"Scum?"
As he quickly stood up and shook his arm forcefully, Qin Ming heard the insult and showed a puzzled expression.
He used his sunglasses to analyze the opponent's stats. After confirming her identity, his expression turned even more bewildered.
[Name: King]
[Strength: 40]
[Constitution: 40]
[Agility: 50]
[Spirit: 25]
[Skills: Modern Muay Thai Style (B-Rank), Illusion Dance (B-Rank), Silent Flash (B-Rank)]
[Having debuted at a young age and defeated the Muay Thai champion, King may not be well-known, but she is definitely not weak!]
King! Also known as Qiong or Jing! One of the female fighters!
Unlike Mai Shiranui and Blue Mary, who are also fighters—one even possessing bloodline powers—those two are essentially third-rate fighters.
While they may be influential in their own territories, on the world stage, they are nothing more than bottom-tier competitors.
But this King? She is a true expert!
At just seventeen years old, she entered her first tournament and defeated the renowned Muay Thai champion at the time—"Heavy Artillery" Raiden! After that, she participated in twenty-one matches, almost undefeated!
Her strength far surpasses Mai Shiranui and Blue Mary, making her a solid second-tier fighter!
Yes, second-tier. That may sound unimpressive, but in the world of King of Fighters, monsters are everywhere.
Some are descendants of gods, others are demon worshipers. Some possess celestial bloodlines, while others wield divine artifacts.
Competing among such monsters, reaching second-tier is already a remarkable feat.
Those who make it into the first-tier are either extraordinarily gifted or have special bloodline buffs.
As for the top-tier fighters, their backgrounds are even more absurd—none of them are ordinary people.
King has no powerful backing, no inherited bloodline, and no great wealth. Climbing up to the rank of a second-tier fighter through sheer effort alone is nothing short of a miracle!
Even Mai Shiranui, a mere third-rate fighter, was able to establish her own faction and make a name for herself.
The so-called second-tier fighters are only "second-rate" in comparison to the true elites. To ordinary people, they are still an unreachable existence.
It's like that transport captain—he may seem weak, but among competitors of the same level, his squad was actually quite formidable!
He just happened to crash headfirst into national-level professionals and got obliterated.
Qin Ming stood up from his chair and looked at King, who had already withdrawn her leg. His expression was one of shock.
Feeling the killing intent in her gaze, his mind momentarily froze.
After all, King wasn't just a skilled fighter—she also had another identity: Mai Shiranui's friend.
Otherwise, the two of them wouldn't have formed the Women Fighters Team and competed together.
Logically speaking, given Qin Ming's relationship with Mai Shiranui, King had no reason to attack him.
Not treating him to a meal was one thing, but attacking him immediately after recognizing him?
Just as Qin Ming was lost in confusion, King reached up to loosen her collar and then casually tossed the tray in her hand.
The spinning tray landed precisely on the bar counter—not only did it not fly past its mark, but it also landed so softly that it barely made a sound, a testament to King's terrifying level of control over her strength.
After lightly adjusting her collar and hooking a table aside with her leg, King shifted into a modern Muay Thai stance, her eyes locked onto Qin Ming with an imposing aura.
"Qin Ming, right? Unlucky for you to fall into my hands! Now die!"
The moment she finished speaking, King lunged forward.
She started with a low sliding kick, which Qin Ming dodged. Without missing a beat, she followed up with a rising knee strike—Astonishing Rose!
When that was also dodged, she saw Qin Ming's nimble movements and abruptly spun around, balancing on one leg.
In the blink of an eye, she unleashed a rapid flurry of kicks aimed directly at Qin Ming!
Upper, middle, and lower strikes—her Crazy Kicks came crashing down!
Fast! Incredibly fast!
Precise! Frighteningly precise!
Even though she was a woman, King's attacks were like a relentless storm.
Moreover, she was clearly using the leg techniques of modern Muay Thai instead of its more infamous, brutal punches.
With a series of rapid left-leg strikes, she forced Qin Ming back. Just as he thought of counterattacking during her transition, she switched to her right leg and unleashed another wave of kicks.
Each time she changed techniques, she launched a barrage of attacks, her offensive like a tidal wave, leaving no room to breathe or defend.
In just a few moments, King had already delivered over forty kicks!
During that time, Qin Ming hadn't been able to counter even once.
Attack against attack! Using sheer speed and ferocity to suppress the enemy! This is King's style! A brutally simple and direct fighting method—just like her Muay Thai!
Forced back by the relentless assault, Qin Ming found himself continuously retreating, his brows tightly furrowed.
But as his brows furrowed, so did King's—except hers were knitted even tighter as she kept up her attacks.
