The Eton High students who had come to the park were all members of the rugby team, which meant they were used to bashing into walls of muscles. Strength and speed were both key factors in sport to take down an opponent, but looking at Gary he had neither on his side.

As such it was all the more surprising to see him hold onto both planks with a single hand. The two students from Eton High had struggle written all over their faces as they attempted to yank their makeshift weapons free. The injured teenager merely tightened his grip until a snapping sound was heard.

The two Eton High boys stumbled a few steps back still holding onto the planks. Looking down they could see why they suddenly felt that much lighter. One end of them had been ripped off.

‘They’re still in his hand! Can a normal human even have such a grip strength?!’

The next second, another student slammed a wooden plank against the back of Gary’s head, snapping it in place and causing him to fall back to his knees.

‘These Eton High guys are ruthless. How can they not even hesitate to hit his head? Aren’t they afraid they might accidentally kill him? All of that for a stupid match?!’ Blake thought to himself, as he was ready to help Gary. Yet, before he could even reach their position Gary had already recovered and threw a punch back.

The student managed to block in time raising his forearms, but the next second he found himself looking at the sky.

‘What the…? Is this some sort of joke? Did Gary set this up somehow or how is he able to knock a guy twice his size? Has he been holding back all the time? No, could it be that he is one of us as well?’ Still, the main concern for Blake was the blood that was dripping down his classmate’s head. The athlete was surprised the other was still standing after such a hit.

He might be okay for now while the adrenaline was pumping in his body but once it was over it would hurt like hell. They had to deal with those guys before that happened. Right now Gary was dealing with the first two that had arrived, leaving Blake with the other two.

This was a number that he could easily deal with. When one of the Eton High students came rushing forward pulling his arm back to throw a fist, Blake simply threw out a quick jab hitting the student right in the face, almost lifting his legs off the ground.

“If you charge forward like that, it’s going to hurt a lot more when someone hits you!”

Now it was time to deal with his buddy, but as Blake turned his head around, he only saw the other Eton High student’s back. He had actually run off, abandoning his comrade.

‘Guess they’re not really the loyal bunch.’

Turning around, he was ready to help Gary. His chin nearly dropped to the ground as he saw the other two already on the ground. Still, his classmate didn’t look good, he was huffing and panting, with a hunched back, his hands by his side looking like some type of weird beast.

However, all the other three students had been beaten rolling around the floor in pain.

‘Damn, those guys’ strength were similar to mine, even after I’ve used Charging Heart.’ Gary thought. ‘I guess that shows how weak my original body is. Maybe I should have considered it some before putting my stat point into Energy after that level up. And I’m not the best fighter. It’s one thing knowing what to do, but another knowing how to do it. I was getting hit too much, and now my Energy is low having to heal all these wounds.’

“Hey Gary, we need to get you checked out at a hospital!” Blake said, rushing over.

[Emergency healing in progress]

[Energy will be consumed]

[Energy has been used up]

[Healing unable to complete]

[Eat more meat to restore Energy points]

During the fight, Gary had seen this a few times already, and now the system was healing the rest of his wounds until it had stopped. As long as he got some food, he would definitely be fine after this fight, and was worried the hospital could find something out.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m tougher than I look.” Gary shouted, already running off. “Just look after yourself. You’re the ace of the team, not me!”

Blake wanted to give chase, but Gary was faster than he should be, even if this was still the adrenaline. Unsure, where the other teenager actually lived, Blake decided to just check up on him tomorrow.

Looking around him, Blake looked at the sorry state of the Eton High students.

‘He was able to take three giants like this down? He’s a bit different.’ Blake smiled.

When the healing was complete, the first thing Gary did was head to a shop to purchase more meat. There were two reasons for this. The first was the fact that whenever he could he wanted his Energy bar to be at a 100 percent.

He never knew when the Underdogs or something like what had just happened would occur, and he needed to be at full strength if a fight was to break out. The second was because he needed to complete his daily quests.

‘I need to get stronger as quickly as possible, and levelling up seems to be the easiest way. After replenishing his energy, Gary headed to the gym once more.

