After like 20 minutes of walk and giving a good distance from the Sweet Sake, we walked through some shitty alley filled with inactive drug addicts; just sitting or laying on their back while they murmur to themselves.

  “Dude, I didn’t know that shit-head will try something like that with you. Trust me if…” Daigo was trying to apologize when some hoodlums gallantly approached us.

  There were eight of them; two of them held wooden clubs, three held crude hand-made knives (playing with it as they approached us) while the others were bare handed.

  I then noticed something else was happening behind them; a guy was beating the living shit out of someone (who seems to be knocked out or gradually slipping away).

  The person who was taking a beating just on the floor with his back resting on a filled-up rusting dumpster, his assaulter clobbered him with punches and kicks, as he said like a deranged sociopath.

  I and Daigo looked at each other at the same time; I just looked at him to see his reaction to the hoodlums blocking our way, he didn’t give any signal that suggest he knew these fuckers or what their deal is.

  After several seconds of beating that defenceless person to an itch of his life with blood and teeth everywhere, which was me being hopeful because the person was not breathing from where I stood.

  “Drop the bag and maybe we don’t fuck your up” The deranged psycho said in a low tone and red eyes filled with sac (he was definitely a junkie), as he walked like gang boss, scratching the bottom of his nose with his index finger.

  The other hoodlums surrounded us, just waiting and smiling while their ‘boss’ walked to my front and stopped.

  This boss is definitely an Evolve, along with five other members of his crew; he is definitely a D-Grade but not as domineering as my father and most D-Grade I have unfortunately come across but he still had more presence and power than me and Daigo by our lonesome.

  The Evolves in his crew were E-Grade but one of them still felt like a D-Grade, I couldn’t say for sure but he is up there.

  *

  The hierarchy of Evolves is linear, and every Evolve can sense who is higher, equal or lower than them in the food chain. Though Evolves can’t know other Evolves exact power level but They can know which Grade they might possibly fall under, and this phenomenon or instinct appears to all Arcane-beings, both Aggressors and Evolves alike; can all perceive each other power regardless of race, species, age or gender but like everything in nature; nothing is constant or absolute.

  All Arcane-being possess arcane-energy and it is the amount of this energy that makes up where any Arcane-beings fall in the hierarchy of power, but in the content of the nature of this ‘energy’ that lies a weakness or blessing.

  This energy doesn’t really mess with the mass of things either living or not; meaning if the body that houses arcane-energy isn’t physical dense one or uses its arcane energy to harden itself, it will simply break down when is hit with enough force and it also means the force an Arcane-being creates is dependent on the both the arcane-energy and the mass of the body, every Arcane-being real power level is gotten from these two factors; no one can cheat it.

  *

  The ‘boss’ of the group of ball-sacks, is probably thirteen or fourteen years old, making him younger and shorter than me, he is barely 4.9 feet while I am 5.5 or so.

  The bastard was also extremely freaky skinny; I know I am as thin and wrenched-looking as a rotten stick but this motherfucker was fuckin' dried-bones, he was so skinny that a dying dried up worm isn’t too far to describe him and his goons.

  This kid clearly knows anything about being an Evolve and still finding his chain in the food chain, even if no Evolve will dare face a stronger Evolve; it was basically common sense but these motherfuckers are about learn about some exceptions and most of all… I’m fuckin' angry.

  **

  As that thought of unhinged rage sounded in Haiji’s mind, he slammed head-butt the face of the kid-boss in front of him; which kick started between Haiji and Daigo against the ‘wanna-be-gangsters’ hoodlums.

  Causing the kid-boss move a few steps back; clearly disoriented, Haiji then grabbed the neck his ragged-singlet and forcefully pulled him closer, giving him a deadly jab to the nose, making the kid-boss move backward again with less control over his body but Haiji pulled him over again (not letting go of the jacket before) and gave him another clean jab to the nose again.

  The kid-boss was stepping backwards again but this almost falling down with a deep cut on his nose and blood all over his face.

  As Haiji launched a front kick to the bleeding kid-boss, a huge stick descended; slammed Haiji right leg and neutralizing the front kick, but before Haiji could reconcile with the pain and his to face his attacker.

  The goon attacked again – deadly horizontal swing to his abdomen, which made the top parts of the stick broke apart and flew away and also made Haiji fall hard on his back with barely any air in his lungs.

  The attacker quickly marched forward at Haiji; who was still trying to make heads and tails of what just happened, and trying to inhale properly at the same time. The goon raised the stick up; preparing to destroy Haiji’s face when a huge stick landed on his face; sending him to a daze for a barely two seconds as he moved a few steps back.

