Sigh.
"The good old days," Ray muttered.
"Huh? HUH!! YOU BASTARD!!!" Jonny screamed.
"Oh, you didn't stammer," Ray said in excitement as though congratulating a friend.
Jonny felt that he could choke up on the anger he felt.
"Look Jonny, it's not my fault that your dad died. I wasn't aware that his hand was there." Ray tried to clear things up.
"He killed your dad?" The man beside Jonny asked in confusion.
"He wasn't my d-damn d-d-daddy!" He roared. "He was my b-best friend, my b-brother. You d-don't know h-h-how much I lost t-that d-d-day. After escaping from the c-c-clutches of the Sentries, although my b-b-boss who l-loved me so much d-didn't kill me, he permanently d-dismissed me from h-his sight, and ever since then my life hadn't remained t-the same. Even the p-prodigal son had it smooth."
"Wait! He was the one who killed my niece?" The man beside him asked in surprise.
"Y-Yes Mark, he's t-the one and only," Jonny spat.
Mark felt his anger towards Ray rise even more.
'Wait. They are related. This means the so called man who runs this town was the one behind everything back then. Well, not that I'll be going after him. That's in the past and isn't my job.'
"Randy! I want this man dead!" Mark screamed.
Randy who had been listening to all their squabbling, waiting for this moment nodded without hesitation but before he could attack Jonny voiced out stopping him.
"Wait! I'll b-be j-j-joining this fight. I've b-been preparing myself all this t-time. Just d-didn't expected my revenge to come this s-soon." He rolled up his sleeves.
Ray frowned slightly when he saw this and subconsciously looked at the dagger he wielded.
"W-What's the matter huh? D-Don't have your b-b-big blade to help you out," Jonny smirked.
Ray looked at him blankly. "No. This would actually be more than enough. I was just worried if this might also cut your arm, but don't worry, it won't be that deep."
Not wanting to hear anything else from Ray's mouth, Jonny charged forward at super human speed which showed that he wasn't the Jonny from 4 months ago.
When he got close enough, he jumped high into the air, coming down with a kick which Ray evaded by leaping backwards. The moment Jonny's legs made contact with the ground, he lunged forward with a punch.
Ray sidestepped the attack before sending a knee to his chest, which sent him flying up. He quickly leaped up with a kick but missed after Johnny moved back unexpectedly towards Randy before falling to the ground.
Surely, Randy had pulled him back with his thread. Randy ran towards Ray leaving Johnny behind. He had learnt from his past mistakes, so he didn't intend on shooting his threads directly at Ray.
When he got six metres away from Ray, he shot his threads high to a storey building and pulled himself upward. He landed horizontally on the building before quickly leaping forward before gravity could take effect, causing him to leap across Ray, who looked at him in confusion.
Without attacking Ray, he kept moving quickly around, jumping from building to building and Ray, who figured out what he was trying to do, was already late.
Randy pulled the tread on his hand backwards, causing multiple threads he had set up to move towards Ray, who tried to slice them all with his dagger but still ended up being tied.
"Ha!" Randy's smiled as he quickly moved towards Ray while bringing out a dagger of his own. Not only him, Johnny had also made his move as his arms looked different with an irregular but sturdy looking Shape.
When they got closer to Ray, they heard him snort before golden auras exploded from his body, causing all the threads to be blown away.
Before they could completely stop their movements, Ray dash towards Jonny while slashing the dagger at his chest but he was able to block it with one of his arms.
When they made contact the dagger failed to graze his skin. Ray quickly kicked out to his face, but he was able to also block that.
Ray smiled slightly before sending out series of kicks with the same leg without bringing it back to the ground. This showed how excellent is balance was and as expected Jonny wasn't able to block all the kicks.
Ray spun around sending a kick to his face which made him skid backwards.
"Y-You think you can s-shove me away t-that easily. Well t-think again," Jonny said spitting out all the blood in his mouth. Each kick Ray had sent out was strong enough to match the force of a bus moving at high speed, no, even stronger, so you could imagine what would happen if he kicked a normal human and he had just sent out over a 50 in 3 seconds at him.
Ray silently took a fighting stance as his grip on the dagger tightened.
Before he could move, he felt a strong pull from behind which caused him to be lurched sideways. Taking full advantage of this, Johnny dashed punching forward with all he had at Ray who was only able to cross his hand in defence before flying right into a building.
Randy who was the cause of Ray's loss of balance, had an exhausted smile on his face. He had been trying to use his threads but they kept getting deflected, so he opted for something that was a risk to his life. Scale rising.
This was a process where an aberrant could increase their A-scale in other words, the A-cells in their bodies, to be able to produce more power which came at the risk of losing their lives or turning into abyssals.
After doing this his threads had become much more thicker and powerful now being able to penetrate Ray's aura.
"It's not so bad after all," he muttered
"Are you all right?" Johnny asked, noticing what Randy had done.
"I'm great. Now let's take care of this mother fucker."
Ray leaped out of the building. There wasn't a sign that he was the one who had gone through it, except for the slight bruise on his hand which he had glanced at before bringing his gaze to them.
"Your punch and thread went through my aura. This means I'll have to take you more seriously." He put away the dagger before closing his eyes. As his eyes opened the aura around him began to swirl and move.
"Aura body arts." As this words left his lips, he zoomed out, arriving in front of Randy with a punch.
Randy, who had prepared himself for something like this, but didn't expect Ray to be so fast, shifted away from the line of punch, causing it to barely miss. But Ray wasn't your regular fighter. He twisted his body at an impossible angle, kicking Randy right in the face as he catapulted through the air, landing on the ground while rolling before coming to a stop after breaking right through a bollard
Johnny stared at Randy, who laid lifeless on the ground in surprise. Even an idiot would know that Ray's attack power had increased.
This was the method of fighting Ray used when he hadn't gotten used to a sword.
When using Aura body arts his physical capabilities increase two times more than when he wields a weapon, but this method couldn't end the lives of powerful foes easily, which was why he focused on his aura sword arts.
Johnny, who wasn't going to give up just because of this display of strength, charged at Ray.
They both punched out and when their fists made contact, a strong wave spread across the vicinity as Ray slightly skidded backwards, while Jonny's legs left the ground as he flew several metres backwards before his feet made contact with the ground as he skidded few metres before coming to a stop and kneeling.
His arm had totally gone numb and Ray who hadn't also totally come out unscathed folded and opened the hand he had used to attack several times.
'This guy slightly went through my aura again. How much training did he go through during this four months?' Even though Ray didn't feel threatened in the least, he had to praise how much the guy had grown. If he was in the Sentry then he would most likely end up in the talent ranking.
'Is this what hatred can cause? Ray wondered. 'Well, it's time to end this.' If he was really serious or had his sword this battle would have ended a long time ago.
Johnny quickly stood up as he felt Ray was about to attack, when suddenly
"BANGG!!!"
A loud sound reverberated as both of their attention were drawn to the source.
About 200 metres away, a building suddenly caved in without any visible cause.
They both stared in the distance in confusion.
Wait! Without any visible cause. It has to be it.
Ray's eyes began scanning around at an abnormal rate for the slightest change which he found. A small block which had broken out of the building, suddenly got crushed.
'Got you!' Ray was about to take off when he saw a figure.
"Sylph?"