long as you win the match, everything is okay," Keiko said in a calm and composed way.
"I would have completed my match within the first ten to thirty seconds if it were the case," I said with a smug face.
"How so?" Akiko asked.
"My opponent went back and was concentrating on bringing his ki out, so if I had slipped past through the beast, I would have killed him.
Enough with me, how did your fights go?" I asked.
"Mine was pretty easy compared to my grandpa's training," Kenji answered.
"Same here," Akiko replied as cheerful as ever with a bright smile.
"Mine was a bit hard as it was with a beast user, even though I won pretty fast," Keiko also replied with a smug face.
"So, everyone has done pretty good," I spoke.
We all sat for a few minutes there, and a doctor came to check on me as I got hurt.
He asked me to follow him to the infirmary to get an X-ray of my ribs.
"You got hurt?" Kenji asked, looking down on me.
"Yes, so what?
Didn't anyone get hurt?" I asked, surprised.
"No, you are the only fool who got hurt."
He started laughing.
"Hey, you shouldn't laugh when someone gets hurt, where are your manners?" Akiko butted in.
I thought she was siding with me, but she started laughing along with him.
I wanted to remind them of the week they served me, but I decided to let them enjoy their time as I should get myself checked.
"I would have completed my match within the first ten to thirty seconds," Kenji imitated me while laughing.
I followed the doctor and got an X-ray.
He said that my ribs were fine.
It was just from the force I got slammed against the wall that I coughed blood.
He checked my lungs and said there were small injuries and that they will heal naturally in 7 to 10 days, and asked me to rest and avoid physical stress and do breathing exercises.
I got out and went to the Minka, and they were all watching One Piece in the kotatsu.
I went in and said not to disturb me as I need to rest, and they said they would wake me up in the evening as they planned to party.
I went to my room and fell on the bed