  Daigo ran towards the guy he just threw a stick at, jumping over Haiji (who was still on the ground) and landed a swiftly kick on the guy’s balls.

  As the guy full defense crumbled due to the cock-shot, another guy ran towards Daigo from behind, with the attempt stab him but was surprised to feel two arms wrapped around his waist and before he could even react, he felt his legs lifting off the floor.

  Haiji quickly got up as he noticed another person jump over him, few seconds after Daigo did – (He didn’t have time to grasp the identity of the first person but the fact that the person didn’t attack him, made him assume his ass was saved by Daigo). He immediately got off the floor and ran towards the guy wants to attack Daigo from behind.

  Haiji didn’t even noticed, he barely dodged a strong foot stomp and a wooden stick swing; both landed on the bare ground as Haiji struggle to balance himself but still ran and wrapped his arms around the guy’s waist, lifting him off the ground and throwing him backwards, he held the guy’s waist tightly with his arms, not letting go for a nanosecond – delivering a swift suplex.

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  As Haiji and the opponent fell backwards, one of the goons attempted to hit Haiji in mid-air but he didn’t weigh this action properly and the swing struck the head of the guy Haiji threw backwards, with a force that sent the goon’s head swinging to his left.

  Since his head was slightly tipped to the left, when Haiji slammed him backwards to the ground, his neck met the floor and cracked.

  Haiji, barely noticed what actually happened but he did notice the guy swing a heavy stick as he threw himself backwards, so immediately he landed quickly rolled to the right.

  Daigo gave the ‘cock-shot’ guy and elbow strike, causing the guy to fall sideways like a sack of shit, when he heard a loud thud sound as he immediately turned look.

  An upward swing of shabby knife cut him vertically on his chest, as the goon stopped the momentum and swiftly repositioned the knife almost instantly; striking towards the left side of Daigo’s of open neck.

  He swung the knife horizontally to Daigo’s neck, Daigo quickly intercepted his blow by his left wrist (forming a fist with his hand) to jam and wedge opposite side of the attacker’s elbow.

  The attacker dropped the knife, with the intent of catching it as it fell with his left hand but Daigo gave his two swift jabs to his nose as soon as he noticed the guy dropping the knife and intention.

  The knife fell to ground as the attacker was not given the chance to catch it, Daigo pulled the attacker closer with his hand, turning the opposite to let the attacker rest on his back a bit before giving a back kick to the attacker’s left leg; to make the attacker lose his footing, immediately lifting the attacker off the ground with his back and slamming him hard to the ground in front.

  As the goon fell flat on his back, Diago began giving him deadly punches to his face; giving the goon deep cuts on his face as teeth and blood spilled everywhere, making his face an unrecognizable mess.

  As Daigo demolish the guy’s face with punches, a goon (who wasn’t an Evolve) picked up the stick used by the fallen ‘cock shot’ guy. Running towards Daigo and striking his back hard with the stick.

  The pushed Daigo a bit forward but he slowly turned his back and looked at the goon like he was about to put down a rapid dog.

  As the goon tried to strike Daigo again; diagonally to his face, Daigo caught the stick with his left hand and dragged the goon closer.

  The goon couldn’t resist the pull and came in, Daigo gave human-goon a devastating head-butt to his nose, causing the guy to fall backwards; barely conscious as he fell but Daigo grabbed his shirt and dragged him closer again, delivering another devastating head-butt which was an instant K.O.

  As the goon he just head-butted collapsed, Daigo noticed the two more of them running towards him; one ran slower than the other and he seems to be seriously injured because there was a lot blood stain on his singlet (around the area of his stomach) and he looked sick on the face.

  There were still a handful of them and Daigo lasted saw Haiji on the ground, he was a bit hasty to make sure Haiji was ok or help him if needed.

  Haiji was in a sort of crunching stance, watching as the remaining three goons approached him but they approached with more caution; their boss and three other of their guys are down (some of them might be dead) and they noticed Daigo taking on two of their guys.

  Daigo and Haiji are equally dangerous, turning their back on one (Haiji) to face the other (Daigo) will be stupid, because it will mean leaving their backs open for Haiji to attack.

  Their brief hesitation gave Haiji a moment to get some of his shit together as he stood up slowly and raised his two fists up, the three goon attacked at almost the same time; the one with the stick swung it vertically to the ground, which Haiji dodged by stepping aside and kicking the belly of the stick causing it to break in two.

  Another one threw a left cross punch, Haiji tilted his head backwards; dodging the punch before closing the gap between them, landing a clean right elbow strike causing the guy to fall faster to right and Haiji kneed the side of his face as he fell.

