Gary had fully learned about the system, or at least a large chunk about it, due to his father, which made him wonder for a brief second if anyone knew the strength of Harvor and details about him—it would be the system.
It was created by one of the founders of NIRV after all, and NIRV were the first to create the Altered to begin with. Perhaps that was why the system was now placing such a quest.
Regardless, it didn’t matter, because Gary needed to focus on the fight ahead regardless.
Xin looked toward her brother, and she was ready to run right to his side, but before that, it was up to Gary.
‘Alright, just going against the number one ranked in the AFC, let’s do this then!’
Gary then charged forward first.
He exploded with his feet right toward where Harvor was, and just before he reached him…
[Lethal Pounce]
Gary jumped from one side and then pounced at an incredible speed. His feet lifted off the ground slightly, and his fist was ready as it flung.
Gary could see it; Harvor had lifted his hands to try and block the attack, to try and stop it, but he was too slow. Gary was just too fast as his fist went right through and hit him right on the side of the face.
The hit was heavy, as it echoed several times in the large empty arena. For a moment, everyone who was fighting looked as they heard the loud banging sound.
Even Stanley had to stop for a moment.
“How heavy was that hit, how strong was that?”
The thing was, in the end, Harvor didn’t fall. As Gary landed his feet on the canvas, he twisted his body, now throwing another hit to swing from the other side.
Only this time, Harvor had caught it before it managed to hit him. Without the speed of the lethal pounce skill, Gary was a little bit slower.
“You’re really strong,” Harvor said as the muscles on his arm were fully tensed up just holding Gary back. “Really strong. I think that might have been the hardest I’ve ever been hit, but tell me, why aren’t you using your powers like before?”
Harvor went to throw punches back, and in turn, Gary blocked them away with his hands and then went to strike at Harvor’s stomach. Before they landed, Harvor knocked them away with both of his hands and went to kick Gary.
Quickly reacting, Gary jumped back in the air, avoiding the hit, and as he jumped back, he saw the perfect chance.
‘Right now, while he’s underestimating me, let’s see if I can finish him off.’
Mid-flip, Gary had partially transformed his arms, giving him more power. Then the moment he landed, he swung his arm out even though he wasn’t close to Harvor.
[Claw Strike]
[Fire attribute has been added]
A large claw mark came out, slicing through the air, but it wasn’t the regular claw mark. It had the added power of flames.
The mark crashed right into Harvor, pushing him back. His feet dragged across the canvas floor, and the fire could be seen on top of his body.
The attack had ripped through his skin again, just like Jayden’s had done, until Harvor swung both of his arms out, blowing out the flames. But the markings were still there, as well as the heat on his skin.
Once again, for a moment, everyone who was taking part had somewhat frozen. Xin hadn’t even had a chance to get close to her brother because Gary and Harvor were fighting in the middle, blocking their path.
“This is making no sense,” Stanley said on the ground. “How can there be someone so powerful and have fire abilities that we don’t know about?”
“Why would someone who has such strong fire abilities just come out right now?”
There was a large worry: was it someone high up from the White Rose? Was it one of the connections Jayden had?
As for Gary, he was somewhat upset that his Claw Strike didn’t do more damage. For one, it was a skill that took up a lot of energy, and there was something else as well.
Using the fire attribute with his skills, although clearly making them more powerful, also consumed more energy.
Since it wasn’t nighttime, Gary didn’t have the double energy pool he was used to using.
“What I really want to know,” Harvor said, “is who you are!”
The muscles in his calf had tensed up, and the vascular veins could be seen pumping the blood to his muscles. Now it was Harvor who had exploded forward.
This time, Gary was trying to block the fist; he moved both of his hands to cover the strike, and he managed to be fast enough.
Only the fist punched right through his guard, it didn’t work, knocking his hands away before hitting him straight in the stomach.
[-26 HP]
‘It took off that much of my HP, even though I now have my endurance maxed out?’ Gary thought. ‘This guy, he’s a monster, not even in his Altered form.’
More thoughts entered Gary’s head, and that was Jayden during the fight. He had taken more hits just like this one.
“Hey,” Gary said. “Your hits are heavy, but I know, so are mine.”
Gary responded as his transformed arm delivered a blow, swinging right into the side of Harvor’s face.
His head swung to the side, and blood splattered out on the canvas. Immediately, Harvor turned to look at Gary with his eyes and mouth smiling.
“Punch for punch, I’ve never found someone that can outlast me!” Harvor said.
“Oh, trust me,” Gary grunted as he used his other hand to hold onto Harvor’s shoulder. “I still have a lot more pain to give you.”
Both men swung their fists at the same time, neither even trying to block the strikes, and smashed them into each other.
As both heads flung back, that was when Gary’s black wig swung onto the floor, and his familiar green hair was revealed.
“That’s… Gary Dem!” Stanley said from the sides.