-Two minutes after Fredrick and James left-
"What the hell happened here?!"
A man with short brown hair, brown skin, a scar running through his left eye and wearing a black-leather jacket came into the now-wrecked bar with two guys behind him, both wearing armless clothes with a dark tooth carved on their shoulders, one bald and the other having small dark hair.
The appearance of these three men caused the meek men to start making a fuss as one of them called out.
"Boss, help us! Some crazy guys killed Mart and Ortiz" one said, panicking.
"Yeah boss, you gotta take revenge for us" another added and before long…
"Boss, you gotta make these guys pay"
"Yeah, show him who's boss, boss!"
"Boss…"
"Boss…"
"Boss…"
The others began to do the same, until…
"SHUT UP! SHUT THE HELL UP" the 'boss' had almost gone crazy with so many people calling him.
"I LEAVE YOU GUYS ALONE FOR THIRTY MINUTES! THIRTY FU**ING MINUTES AND THIS HAPPENS?!" he shouted out in rage seeing his men act so dumb and weak.
The men quickly shut their mouths or they might die.
Nevertheless, he was the boss for a reason, part of which was that he knew how to calmly rationalize a situation, like he was doing now
'Who the heck did this?' he thought as he looked at his men in a sorry state.
His brain started to churn the names of those he had offended and were capable of launching such an attack.
'Green Snake? Red Hook? No they wouldn't go this far, then who was it?'
As he tried to come up with an answer, Ezra, who had been seated at an inconspicuous side of the bar, stood up and spoke.
"I take it that you're the one leading this group of degenerates"
One of the men lying down began to think…
'Hmm, he must be acting tough since boss is stronger than us here'
'Which means he wouldn't touch us and go away quickly' thought the man as began to speak. He was going to make sure that the boy was killed or crippled before he was allowed to leave.
And with such thinking, he spoke up to try and rile the others up, after all…
'If we attack together with the boss here, he wouldn't stand a chance'
"Hey, we aren-"
The man didn't get to finish before he found himself flying as he felt his bones breaking, then…
*Bam*
He smashed into the side wall filled with liquor.
Silence! Complete and utter silence!
"This is why you shouldn't leave trash littering the floor. They make stupid noises"
The voice of the culprit echoed out as the others had their rising morale fall back to zero in an instant.
The meaning of the demonstration was clear, no words needed.
All the men lying down understood this, before looking at their boss who had yet to say a word.
Because it meant…
'He doesn't give a damn about the boss'
'He's not afraid at all'
Others had similar thoughts as the question on their minds was…
'Is he actually stronger than the boss or is he just crazy?'
They all thought before opting to use the 'wait and see' approach.
After all, it wasn't too late to beg for mercy after the fight was over, rather than risk dying a dog's death over something stupid.
Everyone eventually came to the same conclusion. They would wait until the big dogs were done rather than risk being collateral damage.
Meanwhile, the top dogs in question were currently in a stare down as they tried to figure out their opponent.
'He sent Rigo flying with a kick to the side, but is he at the Adept rank or higher?' the boss thought.
'Hmm, most of these guys are knuckleheads. The fact that he thinks before attacking is disconcerting' Ezra thought.
'Hmm, I guess I'll have to find out' the boss thought before lightly waving his hand and saying…
"Go and take care of him"
The two boys behind him immediately went into action as they unsheathed their daggers and attacked.
Seeing this, Ezra pulled out a sword nearby, holding dual swords as he entered his fighting stance while thinking…
'These two are slightly above average in skill and use a mana technique specialized in speed'
He assessed them in a brief instant before…
*Chang* *Kin*
The two sides collided, a flurry of sparks came into view as both sides moved faster than a normal human and were getting faster by the second.
The sound of metal hitting against metal was the only thing to be heard in the wrecked bar.
The boss chose to stay behind as he observed the boy's fighting skills, only to be amazed at the fluidity of his movement.
Normally, in a dagger versus sword fight, the sword user uses its length to keep the dagger wielder from coming closer, while the dagger wielder tries to close the distance.
Yet this boy confronted his men at arm's length while brazenly attacking without a change in expression.
They fought for close to a minute, moving from place to place when the boss suddenly realized something.
'He's not growing tired, but he's not attacking either, only dodging, blocking or deflecting the attacks'
A thought suddenly popped up in the boss's head.
'Is he using them to train?' the thought was so absurd that even he found it unbelievable.
But when one looked closer…
'He's not increasing his speed at all. He's going just fast enough to keep up with their attacks' realization dawned upon him.
