Chapter 5: Ma Hongjun's First Soul Ring
"Teacher Zhao, be careful!" Oscar reminded in a low voice, twirling his iron staff in a flourish.
Zhao Wuji smiled at Oscar without making any extra movements. He watched as Oscar leaned forward, lowered his body, and charged over with his iron staff, carrying a fierce momentum.
Zhao Wuji rarely gave Oscar a second thought, but even then, it was only because he didn't think Oscar could pose any threat to him.
"Whoosh!!"
The iron staff swept heavily through Oscar's hands, making a whooshing sound as it struck toward Zhao Wuji's iron head.
Zhao Wuji raised his right hand and directly grasped the iron staff, then pulled forcefully. Oscar's body lurched forward, losing his balance.
Oscar remained calm inside, having anticipated that Zhao Wuji would rely on brute force. As expected, Oscar was prepared.
Oscar pushed off the ground and leaped into the air, spinning his iron staff to free it from Zhao Wuji's grasp, completing a 180-degree turn in midair before landing.
During his descent, Oscar applied strength to his staff again, bringing it down toward Zhao Wuji's head while simultaneously slowing his fall.
"You little rascal, you really have it in for my head, don't you?" Zhao Wuji chuckled.
Then Zhao Wuji covered his head with both hands, blocking Oscar's momentum-driven strike. Zhao Wuji only needed to crouch slightly to completely stop Oscar's iron staff.
Oscar retracted his iron staff and then retreated two steps to avoid Zhao Wuji's fist. Zhao Wuji quickly closed in, giving Oscar no chance to react.
Oscar moved his iron staff horizontally to block in front of his chest. Zhao Wuji's punch was terrifyingly powerful, sending Oscar flying backward.
Oscar reacted swiftly, gripping one end of the iron staff while using the other to push off the ground, leaping into the air again. His legs erupted with tremendous force as he charged toward Zhao Wuji.
Facing an opponent like Zhao Wuji with high defense and high attack, defense was of little use; only offense was the best defense.
Ma Hongjun, watching from the side, was stunned by Oscar's increasingly fierce fighting. This was a support-type Soul Master? How did he seem to fight even more fiercely than an assault-type Soul Master?
Right now, Oscar was even stronger than some assault-type Soul Masters of the same level, of course, this was without using any soul skills.
But even so, Oscar still found himself lacking in power against Zhao Wuji. Many techniques were useless against him; a simple strike was more effective.
Because Zhao Wuji's skin was too thick, those techniques were basically ineffective. Looking back at the original work, even Tang San needed to use the powerful Dragon Beard Needles and Haotian Hammer to injure him.
Oscar didn't have those hidden weapons, but thinking of this, Oscar felt he could browse through Teacher Flender's little shop; maybe he could find some treasures.
After the training session ended, Oscar was somewhat exhausted, though his injuries weren't serious. Although he hadn't injured Zhao Wuji, he had done an excellent job of blocking Zhao Wuji's punches and basically hadn't been hurt.
After eating a sausage he had stored, Oscar's stamina recovered by more than half. Although his Soul Power had been consumed, it wasn't much; one super recovery sausage was enough to fully restore it.
On the other side, Ma Hongjun approached Oscar, praising him in astonishment, saying that he would train hard in the future and fight against Zhao Wuji, after all, Zhao Wuji was an assault-type Soul Master.
Ma Hongjun knew that Zhao Wuji was a Soul Sage. How could Oscar, as a support-type, fight Zhao Wuji to this extent? What about him?
When he reached level 10 and obtained a Soul Ring, he would be a genuine assault-type Soul Master, surely stronger than Oscar the support-type, right.
But this was just Ma Hongjun's own wild thought; he didn't dare to say it out loud. Although Oscar was a support-type, he could still handle Ma Hongjun if he wanted to.
The days that followed were normal training. Oscar took Ma Hongjun to train seriously. Now Ma Hongjun's evil fire was still very weak, so there was basically no need to worry about it bursting. And with Oscar setting an example, the boy trained very diligently.
However, when Ma Hongjun actually started training with Oscar, he discovered how terrifying it was because Oscar was too self-disciplined.
Even if he wanted to rest or give up, he couldn't, because Teacher Flender had high hopes for him, and his performance wasn't even as good as a support-type Soul Master?
Two months later, Ma Hongjun broke through to level 10. After obtaining a Soul Ring, he would become a Soul Master.
Ma Hongjun was already at level 9 with innate Soul Power, only one level away from 10. Following Oscar without any slack for two months, the process was difficult, but the rewards were equally great.
And after two months of self-discipline and hard work, Ma Hongjun's round belly had slimmed down. If he persisted like this for another six months, Ma Hongjun would probably lose weight.
