Chapter 55: Teamwork

"Argh!" shouted the Metal Body member after blocking another kick of the Wolf's Fang member, which forced him back.

Although they fought evenly matched at first, the difference in strength had been becoming more and more obvious as time passed.

In fact, the Metal Body member's arms, which had been covered in stone fragments at the beginning of the fight, now had barely a few fragments protecting his arms, indicative of the damage he had taken.

Since his skill was mostly focused on defense, the fact that despite having been focused on defending, his arms had still ended up that way was a clear indication of his opponent's great destructive power.

He had faced a few members of Wolf's Fang before, however, none of them had been strong enough to make him feel that he had no chance of winning, however, the man before him was different.

He knew what would happen if he lost, so this was no longer simply a gang showdown, this was a fight with his life on the line.

And this, even though he didn't want to feel that way, inevitably made the Metal Body member feel more and more afraid.

"Heh, I like that expression, it looks like you already realized the difference between your shitty gang and ours." Said his opponent, an expression of mockery and disdain on his face, "Too bad...it's already too late!"

The next moment, he again lashed out at the Metal Body's member at an even greater speed than before due to him using a martial technique that improved his speed.

Faced with this, the Metal Body member, who couldn't even deal with his opponent's normal speed, only managed to generate a few more stone fragments in a desperate attempt to block the attack.

"Now die, you piece of trash!"

"COME THEN!!!" Shouted the Metal Body member to give himself more courage as he closed his eyes and put his arms in front of him, gathering all the remaining energy he had to defend himself.

*BAM!*

The sound of two objects colliding could be heard, accompanied by the sound of something skidding on the ground.

However, the Metal Body's member, who had closed his eyes out of fear, was still in the same place, completely intact.

"...What a damn nuisance." Said the Wolf's Fang member, who had been forcibly forced back a few steps due to the sudden kick he received.

Slowly opening his eyes, what the Metal Body member saw was that there was someone in front of him.

It was a stocky young man slightly taller than him, with unkempt but clearly visible white-colored hair along with sharp teeth.

Although his appearance was considerably bad with bruises here and there, for some reason, looking at his broad back, all he could feel was an indescribable sense of security.

"Colt!" The man exclaimed, waking up from the light trance he was in.

"Hey, I came to help." Colt said, not taking his eyes off the Wolf's Fang member, cautious of any movement.

Hearing his words, the man was momentarily relieved, though that only lasted a second before he was again filled with worry.

After facing him for quite some time, he had already realized the reason why there was such a wide gap between the two despite him being under the effects of the blood pill.

The man in front of him was not a mere rank (D+) pugilist, but was just one step away from becoming a rank (C-) pugilist!

Although there was no official ranking for this rank, it was a fairly well-known fact between the supers.

While it was true that when a (D-) rank super advanced in rank to (D) or (D+) there was only a change in the amount of energy they had and could use, that changed completely if one wanted to advance to the (C) grade realm.

It was no longer a simple advancement in rank, but a complete step up in the hierarchy of life, gaining absolutely superior power to what a mere rank (D+) super could ever achieve.

Therefore, although a rank (D+) super apparently only had to take one step to advance to (C-) grade, it was an anormous step, which created that there were rank (D+) supers with much greater power than average supers of the same rank.

And the person in front of them was one of those supers....

Just as he was about to warn Colt, the Wolf's Fang member again moved at tremendous speed.

Considering that there was only a short distance between them, he arrived practically in an instant before launching a kick towards Colt's face.

The movement had been incredibly fast, but thanks to having activated Territory beforehand, Colt was able to predict the move, moving to the side to avoid the kick, successfully avoiding being knocked out as soon as the battle begun.

He had learned his lesson with the Wolf's Fang guardian, facing an opponent who clearly had more strength than him, instead of blocking the blows and exchanging damage for damage as he did before, it would be best to dodge whenever he could, avoiding taking unnecessary damage and increasing his chances of winning.

Of course, the Wolf's Fang member didn't stop with just that, he also started throwing several punches towards Colt, aiming mainly at his face, his goal was clear, he wanted to finish Colt off as fast as possible.

'He's strong and fast...but I can still predict where he wants to hit me!' thought Colt, focusing all his concentration on the opponent in front of him.

Although he wanted to counterattack, the Wolf's Fang member simply didn't give him a chance to do anything, forcing Colt further and further back.

"Didn't you came to help? Stop running and face me then!" shouted the Wolf's Fang member angrily, irritated by the fact that Colt was managing to avoid all of his blows.

At once, his fists became engulfed in flames as he launched a punch with his right fist, while it looked like a normal punch, Colt could feel that the power contained in it was much greater than before.

'It's coming from the right, he's aiming at my face again!' Colt thought, moving his body to dodge the incoming blow.

However, just at that moment, the Wolf's Fang member suddenly turned and launched a kick aimed towards his head.

Even though Colt had Territory active, the movement had been so fast and sudden that he barely had time to perceive it.

'Sh*t...!'

The distance was too short and the kick was already practically inches away from his face, he couldn't dodge this even if he wanted to so instead he just gathered all the qi in his body around the left side of his face.

While that defense wouldn't accomplish much, at least he wouldn't end up dead.

However, the kick never actually hit Colt, in fact, it had missed horribly by several inches.

"What..." Let out the Wolf's Fang member as he saw this.

The reason he had missed wasn't due to his lack of practice or anything like that, while the quick transition from a feint to a kick had resulted in his stance being a bit awkward, for a pugilist of his level, this was a minimal problem.

What had caused him to miss so embarrassingly then?

Bringing his gaze back to the sudden sensation he felt just seconds ago in his right leg, what the Wolf's Fang member could see was a white cloth wrapped around his ankle.

"What the f*ck-"

*BAM!*

"Ack!"

