Chapter 463: Skilled Hunter
Blake continued to ride the motorcycle back down the highway and across the bridge, heading to the meeting place they had agreed on. On the way, he was trying to come up with a believable excuse without implicating himself. Clenching his fist hard around the handle, the teenager was also trying to forget about the cut and pain that he had on his arm.
‘According to the media, us Altered Hunters are supposed to be the bad guys, but I know that’s a lie that people simply believe in because they’ve been told.’ Blake thought. ‘However, am I really any better if I were to believe that every Altered and every person who wants to become one is automatically bad, simply because I’ve been told that since young… even then I know for sure that Gary and his friends are not like the rest?’
——
“Alright, it’s decided then.” Josh said with a big smile as he looked at the show of hands. “Since the majority wants to go after the Tier-4 No Land Gang, we’ll ignore the Tier-3 Howlers for now. As Blake said, it’s not our job to clean up after normal gangs and we’ll focus on the gang who have a confirmed Altered with them.”
Blake felt like letting out a sigh of relief, but he controlled himself, not wanting to make it obvious that his opinion was more than just ‘logical’. He was just happy that the older members seemed far more interested in taking down an Altered to advance their own promotion over simply getting the solution.
The Altered Hunters had their ways of tracking down the gangs, and Josh didn’t really explain how they were able to know their current location or when. At the moment, the No Land Gang seemed to be heading to an underpass of a bridge.
It went over the river of the city, but underneath it, there was a walking path, graphite and more, and it was also a popular hang out spot for some of the younger ones. At the same time, according to Josh, the No Land Gang were there to do some type of deal.
It was detailed information, down to even knowing what gang they were going to meet. It seemed impossible to gather this type of information unless they had someone on the inside.
‘If they know this much about the No Land Gang, then does it mean they also know a lot more about the Howlers than what was on the intel?’
There wasn’t really a plan that had been set, Josh just sat around waiting for a while and then. When he stated it was the right time, each of them got on their motorbikes in pairs of two, and started to ride off to the location.
——
At the underbridge, a group of eight men, all with dyed green hair and ragged clothing, were walking confidently on the pebble-like surface. They stomped their feet as they continued to walk and eventually stopped.
The men in the back were carrying quite a few things, including some of the Altered weapons, that they had gotten from the auction as well. Rather than carrying them, though, they were holding them as if they were ready to use them at any point and time.
“Come on out!” Kit shouted. “You were the ones who called us out here, remember?! At least, show up time, dammit!!!”
After shouting these words, a group of men appeared from around the corner. Wearing brown leathered clothing. Their group consisted of ten members, all of them were armed, although just with ordinary weapons.
“Hey, what's the big deal?” Kit asked, not dropping his smile in the least.
The man in the front straightened out his leather jacket a bit, before speaking.
“We had a deal.” The man began. “We were to pool our money together and would split the goods, but how exactly do you plan for us to split a single Altered solution, huh?!”
Kit's shoulders started to shake up and down, as he thought about him and laughed.
“Well, it's simple, you guys should have used your heads a bit more. You should never, make a deal with a group that’s stronger than you.”
Immediately, Kit grabbed what looked like a crossbow from one of his own gang member’s hands, and pulled the trigger. A bolt came shooting out, but the man in front had moved out of the way. Unfortunately, one of his fellow gang members was too slow, and the bolt pierced right through his head, leaving a hole behind and a corpse.
“Kill them all!” The man in the brown jacket shouted, and their fight turned bloody instantly. Knowing full well that the No Land Gang had an Altered among them, they had brought more people to suppress them.
However, due to the restrictions and movements tracked by those in Mofran City in the first place, it was impossible for them to bring more in. The fight was scrappy, with faces being punched, those being kicked, rocks behind picked up off the ground and slammed into each other’s faces.
Regardless of how dirty the Brown Jackets fought, they soon realised that the Altered weapons, the money that they had supplied as a Tier-4 gang to the No Land Gang to buy the weapons in the first place, became their downfall.
With a face covered in blood, Kit had just finished pounding the leader of the Brown Jacket’s face in. His knuckles were bloody as he continued to smile, and lifted his head.
“Haha, that makes another territory for the No Land Gang.” Kit announced loudly, earning him some cheers from his men. Suddenly, the gang leader’s ears started to twitch as he could hear the sound of something revving in the distance.
It was clear that it was the sound of motorbikes but not just one, it was a few of them. A few seconds later, coming from above, and riding down the hill onto the pebble path, the motorbikes landed and stopped.
Keeping their helmets on, they began to pull weapons out from the holders they had at the side of the bikes. One had a double-edged sword. Another a strange tooth-like weapon, a third two red blades in their hand, and the fourth had a sword which looked to be made from bones from the handle down. It was the weapon that they had seen at the auction.
“Well. I can’t say I didn’t expect others to go after us.” Kit stated. “It's clear that you want our items for yourselves, but you will end up just like them.”
A crossbow was fired again, from one of his gang members, towards the guys in the masks. Seeing this, Josh was ready to move out of the way of the bolt, but before he could, there was another by his side, who had struck the weapon down swinging his red sword, and knocking the bolt down.
Blake stood in front of him, and was eager to prove himself and show off his skills.
‘Is Blake really just a newly advanced one-star Hunter? What he did was skilful, perfect timing, and a strong powerful strike. He is one to watch out for.’
At the same time, what Blake had done, had set the tone for the No Land Gang and Kit. Their faces dropped, as they realised that these guys weren’t going to be as easy as the Brown Jackets.
Instantly, the young Altered Hunter charged in, and avoided an attack from a spear, knocking it away with one sword, attacking with the other making a strike at the chest.
‘I can see it again, this feeling, the white lines that are appearing. It tells me where my opponent's strike path is going to be, and the best place to attack.’
For some reason, Blake was back in the zone, just like he had been the time that he had fought against Billy. He had tried reaching it during his training, but he had never been able to achieve it… until now.
Another member came towards him, with a ball and chain. It had an electrified end, but the white line showed Blake where to strike, and when following it, the blade had gone right in the middle of the chain causing the ball to wrap around and cut short. Then, pulling the sword, the gang member had let go of the weapon from his hands. Blake was ready to strike again, but as he went to, the other one-star Hunter had thrust his spear forward, stabbing the man right in the stomach.
It was a quick thrust, and more importantly, the Altered Hunter’s footsteps were so silent that Blake didn’t even hear him approach.
“Hey, you're doing good, kid.” Josh stated. “Let us take care of the extras, why don’t you take care of the leader there, and be careful okay, because remember he’s an Altered.”
*****
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