Austin had already gone beyond his limits a long time ago. In reality most wouldn’t have been able to get up after taking such a thorough beating from Apollo, whose Altered form specialized in strength. Yet he had gotten up, and past that, he had pushed himself even transforming. It was no wonder he had completely run out of energy and had collapsed on the floor, but just before doing so, he had managed to free their captive. The issue was Xin wasn’t in the best form herself. She had wanted to go and stop Austin from falling but she could barely move, and even if she could, Austin’s body would have flattened her with how she was right now. She only took a few steps forward before feeling weak and almost falling to the floor. "The captive has escaped!" One of the Altered shouted. "We can’t let her go, Harvor will kill every single one of us, we have to stop them no matter what!" Despite seeing what Austin had done to Apollo, and the Zodiac’s no longer being a threat in the room, they were still willing to fight, especially seeing how the person who had taken down Apollo was in the situation he was in. The transformed group were moving forward already circling in. "Don’t come any closer!" Xin shouted. Sparks had ignited off her body. They reached around a meter from her body, only lasting a second before completely disappearing. She almost fainted from using her powers. ’Crap, I can’t do anything… I really can’t.’ Xin thought. Seeing this, the Altereds smiled as they charged forward, running straight for them. The last thing Xin wanted was for Austin to be hurt further, so she willingly threw her body onto Austin’s. "No!" Expecting a bombardment of pain, Xin closed her eyes, but the pain never came. Instead, several grunts and shouts were heard. "ARGHH!" The men shouted and screamed. Xin turned her head quickly, and could see a row of men on their backside, while a large orange claw was swung out. Right by his side, was a man covered head to toe in a strange substance, to Xin it looked a bit like mud. "It’s been a long time since the two of us met, right Xin?" Kanu said, glancing over his shoulder. "I’m here to get you out of here, because at the end of the day we’re family, and I’m tired of letting my family down!" Too many tears had soaked Xin’s eyes today, that she didn’t think any more could come out, yet they were following once again. More grunts were heard as people were flying through the air, breaking through with a shield and getting out where the others were, was none other than Ice. The whole group had managed to make it by Xin’s side. "That giant metal block was a good break, it allowed us to get to where we are right now." Ice claimed. With all of them present surrounding Xin they could at least protect her, but as they turned around and huddled close to Xin, cornering her off from the others getting to the side of her they turned around to see the large force behind them. "Are there still around seventy of them left?" Elijah said. "It felt like we took out a lot more than that." "Some of them I only managed to whack around a bit, it seems they have recovered." Kanu replied. "Besides, I was a little busy dealing with others and then getting to you." "I ran into someone that was quite troublesome as well." Ice answered. They turned to look at Austin who was completely out of it. "We can’t expect any more help either. With the three of us, what’s that like 33 people each… we can do that, right?" Kanu said, but when he said those words out loud, he realized how hard and tough that would be for him as well. His hard outer shell had taken a lot of beatings today, and who knew how long it could keep up. "ARH ARGH ARGH!" A loud mighty scream was heard from the entrance of the warehouse. It was three distinct cries that filled the entire room. A line was starting to form down the center of the room, as the Altereds stepped to the side allowing a single person to walk through. Now they could see clearly what had happened. "He’s still up, didn’t that iron cube hit him dead straight, how is he still up?" Elijah asked. The person walking through the center was the Zodiac known as Apollo. A strange blue glow was covering his body, and the wounds that he had severed all of them were healing as he moved forward. "It’s a special trait of my Altered form." Apollo said. "It acts on a timer, so I don’t know when I’ll recover and there’s a good chance I could have been finished off before it activated, but it seems like the world wanted me to survive this encounter." Xin was petrified. Seeing Apollo in perfect condition once again, after everything he had gone through. Maybe if he was injured the others would have stood a chance, but with Apollo like this. When Apollo reached the end of the men, he stopped and looked at all of them in front of him. "Let me ask you a question, are you going to make this easy, and give up… we can get through this without a fight?" Apollo asked. Your next read is at empire 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖 The others didn’t answer, but the look on their faces was clear. They were ready to still fight. "Fine." Apollo said, lifting his hand up, and he then slammed it down, hitting the Altered One Gang member by his side. His face crashed into the floor knocking them out in one blow. "I’m tired of being sorry… I don’t want to be sorry anymore." Apollo said as he turned around, to face the rest of those in the warehouse. **** 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.