(Nighttime-Mortellio Island.)
Kaizo was doing some light stretches inside his room as he psyched himself for what was about to come. An actual battle against various enemies, he doesn't particularly care about the good or the bad of the situation right now, he only cares about honing his fighting skills.
Thought to be truthful he does feel a tad nervous, it IS a deadly battle after all. Not only that but there's no guarantee that Alero won't betray him, but that's a risk he's willing to take.
He's wearing some black clothes that where light enough for him to move freely, he leaped out of his room's window and started to sprint through the house roofs. His steps weren't as silent like actual Ninjas but he was silent enough to blend in the night.
'This feeling in my heart…the excitement, the fear, the unease, all of it combines and grows with each step I take forward…I never really expected to do something like this at this age but, I would be lying if I'd say I don't look forward to it.' Kaizo thought as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop.
Before long, he made it to the border between Rivas and The Jungle and regrouped with Monterrey.
"Carajo, was hoping that you wouldn't come." Monterrey complained.
"H-to-the-NO! I'm way too pumped to skip this." Kaizo answered.
"Whatever, follow me quietly, the factory's this way." Monterrey didn't even wait as he dashed through the woods. Kaizo didn't wait and ran behind Monterrey, now, it may seem that Kaizo is OP due to how much he's been glazed over these past few chapters...…but he's not.
Aside from his strength, endurance and reflexes, Kaizo currently lacks in speed, superhuman-level speed to be clear. Someone of the Long-Legged Tribe will naturally have the upper hand in raw speed.
As to why Kaizo managed to defeat Monterrey before, it was mostly due to his reflexes and Monterrey himself. He's clearly never been caught before, thanks to Kaizo's reflexes he threw him off balance and then beat him up, had he'd been more careful, Kaizo would've struggled.
Even though Monterrey ran ahead of Kaizo, Kaizo still managed to follow his scent through the jungle, despite the humid area it hadn't been long enough for Kaizo to lose the scent, ergo how he followed him.
Eventually, the two arrived at the factory.
It was a relatively small 5,000-square-foot factory that didn't produce any smoke, the windows were shut and the glass was blackened, guards were guarding the entrances, there were tower posts with guards keeping watch, it was the perfect stereotypical lair.
As Kaizo arrives, he hides behind a tree close to Monterrey, who was also hiding.
"Looks less imposing that what I expected." Kaizo comments.
"Don't be fooled, you'd be surprised how many guns enter and leave that place every day, reason as to why we need to destroy it." Monterrey.
(Flashback, yesterday)
Kaizo was sitting in his bed meditating as Monterrey finished explaining the innards of the operation.
"So, to summarize everything, this is a weapon's factory, the plan is to go there and destroy it, which you said you'd prepare a plan for but so far haven't given me the impression that you have, so please, POR FAVOR, tell me you have anything planned." Monterrey.
Kaizo didn't say anything but just stared at the blueprints. The factory itself wasn't anything crazy, it was the wall around it and the watchtowers the real issue. Even though Kaizo did this just to fight, he still needs to uphold his end of the bargain and destroy the factory.
Solution?
Destroy factory first, fight the remainer of their forces.
"I'll find us a way in, don't worry about the details and just follow my lead." Kaizo commented as he smiled.
"I somehow don't feel reassured about it at all." Monterrey sighed.
"Look, all you have to do is answer this question: Are the foundations of the factory secured? As in, do they have layers of bedrock underneath or just soil?" Kaizo asked with a devious expression.
'I feel like he's about to do something insane.' Monterrey correctly speculated.
(Flashback end)
"So, what's the plan pendejo?" Monterrey.
"Just look, haha, it's gonna be great!" Kaizo commented before he cracked his knuckles.
He took a deep breath before jumping and diving right at the soil. Kaizo quickly buried himself underground and left Monterrey completely lost for words.
The faint trail of soil kept making its way towards the factory, Monterrey's head was turning gears as he started to make sense of what Kaizo was about to do.
'The smell of gunpowder is really strong! This factory is practically drowned in it, given how fast and long I've been digging I'd say I'm relatively in the center now.' Kaizo thought as he stopped digging.
Above ground the guards around the perimeter suddenly started to feel some sort of rumbling. The entire ground seemed to be shaking little by little right under their feet.
"Oi, what's happening?!"
"How should we know?! Jungles aren't known for earthquakes!"
"Everyone hold onto something—WHAT THE HELL!!?"
At the last guard's remark, everyone saw something that should be impossible. The imposing factory that was just fine a few seconds ago started to sink underground as if it were quicksand.
"THE FACTORY'S SINKING!"
"No shit! What do we do!?"
"Call the boss!"
*RUMBLE* *RUMBLE*
Just as he said those words, the towers around the factory also started to shake as the ground beneath them became unstable.
One after another, the sides of the towers started sinking just as the factory, each losing their balance fell on the right side, making a surprisingly neat uniform spread of the towers around the factory.
Speaking of which, once the factory was buried up to the rooftop, a figure emerged from underground as he dusted himself off.
"Man, I love digging. Maybe its because of how cozy being underground feels, or maybe because of the expression everyone makes when they've been attacked from the down side." Kaizo finished dusting himself as he started cleaning his ears.
