I got stuck on a chapter

[Tempokai]

Simply put, in the last chapter, the martial artist from another world was defeated by MC in a duel while MC's grandmaster was watching. His (enemy) powers were blocked, and had no chance. So, now I'm stuck. I have countless paths to go, and every path is equally bad. I can focus either on the defeated man, the grandmaster's thoughts, skip the aftermath entirely to the teaching (because MC is now strong enough to learn the technique), or even focus on the war that his imperfect clones are waging in another world.

I can't think of better progression. Please help.

 

[Akaichi]

Add a new character, let him watch the fight... Speak his thoughts. This always works!...

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Make a twist with the martial artist being like Darkness, and narrate the fight from his perspective:
"Shadow Fist!", his fist connects to my chest, making my whole body shudder.
Oh yes, harder daddy.
"Ugh, Thunder Strike!", I hit weakly, grazing his chin as he ducks and prepares to counter attack.
Seeing him prepare a serious stance is about to make me cu-
"Unlimited Shadow Sword!", OH YEEESSSSSS

 

[NotaNuffian]

... If none of them are important, just skip to MC doing something exciting like fuck someone's wife.

What are the reason/s to show monologue of foe or master? To show shock, awe or recognition? If it is not important, skip them.

Ps. Whose powers are sealed?

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

I hate enemy's thought after battle. Such useless filler.

And then the enemy use underhanded tactic successfully without getting reprimanded in arena while his reputation didn't get destroyed afterwards ?

Bah, how ridiculous. The organizers of tournament events would get a bad face and their reputation would suffer a drastic decline.

Let the otherworlder use his underhanded tactic before getting reprimanded by the refree and it's done. The audience will be happy, the organizer will also happy, and the MC can stay happy with his victory.

*****​

You're confused about how to continue ?

How about just continuing the plot normally without those filler thought ? You know that we don't really like filler right ?

Put the MC thought instead, let him self reflect after his winning. Make it poetic like Chinese warrior poem (with simple words that MC's crude muscle rain can understand) And let him feel the joy of victory after all the battle against his doubt and fear in past chapters. And to show how much impression today's battle is to MC's potential growth.

And after that, Everything goes normally. Most of the crowd cheers while some surprised. Mc and his friend manage to go through the Tournament Arc with others without trouble, and it's rare occasion as tournament arc is usually filled with trouble.

Don't Miss the opportunity to put some NPC talks about how the tournament goes too smoothly and feel about the flag that didn't go off. The NPC can be a hidden master or someone important in hiding.

Then the MC talks with other after the tournament since the tournament goes normally. Please don't skip this, the aftermath right after battle is a good point of story to show before a time skip. It's good to see how much those main character have growth when compared to times before tournament, And to see how the tournament would changed them. Character growth can be done in peaceful times.

*****​

Afterwards, the Building Shooks and there's earthquake and landslide happening. It's one or two day after tournament and the hype is still high.

You can attribute it to natural disaster or some Overpowered old monster/old uncles fighting somewhere near the city.

MC and co. Simply feel the brunt of it from far away, and seeing lots of building destroyed and people running in panic while some of them dying.

Progression doesn't always have to be positive. You can out some kind of Wham episode.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhamEpisode

Its time to show us how disaster handling works in this world you've brought. Is it good or just bad.

The MC can also gain some development with this new knowledge on how the world works when tragedy happened, while being guided by MC's master to prevent dangerous thought from building.

then with this bittersweet victory of winning the tournament while the town suffer tragedy afterwards, MC and Master go in silence to the Timeskip.

****​

You can put Interlude of MC's clone wars after the end.

And you can put some chapter of MC receiving News of what happen to his friend while training/doing mysterious stuf in the timeskip.

I like to receive news of other characters instead of reading their thoughts.

 

[Beeteetee]

Simply put, in the last chapter, the martial artist from another world was defeated by MC in a duel while MC's grandmaster was watching. His (enemy) powers were blocked, and had no chance. So, now I'm stuck. I have countless paths to go, and every path is equally bad. I can focus either on the defeated man, the grandmaster's thoughts, skip the aftermath entirely to the teaching (because MC is now strong enough to learn the technique), or even focus on the war that his imperfect clones are waging in another world.

I can't think of better progression. Please help.

You could introduce another character that happened to notice the duel while passing and thinking of it like children playing, which implies that mc can still have more progress

 

[HelloHound]

if you write yourself into a corner, try backing out; go over what you've already done and see if you can rephrase or shift something to wiggle out something loose in the plot that better fits the vibes you're aiming for.
good luck!