When handing them the box with the syringes, Sin had told them nothing about how to use them, whether one had to inject all of the liquid into one person or if it was supposed to be used multiple times. None of the gang members present had ever heard about a syringe with a liquid being used to turn someone into an Altered.
As such, the first thing Raven wanted to do was test out how effective just a little bit of that unknown substance was by using a stranger. After the earlier exchange he had a good estimate on Austin’s power, so he considered him to be the perfect test subject. This way, he could gauge for himself how much more powerful the other had gotten after the injection.
He had pulled out the syringe that was in his hand and slowly crept his way up to Austin. It was pretty crowded but not so packed that moving was impossible. Fortunately, everyone’s attention was still on the first fight.
‘Now!’ Raven thought, thrusting the needle forward… only for someone to grab him by the wrist at the very last second.
“What do you think you’re doing?” A voice asked him.
Hearing someone close behind him, Austin turned around to see that Kai had grabbed someone by the wrist who held a large syringe in his hand… aimed at him. Looking up, he recognised the person holding it.
“What the F*ck did you just try and do?’ Austin was beyond mad. He had just bumped into Raven’s two goons, but was that really a reason to drug him?!
Not wanting to lose the precious syringe, Raven threw out a kick towards the teenager holding onto him. Kai jumped back to evade it, but had let go of the other in the process.
“Why don’t you let us take a look at what’s in your hands?” Kai asked, having noticed that Raven clearly seemed to value the syringe. Whatever was inside looked strange to him and using such a thing in a place like this, especially at a time like this, clearly wasn’t something good.
Austin was lucky that Kai had kept an eye out for him, curious to see how he would react to Gary’s fight. That’s when he had spotted Raven getting closer and closer.
“I’m going to pound your head in!” Austin shouted, yet Buffin and Riv hadn’t been too far away and were now standing by the Grey Elephant leader’s side. It looked like a little fight might take place outside of the ring as well as inside.
‘Damn it, those two are with him. They’re quite strong, and if it’s three against one…actually, that guy avoided his kick from earlier. I guess he actually is a fighter after all. Maybe with him-‘
“Ohhh!” The crowd suddenly cheered loudly as something in the fight had happened. Instinctively the two turned around for a second, yet when they looked back they could only see that the trio had disappeared into the crowd.
With the small problem dealt with, Kai and Austin prefered to concentrate on the match to see what could have happened, and to their surprise, they could see Gary on the ground with his nose bleeding.
——
A few moments ago, Gary thought that he had figured it out. The problem with the twins wasn’t just that they were too fast. No, they were behaving like the annoying squirrels that he had tried to catch in the forest. They were agile and nimble, but most of all, they were flexible.
A few times while getting hit, Gary had tried to throw out a few punches of his own, but both of them had easily avoided them, only to retaliate with more. At the same time, there would be times where a kick or punch seemed like it was going straight ahead, but then it would suddenly change direction.
This was true even for their running movements. They would constantly be able to change direction so quickly that it was hard to keep track of them. Now, thinking about them as if they were the animals that Gary regularly hunted, he could keep track of them. The next problem was to catch them.
It was then, Gary had let a punch go right through, hitting him in the face, and he knew what to do next. His Health hadn’t gotten too low yet and with his high Endurance he could afford to get hit. Quickly Sren pulled his arm out, and just like he had been doing this the whole time, moved it left and right, making it hard for one to see exactly where the arm would go.
At that moment, Gary, for the first time, had managed to grab it with one hand, and he made sure to grip it as hard as possible.
“I’ve been waiting to do this all day!” Gary shouted, throwing out a punch of his own, holding onto the twin so it was impossible for him. Unfortunately, Gary had overlooked the fact that there were more fighters to this match than the two of them.
Just when he was about to get a good hit in, a leg came towards his face, and it was from the other brother, Leng. With the green haired teenager going forward and the leg coming towards him, the leg hit twice as hard, and Gary’s head flung black with blood flying through the air as he fell to the ground.
[-10 HP]
[44/100 HP]
Despite Gary’s strong Endurance with how much he had been hit, his Health had now gone down to half.
“What are you doing, Innu?!” Gary shouted in frustration. “I finally got one of them, and then the other one hits me. Didn’t we agree that each of us would occupy one?!”
Innu was standing by the side, and he had been watching the fight like a spectacle. The teenager had been waiting for his time to join in, but just like Sren he hadn’t expected Gary to catch the twin. When the chance had finally come, he had blanked out, forgetting that he was actually also a fighter in this match, allowing Leng to save his brother.
“Let’s stop playing around and get rid of this onion head. It looks like we’ve hurt him enough!” Leng said as he went to stomp on Gary’s stomach, who managed to roll away, avoiding the hit before quickly jumping to his feet.
“Screw this!” Gary shouted.
Sren charged forward again, clearly being the more aggressive one out of the two brothers. He went for a kick again. This time his leg dragged across the ground and moved far faster than any of the attacks he had done before.
‘Don’t tell me the two of them seriously have been holding back against Gary?’ Innu thought, surprised. However, this time he was ready to help in the fight. He just hoped it wasn’t too late.
The kick went towards Gary’s head, and the others watching expected one contestant to be down until…Gary had caught it with a single hand. His body didn’t move back, and Sren was standing still like a statue.
“I don’t give a crap about getting better anymore. I’m just going to win this fight!”
[Skill activated Charging Heart]
[All stats have temporarily been doubled]
[-10 Energy]
Pulling Sren’s forward by his leg, he threw the twin off balance. Next, Gary threw out a fist, faster than any he had thrown out before. It was planted right in his opponent’s face, whose body flew back a few metres, until it fell on the ground.