On the surface, it seemed like she had the absolute advantage, completely overwhelming Qin Ming and forcing him into a defensive position.
However, as a martial arts master and one of the fighters in this battle, King knew that reality was the exact opposite—she was the one at a disadvantage!
She had gone all-out, launching an unrelenting offensive, yet she hadn't managed to land a single clean hit on him. That was already a huge loss in itself!
Qin Ming was nowhere near as fast as her, yet he was still able to react in time—dodging or blocking every strike with minimal movement!
Raising his arms to guard his head, he hunched down, his body constantly swaying as he retreated.
Whenever an attack came, he either dodged, raised his arms to block, or parried to deflect.
He wasn't using anything but the most basic combat techniques—yet with those alone, he managed to go toe-to-toe with her, completely nullifying her offensive!
Such solid fundamentals! Such terrifying basics!
Who the hell manages to refine the lowest-level martial arts techniques to this degree?!
Hadn't Mai Shiranui said this guy was just a half-baked brawler? That he relied purely on his thick skin and brute force to fight?
Where the hell was the "half-baked" part?!
Judging from his rock-solid fundamentals alone, he might even be better than her!
Realizing something was very wrong, King gritted her teeth and immediately decided to switch up her strategy.
She had no choice—her entire fighting style was based on a fast-paced offense, relying on explosive bursts of power to quickly end fights.
It was an aggressive style, but one that burned through stamina fast. If she couldn't secure an advantage early on, she'd be doomed the moment her energy ran out!
Her eyes flashed coldly. Abruptly withdrawing her strikes, she pivoted sharply and burst forward, a streak of afterimages trailing behind her.
B-Rank Ultimate Move—Phantom Waltz!
A flying kick to start! The moment she got close, she followed up with a blistering flurry of rapid kicks!
At that moment, King's movement speed and attack speed had doubled, at the very least!
Faced with her sudden explosion of power, Qin Ming immediately raised his arms to guard his head. Clasping his forearms together like a shield, he bent his knees and braced himself in a defensive stance.
And in the next second—he took the full brunt of her attack head-on!
Too fast! There was no way to dodge! Then he'd just minimize the damage and take it directly!
A storm of thunderous impacts echoed through the bar as King unleashed a relentless barrage, landing over twenty consecutive kicks before finishing with a textbook-perfect thrust kick to the chest.
With a final deafening crash, the bar fell into dead silence.
The surrounding patrons gawked, eyes wide and mouths clamped shut in disbelief.
King, too, remained frozen in place, leg still extended from her final kick, eyes round with shock.
And opposite her—Qin Ming, still guarding his head, had blocked her finishing blow with his chest. His head, which had been lowered all this time, slowly lifted.
His eyes gleamed with a sinister red light.
Phantom Waltz—completely neutralized without a scratch!
"Did my senior sister never tell you—"
"The thing I fear the least... is a combo attack!"
With a thunderous roar, he suddenly smashed his arms downward, forcing King to hurriedly retract her leg.
But before she could even react, Qin Ming had already charged like a raging bull.
Counterattack initiated—Skill: Heavenly Glide!
Boom!
This time, he didn't go for her throat. Instead, he simply rammed her head-on with his full body weight.
After all, this was the Hakkesshu's turf—he had no interest in seeing what would happen if they caught him using Heavenly Glide and decided to "discuss" it with him later.
The last guy they "discussed" things with... ended up getting his heart and lungs literally removed.
Still, even though he held back on the full version of the attack, the impact was no joke.
The sudden burst of speed caught King completely off guard. She took the hit straight to the chest and was launched backward.
She crashed through the bar counter—then through the liquor shelf—then straight into the wall!
BOOM!
A massive hole was blasted into the bar's wall as the two of them barreled straight through and out into the open!
Qin Ming's charge finally came to an end when he slammed King against another wall on the opposite side.
Crushed between him and the unyielding concrete, King gasped and retched from the impact. Cracks spread across the wall behind her.
But before she could even begin to recover from the searing pain—a steel-like fist came hammering down.
Qin Ming didn't know why this woman had picked a fight with him.
He only knew that since she had, that made her the enemy.
Whatever her reasons were—misunderstanding, vendetta, tragic backstory—none of that mattered.
Hit first. Ask later.
Actually—
Even if he did know, he'd still beat her up first anyway.
Killing or not was a separate matter. But a fight was a fight, and he wasn't going to hold back.
With King pinned against the wall, Qin Ming let loose a brutal flurry of heavy hooks at point-blank range.
Panicked, she hastily raised her arms to block—but there was nowhere to run!