Stanley was still standing on the outer ring, watching everything going on. He was getting extremely frustrated and continued to dig into his tablet, pinging the other members.
‘Those Zodiacs, where are they all? Did they not get the message!’ Stanley thought. ‘Am I really going to have to do things myself at this rate?’
Even though he could see that Xin, Park, and Austin were dealing with the One Gang members with ease, he still didn’t step in himself, oddly.
The members on the ground floor were mostly regular gang members and fighters, but there were a few Altered among them, though it didn’t stop the rest.
Austin lifted his fist, and regardless of a transformed spiky creature, he punched with full force, sending them flying into the arena seats.
“Go after the smaller one. I don’t think he’s an Altered; then we’ll deal with the big guy!” one of the members shouted.
“Me? Are they talking about me?” Park said, as one swung a kick right at Park. With his flexible body, he leaned backward, avoiding the hit, and then sprung right back up, delivering a punch himself.
“Even before I changed into what I am now, I was a gang member as well. Don’t think I don’t know how to fi—!”
In the middle of talking, a long limb from one of the Altered members had hit him in the stomach, sending him skidding across the floor in the other direction.
‘These guys, they all know how to fight, and really well too,’ Austin thought. ‘I guess that’s expected for a gang that is in control of the AFC, but I’m sure Park will be okay.’
Just as Austin said that, he saw Park leaping in the air and landing on top of his target, who had just hit him. It put a smile on Austin’s face as he continued his fight.
Meanwhile, Xin was the one that was doing the best against the One Gang members. She dodged hits and countered each time.
As she would hit, punch, and kick, she would use her elemental powers, causing them some serious damage.
‘Although these guys are skillful, they’re nothing compared to those that are actually in the AFC,’ Xin thought.
‘Still, because they are somewhat good fighters, I can’t just ignore them and head straight for the cage.’
Thinking about it, Xin rushed to head to the center to help out Gary and her brother. She placed both hands by her side.
They started to transform as her skin became jagged with hard feathers until both of her arms lit up.
She was ready to supercharge herself forward, blowing those by the side away and, in doing so, getting into the center.
Setting off from her position, she sparked and exploded forward until she crashed, and a large discharge of energy appeared right in front of her.
“Huh… what is going on?” Xin thought.
She was meant to reach the cage, but as she charged forward, she had only made it a couple of meters until she had stopped, and now she had two arms pressed against her, holding her by her shoulders.
When looking up, she could see a familiar face.
“I told you that you shouldn’t have tried to attack,” Apollo said.
Apollo hadn’t even transformed, yet he was holding onto Xin perfectly fine. He had stopped her attack straight on, and on top of that, even though her electrical elemental power was still hitting Apollo somewhat, he didn’t appear to be flinching.
“I won’t let you get closer to Harvor!” Apollo stated.
“Thank you,” Stanley sighed in relief. “At least there is one reliable Zodiac member.”
Although just as Stanley said those words, someone had appeared right by the side.
“I don’t think you have the right to decide that!” Austin shouted as his fist grew in size as it started to partly transform into its Altered form.
With Apollo holding Xin and so concentrated, he had no way to protect himself. The fist came out and slammed at the side of his face, causing him to take a few steps back and to the side.
“This is the second time that you’ve come and helped me,” Xin said.
“Well, try not to make it a third, and go and help the boss,” Austin said.
Right after, Xin charged forward again, electrifying her feet and bursting forward. The men that tried to grab her were hit with a powerful electric blast that flung them to the side.
With one hand, Xin grabbed the outside of the cage and then lifted herself over, finally getting inside and landing right by Gary.
Turning his head to the side, he was relatively surprised to see Xin.
“Did you think I wouldn’t make it? This is more important to me than it is to you,” Xin said. “If you hadn’t broken through that glass, a second later, I would have broken through it myself.”
Gary just smiled as he looked ahead. Now there was Harvor and the two Zodiacs that were by his side.
Jayden, whose eyes were open, could see that of all people, his sister had entered the ring. He wanted to shout to tell her to get away, but if he did, he was afraid it would only make Harvor target her even more.
‘I knew she would get involved if I told her, which is why I tried to keep her out of all of this,’ Jayden thought. ‘I hate it, I hate this feeling, but who is she with, who is that?’ Jayden thought.
His hearing was still a little funny since he had been hit by Harvor hard, so he couldn’t quite recognize Gary’s voice.
“You go save your brother. I’ll take on Harvor,” Gary said.
In that moment, his system had pinged him a message.
[Meeting with the First Altered!]
[Quest: Force Harvor Ego to use His Altered form.]
‘Wait, the quest is just to get him to use his Altered form… not defeat him?’ Gary thought.
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