"Let's make this quick," Li Rui said. He had long known that there was little difference in strength between his bodyguards and the arena's top fighters. His advantage was that he could bring in more bodyguards at any time and wear his opponents down to death, so the faster the pace, the better.
"Yes, boss," the bodyguard answered. He clenched both fists, his muscles bulging, and charged straight at Black Bear.
A fist smashed straight toward Black Bear's face. Seeing the sandbag-sized fist hurtling toward him, Black Bear raised his hands to block, but the punch still drove him back a step. Just as he prepared to retaliate, another punch came hurtling in. This was nothing like a normal fighting style-there was no defense, only offense, fast and relentless offense.
The punches came one after another, leaving Black Bear no room to fight back. As time dragged on, he had no choice but to abandon defense as well, attacking without guarding himself. For the next five or six minutes, the thuds of fists striking flesh set the spectators' blood boiling.
"This kind of fight is a man's romance," a man in the audience sighed, looking utterly entranced.
"Yeah, this fight is more exciting than any I've watched before. They've each taken over a hundred punches by now, haven't they? Those are real men."
"I think the one in red shorts will win. Look at the one in blue shorts. His face is swollen like a pig's head, and it's covered in blood."
After five or six minutes of trading bone-jarring blows, both men in the ring were exhausted. Thanks to his slightly superior physique, the bodyguard was in somewhat better shape than Black Bear. If he held on a little longer, the bodyguard would surely win, but Li Rui did not want him to keep going. After all, there was more than one match to fight.
"Come down," Li Rui told the bodyguard in the boxing ring.
"Yes, boss." Without any hesitation, the bodyguard broke away from Black Bear and vaulted out of the ring.
"Next." As soon as Li Rui spoke, another bodyguard vaulted into the ring. Black Bear, still bent over with his hands on his knees and gasping for breath, nearly fainted at the sight. The man who had just entered felt every bit as dangerous as the last one.
He looked toward Gu Yuanshan, his eyes pleading for help, but Gu Yuanshan's expression was ugly, and he gave no response.
Gu Yuanshan had heard from his son that the other side had four bodyguards with world-class fighting skills, but hearing about it was one thing; seeing it with his own eyes was another.
Seeing that his boss was ignoring him, Black Bear could only steel himself and fight the fresh bodyguard. As expected, already a spent arrow, Black Bear lasted less than thirty seconds before the bodyguard knocked him out with a punch, leaving him unconscious on the floor.
After Black Bear was dragged away, the white man who had mocked him not long before entered the ring. None of his earlier arrogance remained, and he moved with extreme caution. But no matter how cautious he was, facing a bodyguard who attacked without defending himself, he could only fall into the same predicament as Black Bear. In the end, the same method was used to cripple one of his arms, leaving him unable to fight.
Just like that, Li Rui used one bodyguard to grind away seventy percent of his opponent's HP, then sent in a fresh bodyguard to finish him off. Later, to end the fights even faster, he turned it into two against one, with each bodyguard fighting half the match. In this way, Li Rui used ten bodyguards to put six of Gu Yuanshan's fighters down in the ring.
Only then did Gu Yuanshan realize that his opponent had far more than four subordinates with world-class fighting skills. Only now did panic begin to rise in his heart. His ten billion was at stake.
As the fight between the seventh fighter and a bodyguard neared its end, Gu Yuanshan clenched his fists hard, thinking that he would undoubtedly lose at this rate. He absolutely could not lose, so he turned sideways and gave the remaining fighters a meaningful look.
The last three fighters hesitated for a moment, then retreated into the darkness.
In a small room, one of them frowned at the other two and asked, "Are we really going to use it? Once we use this stuff, our fighting careers will be over."
"After what we've seen today, we'll definitely lose if we don't use it. They still have more than a dozen experts on our level."
"Exactly. If we lose this match today, even if they don't seriously injure or cripple us, Gu Yuanshan won't let us off. You know his methods."
Hearing their words, the man who had spoken first let out a deep sigh. "Fine, let's stake everything on this one shot. As long as we win, Gu Yuanshan has promised each of us two hundred million. With that money, we won't have to fight in underground matches anymore."
"That's right," the other two replied. Each then took out a syringe, opened a small vial, and injected all the green liquid inside into his body.
They then casually tossed the vials onto the floor. A vial spun dozens of times before slowly coming to a stop. Written prominently on its side were the words: highly concentrated stimulant.
Stimulants were banned substances for athletes, and this was a highly concentrated drug at that. Once used, it would cause irreversible damage to the body, leaving the user unable to engage in high-intensity exercise ever again. For a fighter, that meant the end of his career.
In the ring, the seventh fighter met the same fate as those before him. A high-level bodyguard broke his ribs, and he collapsed, vomiting blood and unable to fight.
Looking at Gu Yuanshan's ugly expression, Li Rui mocked him. "These are your arena's top fighters? They're nothing special. Looks like I'll have to take this ten billion whether I want it or not."
"Hmph, don't celebrate too soon. Our arena's three strongest fighters haven't made their move yet. It remains to be seen who laughs last." After speaking, Gu Yuanshan turned to look at the three fighters who had just returned. One of them nodded at him.
Once again, two men faced off in the ring. Once again, they attacked without any defense, every punch striking flesh. There was just one slight difference.
As time passed and his blood boiled, the fighter reacted less and less to the bodyguard's blows. When he first entered the ring, he would still grunt when a punch landed on him, but later, he did not even make a sound.
It was as though he had lost all sense of pain. As the fight continued, the fighter descended into madness, his eyes blood-red and his whole body giving off billowing steam as though he were being baked in a furnace.
Less than three minutes into the fight, Li Rui noticed something was wrong. The bodyguard and fighter, originally evenly matched, were now visibly pulling apart.
The bodyguard's physical capabilities were already at the limits of humanity, yet the fighter's punching speed and ability to take a hit were now around thirty percent greater than his.
That thirty percent was not merely the difference between one and 1.3. It was the difference between being able to land a hit on him and being unable to, and even more so between being able to injure him and being unable to.
Seeing the bodyguard still struggling to hold on, Li Rui gave Li Yi a look.
Li Yi immediately called the bodyguard down from the ring and sent in a second one. After the second bodyguard fought the fighter for three minutes, he sent in a third.
Only after the tenth bodyguard had entered the ring and fought for a full three minutes did the fighter suddenly go limp and collapse to the floor, motionless. Blood flowed from his nostrils, eyes, mouth, and ears-he was bleeding from all seven orifices.