"Yo! You good now?" Steve asked Aurum in a friendly manner.
"Huh? Who're you?" Aurum answered back with a question.
When they heard those words from Aurum, Yuu and his men almost spat blood.
"Is he a fool? Does he not know who Steve is?" Everybody thought that Aurum was just looking for a beating. They shifted their gazes to Steve and found him a little bit shocked. Then it was followed by a sudden burst of laughter.
"Hahahaha! You don't know me? For real? You must have heard about the name 'Steve Iasion' right?" Steve was amused for he thought that once Aurum heard his name, he would be frightened. Contrary to his expectations, Aurum just stood there looking at him like an idiot.
"Hah? No, I don't know who that is but lemme guess.... You're that Steve Ia- something right? Are you thinking that you're just all bulky and tall that everybody would know who you are? You must be dreaming." Aurum scoffed.
Steve right now was literally stunned. Everywhere he goes, when they know that he was the Steve Iasion, everybody would cower in fear. But to think that there's still a man who doesn't know his name...
"Hoh... Aren't you a little cocky for a short-assed bastard? Since you don't know anything about me, how about I tell you about my infamy?" Steve who was initially stunned has cooled down.
"Surely, when he hears about my deeds he would ask for forgiveness," Steve thought.
"Sure, go ahead" Aurum just let him do what he wanted.
While Steve was telling him about his past actions, Aurum was already taking action and activated his Azazel's eyes. When he saw Steve's stats, he was shocked at the difference of their stats.
[Name: Steve Iasion
Age: 20
HP: 150/150
MP: 1/1
LVL: 6
Rank: D-
Exp: 1999/2000
Str: 90
End: 100
Int: 35
Wis: 32
Luck: 69
Skills: NONE
Abilities: Unyielding Will
Bloodline: NONE]
Seeing the shock of Aurum, Steve started to brim with confidence about himself. Though he was secretly laughing at the stupidity of Aurum. However, Aurum snapped back to reality and his lips was beginning to curl upwards.
The smile that he gave off was shocking because it was not a smile of helplessness, but instead it was a smile of endless joy.
"I see, I see. Up until now I thought that nobody would be able to match me but it seems that my arrogance has been payed in full." Aurum admitted casually.
"So, do you still want to continue the direction of the conversation from earlier?" Steve asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes."
Aurum started to walk slowly towards Steve. When they were close enough to actually just touch just by swaying, Aurum suddenly blurted out.
"He who strikes first wins!" He launched a right hook towards Steve which he met head-on while striking back with an uppercut.
They both took a step back and launched a punch at the same time. Their head-on clash was so intense that even Yuu and the others could feel their intensity from a distance. They kept on punching and kicking each other.
A minute passed by and Aurum was already at a disadvantage. He could feel that with just one more punch and he's out cold again. Steve ran towards Aurum and suddenly jumped. Aurum could see that Steve was trying to end this with a drop kick, so he took a step back.
For the next minute, everybody who was watching this fight could see that Aurum was being pushed back constantly because Steve's very aggressive attacks. A few minutes later, Aurum was already cornered and has nowhere to escape.
"What, is that all that you've got? Hais... And here I was, expecting so much from you." Steve shook his head in disappointment while saying that.
"I know that you're holding back your power against me. I want you to use it... I want you to make me feel the exhilaration of fighting again." Steve said while letting Aurum out of the corner.
"You'll have to force it to me first! You truly believed that I was actually losing earlier? Dream on!" Aurum retorted.
He was quite shameless for saying this. He was just bluffing his way out and was just buying some time to let himself recover. Of course, Steve believed him. Steve sensed earlier on their brawl that he was still trying to restrict himself while fighting him.
"System, do you have anyways to make a reversal?" Aurum asked somewhat anxious.
[DING! Host can use your Ultra Instinct skill to make a comeback.
Do you want to activate Ultra Instinct? YES/NO]
"Dammit, system! I was wondering why I couldn't sense anything out of my skills, turns out it needs to be activated manually first! So how long can I use this skill?" Aurum asks while showing some indignant.
[DING! Host has a low level at the moment so the host can use Ultra Instinct only for 3 minutes. After the duration of the skill has been used up, the Host will be cut off with his senses except for sight for a single night.]
"Okay, I will handle that when that happens, so go ahead and activate it," Aurum said somewhat carelessly.
[DING! Activating Ultra Instinct.... Host's level is too low to use it at full power... Adjusting it's current power to match Host's current measurable level...]
"System, why didn't I hear about this earlier?" Aurum asked somewhat tired.
[DING! Host did not ask for more details.]
"Why do I have this feeling that the system is trolling me right now?" Aurum wondered.
While Aurum was absent-minded, Steve was beginning to grow impatient at waiting for Aurum. So he suddenly charged towards him, intending to finish him off. Steve sent consecutive punches towards him but to his surprise, Aurum dodged all his punches while still thinking about something else. When Aurum came back from 'la-la land', he was surprised to see that Steve's attacks was still getting faster but it could not hit him at all. Once he got hang of it, Aurum finally started his counterattacks while dodging.
