"M-my ears..."
Back in the South Zone, a person was on his knees while holding his ears because of the pain he was feeling, and what was more, the only thing he could hear at this moment...was a buzzing sound.
This person was obviously Colt, who had received a loud scream from Jay at close range.
While normally a scream would not have done anything to him no matter how close to his ears it was, he had used "Auditory Territory" to improve his hearing, making him incredibly sensitive to any kind of sound!
'Next time at least try to hide what you're doing...' Said Jay internally as he looked at the sore Colt.
Although Jay had been breaking the balloons continuously, he didn't forget for a second to carefully observe Colt's actions, after all, despite having temporarily lost his vision, he was still a dangerous pugilist.
The reason Jay had managed to scream at just the right time was because Colt's actions had been too obvious!
Not only did he stand still while ignoring that Jay was breaking more balloons, he also took a stand that shouted "I'm concentrating on listening to you, please wait."
After seeing this, Jay pretended to keep running to another balloon while actually preparing to let out a scream with all his might the moment Colt got close enough.
Of course, if his assumption had been wrong, Jay was ready to activate "Overload" immediately and use Phantom Trace to avoid the blow, but Colt would not have let him go so easily, resulting in a close battle where Jay only had a few seconds to defeat him.
Fortunately his assumption was correct and he didn't have to face Colt hand-to-hand, in fact, he now even had a perfect opportunity to end this.
'Well, I'd better finish this quickly, I'm sure someone will come after hearing my scream.' Thought Jay as he grabbed a nearby balloon in his right hand and pulled a jar out of his pocket with his left.
Then he threw the balloon at Colt's face, aiming at his nose.
*SPLASH*
"Argh, shit, my nose!" Colt shouted as he woke up from the little daze he was in, only to feel a horrible stinging in his nose.
'Shit, this is bad, Territory!' Thought Colt, activating the martial technique again and moving away from the place, afraid that the hooded man might do something else to him, not without first wiping his face, of course.
However, unlike before, where the size of the circle was 6 ft, now it barely reached 3 ft.
'Damn, it shrank and I feel horrible, but...I can still win this, I still have a sense of touch, I must increase that!' Colt mentally cheered himself.
The next second, he tore off the jacket and shirt he was wearing, exposing his toned and athletic body.
Having temporarily lost his sight, hearing and smell, all that remained was his sense of touch, which was what kept his Territory active.
Thus, in order to increase the contact of his skin with his surroundings, he tore his clothes, making his Territory grow a little larger.
Just at that moment, something entered his Territory, heading towards him.
'A jar, I must avoid it!' He quickly thought as he felt the jar, he didn't know what was the powder inside the jar, but he didn't want to find out either.
Because of the red dust and the hot sauce balloons, Colt was sure that anything this guy threw at him would be bad for him.
However, just as he was about to dodge it, an empty jar suddenly entered his Territory, colliding with the jar headed for Colt, breaking each other and spreading the dust all over his Territory, including his body.
Colt panicked at that moment, 'Shit, it might be poison!' he thought, quickly covering his nose to avoid breathing the dust and getting away from the area.
After moving away, he realized that the powder in the bottle was not poison...but something worse.
"...Itching powder..." Colt said with a smile without a hint of happiness, his Territory was going practically crazy because of the itching he felt all over his body.
A few seconds later, even though Colt didn't want to, the martial technique deactivated itself.
Because Territory worked using a pugilist's senses, an interference as great as this caused it to stop working at all.
"...F*ck."
He couldn't see anything because of the great burning in his eyes.
He couldn't smell anything but hot sauce.
His ears were still ringing, making it difficult to hear anything.
As for touch, he still had it, and it worked perfectly judging by the intensity of the itching he felt.
In short, it was a hopeless situation for Colt.
But at that moment, something woke up inside him, making him remember that all was not lost, because...
'I still have one final technique!' Thought Colt with determination.
It was a technique he had promised never to use again because of the consequences it would have, but in a situation like this, he had no choice.
Then, Colt relaxed his fighting stance, leaving both arms free for any movement, the pressure he gave off changed completely.
He no longer looked like a cornered man trying to defend himself, he was now more like...a warrior who was willing to give it his all to one final struggle!
"Hooo..." Colt took a long breath.
Then he turned around and started running with all his strength!
"HEEEEEELP-GAH!"
Unfortunately, his "final technique" was splendidly interrupted by a strong kick to the head from Jay, who had been cautiosly waiting for Colt show an opening.
*PAM*
Colt's unconscious body fell to the ground after receiving Jay's kick, which had been reinforced by wind right on the part that hit his head.
"Haaa..."
Jay let out a sigh after that; it was the first time he had ever been tired both physically and mentally.
'Finally...'
Although he had made a "plan" to defeat Colt, the details had not been clear because he had to make preparations for the battle, so he had to sort out almost everything in the moment.
And even though everything went more or less well, he couldn't deny that Colt's personality played an important role in this.
For example, if Colt had kept running instead of facing him, or if instead of grabbing his wrist, he had caught his fist, things would have become very complicated.
'Luckily, it all worked out.' Jay thought as he dragged Colt into a dark alley.
After leaving Colt on the ground of the alley, Jay put his hand on Colt's chest and infected him with the 10 parasites he had.
After closing the window that indicated he had successfully infected him, he focused on the part he was most interested in.
_____________________
[Colt Darin]
Body Grade: (D)
Condition: Unconscious, Multiple Minor Injuries (Temporary Blind...)
Parasites: 10
Assimilation status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)
(Requirements to use [Proliferation])
(Host's condition must be: Unconscious, Injured...)
Verifying Host's condition...
Requirements...met!
(Do you want to use [Proliferation]?)
(Y/N)
_____________________
'Hm, not much has changed...well, it's easier for me this way...' Thought Jay after seeing Colt's status window before he selected the "Y" option.
Although he would no longer be able to use the [Proliferation] skill, he would instead be able to accelerate the assimilation process and thus break his limits faster.
Shortly after Jay selected the "Y" option, the same thing happened as with Taylor, Colt's body began to shake and his complexion turned pale.
After waiting for about 5 minutes, a system window appeared indicating that the process was over.
_____________________
[Proliferation] has been used on [Colt Darin] successfully!
You have obtained...25 parasites (pugilist)!
_____________________
'Ohh, I got 5 extra, great!'
Right at that moment, all the parasites in Colt's body became energetic, this reminded Jay of the moment the parasites (esper) infected Noah's body, with the difference that these parasites were even more energetic!
Jay didn't find it strange because it had happened before, but he decided to check Colt's state window one more time just in case.
_____________________
[Colt Darin]
Body Grade: (D)
Condition: Unconscious, Multiple Minor Injuries (Temporary Blind...)
Parasites: 25 (Excited)
Assimilation status: 0% (2% per day per parasite)
_____________________
'...You know what, I'm not surprised anymore, I'll just ask the system later.' Thought Jay after seeing what had changed in Colt's state.
Because the system surprised him time to time again, he'd gotten a little used to it.
'Well, it's time to go, I don't want to run into any of his friends...oh right, I almost forgot.'
Suddenly remembering something, Jay went through Colt's pockets until he found his wallet and took all the money inside.
'Nothing should be wasted, hehe.'
After that, Jay left the alley and headed towards the entrance, not before returning the wallet to Colt of course.
When he arrived at the entrance of the South Zone, he picked up the bucket he had brought to load all the balloons.
Since he didn't have a dimensional bag like Sarah, he had to resort to more common methods.
Then, Jay started running towards his house, tired but excited that the day would come to collect his parasites.
Thus ended the totally fair battle between Jay and Colt.