“Really, now... How boring...!” the man said as he stretched his arms and legs.
The man had black eyes and long black hair that fell almost to his waist. His top half of the body was bare while he wore a strange assortment of clothes from his waist. Just from looking, his body was powerfully built with strong muscles abs showing on his body.
From behind him, Lakshman continued to clutch his badly injured hand while staring at the back of the man with an astonished expression on his face. He was left speechless, like everyone else, at how the man suddenly materialised from all that blinding light.
That was when he noticed the man had a tail. The man’s tail was sticking out of his back and it was twitching up and down in a slow movement. Lakshman widened his eyes in surprise and, in that instant, suddenly realised who that the man was.
“Hey! Who the heck are you? And where’s that monkey go?” the leader of the group of men asked the man in the strange clothes.
The man completely ignores the gang leader and continues to stretch his body. When a few seconds went by in silence, the gang leader’s face contorted angrily as he stared at the man’s behaviour.
“Hey! Dammit! I’m talking to you!” the gang leader said and he moved forward.
When the gang leader neared him, the man suddenly stopped stretching and turned to face the man. The next instant, the gang leader was riddled with super-fast punches. No one saw the blows except that the gang leader’s body reacted strangely.
“Guh!”
The gang leader made a pained sound from his mouth and spit blood out. That was when everyone suddenly realised he was under attack. They were shocked as the man continued to get riddled with punches at incredible speed.
“Gah!”
Again, the gang leader stumbled backwards in a slow motion as spit and blood was thrown out of his mouth. Then the man in strange clothes pulled him back and riddled him more super-fast punches.
At one time, the gang leader attempted to block, but the punches was too fast to block them all. Instead, he quickly became unconscious while his body was badly damaged from all the punches he received.
A few seconds later, the man’s unconscious body began to step back with a glazed look in his eyes. Then the man pulled his arm back and delivered a power punch to the face. The punch was so strong it blasted the gang leader into the distance.
His gang members quickly got out of the way as their leader was sent flying into the distance. The gang leader’s unconscious body rolled, flipped and finally crashed in the distance. Then a cloud of dust rose into the air to mark the final destination of his crash.
Everyone looked towards where the man had crashed in the distance in alarm. Then they turned back to face the man who beat the day lights out of the gang leader in astonishment.
The man straightened up and looked towards the distance. Then he said “What a boring opponent...!”
For a moment, there was silence as everyone continued to stare at him in disbelief. Then a man named Vika from the gang suddenly walked up to the man. Vika towered over the man who barely reached his chin height as he and the man stared at each other.
“You hurt my brother...!” Vika said slowly. Then he continued to repeat those words with increasing emphasis and anger. “You hurt my brother...! You hurt my brother...! You hurt my brother...! You... You...” And in a loud voice, he shouted “You hurt my bro!! URRAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!”
Vika’s eyes widened and reddened dangerously as he looked down at him. The man, on the other hand, was looking coolly up at him unflinchingly. Vika stared at him with great anger rushing to his brain caused by his unsettling feelings.
Then he raised his hand and Vika shouted “KILL!!!”
Vika immediately pulled his arm back and delivered a power punch. If it had connected, it would have knocked an ordinary man out cold. However, that did not happen with the man as he calmly raised his hand up and stopped Vika’s punch with a finger.
For a moment, Vika struggled to push his fist forward while the man easily held it back with a finger. Then he pushed Vika’s fist back with his finger and delivered a power punch into Vika’s stomach. The punch was so powerful it caused Vika’s eyes to widen in shock.
Then the man pulled his arm back and gathered strong energy in his fist which delivered in an uppercut. The impact of the uppercut was so strong, it lifted Vika off his feet and he went sailing away into the distance.
The remaining group members watched their second-in-command go sailing away into the distance where their gang leader had crashed earlier. Then they turned back to look at the man with angry faces.
Lakshman, who had watched all this unfold, was staring at the man’s back in utter disbelief. The man effortlessly dispatched the strong looking gang leader and the big fat man with casual ease. That was when he began to wonder if this man was the same person he thought he knew about.
“M-Mumble?” he asked uncertainly and he sounded slightly frightened.
The man’s tail twitched at being called by that name. Then the man turned and looked at Lakshman expressionlessly. Lakshman and the man continued to look at each other in the eyes. He suddenly realised the man has strong, but warm eyes.
“No,” the man said and shook his head at Lakshman.
“T-Then... Who are you if you aren’t Mumble?” Lakshman asked curiously.
At that moment, with their anger finally peaked, remaining gang members screamed “KILL HIM!!!”
As they rushed at him with roaring rage, the man turned back to face them calmly. For a moment, he just stood there and did nothing as they rushed at him with contorted faces and angry screams.
Then the man wore a serious expression for the first time and said “It’s not Mumble. It’s Rumble!”
The next instant, he dashed towards the men and what happened then was not pretty. The man, now calling himself Rumble, sent the first man to reach him into the distance with a single blow to the face. He then began beating the black and blue out of the rest of them without pause.
By the end of it all was nothing, but broken men as they lay on the ground. Their wounds were not deep and the blood did not flow out completely. It seemed that Rumble did not want to hurt them extremely, but did not hold back either.
One all were done and beaten, Rumble straightened up and stretched his arms before addressing everyone present at that time.
“Thank you very much for being my warm up punching bags! Now! Is there anyone here capable of making me break a sweat?” he said loudly so that everyone could hear him.
Everyone quickly shook their heads and some even took hasty steps back from fear of singling out. Rumble looked at them all for a few seconds. After which, for the first time, he smiled warmly at them. Then he brought his hands together in prayer and bowed.
It seemed like that was his way of saying “Fight over and now peace.”
There was a moment of silence. Then the whole area suddenly erupted into cheers of happiness and joy.
“Awesome!”
“The Monkey King is amazing!”
“He beat the bad guys senseless! Serves them right!”
“All hail Monkey King!”
“Hail!”
As they continued to cheer, Rumble simply waved at them for a few seconds. Then he turned around and walked into the training centre with the rest of its occupants. Once inside, he let out a deep sigh of relief.
“That was quite annoying.”
“Annoying?! What were you thinking, you big idiot!” Darian shouted as he met, face to face, with Rumble.
“Come now. It all worked out in the end,” Rumble said cheerfully.
“Work out?! More like you just beat the crap out of all of them!”
“So? They got what they deserved. Besides, they were disrupting the market people and that was no good.”
“But still... We could’ve done so peacefully at least?”
“Peacefully? How do you expect to peacefully sort this out when our opponents were out for revenge? How in the world do you expect those meat heads understand our words?”
“Right, but now their anger towards us will just increase. I won’t be surprised if they come back with greater number than today. What will you do then?”
Rumble looked at Darian in amazement and laughed before saying “I’ll do what I always do; beat the hell out of them!”
Darian looked at him for a moment and was speechless. Then he sighed in resignation. He knew his friend was stubborn and there is no convincing him once he made up his mind.
Then he sighed and muttered “Violence against violence... That doesn’t sound good at all...”
“Um... Who are you?” Lakshman asked curiously while Marilia was wrapping his injured hand.
Rumble looked at him in surprise and said “Didn’t say I I’m Rumble and not Mumble?”
“Yes, but I’m still confused...”
“Oh! Alright then! Looks like an introduction is necessary for my unannounced entry!” he said while nodding his head in understanding.
“Hello again! Previously, I was Mumble in my Saver Mode, but now I’m in Normal Mode. This is my original mode the name I go by, in his form, is Rumble. Rumble, the Monkey King! It’s a pleasure to make you an acquaintance!”
He finished his introduction and he winked at them with a broad smile on his face.
