Chapter 100: A Beating Is Medicine for a Crazy Bastard (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 100: A Beating Is Medicine for a Crazy Bastard (3)
I took a step forward, approaching where Indigo stood. Indigo, his brow furrowed in an expression of irritation, also stepped out to meet me.
"Nobody interfere. I'm going to crush this bastard myself."
Indigo spoke in a sharp, warning tone to his team members while glaring at me. Behind my expressionless helmet, my eyes glared right back at him.
I was actually a bit grateful to him for voicing my thoughts, since it was difficult for me to speak.
Irritation continued to well up inside me, but I tried to maintain my composure as he approached. Just as I had told my comrades to stay calm, I made an effort to keep my own cool, focusing solely on the idea of testing out my new functions.
"I'm willing to hear you out if you have any last words before you get thrashed."
Indigo displayed an arrogant attitude, seemingly confident that he could win a one-on-one fight. I didn't bother responding; I simply took a combat stance.
"Is Spacetro filled with nothing but mutes?"
He probably prattled on like this when he fought Team 4, too. Normal soldiers like me wouldn't have given him an answer, and knowing Seira's personality... there was no way she would have ever responded to him.
"Let's see if I can make that trap of yours scream!"
Indigo lunged at me, leading with a punch. Though he had been easily broken by our coordinated attacks earlier, his fighting style wasn't entirely brainless, reflecting the confidence he had in his one-on-one abilities.
However, to me—hardened by long hours of dueling Team Hunter Killer—his movements seemed riddled with unnecessary flourishes. I couldn't help but compare him to the members of Hunter Killer, who delivered powerful strikes with minimal motion.
Take Yubin, for example. Her primary weapon was the sword; she parried most incoming attacks with her blade while simultaneously positioning herself for the next strike.
Because she occasionally performed movements that bordered on acrobatics, her patterns were difficult to predict, and the sheer power behind her attacks made them incredibly hard to defend against.
Indigo's attacks were nothing like that.
He swung his right fist at me, and the moment I blocked it, he swung his left. He usually alternated between hands and feet, but his lines of attack were so monotonous that they were incredibly easy to read.
And that was when I took a kick to my side and was pushed back.
Indigo, smiling because his attack had connected, looked at me with a triumphant expression. Ignoring him, I threw a kick of my own. He caught my leg, hoisted it high, and slammed me into the ground.
Just before impact, I braced myself with my hands to minimize the shock.
The moment I hit the ground, I pushed off with my hands to spring back up, driving my foot toward his face. Indigo retreated a step to dodge the kick, then lashed out at my abdomen, sending me flying.
I tumbled across the ground but quickly performed a breakfall to maintain my balance.
"See? You're nothing but a hack in a one-on-one."
I'm going to crush that arrogant face of yours. With that thought, I tightened my fists and charged at Indigo again. He wasn't stupid enough to fail at blocking someone running at him in a straight line, so he threw a punch to keep me at bay.
I pulled my head back slightly, dodging his strike. The following kick and punch weren't difficult to avoid either.
The functions of my new equipment were quite interesting. It wasn't like I had gained a superpower, but I could feel that my body felt overall lighter while wearing the suit.
As I was able to pay more attention to my body's reactions than I could during coordinated maneuvers, the sensation of lightness—which I hadn't noticed until a moment ago—became distinct.
"How long are you going to keep dodging?!"
Did it look to him like I was struggling to avoid his attacks?
It was true that I couldn't block everything. Most of it was predictable, but he was still a Superhuman, and there were moments when he delivered bursts of high-intensity strikes.
He poured out a relentless barrage of attacks as if trying to overwhelm me, and his team members watched the scene with amused laughter.
What I realized while attacking was that the strikes delivered with the new gloves and boots carried a much heavier impact than before. If my opponent had been a member of Hunter Killer, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to notice, as landing even a single hit would have been difficult.
The sudden appearance of Team Guerrilla in the middle of our duel was flustering, but there was no better way to test equipment I'd received for the first time in ten years.
My emotions were gradually heightening. The humiliation my teammates had suffered. The efforts of Team Hunter Killer that had been rendered useless by these people. All of it flashed through my mind, and Indigo—approaching me with the belief that his attacks were fierce—began to feel utterly insignificant.
You son of a bitch.
The members of Team 3, who had been watching the situation warily from behind, relaxed their guard slightly after seeing that A's movements were composed.
"Look at A. He seems to be in top form today, doesn't he?"
Jack, who usually fought on the front lines with him, marveled at A's exceptionally sharp movements. Kruger, standing beside him with his arms crossed, shook his head.
"No, he's probably pissed off right now."
"Huh? A is?"
