The battle began and I didn’t even have to provoke him. He ran toward me as soon as he heard the ring. I was ready for a punch to the stomach but he did something unexpected. He slid on his knees and when he was right under me he jumped and aimed for my stomach as I thought. Without much time to move, I blacked his fist but it didn’t feel like a strong punch. No. It was a faint. With only his hands he turned around and wrapped his legs around my neck.

He wasn’t trying to choke me. He threw me off balance and threw me to the ground. While falling I dropped my ax. It wasn’t a strength of some kid. I was going to land on him but he just flipped me over and kicked away. Before I could even touch the ground with my back, he already was right by me with a fist going toward my chest. Didn’t felt that kind of pain in a long time. I had to recover fast. Right, when he was going to punch me again I used my leg to push myself away. He tried to follow me but the swing of my sword made him stop.

[ Goro ]

“So you’re the monkey type.”

[ Eric ]

“Who are you calling a monkey?!”

[ Goro ]

“Unfortunately for you… Monkeys are the prey, while I’m the hunter!” He said as he clashed both of his gloves, creating sparks.

The kid is fast. Much faster than Gelda. He dashed toward me trying to punch me. I tried to slash his fist with my sword but he didn’t even flinch. He met the attack head-on. When he blocked my attack he used speed and rotation to punch me in the stomach with the other fist. I wasn’t even able to block it. I became a punching bag for him. I couldn’t keep up with him.

Do I need Skyge’s help now? No! Not yet! I have to think like Dian now. Ignore the pain and just go for it. This time I made a step forward and made an attack with a knife. I was only able to scratch his nose with that.

[ Goro ]

“Looks like this monkey can fight.” He said as he licked the blood off his nose.

[ Eric ]

“Ew… What kind of freak of nature are you?”

I began running around him waiting for some kind of opportunity. For a second I was behind him. He wasn’t able to see me. At that time I threw two knives at him. He grabbed both of them without looking.

[ Goro ]

“Throwing stones won’t do much monkey. You need to become the predator if you want to kill me!”

With a loud scream, he jumped on me. I could feel his killer intent he was going to punch my head off. Something unexpected happened for both of us. Skyge left his shadow without my permission and bit Goro’s hand. Unfortunately, the kid reacted to that and punched Skyge to free himself from the grasp of his fangs. His arm was just hanging down. Skyge did enough damage to take his left arm out of the picture.

[ Goro ]

“A wolf helping the monkey? What the fuck is that?!” He shouted ignoring the pain of the bite.

[ Eric ]

“Thanks, buddy. You came at the right moment. I wished to hide you for longer.”

[ Goro ]

“Looks like I can no longer play around with my pray…”

Veins began to pop out through Goro’s whole body. His skin looked a bit red now and there was steam coming out of each of his breaths. The weirdest part was that the steam was a red color. The steam moved around his body creating some kind of shape. It looked like some kind of tiger.

[ Skyge ]

“That’s the beast I was talking about…”

[ Eric ]

“This time he looks like a beast.”

The crowd was going crazy. I don’t know if high-rankers' fights are so rare or if is it because the kid is using that ability of his.

[ Crowd ]

“How long has it been since we saw him like that?”; “Goro gonna win. No doubt about it!”; “Poor guy doesn’t stand a chance.”

[ Eric ]

“Thanks for the support! Love you all!” I said like a host of the show.

Right now it’s two against one. I don’t know how strong his ability should be to help with that odds. There is no way I’m gonna lose! This time I didn’t throw my weapons away to show disrespect. They are just useless against him. Just like he said. Monkey uses rocks while beast hunts with his fangs.

[ Eric ]

“Let’s do it!”

[ Skyge ]

“Yes master!”