CHAPTER 117: AN INTENSE RESOLVE
RUMBLE... CRASH!
The roof of the sedan was peeled back by the force of the blast, geysers of black smoke and orange flames erupting into the Shinjuku night.
Pedestrians shrieked, scattering in every direction.
"What happened?!"
"Is that a car fire? Did it just explode?!"
"Get back! It's a bomb!"
"Someone's still inside... God, there are pieces everywhere! Retch—"
In the middle of the mass panic, a single silhouette cut through the crowd. The figure disappeared into a nearby subway entrance, descending the concrete stairs. Finding the maintenance tunnel empty, the man stopped to catch his breath.
ZIP!
He tore off his expensive, charred suit jacket. It smelled of high explosives and burnt silk. The man frowned, tossing the ruined garment into the shadows.
"F-u-c-k..."
Billy Greco leaned against the damp concrete wall, rubbing his fingers together. His heart was hammering against his ribs. Even with his elite calculation, he had never imagined that someone in this country would have the balls to use a military-grade fragmentation grenade in the middle of a public street.
If he hadn't reacted in that split-second—grabbing the driver to shield himself from the shockwave and diving through the window—he'd be a charcoal smear on the upholstery right now.
"Stupid monkeys! F-U-C-K! Using a grenade?! Ugh... huff..."
Billy felt a sharp throb in his back.
He realized now that the Siberian Slam he'd taken from Ren Shiroki in the ring had been more effective than he'd let on. His internal organs felt bruised, and every breath was a struggle.
Billy's eyes flared with a savage light. His mind raced, cataloging the hardware.
"That model of grenade... I remember the police blueprints. That's Riot Squad issue."
"..."
Tap... tap... tap...
A rhythmic, heavy footfall echoed through the empty tunnel.
Billy turned his head toward the stairs. A second figure descended into the dim light. As Billy recognized the newcomer, his expression shifted from surprise to predatory amusement.
"Hahahaha! Is this a coincidence? Or is Tokyo just that small?"
"How does the saying go? 'Misfortune follows the reckless'? If you wanted to live, you should have kept your distance from a 'God.' But here you are, following me into the dark."
"Oi... do you really want to DIE that badly?"
Billy hooked a finger around his tie, looking at the youth. It was Ren Shiroki.
Ren had wasted no time. After Billy left the gym, he had received a rapid field-patch from An Sakurai using high-grade Furumi pharmaceuticals. He wore a simple T-shirt and trainers, the blood on his face not yet fully dry.
But Billy noticed something impossible. The wound in Ren's mouth had stopped bleeding, and the left eye—which should have been swollen shut from a temple strike—was only a faint, healthy pink.
He's healing at an accelerated rate? A special constitution? No...
Billy spotted the faint trace of medicinal powder on Ren's lip. He's been boosted. He has an elite doctor and a pharmaceutical giant on speed dial.
"Hoo...!"
Ren smacked his lips. The taste of the medicine was bitter, but the internal bleeding had ceased.
"Furumi's drugs are the real deal, and An-san is a wizard. Finding good 'Partners' is the key to business, right?"
Ren squeezed a single, bloody tear from his left eye. His vision snapped into perfect clarity. He walked down the final steps, stopping ten feet from the Caracal.
Billy shrugged. "You're a terrifying one, kid. Using a grenade for an ambush? That's closer to terrorism than 'Might,' isn't it?"
Ren: "..."
Ren: "...What?"
Billy smirked darkly. "Don't play coy. You arranged for that hit on my car. It was a professional move."
Ren: "..."
He scratched his head. "Look, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Refusing to admit it? Protecting your inside man in the police department?"
Billy raised his hands. "Fine. Whatever. So, what do you want with me?"
Ren's expression went flat. The "Drunken" playfulness evaporated, replaced by a battle-spirit so thick it felt like a physical weight. He bared his bloody teeth in a jagged grin.
"I just have a rule, Billy."
"The fights I start... I always finish."
Tunnel Entrance. The Shadows.
