Cattaleya's fourth fight lasted only five seconds.
Her fifth match was against soone who seed to possess so talent. The man produced a hurricane of fire and wind within the ring. The ring barrier shook violently. Many thought Catt would be forced to take him seriously.
Cattaleya waited for the flas to reach her.
They touched her skin.
Then fizzled out.
She flicked him.
He vanished upward for a good three seconds before gravity decided to intervene and bring him down in a smoking heap.
By the end of her fifth match, even the announcers had difficulty speaking clearly. Their voices cracked from shouting. Their jaws hurt from whiplash.
Cattaleya stood undefeated and completely unruffled. Not a speck of dust lay on her hands.
Once all five of her scheduled matches for the day had concluded, Lin Mu and the group reassembled just outside the arena. They could already hear people whispering Cattaleya's na as if a living legend had been born within twenty four hours.
The group decided to stay in the city for the night. Traveling back two hundred kiloters only to return again tomorrow seed pointless, especially when Little Shrubby could sniff out good restaurants nearby.
The next day ca and brought with it even greater crowds. Word had spread like wildfire. People who had not attended the first day now rushed in droves, desperate to witness the woman who flicked people into becoming airborne decorations.
Cattaleya entered with a grin.
Her opponents entered with fear in their eyes.
Her first opponent lasted six seconds.
Her second lasted nine.
Her third attempted diplomacy by bowing and admitting defeat before the fight even began. Cattaleya shrugged and let him walk away unhard.
The fourth lasted seven seconds.
By her fifth fight of the second day, she had beco unstoppable montum incarnate. Soone even tried to sell shirts with Cattaleya's silhouette on them. Another man began carving wooden statues of her flicking Big Mao out of the arena. A group of enthusiastic won began chanting training mantras dedicated to her physique.
The organizer's faces were pale.
Not because they feared her.
Because they feared her finishing the tournant too fast.
Several of the higher ups were overheard frantically discussing refund policies, economic risks, and pressure from clans that wanted prolonged entertainnt. As such, even as Cattaleya casually suggested that they might as well gather all remaining participants and send them at her together, the organizers vehently rejected the idea.
They needed ti.
They needed inco.
They needed spectacle.
If Cattaleya one tapped everyone in a single day, the entire local economy might collapse under the weight of unhappy rchants and ticket holders. So the schedule remained unchanged.
And Cattaleya sighed dramatically but obeyed.
A few more days passed, and while the first tournant continued at a snail's pace compared to her speed, she did not sit idle. Another tournant began in a different district of the city, so she simply went there and did the sa thing she did here.
Flick.
Opponent gone.
Audience screaming.
Organizers panicking.
By the end of the first week, Cattaleya had beco a feared celebrity among local fighters. So began referring to her as the Demon Finger Goddess. Others called her The Woman Who Sends People Flying. A poet with an especially chaotic imagination wrote an entire ballad titled The Flicker Who Shook the Heavens.
It failed horribly, but the title stuck among drunkards.
anwhile ng Bai prepared for his own tournant. His first match ca three days into Cattaleya's rampage. He entered the ring with steady steps and focused eyes.
His opponent was a Dao Shell realm cultivator who clearly thought ng Bai was beneath him.
ng Bai defeated him in a single minute.
Not as flashy as Cattaleya, but definitely impressive.
Daoist Chu nodded in approval and reminded ng Bai to keep his breathing smooth after his first victory. ng Bai simply nodded and returned to his seat. His second match was against a Dao Treading realm expert. The man used long range qi strikes mixed with close quarter punches.
ng Bai evaded, deflected, and executed a perfect series of the Nine Strikes Mountain Piercing Spear Techniques, weaving the strikes together until they built into a final blow that shattered through his opponent's guard.
One minute again.
The crowd cheered loudly.
It was not the chaos of Cattaleya's matches, but the respect was genuine. Many
took notice of ng Bai's composure and talent.
Lin Mu nodded with satisfaction. This was exactly the progress ng Bai
needed.
And so, while Cattaleya continued terrorizing martial arenas with her godlike flicking power, ng Bai quietly carved a na for himself through skill,
discipline, and steady victories.
Two rising stars.
One explosive.
One disciplined.
Both unstoppable in their own ways.
And the tournants had only just begun.
Cattaleya Duskthorn had beco a phenonon.
It had taken only two cities for the title One Flick Woman to appear, another
two for the title to spread, and by the ti she reached her fifth tournant, even roadside vendors sold buns called Flick Buns that supposedly made you as strong as her. They tasted terrible, but that did not stop people from buying
them.
Her legend now traveled faster than she did.
Every arena she walked into reacted the sa way. First there was the silence of awe. Then there was the cheer of excitent. And finally there was the
fearful whispering among her potential opponents:
"Please let her not be in my bracket."
"May the heavens have rcy on whichever poor soul is fighting after her."
"I swear if I get flicked into the latrine again I am quitting martial arts
altogether."
Her na spread so aggressively that a few poets who had once failed to rhy anything decided to revive their careers by writing epics about her. One of them created a piece titled The Ballad of the Finger that Shattered Ten
Cities, which was a mix of awe and complete nonsense. Still, he sold five hundred copies within a day.
Cattaleya herself enjoyed every minute of it.
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