Being the Altered fight fanatic that he was, Gary knew quite a lot about Altered. After the change, an Altered would first have to get used to their new body, as well as the capabilities it held. One of the most important skills was changing their body from a human to the Altered form.
According to some documentaries, that wasn’t an easy thing to do, at all. The first time was apparently the hardest of them all. Some could only fully transform into their beast selves, others would often times mistakenly transform the wrong parts of their body, changing their feet when they wanted to change their hands, for example.
As such, it was essential for an Altered fighter to master this skill. In their case, they competed in regard to the time it would take them to transform. This was crucial, since both fighters were required to start out in their human forms.
Fortunately, Gary didn’t have that problem… at least not any more. Thanks to acquiring the Controlled Transformation skill, the system took care of it for him. The teenager just had to imagine which part of his body he wanted to transform and to what degree. If he wanted to, he could also use Full Transformation to become a complete Werewolf.
Regardless, he knew that Jayden was a strong Altered, a professional who was on top of his game, and his body was already turning into something in a fraction of a second. The first thing that was noticeable was his skin had started to turn whiter, almost pale, till it looked like snow itself.
A light layer of fur was seen across his skin, it wasn’t thick like when Gary would transform. This also was white and looked soft. Still there were some similarities between the two, as his hands had turned into deadly claws, yet the most noticeable change was on his face.
It now had black marking patterns coming across from his forehead, going down the side of his cheeks. His eyes narrowed like a beast and his black ashy grey hair started to grow down his back. Soon, that began to turn completely white as well.
All of this, had taken less than half of a second, but Gary couldn’t help but be bewitched by this majestic beauty. It certainly was one of the most beautiful Altered the world had ever seen, and it was why Jayden had become popular not just as an Altered fighter but a model and celebrity as well, known as ‘the ‘White Tiger’
‘That’s…so cool.’ Gary couldn’t help but stare. He soon snapped out of it his reverie as he remembered the situation he was in, and what words had come out of Jayden’s mouth a second ago. ‘Did he just say that Xin… is his sister?! But their names, Xin Clove…Jayden Tiger.’
The next moment, Gary was ready to facepalm. It wasn’t rare for an Altered fighter to use a stage name. There were many reasons why one might want to do it as well. Most did it to pick a more menacing sounding name that would easily catch on. Jayden had naturally chosen Tiger as his last name due to his Altered form.
Despite his public appearances, the Altered fighter’s real name had been kept a secret, yet it wasn’t hard for Gary to guess that it had to be Clover. Now, it made sense why Jayden had come all the way out here to Slough, and why he had come to this cabin. He wasn’t here for the pay, but because he genuinely cared for his sister.
Unfortunately, Gary failed to see how transforming at this point and time would help Xin, who was being held at knife point. If it wasn’t for that, the teenager would have already stormed in.
‘What…is she doing here!’ Gary thought.
“Don’t move!” Tiffany screeched while her hands were visibly shaking, leaving a small cut on the hostage’s neck. It was clear she was scared, seeing an Altered in real life, and on TV were two different things.
They were so rare in the world that to normal people they seemed like something straight out of a fairy tale. Not moving from his spot, it looked like Jayden tilted his head back a bit, and he opened his mouth wide, revealing sharp teeth. The next second, flinging his head forward, a loud roar erupted in the room.
The whole cabin began shaking, and Gary, who had been standing next to him, suffered the brunt of it due to his sensitive ears. The teenager fell down to his knees, covering his ears as he rolled on the floor with pain, though he wasn’t the only one.
What Jayden had let out wasn’t a regular roar. Although invisible, a strong force had travelled through the air and hit Riv who had been on the other side of the room. The red colour gang leader was chucked into the wall behind him, some wooden panels on the cabin wall had snapped in half. One second later, he fell to the floor in pain.
‘What was that? From a roar?’ Gary wondered, as he opened one eye to look up.
“Riv!” Tiffany cried out and looked towards her boyfriend. Seeing her opportunity, Xin opened her mouth and bit down hard on Tiffany’s hand while the teenage girl was distracted. Her arms were tied, but the ropes tied around her legs had broken. It looked like they had been sliced in half by some type of knife.
Believing that this had to have been her brother’s doing, she kicked her tormentor’s leg, causing Tiffany to fall over.
“You really had this coming!” Xin cursed, as she kicked the class diva in the side of the head knocking her out.
Riv had gotten off the floor, his body aching, only to see that his dear sweetheart was being hurt.
“What are you guys doing?! Get him.” The red colour gang leader shouted.
It was then that the others were about to make their move, still standing in the same position by the door. Jayden swung both his hands out fast, a whip-like sound was heard as his fingers cut through the air.
Gary wasn’t sure if he was imagining things, but it appeared as if giant claw marks were flying through the air. Seconds later, there was no doubt left that those claw marks had been very real. They hit the men who were standing by either side, cutting through their clothes and through their skin. Some of the weapons they held in their hands also were cut in half and had fallen to the floor.
The cuts weren’t shallow either, going quite deep, and blood was spilling everywhere as they fell to the floor. Those further away might have been lucky, but they were too afraid to get up again.
Gary was still trying to figure out what had happened. Jayden hadn’t moved from his spot, yet he had somehow hurt Riv, who was on the other side of the room, and also dealt damage to all the others as well who weren’t close either.
He had seen hundreds of Altered fights, yet not a single one had been this devastating.
“There are some things that aren’t shown on TV.” Jayden said, seemingly aware of Gary’s confusion, while he walked towards his sister.
Staring at him, Gary could only think one thing.
‘I stood no chance.’