Battle in Progress

"Damn mage!" Sowande roared.

Gwen had dispelled the curse he had painstakingly prepared with effortless ease, and he turned all his fury on the blonde figure casting spells behind the others.

His bloodshot eyes locked on Gwen. He pushed off, trying to use a sudden burst of speed to slip past Kingpin and charge straight at the battlefield's "rear support."

But Kingpin had no intention of letting him through.

"Why are you yelling? I'm your opponent, Sowande!" Kingpin's massive body stayed firmly planted between Sowande and Gwen.

His enormous fists, powerful enough to crush steel, hammered toward Sowande's head, chest, joints, and other vital points, forcing him to devote all his strength to blocking.

Thud! Thud! Boom!

The dull impacts came one after another. After several exchanges, the battle-hardened Kingpin noticed that although Dark Energy had made Sowande's strength ferocious, it had cost him some agility.

Kingpin immediately changed tactics.

Rather than trade blows head-on, he began circling Sowande, taking advantage of his slight edge in speed.

His huge fists no longer struck with full force at every opportunity. Instead, he timed each blow to drain Sowande's stamina and upset his balance, leaving him like a cornered beast being toyed with—powerful, but unable to put that power to use.

Elsewhere, the street-hero duo of Peter and Matt had taken on Bakuto.

"Hey, old guy with the glasses! You're dressed pretty sharp, and that short blade at your waist looks expensive. Is it an antique? If we accidentally break it, are you going to be too heartbroken to breathe?"

Peter swung back and forth from the vine-covered ceiling and the thick vines Lin Hai had grown around them, keeping up a steady stream of chatter to distract Bakuto.

At the same time, he fired strand after strand of white webbing at