Battle X Slaughter

"Are you crazy? You want to steal my goods?"

Kevin threw a punch. The tall, thin man reacted swiftly as well. The instant Kevin rushed at him, though confused, he instinctively responded.

He crossed his arms and blocked the blow.

Since he had already attacked, there was no reason to stop. He was not particularly skilled at fighting, but he had some experience with brawling.

Taking advantage of the surprise attack, he kept throwing punches and kicks. Drawing on the results of his training over the past few days, he directed the surging Aura to the parts of his body used for attacking, letting it burst forth and make his strikes more damaging.

The tall, thin man did his best to block, but a solid punch still landed on his shoulder.

Using the impact to retreat several steps, he glared fixedly at Kevin.

"You bastard, you think I'm beneath you? Don't think you're the only one who can use this power. I've learned it too. Die!"

Kevin tilted his head aside to evade the straight punch. His opponent's knuckles scraped across the shelf, knocking two cans of motor oil to the ground.

The tall, thin man stepped back, kicking up oil slicks across the floor. Sweat seeped through his black work pants, glistening under the overhead lights.

Had he misjudged him?

The instant he made his move, Kevin had made a simple assessment of his enemy's possible strength.

Over this period, he had learned about the original owner of this body. There was no question that he looked sickly, like some bookworm who spent all day in a laboratory. Other than his gloomy expression, he had no intimidating presence whatsoever.

Yet ever since arriving, this man had actually positioned himself beneath Kevin. Not out of fear, but more as though he simply could not measure up to him.

That behavior allowed Kevin to conclude that the other man's strength was definitely lower than that of the original owner.

And Kevin could not accept the man's actions at all. If he wanted to be selfish, he could have pretended not to see anything and fled once the man left.

Calling the police was even less of an option, because "he" was not exactly clean either.

That made fighting him and then restraining him the best choice.

So after making his judgment, he acted.

While thinking, he relied on muscle memory and instinct to evade the man's attack, then landed an uppercut beneath his ribs.

Kevin heard a dull sound like something breaking. His opponent staggered into the side door of the van, and the anti-theft Alarm suddenly shrieked through the rainy night.

It had been a misjudgment, but not entirely.

From the man's words, it seemed he had only just grasped this so-called Aura and was still a beginner.

He might even have been at the same stage as Kevin, but this body had retained its muscle memory. Kevin's command of it was surely greater than his opponent's.

Amid ragged breaths mixed with the scent of rust, Kevin noticed the man's right hand sliding down along the gap in the car door—where a magnetic box holding the spare key was hidden.

His other hand swung a wrench slick with motor oil at him.

Kevin ducked and barely avoided it. The metal tool smashed into the shelf with an earsplitting crash.

Accompanying the fight were the frightened muffled whimpers of the girls. If their mouths had not been stuffed, they would have been screaming already.

Except for the Blonde Twin-Tailed Loli, the only one outside the vehicle, who was tied up.

She watched the two men fight, her expression more one of disdain.

She even seemed to want to say something, but ultimately held it back.

The tall, thin man spun with the momentum, whipping his left leg like a lash toward the shelf behind Kevin. The blow carried even greater force, instantly collapsing the already unstable shelf and sending everything piled on it crashing down.

Kevin rolled away from the flying garage clutter, but his lower back slammed hard against the edge of the lift platform.

The tall, thin man, now battered and bruised, did not press his advantage. Instead, he rushed for the car door.

His opponent had already pulled it open. His bloodied fingertips were less than half a palm's length from the storage compartment.

There should be a weapon in there. Most likely a gun.

The thought flashed through Kevin's mind.

It was time to end this.

He had long been prepared for the possibility that the man had a gun. The only reason Kevin had fought with Aura and hand-to-hand combat first was because he wanted to test his progress over this period. So he had responded in kind.

There was no need now.

"Don't move! Move again and I'll shoot!"

The icy command and the gun barrel were both aimed at the man's back. His right hand froze five centimeters from the car's drawer, where the black barrel gleamed coldly through the gap.