Usually, after school Gary would head to the Underdogs to complete his transporter duties. His mother was used to him coming home a little late so it was no problem. During the session at the gym, Gary was able to lift weights easier than the time before, his muscles weren’t sore either.

What Gary didn’t know was that usually beginners would suffer from extreme muscle soreness the next few days after weight training, but Gary experienced no such thing. The muscle fibres in his body were breaking down and healing at an incredible rate. Far faster than anyone could even if they were to take enhancing supplements.

[Congratulations! Your body is seeing benefits of working out]

[Strength +1]

‘So my stats can actually improve without needing me to level up! Looks like using that stat point on Energy might have been the right choice after all. My Strength was only at 4, which I’m guessing is still low. I wonder how long it will take me to gain the next one.’

The best thing about the skill Charging Heart, was it doubled all of his stats for a certain amount of time period. So increasing his natural stats like so would be extremely beneficial.

[Strength 5]

[Dexterity 3]

[Endurance 8]

Looking at the stats, Gary wondered what he could do to improve his Dexterity since it was the lowest of the three. Perhaps asking, Professional fighters of sorts, or someone who knew what they were doing would help. As for Endurance, he could only think of one thing for that, getting hit more. Which he wasn’t looking forward to.

No matter what though, he needed to improve all of these things, through levelling up or his natural strength and he had come up with the best solution to do both at the same time.

‘I don’t know when I’ll be found by the Underdogs or have to fight in that underground fighting area again, but if I want to live and protect my family then I need to get stronger.’

The next day Gary woke up and was heading to school as he did every day. After going home, he hadn’t received any texts from Kai. On the one hand, he was glad not having to fight after his earlier scuffle, on the other hand the upperclassman was currently his only way to gain any cash.

‘Hmm, should I just go and approach him instead? I don’t really want to come off as needy… then again, will it make any difference? He already has me by my balls…’

When arriving at school, Tom greeted him as normal and asked him a hundred questions about how he was feeling and more. Of course Gary replied he was feeling fine and told him the events of what happened yesterday.

“They’re seriously going that far just because of a some stupid high school sports event. I really don’t understand people.” Tom said, shaking his head. “Anyway, that’s two reasons why you should leave the rugby team now. Let’s tell Mr. Root today during club practice. You can still play rugby just not be part of the team.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be going to rugby practise today.” Gary replied. “I need to go to another club instead.”

When school ended, Blake was out on the rugby field, looking for Gary, but he never turned up.

“Where is that damned little broccoli head?! I’ve already told him that we have a game coming up soon! Does he want to set a record for fastest player to be kicked off the team?!” Mr Root shouted.

“Coach Root, me and Gary ran into some kids from Eton High yesterday.” Blake reported. “They wanted to jump me, but he was unlucky enough to get involved. I assume he must still be recovering from that.”

Looking at Blake’s knuckles, Mr Root didn’t need any more proof. Despite his rough appearance and his tendency to yell at his students he nevertheless cared about their well-being. Unfortunately, he knew about the special relationship Eton High enjoyed, which meant that there was nothing he could do about it.

“Alright, I’ll let him off with this once, but make sure to tell him this is an exception. I don’t need him getting a big head and think he’ll get any special treatment. As for the rest of you, let this be a lesson! Although they went for Blake yesterday, they might go after one of you as well. Make sure to go home in pairs!” Mr Root ordered.

“Hang on, so you bailed on rugby practise to come here? Be honest with me, has becoming a werewolf made you LOSE YOUR MIND? This might be even worse than rugby!” Tom whispered angrily, trying to appeal to his best friend as he followed him to the front of the school gym. The two friends could already hear the sounds of chanting from the outside.

Inside, there were around a dozen students in white robes all in sync performing a set of moves.

Off to the side, there were several students that currently sat down, one of them being Xin. When the teacher noticed the newcomers he asked: “Oh, are you guys interested in the Karate club?”

Gary clenched his fist, and shook his head. “I’m here, to fight!”

*****

Top 25 golden ticket = 3 Chapters a day

Instagram: jksmanga

Support my editor: ko-fi/devilsadvocate