Nozomi, Hana, and An arrived a minute later.
They saw the two monsters standing in the dark. Nozomi motioned for them to stay back, and the three women peered over a concrete barrier, watching the scene develop.
"The Black-Eared Demon," An Sakurai whispered, her split tongue flickering. "I've heard the legends. There isn't much intel on him, but the reports are nightmare fuel."
"They say his biology is a 'Short-Sleeper' mutation—the same as Edison or Napoleon. He only needs two hours of sleep to function at 100%. He lives more 'Life' in a day than we do in a week."
Nozomi frowned. "What does his sleep schedule have to do with his power?"
"Geniuses are never 'Normal,' Nozomi-chan," An explained. "Ordinary people have ordinary limits. Masters are always 'Special' in some freakish way."
"Your eyes, my obsession with the dead, Ren-kun's manual-override brain... even Naoya Okubo, the MMA King—they say he tried to be a stand-up comedian and his brain is wired completely backwards."
An rested her chin on Nozomi's shoulder. "The 'Rulers' of this world all possess a unique, terrifying Intensity."
Inside the Tunnel.
Ren and Billy stood frozen. Their eyes were fixed on each other, waiting for the first frame of movement.
A bank of fluorescent lights above them flickered, the old wiring struggling with the humidity. A bulb buzzed, then—POP!—it went dark for a fraction of a second.
In that microsecond of shadow—THEY MOVED!
The [SOUL] and the [CARACAL] collided.
"DIE!"
Billy launched a vertical thrust-punch, prioritizing speed over mass. His arm was a piston, relying on his freakish biological response time.
But this time, Ren didn't tank the hit. He met the strike with his wrist, guiding the punch into the concrete wall behind him.
BOOM!
A crater appeared in the brickwork, shards of mortar falling to the ground.
But the punch was a feint.
Billy stepped deep, swinging a horizontal hook that whistled with the wind-pressure of a falling blade.
Ren leaned back, his eyes stinging from the gust, but he didn't blink.
[ENGINE] — OVERDRIVE!
Ren's consciousness manually supressed his blinking reflex. He tracked every micro-movement of Billy's combination, searching for the gap.
ZIP!
Ren lunged upward, rotating his body in a high-tension backflip.
[GUILE: FLASH KICK]!
The rising heel-blade caught Billy by surprise. He jerked his torso back, but he wasn't fast enough to clear the arc entirely.
SHING!
The edge of Ren's trainer sliced across Billy's cheek. It wasn't a graze; the "Might" behind the kick was so concentrated it carved a thin strip of flesh from the man's face. Blood geysered instantly.
Tap... tap... tap...
Billy retreated several paces, touching the jagged wound on his face. His eyes turned a dark, bloodshot red. The playful facade was gone. The "Caracal" was ready to kill.
"Heh... my head... it's spinning... it feels... nice..."
Ren stood on his toes, his body swaying in a light, rhythmic shuffle. He began to circle, searching for the terminal strike.
Billy splayed his fingers, the veins in his arms and neck bulging like black ropes.
The slaughter was about to resume when—
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
A heavy, metallic thudding sound echoed through the tunnel. It sounded like a fully-loaded cargo truck slamming into the pavement at high speed.
Ren and Billy both sensed the threat. They tried to back-dash, but they were a microsecond too slow.
BOOM!
A massive, armored figure tore through the shadows, slamming into the space between them. Ren and Billy were both shoved aside by a solid wall of metal and muscle. They skidded back, their arms numbing from the impact.
Standing between them was a man in full Metropolitan Police tactical armor. He wore a reinforced helmet and a heavy-duty riot shield. In his right hand was a high-voltage stun baton.
Seishu Akoya loomed over them, his eyes glowing with a void-like, unfeeling coldness. He tapped his baton against his shield, the hollow thud echoing through the tunnel.
"Filthy maggots. Criminal germs. You will not crawl out of this hole."
"JUSTICE... EXECUTED!"
☆☆☆
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you