With Thomas done with his match and the enemy figuring out who to choose next. Evan took this chance to negotiate a chance to talk with Derrick.
Yuri allows him 1 minute to check on Derrick while they choose who will fight next. Evan rushes over to Derrick and begins to use Ki healing on him to at least take care of any internal injuries that might threaten his life. Derrick begins to feel a bit better than before and manages a smile and tells Evan to not worry about him for now and to focus on the upcoming challenges to free themselves from this Russian gang. Evan nods and is called back after the full minute.
He smiles gently as he managed to recover some internal bleeding in Derrick to more manageable levels. Instead of needing a hospital in the next 2 hours, he managed to make it to where Derrick now just needs to go to a hospital for the injuries in general. He was still needing treatment, but no longer needed surgery to save his life. 'I should upgrade Ki healing further in the future. I think it might just save some lives at that point without needing to worry about getting them to a hospital.'
Soon they all gather again and as Evan waits he begins to use his massage skill and light healing skills on Thomas to make sure he was ready for the end result. His arms were heavily bruised and were also quivering from the abuse he put them through with his short but brutal match with Naoki.
The next fight is chosen and Hyo comes out to fight against Devon. Devon smirks as he says, "Well well well, if it isn't the weakling from the Zong dojo our gym always beat in the tournament! What are you doing here? Hoping to get more experience by getting a beating from a better fighter again?"
Hyo simply gets into his shaolin kung fu position and readies his body for combat. Devon shrugs thinking with his refined Jeet Kune Do that he will ace this Hyo guy without any trouble. After all with Bruce lee's record this is obviously the strongest martial art around!
The match begins with both Hyo and Devon rushing at each other. They clash hard and a loud smack is heard throughout the warehouse. Both fighters fight against each others strength but ultimately break away as they are evenly matched. Soon they manage to lock attacks again and again constantly meeting deadlocks with each other.
Devon gets tired of the stalemates and uses a surprise maneuver on Hyo. They clash a few times with punches and kicks meeting guards when he goes for a sweep kick on Hyo. The shaolin fighter sees it and leaps up only to gasp in shock as Devon twists the kick mid sweep and slams it into Hyo who is in an unguarded position midair.
Hyo goes flying and rolls along the ground for a few feet before crashing against the makeshift ring fence. He rubs his head before opening his eyes and catching a side kick from Devon. Who uses the caught leg as a leverage point and twists around to slam his other leg as a kick into Hyos face.
Hyos face snaps to the side from the force and almost breaks. He grits his teeth and barely forces his head back to focus on Devon despite the stars he was seeing and the light concussion he was sure he was facing.
He brings up his fists to uppercut into Devon. Only Devon leans back in time to avoid the punches. Hyo smirks as he foe dodged much to the confusion of the evil fighter, only for it all to become clear a second later when Hyo changes the trajectory of the double upper fist into a downward twin back hand strike.
Devon gasps in pain as the twin backhand lands on his sternum. He also feels the bones there creak and crack a bit from the force of the blow.
Hyo takes the chance to quickly back flip out of the way as Devon does a sharp kick at Hyo in retaliation. Hyo lands and Devon recovers his breath while panting a bit from the hit. Hyo is lightly stumbling as he is fighting off the head blow from earlier but is doing his best to stand strong and stay in the fight.
Devon smirks and adjusts his posture to be more relaxed hoping to lure Hyo into a false sense of security, "You know... You are pretty skilled dude! We could use someone with your skills and strength in our group!"
Hyo pants a bit harsher as he fights the residual spots in his eyes to refocus on Devon before answering, "Interesting, and what does this 'group' do exactly?"
Devons smirk widens as he flaunts his arms in a wide showman pose gesturing to their fighter group and his own, then the gang members, "This! An underground gang who can rule the other gangs without the need for fire arms or weapons! After all if you train hard enough! There are possibilities that you can actually take out entire battalions of well trained battle hardened soldiers! What do you say? Want to see if you have what it takes?"
Hyo chuckles a bit, then goes into a laugh. Devon and the Russian gang all grow confused expressions at that response before he looks at them all and gives them a response. "Hahah! Yeah... how about no? Listen here Devon if you had approached my dojo with this offer about a month and a half ago? We would have taken it! A chance to grow beyond normal human potential? Sign me up!"
He then looks back at his new group of friends with Evan smiling at him and Zara and Zoey both giving him thumbs ups. He grins at them before facing Devon again, "But now? Well... I have a group of friends that supports my efforts honestly. You may have a goal to break human limits and reach those legendary ranks. But for me? I don't need to become the strongest most legendary fighter in the world. Instead... All I need are my friends by my side to protect at all costs!"
