Before Chi Feichi's third attack could land, Kyogoku Makoto managed a timely defense and counterattacked with the momentum.
Having fought until now, the two actually couldn't stop.
Conan and Haibara Ai had searched all the way here. At first, they had to look for traces on the ground, so their speed wasn't fast. It took them over forty minutes to reach the edge of the clearing, and the fight between the two had also lasted for about half an hour.
Half an hour of fast-paced, high-intensity combat had turned their counterattacks into conditioned reflexes; they struck almost subconsciously.
Even if they could control themselves and slowly restrain their moves, unless they had enough tacit understanding to control it simultaneously, whoever retracted first risked serious injury!
And the combat rhythm on both sides was too fast. Even shouting a countdown would likely result in discrepancies. Even opening one's mouth to speak might affect one's strike speed, leading to severe injury from the opponent, or even accidental death.
Conan used his glasses to zoom in. Seeing the situation, he broke out in a cold sweat.
Haibara Ai was too far away. Without Conan's glasses, she couldn't see the specific situation clearly, but seeing Conan's reaction, she knew something was wrong. "What happened?"
"They are fighting for their lives. We must stop them!" Conan ran out directly and shouted, "Stop fighting!"
Earlier, they were at the edge of the woods, and trees were falling, so Chi Feichi and Kyogoku Makoto hadn't noticed the two talking.
When Conan ran out and shouted, they noticed, but neither could spare any attention. Let alone responding, they didn't even turn their eyes.
Fighting all out feels good for a moment; keep fighting all out and it feels good all the time!
But while it feels good, stopping is a difficult problem...
Chi Feichi was okay. Vaguely hearing Conan's voice, he knew the cavalry had arrived.
But Kyogoku Makoto didn't know the power of 'Ke-xue' (Conan-science) yet. He felt someone approaching but couldn't distract himself to pay attention. The feeling was indescribably uncomfortable. Losing control for a second, he punched another tree, cracking it open...
"Stop fighting!"
Conan ran nearby. Seeing no one responding to him, and seeing another tree falling slowly, he glanced at it. Seeing the tree falling outward and posing no threat here, he ignored it and found a bottle nearby that still had half a bottle of water in it.
Won't stop?
Then take them both down!
Haibara Ai understood Conan's intention, but after waiting a while, she still didn't see Conan act. She turned to look puzzledly. "Edogawa?"
"Wait, wait a little longer," Conan stared at the two through the zoomed-in image on his glasses, squatting down and turning the dial on his Power-Enhancing Shoes, but didn't move. "Their movements are too fast. I must find the right timing. If I hit one and the other isn't affected, the hit person will be attacked from both front and back, which is dangerous..."
Haibara Ai couldn't see the situation clearly, so she could only look over there, then look at Conan.
Conan finally aimed at the right moment, calculated the angle, and kicked the bottle out fiercely. "Go!"
This shout was also to encourage himself.
Although he calculated it well and was unlikely to make a mistake, a tiny error could lead to failure.
Must succeed!
The bottle flew out at an exaggerated speed, even carrying a trace of electric arc from the Power-Enhancing Shoes, and smashed fiercely between the two.
The two fell backward and were pushed apart by the bottle simultaneously. When they fell to the ground, they had already separated.
Conan breathed a long sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and ran over.
With this grasp of timing, force, and angle, it was definitely the highest-level kick he had ever performed!
Kyogoku Makoto felt he was hit by something and fell to the ground, aggravating his previous injuries. Lying on the ground, he gritted his teeth but stubbornly turned his head to find what had hit him.
Then, the bottle that had smashed against a tree and bounced back slowly rolled into his line of sight...
Not far away, Chi Feichi also lay on the ground unable to move. Turning his head, he saw Kyogoku Makoto staring blankly at the bottle, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Speaking of which, this was probably the only time Conan kicked something at someone other than a criminal. He and Kyogoku Makoto could be considered lucky to have experienced it once.
Although this bottle didn't have the terrifying force of Kyogoku Makoto's full-power strike, it was comparable to an average martial artist's blow.
And this was just a bottle.