'They aren't on the same level, they can't win'
And with that thought…
"Kyle, Mike, withdraw"
He said as the two men immediately distanced themselves from Ezra and went back to the boss's side.
Ezra watched them without doing anything before speaking to the boss.
"You figured it out?"
"Haaa-"
A dry laugh escaped the boss's mouth.
"-you were really using them as practice"
"Hmm" Ezra nodded when…
"Sigh-"
A loud sigh escaped his mouth as he walked forward.
"-what did we do to anger the likes of you?" he asked.
"Hmm, your boys tried to take money from me"
"Huh?" the boss halted with an astounded expression.
"You did all this-"
He said while pointing to the wrecked base.
"-because someone almost took your money?" he said.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it. I didn't know you liked to talk so much" Ezra replied.
"Hahaha, I must be growing old it seems" the boss said, throwing away his leather jacket, making way for bulging muscles and dark knuckles.
"Oh, I see, shall we get started then?" Ezra said.
"With pleasure" the boss said before springing to action, as he neared Ezra in an instant with his hands, fists headed for his face when a voice rang out.
"Intermediate huh?"
Ezra said before bending to the side just enough for the punch to miss.
*Bam*
The punch left a small ripple in the air as Ezra quickly assessed the situation.
'He's a fist fighter of the Intermediate rank, with a mana technique that gives destructive punching power'
Ezra's mana vision had helped in dodging the punch because he predicted it.
'He's also not your average fighter' Ezra thought while dodging a flurry of punches that came at him with terrifying accuracy.
'He has power and accuracy but lacks the necessary speed to make it whole'
He was evaluating him with the standards of his past life, because even though Ezra thought like this, he was only narrowly escaping the man's punching rage.
"You can't dodge forever you know" the boss said to Ezra before taking a different approach.
He was too slow to hit him with pinpoint accuracy, then what about spreading his attack range?
And so he did.
He coated his fists in a layer of blue mana.
It was a skill that amplified his punching power, increasing damage for a reduction in accuracy.
Ezra was being pushed back as he lost the contest of strength.
'Hmm, I want to go all out, but then everyone here might die' he thought, before changing his approach.
'I'm sure now, I'm at the level of a three star Adept and he's an Intermediate rank' Ezra thought.
Ezra knew that he, an Adept, could never beat the boss, an Intermediate, in a contest of raw power.
But then…
'Who said I had to play by the rules?'
This was a fight, dying was not uncommon, so there was no need to play fair, rather, one should level the playing field with the opponent.
And Ezra's way of doing that was…
'Mana techniques'
The mana technique from his past-life. And so…
'I'll use maximum efficiency and overwhelming technique to supplement my lack of raw power'
And with such thoughts, Ezra's movement immediately changed as he dodged another punch by moving only his head to the side, before kicking the boss in the chest.
A move that sent the boss a few steps back and gave Ezra a moment to breathe.
He looked at the boss whose face had a smile on it and instead of waiting, attacked first.
"Hahaha, that's how you do it, now show me whatcha got"
The one-sided fighting quickly evolved to a heated battle while most of the gang members hurried away trying to not get hit in the crossfire.
Ezra used his swords to parry the boss's strike and redirect them while the boss had to be a lot more defensive than before.
*Deep breath* *Deep breath*
Both Ezra and the boss had run out of stamina, as they both took panted breathes.
Seeing that they were evenly matched, Ezra thought of a way to land a winning blow.
'I could use my poison blood, but it might kill him before I can get an antidote'
'Hmm, what to do, what to do? Wait I can try "that"'
Ezra suddenly thought of a despicable tactic, but…
'There's no rule saying it's not allowed. Plus, he can heal himself later'
Ezra thought as he looked at the panting boss a few meters away.
'Let's do it' he thought, as he confirmed his plan before setting his stance.
Both Ezra and the boss instinctively knew.
'This is the last attack'
And they sprung towards each other, most only seeing a blur of black colliding with one of blue.
At the moment of the last attack, Ezra activated mana vision as he parried the flurry of punches from a blue fist.
He knew he couldn't win unscathed, so he attacked the boss with the cleaving motion of his sword as the boss chose to face on and punch.
Only for Ezra to suddenly drop the sword and pull the boss with his hand forward while the other fist hit his ribs.
*Crack*
Yep, something was definitely broken, but he had to win first.
As Ezra pulled him, he swung the sword in his right hand and the boss put up his spare hand to guard against it when…
*Crack*
Ezra kneed his little brother, breaking an egg in the process, which caused the boss to faint on the spot.
"Whew, one heck of a boss fight I must say" Ezra said as if he hadn't just destroyed the boss's baby maker.