The man that stood in front of Apollo was not the same man that he was facing before. He could tell that Austin was in his Altered form, his image now was clearly not that of a human. His nose was still enlarged with a metallic ring growing out of it, and the horns that grew at the back of his head thick and grey in color appeared devastating. An extreme amount of steam was coming out from his nose as well. What was most notable though was the size of Austin now. Each time Austin had transformed similar to Apollo their sizes would grow. Their Altered forms were based on beasts of large size, yet this was different. It wasn’t just a simple partial transformation, Apollo knew that much. ’Unlock the full power of the Altered.’ Apollo thought to himself. ’I know many Altered can unlock their powers but usually it’s some sort of elemental power of sorts, but this, it looks completely different and I don’t even understand it.’ Seeing this, Apollo made sure to stay in his transformed state, fearing what was to come, and he rubbed his two palms together. In doing so a slight glow started to appear. "Things won’t change!" Apollo said. "Things won’t change!" Austin didn’t reply, his eyes were fierce and locked on to Apollo in front of him. He skidded his back feet across the floor, and immediately rushed forward. Apollo widened his stance ready to take on whatever was coming his way, but the steam had covered Austin’s body completely, to the point where Apollo could see nothing. Soon he noticed that the steam wasn’t just in front of him, but had completely surrounded his entire body. He could only see around a meter or so in front of him. He was careful with his eyes trying to react, when Austin appeared right by his side with his fist. It swung and despite Apollo having his guard up, the fist broke through and hit him right in the side of his face. ’A heavy hit!’ Apollo thought, as his knees felt like buckling and his vision was already blurring just from the single hit. He had far more strength than before. ’No it’s not strength… this is different, he’s even faster than he was before!’ Explore more at empire Apollo moved back, and with his palms lighting up, strong energy exited out of them. It blew the smoke away in the direction where Austin was but he was nowhere to be seen. His entire body had disappeared into the steam that had become practically a thick fog at this point. ’Even my powers aren’t going to help me here, I need to get out of this place!’ Apollo went to jump back but the moment he did he heard a loud slam. It almost sounded like something had crashed into the warehouse itself. When Apollo jumped back his back had crashed into something. ’A wall, but the wall shouldn’t be here?’ From the texture and turning his head he noticed it wasn’t a wall. Instead it was a part of the ground that had broken through the flooring. ’Is this his doing, I know he’s a mythical Altered but what are his powers? This steam, increased speed, and even the ability to control part of the ground!’ In the midst of his startled thoughts, Austin had appeared again. And quickly threw out two fists hitting Apollo on either side of his head causing them to swing. Austin was smaller than Apollo now and had landed on the ground in front of him. Seeing this Apollo mustered up his strength and with both of his hands swung them down to crush who was beneath his feet. In the middle of swinging his fists down, he felt something pierce both of them and caused them to stay in their tracks. It had only become clearer to Apollo after, that his hands had been pierced by the horns on Austin’s head. They had swirled upward and were incredibly strong along with being sharp. The horns that had completely pierced through Apollo’s hands started to swing around and pulled him by his wrists, then dragged him in the air. "I told you, I’m winning this fight!" Austin gritted as steam continued to blow out, and the fist punched Apollo cleanly in the face. Apollo’s head swung back, his whole body going along with him as he was sent crashing into the crowd of people. Finally, the steam-like mist that was surrounding the area was disappearing and Austin’s horns had reverted to going down the back of his head, almost touching the ground, and now partially covered in blood, but he was still in his new form. Turning around, he walked over to Xin, and no one had decided to get in his way. As he walked to Xin, he saw the big blocks of metal that were holding her. He paced his hands on the chain and Austin, with all of his strength, pulled with his hands snapping one side shut. "Thank you… thank you." Xin said. She wanted to say more, to ask why he came here to say sorry for getting him hurt, but in this situation with everything Austin had done, she felt like it was the only thing that she could do. When lifting her head though, she saw something else. "Austin." It was only those few words that needed to be said, for him to turn his head around, and he could see Apollo was standing up, what was worse, was that his body looked almost better, the wounds on his arms had closed up. "No, just how strong is he?" Xin said. Austin, seeing the situation, knew something needed to be done. He was feeling weak, he had been hurt too much from before, and this new form of his wasn’t going to work for long. Moving over, he looked at the large metallic cube. His horns from his head moved and twisted around his arms until they were just in front of his hands, the tip of them managing to pierce the metallic cube. He then lifted the metallic cube up, with his hands and the horns supporting him. The veins on his arms bulging. He lifted it up and up until it was above his head. "You should have stayed down!" Austin shouted as he hurled the large giant cube through the air. In the middle of Apollo’s body healing, the cube had crashed into him, and continued going forward, breaking through part of the Altereds until it smashed right through the warehouse doors on the other side. The metallic cube skidded across the floor piling up the dirt eventually coming to a stop. Austin quickly turned around, and with what little strength he had left, he pulled on the last chain breaking it. "You’re free…" Austin commented as his transformation was starting to revert, his eyes were going weak, and his body was ready to collapse at any second. "Now Gary… can fight… without having to worry." These were the last words from Austin before falling onto the floor. For updates on MWS and future works, please remember to follow me on my social media below. Instagram: jksmanga When news of MVS, MWS, or any other series comes out, you will be able to see it there first, and you can reach out to me. If I’m not too busy, I tend to reply back.