Because Jack had served in a different unit, he had only met A for the first time on Earth, despite them both being in the 6th Fleet. Thus, he didn't know much about A's past, and he had never seen A get angry on Earth.
"Do you remember what I said when our team first formed?"
"What? 'Don't piss A off'?"
When Kruger first joined Team 3 with A, he—knowing A's past well—constantly told his comrades not to make A angry.
At first, the teammates wondered if A had some kind of personality disorder, but seeing how unnervingly calm he was, they took it to mean that since he was a man who rarely got angry, they shouldn't push him to that point.
Kruger didn't want to bring up someone else's past unnecessarily, so he didn't offer further explanation. Since A never really lost his temper, Kruger eventually stopped saying it.
The teammates had completely forgotten Kruger's warning, but given the current situation, the memory resurfaced.
"Yeah. Once that guy snaps, there's no stopping him."
Kruger wondered if he was seeing the old A for the first time in a long while. While he was worried, he was also relieved, certain that A wouldn't lose to the likes of Indigo.
"What was he like?"
"I first met A back in the training center a long time ago."
Kruger and A had a long history. Kruger spoke nonchalantly, letting out a hollow laugh as he reminisced.
"That bastard was the craziest one there."
That was why Kruger believed A knew better than anyone.
That a beating is the only medicine for a crazy bastard.
As Indigo's attacks continued to pour in, I blocked and dodged while testing the newly accessed performance of the suit.
Changes in the body are sensitive. Since the overall weight distribution of my body had changed, I needed time to adapt by moving. And little by little, slowly, I felt my body becoming accustomed to the new weight.
"You lit—!"
Irritated by my constant dodging, Indigo gritted his teeth and threw a punch. I ducked his strike and hammered my fist into his face.
The blow landed cleanly. Indigo squeezed his eyes shut and stumbled back. Without giving him a moment to breathe, I hit him once with my left, once with my right, and then quickly delivered a roundhouse kick to his face.
"Urgh!"
Letting out a short groan, he was pushed back and tried to regain his balance to set up a counter. But the moment he looked at me, I grabbed his head, yanked it down, and drove my knee into his face.
"Gah!"
Dazed, Indigo lost the balance he had barely managed to recover. I leaped to the side, spinning in mid-air, and lashed out at his neck. It was a strike delivered at close range, almost like a lateral flying kick, and the steel plate on the toe of my new boot struck his throat.
"!!"
To his credit as a Superhuman, he didn't pass out. Staggering backward, Indigo struggled to stay upright. However, it looked like he was having a hard time just maintaining his balance.
I waited a moment for him to steady himself. If I got greedy and kept attacking, I might lose my own balance and provide him an opening for a counterattack.
"You son of a bitch. Stop jumping around!"
Spitting out the blood pooling in his mouth, Indigo lunged with a kick. I dodged his flying form, spun laterally in the air once more, and slammed my heel into his face.
"Guh!"
Losing his balance mid-air in the very position he had lunged, Indigo crashed to the ground. Using the momentum from the spin, I rotated one more time and drove a stomp into his abdomen as he lay there.
"Ack!"
The blow landed deep in his solar plexus. Indigo lay on the ground, unable to breathe properly, and I backed off slightly.
...It wasn't over yet.
Considering what my comrades had endured and the mental anguish the women of Hunter Killer had suffered, this was nothing.
Indigo and Team Guerrilla still had a lot to pay for.
...One person doing this might not change much in the grand scheme of things, but at the very least, I could vent the stress I had built up against him....
Regaining his breath, Indigo stood up. He glared at me with bloodshot eyes and let out a primal scream.
"You bastard—!!!"
He screamed like a rabid wolf, blood matting the gaps between his teeth. Enraged that the fight wasn't going his way, he charged at me again. He seemed to think that if he could just land one solid hit, he could regain the momentum.
In contrast to his noisy shouting, I simply watched him charge in silence....
...Fine. Let's see what you've got.
Anger is a powerful impulse. I was clearly dominating him, but a person who has lost their reason is unpredictable and can sometimes exert more strength than usual.
Indigo lunged and swung his fists rapidly. His attacks, sharper than before, were fierce, but I repeatedly dodged and blocked, refusing to allow a clean hit.
...And I began to feel even more irritated by the way he was lunging at me.
I put immense strength into my fist. The moment an opening appeared in Indigo's barrage, I dove inside his guard.
Gritting my teeth hard, I drove my fist into his solar plexus.
The instantaneous explosion of power sent Indigo flying. He crashed into a pile of construction materials and was buried in a cloud of dust.
"Aaaaaagh—!!!"
With another scream, a steel pipe flew out from the dust cloud. I caught the pipe flying straight at me and threw it back at another pipe that came flying right after it.
