The three challengers finished their encirclement and created a triangle around Chris. Since Chris wasn't moving or attacking, even while they were walking around him like hyenas, the three challengers gradually began getting some confidence. They were still wary, but thoughts of them actually being able to win wormed their way inside their minds.
After a while of the four fighters just tip-toeing around the ring and each other, challengers one and two decided to attack right before the crowd started booing. Since Chris was facing challenger three, the other two assumed they could launch a sneak attack and get the jump on Chris.
The thought that it was a cowardly move that would earn them the crowd's displeasure didn't even enter the three challengers' minds. All they cared about was winning and surviving. Since they had lost all their pol, they wouldn't experience a complete restoration if they died.
With challenger three keeping Chris' attention, challengers one and two successfully closed the distance. But before they could catch Chris with their arms that looked like they wanted to embrace Chris, he dashed forward.
Chris narrowly escaped challengers one and two's attack, and since he was faster than them, he reached challenger three before they could catch up.
Challenger three was flustered by Chris' sudden charge, but he had kept his eyes on Chris the entire fight ever since the bell rang, so he hurried to face his charge. Challenger three leaned forward and prepared to receive Chris' tackle by putting one foot behind the other.
Challenger three left himself open to strikes and punches, but he was confident enough in his ability to read Chris' movements to tell that Chris was going to tackle him. Since Chris was sprinting full speed toward challenger three, it wasn't exactly difficult to make that prediction.
But thought processes had a tendency to slow down when faced with a looming threat that was bound to arrive in only a few moments. So, the fact that challenger three accurately predicted and prepared for Chris' movements was almost praiseworthy.
It would have actually been impressive if challenger three didn't forget the most important thing. Chris was strong. A lot stronger than challenger three, in fact.
No matter how much challenger three anticipated and prepared, he wouldn't be able to stop the charge of a raging bull.
Chris hit challenger three like a freight train. But instead of simply tackling challenger three, Chris locked his arms around his body and brought him with him as he jumped up. Since he was carrying an entire man with him, Chris didn't get very high up, but it was still enough to make the entire ring shake when they landed on it after the short trip through the air.
Well, challenger three landed on the ring floor. Chris landed on top of challenger three both to soften the blow on himself and to deal even more damage to challenger three.
Challenger three, who struck the floor with his back, had the air knocked out of him and cracked or broke multiple ribs. And since his head snapped back and cracked against the floor as well, his vision was blurry, and his ears were filled with an incessant ringing that was only worsened by the crowd's cheer.
However, he was still conscious enough to sense that Chris wasn't done. Chris didn't even bother getting up since it would waste too much time and started hammering challenger three's face as much as he could before the other two challengers caught up.
Despite challengers one and two running as fast as they could, Chris still managed to unleash a flurry of strikes that put challenger three in the middle of consciousness and unconsciousness.
Chris had shown frightening strength as he jumped into the air with challenger three, but challengers one and two couldn't hesitate as they tackled Chris to get him off of challenger three.
The challengers knew just as well as the champion that the numerical advantage was the only advantage they had. They weren't stronger, faster, more experienced, or in any other way better than Chris when it came to fighting. The only thing they could rely on was the fact that there were three of them, which technically meant that they had the strength of three men if they worked together. That much should be enough to defeat Chris.
But as soon as they lost one of their own, the challengers would lose a third of their strength, and then it would become exponentially harder to win against Chris.
However, one of the more quick-witted challengers noticed something. Chris would only need to go so far that he risked getting attacked by the other two challengers if he was worried that the three challengers working together would be enough to beat him.
And if Chris was worried about getting defeated, it meant that there was a chance for the challengers to win.
So, after they pushed him off of challenger three, challengers one and two didn't hesitate to give him the same treatment he had been giving to challenger three. They started punching him as much as they could by taking advantage of the disorientation he suffered from getting tackled and rolled to the ground.
Since the challengers' fists were born out of desperation, they were heavy, and Chris was forced to curl up in a fetal position to protect his head and body.
But it didn't take long until the comparatively weak and untrained challengers lost their momentum. Since Chris hadn't moved for several minutes, it should be fine if they took a moment to catch their breaths. They didn't stop punching Chris. They just grew tired, and the intensity weakened.
However, as soon as they let up their assault, Chris seized the opportunity to grab challenger one by the arm and roll on the ground, bringing challenger one with him over his body and slamming him down on the ground.
Challenger one's body struck the ground like a starfish, and he lay splayed out with his arms and legs. Challenger two was shocked by the sudden turn of events but Chris was about to turn to him, so challenger two snapped out of his daze and prepared to defend himself.