Hyo unknowingly channels his energy and his eyes glow a bit brighter making Devon flinch at his aura and the look of pure determination and conviction in him. Hyo then yells out, "And with them by my side! I know I can take on any foe! Including you! Friends and family are a true power that can make anyone push their limits! I don't need you to help me see that or experience it! I live it everyday I can spend with them!"
His ki flows through his body freely as he empowers himself unconsciously making his muscles tense up, harden to near iron level, and his speed explode to nearly double.
Evan gasps as he sees the newest notification about Hyo's break through.
*Congratulations! Your ally Hyo has realized a solid truth of the soul!
He has evolved into Demigod ranked physique! Evolution successful!
His Ki level has shot up to rank 8!
He has gained rank 1 ki healing!
He has gained rank 1 Ki regeneration!
He has unlocked ki cultivation techniques!
He has become a true ally and is now registered as a brother figure in the system data banks!*
Evan couldn't help but go slack jawed at this information as everyone else is going slack jawed alongside him as they see a dimly glowing Hyo rush towards Devon who is now entirely consumed with fear and uncertainty as Hyo seems to have suddenly doubled in strength.
Devon readies a defense but Hyo simply finds the opening in it and slams a ki empowered palm right into the open rib. Hearing a satisfying crack from it Hyo moves to Devons flank as the evil fighter instinctively goes to cover the hurt rib and try to support it from the now large crack in it.
He removes his tensed muscles as he does that though and gives Hyo the opening he needs to land a trio of kicks to Devons side. All three of the side kicks landing painfully in Devons kidney region. This pain causes the corrupt fighter to gasp in pain and stumble from the force of the blows. Devon grits his teeth and glares with pure annoyance and hatred at Hyo. He has gotten over his fear and concern thanks to the pain snapping him out of his attention to the pressure he felt from Hyo.
He turns quickly with a snap kick coming at Hyo and a follow up 12 hit combo ready to try and put him down as fast as possible. Hyo sees it coming and the wave of follow up combos coming behind it, so to make sure he did well he pumped himself full of another dose of ki unknowingly and began to skillfully dodge each strike.
The kick came first and he tilted his body to where it would pass by him by just an inch. Then came the follow up punch, with a tilt of his head Hyo dodged this one too. Then a kick was dodged by an inch, then an elbow strike, then a palm strike, and so on. The combo went off, but not one hit managed to actually impact Hyo.
Hyo was suddenly at the end of the combo hit and right in front of Devon's face. Making the corrupt fighter flinch back at the sudden close proximity. he tries to back up and gain some distance for a follow up move. But is intercepted by Hyo who follows up and does something that only Evan figured would appear.
Hyo suddenly bends his knees, cocks back both hands in an open palm position, and tenses every muscle he has while flowing with the previous ki doses he pumped himself with. Devon steels his muscles to endure any attack as he realized that he has no time or space to dodge back. Only to sweat buckets as the oppressive feeling oozes off of Hyo once more.
Devon gulps in fear right before Hyo moves, and he moves so fast that it was barely caught by the eyes of the most experienced people here. Evan pumped his fist in cheer and support of Hyo when he sees this move again.
Hyo unleashes a ki boosted Mubyoshi into the center or Devons core. The corrupt fighter tries to brace himself for it only to realize too late that this attack was almost impossible to block. It was too fast. Too efficient. And too powerful.
His whole body folded in half as the attack landed square into his diaphragm as he gasps and nearly hurls his lunch out from the quick yet heavy blow. He tries to draw in air as his lungs nearly collapse and his ribs all crack from the hit. His joints creak as the vibration from the blow hits all over him and he goes flying into the fence.
The force of his body hitting it makes the whole ring buckle from the power. And the fence nearly breaks, actually having a permanent dent in it's side now. Hyo pants harshly as he used more ki than ever before and he was not yet used to the feeling. He was named the winner as Devon is carted off to the Gang's local underground doctor.
Hyo stumbles as he returns to his friends and Evan catches him. He goes, "Good to see you can improve even further Hyo! You will reach greater heights than you can imagine."
Hyo grins with a tired look on his face as he is sat down next to Thomas who is much better now. Zoey is stretching as the enemy force is now getting ready to send Alicia into the ring for the next match.
Evan knows they only need to hold out a maximum of another 15 minutes. But he hopes they will do well enough to actually survive those next 15 minutes. The last 3 are no slouches and will probably be the most challenging ones yet for their remaining fighters.
Evan glares at Yuri as the large man simply stares at Evan with a smile that promises a lot of pain in his future. Evan focuses on Zoey's match next as the two female fighters enter the now repaired ring.