Chapter 53: On The Train (II)

Don't forget to drop some power stones!

*****

Speeding along the elevated rails, a large part of Tokyo was now in my view with the air screaming past me. The other passengers took a moment to realize what had just happened, and started to flee into different cabins. Before long, it was just me, Doppo, Lala, and Katou, who was still tightly gripping onto the window as if his life depended on it.

That's because it actually did.

If Katou loosened his current grip, he would get blasted off the side of the train. Considering this was the Baki-verse, there were some characters who had insane hand muscles, and they could easily grip onto something like this window with a single finger.

But I doubt Katou was like that. I could see the wind blasting his face away, creating large ripples in his mouth as this train sped along the railway.

[Ding! User Baki has equipped Master Grappler title.]

Taking a moment, I equipped a title. Sure I was practicing Karate at the moment, but I was now engaged in combat. Would I take 10%, or 30% to boosted stats? Of course, I'm going with the latter. Energy started coursing through my veins the moment I equipped it, and coupled with the stench of blood that I could see dripping from my face, I was starting to get riled up.

Along with equipping the title, I looked at my stats. I have not seen the boost from Master Grappler yet, and seeing the title equipped, my grin stayed.

[Baki Hanma]

HP: 3190 Ki: 295 STR 1010 (+30%) END: 492 TEQ: 280 (+30%) SPD: 488 (+30%)

Boosted Power Level: 571

And then I compared it back to Katou's stats.

[Katou Kiyosumi]

HP: 5000 Ki: N/A STR: 1000 END: 750 TEQ: 250 SPD: 150

Power Level: 475

Current Health: 4740/5000

Despite having my stats gone through an entire reset when I became Baki, by equipping the Master Grappler alone, it had evened the playing field. My previous attack of grabbing both ends of Katou's body, and launching him out the window dealt some damage.

I could definitely see Katou's hand bleeding with some glass mixed in.

"Hold these will ya?", I said, while still crouched.

With my hoodie still over me, I reached into one of my pockets, and took out my brown wallet. Considering I still had plans after this, I didn't want this to be lost in the process. I also rummaged through my body, and tossed what I had on my body in Lala's direction.

"Sure.", Lala said, doing a swift motion of her hands, and caught the items I threw at her with ease, placing them down next to her. Lala felt heavy pressure from the weights momentarily, but she managed to place them beside her. She even caught it with ease despite the intense air currently being sucked out into the open atmosphere. That was due to her superhuman strength, something that Doppo beside her did not know. I saw Doppo's clothes futtering, but he raised his eyebrows while he saw Lala catching that training gear with ease.

The force the air was sucking outward wasn't the level of having an open door during a midair flight on an airplane, but it was pretty heavy. Still, that force didn't hinder Lala nor Doppo one bit.

The two watched on as my muscles began to clench, readying my stance. I dashed forward, doing a full swing of my body. My legs twirled around, and similar to clenching a fist, I flexed my right toes inward, revealing its knuckles, ready to strike. I decided to not utilize ki for this strike, but it was something that I had intended on practicing, to see if I could infuse my currenty ki into my strikes. Not necessarily going as far as making a ki weapon out of my ki, but empowering parts of my body to deal increased damage.

Katou was a good opponent to try that...

Shaking that thought away, after creating enough force with that spin, I struck down hard with my foot. A full-blown roundhouse kick. I felt it connect, and my target? Katou's hand that is currently gripping the window.

"Ahhhhh!", Katou's pained voice yelled out the moment my foot connected. Kusha!

With the hardened knuckles of my foot, they acted just like a sharp knife, and cut through Katou's right hand that was still hanging on. Cutting through a couple of his hand's veins, blood began to violently spew outward. Some of it even splattered on my gray hoodie, painting it red.

It appeared I struck a weak point. Was that from my attack being affected by my TEQ stat being higher?

Since it was a normal attack, it did not have any boosted power behind it. Instead, I saw a dark red figure appear over Katou's head. [-520!]

I finished the motion of my roundhouse kick, landing back upward. The stench of blood thickened the cabin even more.

'Baki-kun...', Lala inwardly said to herself, seeing me somewhat drenched in blood. She could feel her heart thump from the excitement just now. She had seen her father fight on several different occasions in the past, and what she saw, she felt a familiar feeling.

As for me, the wind seemed to blast Katou in the face even more strongly after getting somewhat blinded by his own blood. Apart from his earlier yell, his facial expression became serious. I saw him staring back right at me. Seeing his stare like that, it did make him menacing, but I smiled in response. I even tilted my head back. Doing this taunted Katou, and riled him up, he tried to use his strength to start pulling his body back inside the cabin.

"You bastard...", Katou uttered, cursing at me, and ignored the pain that was going through his body.

"Heh. You really are a pile of shit, Katou. So stubborn. Those are always the hardest ones to take out, aren't they?", I said to him with a smirk, looking at Katou.

"Hahaha! That's a bit foul, but teach him a lesson, will you, Baki?", Doppo said, slapping his leg with a laugh.

"Can do.", I replied. I then looked at Katou again. "And well, since you're being so stubborn, let's take this elsewhere, shall we?", I continued to say.

I crouched down again, and suddenly made a leap forward.

Lala's eyes turned wide in surprise, seeing me suddenly jump out the window. Yet I remained on the ledge. I let my feet grip onto it, which acted as a foothold. Continuing my motion, I reached my left hand downward, and grabbed onto Katou's bleeding hand. With a hard tug, I crouched down again, and swung upward. I used my other spare hand and grabbed onto the topside of the broken window, and swung Katou's body along with the force that I used. Whoosh!

A full fluid motion, I hopped forward and upward, eventually arriving atop the subway train. I could see and hear the large train grinding away on the rails it was riding on. I wasn't alone either. I swung Katou, causing him to join me on the roof. Katou was now on one of his knees, gasping for air.

"You're crazy.", Katou retorted, trying to catch his breath.

[Katou's HP: 4220/5000]

Seeing Katou's current health over his head, I smiled while hearing him say that.

"Martial artists neither need a time nor place to fight, do they?", I retorted Katou while he took this time to catch his breath. His hand continued to bleed out, dripping blood onto the top of the train...

*****

Should I have battle power influence stats during battle? If Baki's battle power is over his opponent's battle power, it would trigger boosted damage when attacking. And likewise, if Baki's opponent is stronger, their attacks would be fiercer, likewise causing more damage. Thoughts?