Chapter 52: A Few Good Punches

There was never really a safe way to knock someone out. Rhos knew that much. A knockout meant the brain had been disrupted enough to shut down consciousness, whether through blunt impact, restricted blood flow, neurological shock, or some combination of the three.

Every method carried its own risks.

Even though he had deliberately controlled the knockout technique he used against the girl, there was no changing the fact that he had hurt her.

He stared down at her unconscious face and felt a small pang of guilt. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she did attack him with the clear intention of tearing his face apart. Self defense was his best option in that situation.

Rhos really wanted to know what made her so hostile toward him, but this was neither the time nor place to figure out why she hated him so much.

’I’ll figure out what’s wrong with you eventually, but right now I don’t have the luxury of standing around’

He needed a communicator. He had already searched the guards he had encountered, and none of them carried it in their person. The only useful thing he found was the key he used to remove the girl’s restraints.

His only other option now was finding Ripley. Knowing her profession, she must have a communicator with her, and if she didn’t have one, then they were going to have to leave the facility and find another way to report the situation.

Rhos had started toward the doorway when he heard a voice behind him.

"Put her down"

He had known there was another prisoner in the room. He saw him when he entered the cell, but he just didn’t pay much attention to him.

He was a teenager chained to the wall and judging by the circumstances, he had assumed he was simply another captive of the slave traders. He had no interest in becoming involved with slave trade, and there was always trouble waiting for anyone who decided to play hero in a place like this.

His threat to kill him didn’t concern Rhos in the slightest. He had stared death in the eyes more times he could count outside the Biome. A threat from a scrawny looking guy chained to a wall wasn’t enough to make him reconsider what he was doing.

What did concern him was the spiritual energy suddenly pouring from his body in waves. It filled the cramped cell with an oppressive pressure that seemed completely disproportionate to his small body.

The sensation he felt wasn’t merely strong. It was dense, almost suffocating as though an enormous reservoir had been forced into a body that couldn’t properly contain it.

There was something else mixed into it too.

Malicious killing intent that made Rhos look over his shoulder.

’What the hell is wrong with this guy?’

"Y-, you there..."

The teen pulled against his restraints as he began to speak with a trembling voice.

"I’ve been sitting in this miserable hole for 10 days listening to these bastards treat people like property. I did nothing because I didn’t want any trouble. I kept my mouth shut, endured their stupidity and waited for the idiot who usually rescues me to show up..."

His wide open dark pink eyes burned at the young man before him with undeniable hatred.

"She’s a child..."

The spiritual energy around him surged intensely.

"She’s a fucking child!!!"

The chains snapped and before Rhos knew it, the teenager was suddenly in front of him. He barely managed to tilt his head aside to avoid a fist aimed for his skull.

’Fast!’

The punch passed beside his cheek with enough force to make the air explode. It slammed into the iron doorway behind him, and the entire door was obliterated along with a section of the surrounding stone wall.

Reflexes forged from tireless hours of training acted before his mind finished processing what was happening now. He shifted his weight and drove his fist into the teenager’s face.

The impact was brutal. It sent him flying across the room before crashing into the stone wall with enough force to leave a crater.

Rhos quietly stared. He didn’t intend to hit him that hard.

Blood dripped from the young man’s nose and mouth as he slid down the wall. He groaned as one hand rose to cover his face. For 20 seconds, he remained on the ground, seemingly stunned he got punched in the face.

"It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Th-, that hurts you bastard! Are you trying to kill me?!"

He spat blood onto the floor and added more curses. Of course, Rhos ignored them. His attention was fixed on the spiritual energy surrounding him.

’Who is this guy?’

At first glance, he looked like an ordinary young man who worked at some kind of craftsman shop judging by his attire. But his spiritual energy was extraordinary.

Rhos had encountered something similar only recently, when he fought the enormous masked man in the corridor. And now he encountered another person with abnormal spiritual energy.

’What kind of place is this?’

He didn’t get much time to think when his opponent pushed himself upright, still fuming with anger. He charged at Rhos and threw another fist he had no trouble at dodging.

Rhos ducked beneath the followup strike before moving past him. His hand seized the chains lying on the floor. With a strong pull, he ripped them out of the wall, tearing loose several chunks of stone.

Now he had his hands full.

The unconscious little girl was secured against one arm while the broken chains hung from his other hand, intending to make good use of them to control the situation.

"Give her back!"

The teen charged at him again. He unleashed a barrage of punches that tore through the cramped space and Rhos avoided every single one.

His attacks were powerful, but they were painfully predictable. Just like the giant masked man, there was no refined technique behind his attacks. Just overwhelming physical strength.

’Great. Another monster with no idea how to fight’

Rhos slipped to the side as a fist smashed into the wall behind him, then more followed which forced him to move through the narrow room till the ceiling above them cracked.

That brief pause from him gave Rhos the opening he needed. He turned and sprinted toward the ruined doorway.

At the same time, the entire cell began collapsing.

Fortunately, he had already made it out, but the same couldn’t be said for the teenager disappearing beneath a cloud of dust and debris.

Somehow, he felt like that wouldn’t be enough to kill him. Rhos looked back and said;

"Listen, I’m not interested in fighting you. But if you keep.."

Something entered his perception. It was too fast and coming directly for him, closing the distance in a fraction of a second.

Rhos instinctively moved his arm and with a clang, sparks erupted through the corridor.

A thin piece of steel had nearly pierced the little girl’s head. His quick action had intercepted it with the broken chains.

The attacker used the momentum of the clash to spin across the ground before gracefully coming to a stop several meters away.

Rhos’s expression soured when he recognized who that was.

"... Ripley"