Ma Hongjun's appearance wasn't actually ugly; on the contrary, he had a certain masculine aura. In the original work, Ma Hongjun became a handsome guy after losing weight later on, so Oscar was helping Ma Hongjun grow into a handsome guy ahead of schedule.
Not only could he improve his strength, but he could also become more handsome. Ma Hongjun should be grateful to Oscar.
Because Ma Hongjun's Martial Soul was of the bird type, it was Flender who took him out this time.
Half a month later, Flender brought Ma Hongjun back to Shrek Academy. By now, Ma Hongjun was already an 11th-level Soul Master with a decent Soul Ring.
Just like in the original work, Ma Hongjun's first soul skill was called Phoenix Fire Line, with an attack range of 10 meters that could continue until his Soul Power was exhausted. Its power was quite good, and due to the nature of his evil fire, Ma Hongjun's flames were difficult to extinguish, possessing the characteristic of continuous damage.
As soon as he obtained his Soul Ring, Ma Hongjun wanted to challenge Oscar. Although Oscar was now at level 18, Ma Hongjun felt that after obtaining his Soul Ring, he could fight Oscar.
After all, although Oscar was skilled with his iron staff, Ma Hongjun had ranged attacks. So Ma Hongjun directly approached Oscar, wanting to spar with him.
Facing Ma Hongjun's smugness, Oscar just smiled silently to himself, already planning to give the little fatty a good lesson.
In the courtyard of Shrek Academy, Zhao Wuji served as the referee. Oscar and Ma Hongjun stood facing each other, with Ma Hongjun wearing a triumphant smile.
"Brother Oscar, I won't go easy on you, you know. If you can't hold on later, you'd better admit defeat early," Ma Hongjun said triumphantly.
Oscar remained expressionless, calculating in his mind how to teach this little fatty a lesson, after all, his expression was just too punchable.
"Release your Martial Souls. The match will begin in one minute," Zhao Wuji said from the side.
This was the rule for a formal match.
Oscar directly took out his iron staff, holding it horizontally in front of his chest, watching as Ma Hongjun released his Martial Soul.
"Ma Hongjun, Martial Soul: Evil Fire Phoenix, 11th-level assault-type Battle Soul Master."
As Ma Hongjun spoke, a yellow Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet. Ma Hongjun's body was enveloped in flames, and his red hair became a Mohawk-style red hair, looking like a rooster about to crow, with none of the majesty of a phoenix, because he was indeed fat, even though his stomach had slimmed down.
Although he was much thinner than two months ago, he had been a round little fatty before, and it would take more effort to slim down completely.
"Match begin!" Zhao Wuji announced from the side.
Ma Hongjun smiled triumphantly, his first Soul Ring flashed brightly, then he opened his wide mouth, and a long jet of flame spewed out, shooting toward Oscar.
Oscar didn't take it lightly. He pushed off the ground and started moving, not foolish enough to head-on against the scorching flames.
Although he had fought aggressively against Zhao Wuji, that was because he knew the gap in strength made techniques useless, so he chose to fight head-on.
Facing Ma Hongjun's mage-style attacks, Oscar naturally adopted a different approach.
Although his Soul Power level was higher, Ma Hongjun's flames were no joke in power. Even Oscar didn't dare to take them head-on, after all, he was just a support-type Soul Master without defensive soul skills, so he could only fight a war of attrition.
Ma Hongjun spewed flames from his mouth, changing the direction of his output as Oscar moved. The flames followed Oscar, burning along his path, but always falling just short.
Zhao Wuji shook his head from the side. This Ma Hongjun was too foolish, not knowing how to conserve his Soul Power at all. If he kept burning like this, his Soul Power would be exhausted in minutes, and then he would be at Oscar's mercy.
Just as Zhao Wuji had thought, Oscar dodged Ma Hongjun's flames but never left his attack range, even pretending to be about to be burned to make Ma Hongjun continuously output his Soul Power.
After just five minutes, Ma Hongjun's flames weakened, and then... they died out. Ma Hongjun coughed twice, unable to spew out any more flames. He looked at Oscar with sweat beading on his forehead, somewhat breathless.
Seeing this, Oscar swung his iron staff and charged forward, striking directly at Ma Hongjun's head. Ma Hongjun cried out in pain and immediately surrendered, shouting "Brother Oscar, spare me!"
Oscar retracted his iron staff and looked at Ma Hongjun with a smile, saying: "You still have a lot to learn, kid. Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you got a Soul Ring. Understand?"
Ma Hongjun nodded repeatedly, saying he wouldn't dare do it again. Zhao Wuji smiled silently from the side, realizing that Oscar was more than enough to teach Ma Hongjun, without needing to intervene himself.