It was almost 9:00P.M. on Monday, and Ryu was running next to a large muscular man towards an abandoned building. Around him was sketchy figures of all types, this truly was not a good neighborhood to be in at night. Some of the pedestrians looked at him as if he was prey, whether they wanted to mug him or just rough him up a little bit, their gazes were imposing. Ryu was too focused to even notice or care.
'I have to win this fight, I can't lose'
'I have to win this fight, I can't lose'
Ryu was repeating this mantra in his head, trying to give himself every little bit of luck he could.
Ryu looked over to Kenji who smiled and gave him a thumbs up, then Ryu focused on the wide-open door frame at the foot of the building. He knew that they wouldn't be fighting on the first floor, rather they'd be fighting on the top floor.
As he entered the building he saw an empty shell, or rather carcass, of a building. There were uncovered metal beams supporting the building, without these Ryu doubted the project would still be standing. Looking up there were many holes up in the ceiling, or the floor of the second story. Some of these holes allowed him to see the stars in the sky, indicating a large drop down from the highest floor.
He quickly took to the staircase with Kenji and ran up the floors. As they were approaching the top floor, they could feel the building swaying in the wind.
'I hope the building doesn't lose its fight with the wind before either of us win ours.'
"Yo, stay on the second to highest floor, if you hear me call out help, or hear anything suspicious, come up, okay?" said Ryu to Kenji in a gravely serious tone, which was unusual for Ryu.
Kenji got the message from Ryu's unusual tone and curtly responded with an, "Okay."
'Alright it's go time.'
As Ryu ascended the last flight of stairs, he saw Kenzo sitting alone on the top of the building, he was sitting on one of the large drop offs, a metal beam being the only thing holding him from sudden death due to falling.
Without turning around, Kenzo started talking, "Hello Ryu, I've been waiting for a little bit, I'm surprised the biggest coward in our school showed up to a fight."
Kenzo laughed after finishing his statement.
Ryu refused to let him feel superior in any way and replied with, "I'm surprised you showed up, I can't hold back when I fight, so don't blame me for your injuries."
"Oh, Yeah, let's get started then," said Kenzo. As he finished speaking, he brought himself up onto his two feet, and walked over the beam, slowly he approached Ryu with a menacing look in his eyes.
Ryu remembered that he had the examine skill, but he didn't want to use a cheat method like his system to win, so he resorted to fighting Kenzo like he would normally fight anyone.
As Kenzo was approaching Ryu, Ryu felt a small pang of fear radiate throughout his entire body but ignored it. Sadly, even though Ryu was stronger you can't remove the trauma of being brutally bullied by someone every day for the past few years.
"Fwoosh"
A punch flew by Ryu, but he dodged it with his heightened reaction speed.
"So, you felt so threatened you had to get a cheap shot in," said Ryu.
"Whatever," replied Kenzo.
As Kenzo replied he threw another punch which Ryu dodged effortlessly.
It was clear Kenzo wasn't fully trying against Ryu yet.
Suddenly Ryu assumed a Muay Thai fighting position, and he could feel his agility stat increasing by the second.
Surprisingly to Kenzo, Ryu took the initiative, and damn was he fast.
One second Kenzo saw Ryu, the next he was almost right next to him.
Ryu charged up into a round kick and nailed Kenzo straight into the body.
As Kenzo's momentum was carrying him back Ryu hit him with his elbow as he was falling.
Kenzo regained balance, but his nose was now fractured and bleeding from the elbow strike.
"NOW YOU'VE MESSED UP," screamed Kenzo, clearly enraged.
'Hyper Focus'
As he hyper focused time felt a s if it was slowing down, Ryu was now able to analyze all of his decisions and movements much quicker.
Ryu approached Kenzo, and made one foot grounded, as he launched into the air and flew at him with a sparring tornado kick.
"WHAM"
Kenzo was quick to block the hit, but the power from behind the kick made his arms ache in immense pain.
"Ugh," Ryu screamed out as his attack was countered with a body shot.
Kenzo's strength was no joke, with one body shot being landed, Ryu felt the wind knocked out of him and pain shot throughout his entire body, it took all of his strength just to stay standing.
"Bam"
In the shock of the first body shot, Ryu left himself open for a second body shot.
'Focus, focus, focus'
Ryu took a defensive stance and let Kenzo come after him.
As Kenzo rapidly approached Ryu, Ryu had to wonder how high his agility stat was in comparison to his strength, because he definitely was no slouch in either regard.
"Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam"
Strike after strike was thrown at Ryu, and lacking room to dodge because of missing floor panels, Ryu had to guard against every hit.
Ryu himself took another fighting stance that seemed to match Kenzo's, but instead of fighting orthodox his boxing stance was southpaw, this gave him a slight advantage against Kenzo as Kenzo wasn't used to fighting against unorthodox boxing stances.
Ryu threw a jab at Kenzo, then threw a jab kick he had learned from kickboxing. Ryu slowly felt his agility stat decreasing, while the rest of his stats increased from the Boxer Puncher specialization bonus.
Both of his jabs were effortlessly dodged by Kenzo.
"You're gonna' have to be a lot better than this," said Kenzo and he started laughing menacingly.
As Kenzo was gloating, Ryu hit him in the bottom of the left side of his jaw, he did this by throwing a full-strength uppercut.
After that punch connected, Kenzo started to see some stars in the peripheral of his vision.
"Enough playing!" said Kenzo.
It was almost as if this was a signal to Kenzo's friends. Because after he said this 5 of his goons from school walked out from behind a cement wall that was barely holding up about 20 feet in the opposite direction of Ryu.
They were all holding metal, some had metal pipes, others had bars, and one had a knife.
"This is the end of the line, Ryu," said Kenzo.
Ryu felt fear shred through his body, he was shivering in fear at the sight of these thugs in front of him.
'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap'
'It sounds like there's multiple people up there,' thought Kenji.
He quickly ripped off a metal bar from the side of the staircase that was meant to be part of a guard rail of some sorts for the stairwell.
Kenji ran at full speed up the stairs.
'There's no way I'm losing my best friend,' thought Kenji.
Even though Kenji barely hung out with Ryu, he had come to care about him as much as he would a brother, if he lost Ryu, he'd probably lose himself. Because of this his decision making was already impaired as he was seeing red and was filled with rage.