Having suffered a direct hit that sent him reeling, Max felt a wave of sharp pain radiate through his entire body. He didn’t stay down, however; he quickly performed a tactical roll and jumped back up to his feet, centering himself as he looked at his two opponents.
"Oh, still standing? I thought a regular person would be knocked out after taking a hit with one of these things," Ramon said, a hint of surprise in his voice as he adjusted the settings on his suit.
Max wiped some of the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, but despite the injury, he left a smile in its place.
"Maybe I’m not exactly a regular person. You know, I got this far for a reason," Max claimed, his eyes darting between the two leaders.
One of the best advantages of Max’s Vow compared to the other members of his group was the nature of the increase he received. While every other member had a significant increase in almost one specific attribute—Wolf with the power of his mind, Joe with his rapid healing, Na with her super strength, Stephen with his superior speed, and Darno with his hardened bones—Max didn’t have a single specialized focus.
Instead, his Vow allowed him a general increase in all of his attributes, provided he had earned a large amount of money. Because he had recently earned quite a bit, his endurance was remarkably strong, allowing him to tank hits that would have shattered a normal man. Still, even with that durability, he knew he wouldn’t want to be taking too many direct hits from that exoskeleton; that was for sure.
"You won’t be smiling for much longer!" Darius said as he came forward. He threw a sharp kick which Max managed to block, and Max immediately went to punch back in retaliation.
At the same time, a fist was thrown toward his face from the side. Max moved to hit it away, but he ended up hitting nothing but air. With his arms pulled away from his defensive position, Ramon seized the opportunity. He almost sprinted in, standing not too far away, and at the perfect time, he landed a heavy hit directly to Max’s gut.
The wind was knocked out of him, and Max wanted to hurl and bend over from the impact. Instead, he tried gritting through the agonizing pain and threw his leg up in a desperate counter. The strike managed to snap against Darius’s chin slightly, causing the man to stumble back.
Max was still fast and possessed a lot of strength in his attacks. He knew that if he saw even the smallest opening, he needed to take full advantage of it.
"Two against one... don’t you think this entire thing is cheap?" Max asked, trying to buy a moment to breathe. "Maybe for a slimeball like Ramon, who brought every single member in his group to attack us, I would expect this. But not from someone like you, Darius—someone who takes pride in their fighting tournaments."
This time, it was Ramon who moved to strike first. Max completely ducked down under the strike. Since he had spoken those antagonizing words, he had somewhat expected Ramon to react first, so Max was paying more attention to him.
He swung his fist compact and deep, mimicking the heavy style of Na, hitting Ramon right in the chest. However, instead of the sound of a solid hit, he felt a metallic clang, and a searing pain shot through his knuckles.
’Does he have body armor underneath or something?’ Max wondered, his hand throbbing.
Before he could pull back, Ramon grabbed Max by the wrist and flung his entire body with mechanical force. Max was sent through the air, crashing into the chairs and stands nearby. The wood and metal broke apart under him, and his body banged against the jagged edges of the stands.
He would have surely broken several bones from the fall if he wasn’t superhuman.
’I’m not even sure if I could beat Ramon if he was on his own,’ Max thought as he struggled to stand. ’But to best the both of them... that’s going to be incredibly tough. The best thing to do is to get rid of one of them first, and the easiest to do that with is Darius.’
Max reached a conclusion as he pulled himself up from the wreckage of the stands.
"Still alive!" Ramon called out. "Well, that’s good. I’m just starting to learn a bit of the capabilities of using each bit of the exoskeleton in combination with each other."
Hearing those words, a part of Max thought maybe he should target Ramon first before the man mastered the suit, but since he was able to do some actual damage to Darius, he still thought the Black Hound leader was the right target.
Jumping back onto the floor and the stage area, Max prepared to try everything he could. The cameras in the arena were steadily watching his every move, broadcasting the struggle to the control room.
"And that’s everything that has happened so far," Vivian said, having explained the situation in the arena to Aron back in the gym.
It was exactly what Aron had feared. Max was struggling, and rather badly as well.
’Time is not on our side, and I don’t think I will get any better today to help him with his fight,’ Aron thought, his hand clutching his injured side. ’I guess there’s only one thing I can do. I have always been saving this just in case of emergencies.’
Aron pulled out his phone with a shaking hand and made a call to a contact named Warma.
"Remember what we talked about? I would like you to initiate it," Aron said into the phone, his voice firm despite the pain. "Transfer all of my funds into Max Stern’s account."
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