The battery Femi had just activated was given to him by Arwan.
Arwan gave it to Femi saying, "The Syncro Trio are blessed with formidable strength, in front of such people you will lose. That's how the world works now." Arwan claimed he was one of many who had experienced defeat to such people.
Femi found the statement interesting and tried proving it wrong... and Arwan was right.
The synchro trio, albeit as a cover for their illegal doings, were experienced adventurers. Their strength could be testified by multiple adventurers in the city.
Gallagher used his body mass perfectly to cover for his strength. As a fish man, Eva was already slightly stronger than the average human coupled with the fact that she trained her body, she was the strongest of the three. Only Ruth was weaker than Femi in all aspects.
Fermi also reached a conclusion that his sword art didn't work as well as it should when there was a considerable gap in raw strength between him and the enemy. After years of practicing, he found a downside in his sword art. This was to show the best way to learn was through legitimate experience.
Femi tried putting himself in a tough situation where he wouldn't be able to use his full concentration and the tether battery Arwan gave him, in hopes that a new scenario would be created and his hunch would detect a suitable path for him to follow.
Minutes into the fight, feeling no signs of his emotions being released here, Femi realized it was a futile attempt. He'd rather finish this on time and move to his next business.
The particular battery Femi wielded was an illegal one that shortly increased the strength of its with an aftereffect of extreme weakening after the burst of strength wore out.
It became illegal because people were so addicted to the short power increase that they forgot the repercussions eventually leading to a lot of stupid deaths.
Tonic was the organization that majorly developed this battery, and as someone with considerable background, Arwan got the details on the development of this battery.
After multiple years of trying, with the usual help of Killian, they created a more potent battery with more draining aftereffects that Arwan planned to use incase of emergencies.
Femi felt the surge of strength cours through his body. It was obvious to anyone seeing him that a change was happening as the body suit he wore underneath had begun exuding a bluish hue.
The mask Femi wore was a trigger to heighten his concentration. It was a mental thing his old man taught him to activate a certain trait he had.
"What's that?" Gallagher said under his breath.
"A buff battery," Eva responded. Feeling that things might truly became dire, she urged the rest of the trio, "Fuck it. Don't let him get used to the sudden increase of strength! Rush him. It seems he also came prepared, we've been breached. It's all planned! Don't hesitate to rush him! We need to kill him!"
Feeling the air gradually become tense, the rest of the Sycnro Trio accepted reality. They had to kill a kid with their own hands.
Gallagher brought his shield out while Ruth changed her blunt bullets to more dangerous bullets. Eva always fought with the motive of killing, so she was going to move more aggressively than she'd been.
Femi didn't wait to get used to the increase of strength. He immediately launched himself at the trio's location.
He brought his sword down to hit Eva but his downward slash was intercepted by Gallagher's shield.
Finding a gap in Femi's defense, like he did to her, Eva kicked him at the side of his stomach.
Femi flew but he didn't fall.
The bodysuit by default couldn't completely absorb damage. No bodysuit could do that. The suit Femi wore absorbed 70% damage while the Syncro Trio had one that absorbed 50% damage.
But attacks that affected the internal organs caused damage that could bypass the bodysuit's absorption. A trick that was rarely spoken about, even dealing more damage than remnant damage.
Femi took note of that as he felt a metallic taste swell up on his tongue. His internal organs were damaged at that moment.
Knowing his opponents were taking things easy again, Femi smiled!
He gripped his sword with his two hands as tight as possible whilst he became familiar with his strength. He breathed in to calm his body and tried triggering his utmost concentration.
As he felt his concentration heighten, he ran towards the direction of the approaching Eva.
Right before Femi clashed with her, the world moved at a drastically low speed. It moved so slow, it looked like the world stopped!
In this abnormal situation, only Femi's brain moved at the normal speed.
This was a trait Femi developed while he was training his sword skills. Although his perspective and senses of the world were reduced and limited, in this state he could take in information and process it at a faster speed compared to the norm.
He called this trait, [Lagged Plane].
He didn't rely on his eyes when the world was moving in this state. He could extend his other senses to feel this environment perfectly.
In the split moment he was in the [Lagged Plane], he could detect that Eva was fast approaching him. Behind her, Gallagher waited for the bit that Femi's defense would be open. Ruth stayed from a distance, her hands already on the trigger, also waiting for the right moment to attack.
Femi could only be in the [Lagged Planes] for 20 seconds within 24 hours.
In order to use it to his advantage as much as possible, he trained to use all that was in his arsenal at a faster rate when he was in that state. Femi also cut its use to 5 seconds per use making him able to use it repeatedly, 4 times within 24 hours.
After digesting the knowledge and coming up with a suitable plan, Femi released the state and immediately, his sword clashed with Eva's dagger causing little sparks.
The clashing did not stop as Femi displayed his now superior strength to Eva. Using his footworks and moving his center of gravity, he added weight to his sword, sending one of Eva's daggers out of her hand because he had hit her wrist with great force.
Femi continued his assault, stabbing her repeatedly within seconds. It was too overwhelming to block with one dagger.
~Bang!~
Ruth shot.
Femi had expected the bullet to head towards his direction but not with this precision. The issue was that he had underestimated the shaking Ruth's aim. Even in a situation where she was nervous, she showed her exceptional gunman skills and supported her teammate.
He was able to dodge the bullet by mere centimeters after entering and exiting the [Lagged Planes] again. As he was in that state, he also absorbed the trio's new position and formulated a new path to follow.
Femi could dodge the bullet but any movement he made would put him in a different dire situation, which was why he chose the most painful yet advantageous situation.
Femi dodged the bullet, and as a follow up, he was hit full force by Gallagher's gauntlet.
Aside from his internal organs rumbling as an effect from the punch, the remnant damage that the suit didn't absorb was still effective enough to damage Femi. It broke some of his ribs! But Femi had a state of mind where he'd brush up any pain.
He feared nothing!
Under the mask, he smiled at the pain he felt and charged at Gallagher.
Gallagher was slow. He couldn't react to Femi who had speed that even beat Eva.
Femi kicked the floor to launch himself, entering Gallagher's range and centimeters to Gallagher's chest. He shifted his center of gravity, pushing all his weight to hit Gallagher's chest with his shoulder while also getting ready to stab Gallagher in the heart.
As it should be though, Gallagher's body suit stopped the sword with the remnant damage not affecting him much. He took the opportunity to create distance from Femi.
Ignoring the fact that his last attack was considerably weak, Femi was not someone that'd wait. He continued his charge but this time, as Gallagher was used to his relentlessness, he set up his shield to block.
"Don't do that! It's helping him!" Eva yelled. She was the first one to understand Femi's technique. She knew what he was aiming for.
Femi on the other hand was unsatisfied with both himself and his opponents. He just wanted to end things as soon as possible.