Although somewhere deep down, Gary knew this fight would perhaps come one day, he could never visualise it in his head. Fighting against Kirk of all things, of course, he would never be able to win against the Rookie champion.
However, right now he had no choice.
[Defeat the Altered in front of you]
[Optional Quest received]
[Consume the Altered]
[Quest reward: Additional stat points]
Whenever he ended up in a tough situation, the Werewolf System would encourage his user to find a way out of his situation by granting him a Quest. In this case, it seemed to be confident enough in the teenager that it even gave him two.
‘I have been conserving my Energy in the fight so far, because of how many of them are around me, but I can’t afford to go easy on him.’ Gary thought, as he used his Controlled Transformation on his legs, making sure he transformed them fully to benefit from the increased power.
However, he made sure to avoid changing his feet for fear that his toenails would end up going through his shoes. He also used the skill on his arms, hands, and chest area without holding back.
Right now Gary’s body was close to being fully transformed, but not quite. Even if Gary used Controlled Transformation on most of his body, it still lacked out, compared to his Full Transformation. The form would use up a lot of energy, but it was better than losing, since losing would most likely mean death and not just for him either.
“A wolf type altered, I guess it makes sense with the mask!” Kirk shouted, as he had gotten in a type of sprinter's stance. He hunched his back, and his arms were out in front of him.
‘I’ve seen this before, in some of his Altered fights!’ The Werewolf thought, but before he could fully act, the Cheetah Altered had used his fast legs to cross the distance between the two in an instant. Gary reached out and had grabbed the initial fist coming towards him.
His feet were skidding across the ground, being pushed back.
‘I just increased my Strength stat going up against Damion, and it's still not enough!’
While being pushed back, Gary started to move his feet as well, hoping to get any friction to help him push forward, and that's when he noticed that Kirk was bearing his teeth. The muscles on his neck and muscles were tight as he pushed forward.
‘He’s really going all out against me… I'm not just a kid… I have people relying on me. I can do this. No, I HAVE to do this!’ The high schooler thought. It was then that he managed to readjust his hands, so they were positioned better around Kirk’s fist.
[Skill activated Claw Drain]
After activating the skill, Gary dug his nails into Kirk.
It wasn’t a big boost to his Health, since the damage dealt to the Altered was minimal, but it was at least something. Somewhat in pain, Kirk gritted his teeth, and held on tightly to his opponent’s arms, before lifting the teenager’s body off the ground, and aiming for a kick right towards Gary’s face.
It hit his chin, causing him to let go, and strangely Kirk quickly took off his black shoes, and transformed his feet. His toes appeared more like that of a cheetah, allowing him to get more surface area.
From his position, he pounced off the ground side to side, while going towards Gary.
Now, Kirk also had his clawed hands, and swiped them at Gary from one side. Lifting his arms, Gary blocked, but the claws of an altered man managed to pierce his skin somewhat.
Still, that wasn't the need of it, as soon as Kirk landed on the ground, he would jump up again and swing his arm, going for another swipe.
He continued to do this side, to side. It was so fast that Gary didn’t know what to do. All he could do was keep his arms up, preventing the other from dealing him a potentially fatal blow.
‘Having watched all of his fights, I was sure to have an advantage over him, but his current fighting style is nothing like what he uses in the ring! I have to do something, I can't just stand here and turtle up. My Energy will drain up way faster than his stamina will.’ It was at that moment, after Gary saw that his HP had fallen below one third, that he decided to take a wild swing.
Alas, his desperate attempt ended up hitting nothing but the air, yet his opponent used the chance to claw his chest.
‘My Health is getting lower by the second! If this continues, Kirk really is going to kill me!’
It was then for the first time in the fight that Gary had stopped being attacked. He could no longer see the system notification screens that would show his HP lowering.
‘Did he run out of steam?’ Gary wondered and opened his arms, ready to attack Kirk. To unleash his own power he had yet to use so far.
He could only think that he had tired, there was no pause in Kirk’s attacks. After all, Gary stats were even better than some Altered and he couldn’t imagine himself attacking for that long one after another.
“Thanks, I was waiting for you to do this.” Kirk said, as a fist came right from underneath hitting Gary in the chin as hard as possible. Kirk had pounced off the ground from underneath using the power of his strong legs, to deliver one of his strongest hits.
Gary was airborne for a few seconds before he eventually plummeted. Now taking a breath, Kirk was trying to get his wind back.
‘His Endurance is crazy, after all those attacks and still not falling down, there are those in the AFC that couldn't take that much.’ Kirk thought as he did his best to control his breathing.
Seeing how low his Health was, Gary knew he had to change tactics, but first he went to feel his injured jaw, and that's when he realised something.
‘My mask, It must have been knocked off during the hit.’ When Gary went to look up, he could see his mask up ahead. Quickly, he crawled towards it, but a person had picked it up before he could reach it.
“Gary…” The person uttered in disbelief.
When looking at who it was, he could see that of all people, it just had to be Gil who was holding onto his wolf mask. Now that his hunting target had seen his face, revealing that he was a member of the Howlers. The person that the Underdogs had been looking for, was right here in front of them.
‘Screw this.’ Gary decided to go all out since his identity was already compromised.
[Skill activated Full Transformation]