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Currently, there are two monsters fighting with each other. Yuu and his men were really overwhelmed by the battle. Their faces paled when they saw Aurum gradually pushing back Steve without getting hit.
"Boss, I'm not questioning your leadership or anything but, why did we bring Aurum here again?" A lackey asked.
"Do you think I really expected this? We were supposed to beat him up till he cries to his uncle but who would have thought that he was holding back against us all this time! I can only imagine if he went against us full force, we would be dead by now!" If Yuu could go back in time, he probably would have smacked himself to the head to change the outcome.
================================================================
Every time Steve would punch, Aurum would close their distance while dodging and send a counter punch of his. Even though a minute only passed, Steve felt like he was fighting Aurum for three days without rest. With that mental strain gaining on him, Steve didn't hesitate to take his knife out and tried stab Aurum.
To Aurum, the knife didn't make him feel threatened at all. Instead, he stopped attacking and was just staring at Steve astonished. Aurum never thought that Steve would be fighting with a knife in his hand in this fight. During their exchange of punches, he felt that Steve is an honest street fighter, and that's all. Now that Steve was desperate, he didn't have any choice but to use it.
"I never thought that you could fight like this," Aurum shook his head in disapproval.
"Shut up! At first I was just thinking of testing you, but now I'm going to kill you!" Steve's eyes was bloodthirsty while he was looking at Aurum.
"Well, if you're using a weapon, you would not mind me using one too, right?" As soon as Aurum said that, Mazda's blade suddenly appeared on Aurum's hand.
When Aurum saw this sword, he felt disappointed. He couldn't feel any kind of aura or anything that is out of the ordinary. Steve and Yuu on the another hand, was trembling in fear when he saw the sword. The sword's aura on their point of view was like a parasite trying to eat away their consciousness.
"Y-you! H-how did you get that sword? We searched you earlier but you didn't even have anything in your pockets!" Yuu was on the verge of collapsing but still asked Aurum.
Aurum just took a glance at him and just smirked without saying anything at all. He ignored the question and turned his gaze back to Steve who was sweating profusely.
"What, getting cold feet after seeing this? It's just flashy, that's all. No need to be scared, this is just and ordinary sword," Aurum felt that he was exaggerating.
When they heard that, both of them almost puked blood.
"O-ordinary sword?! What the hell is so ordinary about that? H-how can he say that like that thing's normal?" Both of them thought.
Steve, who had a lot of mental strain right now, was consumed by insanity due to the additional pressure added to him. He wished for this to end and regretted that he gave Aurum a chance when he could have finished the fight earlier.
"AHHHHH!" Steve tried to raise his morale by shouting a battle-cry, but to others it just sounded like a man who is hopeless and tries to make a one desperate attack.
He charged towards Aurum, not caring about the consequences. He just wanted to kill him and end this horrible nightmare that he is having right now. Aurum just kept on toying with him, he would just stand there and deflect his stabs without countering. Steve and Yuu knew that Aurum was just trying to enjoy this. However, they realized that Aurum's movements is beginning to dull. Of course, Aurum noticed it first but didn't pay attention to it until he was almost stabbed at his guts.
"System, what is happening to me right now?" Aurum asked somewhat confused.
[DING! Host's Ultra Instinct skill is beginning to dissipate. Host only has 10 seconds left until Ultra Instinct wears off.]
"WHAT?! Dammit! I've been enjoying myself too much I forgot about the time limit!" Aurum thought to himself.
With barely ten seconds left, Aurum was left with no other choice, and that is to kill everybody present here. The time left was enough for him to slaughter everybody without them noticing. He didn't hesitate anymore and did not dare to waste more time. He swiftly went towards Steve and beheaded him.
[DING! Host gained 200 Exp and 50 CP for killing Steve Iasion.
Host received additional 100 CP for having his first kill!]
Aurum ignored the system's announcement in his head and dashed towards Yuu who was trying to escape. Yuu, who did not even take 5 steps, suddenly couldn't feel his legs anymore. When he looked down, he saw that his legs were decapitated by Aurum.
"AGHHHHH!!!!" Yuu screamed from the top of his lungs.
"P-please h-have mercy on me... I won't co--" Yuu didn't even finish his plea when he got stabbed right through his mouth.
[DING! Host gained 3 Exp and 5 CP for killing Yuu.]
Aurum wasn't finished just yet and killed the other forty-nine people who was unconscious. He didn't want to leave any kind of witness to have him reported to the local police.
[DING! Host gained 27 Exp and 49 CP for killing 49 men.]
Aurum then managed to take some distance from the warehouse before he collapsed. Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice that someone was spectating the battle from earlier from a void.
"This kid's power, it is still not good enough..." a mysterious person murmured.