Xin had already expended a lot of energy in her Altered form, and holding her breath during her combat had worn her out quite a bit. Her single wing sticking out from her back was still there, but the lightning power that sparked from it was dwindling.
“Big guy, be careful; this one’s tough,” Xin commented.
Austin stood strong, looking at Gil getting up on his feet. As he did, Gil’s body muscles were flexing in and out. The smoke that was lingering from his body was starting to grow as well.
“I know. I hit him with a pretty big shot, and I know I’m not weak,” Austin replied.
After just getting back out from the hospital and recovering, the first thing Austin didn’t expect was that he was going to have to get into a fight, but from a single look, he could tell this person was strong.
Not wasting any time, he had jumped out of the window and knew what he needed to do.
“You're a bigger hitter than me, so I’m going to have to support you!” Xin said.
As soon as she finished her sentence, Gil had moved from his position at an extreme speed with both his hands out. Austin was far slower than Gil, but the moment he felt the first strike on his stomach, he went and grabbed both of them, holding them in place.
He attempted to lift Gil off the ground, and there was success, but it was only for a moment as energy seeped out from his body, pushing him back down.
“My powers can’t just be used on my opponents but can be used on myself as well!” Gil shouted.
“Good, so stay where you are!” Xin screamed as she spun herself in the air several times until she landed a heavy kick right on Gil’s face. It caused him to let go, and now Austin, with his fist, swung it around like a hook.
It smashed right against Gil’s face, sending him slightly tumbling to the side. Punching was what Austin was good at, and he was ready to follow up with another, twisting his body and throwing his hand out again.
Before he could hit, though, Gil had blocked it and then grabbed onto Austin’s shoulder, pulling him in. When he pulled his body in, Austin’s body lit up as Xin’s hand was now touching Austin, electrifying him on the spot.
“Do you think two injured clowns can really do so much against me?” Gil kicked the back of Austin, sending him tumbling back across the ground.
He then was tracking Xin as she was moving constantly in the air again. Until he moved with her and slammed her with both of his hands to the ground. His power seeped from his body, and she was stuck in the same place once more.
Gil lifted up his foot, ready to crush her like a little bug. He went to stomp the ground, but before he could, Austin was back, tackling him in the center of his body.
“All of this is useless. You’re meant to be some type of Mythical creature, yet you can’t do anything!” Gil lifted Austin off his body by the back of his head.
He swung his hand up, hitting him right in the face, making his whole head flip back, and then Gil let out a flurry of punches hitting Austin’s body one after the other in quick succession. They weren’t just fast hits, but all of them were heavy with their full strength.
“Nooo!” Xin shouted. The effect was no longer affecting her body, but she was already hurt, to the point that her Altered form was starting to fade away. Her single wing was retracting back into her body.
Her transformed arms were pulling back slightly; only halfway down her forearm was now transformed.
‘Austin has a strong durable body due to his mythical form, but after already being hurt badly and now this, I’m not sure how much he can take!’ She thought.
She wanted to help anyway she could. She was a talented AFC fighter. She had trained and trained to be the best at fighting, and now, some gang member she had lost to, and in front of her very eyes, she was going to lose someone else as well.
Austin could feel each hit smashing against his body; his heart was pumping, blood was dripping out of his mouth, but heat was beaming out from his nostrils. Literal steam seemed to be appearing.
“Just give me a moment,” Austin mumbled as he raised both hands above him, trying to block some of the hits, but they were still getting in. “Just give me a moment to wake up!”
Austin desperately took the hits as he threw one out of his own, but it had managed to hit nothing but the air. Gil then planted a fist right in his face, sending Austin to the ground, and his Altered form started to revert back.
“Ah, your face… I know you; you’re Austin, right?” Gil said with a smile. “I had heard a lot about you, leader of some school gang. The strongest in the whole city. Who would have thought you would be here?”
“Who would have thought you would have lost to someone like me.”
It wasn’t a fair fight from the beginning. Austin was perhaps at fifty percent of what he usually would have been at. Sure, he was never going to catch up to Gil’s speed, but maybe he could have done something.
With the way he was, all he could do was help out Xin to the best of his abilities.
‘Crap… I wanted to see Gary again… and the others. I never thought, this is what I would be thinking in a moment like this.’
Austin was tensing his fist; he wanted to gather his energy, and part of his Altered state was turning back. His size was growing, but it was shrinking at the same time. It was almost as if his body wasn’t listening to him.
“You were playing with kid’s stuff; it’s time for you to play with grown-up stuff now,” Gil said, his smile only growing bigger, turning into a small laugh.
In the middle of his laughter, he felt something hit him, bounce off his back. It didn’t hurt, but it was a small feeling. When looking to his right at what it was, he could see.
“Is that a body?” Gil asked. No doubt it was a human body, but it had been ripped to shreds, part of it missing. Not only that, but it had a uniform on, a red one as well, a member of the Phoenix Gang.
“I think your words are very true,” a voice said from behind.
Gil immediately turned his head, and he could see someone coming out from the forest in front of the hospital. A man with blood covering his mouth, and in his hand, he was dragging another body of one more member of the Phoenix Gang.
“This is all kid stuff, so deal with one of the adults,” Midwak said.