In the center of the prison, many had backed away from Ice standing in the middle. He felt like an unstoppable giant. No matter what attacks landed on him, they barely left a mark; if they did, it was almost as if it didn't affect him at all.
His giant club was hitting the physical-type Altereds and overpowering them with his strength. Even those that were fast and could get closer were affected by his strong ice powers.
He could block attacks with his ice, freeze those who came close to him, and create a number of unique attacks of his own. When a group of prisoners approached him, he slammed his foot on the ground. Ice grew from the floor in several sharp spikes, piercing those who took a step too far.
"What are we meant to do, Stinger? This guy is too strong!" one of the prisoners exclaimed.
They looked around, waiting for an answer, but the prisoners themselves were struggling to even see Stinger. That was because he had hidden himself among the crowd of prisoners, waiting for an attack.
"It's impossible to take down that ice giant. I don’t even have my powers back yet. All we can do is wait until they tire out. Calvin will continually heal people, and eventually, he will run out of strength, then we should rush in!" Stinger thought.
Little did he know, and many in the prison, that Calvin was already down for the count. Their plan of relying on him would fail, but there was still one more in the prison they could rely on, and that was Carter, the other man behind this whole operation.
As Ice continued to attack, he had been watching the situation unfold with Gary. He lifted up his club and slammed it on the top of the head of a prisoner. Instantly, he fell to the ground, most likely dead.
"I saw, Gary was hesitant to kill even these people that are inside here. He's not like those that are here; he's different. He only changed after talking to Blackjack. He's not like the scum in here, who aren't hesitating to kill me with every strike, so I won’t hesitate back!" Ice thought, swinging his club around furiously, hitting one after the other.
Gary, with a change of heart, was ripping through the prisoners that were moving towards him. His arms and legs were using the controlled transformation, and he wasn’t holding back with his skills.
The Claw Slash was used frequently to create some space as it would hit or push back those close to him. Then he would use his Lethal Pounce skill, jumping from side to side and using his Claw Drain to cut apart those next to him.
To keep his energy up, Gary would leap on top of one of the Altereds and bite part of their body, ripping the flesh from them. It was an easy thing to do with his strong jaws.
This way of fighting was completely different from what they had seen him do before. It was frightening them beyond belief; it was as if they were fighting with a wild animal, one that they had no idea how to stop.
Although Gary was eating parts of Altereds, he had already grown too much in stats for it to affect him. If he wanted stats, then he would have to consume entire bodies, which he didn't have time for in this fight.
Before he realized it, though, due to his fighting style, the attackers stopped coming his way. He stood there, his hands and mouth soaked in blood, and now there was a direct path to Carter in front of him, who was sitting on his chair in his specially made clothes.
"I didn’t think it would come to this," Carter said as he could see Gary walking towards him. Before he realized it, his hand was shaking. He needed to grab one with the other just to stop it.
"I can give you what you want in this prison. A lot of the guards owe me favors. You can live a good life in here," Carter said.
"A good life in here?" Gary repeated as his face had transformed back to its regular self. "The whole reason I’m doing all of this is because I can’t stay in here!"
"Then how about I help you? I have connections with the outside. I can—" Carter stopped himself in the middle of his sentence as he realized something.
His trump card was what he could do to affect the outside world. He had strong connections with gangs and politicians. So if someone ended up in prison and they needed to keep their family safe or get rid of their family, then he could do it, but this wasn’t true for Gary.
"You know, don’t you? You know the people that I am facing, and you realize that you don’t have the power to do anything about them," Gary claimed.
A man came jumping out from Carter’s side, but Gary pulled back quickly and spun his body. With the spin on his body, he slammed his fist right down onto his face. The whole prisoner's body crashed into the ground and then bounced back up.
Carter knew it before, but seeing this happen right in front of him, he knew that going against this person was a fight that he couldn’t win, and with no one else willing to help him, what could he do?
"You're right," Carter stated. "I do know who is against you, and the question is, do those two that are helping you know who it is that trapped you in here? Who it is that wishes for you to stay here and never get out.”
"It’s the Phoenix Gang!"
The name had caught the attention of quite a few of the prisoners, and the words were shouted so loud that Ice and Blackjack, who was returning to the center, had heard it.
"That’s right, the person you are helping has been marked by the Phoenix Gang. If you help him get out of this place, or you help him right now, then they will get rid of every single one of you! They will kill all of us, for letting a person that was meant to stay in here get out!"
This was Carter’s final ace, the only thing he could do, turn his two allies against him.
"Well, what does it matter?" Blackjack said, moving forward. "If the Phoenix Gang wants to keep him in here rather than take him out, doesn't that mean they see him as a threat, one large enough to take on the Phoenix Gang himself?"
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