Chapter 67: Disbelief

After a chase that tested the endurance of both participants, they made it all the way to the high school.

Unlike before when Jared was only some distance away from catching up with Jay, now the situation had undoubtedly worsened for him.

"Haa..." His breathing was somewhat heavy, a product of the immense fatigue he was feeling at the moment, "Just... how does he have so much energy?!" 

He had been chasing Jay closely, even passing through walls and taking every shortcut he could in order to catch him, all while occasionally throwing chunks of concrete or other heavy objects at him to slow him down.

While this might seem like too much considering that his body had been constantly expelling qi, thanks to his use of Unbridle and his powerful body, he could afford to act in this way without getting tired quickly.

However, even though the bandaged man's energy levels definitely indicated that he was a rank (D) super, the stamina he displayed was on a completely different level, making Jared question whether he perhaps mismeasured this guy's energy.

Of course, even if Jared was confused, Jay didn't stop running for a second, getting to the current situation where he had lost sight of him.

"...I refuse to let that damn rat escape!" He said, reluctant to let the cause of his deplorable state escape.

Thereupon, he quickly darted towards the entrance of the school, smashing through the worn glass doors and rushing past the lockers to the stairs that led up to the second floor.

Next to these stairs were other glass doors that revealed the wide, weedy green field that had once served as the school's recreation and exercise site.

To both the left and right of this large field were the other wings of the high school, which connected to the main building. As for the front, there was a single two-story building separated from the rest which contained various facilities such as laboratories, craft workshops and so on.

Just as he was about to go up to the second floor to smash everything in his pace, he noticed something that made him stop inmediately.

On top of this separate building, there was a figure standing, looking directly towards where Jared was, as if waiting for the latter to get closer.

'...So he didn't run away...' Jared thought as he advanced towards the building.

While he didn't know exactly why he hadn't run away, this was a good thing for him, it saved him the effort of having to tear the entire school apart after all.

Just as he reached the center of the courtyard, the bandaged man's voice stopped him.

"Hey, are you sure you're in any condition to keep chasing me?" Jay said from the roof of the building.

Although his voice had been clear and deep, it was clear that it belonged to a young person, something that made Jared surprised.

He had expected the person behind those bandages to have been some disciple of the Emperor's Gate at least in his early twenties, but now judging by the voice it was clear that he had been mistaken.

"Shut the f*ck up." Jared replied, his voice imbued with an almost palpable intent to kill.

Of course, even if the other party was 15, he would still kill him without mercy. Leaving aside the that he had interrupted his fight against Garel, what hurt him the most was without doubt the fact that his Core had been rendered useless.

"Tell me, what can you give me in exchange for me fixing your Core?" Jay asked, ignoring the killing intent directed towards him.

"...What?"

Jared couldn't help but immediately pause because of what he had just heard. He knew perfectly well that what happened to his Core had to do with the man on top of the building, however, he didn't imagine that he might also be able to repair the damage.

Therefore, even though he felt an intense desire to kill this person or that there was a possibility that he was lying, he still decided to stop and listen to what he had to say.

"What I said, what are you offering me in exchange for repairing your Core?"

"...Is it possible to repair it?

"If you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you~"

After saying that, Jay snapped his fingers. 

Immediately, Jared felt a warm stream of energy appear inside his body, coming from none other than his Core.

Although the amount of energy was minimal, that was normal considering how long he had been expelling energy non-stop.

"... What do you want then...?" Jared asked with the same tone as before, it was clear that he didn't trust Jay at all. 

In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that his Core seemed to work slightly which increased the credibility of what Jay said, right now he would have jumped in to finish him off with no room for negotiations.

"I need a few things, but first of all, how much money do you have on you?"

"..."

"Come on, don't look at me like that, we all have to get money from somewhere don't we?"

A silence reigned around for a few seconds until Jared reached into his pocket before pulling out a leather wallet and throwing it to Jay.

This wallet was something special, specifically designed to be able to withstand pugilistic flames, cuts, blows, among other things that could damage the contents. Most of his personal items had this type of protection, after all, no one knew when he would have to fight.

"There should be about 400 credits in there, now what?" Jared said with a fed up expression on his face. Although the price of the wallet had been almost double the money inside, right now he just wanted to get this exchange over with as quickly as possible.

"Oh, that's good stuff~" Jay said as he felt the leather of the wallet, "Now then, what brand is your smart watch...?"

Without another word, Jared also took off his smart watch and tossed it to him.

"Anything else?" He said, one eyebrow twitching due to the discomfort he was feeling.

"Actually yes, there is one last thing~" 

After saying that, Jay pocketed both the wallet and the smartwatch in one of his pockets before continuing.

"Don't follow me~" 

The next moment, Jay jumped toward the back of the building he was in, disappearing from Jared's sight at the same time that the warm energy inside the latter faded away.

"YOU!!!" Jared shouted, stomping heavily on the ground as he launched himself towards the building, covering the distance of over 20 meters in just a few seconds.

