*BAM!*

‘F*ck…I’m starting to get tired already…’ Anthony thought after pulling away from Colt for a bit, taking the opportunity to take a short break.

They had been exchanging blows for quite a while now, but because they were evenly matched and there were no outside factors interfering with their fight, this had turned into a competition of seeing who could hold on the longest.

This was something that happened from time to time when two supers of the same rank fought, although it was much more frequent in battles of lower ranked pugilists as they did not have access to martial techniques that could decide the outcome of a battle.

Therefore, this outcome, while annoying to him, was acceptable.

Besides, he had not yet used any martial techniques, so he was not that worried either.

However, there was something that seemed strange for him.

‘Just who is this brat…?’

Anthony remembered the faces and names of most of the rank (D+) Metal Body supers and he had even fought with some of them before.

But after taking a closer look at the face of the young man in front of him, he was surprised because he didn’t resemble any of the people he knew.

“Ha!”

*BAM!*

His thoughts were interrupted by Colt, who once again rushed to continue attacking him and launched a kick towards his face.

“…So annoying…” Anthony said after blocking the kick with his arm, throwing a punch to push Colt away again._.

Unlike Anthony, Colt’s movements, although a bit slower than at first, it was evident that he was still full of energy.

An endurance battle against someone as young as Colt was not something Anthony wanted, so he decided to end things quickly.

“I wanted to save my energy for one of the guards…but seeing as you’re stupidly annoying, you leave me no choice.”

Immediately after saying that, his eyes began to glow a faint gray color, at the same time his hands were also engulfed in flames of the same color.

Then, his figure seemed to temporarily fade away.

“!”

*BAAM!*

“Argh!”

Without giving him much time to be surprised, Colt received a heavy blow that sent him flying, crashing into the wall of a nearby store.

Anthony however didn’t stop there and chased after him, not wanting to give him a chance to retaliate.

Even though Colt had Territory activated, it was only enough to see how he was going to be hit, as the speed at which Anthony was moving was too fast for his body to follow.

The only thing he coud do was desperately put his arms around his head, trying to block the blows that aimed to knock him unconscious.

Ignoring this, Anthony continued to pummel Colt’s cornered body, with each blow being even faster and harder than the last, causing him to slowly sink into the concrete wall.

This lasted for a few seconds, until finally, under the flurry of blows, the wall could take no more.

*CRASH!*

‘…Urgh…sh*t…’ Colt thought on the floor inside the store whose wall had now been turned to rubble. ‘My whole body is hurting…and I’m having trouble breathing…it’s not good…”

His condition was quite deplorable, there were bruises and burns all over his body from the flames Anthony had attacked him with.

“Heh, you’re still alive.” Said Anthony, who entered through the hole in the wall and placing his foot on top of Colt’s chest, “Now you see, you little sh*t brat? This is what happens when you mess with someone you shouldn’t!”

“Urgh!” Colt let out a grunt of pain due to Anthony stepping on him hard.

“F*ck, you only served to ruin my night.”

Anthony’s mood really was bad, not only had he wasted a lot of time with Colt, but on top of that he had also used too much energy in this fight.

The martial technique he had used was called Rampage, in exchange for using a large amount of energy, it gave the user an explosive increase in power and speed.

He had been saving it to take on a guardian, but Colt’s appearance ruined his plans, which coupled with the fact that he had defeated his brothers, made his mood quite a bit worse.

“I don’t even feel like taking you to the base…I wonder if I should just kill you here and be done with it?”

While Anthony’s words sounded like a simple threat, judging by his attitude, he seemed to mean it.

“Although…if you beg me for your life, I might spare you, how about it?” Anthony said again, now with a smirk on his face, putting even more force on his leg, pressing hard on Colt’s chest.

Colt’s lips parted, indicating he was going to say something, seeing this, Anthony’s mood improved a little, as it was entertaining to see something so annoying finally being put in its place.

“Go…f*ck yourself!” replied Colt, grabbing Anthony’s leg to stop him from stepping on him any further, squeezing with all his might.

Hearing Colt’s reply, a vein reappeared on Anthony’s forehead, who promptly lifted his leg to stomp hard on Colt.

