As Jay's group headed towards District 10 with the sole purpose of destroying Wolf's Fang, the head of said organization, Jared, was surprised reading the report sent to him by the person in charge of supervising the members of Wolf's Fang.
"Heh, looks like I underestimated you too much, Garel..." He said with a smile on his face as he read the number of members with whom contact had been lost these past few minutes, the current number was approaching 3 digits, and still increasing from time to time.
Because the vast majority of the normal members were supers with high combat standards, he rarely received reports from them.
And tonight had been no exception, because while they were under a Metal Body attack and several of their bases were assaulted, his men had also managed to take down several enemies, causing the main forces of both sides to be evenly matched.
As for the true Wolf's Fang experts, the rank (C-) supers, although they were also in a stalemate at the moment thanks to most of them being at a disadvantage facing 2 people simultaneously, it was only a matter of time before Wolf's Fang would wipe out Metal Body.
It was not blind confidence, it was just that he was fully aware that only the strongest Metal Body executives would be able to fight against his experts, who had been trained to exhaustion by himself.
Therefore, even though he was aware that all the members of Metal Body had consumed a type of drug to strengthen themselves, this only resulted in his subordinates having to work a little harder, it didn't make Jared worry in the least.
After all, what they were using was only a temporary enhancement, while the strength of their subordinates was the real deal.
However, all of a sudden, the person in charge of supervising the Wolf's Fang members sent him a message, saying that he had lost contact with several of them.
At first Jared didn't think much of it, but as time went on, the number simply grew and grew, eventually reaching the current number of almost 100 missing members.
One had to keep in mind that the total number of Wolf's Fang members was only in the 300 and a little more, while it was a small amount, all of them were strong enough to be elites in Metal Body.
Therefore, that almost 100 had disappeared meant that practically a third of his subordinates had been captured, the result was nothing but shocking!
"Haaa, it was precisely to avoid this kind of situation that I invested so much in them." He said, scratching his head with one hand and a resigned look on his face, "Well, I guess no matter what you do, garbage will always be garbage, there's a free life lesson for you, kid."
After saying that, he walked over to the center of the abandoned warehouse, where Noah stood.
Although his appearance was still the same, his complexion was much paler and tired, as if he had run a marathon.
The reason for this was that while Jared had been waiting, he took the opportunity to test Noah's skills, obviously, inflicting multiple wounds on him, from cuts, to hits and even burns.
"You know, your skill is pretty good, even though you're weak right now, with some training you could easily become an elite member of Wolf's Fang."
Faced with this, Noah didn't answer, or rather, he was too tired to do so. While his ability allowed him to regenerate indefinitely, this was quite tiring for him, especially when he did it so many times.
"Oh well, I'll let you think about it, I'll go put an end to this stupid game once and for all."
After saying that, Jared headed towards a large metal gate leading outside and opened it before stepping out, finally revealing his appearance.
Short brown hair, white skin and a pronounced beard, with muscles that looked as strong as steel and a presence that totally overshadowed the rank (C-) super that Noah had seen before.
Finally, the most striking aspect of this man, his brown eyes which inevitably gave off an imposing arrogance, as if nothing in his eyes deserved his attention.
This was the boss of Wolf's Fang, one of the strongest supers of the South Zone, Jared.
Thereupon, he slammed the gate shut with a big bang and set off towards a district close by, where he could feel that his prey was.
'Garel... Today is the day you will die.' He thought, emanating a chilling killing intent from his gaze.
The next moment, he disappeared in the shadows of the South Zone, leaving Noah all alone in the warehouse.
***
After a few minutes, inside the warehouse, Noah suddenly opened his eyes.
"...I have to... get out of here..." He said, starting to move his chains.
Unfortunately, after being used as a guinea pig for so long, he was incredibly tired, so he couldn't do much in his current state.
However, something inside him made him want to keep fighting, as if it was telling him not to give up, though it was only a vague feeling, Noah clung to it as if his life depended on it.
Then, he started moving again.
Even though he didn't have the strength to break these chains.
Even though he didn't have the energy to try something like this.
Even though his body was desperately asking for rest.
"ARRGH!!!"
Noah persevered, pulling his hands until they began to hurt unbearably, but almost as if he didn't feel that pain, or rather, as if that pain motivated him even more, Noah used even more force to free his hands.
"I... I REFUSE TO BE WEAK ANYMORE!!!"
The sense of weakness and helplessness he had been feeling most of his life surged up again, but not to stop him, instead they became the fuel that fed his anger.
Anger at people like Taylor, anger at the people who brought him to this place, and finally, at the person who had tortured him simply because he was bored.
All of it mixed together in an amalgamation of emotions that were the only thing that kept Noah fighting so fervently.
Until finally...
*CRACK!*
The sound of bones breaking echoed loudly inside the abandoned warehouse, Noah's hands had been crushed due to the intense pressure of the chains and him pulling so hard.
However, at the same time as the sound echoed, Noah's hands were released from their bindings, causing the latter to fall to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
After such an incredible display of willpower, it would not be strange if Noah fainted from exhaustion or at least rested for a long time.
But against all odds, he slowly stood up, from his hands coming a very low sound of small solid things crashing against each other.
His hands, which had just been shattered, were already regenerating.
