"...I guess I didn't think this through very well..." Said Noah, who was currently dangling from the grate of a window belonging to an unknown apartment, his hand being the only thing keeping him from falling down.
The moment the Gray Rat lunged at him, Noah obviously wasn't planning on dying with the rat, but instead pushed it off just before they fell so that he could properly grab onto the metal grating, which he saw when he approached the edge of the rooftop.
While this did not take away from the fact that this had been a big gamble and that it may not have been the best course of action, he did the best he could think of, which fortunately worked.
As for the rat's fate, taking into account that the apartment complex Noah was currently in had over 15 stories, one could already imagine the state the rat was in after falling from such a height.
"Now... how the hell do I get out of here...?" He said with a bitter expression on his face.
While he had survived the Gray Rat's attack and his life was no longer in immediate danger, he was in another incredibly dangerous situation nonetheless.
*Shass*
At that moment, the sound of things moving came from inside the apartment whose window was currently being used by Noah.
Immediately after, red-colored eyes appeared out of the darkness that was visible through the window of the apartment, indicating that there was another Gray Rat inside.
And judging by the fact that it was desperately pushing his body against the window, it was clear that it was quite interested in Noah.
'...Just my f*cking luck...' Noah thought as he watched this, gritting his teeth due to the frustration he was feeling right now.
And if this wasn't enough, he also could vaguely hear the loud squealing of several more rats that were probably coming up the stairs of the complex right now, all eager for a bite of his flesh.
This meant that not only would he not be able to return to the rooftop, but even if he managed to somehow get rid of the rat in front of him, all that would be waiting for him when he opened the door would undoubtedly be even more rats.
*Crash!*
The window, which had been holding firm until now, finally shattered, unable to withstand all the pressure the three-foot rodent had been exerting on it, leaving him free passage to get to Noah.
Faced with this, Noah really didn't know what to do.
*BAM!*
However, just as the rat was about to bite Noah's fingers, the door came crashing down with a loud noise, making Noah inevitably turn to look at the door.
There was a person standing over the now shattered door, his face hidden by a hood that revealed nothing beyond his clear green eyes.
"Jay!" Shouted Noah as a warm feeling spread inside him and a smile formed on his face.
The next moment, Jay quickly lashed out at the Gray Rat that was about to bite Noah, kicking it hard enough to send it flying into the wall of the apartment.
Although the rat hadn't been killed by the kick, it had undoubtedly been hurt pretty badly since it couldn't move very well.
"Come on, we need to get out of here fast." Jay said as he grabbed the metal grate and applied all his strength to pull the small metal bars apart, creating a hole big enough for Noah to get through.
Entering the room, Noah collapsed to the floor. Although he hadn't shown it before, he really had been scared of falling.
"Can you walk?" Asked Jay, who was paying attention to the rat in case it decided to attack them.
"Yeah, let's go." Noah replied, recovering and getting up to follow Jay, both of them leaving the room in a hurry, leaving the still stunned rat behind.
While there was much they could talk about now that they were reunited again, they both knew this wasn't the right time for it, so they decided to ignore all useless chatter until they were out of danger.
Thanks to the fact that they were on the 15th floor, there was quite a way to go until they reached the exit and judging by the squeaking of the rats that Noah had heard a few seconds ago, it was clear that there were many more rats in the complex, causing him to worry.
However, Jay didn't stop for a second to think about what route to take or anything like that. Although this puzzled Noah as he knew Jay was not a careless person, when they got down to the 14th floor he could understand why they were moving so quickly.
Every time they encountered a rat, Jay would give them an accurate and strong kick in the nose, sending them away and stunning them for a short time, enough for both of them to keep going down.
On the other hand, when they encountered a group of 2 or more rats, Jay would lash out much more violently, hitting the rats with everything he had until they were either knocked out or far enough away to continue on their way.
While it was undoubtedly dangerous, thanks to the extremely cut-resistant bandages covering his body and the Phantom Trace which let him dodge all of the rats' predictable attacks, Jay could afford to take this risk.
As for why he limited himself to just sending the rats away and not killing them, it was quite simple, he couldn't kill them even if he wanted to.
The Gray Rats were monsters that were especially resistant to blunt blows, so even if Jay used all his strength to hit them, he wouldn't be able to cause serious damage to them.
'...As I expected, he really is on another level...' Noah thought.
The fact that Jay could deal with so many rats when only one of them was deadly to him still seemed impressive to him, which made him even more determined to become stronger.
Within a short time, they both made it to the exit of the building. However, before they got out, Jay suddenly took off the hoodie he was wearing and handed it to Noah, exposing his entire upper body wrapped in bandages.
Although he normally wore a t-shirt underneath the hoodie, this time he had decided to prioritize his agility, so he decided to just use the bandages to cover his upper body.
"And this?" Noah asked.
"There's someone else outside, I'm not sure if they know who you are but I don't want to take any chances. By the way, don't say my name in front of him."
Hearing Jay's words, Noah said nothing more and just obeyed.
Finally exiting the building, at least 5 bodies of Gray Rats were scattered around the entrance, all without any sign of life but with visible burn wounds.
In the midst of it all stood a white-haired, sharp-toothed young man gasping for air, looking incredibly tired.
"...Colt?" Said Noah, somewhat puzzled.
Leaving aside the fact that he took care of all these rats on his own, what surprised him the most was that the person Jay had referred to earlier turned out to be none other than Colt, a member of Metal Body.
"This..."
"I'll explain everything later, for now let's just get out of here, yeah?" Replied Jay, cutting him off.
After saying that, they both moved forward to meet Colt.
As for what they were going to do from now on, it was obvious, they would get out of the South Zone as soon as possible.
