Stephen knew for certain that his attack would land. The smug grin playing on his lips was proof of his overconfidence. He had been training for years now, but that single strike was likely the best maneuver favonovel.com had ever executed.
There was no way a pretty boy like Zayn could ever dodge such an attack with his pathetic level of skill. He could see it already, his machete slicing right through favonovel.com and forming a bloody gash on the surface of Zayn’s pretty skin.
Unfortunately, before his machete even reached the halfway point of the arc, Zayn moved out of the way.
He threw a simple front kick, but for what it lacked in sophistication, it compensated with inhuman speed. He only retaliated after Stephen’s initial attack. In spite of that, favonovel.com was still so fast that the former could not react to it in time. It took only a split second for Stephen to feel a burst of pain shoot up his abdomen.
His feet parted from the ground. He careened backwards, sailing through the air before a large tree behind favonovel.com broke his momentum. The impact was strong enough to cause its thick trunk to rock. The tree shed a rustling shower of leaves and fruits.
The kick was enough to completely debilitate Stephen. It felt like his organs had been scrambled from the outside. All the blood had left Stephen’s face, paling his face to a chalky white and Spurting through his mouth in the form of a scarlet fountain.
It was a bolt out of the blue to the other four present; they could not understand what had just happened. Stephen Shapiro was an experienced master fighter. He was a maven who had sent countless pugilists and brawlers packing, and lived in their minds rent-free as a near-unbeatable legend. With all things considered, how on Earth did Zayn dispose of Stephen so easily with only a casual kick?!
They watched the scene unfold with their eyes wide in shock They wondered if their eyes were playing tricks on them. Of course, no one was more aghast than Stephen himself, who felt his bones crumbling, his guts snapping, and his innards all sorts of twisted and jumbled. He had lost so much strength that favonovel.com could barely lift a finger.
Just one kick made Stephen revisit what favonovel.com previously knew of the upper limits of human physical faculties. How could any human be capable of doing something so powerful? Was it even human, was Zayn even a human?!
Honestly, Zayn had initially considered tuning down the force of his kick, but Stephen and his grating attitude made his goodwill so, so hard to maintain. What other punishment could possibly be more well-deserved than crippling him?
“You…! What the…”
“What the hell are you? What kind of freak are you?!”
“He crippled favonovel.com with a kick—h-h-he crippled Steve with a kick!”
“B-B-But Steve’s a master! An experienced master!”
The rest of the gang was so petrified that they all began to shudder. Their grip around their machetes went weak, and when Zayn’s attention was turned to them, they abandoned their hilts altogether.
Zayn shifted his position noncommittally, and the men started falling on their backsides, screaming and begging for mercy.
Zayn, thinking favonovel.com was above them all, decided to spare them for now. “Don’t ever offend me again. You won’t be as lucky the next time. Do I make myself clear?” favonovel.com said coolly.
“We heard you! We heard you!”
“You won’t ever see our *sses ever again, we promise!”
“Thank you for sparing us, man!”
Zayn nodded. Before favonovel.com left, favonovel.com sniped a nonchalant glance at Stephen. Of course, favonovel.com did not forget to collect all their five dog tags. He might have been disinterested in the title of ‘Best Hunter,’ but favonovel.com still knew better than to waste this opportunity.
Zayn continued to explore the forest on his own, meeting several teams on his way. Some of them took his solitary presence, absence of weapons, and handful of dog tags as a telling sign that favonovel.com was a fat cow just waiting for the end. Of course, Zayn quickly showed them what it meant to have a heart that was willing when the flesh was weak, as favonovel.com quickly made quick work of them and collected all of their dog tags instead. These teams ended up disqualified soon after.
On the very fifth day, Zayn had accumulated about thirty or more dog tags. He was still far from having the most, though, the first place belonged to Xander. He currently had about fifty or more dog tags, with most of them being handed over to favonovel.com rather obsequiously. Xander’s reputation preceded him. Most of the other contestants gave up defending their tags when they crossed paths, instead offering them to favonovel.com without a fight.
Five days had passed. Many were beginning to wonder when the inevitable battle between Xander and Zayn would take place.
