Chapter 122: An upgrade Unlike a few moments ago when Gary had been hit and had fallen to the ground, this time the crowd went silent for a few seconds. Watching the whole fight, it had been obvious that the Vicious Twins were the ones winning the fight so far. The whole fight had been pretty one-sided in favour of Team Eton High. Gary had been too slow to do anything, which made nearly everyone in the crowd believe that it would only be a matter of time before The Howlers lost. As such, this sudden turnaround came pretty much out of the blue. It was something they had never seen before. Both of the twins had done their best to remain elusive throughout the fight, so how did that green-haired teenager suddenly manage to catch what looked like the fastest kick of the entire match? ‘Goddamn this hurts! What the hell are his fists made off?!’ Sren cursed internally, rubbing his face yet quickly getting up from the ground. ‘His grip strength is the real thing, I couldn’t move my leg at all.’ It was then that Sren remembered something. During the rugby match, Gary had similarly shown great feats of strength. Since the fight so far had been going their way, they had completely forgotten that this green haired teenager seemed to be far stronger than he looked like. Grabbing the rugby ball, Gary had managed to run through a crowd of rugby players, to the point they had been forced to allocate a good part of the team just to stop him alone. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂 “Innu, take out the short-haired one!” Gary ordered. “I need to punch the other one as well!” “What, so now I’m just here to pick up your scraps!” Innu shouted, yet he quickly got in front of Sren. For the first time, thanks to Gary’s hit, the two brothers were quite far apart, something The Howlers intended to put to good use. Finally getting a hit in, just felt good to Gary, especially after the beating the high schooler had suffered by the hands and feet of the twins. He just wanted to win the fight now, getting better would have to wait for another time. With Charging Heart active and a lot of Energy to spare, Gary rushed over to the long-haired brother, Leng. His speed was surprising to everyone but him, and by the time Gary threw out a kick, the twin leaned back, avoiding it just by a few inches again. Gary’s body overturned, as he had too much strength into his kick, his back was now facing Leng. Seeing this, the fighter went in and quickly punched the green haired teenager, picking a painful spot just under the ribs. Before, when making such attacks, he would at least see the other flinch slightly, but this time, no such thing had occurred. Gary swung around trying to get Leng with the back of his fist. Unfortunately, the twin ducked and took a few steps back, wondering what was going on. [-1 HP] ‘It’s my own fault for taking this whole ‘honorable fight’ thing so seriously!’ Gary chided himself. ‘I should have just made use of Charging Heart since the beginning to double my stats. With 28 effective points of Endurance their attacks barely hurt!’ Now that Gary knew he could take dozens of hits before having to worry, he started to swing quite widely and did the same for his kicks. Without any technique behind it, Leng had a relatively easy time avoiding them and once in a while, he would find the chance to attack Gary. [-1 HP] [-1 HP] ‘What’s going on, Gary? Did all that adrenaline rush to your head, making you forget everything I taught you? Why are you swinging like that?’ Innu thought as he noticed his partner’s behaviour from the corner of his eye. Unfortunately, he had his own problem to deal with. Innu had successfully avoided the attacks but had put pressure on Sren to back him up against the corner of the hay bails. Whenever he would try to escape or run to one side or the other, Innu would reposition himself so he wouldn’t get out so freely. Once again, Sren tried, and this time Innu did something else. He swept his leg against the ground, kicking up the dirt from the ground. Dust kicked up, and some of it even went into Sren’s eyes. Charging in, Innu found a fist coming his way, which connected with his chest, yet he pushed forward, letting Sren’s arm fully extend, weakening its power slightly. At that moment, Innu went for the grab and placed his hands behind Sren’s neck, locking his arms in. “Now I’ve caught you. This whole thing is done.” Innu announced. With both fights having entered a critical point, many didn’t know where to look. As for the two White Rose agent, they hadn’t taken their eyes off Gary for even a moment. “You noticed it too, right?” Frank asked for confirmation. “Of course, I noticed it. His speed, the look on his face, everything is different from before.” Sadie replied. “It doesn’t make sense. That Gary kid was clearly having a difficult time and if he had been holding back, then he’s the best actor I’ve ever seen.” Others might be confused about his sudden change, yet since Frank and Sadie were both Altered, their eyes were more perceptive when it came to these things, and working in the police force, they had to look out for things just like this as well. ‘This fight, just like with the rugby game, I can’t catch them even with Charging Heart. Yeah sure, my Endurance is great, but eventually, even he will beat me.’ Gary thought. He was starting to suspect that Leng might actually be the faster one out of the brothers, or that the only reason he had caught Sren might have been due to the surprise effect. ‘Wait a second, by surprise?’ Gary suddenly got an idea. He threw out a punch again and could see Leng move to the side, narrowly avoiding it and striking back, hitting him on the shoulder. Gary then swung out a kick, and the twin stepped back, avoiding that as well, retaliating with a kick of his own. ‘I was right, the way these guys attack, they are fighting me at my own speed. So much, that he has been avoiding them just enough to attack back at the perfect time. Otherwise, even he would be too slow to hit me. Damn… I hate to admit it, but these guys are seriously good if he is avoiding me narrowly on purpose.’ Gary was right about that. The twins could theoretically move faster than they were doing now, yet their style seemed to be to match their opponent’s speed and then win against them by being slightly faster. It was how they had been able to take down most of Eton High with just the two of them. However, Gary was about to use their skill against them. Stepping forward, he positioned himself perfectly and was ready to throw out his right arm. It was a finishing move, with all his strength behind it. ‘I can see his arm. I’ll move to the side and counter, giving him a harder hit. I can dodge this one as well!’ Leng thought. He was wary of the green haired teenager as he knew that not only did the other have great endurance, but he also had enough power in his punches and kicks to seriously threaten him. He needed to come in at a counter point. When Gary was attacking, Leng needed to attack so he could use the force of Gary moving forward against him. With the twin moving forward, he was getting ready to move out of the way at the right time, however… [1 Stat point has been allocated into Dexterity] [Your base Dexterity is now at 7] [Current Dexterity: 14] Suddenly, Gary’s hand sped up mid-swing, moving faster. With all his strength and Leng running forward the fist connected with the twin’s face, causing his body to flip around before falling on the ground. It was obvious to everyone, Leng wouldn’t be getting up on his own. Seeing this, the two White Rose members shared the same opinion. “Sudden bursts in power and speed like that… it’s the sign of an Altered state.” Sadie stated. “Frank, I think we’ll have to reevaluate the importance of this kid in this entire case.”