Chapter 47: Brawl
A man rushed forward, his arms close to his chest. When he neared the opposing side, he swung his fist in a crude and sloppy manner, which resulted in him getting socked in the face.
For the last three minutes, Elias’ and Roxy’s group had been fighting each other tooth and nail.
Despite both sides being unable to use their chosen equipment, it was clear which side had the upper hand in terms of strength.
One of Elias’ squad members dropped to their rear, his face bruised and his nose leaking with blood. He let out a soft groan before looking up, locking onto the man who had beaten him to the ground.
He crawled back fearfully, watching as the man steadily neared him, clearly wanting to knock him out of commission. He raised his arms over his face in terror and closed his eyes, afraid of being hit again.
"E-elias...!" He called out subconsciously for help.
...
After a while of strange silence, he opened his eyes and found the guy who was about to knock his lights out to have—
Thud.
—Fallen onto his back, unconscious with a shoemark on his face.
Although it was evident that Elias’ squad was inexperienced when it came to a real fight, and were practically useless, that didn’t mean Elias was himself.
Like that rat that he was, he weaved in between the fighting and snuck up behind the members of Roxy’s crew. He was nimble and had good control over his body, like a seasoned acrobat.
With a combination of grappling and kicking, and playing dirty in general, he was able to rapidly turn the fight in their favour, having knocked out a third of Roxy’s crew all on his own.
Unfortunately, that was about to end soon.
Elias ducked under a punch before jumping up and headbutting the man’s bottom jaw. Afterwards, he hooked his arms around the back of the man’s head and tossed him over his shoulder.
After Elias slammed him into the ground, he looked towards the next person in line, but was met with a brutal punch to his face — a powerful blow by Roxy that sent him flying.
He spun through the air before collapsing to the ground. He then writhed in pain as he clutched his already blackened eye.
"Goddamnit...! Right in fucking the eye; why the eye, you shitty bitch!" He squealed angrily, shouting profanities to distract himself from the pain.
Roxy chuckled, feigning guilt.
"Sorry about that, Elias. I was trying to hit your other eye so you could match," Roxy walked over and picked him up by the collar. "After all, raccoons look much cuter than rats, don’t you think?"
"I’d rather look like neither!"
Elias grabbed at Roxy’s hand, trying to pry her fingers off of him.
Unfortunately, as evidenced by the Vitality wrapped around her body, it was going to be impossible for him to do that — even if he used his own Vitality.
He then glanced back at Hilda with a pleading look in his eyes.
"Miss Hilda, I don’t want to bother, but a LITTLE help would be appreciated!" He emphasised.
"Haha, why are you looking at me?" Hilda chuckled, raising her hands appeasingly, "I only said that I would come out to join you on your hunts, not whatever this is~"
Elias was dumbfounded.
"Are you serious!? We’re about to lose all the eyes we just got! Since we’re fighting for eyes, can’t you just make an exception this one time?!"
Hilda folded her arms behind her and averted her eyes from the scene. She then began to whistle innocently in a demure manner. By now, Elias had enough hints that Hilda wasn’t going to take action.
’Damnit...!’
"Hahaha!" Roxy laughed mockingly at Elias before looking towards Hilda, "It’s an honour to meet you, Miss LRM. It’s unfortunate that our first time meeting each other is like this. I would’ve like it under better conditions."
Hilda shot her a glance, then smirked.
Roxy watched as Hilda gave a slight nod before gesturing for her to continue. She raised an eyebrow at this, confused by the unexpected gesture, but nodded back nonetheless.
She returned her attention back to Elias and cocked back her arm.
Elias, watching as Roxy prepared a knockout blow, gritted his teeth.
He then desperately roared:
"GET HER, PREDICAMENT!"
The armoured Predicament, who stood at the back to oversee the brawl, jutted awake like a rusty machine. It planted its hands into the ground and pulled its body back.
Then it slingshotted forward, pouncing towards Roxy, like a tiger that had found its prey.
At this, Roxy widened her eyes in shock.
She hastily tossed Elias to the side and locked eyes with the Predicament that was now upon her.
Roxy hurriedly took a step back before crossing her arms, manifesting a thin, translucent yellow wall between her and the Scoundrel.
The armoured Predicament swung down, striking the translucent wall.
DUM!
Roxy’s wall rippled upon impact, the blow causing a sound akin to a drum to echo resoundingly.
"Damn it, you rat! You’re not allowed to use this thing—"
"HAHA, SAYS WHO!?"
Elias quickly scrambled to his feet.
"You didn’t make any rules before challenging us. All you said was that the winner gets to take the loser’s eyes!" He then pointed smugly at Roxy, "And because of that mistake, you’re all going to lose your eyes!"
Before Roxy could retort, the armoured Predicament had begun to attack her wall with a flurry of blows, which eventually shattered through her wall, allowing the Scoundrel to land a deep cut on her right arm.
She clicked her tongue and moved to duck under another blow. She then crossed her arms again and summoned another wall.
DUM!
After witnessing the Predicament strike her wall again, she quickly averted her gaze and scanned its armoured body with a dark expression.
"Why is this thing covered in metal?!"
"That’s the work of our boss!" Elias shouted proudly, watching as the armoured Predicament shattered through Roxy’s wall.
He then watched as the woman managed to strike the Scoundrel’s side and failed to do any damage, besides leaving a small dent in the metal armour.
Elias laughed maniacally, especially when he watched the remaining members of Roxy’s crew pick up their weapons to help.
"HAHA! You guys aren’t at the level where you can punch through metal yet, right?! Even if you have a Gift, Roxy, which can’t even survive more than a three strikes from our Scoundrel, and half of your posse down for the count, you might as well just hand over your eyes!"
Roxy snarled at Elias, who was laughing like a super villain, and crossed her arms again to summon another wall, which was shattered again a few moments later.
Elias continued to laugh loudly.
"Haha! Haha! Ha—COUGH, COUGH!"
But then doubled over to cough heavily when his saliva accidentally went down the wrong pipe as a result of his laughing.