*BOOM!*

The walls of the building were easily destroyed by Jared, who emerged from the rubble to observe where Jay was. 

However, just as he left the building..

*CHACK!*

"!"

The sound of flesh being pierced was heard.

Looking down slowly, Jared could see that there was a thin stick-like object made entirely of metal with the tip completely embedded in his chest.

The person holding this metal stick was none other than Jay, his muscles swollen from the strength he had used to stab Jared.

*BAM!*

Jared immediately threw a punch towards Jay, sending him flying for several feet away, his body bouncing off the ground until the energy from the punch ran out.

"... So he was on your side after all, eh..." Jared said as he looked at the spear, or rather, Garel.

Being a rank (C+) pugilist, even though he no longer had qi, his entire body was incredibly tough, so much so that no ordinary metal would be able to hurt him no matter how sharp it was.

In the entire South Zone, there was only one type of "metal" that would be able to hurt him, and that was undoubtedly Garel.

"...DAMN RATS!!" Shouted Jared as he gripped the spear embedded in his chest hard enough to crush it.

Of course, Garel did not stand still while this was happening, quickly creating many needles around the part that Jared's hand was gripping.

But as if he didn't feel no pain at all, Jared not only increased the strength of his grip, but even grabbed the spear with both hands.

At that moment, something appeared in the corner of Jared's eye, the same person he had thrown flying only seconds ago was now running quickly towards him.

'He recovered so fast?!' Jared thought, now trying to separate his hands from the spear in order to deal against the approaching person.

However, as if he knew what he was thinking, Garel even decreased the size of the spear's handle to wrap Jared's hands in metal.

"ARGHHH!" With a cry of fury, incandescent flames appeared all over his body, giving him enough strength to free one of his hands from the metal binding just in time to intercept Jay, who had already gotten close enough to be within reach.

He then stomped hard on the ground in front of him and launched a punch towards Jay at an incredible speed.

*Woosh!*

The sound of cutting through the wind was heard, product of Jared's fist grazing Jay's cheek, leaving a visible mark on the bandages on his face.

"THAT DAMN TECHNIQUE AGAIN!!" 

Of course, it wasn't that Jared had failed, but rather Jay had again used the third and fourth step of Phantom Trace, successfully dodging Jared's attack.

However, the attack had been too fast, interrupting the technique halfway through and causing Jay to lose his balance momentarily.

Taking advantage of the fact that Jay's posture was unstable and that he was very close, Jared immediately launched another punch, only this time much stronger and faster than the previous one, so much that not even Garel would be able to receive something like that unharmed.

But just as his fist was about to slam into Jay, he vanished before Garel's eyes. 

"!"

*BAM!*

Before he could think of anything else, a loud impact coming from the right shook his head.

'-WHAT?!' Jared thought in alarm, not understanding what had just happened and quickly scanning his surroundings so he could find Jay. 

Unexpectedly, the hit had been hard enough to hurt him, so he immediately went on alert.

*BAM!*

Another hit to the head made him turn his gaze forcibly, fortunately, although he had taken damage from this, he also was able to discover where the hit had come from.

Standing to his right was the same bandaged man he had come to loathe in a single night, though now he had one major noticeable difference. 

His eyes were giving off an unmistakable green glow even stronger than that of any rank (D+) super.

"YOU...!" 

He didn't know how many times he had shouted that tonight, probably enough to make his throat a little sore, yet the hatred he felt hadn't diminished one bit.

Jared again began to launch a flurry of punches towards Jay, not caring that he was hurting himself in the process due to the state of his body.

Without waiting for the punches to come, Jay again faded in front of Jared's eyes.

Seeing this, Jared raised both hands upward before whipping them hard against the ground.

*BOOM!*

Another crater was created, much larger than the one in District 4, evidence of the strenght Jared had used.

Unfortunately for him, despite the wide range of destruction from his attack, Jay's figure was nowhere to be seen, all he could see was that there was a thin thread of a silver liquid leading upwards.

Suddenly, all his senses warned him at once, he was in danger!

Bringing his gaze to the end of that metallic thread, he could finally see the reason why he felt he was in so much danger.

The bandaged man had jumped really high, his bright green eyes locked on Jared, and in his hands was what was connected to that silver thread, a metal stick with an incredibly sharp tip.

Before he could think of what to do, Jared felt his feet being enveloped in an incredibly heavy liquid, making it impossible for him to break free anytime soon.

Immediately after, Jay's arm muscles swelled to the max, as if all the energy of his body was being concentrated in his right arm at this moment, but not content with that, even a current of wind began to surround the tip of this metal stick, causing it to spin very slowly.

He then threw the spear with all his might.

Faced with this, Jared's eyes turned red with anger as the flames in his body burned like never before and raising his arms to stop the spear coming towards him.

*BOOM!*

With a loud sound, the spear pierced the ground, passing first through Jared's chest. pinning him to the ground, on his face an expression of disbelief.