Mako was now staring deep into the glowing eyes of Rhino who was staring right back. Given the height difference between the two, it looked as if a child was standing up to a full-grown adult.
Both were breathing heavily tired of exhausting so much energy on big moves. The problem with low-level ability users is not fully attributed to the fact that they can only produce weak attacks but have smaller energy pools.
People with low-level abilities can't maintain a fight for too long since they have a limited number of skills and low energy levels.
Rhino decided to summon all his remaining energy and finish Mako with a final punch, but before he could even raise his hand to form a fist, a shock emanated from within his body. This wasn't Mako's doing rather his muscles were spasming from being so overused. Rhino let out a groan of pain as his body started quivering.
Mako gripped his bleeding arm tightly as he continued to receive gazes full of bloodlust from Rhino. By using Analyze, Mako was able to see that Rhino's energy was also completely depleted as well, and it was further proven by Rhino shrinking in size and his glowing eyes starting to fade away.
Both fighters were now at the limit of their stamina and had almost exhausted their energy. Rhino's shrinking in size meant he could not keep his ability active any longer. This was the perfect opportunity for Mako to knock out Rhino and win the fight, but Mako couldn't bring himself to do it.
Rhino's shrinking got faster as he returned to his human form which didn't look like its usual self at all. His muscles were not as big as before and it almost looked like he was malnourished. Mako couldn't help but think why he received such bloodlust and hatred from someone because, in the end, it was still just a fight.
Even if they were to lose money or get demoted in rank, it would not bring about such a man who was thirsting for revenge. Mako couldn't understand his reasons but he knew they had to be grand in order for him to act like this, so instead of taking the easy victory, Mako decided to honor his opponent's feelings.
Rhino was now on his knees gasping for air while Mako approached him with his knife still in his hand. The crowd was becoming larger by the minute as all the other matches were too boring compared to the showdown between Rhino and Mako and now they watched in horror as Mako neared Rhino's weak body with his knife still in hand.
Mako approached him slowly and knelt down so that they were now both on the same eye level. Rhino tried to summon more energy to move, but his body was rejecting him. He was paralyzed by his own body as he watched Mako extend his knife backward, but instead of coming back forward with speed and with the intent to kill, the knife was put back in its sheath which was attached to Mako's belt.
Mako reached into his pockets and secretly opened his inventory to summon two healing pills into his hands. He pulled the two pills from his pocket and presented one of them to Rhino while taking the second one himself.
The entire crowd watching, Bill who had just gained consciousness, Leon who was observing the match in his secret room, and Rhino himself were in absolute shock as they couldn't believe what they were witnessing. Mako had just offered a healing pill to his opponent amid the battle!
"What... *Heavy Breathing* are... you doing?" Rhino asked.
"I don't know why, but I can see you are fighting for something greater than just revenge. I won't be able to live with myself if I didn't give you a fair chance." Mako stated as he pushed the pill forward.
"Take the pill and heal up a bit. It won't restore our energies, but it will be enough for the both of us to see whose will is stronger to succeed." Mako finished.
Rhino stared at the pill in front of him, he wanted to win so badly that his desire and rage had completely overtaken his humanity, and now his opponent was giving him a second chance at redemption. Rhino was never the emotional type, but this was enough to even get his eyes a bit watery.
With shaking hands, Rhino took the pill from Mako's hand and consumed it. Within minutes, both fighters were able to stand comfortably on their feet as even though they hadn't recovered much health, their bigger injuries had healed up quite a bit.
Mako didn't even use his System Override this time because he wanted this to be a fair fight.
'Add all remaining Attribute Points to Strength.' Mako commanded the system.
[5 Attribute points have been added to strength]
[Strength has been elevated to 27]
With his strength as high as it could naturally go at this point, Mako was ready to fight.
Moments later both fighters had taken their stance and the fight began soon after. Punches, jabs, and kicks were thrown at each other as they both fought with nearly equal strength, but Mako was still lacking behind because his technique wasn't as perfected as Rhino.