*Tap tap*
"I swear... I will become strong." He said, in his eyes an unshakable determination.
With those words as his last, he opened the warehouse gate and escaped from the place which had been both his prison and the place that served to temper his determination.
***
*BOOM!
Deep in the South Zone, specifically in District 7, a large 4-story building was currently collapsing due to the extensive damage it had sustained.
Debris was raining from the sky and the biggest source of light in the whole place was coming from all the fire inside the building, which added to the lifeless bodies around this street, created a catastrophic scene.
Although these bodies were lifeless, the energy inside them did not dissipate so easily, and judging by the density of it, it could be determined that these bodies belonged to rank (C-) supers!
In the midst of all this chaos, three people were watching the building slowly fall, even though they were in the risk zone, none of the three were worried in the least.
Although of course, that was understandable, after all, these people had been the cause of all the destruction in the surrounding area.
"What's the situation so far?" asked the person in front, a light-skinned man with glasses, slim build, and white hair pulled back with a sharp look, better known as Garel Cranyne, the head of Metal Body.
As for the men at his side, both were Metal Body executives, the one on the right was named Revad, and worked as Garel's right hand man, as for the one on the left, his name was Antoin, an executive who came to help them take down this base faster.
"Yes, even though a large number of elite members had been defeated, only with the guardians and the other executives showing different results, as of a few minutes ago the number of casualties has decreased drastically. In fact, they have even managed to capture a lot of Wolf's Fang members." Revad replied as he looked at his smart watch, a tone of pride in his voice.
"Hm?" Garel couldn't help but be surprised at this.
He knew that while the strength of the elite members would increase after taking the blood pill, they would still have to pay quite a high price in order to manage to defeat Wolf's Fang, especially for the elite members, but it wasn't something that could be avoided.
"And what is the reason for this sudden change?"
"Well, apparently instead of continuing in separate teams, most of them have joined together to form a large fighting force, sweeping up every member of Wolf's Fang they find while advancing to District 10 due to the call of another one of the executives." Replied the man.
Thanks to the fact that some members had been sharing photos and messages of their accomplishments over the Metal Body chat group, plus some that also sent situation reports from time to time, Revad was aware of what was going on.
'Hm, how strange...' Thought Garel, who did not expect that his subordinates were going to defy his orders like that, 'However, since the results are beneficial, I'll let it go this time.'
Although he still had a few doubts as to what was the trigger of this sudden union of his subordinates, he decided to investigate the matter later.
After all, he could sense that a certain person with a large amount of energy was rapidly approaching towards them.
"Well, now then, you'd better go help the others in District 10, that person is coming." Garel said as he rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and took off his tie.
Hearing their boss' words, they both knew that the person he was referring to was Jared, Wolf's Fang's boss, and although they had full confidence in their boss, they couldn't help but get anxious.
"But boss, I'm sure we can help you!"
"That's right, if the three of us work together, even he will suffer defeat!"
Both shouted, wanting to stay to help him.
They had been part of Metal Body since their childhood, in that time of chaos where gangs dominated the South Zone, two orphaned children like them had nowhere to go, but Metal Body still took them in and raised them until they became powerful rank (C) supers.
Therefore, they felt greatly grateful to Metal Body, an organization they saw as if it were their family, so even though they knew it would be incredibly dangerous, they wanted to accompany their boss no matter what the consequences were.
"You'll only get in the way if you stay, so you'd better go help someone who really needs you." Garel replied, ignoring them both, "If you keep insisting, I'll have no choice but to take away 3 months' entire pay of your salary."
Faced with that answer, they both knew that saying anything else would be useless, so they could only grit their teeth and leave, but not before giving him a few words of encouragement.
"Boss, you can do it!"
"Kick his ass!"
Garel only let out a sigh as a slight smile formed on his face, however, that smile only lasted a second before turning into a cold expression.
"Hm, you would have let them stay, so I could get a little revenge for what you did to my subordinates."
Suddenly, a man's vibrant and loud voice echoed in the surroundings at the same time as a large shadow emerged from the darkness of an alleyway.
The man was Jared, who had a disappointed expression on his face, although he still wanted to chase them, he knew that with Garel in front of him he would no longer be able to do so.
The next moment, the figure of both of them suddenly became blurred.
*BOOM!*
A thunderous noise accompanied by a huge shockwave took place in the middle of the street, shattering the windows of all the nearby buildings and raising a great cloud of dust.
After a few seconds, the dust dissipated, revealing two figures in the middle of the street.
"Woah, you've certainly gotten stronger, though pitifully I don't know if it's because of the drug you're using or if it's your real strength." Jared said with a tone of interest in his voice, unlike before, his pupils had now turned a bright golden color.
"You talk too much, shut up." Garel replied, whose appearance had changed drastically.
Like Jared, his eyes gave off a distinct glow, but that wasn't all, his white skin had changed to a metallic shade with spikes protruding from every part of his arms, lastly, his hands turned into incredibly sharp claws.
At this moment, his entire body had become a weapon.
Giving no importance to his words, Jared just snorted and lunged towards his enemy again.
*BOOM!*
Thus, the battle between the two strongest supers in the South Zone, the one that would decide the future of the South Zone, began!