“!”

Just at that moment, he could see something out of the corner of his eye that passed by his side, at the level of his neck, surprisingly, instead of following its path, the object turned in the air to wrap itself around his neck.

Anthony, seeing this, quickly tried to grab the object, but a hand suddenly grabbed his arm, preventing Anthony from being able to do so.

At that moment, the object finished wrapping around his neck and began to exert great pressure on that area, at the same time, the hand that was holding his arm pulled back.

‘He wants to choke me?’ Anthony thought, throwing a kick backwards while with his other hand he tried to remove what was on his neck.

The kick he threw made no contact with anything, indicating that the person responsible was no longer there or that he had dodged it.

He then moved away from there, wanting to create distance between them…or at least he tried to, but something was obstructing his mobility.

Colt was still clinging tightly to his leg, and he didn’t seem to have any intention of letting go.

‘F*CKING BRAT!!!’ he shouted in his mind as he launched a hard kick towards Colt, which made him forcibly release his grip on his leg.

Seeing that this was getting dangerous, Anthony immediately activated Rampage and Fire Fists, bringing his silver flame coated hands towards his neck in an attempt to tear off or burn the object that seemed to want to choke him.

However, at the same time, he felt something else clinging to his body, then, before he could think of anything else, the pressure he felt on his neck increased enormously, it seems that the attacker had climbed onto his back.

While this was uncomfortable for him, the most important thing now was to get rid of the fabric around his neck., so now anxious, Anthony began to move from one place to the other as he tried to get rid of the fabric.

‘What is this material?!’ he thought, impressed by the strength of the fabric.

Even though it was being exposed to the flames from his hands and Anthony was exerting a lot of force to tear it, the fabric just wouldn’t budge, it was almost as if it was made of a material specifically designed to deal with pugilists!

The pressure was building more and more, and although he was able to endure it for now, he knew it was only a matter of time before he started to choke.

‘If I can’t get rid of the cloth, then I just have to get rid of this bastard!’ he shouted in his mind, bringing his hands towards the person on his back.

*BAM!*

He started throwing punch after punch towards the figure on top of him, hitting most of them, as well as smashing his back against a wall, all to get that person off his back.

But as if his blows were as weak as a mosquito’s bite, the person just squeezed even tighter the cloth around Anthony’s neck.

“B-Bas…tard!” He said, his voice cracking for obvious reasons.

Gradually, the intensity and speed at which he was thrashing decreased greatly, indicative of dwindling oxygen levels reaching his brain.

A few seconds later, all he could do was scratch his neck in a last desperate attempt to free himself.

However, not caring about that, the man didn’t let go and instead kept squeezing even harder, as if he had some personal grudge against him.

Until finally, in this dark store, where the only sounds that could be heard until a moment ago were muffled words, the sound of something falling to the ground was heard.

*Thud*

Anthony had fallen to the floor, on his face obvious signs of what had happened.

Slowly, the cloth around his neck began to loosen, it also looked like it wanted to stop wrapping around his neck, but the man on top of Anthony didn’t let that happen, keeping it there in case he got up.

‘Damn, this was a lot harder than planned…I guess that’s a rank (D+) pugilist for you…’ Thought Jay, who was still on top of Anthony out of caution.

He had thought it would only be a little more difficult to when he did it to this guy’s other partners, but even though he used a surprise attack, he managed to cause Jay great damage.

‘It hurt like hell, but it’s still weaker than the time I used Limit Breaker.’

While Jay thought that way, the truth was that his whole body was screaming in pain right now, it was just that he…had gotten a little used to that feeling.

“Hey…”

Suddenly, he heard the voice of Colt, who was now standing in the rubble of the collapsed part of the wall.

He had a bloody arm, and his overall appearance was pretty bad, but his gaze still contained the same determination as always, on his face a small smile of confidence.

Turning slowly, Jay saw Colt, and thought.

‘Okay…he’s the last one.’

With that, Jay immediately lunged towards Colt.

However, before he could arrive to where Colt was, he started running away as he screamed!

“NOPE!”

‘Again?!’ Thought Jay, momentarily stunned before quickly following him.