Chapter 18: First Battle!

'I know the South Zone has a bad reputation but to encounter this at the entrance...wow, although it's a good thing, it makes things easier~' thought Jay after he had knocked out the long-haired man.

After getting dressed, Jay left his house and headed directly to the South Zone, although it was dangerous, he had already made all the preparations he could in one night.

Originally, wheb he arrived, he had planned to walk around the place until he found some delinquent and quickly knock him out with the metal bat he had brought with him, so this encounter had made things much easier for him.

As for the metal bat, he had brought it because although he had some things to defend himself and escape, he lacked a lot of attacking power.

After knocking the long-haired man out, Jay bent down to inspect the young man's wounds, although his main goal was to get more hosts, he could not just leave this person like this.

"Alright, I cleaned up the blood, what's left now is to stop...the...bleeding...?" Jay said, surprised by what he was seeing.

After cleaning the blood from the young man's face, Jay expected to see a painful cut, but the only thing on the young man's face was a line of pink skin where the knife had passed!

'...This guy, he has a passive regeneration ability, this is incredible!' thought Jay, excited to have found such an unusual ability.

While the vast majority of the esper's skills were those that one had to consciously activate in order to use them, that didn't mean there weren't other types.

Esper skills were divided into three types, Actives, Passives and Irregulars.

Actives, as the name implies, are skills that can only be used when one activates them, Carl's skill would fall into this category and it was the most common type of skill.

The Passive ones are skills which remain active 24/7, even when the host is unconscious, such as with the young man Jay had in front of him, who even though he was passed out, he was still healing, this type of ability was quite rare to see.

Irregulars, this type of skill was the most unusual, they had both the characteristics of passive as well as active skills, for example, if a esper had the irregular version of the "Super Strength" skill, then his body would always have super strength, but when he consciously activated the skill, his power would increase much more.

Since the Irregular skills were really unusual, the first thing Jay thought was that the type of skill the young man had in front of him belonged to the passive category, and if that was not the case...then it would be even better!

Jay then took the young man's hand and infected him with a parasite to confirm his ability.

_____________

[Noah Tanner]

Passive Skill: Regeneration (D) (Assimilating)

Condition: Unconscious, Tired

Parasites: 1

Assimilation status: 0% (1% per day per parasite)

_____________

'So it was a passive skill after all...great!'

"Ugh..."

However, before he could finish infecting Noah with all his parasytes, a groan came from the man he had knocked out.

*CLAN*

"ARGH!"

Jay inmediatly hit the man with the bat again, he didn't know if the man on the ground was a super or not, but he didn't want to give him a chance to get up anyway.

"BASTAR-ARGH!!"

*CLAN*

The man was trying to defend himself, but Jay was relentless with his hits, since he was aiming mainly at the head, the man hurriedly protected his head with his arms.

'Who the hell is this guy?!' thought the man as he was being whipped with the metal bat.

The last thing he remembered was that he was teaching Noah a lesson when he suddenly felt a heavy blow to the head, shortly after, everything went dark for him.

When he woke up, he was met by another hard blow to the head that almost made him faint again, just who was this guy who seemed to hate him so much?!

He had tried to get up before, but right when he did, another blow pointed directly at his crotch almost hit him, so he was forced to stay down covering his head.

'What a dangerous guy!' He thought.

However, he knew that with the way he was attacking, it was only a matter of time until this unknown man got tired, so he only had to hold out for a while longer, fortunately his ability allowed him to temporarily strengthen his arms, making it easier to endure the blows.

When that time came, all the pain he was feeling in his arms, he would give it back to him by the thousand!

*3 minutes later*

'HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT HE HASN'T GOT EVEN A BIT TIRED?' thought the man on the ground.

His arms were now numb with pain, and what was worse, the person who was attacking him did not seem to show any signs of fatigue!

*CLAN*

'Eh?'

Fortunately for him, just as the he was about to get up, even at the risk of receiving a blow to the head, he felt the blows were getting softer, although the pace at which they were coming hadn't slowed down.

'Is he finally getting tired?' thought the man, hopeful.

Then he looked up just a little to see the person who was attacking him.

What he saw then was a man dressed completely in black, he couldn't see his face because he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, but what he could see was the weapon he was carrying, it was a metal bat.

But not a normal one, no, it was a dented metal bat!

'...T-That's why the blows became softer...?' The man lamented internally, thinking he would definitely have to visit the hospital after this.

After that, the man then decided to stand up, his attacker's weapon wasn't as strong as before after all, so he quickly got up while protecting his head with one arm and his crotch with the other.

"MY MOMENT CAME-GAH!"

Just as he stood up, a sharp blow fell on his chin, causing him to see stars momentarily.

'Ah, shit...' thought Jay as he looked at his now L-shaped metal bat, it was already quite dented before, but the last blow had made it bend completely.

*CLANK*

Seeing that he no longer had any use for it, he decided to throw it a little farther away so that it wouldn't get in his way, and then he threw himself at the dazed man, wanting to take advantage of his dazed state.

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, YOU BASTARD!"

However, the man, despite being dizzy from the heavy blow he had received, had not stopped paying attention to Jay even for a second, so at the moment Jay approached, he threw a blow in Jay's direction.

*CLAN*

The blow, although it did not reach Jay, it did reach a nearby streetlight, which shook heavily after receving that hit.

'...That hit was strong...but that means that he's either a pugilist or an esper with a strengthening ability..' thought Jay as he looked at the man in front of him before distancing himself from the man.

It would have been problematic if he had any long-range skills, but that didn't seem to be the case.

"COME HERE, YOU BASTARD!" The man shouted, interrupting Jay's thoughts as he ran towards him, his bruised face showing the anger he felt towards Jay.

Jay on the other hand stayed in the same place, changing his posture so that he could use the Phantom Trace at any time.

The man, who was dizzy and blinded by anger, did not detect anything unusual about Jay and simply thought that he stood quiet for fear, so, when he got closer to Jay, he threw another punch at him.

As expected, Jay easily dodged the man's slow attack by moving with the Phantom Trace, however, the man did not stop there and continued to throw punches, slowly cornering Jay.

Although the blows were not quick, Jay had to be careful as he had seen the power each one carried.

"F*CKING COWARD!" shouted the man when he saw that none of his blows could hit Jay and thus increasing the speed of his blows.

Secause his body was in a deplorable state, increasing the speed meant that he was giving it his all at this moment.

'This is getting dangerous.' Jay thought, using the Phantom Trace to the limit of what he could to avoid the blast of blows he had to face. 'Come on, think...he's already very weak...I just need a distraction to knock him out...oh.'

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

Then, using the Phantom Trace again, Jay jumped to the side of the man, this was a kisky move as he would get closer to the long haired man, but Jay still did it.

"I GOT YOU!" the man shouted after grabbing Jay's arm after he jumped.

However, just as the man was about to crush Jay's arm, he saw that Jay had thrown something on top of him.

"What the..."

They were small things but he couldn't see very well because of the lack of light, so he walked away from Jay and looked at his arms closely.

At that moment, he saw them...worms moving over his arms, some going inside his arms and some about to do it.

"W-WHAT IS THIS?!" the man shouted in horror as he saw what was happening to him, trying to get the worms out but failing as every time he tried to grab one, it went into his body.

"H-HELP-!"

*BAM!*

His cry for help was quickly interrupted by Jay's kick, which was covered in wind, causing the man to fall to the ground unconscious again.

"...This guy is tough for a thin guy..." said Jay, feeling a little tired.