Chapter 55: The Hero Stands up for Himself II
Hachi turned around after hearing heavy footsteps and was surprised to see Elijah running towards him. Some bruises that he swore he gave to Elijah weren't there on his face anymore.
He already knew of Elijah's tactic to do a flying knee attack, so he charged at him to do the same. However, when they collided, Hachi was pushed back instead and received the brunt of the pain.
They both got up and threw punches. Elijah got smacked in the face again, but because of his higher health, he didn't feel the full strength of the impact nor the pain.
Whereas Elijah's punches were three times as hard as before. Hachi felt like his older brother was beating him up, and he could never stand up to his older brother.
Being shorter, Elijah had easier access to Hachi's weak points.
Left rib, right rib, and an uppercut to Hachi's chin made him stagger back. Elijah tackled the dazed Hachi to the ground. A flurry of punches landed on Hachi's face while Elijah's knees pinned his arms down, the same that was done to Elijah.
After he beat Hachi to a pulp. Elijah stood up satisfied.
"How does your medicine taste?" Elijah said.
He was trying out a superhero one-liner like how Spider-Man always has these quick quips.
[Quest Completed!]
A notification appeared in front of him.
He opened up the Quest Menu.
Quest: [The Hero stands up for himself.]
Mission completed: Defeat the middle schooler who insulted you.
Rewards: 25 exp
[Hidden Quest Completed!]
'A hidden quest?' Elijah wondered what it was.
Hidden Quest: [From Zero… To One]
Mission completed: Complete your first mission.
Rewards:
10 exp
Unlock Inventory
[You have leveled up!]
He leveled up already! The System was pretty generous. Even though the System was harsh before, Elijah could only thank it for motivating him. Perhaps he could imagine the System as a strict personal trainer.
He wanted to check his new inventory, but then he heard a yell.
"HEY! Get away from my brother!"
Further down the street was a guy in his late teens, around 18, opening the gate of a house and angrily walking towards him.
Elijah backed off from Hachi.
"Hey! He started it!" Elijah said.
Although he did egg Hachi on earlier, it could be said that Hachi was looking for a fight when he bumped into him on purpose.
The older brother, Hachiro, kneeled beside his brother and inspected him. His dear brother's face was swollen like he had his head stuck in a beehive.
"You bastard! How dare you do this to my brutherrr!"
[New quest is available]
"Whoa! Hey-" Elijah said, putting his hands up.
"Shut up gaijin! You're going to pay!"
Elijah had allocated his ability points the moment he backed away from Hachi. His health was 109/200, so he added in one vitality point. He now had 159/250.
He put the other four points into his strength stat. Elijah was up against an adult at his peak who was about 4 inches (ca. 10 cm) taller than him, so he needed more strength.
When Hachiro's last step got Elijah into his attack range, he swung at him. Elijah blocked that hit with his arms crossed over his face, then he did a straight punch into Hachiro's chest which made him stagger back in pain.
Hachiro had a bewildered expression on his face. That punch was as hard as his dad's punches who was a wife-beater. He tried stopping his father before, but he wasn't strong enough. That's why he took up boxing classes.
Hachiro's animalistic anger was now reigned in and controlled. He held his two fists up in the air like a boxer.
Elijah sensed he shifted gears. He copied Hachiro's stance.
Hachiro narrowed his eyes and did a couple of test punches.
The punches hit Elijah before he could react to it.
Hachiro scoffed. Elijah didn't have any boxing experience. His fists roared out confidently but quickly went back into position for another strike.
Elijah attempted to block and dodge his quick jabs but failed. He threw some punches at Hachiro's face, but the latter either blocked or dodged most of them.
Elijah gave up boxing and attacked his abdomen. Hachiro used this moment to bash Elijah in the face, but it surprised him how a little kid was soaking up punches like a sponge.
Bruises and cuts materialized on Elijah's face. Blood dribbled out of his nose. Yet he was still fighting.
'How is he still standing!' Hachiro thought.
[You have a new skill!]
When Hachiro was blocking punches to his face, Elijah pulled one of his arms aside and gripped it, then he used his other arm to punch relentlessly into Hachiro's face. Hachiro punched Elijah too.
When he started kicking, Elijah returned with kicks as well.
It became a battle of endurance. However, Elijah's hits had greater raw power, and he had more health. So the first to wear out would be Hachiro.
Although the fight was inelegant, Hachiro slowed down until he was on his knees.
Elijah kept holding him up by his wrist and beating him. Then he let go and kicked him some more to make sure he was down.
Elijah couldn't risk anyone getting back up to attack him. These kinds of people were the type to take any opportunity they could to bring down another. If they were on top of him, he couldn't trust them to not accidentally kill him.
[Quest completed!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have a new skill!]
Elijah opened the quest menu to see what rewards he had.
Quest: [The Hero stands up for himself II.]
Mission completed: Defeat the older brother.
Rewards: 50 exp
Arbitrary threat level detector skill
Elijah opened up his inventory. It was a single row of 10 squares and all of them were empty.
Elijah checked his status.
[Status]
LV. 3
Name: Elijah Whitlock
Class: None
Title: None
__________________
HP: 77/250
MP: 0
Fatigue: 38
__________________
Strength: 7
Agility: 0
Sense: 0
Vitality: 3
Intelligence: 0
AP: 5
__________________
[Skills]
Passive Skills:
Goddess of Fortune's blessing (luck boost)
Pain Reduction: 15%
Brawler Toughness: 20% damage reduction to unarmed attacks and 5% damage reduction to blunt attacks.
Arbitrary threat level detector
Active Skills: None
Elijah expanded the show info next to the first new skill he got.
Brawler Toughness
-It's not about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep fighting
Elijah was hoping for an active skill, but this is pretty good. He finally checked his pain reduction skill.
Pain Reduction
-Those who run away, pain follows. For those that chase after it, pain is fleeting.
"?"
Author's notes: Shortened the line spacings in the status screen because they are long in the mobile version. I'll assume most readers use their phones.
Not exactly a common fight scene between hero and monster but I think its refreshing to see what happens when a Hero is transported into the real world. Let me know what you think!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone