Both Austin and Innu readied themselves for the fight ahead of them. Innu had gotten into his usual fighting stance and surprisingly Austin had as well, putting both of his fists out like that in boxing.
“I guess that means you're really serious about this thing, huh?” Innu said. “You just can't let me have anything. Well, I guess I'm just going to have to earn this myself.”
Austin didn't say anything, but just clenched his fists harder. Seeing this siutation it made Austin think back.
——
Everyday, the two of them had a morning training session. This was requested by Kai, and after that, when they had decided to leave their respective schools, they continued to train. Instead of one training session a day they had upped it to two.
During their everyday training sessions though, that was where Austin realized that Innu was a monster, especially when it came to anything to do with his legs. Innu was able to lift more with his lower body, he was also able to mentally deal with more pressure. On top of that he was more hard working than Austin as well.
It was clear when watching him, that the strength that Innu had achieved was from hard work. He was used to this type of training, honing his skill and technique in fighting, whereas Austin was a natural fighter.
Naturally he had been gifted a large body, naturally he had a hard punch that could knock most students the same age and size as him down with one hit. He had never had to train before to take out the delinquents that were around him.
However, seeing Innu train like so, it had unlocked his competitive side. Due to the two of them being in the same gang, it wasn't as if the two could have an all out fight. So the only way they could compete was through hard work and training.
It was hard at first, there were aches and pains that Austin had never felt before, but soon he was catching up to Innu. The thing was, Innu was seeing this as well. Innu had always believed if the two were to fight that it would be a close call between the two of them.
Now that Austin was training, it worried Innu but it only caused him to up his training even more.
However, training wasn't the only thing the two of them competed in. Kai had often sent the two of them on tasks. Shortly after the Howlers had taken over Slough, there were a few troubles here and there down the streets that were owned by the Howlers.
Some of them involved gang members, others just involved rowdy students, and it was their job to protect these places in the first place.
“You know I can deal with it myself,” Innu said as they walked down the street at night toward one of the locations.
“I can as well. I’m just doing what Kai ordered.” Austin replied.
When they arrived at the bakery that was being harassed, there were ten adults holding mainly bats but a few other weapons as well. Seeing this, Innu gulped for a second. He was good at fighting one on one but not in a scene like this.
“Hey, it's those freaks in masks, I guess it's true what they say about the Howlers!” A man at the front said laughing.
Austin was confident as he walked up to the group, and while the leader of these attackers was busy laughing, he had thrown out a punch as hard as he could. The leader placed his bat in front of his face trying to protect it, but it soon split apart and a fist collided right into the man's face causing his teeth to fall out.
Another person that was close by went to attack, swinging a bat towards Austin’s side, but before it could hit, Innu had jumped up through the air with his knee forward, hitting the attacker right in the face and causing him to drop the bat onto the ground.
The other eight were stunned as their two strongest had been knocked out just like that. Regardless, the two weren't going to let the attackers get away with it as they continued to beat and fight against them all, soon defeating the attackers.
This wasn't a one time occurrence at the beginning, but the two of them fought and fought, continued to train and were getting stronger each day.
One day though, outside of their regular Howlers work, Austin had gotten a call. It was from his school friends. He stayed in touch with some of them due to them coming to the pool club at times, and Kai also said to keep up the relationship he had with them.
These delinquents could possibly be the future of the Howlers after all.
“Austin… East Boys are giving us trouble without you here, we need your help man!” The phone call shouted.
Austin thought about it for a while, it wasn't the first time he had gotten a call from his old school asking him to fight off other schools, which was why at that moment he had made a decision.
“Gather everyone and tell them we're going to be taking care of the whole of Slough. They will learn that the Howlers own all of the delinquents in the school area, and to not kick up a fuss.” Austin replied.
He had been training long enough, fighting long enough, and now Austin sat out to do what he had always dreamed of doing when he was in school. That day, every school had a visit, not from the masked individual, but from Austin himself, and he had done what he had set out to do.
In an alleyway, Austin had just finished dealing with the last of the schools in Slough. His hands bloody, his knuckles sore, and bruises over his face and body.
“This was the dream that I used to have… and now I am here.” Austin thought. “King of the high schools of Slough. Well this suck’s balls. That was too easy. I guess I'm done with this child's stuff. I need something a lot more interesting.”
——
Now Austin was here, in front of Innu, in front of the Howlers… and ready to make a name for himself.
***
Support my Kickstarter: My Werewolf System/ Shrine. 110 Percent funded
If you guys didn't know, I and owner Jin started Shrine, trying to create a platform for Western artists to create content in the Manga style.
We have launched our first Kickstarter which allows access to a physical volume book with all Shrine series first chapters. Which includes a physical version of the first chapter of My Werewolf System.
Search: Shrine comics Kickstarter