Chapter 231 - 225 : Defeated

"They are here."

Moving his attention and focus towards the entrance, Sato noticed the resulting commotion that was occurring over there which the bearded man had reacted to. About 12 or so other individuals had walked into the enclosed area with a batons and sticks. They didn't try to keep it hidden as they walked in showing that the crew had actually come from where ever they did with the weapons out in the open. It was as if they weren't scared of being found out by security.

'It's quite possible that these guys aren't your normal thugs. Either they have a good connection with someone above or the guy who hired them has offered them a few privileges.' Sato thought.

"Boss, we are here."

"Boss, who do you need us to take care of?" 

The new arrivals began chattering and making exaggerated display of loyalty and brotherhood towards Hoji and the bearded man. 

"Stop gawking around and surround that guy." Hoji pointed at Sato as he yelled aggressively at the group.

Following his orders, the dozen or so men surrounded Sato without leaving him a space to escape.

"Hehe. Will you give up now or pay the price?" The bearded man grinned. 

"Why it's true that you would still get beaten, the degree of damage would vary. Doesn't that sound like good news for you?"

"What makes you think that I will?" Sato calmly asked the man, ignoring the circle of men formed around him.

"I don't expect you too." The bearded man replied with the very same grin as before.

"Let's take him on and stop wasting anytime." Hoji said to the bearded man. While he didn't explicitly show any signs of submission, his tone was respectful proving that whoever this man was, he was a bit higher in authority compared to Hoji.

"Okay. Give him the best care you can possibly show."

"Men, you heard it. Whoever breaks an arm gets paid double. The same goes for  a leg. Attack!"

"Ha!" 

With Hoji giving the command, the armed men rushed at Sato all at once, intent on each getting a piece of him.

"Whoever breaks an arm or a leg gets paid double? Let's see if you can pull it off."

Sato didn't wait for the fighters to close in on him as a he approached them. He started off with a guy that held what looked to be a cast-iron crowbar. 

Before the man could swing the crowbar at him, Sato punched at his face. Unlike the bearded man, all these men were nothing but your regular thugs. Even though the martial arts trend was a popular thing at the time, these guys had at most superficial knowledge and expertise, ranging from knowledge about the basic stances to hand movements. Against someone like Sato -who had been trained since young- this was nothing.

*Smack*

Sato's fist collided cleanly with the first assailant's face as a heavy sensation of pain flooded the target. The force of the blow directed his face in another direction and the resulting effect it made the assailant drop the crowbar in his hand. With a muffled ton and an injury that would possibly send him to the hospital, the man was sent back by 2 metres before he landed horribly on the ground, knocked out in one punch.

Having taken down one of the attackers with one punch, Sato moved on to the next one. 

Due to the fact that Sato had attacked so suddenly, the others weren't able to react after one of them was taken down and so, they couldn't avoid the massacre that was to come.

Like a tiger in the midst of a herd of sheep, Sato brought rampage and pain wherever he walked. 

Punches, kicks and bodies were flying all about. No matter how hard the gang tried to land a hit on him, Sato would easily and fluidly dodge the attack. Even if it came from behind, Sato dodged as if he had eyes behind his head. Rather than a human, it felt like they were battling a martial arts god. Heck, they wouldn't mind that as losing to a god wasn't a problem. But for a bunch of middle aged men to lose to an unknown young man, it was quite disgraceful.

"Tch. A bunch of wastes." Hoji cursed from the side as he saw Sato take down another gang member. From the initial dozen men to 7 men. Not even 7 seconds had gone by and Sato had taken down at least 5 men despite being surrounded from all angles.

"Puah"

Sato's fist collided with the abdomen of one of the gang members as the victim uncontrollably opened his mouth and puked out excess saliva.

'Hm?' Sato wanted to go on and land the finishing blow on the man when his instincts suddenly alerted him as a bad feeling stemmed from within. Without further ado, Sato hurriedly jumped to the side in reflex.

Once he got his footing in place, Sato glanced back at his original spot and saw the bearded man standing exactly where he previously stood. Before Sato could further react, the other 7 gang members clustered towards him and the man took the opportunity to hide himself within their numbers again.

Realising that not only did he have to deal with 7 other delinquents armed with cold weapons but also a professional grade martial artist that hid amongst the others, Sato didn't actually feel worried nor threatened. On the contrary, he was happy. He wanted a warm-up fight and the current setting was satisfactorily for what he needed. 