The pipes collided in mid-air with a loud clang and fell. As if he hadn't had enough, one more pipe came flying. I kicked the end of it, sending it right back into the dust.
Soon, the dust cleared, revealing Indigo. The pipe I'd kicked back had grazed his face, leaving a gash.
...Does he think screaming constantly will solve anything?
...Does he not give a single thought to the screams he's forced out of so many others?
...Even to an invader like me, you're a hopeless piece of shit.
...Pathetic bastard.
The irritation I'd been feeling turned into pure stress.
I had no intention of letting this duel end half-heartedly, so I ran toward him.
Seeing me charge, Indigo also began to run. As we closed the distance, Indigo leaped high. He revealed a weapon he'd been hiding behind his back and took a stance to throw it at me on the ground—only to realize I wasn't there.
The moment I realized Indigo had jumped, I had leaped even higher, positioning myself above him.
"Indigo! Above you!"
One of his team members shouted, but it was too late. Spinning heavily in the air, I slammed my heel down onto Indigo's head.
He was driven face-first into the ground, and I landed right where he fell.
Be grateful it's a dirt floor.
Since the dirt absorbed some of the impact, he probably wouldn't feel that much pain from the fall itself. But that didn't matter anymore.
I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him up. Clenching my fist tight, I hammered it into his face.
Thud!
The impact was loud enough to echo. The moment my fist connected, I let go of his collar and slammed him back into the ground.
Then, I immediately struck his face again with my other hand.
One hit. Another. And another. I kept hammering his face with my fists, and dust began to rise from the ground.
The speed of my punches began to accelerate....
Because of a piece of trash like this, my comrades were humiliated.
All of Hunter Killer's hard work went down the drain.
Even for an invader like me, there's a limit to what I can tolerate.
And you crossed that line, you son of a bitch.
The rapid-fire pummeling continued.... Indigo stopped moving.
I didn't give a damn whether this bastard was unconscious or not....
...If I keep hitting him like this without pause, maybe some of this resentment will fade.... Maybe the stress from everything the people around me suffered will disappear a little.... Just like this.... Like this.... Like this..........
...............Die, you piece of shit.
"Hey. Something's wrong with him."
Jack, who had been watching A, spoke to Kruger, who was keeping an eye on Team Guerrilla.
Kruger, who had briefly looked away from A, belatedly realized that A was indiscriminately mauling Indigo.
"Hey. Stop him."
"Huh?"
"Stop him!"
Kruger shouted urgently and ran toward A.
Despite having known A for a long time, there was one thing he had overlooked. When A truly snapped, he was far more unhinged than Kruger remembered.
Among those who had known A for a long time, there were a few labels—tags, almost—used to describe him.
Having lived an eventful life with diverse experiences, he had gone through many changes, and among them were periods where he had lived quite roughly. Everyone who had seen A during those rough years called him the same thing.
A total psycho.
And Kruger, who had witnessed those times long ago, could tell through A's movements that he wasn't in his right mind, even though his face was hidden by the helmet.
No matter how angry he was about his teammates being humiliated by Indigo, he couldn't kill him. While this was a legal act of revenge and certainly satisfying, the story would change if he actually killed the man.
Hearing Kruger's command to stop him, the teammates realized they truly had to restrain A. Just before A could drive his clenched fist into the fallen Indigo's face again, his comrades lunged at him, grabbing his arms and body to hold him back.
"You crazy bastard! Get a grip!"
At Kruger's shout as he gripped my arm tightly, my reason returned. I couldn't remember the moments I had been mindlessly beating Indigo. Feeling the tension in my bloodshot eyes slowly fade, I looked down at the Indigo lying on the ground.
A broken nose and front teeth. His cheekbone was slightly sunken, and his eyes were rolled back, showing only the whites. His face was such a bloody mess that it was hard to recognize him as the Indigo from moments ago.
Having calmed down thanks to my comrades, I raised my head and looked around.
Indigo's team members were too terrified by the scene they'd just witnessed to approach, and my teammates were desperately holding onto me.
It seemed things had gotten serious enough for Kruger to shout during the duel.
The first thing to stain the new equipment I'd been so happy to receive was none other than Indigo's blood. I looked at the blood on my hands and then signaled to my comrades that I was okay.
My teammates, watching me warily, let go of my arms, and I stood up.
Then, I slowly began to walk away from the duel site. Or rather, I tried to.
The moment my reason returned, as if to vent the last of my unresolved anger, I delivered one final kick to Indigo's face.
It was only after that that I walked away from the spot where I had fought Indigo one-on-one.
Certain that the duel was A's victory, Kruger grabbed Indigo by the collar and threw him toward where Team Guerrilla was gathered.