Although being hit suddenly hurt, he hurt in many places anyway; a little more pain was nothing. Being able to stop was a good thing...
Conan and Haibara Ai ran between the two 'corpses', implicitly separating them.
Haibara Ai squatted down and pressed her hand on the side of Chi Feichi's neck for a moment. "Not dead here."
Conan, who went to check on Kyogoku Makoto: "..."
Listening to the breathing tells you they aren't dead, right? But looking at them...
Chi Feichi sighed inwardly.
Haibara Ai is angry...
"What is going on with you and that person?" Haibara Ai didn't stay angry and helped Chi Feichi sit up.
Chi Feichi didn't dare to just lie there. Suddenly lying down after intense exercise was dangerous. He caught his breath. "Just a spar."
Conan also helped Kyogoku Makoto up, with black lines on his forehead. "There's no need to fight like this for a spar, right? Neither of you stopped when told to. You were practically fighting for your lives!"
Look at those fallen trees. Do you have the nerve to say this is just a spar?
"It's not that we didn't want to stop, but because we couldn't stop..." Kyogoku Makoto recovered and explained the situation at the time.
Conan: "..."
Haibara Ai: "..."
Fought until they couldn't stop?
Must consider isolating these two further apart in the future!
Chi Feichi pressed his swollen right wrist, frowning in pain. However, as he expected, the bone wasn't broken, just dislocated and slightly misaligned.
Not a big problem...
Crack-crack.
Hearing the somewhat familiar bone sound, Conan turned to look at Chi Feichi speechlessly: "..."
He was truly speechless about these two.
Don't they feel pain?
Chi Feichi's expression didn't change at all. He rubbed his wrist and looked up at Kyogoku Makoto. "Come here, let me check your hand."
Conan continued to be speechless. He started to suspect Chi Feichi studied medicine just to treat injuries promptly after fighting.
Chi Feichi studied veterinary medicine?
That counts as studying medicine too, right...
At least trauma bandaging was about the same. Plus, this bone-setting technique was better than many orthopedic doctors.
Kyogoku Makoto looked at Conan, not expecting a child to support him over. Unable to stand up temporarily, he could still crawl...
Conan noticed Kyogoku Makoto's intention. Although speechless, he still lent a hand with Haibara Ai, helping Kyogoku Makoto to Chi Feichi's side.
Actually, the two didn't look too tragic.
Because they both knew how to protect vital points, their heads and vitals were well guarded.
If they couldn't block or dodge, let alone being bruised and swollen, they probably wouldn't have lasted until Conan arrived.
Of course, 'not tragic' was on the premise of not looking at their hands...
Besides the injuries covered by clothes, the scariest-looking parts were probably their hands.
Kyogoku Makoto used his fists to smash two trees, landing eight or nine punches on them.
The bark of old trees was rough enough. Hitting it without protection, hands trained for however long couldn't withstand it.
Therefore, the knuckles on the back of Kyogoku Makoto's hands were basically bloody. Chi Feichi was better off, but there were also scraped areas.
Chi Feichi helped check. "Bandage the hand injuries when we get back. Left ankle is slightly sprained, bones are fine. How does the abdomen feel?"
He had to say, Kyogoku Makoto's bones were really hard. In that clash, his wrist bone was misaligned, but Kyogoku Makoto's bones were still fine.
However, his previous attacks landed several times on Kyogoku Makoto's abdomen and waist with considerable force. He checked the waist, which was uninjured, but the abdomen was harder to judge.
"It hurts, but internal organs are fine," Kyogoku Makoto said. "I used to get hit in the abdomen during practice a few years ago. Don't worry, I have experience. Just need to rest for two days."
"Mn, the rest are soft tissue injuries, not a big problem," Chi Feichi stopped checking. "Rest a bit and let's go back."
They didn't lose their rationality just now, maintaining clarity and calmness throughout. He still remembered exactly where he hit and what the situation was.
Conan: "..."
Haibara Ai: "..."
One says he has experience, the other says it's not a big problem. Looking at the expressions of these two acting like nothing happened, what else can they say?