This wasn’t the first underground fight that Innu had appeared at. He had been to quite a few before and each time he showed off his skills there would be those that approached him. It was the first time he had been to one of this size, so he thought today would be the day he finally decided to join a gang. 

To him, it was a stepping stone. These small gangs would be recruited by bigger gangs in the future, or maybe if he stood out he would get on the fast track but for some reason, when he heard this Blonde boy speak, he did so with a confidence different to all the others. Which made him want to know more about him.

A smile appeared on Innu’s face as this was less a bet and more of a win-win scenario for him. Either way he would get a lot of cash, but it did serve its purpose to make him intrigued.

Suddenly, he started paying a lot more attention to the ongoing fight. Innu recognised that Green Fang was able to see Billy’s movements clearly, yet neither his punching nor his kicking showed any signs of being a trained fighter.

Between the two of them, there was also another clear difference. Weight class. The weight class of one was too large of a gap to overcome. From the few hits that Gary had landed on his opponent, none seemed to have had any effect so his downfall would be whenever Billy managed to catch him. In the middle of the fight, he wouldn’t suddenly grow in strength. Perhaps he might be able to tire out his opponent, but this arena had something that would combate that strategy to make things more interesting.

If fights took too long, the crowd would start to close in on the fighters, forcefully shrinking down the arena size. Eventually there would not be enough room for fighters like Gary to evade, in which case a couple of hits from Billy and he would win.

“Why would I say no, to free money?” Innu chuckled, holding out his hand, and Kai slapped it, confirming their deal. Although Innu believed there was a low chance of losing the bet, he also wouldn’t mind. The way Kai treated money as just something he could throw around leisurely, Innu was sure that joining him wouldn’t be entirely bad. Besides, the eyes of that fellow gave off the feeling that he knew what he was doing. 

‘Now it’s all up to you, Green Fang,’ Kai thought, as he went over to place the bet.

***

In the middle of the match, Gary made a discovery. Looking at his stats he noticed that his Energy value had dropped by two points. His System had only told him that Energy would be used to restore his HP when idle and that meat could be used to fill it up. Apart from that, he had been under the impression that it would function as a sort of a Stamina bar. 

Despite all the running and wild swinging he had been doing, he still felt like he could go on for hours, so if it was that, then he had far more stamina than a normal human. He just had to take a look at Billy for that. The fighter was no longer in the best shape of his life with sweat visibly dripping down from his face. Deep huffing and panting and his swings were getting slower as his arms felt heavier.

‘Should I just wait for him to run out of gas?’ Gary wondered, yet at that point a buzzer-like sound could be heard. The next moment, everyone in the crowd took a single step forward. Suddenly the arena had gotten smaller.

Gary didn’t know the rules of the event, but he could tell that something was about to change, and it was unlikely to be anything good. With Gary looking around in a slight confusion, Billy saw it as a chance and went in for a grab. With no path of retreat, Gary went to do the only thing he could do. 

‘It should be something like this, right?!’ Jumping off his feet towards the other guy, he shoved his right knee forward. Billy’s head had been slightly tilted, so Gary’s knee connected with the other’s face.

From the outside it looked like an exact replica of what Innu had done before. The one in question nearly choked on his beer as he watched how his move had been copied after seeing it once.

Alas, unlike Innu, Gary lacked the experience to follow up. He had clearly heard and felt Billy’s nose break and thought this would be the end of it. The reality of the matter was, that the other was able to shake the hit, and filled with rage swung his right fist, for the first time managing to hit Gary. 

He wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but Gary could have sworn he heard a few cracking sounds as he was sent tumbling to the ground holding his side. 

The pain was intense and with every breath he took it seemed to hurt even more. 

‘Does that blob have a sledgehammer hidden in those gloves?!’

[You have been inflicted with a grave injury]

[-17 HP]

[83/100 HP]

[Your left rib cage has been broken]

[Energy points will be used to perform emergency healing]

[-10 Energy]

[88/100 Energy]

As soon as this message appeared, Gary could feel something escape his body. His real energy sapped away, while at the same time his breathing got better. A few breaths later and he was back to normal. It was as if he had never been hit in the first place. His broken bones had completely healed. However, while looking at his HP value it said otherwise.

‘Whoa!’ Gary thought, tapping his hurt side slightly. ‘I healed, and so quickly. Is this what it means to be a werewolf?”

******

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