Stephen had done significantly more than he realized in taking down Jett out in the courtyard. Although the Ranger wasn’t physically able to assist too much in helping get rid of the remaining grunts right now, as he desperately needed time to recover his stamina, what his victory had done was crucial. It had allowed for the overall status of everything on the battlefield to stay exactly the same. The enemy vanguard was stalled.
Which meant that now, the Syndicate forces needed to entirely focus their attention on the key fights that were currently taking place inside the building.
The very first key fight that was taking place inside the facility was located in the special, wide-open showroom. This was exactly where Na had been placed to hold the line, and right now, he was going head-to-head against one of the Gilt Rat members equipped with a top-tier Exoskeleton.
Na shifted his weight and threw a heavy right fist forward, actively aiming to take the grunt’s head clean off his shoulders. But the Exoskeleton user had swiftly avoided the lethal punch. The mechanical servos whined as the man cleanly shifted his feet to the side, slipping under the heavy arm, and dug his own armored fist deep into Na’s exposed ribs.
Although Na inherently possessed a frightening level of super strength, and his dense body was naturally more resilient to keep up with that extreme muscular output, actual direct attacks like this still appeared to hurt him just as much as anyone else. A mechanical punch still bruised his muscle and rattled his bones.
More so than the physical pain, though, Na was rapidly getting frustrated. He gritted his teeth, tried his absolute best to ignore the throbbing pain in his side, and aggressively went to punch the Gilt Rat member again.
He threw two wide, sweeping swings, putting his entire back into the strikes. But the heavy fists hit absolutely nothing but the empty air. The exoskeleton was simply too fast on its feet. Eventually, Na shifted his tactics and lifted up his heavy foot, launching a front kick.
The boot crashed heavily into the man, but the grunt was effortlessly able to cross his mechanical arms and guard against the blow. The man slid back slightly across the polished showroom floor, his boots squeaking, taking next to no damage from the heavy impact.
"This exoskeleton technology truly is amazing," the man gloated, lowering his guard slightly. He tapped the metal plating on his chest. "It takes my natural fighting ability to the absolute maximum of its capabilities. And my drastically faster movement speed allows me to easily get the tactical edge on you every single step of the way.
"It’s quite clear to me that you possess some type of advanced, unnatural strength inside those muscles. But it strictly seems that raw power is not enough to defeat this exoskeleton. This truly is the perfect device to go up against freaks that seem to be superhuman."
The man was actively smiling to himself behind his guard. It was almost exactly as if he was just completely ignoring the very real, dangerous person standing right in front of him. He was admiring his suit rather than fighting his opponent.
That sheer arrogance was annoying Na even more. It made his blood boil. But, as much as he hated to admit it, he realized that the grunt was absolutely right. Because when Na had fought inside the underground cage before against another Exoskeleton user, even with his overwhelming super strength backing him up, he had ultimately lost the fight. The speed difference had overwhelmed his raw power.
’Did I seriously not learn absolutely anything from that humiliating fight before?’ Na thought to himself, his fists clenching tight. ’Am I just going to blindly repeat the exact same tactical mistakes again and again until I end up dead on the floor?’
Right in the middle of his distracting thoughts, the Gilt Rat member was rapidly gaining a massive amount of confidence in himself. The grunt decided it meant it was finally time for him to stop defending and actively go on the attack.
He charged forward across the showroom floor. Building momentum, he jumped high up into the air, performing a textbook superman punch as he wound up his mechanical fist and hit it out with full hydraulic force.
This time, it was Na who had to quickly lift both of his thick arms up to protect his face from the hit.
Taking a heavy step back to absorb the sheer kinetic force, his broad back had hit solidly against a large, strange, cube-shaped metal ornament resting in the middle of the showroom floor. He could see another mechanical punch rapidly coming his way. Relying on instinct, Na quickly ducked and moved his torso completely out of the way.
This evasion allowed for the heavy armored fist to slam directly into the square metallic cube behind him. The sheer force of the exoskeleton punch completely broke a large, jagged chunk off from the solid metal structure.
"Haha! You really can’t do anything to stop me, can you?" the man laughed, pulling his intact fist out of the dented metal. "I can clearly tell you are highly trained. You possess very good martial form. But since I’m mechanically just slightly faster than you are in every exchange, there is absolutely nothing you can do to land a hit!"
Na reacted to this arrogant taunt by quickly throwing out a sharp, straight jab aimed at the throat. But the man had seamlessly moved his mechanical arms quick enough. He batted the punch and parried it entirely away to the side. This brief opening allowed for the Gilt Rat member to step in close, jump up slightly, and slam his armored fist brutally into Na’s face again.
A sharp shock of pain shook through his dense body as the metal knuckles cracked against his jaw. It caused him to instantly stumble backward, his balance shattered, and he was forced to drop down heavily to one knee on the showroom floor.
Breathing heavily, Na looked up. He could clearly see the man was already winding up and following up with another heavy punch aimed right across his exposed face to finish the job.
Yet, the swing was entirely predictable. The man was relying purely on the suit’s speed rather than mixing up his angles. This slight error allowed for Na to swiftly lift his bare hand up. He timed the strike perfectly and grabbed right onto the incoming armored fist, his thick fingers wrapping tightly around the metal plating. The mechanical arm ground to an absolute halt.
"I learned this specific lesson from fighting one of your friends from before," Na grunted, slowly standing up from his knee while maintaining an iron grip on the fist. "Absolutely everything improved within my body compared to before I fought in that cage. My bone density, my muscle mass... including that of my grip strength. I am vastly stronger now. But it’s not the exact same for you, right? You are just a regular guy relying entirely on a battery."
As Na looked up, he could see the man panicking. The grunt threw his other free hand with the exoskeleton straight towards Na’s head in a desperate bid to break the hold.
And rather than try to block it with his free arm or avoid it entirely, Na took the attack head-on. He braced his thick neck and instead forcefully swung his own head forward directly towards the incoming mechanical fist.
His hard forehead had violently clashed directly with the metal fist, making a massive, echoing impact sound through the showroom. Surprisingly, it had hurt far less than expected. Even the Gilt Rat member was completely surprised that his hydraulic-powered fist didn’t immediately win out in terms of raw power. The mechanical fist was completely stopped dead in its tracks, stuck there against Na’s skull.
"As I just told you, absolutely everything about me has completely improved," Na stated, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "But the exact same cannot be said for you in that suit!"
Na forced every single ounce of his superhuman strength into his legs and core. As he held onto the trapped arm tight with his left hand, he pulled his right arm back and threw a devastating, full-power fist right into the center of the stomach of the Gilt Rat member. The metal plating caved inward instantly.
Right after the heavy blow hit, he let go with his other hand. He watched the Gilt Rat member go flying backward through the air from the sheer kinetic force of the strike. The man’s body continued to fly across the showroom floor until his back violently slammed into the ruined ornament.
His back had been brutally pierced by a sharp metallic object. The metal tore right through his protective exoskeleton plating and his flesh like it was mere paper due to the sheer, overwhelming force of Na’s punch launching him. It pushed deep until it went right through his chest.
The object the Gilt Rat member had been pierced through by was the ruined metallic cube. The part that he had destroyed with his own missed punch earlier had made the edge incredibly jagged and sharp.
"That’s not something you’re ever going to survive," Na claimed, lowering his fists and looking at the dying man. "Unless you actually are superhuman."