"Shoot him!" A grunt ordered and every rifle at hand started shooting at Kaizo.
Evading the bullets either by sliding and twisting his body in several positions, Kaizo couldn't help but to comment. "You know, normally people would say something about raising your hands or something like that. What happened to the useless grunts nowadays." Kaizo remarked that last part with some nostalgia.
As the bullets flew by, Kaizo rushed at the nearest thug, with a powerful elbow strike he knocked him down immediately and took his rifle. Grabbing the barrel of the gun as a bat he rushed at the other grunts one after another and clobbered each and every single one of them without issues.
"Yo, Monty! Are you going to get in on the fun here or will you continue spectating~?!" Kaizo cheerfully called out for his partner in crime.
"Este Pendejo…I'm coming…Carajo." Monterrey.
With a burst of speed, the gangster rushed from the bushes and swung his machetes. Heads, limbs, all of them flew as Monterrey slashed through the guards one after another without flinching.
'Nice killing mentality, clearly not his first time. If I had to mention his biggest strength would be his speed, con: the rest of his body can barely keep up with it, as expected, All-Rounding is definitely the right path when training.' Kaizo mused as he easily fought off his enemies while also analyzing Monterrey's fighting-style.
"This your plan loco?" Monterrey asked as he stabbed a grunt with his left machete.
"Yeah, I figured it'd be easier to destroy the factory by burying it, y'know, since everyone's a bad guy there." Kaizo replied calmly as he dodged a sword and snapped his attacker's neck.
"Figures…bueno, let's destroy these shit-stains as fast as possible." Monterrey commented as he cleaved a guy's arm off before chopping another thug's leg.
Kaizo kicked someone straight under the chin, the crunch of a shattering jaw echoing through the damp jungle air as the thug was launched backward into two of his allies.
Without breaking momentum, Kaizo pivoted on his heel, ducking beneath a frantic swing from a heavy-set guard wielding an iron pipe. Sweeping his leg low, he brought the man down hard onto the dirt, immediately following up with a downward palm strike to the guard's chest to keep him down for good.
"You really don't hold back, do you, loco?" Monterrey called out over the chaos. He whirled on a pair of incoming Tomhi enforcers, his long, spindly legs granting him massive reach. With a single fluid movement, Monterrey delivered a high kick that shattered one guard's collarbone before using the momentum to spin and drive his machete deep into the shoulder of the second.
"Holding back in a street fight is how you end up six feet under, Monty!" Kaizo replied. He caught a thrusting spear beneath his armpit, yanked the wielder toward him, and drove a swift knee right into the man's solar plexus.
Monterrey snorted, kicking another thug off his blade with enough force to send him crashing into a nearby fallen watchtower. "Carajo, you talk like someone who fights for a living, what's your deal kid?
"Just someone with a simple goal, now don't lose focus unless you want to end 6 feet under." Kaizo said, spinning past a barrage of sword strikes. He flowed effortlessly between stances shifting from the grounded, heavy weight distribution of Bajiquan into the fluid, evasive footwork of Capoeira.
As three guards rushed him simultaneously with short swords, Kaizo stepped inside the reach of the center attacker, driving a short, explosive open-palm strike directly into the man's ribs.
"Bear Claw: Heavy Palm!"
The impact sounded like a mortar going off. The grunt was thrown backward like a cannonball, bowling over his two companions and smashing through the wooden barricade behind them.
"Naming your attacks now?!" Monterrey yelled, dodging a flurry of rifle fire before sprinting up the vertical side of a half-buried tower. He leaped off the stone wall, his Long-Legged physique allowing him to cover twenty feet in a split second, and brought his machete down in a bloody arc through two gunners who were trying to reload. "Is this a joke to you?"
"What are you talkin' about?! Every strong person in this sea shouts out their attacks!" Kaizo called back, ducking a stray bullet. He rushed a group of four riflemen who were frantically trying to form a firing line. Before they could aim, Kaizo closed the distance, slipping under their field of view. He dropped low and delivered a sequence of strikes to their pressure points and joints, a quick blend of Wing Chun centerline chain punches and Muay Thai elbow strikes.
"Taichi: Soft Fist!"
Four dull thuds echoed out in less than two seconds. The gunners collapsed in unison, their weapons clattering onto the muddy ground.
Kaizo wiped a speck of dirt from his cheek as the surrounding perimeter quieted down. The area surrounding the sunken factory was littered with groaning, unconscious, or dead Tomhi thugs, leaving only a few terrified stragglers backing away into the shadows.
"So…? Mission accomplished??" Kaizo asked Monterrey.
"Almost, good thing I brought a snail with me." Monterrey took out a Transporter Snail and dialed a number.
[Monty.]
"Jefe, the place has been secure, the factory's 6 feet under I request some explosives to finish the job or you can leave it buried if you want." Monterrey told Alero.
[No problem, I won't question how or why the factory's buried but that's good enough, leave the place and return here.]
"On it, Patron, on our way." Monterrey ended the call and looked at Kaizo. "Gotta go back; we're finished here."
"Sweet, let's go then." Kaizo ran back into the jungle with Monterrey, not realizing the types of battle he'll face from here on out.