Seeing the large man at the side, Gary recognised him immediately. How could he forget him, when only a few days ago that person had nonchalantly killed Riv in front of his eyes?
‘I won’t let you get away, either.’ Gary thought to himself.
[Bloodlust has been detected]
[Forced Bond has been activated]
[8/8 Marks have been assigned]
With that, all three of Gary’s hunting targets were in the same area. While his system had told him he wouldn’t get any more stat points for eating people, he wasn’t sure if he might get still some from hunting down his targets.
However, even if that turned out not to be the case, he had to get rid of them. With Damion and Brandon gone, he wouldn’t have to worry about his and his family’s safety. As for Gil, Gary had special plans for him. The Mark of his former schoolmate had been close to where his mother had gotten hurt, so there were some questions that he needed to ask.
‘Is that big guy going to join in the fight, or is he just here to watch?’ Gary remained cautious. Werewolf or not, he wasn’t keen on turning his back to an enemy.
Brandon smiled at the wolf masked teenager, seemingly understanding his dilemma.
“Please go ahead, I don't want to interrupt, do what you have to.” The Grey Elephant leader said, putting his hands up and even backing off a few steps. “None of you are to interfere in that guy’s fight!”
Hearing him shout those instructions at his men, Gary charged in again. Damion tsked, having hoped to be able to play those two against each other. Unfortunately, the other gang leader proved to be more than just a muscle head. Having no other choice, Damion widely swung his axe. Leaning back, Gary avoided the first one, but only just.
‘He's faster than I was expecting. Could he be an Altered who was hiding that fact?’ Gary wondered.
The next axe was already swinging from above, and the masked teenager stepped to the side, and kicked the head of the axe into the ground. The pavement was rather solid, but it stood no chance against the curve of the axe, which cut deep easily.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Gary went in and took a swipe towards Damion's side. His nails dug into him and blood was falling to the ground. Quickly, Damion grabbed onto Gary’s arm, and with the other axe swung it towards him.
The Werewolf tried to pull and break free, but he was surprised to find himself unable to. Damion had an unnaturally tight grip around him.
‘Altered or not, that guy isn’t normal!’ The teenager thought in a slight panic.
[2 Points have been allocated into Strength]
[Your base Strength is now at 20]
Increasing his Strength, Gary was finally able to pull his claws out from Damion. Still, the axe looked like it would reach him, so he lifted his forearm and transformed it fully. The weapon went deep into his skin, stopping short of his bone.
“ARGHHH!” Gary screamed in agony.
[You have been inflicted with a grave injury]
[-16 HP]
[84/100 HP]
[You are heavily bleeding, -4HP for every minute that has passed]
During the whole fight, the Werewolf had managed to avoid getting hit. It was the first time in a while, but even with his Endurance this was a deadly weapon, and with Damion’s strength he could understand why it would cause so much damage.
Gary was the one that had to pull his arm out and quickly retreat a good distance. He waited for his emergency healing to do its job. However, if his energy was to get too low then Emergency healing would be unable to do its job. If that was to happen, then Gary had a glimpse of how quick he could survive. Since 4Hp per minute was deadly.
“Pah, here I was worried about you, but you seem to be just a new Altered who’s grown too big for your breeches! Just because you gained a new power and managed to overtake the Pincers you must have thought you could rule this town.” Damion ridiculed him. “Are you some type of child? And as for you f*ckers!” Damion pointed his axe towards Brandon. “Once I'm done with him, I’ll hunt every single one of you down!”
The reason that weapon proved so effective was that the gang leader had bought it at one of the Dark Guild’s auctions. They were made from the very beasts that Altered had come from, making them the perfect anti-Altered weapons. It was also the crux of his power and why Gary felt that Damion was currently way stronger than the average person.
The masked teenager was happy for Damion’s little speech, since it bought his arm enough time to fully heal. Seeing this, Damion's eyes widened. He knew that many Altered healed faster than usual, but this speed was just nonsensical.
‘I can take his hits as long as he doesn’t strike anything vital. I have to beat him here!’ Gary encouraged himself as he charged in again, still having plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
———
Meanwhile, the other Howlers were continually fighting those around them. Their formation of protecting each other’s backs had been working to a degree.
Marie, with her two blades, proved skilful enough to not allow them to get close. Innu, filled with rage, was kicking and punching harder than he usually would have done, and Austin was the strong wall of muscle as always.
However, there was one in the group that was oddly enough slowing them down this time around.
One of the Grey Elephants charged in and Kai went for a kick… completely missing. The man then rugby tackled him to the ground, pinning him down. Before he could do anything else, though, the black masked helper kicked the man in his ribs, pushing him off the fox masked teenager.
“Stay focused!” Blake shouted.
Luckily, they had an extra helper that was covering for the mistakes Kai had been making.
“This guy is good, maybe we should invite him into the Howlers?” Austin asked.
“You do know what that black mask is right, and the weapons he’s using, which means he's probably a…” Marie didn’t finish her sentence there, releasing the others would then no, but she thought inviting an Altered hunter into their group would be impossible, since Gary was their leader.
Meanwhile, Austin was worried.
‘What's wrong with him?’ Austin wondered, as he looked at the corner of his eye. ‘These guys might be stronger than the Pincers, but Kai’s performance is horrible today. He’s talented, maybe more so than the rest of us, so why does he seem so distracted? Is he worried about Gary? He keeps staring off into his direction, but he's never been worried about him before.’ Something was clearly up.
It was then that a large bat came crashing against Austin's forearms that were raised in front of his face. He had blocked it, but it naturally still hurt, his forearms were now throbbing with pain. The others looked to be getting hurt as well over time.
“There's just too many of them this time, we need to do something else!” Austin shouted. ‘If only we weren't so weak. It’s starting to feel like we’re always dragging Gary down!’
At that moment though, the sound of groans from the crowds of Grey Elephants could be heard through the crowd. A few seconds later they could hear several bangs as well.
Up above, Kate had heard the noise and moved her camera to where the noise was coming from for a second.
‘I knew she must have been involved with them somehow.’ Kate smiled.
“It appears that the mysterious woman has now arrived in Cipen. From the looks of it, she appears to belong to the third group that arrived earlier today!” She reported.
It was then that they could see Olivia there, huffing and panting.
“You guys are useless.”
At the same time, she had brought back up along with her. With more men on their side, a true gang war was taking place.
“Go help the boss.” Kai told her as he applied pressure on the wound on his arm, a small cut that had happened during the fight when he hadn’t been paying attention.
“Don't worry, I was already planning to. I feel this need to help him.” Olivia said, and she wasn't lying.
Kate quickly moved the camera back to the others as she knew that seeing an Altered fight was guaranteed to get more attention for the news channel. Just in time as well, as she could see the Altered furiously attacking the axeman.
Gary, had charged in bravely, grabbing the axes by the wood part just before the curved head. He then kicked Damion hard in the stomach with his strength, and quickly kicked him again in the ribs, hurting his wounds.
During the fight, Damion had gotten a few good hits in, but Gary started to feel the difference between the two. Unlike his opponent, the Werewolf was able to heal his wounds, and his stamina was abnormal, giving him the advantage, especially since the Underdogs’ leader was exhausted from prior fighting.
Charging in again Gary lifted his claw ready to swipe it towards his neck, yet at the moment, like a bullet someone bulldozed right through the crowd, hitting Gary right on the side of his ribs sending him falling and sliding across the ground.
“I'm sorry, I'm late Boss.” Kirk apologised.