Martial Online.

Ambrose snapped the sandwich in half and handed the other half to Moriarty.

"We should hurry." Moriarty placed the sandwich in his inventory and put the knife in his trousers.

Ambrose munched on the sandwich and said, "Let's just take a moment and think this through, all right?"

"We can't." Moriarty said that and tossed him the medicine. "Keep them safe in your inventory. We should move, as we have already lost almost a hundred thousand positions in here."

Ambrose stored the medicine in his inventory and agreed with Moriarty silently, even though he felt like he was way too impatient.

After he closed the inventory, he checked the interface and realized that they didn't get any experience points after killing the players.

All their skills, stats, items, and weapons had vanished without a trace. The only things available were found in these houses, and Ambrose was certain that it wouldn't take long before others found out.

That's why he would've preferred to continue scavenging these buildings and perhaps find some new gear that could perhaps help them climb the upcoming mountain.

After they tossed away the paper bag, as they had no need for it, they left the house and continued their journey down the barren wasteland.

At that moment, some screaming came from the front, and players were sent flying through the air.

Moriarty grabbed the knife, which was tucked inside his trousers, and saw as all the players in front of them avoided the path in front like it was a death trap.

At last, they saw a bare-chested man shove players out of the way with incredible strength. It made others wonder whether he was even a level 1 player or some kind of superhuman.

"Aaargh, come on!" Yokozuna pounded his fists against his chest like a gorilla. "I hate running!"

"Come on, boss." His teammate, Ozeki, desperately tried to calm him down before they wasted too much time and energy.

"Let's go around them." Ambrose suggested, as he didn't think it was worthwhile to go through them.

"These are powerful players." Moriarty said it with a serious expression on his face.

"Yokozuna and Ozeki. I've heard about them. They are real-life sumo fighters and have won several tournaments together.

"They are leaders of one of the strongest Brawler-class dojos and are a force to be reckoned with. If we can get rid of them here, it would be very good for future rounds."

"You think we can do it without our skills and stats?" Ambrose asked. "If they really are sumo fighters, they have fighting experience, and that makes them very formidable."

"True, but I have the knife." Moriarty said, and he flashed a devious smile.

"Fine, I'll boost you." Ambrose agreed reluctantly, grabbed Moriarty by the back of his shirt, and hurled him towards the sumo fighters.

Ambrose had to instantly jump after him; otherwise, the rope that bound their limbs together would've pulled Moriarty right back to him.

"Haaa!" Moriarty yelled as he sailed through the air with a knife in hand.

However, then Yokozuna grabbed Moriarty mid-flight and slammed him down onto the ground.

[-20 HP]

[Moriarty: 80/100 HP]

"Ngh!" Moriarty flicked the knife around in his hand and stabbed it into Yokozuna's shoulder.

[-25 HP]

[Yokozuna: 75/100 HP]

"Ugh." Yokozuna winced but quickly retaliated by delivering a powerful punch to Moriarty's gut.

Smack!

"Crush his skull, boss!" Ozeki cheered from behind Yokozuna.

'I can hear them now.' Ambrose thought as he finally heard someone else than Moriarty's voice.

[-30 HP]

[Moriarty: 50/100 HP]

Moriarty felt like his insides were being crushed.

At that moment, Ambrose quickly whipped his leg around and delivered a swift kick to Yokozuna's head.

Smack!

[-15 HP]

[Yokozuna: 60/100 HP]

Yokozuna reeled back, staggering from the force of the blow.

Ambrose quickly grabbed Moriarty by the hand and helped him stand up.

"Tch." Moriarty clicked his tongue and looked at the knife that was stuck in Yokozuna's shoulder.

Yokozuna pulled out the knife and looked at its blood-stained blade before throwing it to the ground.

"Hmph." Yokozuna wiped the blood from his shoulder and turned to face Ambrose and Moriarty.

"Weapons are humanity's biggest failure. You only need fists and a strong will to wield them."

"Here." Ambrose gave Moriarty a medicine pill.

They received only five pills from the previous house, but each pill recovered 100 health points.

Moriarty swallowed the pill and returned to his full health.

"Let's retreat." Ambrose suggested, knowing that this wouldn't be an easy fight.

"First, I'll get the knife back!" Moriarty shot forward, tugged Ambrose after him, and ran to the closest enemy, Yokozuna.

Yokozuna opened his hand, showing his enormous palm, and threw a palm strike directly towards Moriarty's face.

Moriarty ducked under the palm strike and dove between Yokozuna's legs, picked up the dropped bloody knife from the ground, and then quickly slashed Yokozuna's Achilles tendon.

"Rgh!" Ambrose gritted his teeth as Moriarty pulled him behind him.

"Grh!" Yokozuna slapped Ambrose across the face, as he was too close to dodge because of Moriarty.

Ambrose almost fell to the ground, and his ankle twisted at an awkward angle, causing excruciating-looking wound.

"Bastard!" Ozeki slapped Moriarty down to the ground, but then got his stomach cut by the knife.

"Ngh!" Ozeki's eyes widened in shock.

[-55 HP]

[Ozeki: 45/100 HP]

Moriarty elbowed Ozeki's face, rolled down the ground, and pulled Ambrose away from Yokozuna back to safety.

"Ptui!" Ambrose spat out blood and angrily shouted. "Fucking hell, Moriarty!"

"My bad, I forgot." Moriarty said exhaustingly. "Fighting is fucking impossible this way."

Yokozuna looked at his bleeding foot and couldn't feel anything when he stepped down to the ground. In such a state, running and climbing seemed impossible.

"Piss off, or soon you two will find your throats cut." Moriarty spinned the knife in his hand.

"Nah, the medicine; give it to us." Yokozuna ordered it and cracked his knuckles.

"As if." Moriarty lowered his stance into a knife-slashing stance.

However, Ambrose pulled two pills from the inventory and tossed one to Yokozuna and one to Ozeki.

"That's all you get."

Yokozuna and Ozeki caught the pills and looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"What're you doing?" Moriarty asked with a hint of anger.

"A compromise." Ambrose said and looked at the sumo fighters. "Take these, or we'll ruin each other's tournament. What about it?"

"Fine." Yokozuna and Ozeki swallowed the pills and returned back to their full health.

They gave a stinky eye to Moriarty before they started running away, following the other players.

"Those pills were important," Moriarty said as they continued running.

"So are our lives." Ambrose panted heavily and said, "First, you wanted to reach the finishing line as soon as possible, and now you want to fight; which is it?"

"You've got to understand that if we have a chance to defeat someone, we must take advantage." Moriarty said.

"I realized that defeating them wasn't an option after Yokozuna proved to be more powerful than I thought, and then I came to the conclusion to injure them instead.

"That's why I cut Yokozuna's achilles tendon, which could've hindered him enough for them not to reach the finishing line in time.

"However, now that you gave the pills to them and healed them, it was for nothing."

"They would've not let us pass if I hadn't." Ambrose said.

"We could've outran them." Moriarty argued back.

"No…" Ambrose looked at his foot with a twisted ankle. "Not with this ankle."

"…" Moriarty sighed. "Fine, once we are done with the first round, we'll have to discuss hard about our game plan, all right?"

"Fine by me." Ambrose said without taking a pill for his swollen ankle.

Even though it hindered his running, he didn't think it was worth it to spend a pill for it, especially now that they had only two pills remaining.

At that moment, they both saw some more fighting happening inside the buildings as players tried to scavenge the place.

"We'll need more gear." Moriarty said, and looked at the knife with a rusty blade. "This knife is already at breaking point."