*BAM*
The sound of Vox's arrogant ass uniting with the hard waxed floor of the Velvet Serpent's main hall reverberated in everyone's ears. A sound only heard because the onstage performance had halted the moment Bell made her appearance and kicked Vox and his friends out of her establishment.
After all the training they'd received, none of the girls could do something as disrespectful as continuing their performance, risking the possibility of stealing attention from the madam as she enforced her sovereignty and reprimanded the leader of some disrespectful guests.
The same leader who got taught a lesson he would never forget by the young man from another world, adorned in tattered clothes and a borrowed jacket.
The force Avery had punched Vox with not only sent him on a crash course between the cold hard floor and his rear end, but, after the first impact, the momentum gained from the punch remained, causing the victim to skid a few feet backward until his back also met the floor.
The sudden and intense collision of his back on the floor caused Vox's entire body to bounce at least an inch off the floor and on landing, his body began to roll toward the stage.
He rolled on the floor three times before he finally stopped on his stomach, hands and legs spread apart like a deadman.
Everyone who witnessed the insanity couldn't help but stare in utter silence, afraid of the sight of what could easily be mistaken as Vox's lifeless body lying on the floor.
If he wasn't dead then he was at least unconscious, no doubt.
They couldn't believe what their eyes witnessed as the outcome of a single punch from someone considerably smaller than the victim. After all, Avery was a regular human like the rest of them, right?
Vox's jaw was destroyed and it wouldn't be a surprise if every bone in it had been completely shattered. Some of his teeth had left their roots, become lubricated by his blood and scattered on the floor in front of his mouth.
It was the blood from his mouth that made everyone wonder if he had hit his head on impact with the floor and was now bleeding from there.
Although they thought that and honestly had no problem if an asshole who threatened Bell met such a fate, within their hearts, they prayed for that not to be the case because if it was then that would mean that Vox was dead, and for Avery's sake that would be quite the complication.
They didn't want someone like Avery, who, mere minutes ago, was being attacked and bullied by Vox and his friends to now be known as a murderer because he tried to save his companion, Centshuu, from being stabbed.
Avery, who stood tall and proud after successfully landing his advanced uppercut on Vox, quickly snapped out of his state of extreme focus that made him initiate his two attacks in the first place.
The anger he felt that pushed him to act as he did had also vanished, leaving the young man confused as he looked at the unconscious Vox on the floor and then at his left hand, pondering what just happened.
Avery turned his left hand and stared at the back after feeling some discomfort and pain from having punched someone as hard as he did.
He clenched and released his fist a few times, trying to confirm the condition of the hand because the discomfort and pain he felt might have been worse than he thought.
After testing each finger's natural motion, a smile of gratitude adorned his face, because in what could only be seen as a miracle, he managed to not break or sprain any bone as a result of the punch.
After all, he didn't think of something as important as proper fist form to prevent recoil when delivering the punch which just showed how much his muscle memory helped in positioning his fist properly, thereby preventing damage from happening to him.
Still, besides the pain and discomfort he felt, there was bruising, slight swelling, and redness of his knuckles, but fortunately, they were all bearable injuries. A slight mis-positioning of his fist against Vox's jaw and the results would have been catastrophic, but thankfully they were nothing too serious.
For Avery anyway. Vox, on the other hand, was an entirely different story.
Avery was okay, happy that he came off almost unscathed until he finally noticed the splatters of blood on the back of his hand. Results from hitting Vox with the amount of power he did that ended up sending a man of such weight class flying off the floor.
Immediately he saw the evidence of what he had done on his left hand, Avery swiftly craned his head to stare at and properly observe the condition of the lifeless seeming Vox a few feet away, and he realized the severity of what he had done.
His bloodied limb, which at that point was akin to a deadly weapon, started to tremble.
His eyes fidgeted, blinking rapidly and his mind became hazy.
"Did I do that? I didn't mean to do that. I didn't mean to hit him that hard. I didn't know it was possible for any person, let alone me to hit someone that hard. When did my strength get to such a level? Fuck! Is he dead? Did I kill a person by accident? Did I just become a murderer on my first day in another world? Please, God, let him not be what I think he is. But what if he is dead? What do I do? He can't be dead, can he—" Avery rambled, breathing heavily and becoming increasingly lightheaded.
He couldn't come to terms with his involvement in Vox's possible fatal condition. As a result, he began to go into shock when Centshuu who predicted what would happen if they allowed him to sink more into his head, acted.
Centshuu placed both hands on Avery's shoulders and then lowered himself until both of them were of the same head level.
"Hey Avery, snap out of it!" Centshuu said but Avery was unresponsive.
"Avery, I said you should snap out of it. Are you going to start disobeying me now—?" Centshuu said, snapping his fingers in front of Avery's face but was interrupted by Ripple whom Avery's condition had caused to calm down.
"Centshuu" Ripply said, causing Centshuu to look at him.
Looking at his right-hand man, Centshuu saw the stare of concern Ripply had for his well-being. After all, he was the target of Vox's attack not so long ago.
"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. As you saw, the pug made sure of that but now he's in this situation because of it." Centshuu said as he looked at Avery and scratched his forehead.
Ripply looked at Avery and said "Looking at his current state, it seems very similar to his reaction when you asked how he got all that blood on himself while not having any open injuries to show that it was his"
Centshuu grimace.
"Yeah, it is the same response, alright. Maybe it's a result of the memory loss or the cause of the memory loss, but for some reason, the pug's mind is not that strong. Especially, when it comes to tragedy because he sure can handle violence just fine or else he wouldn't have been able to defend himself before" Centshuu gave his hypothesis.
Looking at Avery, Ripply crossed his arms and grunted while Kenser rushed to his side, concerned about Avery's wellbeing.