Chapter 27: Breaking the Brawler

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Breaking the Brawler

Silas grinned, the yellow kinetic energy humming around his massive metal gauntlets flared brighter, casting long, jittery shadows against the wet cave walls.

"You think you can play hero, kid?" Silas mocked, stepping forward and shaking his massive right fist. The air warped around the metal plating as compressed kinetic pressure built up. "You’re an F-Rank rat who got lucky with a piece of junk. This ends now."

Donald didn’t waste his breath on a reply. His chest throbbed where the previous shockwave had bruised his ribs, and a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. But his mind was razor-sharp. He glanced across the cavern for a fraction of a second. Evelyn was still locked in a brutal dance of death with the Lesser Vampire, her movements noticeably slower as the unhealing blood-cuts drained her stamina.

I have to end this right now, Donald told himself. I can’t afford a prolonged trade.

He adjusted his grip on the Type-3 Pile Bunker, channeling his 41 Mana straight into the weapon’s heavy core. The internal gears spun with a high-pitched, lethal whine, and the thick silver spike locked firmly into its forward chamber, vibrating with compressed energy.

Silas roared and charged.

The C-Rank Brawler didn’t bother with fancy footwork. He relied on pure, overwhelming mass and area-of-effect shockwaves. He closed the distance in a heartbeat, bringing his right fist back and driving it forward in a devastating straight punch aimed right for Donald’s face.

As the fist moved, Donald’s upgraded [Valuation Eye] flashed bright yellow, painting a precise trajectory line across the air.

Now.

Donald dropped his weight, bending his knees deep into the stone, and flared his C-Rank mobility skill.

[Bull Rush]!

A sharp concussive pop echoed from beneath his boots as he launched himself forward. Silas’s eyes widened slightly in triumph, thinking Donald was committing to a desperate head-on collision. The gang boss put even more kinetic charge into his punch, preparing to turn Donald’s skull to paste.

At the very last microsecond, Donald didn’t crash into him. Instead, he aggressively twisted his hips, deliberately misaligning his momentum, and executed a sharp, sliding feint. He dropped low to the ground, skidding across the wet gravel beneath Silas’s swinging arm.

Silas’s punch sailed harmlessly over Donald’s back, the secondary kinetic shockwave detonating harmlessly against the empty air behind him.

Because Silas had overcommitted his weight into what he thought was a killing blow, his massive body was thrown completely off-balance, his right side completely exposed.

Donald didn’t hesitate. He was already pivoting from his slide, rising directly beneath Silas’s flank.

With his 39 Strength stat fully unlocked and amplified by the heavy mass of the B-Rank weapon, Donald didn’t swing the Pile Bunker like a club this time. He aimed the hardened steel barrel directly at the joint of Silas’s left knee.

He jammed the weapon against the heavy armor plating and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

The explosive silver spike shot forward with absolute, terrifying force. It bypassed the kinetic fields on Silas’s armor, striking raw bone and metal with deafening concussive energy.

A sickening, wet CRACK echoed through the cavern, louder than any of the previous explosions.

Silas let out a blood-curdling shriek of pure agony. The heavy metal plating around his knee shattered into a hundred jagged fragments, and the joint blew backward at an unnatural angle.

The giant gang boss collapsed instantly, crashing hard onto his side, his massive frame shaking violently as shock flooded his system.

"Ahhh! My leg! You—you little bastard!" Silas gasped, his face turning an ashen, sweaty gray. He instinctively tried to push himself up with his right arm, gritting his teeth through the blinding pain.

Donald didn’t give him a single second to recover. He stepped over the thrashing giant, his eyes cold and completely devoid of fear. The slum boy who used to tremble at Silas’s name was completely gone.

Silas raised his right gauntlet, aiming a desperate, blind kinetic punch upward at Donald’s chest.

Donald raised the heavy barrel of the Pile Bunker, placing the tip directly against the center of Silas’s thick, scarred chest plate where the gang boss’s core mana channel was centered.

"This is for Sector 4," Donald said quietly.

He pulled the trigger a second time.

BOOM!

The second explosive spike detonated point-blank against the heavy chest plate. The kinetic shockwave punched right through the metal, caving the breastplate inward and shattering the ribs beneath it.

Silas’s eyes rolled violently back into his head. The yellow light around his metal gauntlets flickered once, twice, and then snapped out completely. The giant man went completely limp, dropping into a motionless heap among the loose stones and dust.

[Target Defeated: Silas (C-Rank, Level 24).]

[Massive Experience Gained.]

[Level Up! You are now Level 7.]

Donald stood over the fallen gang boss, breathing heavily, feeling the warm, familiar surge of power as Level 7 flooded his veins. But he didn’t waste a single moment celebrating.

He whipped his head around, instantly scanning the other side of the cavern to see how Evelyn was holding up against the Lesser Vampire.