He heard the remaining four mumbling. The crowd was quiet and in shock. It looked as if they were planning something. There was a period of silence before one of the four stepped forward.
''You commited a sin on the holy grounds.. those mats! You kicked him in the face on purpose. Rules state anyone with proficiency in martial arts is free to deliver consequences to those who do so.''
''....''
''Try me then.''
He waited a few seconds before responding. He held back on curse language. The four fighters approached him quickly and the one who stepped forward would try a flying knee aimed for Artem's head. The usage of the knee was a common thing in Muay Thai. A really short and really small smile was found on Artem's face. He got excited, for grappling was not his thing against fools of this level.
Dodging the flying knee attempt with a sidestep to the left, Artem maintained a custom version of the horse stance. Instead of crouching quite wide, he just simply crouched a little bit. Also, whereas the horse stance involved two open palms forward he had his right hand clenched in a fist with the palm facing his chest. With the other hand, he used his palm to push the knee of his opponent to throw him off his equilibrium.
The fighter's momentum completely went downhill as the simple push was enough to cause him to face the ground with his right shoulder first. Artem was going to face three different fighters from three different directions, so he used his Kenbonshoku Haki's Sixth Sense to approach his situation more detailed and in-depth.
Before Artem could deliver an axekick to the fighter on the ground, a second one would approach him with a Superman Punch from behind. With his Haki, Artem slipped his head to the right side this time to narrowly avoid the punch. With his left arm's elbow, he delivered a gruesome gutwrenching elbow strike to the liver. Because of the jumping kind of motion that was involved in the superman punch, the fighter fell to the ground.. hard. Coughing combined with a little bit of puking was enough to display the fighters' defeat at the hands of Artem.
Before the other two fighters would try and attempt a move on Artem, the image of the last one to try so would probably flash infront of their eyes a few more times. They knew better now. They'd just let Artem leave the scene. And so he did. It appeared that the one who received an elbow strike was the four-time champion in a row of this tournament.
Artem raised his chin witnessing the saddening image of four fighters on the mats.. defeated. He then moved towards the locker room between the stands of the crowd who eyed him. There was this sensation Artem received from fighting and completely dominating his opponents. His confidence just went a step higher. He believed that the crowd too feared this man.
After getting dressed, there was one fighter that wanted to punish Artem for what he did today. He leaned against the side of the doorway, waiting for Artem. Artem smiled, as the fighter pushed himself using his shoulder to stand upright. The fighter calmly walked towards Artem the way Artem moved during his jiu jitsu matches, trying to mock him with a funny facial expression.
Artem raised his fist towards his opponent and when they got in striking range they both entered the orthodox boxing stance. The fighter would say something but because of Artem being annoyed by the mockery of him, he had this tunnel vision that made the fighters' words sound like.. something. There was no comparing what Artem heard to a sound that could be titled this or that.
The fighter would go for a right hook but Artem blocked it by stretching his left arm forward and a little bit to the side, placing his own elbow on the inside of his opponent's elbow, completely freezing the strike and the fighters' arm. Because Artem stepped in during the block, he would counter with his own right hook directly on the chin of his opponent.
The step he made added more power to his punch and because of the slim build of his opponent, he probably couldn't take a punch like that with a grappler's glass chin.
The fighter fell to his right side, hitting his head on the wall before laying down unconscious and stretched on the ground. Artem would then leave the scene without a crowd looking at him to never return again.
F**k this island were the last thoughts before departing Minion Island.