'Sadly, I need to get back to the game.'

With that thought in mind, Sato suddenly speed up his actions, taking down a gang member with only 2 moves.

"Not on my watch." The bearded man abruptly revealed himself once he saw that Sato had sped up his actions. He thought that Sato was worried he(Sato) would lose with the number against him and so decided to speed up his attacks. He thought that the plan of outnumbering Sato with him included in the mix was successful and so didn't want Sato to reduce their numbers. But what the man didn't know was that his plan to outnumber Sato was useless. Sato speeding up his actions was simply because he wanted to return to gaming and not because he felt threatened by the group. If the bearded man knew this, he would pretty much puke blood out of anger. 

"Ah!"

"Auck!"

Sato took down two men with a 4 hit combo when he saw the bearded man arrive in front of him with a punch heading his way.

*Pa*

Sato caught the man's punch and held him in place before sending a kick towards his face. However, the other delinquents had no intention of sitting still.

The bearded man blocked Sato's kick but that was followed another punch from Sato, which connected with his face. Sato couldn't follow up with that hit as he was forced to pay attention to the others. This time though, Sato increased the force behind his blows, hoping to knock them out with one punch.

After Sato knocked out another 2, the bearded man finally reacted and rejoined the battle. This time around though, Sato had a much easier time handling him. There were only 3 thugs left and with the stranger added, there were 4 fighters. The original 12 men weren't enough to threaten Sato much less the 4 of them. One by one, without excessive effort, Sato took them all down, starting with the random thugs. Eventually, apart form Hoji and Kirin who stood by the side, only the bearded man was left standing.

From start -when the dozen or so gangsters had arrived- till now, not a full minute had gone by and Sato wasn't even exhausted.

"You guys are the only ones left now." Sato glanced around.

There were bodies strewn all over the floor. If one listened carefully, they would hear the muffled sounds and groans of pain coming from these bodies. 

In order to make sure that they don't stand up any time soon, Sato didn't simply punch them but targeted their arteries and acupoints. This was to make sure that not only would the gangsters be knocked out long enough but they would lose their ability to move even if they were awake. Of course, the effects weren't permanent; Sato wasn't that heartless after all.

"You bastard. You will pay for what you've done." Hoji gritted his teeth as he grieved.

Sato ignored him and stared at the bearded man.

"Now will you tell me who your boss is?"

"My boss?" The man frowned. At this point in time, he realised that he had underestimated Sato a lot. He couldn't even bother smirking anymore.

"it's obvious that you aren't with them. It's either you were employed alongside them or that your boss sent you over with them to supervise the deed. Now will you tell me his identity or do we still do things the hard way?" Sato flexed his wrists as he walked closer.

"Haha. I admit that you're smart but this isn't over. I'll be back." The bearded man declared before he abruptly turned around and escaped.

"If you think you could escape after the shit you just pulled then you must be dreaming." 

Sato ignored Hoji and Kirin and went after the man. From the original heated fight to a chase, the change in the battle was a bit unexpected but Sato wasn't bothered. The bearded man, however, was.

'He's stronger than the reports stated. Wasn't he supposed to be a gamer? Why the heck are his martial arts skills so high level?!' 

The man wasn't worried about no being able to escape so he still use a portion of his focus to recall the incidents of the battle. He decided that once he returned, he wouldn't make any move on Sato till he was sure of success.

'If I had gone in for an ambush from the start, this wouldn't have happened at all.' 

The bearded man's specialty wasn't one-on-one direct combat but ambush. This could be seen from how he managed to hide himself in the midst of the other fighters back when they were battling Sato. The only reason Sato was able to notice him during their very first confrontation was because the man wasn't at his best. He never expected a 21 year old to be able to sense him while he was stalking him so he was flippant in his actions. Now, the man began to regret it.

'I just need to escape first then I will think of the rest.' 

'He's quick.' Sato thought as he pursued the man, exiting the remote location towards the outside.

'Hm?' Sato suddenly stopped in his footsteps as he realised that he had lost the man.

"How?" Sato thought out loud.

'Unless, he was holding back? No. I admit I felt him holding back but his true strength shouldn't be that absurd. That's unless he really isn't good at direct combat.' Sato analysed the possible explanation he could think of.

'If he really is an assassin type of individual, then things are a lot more serious than I thought.'

Sato sighed as he felt that his days would get less peaceful than before.

'Those two would probably be gone by now.' Sato recalled Hoji and Kirin.

I'll just go home now.'