>>3886From the perspective of the first thugs, you were like a shooting star.
Fast, ephemeral, they barely caught a glimpse of your trail before you disappeared.
You were fast, faster than they could react, the first ones fall like flies, a well-placed blow to the stomach, the jaw, they didn't even know what was hitting them, you move in circles, breaking the wave and knocking out as many as you can.
In a few seconds, you had already finished off a good number, ten, twenty, thirty. The weak
the fodder had fallen easily, but then the difficulty began to increase.
The stronger enemies started to arrive, they could see you coming. The first one arrives too quickly, confident, his eyes look around, until he thinks he has guessed your trajectory.
He's a mutant with long arms and hardened knuckles. He throws a clumsy but direct punch.
You see it coming. You slide to the side with a fluid motion, and your fist shoots out.
CRACKThe impact takes his breath away and sends him rolling on the ground. You knocked him out, but you don't stop there.
You spin on your axis, using the momentum. A low kick sends a mutant with a bear-like appearance and large claws flying.
It would take you a little longer, but you could handle this. But it wasn't as easy anymore.
The weak had already been separated, those who remained were not filler. They could take a hit.
One covered in dark resin receives your first blow and remains standing. He growls, provokes you. The second impact comes from another angle: the resin cracks and he falls to his knees, defeated.
Another one enters the scene, this time using his quirk to reinforce his legs
kayako china. He jumps and tries to trap you in a hold. You dodge, you hit him, he falls to the ground rolling and gets up, he had endured, but before he jumps again, you put him to sleep with a second blow.
The rhythm changes, they no longer attack alone. They come in pairs, in trios. One distracts, another hits, a third waits for an opening. You are forced to think about every move.
A mutant with bone plates on his forearms manages to block one of your blows. You feel the vibration travel up your arm. A lizard tries to take advantage of that moment to stab you in the ribs as it comes from the side.
You can react, you spin and knock out the lizard with an elbow, the one with the plates tries to charge you while you have your back turned, but you have time to turn again to evade and deliver the second blow. He blocks again, but his bone plates eventually give way, on the third blow he falls, knocked out.
Three others go against you, one with long hair that moved as if it had a life of its own, like Misaboru, another was doing something strange with his shadow, like Sirk, the third was lifting rocks from the ground with some kind of telekinesis, like Hikimiro.
You were starting to feel it, the pressure. You had to be more focused, regulate your energy and breathing to be able to act accordingly.
Some endured the first blow. Others, the second. But none endure the third.
The trio of Chinese copies force you to dodge, but they all fall before reaching the third blow.
The number of fallen thugs increased, from thirty, to forty, fifty, sixty.
A guy with metallic skin withstands several blows and manages to counterattack. You narrowly dodge him and finish him off with a spinning kick.
The difficulty keeps increasing, now there were fewer to defeat, but they were better.
Some no longer charge head-on. They move with you. They force you to turn, to reposition yourself, to expend energy to avoid being surrounded by so many numbers.
One manages to grab your arm for a second. It's enough for two others to try to block your path. You break free and charge into a group to create distance.
The message is clear, this is no longer a walk in the park.
And it becomes clearer when from behind, another smashes a log over your head. The hard wood splinters and shakes your head, but with a twist you face him and knock him out with a flurry of multiple blows.
They were seventy, and they had already hit you, you had received worse blows even before your arrival in China, but now the difficulty became clearer, you were still superior, but now you had to earn and maintain that advantage.
The combined attacks continue. One covers you, another goes low, another waits for a mistake. Some use their quirks just to gain a second of distraction.
You start to notice it.
Blows are no longer enough on their own. Five, six, eight. Sometimes more.
A group surrounds you, putting you on the defensive.
One of them, a tall, muscular mutant with a deer's head, manages to dodge two of your attacks in a row. The third grazes one of his antlers, the fourth makes him step back... but he's still standing. He lands a blow to your body that takes your breath away for an instant.
You move, push bodies against each other, kick, punch, just like in your training.
Fatigue weighs you down. Sweat drips. Your breathing becomes more pronounced, it was difficult but you could do it.
Then you miss a footing.
The ground is hardened and covered in oily liquid from the combination of two enemy quirks, a second of distraction was enough to change the course of the fight.
The deer's fist, his muscles hard as iron, enters straight, clean, and direct to your face.
crackYour head snaps back and the world flickers for an instant. The metallic taste fills your mouth. Blood runs down your nose and drips to the ground.
You had been truly injured, and the thugs' shouts could be heard.
"We hit him!"
"Keep going!"
"Now!"
Instinct returns you to movement before they surround you. You keep fighting, the deer and others fall.
Eighty.
One with a hardening quirk withstands a long sequence. The final blow is precise and he collapses. His companions try to take advantage, but they fall one after another.