Without even letting him finish his sentence, he received a hard punch to his face, forcing him to recoil as he let out a small cry of pain.

"You piece of sh*t...!" the man shouted grabbing his nose, now visibly more enraged than ever as he grabbed the cloth with his flaming hands, wanting to burn it, without taking his eyes off Colt.

Faced with this, Colt just ignored the man's shout and lashed out at him, he knew how tough that cloth was and who was holding it, so he had to take this opportunity to do as much damage to his opponent as possible.

Seeing Colt approaching and that for some reason the cloth simply wouldn't burn, the Wolf's Fang member became even more exasperated, grabbing the cloth with both hands to tear it.

While he could have ignored it to focus on defeating Colt, that would be too risky, the force with which it had pulled his ankle earlier had proven to be enough to disrupt his attacks, the consequences that would bring would be obvious so he decided to first get rid of this cloth before doing anything.

However, no matter how much strenght he put into his arms, the fabric didn't even show signs of stretching, let alone tearing.

"JUST WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?" Shouted the Wolf's Fang member, his face now a deep red color due to all the effort he was putting in, "Argh, whatever, I'll just have to deal with you first!"

As soon as he finished saying that, he again proceeded to throw another punch towards Colt, however, he couldn't even get closer to him, all due to the cloth on his right ankle constantly interrupting his movements.

While it was quite annoying, the worst part of it all was without a doubt the fact that it did so at the most opportune moment, just when he was about to attack and his posture was most unstable.

The result of this was that he had already received dozens of hits from Colt, who was now focusing entirely on attacking rampantly like a wild animal due to the fact that he knew that with the disruption of the cloth, no attack from the Wolf's Fang member would manage to hit him.

"ARGHHH! YOU CHEATERS!" shouted the Wolf's Fang member at the top of his lungs forcibly pushing Colt away, his face was now completely red in color, although it was no longer due to the effort, but the anger he was feeling at the moment, "SINCE YOU MANAGED TO PISS ME OFF, BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES!"

At that moment, the Metal Body member's eyes began to give off a red-colored glow, the atmosphere also became considerably heavier at the same time as all the qi in the area was directed towards him.

At first the Metal Body member simply wanted to use a martial technique that increased his strength, but something inside him urged him to use even more energy at this moment, which he did.

Perhaps it was the pressure of facing a skilled enemy, combined with the incandescent anger he was feeling at this moment which accomplished something that not even months of training had been able to do.

It was clear, right now...the Wolf's Fang member was advancing in grade!

"HAHAHA, I CAN FEEL IT, YOU BASTARDS ARE ALL GOING TO DIE-!"

*BAM!*

"Gah!"

However, even though this was an important moment for him, Colt couldn't care less as he continued his flurry of attacks.

"HEY, DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!" again shouted the man, in an attempt to intimidate Colt, although he didn't move an inch, of course, this wasn't because he didn't want to, but because he was simply incapable of doing so.

This was because when a super was advancing in grade, taking into account the enormous change this would generate in that individual's body, it was necessary not to make any abrupt movements in the process, as there could be irreversible results otherwise.

Once again disregarding his words, Colt kept on punching and kicking as if there was no tomorrow, slowly doing more and more damage to him.

'Phew, fortunately this guy is only a rank (D) pugilist...' Thought the Wolf's Fang member, enduring the beating Colt was giving him, 'If it's only this, I'll be able to calmly move on, just wait, you little piece of sh*t, I'll make sure that not even your corpse is left!'

While Colt's punches were fast and contained some power, he was certainly capable of withstanding something like this for a few minutes, so he relaxed a bit.

*CRACK!*

"ARGH!"

However, an incredibly painful and loud thud accompanied by the unpleasant sound of bones being broken suddenly assaulted him, bringing him back to reality.

Turning his head towards the direction he felt the hit, he could see his first opponent, the Metal Body member, who had attacked him with his stone covered arms, which had almost fully recovered.

"ALRIGHT, HOLD ON, I'M SURE WE CAN DISCUSS THIS!"

Now that a true rank (D+) super had joined, he was no longer so sure he could hold out that long.

*BAM!*

"!"

Again he took a hit, although this time, unlike Colt's light but quick blows or the Metal Body member's strong blows, he could only describe this sensation with 2 words.

Incredibly heavy.

It was so heavy that even him, a pugilist at the top of the rank (D+) couldn't help but see stars when it hit him.

In front was Colt, while behind was the Metal Body member, so the hit could only come from one of his sides, specifically, his right side.

Slowly turning his head to the right, he could see the one who was undoubtedly the culprit of what had happened.

A tall young man wrapped completely in black clothes, although his face was hidden by a hood, he could still distinguish that he was wrapped in bandages.

Although the appearance of this young man was peculiar, that wasn't what caught his attention the most, but the fact that he was holding a huge, thick piece of concrete above his head, the concrete in question was already a bit stained with blood, obviously his own.

"O-OI, DID YOU REALLY JUST HIT ME WITH THAT?!" The man asked in panic.

Then, disregarding the Wolf's Fang member's words, the three continued their unbridled display of violence.

"YOU FILTHY CHEATERS, I SWEAR I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

*BAM!*

"ALL RIGHT, LET'S NEGOTIATE, WHAT DO YOU WANT, CREDITS?! I CAN GIVE YOU A LOT OF THEM!"

*BAM!*

"P-PLEASE, STOP!"

*BAM!*

"STOOOP!!!!"

*BAM!*

After a few short but incredibly torturous moments for the Wolf's Fang member, his body simply could take no more and he collapsed to the ground, a bloody mess.

Thus, the grade advancement of a formidable Wolf's Fang pugilist was successfully interrupted thanks to the teamwork of 2 Metal Body members and a guy with a chunk of concrete.