He would move expertly between Mako's punches, dodging them while also countering with his own punches in between. Thankfully, Mako's had a decent amount of points in Fortitude now, so he was able to take a beating, but he wouldn't last long with how the fight was progressing.
Rhino decided to increase the pressure on Mako as he used his partial transformation skill for a split second between punches to temporarily gain super-strong arms to deal extra damage. Mako had to utilize Phantom Shift in order to dodge these attacks; otherwise, he would have been in serious trouble.
With limited energy, both of them had to fight carefully as they couldn't afford to waste it on any unnecessary move. Everyone watched in anticipation as the fight continued to drag on. It was getting frustrating to the point that Rhino was now making wilder swings as he just wanted to land one clean hit on Mako.
Mako's Motion Sense skill and Perception were coming in really handy as this was the only reason why able to dodge them. Mako was now only stalling for time because a few moments back a certain notification had popped up again because he wasn't able to counter any of Rhino's punches.
[PERSEVERANCE has been activated]
Right now his title skill was the only thing that was strong enough to overpower Rhino and give Mako the win so after purposefully not countering Rhino's punches, the skill activated and every time Mako took damage by blocking some of the weaker attacks, his rage meter started to fill up.
Rhino was getting more confident by the minute as he was driving Mako into a corner. With him exerting so much so soon after taking the pill, he was coming to his limit again and was prepared to finish him off with the last couple of hits. Mako was pretty hurt by this point as blood was dripping from his mouth and nose and bruises could be seen all over his body.
He used Partial Transformation again to form his gigantic hand so that he could land a devastating blow, but this time Mako didn't dodge.
[Rage meter 36% full]
[Does the user want to enter rage mode?]
[YES/NO]
'YES!' Mako commanded as a rush of energy erupted from him in the form of a pulse just like before, but it was weaker this time since he had a lot less rage built up. The pulse seemed to have slowed down the punch a bit and Mako was able to stop the punch using his bare hand.
[Rage Mode had been activated]
The tables turned quickly this time as Mako's eyes glowed red with anger and he let out a roar. As soon as the ear-deafening scream was over, Mako didn't waste a second as he slapped Rhino's fist to the right and gave him a crisp left uppercut that launched him a couple of feet back.
Everyone was flabbergasted by the sudden change as instead of Rhino finishing off Mako, Mako was now glowing all over in a red aura as he charged toward Rhino with no mercy. Rhino himself didn't expect such a sudden burst in energy and was caught off guard which resulted in his chin getting crushed by Mako.
He got on his feet quickly and tackled the charging Mako as they engaged once again in combat. This time; however, the difference in power was obvious. Mako was now dominating Rhino as he gave him the same treatment he was receiving for the last couple of minutes.
Being so close to his victory, Rhino wasn't going to give up either as he and Mako exchanged kicks in the abdomen, they both launched themselves toward the opposite ends of the ring. Mako did a flip in mid-air and landed on his feet while Rhino enlarged his nails and used them to stop.
Now at the edges of the ring respectively, Mako rushed back toward Rhino at full speed, while Rhino used all of his remaining energy to transform back into his complete form. His muscles enlarged and changed color and his eyes also glowed the same burning aura as before.
With nothing else up their sleeves, Both fighters rushed toward each other with their fists extending backward. They met in the middle where their fists collided with each other sending out a powerful shockwave that knocked the first two rows of people in the crowd off their feet.
The punch was strong and it caused many injuries in the arm of both of them, Rhino stepped back a bit as even though he was in his transformed state, his arm was hurting too much. The same held true for Mako as well, but the difference was that since he was in rage mode, he couldn't feel the pain just yet.
So while Rhino backed off a bit, Mako used this critical moment to his advantage as he used Dash alongside another powerful skill.
[Ten Palm Strike has been activated]
Ten crisp and loud consecutive striking sounds were heard which resounded throughout the entire warehouse, and soon after the people could observe Rhino's humongous body tumbling backward and falling onto the ground.
*THUD!*
Everyone watched in silence as only a single man was now left standing in the ring.
*DING!*
[A Difficult Level 4 Opponent has been defeated]