  The one with the broken stick tried using the remaining part of stick he held to smack Haiji in the head but lowered his head to dodge while delivering a powerful right-cross uppercut; causing teeth and blood to fly.

  The last goon (who seems to not be an Evolve) landed a front kick to Haiji shoulder before he recovered, Haiji fell to his left side and rolled sideways; getting back on his feet.

  Haiji dashed to the goon that kicked him, the goon brought his right hand from above with a shabby pocketknife in it, with Haiji within range.

  Haiji caught the goon’s hand in mid-air with his left hand and twisted it, the goon let go of the knife and as it fell Haiji caught it in mid-air with his right hand, then started stabbing the left side of the goon’s chest repeatedly before finally stabbing his throat and letting go of the guy.

  As Haiji was turning his head to face the other two, he saw a right swing approaching his face, from the guy whose stick he broke.

  Haiji quickly blocked the punch by raising his left wrist but that only slowed down the punch, not stop it.

  Haiji quickly closed in to the guy; invading his personal space as he wrapped his right arm around the goon’s shoulder and held the goon’s wrist with his left hand, and with the momentum of the goon swing, Haiji added his own pull-force; lifting the goon off the ground and slamming him to the ground in front of him.

  Haiji quickly repositioned the shabby pocketknife in his right hand, and began stabbing under the armpit of the goon’s right hand, causing the goon to scream in pain.

  Haiji stabbed him repeatedly in his armpit area before delivering the final stab to the right side of the goon’s neck; creating a stream of blood to flow down his neck.

  Haiji stood up slowly facing the last goon; who was on his four limbs as he faced the ground, he is probably still disoriented from the kick and elbow strike to the side of his face (or his ear to be exact).

  As Haiji slowly approached him, the goon forcefully got up and ran towards Haiji with his head still somewhat facing the ground like a new born gazelle with disfigured knees.

  He ran and wrapped his arm around Haiji’s waist; desperately attempting to push Haiji back and fall him down, Haiji placed his left leg behind him with force; to resist the push before repeatedly stabbing the back of the goon.

  The goon didn’t let go at first but after some seconds of taking multiple stabs to his back, he just fell flat on his face with his back soaked with blood.

  Haiji looked at the fallen goon’s body and spat at it, before turning his head to check up on Daigo, who was currently bashing to a certain goon’s head to a wall.

  Haiji did not to notice someone approaching him from right side, and was tackled to the ground from his side by the person.

  They fell to the ground, the person quickly turned Haiji’s back to the ground and sat on top of Haiji’s belly; swiftly pulled Haiji’s hand to his sides and using his knee to pin Haiji’s arms to the ground.

  Haiji tried to free up his arms but he couldn’t and few punches landed all over his face, after receiving several punches (some weak and some strong), Haiji barely saw a punch approaching with some force and obeyed his instinct; moving his head a bit to the right, making the person sucker-punch the bear ground.

  There was audible thud from the impact, making the person recoil their hand while hissing in pain, Haiji finally saw that it was the kid-boss with a battered face and quickly tried to use this moment of distraction to free himself but the kid-boss held Haiji’s arm (just be his shoulder) firmly and applied more force to his knees to keep.

  As they both struggled, the kid-boss quickly picked a piece of a broken glass right beside them, and was about to stab Haiji on his neck or something, when a stick landed flat on the kid-boss’s face; disorienting him and causing him to fall backwards.

  Daigo saw what just happened to Haiji and left the goon whose head he was bashing to the wall, and grabbed the stick from one of the fallen goons and ran to the kid-boss on top of Haiji and slamming his face in.

  Daigo extended his hand to Haiji on the ground, Haiji took the hand and Daigo pulled him up.

  Haiji stood up straight and cracked his neck as he faced the kid-boss, who was also standing up but a bit slower, while Daigo dropped the stick and cracked his knuckles.

  They dashed to kid-boss, and landed a punch to his face before he could raise up his hand high enough to guard himself.

  He moved back a bit, while Daigo ran kicked him from the back; pushing him forward, then Haiji punched his chest; pushing him backwards again.

  The two continued to deliver punches and kicks sending him to and fro like they were playing tennis with him.

  Haiji picked up the piece of glass near him, and stabbed the kid-boss in the side of the neck as the kid-boss, then blood flowed from the stab; all over the kid-boss’s neck, upper chest and Haiji’s hand.

  When the light was leaving his eyes, Haiji harshly grabbed his shoulder with his left hand and tossed him aside like trash; finally ending the game.