The sound of torrential rain pounding the rolling shutter suddenly became deafening, echoing through the garage together with two sets of heavy breathing.

The entire garage fell silent.

Even the girls, who had been whimpering nonstop moments ago.

"Calm down, calm down, Kevin. At worst, I'll let you have this batch of goods."

The tall, thin man slowly raised both hands and withdrew the upper half of his body from the car, staring nervously at Kevin and the pitch-black muzzle.

"If you wanted these goods, you could've just told me. We're brothers, aren't we? How could I refuse you? So can you put the gun down? Be careful it doesn't go off."

The tall, thin man forced a stiff smile, his face full of ingratiating flattery.

Kevin did not respond.

He simply held the gun, while considering his next move.

Should he kill him?

Without question, it was a highly viable option.

The man's actions had made one thing abundantly clear: he knew about the crimes this body had committed. He could even be considered an accomplice.

Kevin simply could not convince himself to let a criminal like that go, even if it was for selfish reasons.

Honestly, when it came to human traffickers, death was the only option in his hands.

And if he tied the man up tightly and called the police, the man would definitely expose Kevin's own crimes.

Kevin could search for some information online, but he had no way of knowing whether there might be an international manhunt involving multiple countries.

After all, he had seen plenty of such warrants online. There even seemed to be people specifically handling cross-border manhunts.

As someone from a peaceful country, Kevin could not accept having some inexplicable warrant hanging over him, even if the crimes really had been committed by "him."

Kill him, then call the police. Leaving the country in the meantime seemed like the best option.

He had already made preparations beforehand anyway.

Thank goodness for this world. It seemed that most countries used the same language and writing system, at least within V5.

Having no sense of belonging to begin with, he did not care much.

"Dammit, I'll fight you!"

The tall, thin man suddenly roared. Having spent time in the underworld, he easily sensed Kevin's killing intent.

In that situation, he did not hesitate to fight for his life.

Fueled by his will to survive, his Aura erupted violently, so much so that Kevin could clearly sense it.

That instantaneous burst made him incredibly fast. He crashed into Kevin's chest at a speed Kevin could barely react to.

Facing the sudden situation, Kevin quickly recovered and drove an elbow down with all his strength.

The powerful blow made the tall, thin man let out a Scream on the spot.

But his will to survive left him with only one thought—to fight to the death. Even so, he did not let go. He shoved Kevin hard into the shelf.

Feeling the pain in his back,

Kevin could only strike downward with all his strength, elbowing and driving up his knee.

Aura strengthened his body, making his close-quarters attacks more threatening.

Amid screams, the tall, thin man finally went limp. Spitting blood, he slid down and collapsed on the floor, already unconscious.

"Ugh, this was practically a street brawl," Kevin panted.

He felt that afterward, he should find a martial arts instructor or something and learn actual fighting and combat.

He quickly tied up the unconscious tall, thin man.

Kevin looked at the women staring at him in terror.

Then he looked at the blonde twin-tailed girl, who had somehow already freed herself.

He took the phone from the tall, thin man's waist and tossed it to her.

"Call the police. Then you'll all be rescued."

With that, Kevin returned to the room without hesitation and began packing his luggage to make a run for it.

Fortunately, he had prepared beforehand. He finished everything in less than five minutes.

After glancing at the situation in the garage, he gritted his teeth and went back inside.

His sudden reappearance made the girls, who had just begun to relax in the garage, become terrified again.

But Kevin did not even look at them. He walked straight over to the bound tall, thin man.

"For scum like this, death is the best punishment. It's fine..."

Kevin quietly encouraged himself and aimed the pistol at the thug.

"Whew!"

Bang!

Ignoring the girls' screams, Kevin hurried away, suppressing his wildly pounding heart.

He had killed someone.

There was none of the nausea he had imagined—only uncontrollable tension and panic.

He reached the shadowy alley where he had already prepared a vehicle, then drove away.

In the shadows of the alley,

A young man adjusted his glasses and watched the taillights disappear.

"What is Master doing? Why did he let him go?" he wondered.

In the distance, police sirens were already drawing near.