From Bullets To Billions Chapter 758: A Fair Match Up

The moment Hugo stepped back, Hercules made it clear who he intended to fight and which side he had chosen.

He launched himself forward.

For someone so large, Hercules moved with surprising speed. The muscles throughout his body exploded with power whenever he travelled in a straight line, allowing his enormous frame to cross the distance in an instant.

Before Hugo could properly defend himself, Hercules grabbed him by the arm and threw him.

Hugo was lifted from the ground and sent flying through the air. His body passed over most of the other attackers before crashing into the side of a shipping container.

The metal caved in around him, leaving Hugo trapped inside the large dent his body had created.

It didn’t hold him for long.

Hugo kicked against the container and forced himself free, leaving behind a human-shaped impression in the metal. He landed on the ground and looked towards Hercules.

"So, you wanted to fight me again?" Hugo shouted. "You came back to life just so you could experience death twice? It’s almost as if the world wants me to punish you twice as badly!"

Max looked up at Hercules.

For a brief moment after throwing Hugo, Hercules’s face had tightened. It was a small reaction, almost like a twitch, but Max had noticed the strain behind it.

Max thought.

Hercules’s strength was still incredible. He had thrown Hugo across the area as if the man weighed nothing, but that didn’t mean he had completely recovered from the metal pole that had pierced his chest.

Max had enough opponents of his own without interfering in Hercules’s battle.

That was when he noticed Dud moving.

Dud wasn’t heading towards Max. He was attempting to pass him and reach Hercules instead.

The truth was that Dud understood how dangerous Hercules was.

He remembered how many people it had taken to bring the giant down on the mountain. Although the scar on Hercules’s chest proved that he was still injured, Dud had no idea how much the wound was actually limiting him.

He couldn’t risk allowing Hercules to fight freely.

Dud moved forward, but before he could reach him, a leg rose towards his face.

He reacted quickly and punched the leg down with his gloved hand, knocking Max’s foot towards the ground. Max immediately followed with a fist, but Dud swayed his head aside and avoided it.

Dud threw a punch of his own.

Max moved out of its path and countered again, but his second punch missed as well. Their arms passed one another, forcing the two fighters into a position where their elbows locked together.

They were now standing face-to-face.

"What’s the problem?" Max asked. "Now that your unfair advantage has been reduced a little, you’re starting to panic?"

Max tightened the lock between their arms, preventing Dud from continuing towards Hercules.

"Do you really think that after finally getting this opportunity, I’m going to stand aside and let you interfere?"

Dud stared at him closely.

"What is it about you, Max?" he asked. "What makes people gravitate towards you?"

His eyes briefly moved towards Hercules before returning to Max.

"You weren’t buying time because you expected him to come. I could see the look on your face. You were just as surprised as the rest of us."

Dud smiled.

"Did you honestly come here on a whim, believing you could defeat all of us by yourself?"

Before Max could answer, Dud pulled on his arm. He forced it above Max’s head and began twisting it behind him, trying to place Max into a lock.

However, Max’s strength made it difficult for him to complete the technique.

Rather than resisting the movement directly, Max allowed himself to move with it. He flipped his body over Dud, landed on the other side and pulled on Dud’s arm.

The position had been reversed.

Max attempted to secure Dud’s arm in a submission hold. If he could fully lock it in place, he would have enough leverage to break it.

Before Max could finish, Dud’s arms slipped free.

For a moment, Max saw both of them hanging at unnatural angles in the air. Dud had allowed his own arms to bend and twist far beyond what they should have been capable of handling just to escape the hold.

Then both of Dud’s fists shot forward.

One struck Max in the face while the other drove into his stomach.

Pain spread through Max’s body as he stumbled backwards.

Popper and Dipter immediately followed up. Popper attacked with a punch while Dipter threw a kick from the other side.

Max raised both hands and blocked the attacks, but the impacts were heavy enough to force him back several more steps. He continued retreating until he managed to regain his footing.

When Max looked up, his attention returned to Dud.

Both of Dud’s arms appeared broken. They were twisted and hanging awkwardly at his sides after he had forced them out of Max’s hold.

Dud swung them once.

The bones shifted back into place, and the damage disappeared almost instantly. Within moments, both arms had completely regenerated.

"I should have known there was a reason you were so confident," Max said. "You’ve become superhuman as well."

"Well, I had to improve," Dud replied. "Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been worthy of the invitation I received."

He flexed his restored fingers, showing that his arms were fully functional again.

"But I told them I wasn’t going to involve myself with that business yet. Not until I’d finally dealt with you."

"An invitation?" Max repeated. "You received an invitation?"

That surprised him more than Dud’s regeneration.

The people who received invitations were meant to be individuals of great significance. They were people whose abilities, influence or potential had made them important enough to be noticed.

In Max’s mind, Dud wasn’t someone who fit that description.

However, whatever Max thought of him, the regeneration happening in front of him was real. Dud had gained an ability that allowed him to recover from injuries almost instantly, and it made fighting him far more difficult.

Max understood how serious the situation had become.

Defeating Dud alone would be hard enough. Dud already knew what Max could do, had improved since their last encounter and could now heal damage that should have ended a fight.

Yet Max wasn’t facing him alone.

Popper and Dipter were still standing nearby, ready to attack the moment Max created an opening. Even with Hugo occupied by Hercules, dealing with the remaining three at once still felt like an impossible task.

A man suddenly cried out behind them before crashing to the floor.

When Max turned, he saw two people standing where the man had fallen.

"Don’t worry!" one of them called out.

Jett and Darius had arrived.

"We’ll handle the other two," Jett said. "You can take care of the most punchable one."

Max didn’t need to ask which of the three Jett meant. Dud’s smug expression made the answer obvious.

"Ha," Dipter said as he turned to face the newcomers. "You already lost to us once. Do you honestly think you’ll make a difference this time?"

"I’ve been wanting an opportunity to fight on my own and properly test my skills," Popper said. "I’ll let you choose which one you want. I’ll deal with the other."

Jett and Darius moved forward, preparing to face Dipter and Popper.

Max wasn’t sure whether the two Black Hound leaders were strong enough to change the outcome of the battle. They had already been defeated once, and their opponents clearly didn’t consider them a serious threat.

Still, their arrival had changed one important thing.

Max no longer needed to fight all three men at the same time.

For the first time since Hercules had taken Hugo away, Max had the chance to face Dud on his own.