***
Meanwhile, in a district quite close to where Jay and the others were. A battle which had been constantly moving was taking place.
*BOOM!*
The noise of an explosion resounded loudly in the surroundings, product of the clash between the main and only protagonists of this fight.
The streets where they passed ended up being shattered, with craters everywhere. In fact, not even the posts or buildings were spared from this trail of destruction, leaving the streets almost unrecognizable.
"Hahaha, no doubt your metal body has improved quite a bit. You're even able to cut through my skin now!" Laughed Jared, who paused for a moment to carefully admire the state of his arm.
Even though he was a rank (C+) pugilist and his body was tough enough to stop a bullet, he still had quite a few deep cuts around his body. The worst part was undoubtedly his fingers, which had now lost their shape and looked like a bloody bundle of flesh.
Of course, his clothes had been torn to shreds by all the cuts, exposing terrible wounds all over his upper torso. However, as if the wounds had nothing to do with him, Jared simply kept smiling as he looked at his hand.
"..."
Garel on the other hand said nothing and just stared at Jared, he knew how much this man liked to talk, so he simply decided to ignore him.
Although he had managed to do considerable damage to Jared, his condition wasn't much better either.
His claws which had once been sharp enough to cut through concrete were now just bent pieces of metal, with several dents around his arms and chest
While neither had mortal wounds, it was clear that they were fully capable of hurting each other and were seemingly evenly matched for the moment.
If this fight continued this way, it would be very difficult to predict who the winner would be.
"Well, as much fun as this was, it's about time to get this over with." Jared said before slamming his fists in front of him, holding them together, his eyes beginning to release a visible amber glow.
*Shh*
Immediately, all the qi in the surrounding area began to swirl in his direction, gathering around him and condensing enough for it to become visible.
As a result, several streams of golden energy suddenly appeared around Jared, dancing around him as if he were the ruler of this energy full of vitality called qi.
At the same time, his body began to change, his already large muscles began to swell even more, increasing his stature significantly, reaching 10 foot in height.
However, the most significant change was undoubtedly the pressure emanating from him.
Whereas before the pressure Jared gave off was that of a strong, violent and energetic pugilist, now it had totally transformed into that of a wild animal radiating an intense bloodlust!
Seeing that Jared was using his trump card, Garel knew that if he didn't use his own soon, he would lose in a matter of seconds.
Immediately, his eyes also began to give off a glow, his entire body turning to metal, the parts that were previously dented or broken also repairing themselves at a visible speed.
That was not all, new metal parts also began to form on certain parts of his body, mainly spikes and metal plates in places to attack and defend respectively, such as his fists, forearms, legs and so on.
Despite all that, the pressure Garel gave off was still weaker than Jared's, which was not a good sign for him at all.
'...The side effect will be stupidly strong... but I have no choice...' Garel thought, reaffirming his determination, knowing that he couldn't compete against Jared using his power alone.
The next moment, he took out a pill of a beautiful and captivating crimson color whose surface contained some golden lines, as for the medicinal fragrance that came from this pill, not even the regeneration pill that Jay had received a while ago could compare to this pill.
From those details alone, one could already sense that this Blood pill was of a completely different quality than the other pills he had given to the Metal Body executives.
This was Garel's greatest triumph card as well as the reason why he decided to take on Jared alone despite knowing that he wasn't as strong as the latter.
"Argh!" He yelled while grabbing his chest.
The moment he took the pill, a sudden pain spread around his entire body at the same time as an incredibly violent energy coursed through his veins, damaging everything in its path.
Even the metal surrounding his body started to vibrate unsteadily, making it clear just how strong the pill's effects were.
*BOOM!*
However, before he could finish the process of assimilating the pill, a strong hit sent him flying through the air, strong enough to be at least a dozen meters above the air
"You're crazy if you think I'll let you finish taking that pill!" shouted Jared who was surrounded by pugilistic flames as he jumped to reach Garel, who was still in the air.
Then, with a strong kick, he launched him towards several buildings, smashing one after another on his way.
***
"Okay, so if we keep going this way, we should be able to get to a shortcut that will take us directly to District 8, after that we'll have to go around the whole area they're fighting in, while it will take us longer, it shouldn't be too hard..." Jay said, showing the map of the South Zone on his smart watch.
After leaving District 4 due to haste and also because they didn't want to have to deal with too many Grey Rats, the three met in a 3-story building to discuss what the shortest escape route would be and what they would do to avoid running into members of any gangs.
Although Noah knew the South Zone better than Jay, he didn't know where the battle between Metal Body and Wolf's Fang was taking place, so he preferred to simply listen to Jay.
As for Colt, he had also cooperated by giving the information on where the other Metal Body members were, or at least all the ones who used the chat to communicate. He seemed to be trusting Jay more and more.
"Okay, now then, let's get out of-"
At that moment, Jay suddenly stopped to look down at his bandage-covered arm. The reason for this was simple, the parasites on his arm began to move frantically.
Although the scene reminded him of when he felt the connection with the parasites inside Noah, this time it was much stronger. At the same time, the parasites once again transmitted their thoughts to him.
Coming. Energy. Big.
Those words, combined with the feeling of urgency the parasites were transmitting to him were already enough to put Jay in alarm.
The next moment, however, something that confirmed his suspicions appeared.
_____________
Warning: Two large and unknown energy sources have been detected in the vicinity!
_____________
'What?!'
*BOOM*
Without even giving him time to analyze the information, a huge explosion occurred in the building next door.
Quickly rushing to the window to see what had happened, Jay, for the first time tonight, panicked.
On the street were two people, a 10 foot man who was engulfed in pugilistic flames and another smaller but completely made of metal with spikes and metal plates all over him.
