Hangover (7)

"Why does it seems like I had seen this guy before..." Jevil stared at the holovision of the dim lightened bar.

At the holovision, it showed John slowly walking up at the Arena.

The Arena was a big circle with 10 meters radius. The floor was made of a somewhat soft material so that it can allow for the fighters to perform more radical and dangerous moves, and also so that they can fight without any shoes.

There is no way to fall from the Arena, the only way to win is by knocking the other opponent out, or by making them admit defeat.

"That's John Connor, sir." The captain guard that John met by the entrance was at the bar with Jevil.

"Oh... The Protector that was able to kill an Erchius Horror..." Jevil became suddenly very interested in the coming battle at the Arena 6.

"It's not unheard of someone killing an Erchius Horror, why would you, sir, became interested in him?"

"Simple." Jevil smirked, "The existence of the Erchius Horror and Moontants are a piece of close and classified information by the Letheia Corporation. Anyone apart from the upper echelon knows nothing about it. To actually meet something that resistant and hard to kill, and actually eliminate it, without prior understanding about what he was facing, it is something very admirable."

"From the reports we received, he used the Mining Laser Cannon to destroy it..." The guard was still unconvinced.

"Would you think of something like that in the heat of the moment, when facing something that is able to completely destroy even Tier 4 armors? One slight hit from that thing is extremely deadly." Jevil sat more relaxedly in the spacious sofa, "Of course if it was by luck or skill, we don't know, and we have no way to know it."

The captain stared at the young man in the holovision, "Are you going to... Use him?"

"I don't know, yet. The Central Ocean Faction is very interested in him, and I want to know why." Jevil casually pulled up his glasses in a skillful way, "Of all the Protectors around the universe that survived the red tentacle monster's onslaught, they chose to focus on this specific Protector. He has a connection with Esther Bright, that's confirmed by the spies, but they only met each other recently."

"Should we do something?"

"No. I don't want the Letheia Corporation setting its sight on me, Asra wouldn't like it..."

"Asra... I really don't get it... Why would you work with those radicals..."

"The Occasus Cult is evil, a necessary evil, so to speak. The Letheia Corporation had started to make extremely big moves now. The Occasus Cult is a force that is able to stop them from growing too much, too fast. It gives us time... To prepare..."

"But... The Occasus is a double edge sword. It can be used to cut down the enemy, but it can also kill the wielder. To sponsor them so much... It's dangerous... You know how fanatic they are. They simply kill any non-human at sight, whatever they are bad, good, or young, old."

"I know... That's why I'm using Ferris. I need to slowly make the Occasus Cult angrier with the Letheia Corporation. They won't sit idle as they watch hundreds of Human workers die in the Lunar Base 12. I indirectly made the Erchius Horror incident happen there so that they start to set their eyes on the Letheia's actions. I didn't expect them to actually go there and investigate on themselves, they even kidnapped the Overseer of the facility, Clark. This shows that they don't actually believe in my words. It doesn't matter, after all. I just need to the Occasus Cult and the Letheia Corporation to go against each other, they will weaken one another, and then... Then we cleanly eliminate these two evil things from the face of this universe."

"Now I understand..." The guard looked with eyes filled with worship toward Jevil, "Pardon my uselessness."

Jevil dismissed with a wave of his hand, "Don't worry so much, just make sure that the deal with Ferris is perfectly completed. Once we help her make the deal with the Syndicate, we will have proofs of the horrendous actions that the Letheia Corporation does against Humans, how they enslave Humans, using debt-enslavements. We give the proofs to Asra and watch from the sidelines the two devils killing each other."

Jevil sadly sighed, "I don't want to implicate innocent people, but... To achieve results you must make sacrifices..."

"Yes, boss. I will guarantee that the job will be perfectly completed." The guard saluted and left the bar.

Jevil slightly shook his head and absent-mindedly looked at the young man getting ready to fight in the holovision, [John Connor... You are very unlucky to be caught in the middle of the storm... Let's see if you have determination and strength to survive in this chaotic universe.]

...

Underworld Facility, Iron Fist Arena 6...

John looked at big, brow pelage Apex in front of him.

The Apex was flexing his muscles, probably trying to intimidate the small, and frail looking John.

John strangely looked at the fighting stance of the Apex, [What the hell is up with that fighting stance? His guard is completely filled with holes that I can easily exploit... It is certainly an amateur.]

John carefully entered in fighting stance. He had trained all types of martial arts, from the old ones until the most recent. But the ones the Terrene Protectorate most trained them was in self-defense and other martial arts that the main objective is to restrict and control the opponent.

The other martial arts John trained just because it was one of the few things he did that were close of being enjoyment for him.

His face became calm and cold. In his eyes, the Apex in front of him wasn't an opponent anymore, but an enemy.

Just as his mentality changed, the world started to slow down, [This... The power!]

He became overjoyed since he was able to activate it.

At the sound of the siren, signalizing the start of the match, the Apex charged at full force toward John. His speed was extremely fast at the eyes of the audience, but for John, he was moving in slow motion.

The Apex raised his arm and went for a punch. John easily dodged, with the minimum amount of movement, to the side.

John and the Apex were less than 30 centimeters away from each other.

At this close range, the Apex was basically unable to do anything because his arms were a lot longer and he was taller than John.

John clutched the Apex's arm that threw the punch and swiftly moved toward the Apex's back. He placed the Apex's arm at his own back and gave a low kick behind the Apex's knee, making him fall flat on the ground with John on top of him, holding Apex's arm at his own back.

The Apex struggled, but John had everything under control and was able to keep him on the ground, unable to fight back.