You take more hits, cuts, energy impacts. You give and receive, but you endure.
Only 10 remained.
The ones left look at you differently. There was a lot of tension. They know you're dangerous, and that they can fall easily. But they also know you're tired, and that you're bleeding, they had hope of winning.
But you don't back down, you continue.
"Let's go, you can do it!" Glimmer shouts, giving you support.
"You guys don't just stand there, he's just a brat!" Egghead shouts at his lackeys to keep going.
The last ten don't rush in immediately.
They spread out, surrounding you in an irregular circle, moving at the same time and attacking from different angles. They were no longer looking for brute force, they were looking for mistakes on your part.
You're still faster, but now you're forced to block due to the constant attacks. An uppercut, another to the side, energy grazing your shoulder, something passing too close to your face.
Your wounds start to show: heavier breathing, dried blood on your mouth, your suit marked by cuts and light burns.
You keep attacking.
One falls with a direct hit to the jaw. Another takes a kick to the chest and crashes into a dumpster, not getting up again.
The remaining ones get enraged. Something like bullets crosses the air and whistles past your ears, another deforms, turning into quicksand to immobilize you, some activate more complex abilities that you don't have time to analyze. You can't decipher them. Just react and keep attacking.
You strike with precision, without wasting movement. An elbow. A knee. A punch. Two more fall almost in succession, one after another, collapsing between gasps and missed blows.
Only five remained, but they were barely standing. They are injured, tired, breathing as hard as you. Their gazes are no longer of euphoria, they are of desperate calculation. They know that anyone can fall in the next exchange.
You stand firm, shoulders tense, body burning, but without taking a single step back.
It was five against one, it was the final push.
"Finish them! / FINISH HIM!"
Glimmer and Egghead shout at the same time, initiating the final exchange.
The first one doesn't hesitate and charges with a yell, driven more by rage than technique. He doesn't get far.
You throw a quick combination, body, chin, and finish with a kick. The accumulated damage does the rest. He falls without even understanding when he lost his balance.
Four remain, they now move at once.
One stays back, firing compact projectiles like bullets. Another, a fox-like mutant, slides across the ground, looking for flanks. The third throws energy fists that explode on contact and leave craters in the ground. The last one advances engulfed in flames, projecting himself violently with his body as the silhouette of a burning hawk is drawn behind him.
What had brought these people here?, how many fights, defeats, trainings or experiences? Everyone had a story behind them, but now it didn't matter, that story ended here.
You block an energy shot glancingly and advance. The fox tries to catch you, but you anticipate it, a well-placed knee to the chin cuts it short. The shooter jumps back, but it's not enough. You reach him, blow after blow, breaking his defense until he collapses.
Now only two remain.
The one with energy fists manages to reach you. You take the hit. It hurts a lot, your suit was burnt and with holes, with exposed parts like your forearms after so much blocking. But you endure.
You close the distance and don't give him space to charge again. He opts to counter your punch, the two clash, your attack hits his face first and he falls after the hook shakes his whole brain.
The last one roars and lunges, engulfed in fire. The hawk burns behind him as the animal's screech comes from his mouth. The heat hits you directly and you burn, you have to grit your teeth and keep advancing.
You evade, block more attacks until you close the distance.
The final blow is clean and precise, straight to the stomach. The fire dissipates as the air escapes his mouth and his body falls.
For a second, no one speaks.
Then, from atop the container, "YES!" shouts Glimmer, raising her fist with a smile.
Egghead says nothing. He just stares with his mouth agape.
Around you, a hundred bodies on the ground. The Shanghai Tigers had fallen, and you were still standing.
Exhausted and bleeding, but standing. You had won alone, with the help of your fists.
Egghead turns towards Glimmer, he was going to attack her, but before he could do anything, the iron of his suit separates and becomes a cannonball that hits Egghead's head on the side and pushes him off the container, he falls near you with his face burying into the dirt.
"And now for the final showdown, the boss of the Shanghai Tigers, Egghead!" Glimmer raises her voice and begins to narrate like a sports commentator. "Can the promising UA star, Silver Akio, defeat him after having spent so much energy in that battle royale against 100 men?"
"That's not my name, bitch!" Egghead complains, he gets up and looks at you, his gaze is hard.
He was big, he was strong, no doubt, but if Glimmer had so much confidence in you, even in your state, you should be able to win... right? Even if something went wrong, Glimmer was there to help you.
You were about to find out.
Egghead clenches his fists, his veins bulging in his arms. He doesn't flee or retreat. He just watches you and measures you.
There's no more speech. No more crowd to feed his ego. Just the two of you and the certainty that even if he defeats you, Glimmer is still up there.
That enrages him further.
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