That was until a tall semi-bald black-haired man in a faceless white mask and the standard-issue Puting Araw uniform, albeit one that had no badge st.i.tched on it, appeared beside him. The man articulated Hayden's thoughts for him. "Thinking that the missions are too boring, Hayden?"

"Well, yeah, to be honest, these missions are too subpar…" Hayden took a glance at the man taller than him by a head, not finding it strange that the man recognized him as he accrued quite the reputation the past six months. Hayden spoke, not reserving his words at all, speaking his mind out. "I mean, look at this, a raid mission based on hearsays? I'm sure Puting Araw can't risk it, but, isn't it too much for a team of Red Agents and Blue Agents to do a raid on the basis of a single hearsay?"

It didn't make sense. It was not bad to be careful at times, yet, sometimes, cautiousness was pointless and there was a line that shall not be crossed! One can see how bad it was as it came from Hayden, a one-foot-in paranoid.

"Interesting… Truly an interesting fellow…" The man muttered. Picking this up, Hayden didn't react to the man's utterances. "Since you think these are lackl.u.s.ter, do you want to test yourself in place of this?"

Hayden's eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at the man. Activating his Divine Perception, Hayden noticed that, underneath that mask, the man's eyes were glistening from excitement, clear of impurities. 'Oh, is this guy one of those typical battle maniacs that seek the thrill of challenging people?'

Sighing, Hayden thought that he encountered another troublesome person the same as Daniel. Why were these idiots gathering around him? He simply wanted to accept a mission and someone has been attracted? What the h.e.l.l kind of world was this?

"Fine…" Coughing and seeing that optimistic glint behind the mask, Hayden couldn't refuse as he has no excuse at all. These missions were too bland for him anyways, what would the harm be if he just fought with a wielder in the secret facility?

Anyhow, at least with this, Hayden would save time via not spending time on traveling, then doing all the reconnaissance work, and executing the mission. 'I'm simply out with the desire to stretch my muscles anyways… It doesn't matter through what method that can be achieved…'

With that, the masked man turned and walked into a direction. A minute later, Hayden was surprised as they arrived in a sparring room, confirming his suspicion. However, what stunned him was that they were in the high-end sparring rooms, one that solely members that were ranked Fourth Rank Special Agents and above can access.

These high-end sparring rooms can only be used by Special Agents of Fourth Rank Special Agents and above for the singular reason that is they are Level 3 wielders; wielders that possess power that cannot be withstood by regular sparring rooms, unless they were Blue Agents of course.

The requirement to enter the sparring room was that one has to use their Puting Araw special badge to enter, and that's precisely what the masked man in front of him did, flas.h.i.+ng a badge to the scanner beside the door.

Any other wielder wouldn't have noticed it due to the insane speed that the man did it, Hayden was different. He was the wielder of the Divine Perception, and although the man's hand speed was impressive, it was not hard for Hayden to see the badge, regardless of the fact that he couldn't exactly pinpoint what rank the masked man was as the badge was facing the other direction.

On that note, the man held the door for Hayden, obviously knowing that Hayden was merely a First Rank Special Agent. He was thinking as to how he would beat a wielder of higher level than him without utilizing his Indestructible Devil.

Walking inside, the masked man removed his coat and started to unb.u.t.ton his white polo, revealing a battle-hardened muscular body riddled with black lines and tribal tattoos.

Witnessing this, Hayden's eyebrows sprung up, similarly taking off his leather jacket and black s.h.i.+rt, unveiling his athletic body packed with exceptionally dense muscles.

"I am going to limit my level of power to Level 2, usage of Ability up to the Level 2 functions. As you are clearly at a disadvantage, I'm not going to use essence energy to enhance my physical body, just my senses and mental functions. I will not use weapons. Is that okay with you?" The man sounded giddy as he proposed the terms of the fight.

Hearing the masked man's words, Hayden was sure that the masked man was no plain Level 3 wielder… He was partially convinced that the man in front of him was a Level 4 wielder.

'Fascinating…' Hayden thought, subtly licking his lips. He was always up for a good challenge, and when one falls on his lap, why would he forego this opportunity?

"Agree. No need for weapons." Hayden nodded, not showing any emotion as he activated Divine Perception. In fact, even without Divine Perception, his skill in fighting is top-notch as all his skills were tempered into his bones by his Ability, and with the help of Divine Perception, he is essentially an unbeatable monster in terms of mechanical control.

All those memories acquired from studying and hard work were ingrained into Hayden's mind and muscles permanently, allowing him to speak all the languages he learnt without the use of Divine Perception, go toe to toe with a world-cla.s.s MMA fighter without activating Divine Perception, and shoot basketball almost anywhere within the half-court and in nigh-impossible angles with absolute precision.

Unless the person in front of him was an absolute monster that would dominate him with supreme unstoppable force, Hayden could not possibly lose, though he was open to the possibility that he might lose.

As for why he easily agreed, the man's words correct. Hayden was at an undeniable disadvantage, allowing the person in front of him to use essence energy in conjunction with his own Ability would be pure suicide.

Taking up a basic boxing stance named the peek-boo, Hayden observed his opponent carefully, a.n.a.lyzing all possible scenarios. Suddenly, the man's tattoos lit up with golden light as he disappeared from his position.

Taken aback, Hayden stepped back from his former position, his body pumping with essence energy as he evaded a punch from the masked man. The past few days, his physical power has been further augmented by essence energy circulation.

Concurrently, in his essence energy enhanced state, he can lift up to 1.2 tons of weight with the full power of his arms, run at a maximum speed of 244 kilometers per hour, and his body's muscles were so dense that he calculated that the force of regular bullets would be absorbed without damaging him at all.

Despite that, the man was still much faster than him in terms of speed. His suspicion that the guy was a wielder of a physical-boosting Ability was ultimately confirmed, hence the reason he proposed of not using essence energy for physical abilities.

"Remarkable." The man spoke excitedly seeing Hayden dodge his strike. Hayden's face darkened at the man's words.

'Those markings…' Hayden sighed. The man's power is doubtlessly regarded as an overpowered one, similar to Hayden's Indestructible Devil. 'Well, I guess I have to push myself to the very limits, huh?'

Hayden cracked his knuckles mid-movement. Following that, he forced his right foot to touch the ground and pushed himself up to a somersault, evading another one of the man's advances.

While flipping, Hayden calculated the man's Ability-reinforced attributes. 'Estimated strength to be about 2.8 tons, speed to be at 430 kilometers per hour, and toughness to be exceptionally lesser than mine. Powerful in terms of speed and strength. Defense is the weakness. Manageable.'

Hayden thought that as long as he dodged and predicted the person's attack, he can defeat him. His reaction time at this point in time was lower than a singular nanosecond, the measure of time lower than a millisecond, microsecond, while his Divine Perception was activated.

The second he perceives an attack, he can react to it with ease and prepare to dodge in an instant. The guy in front of him was at a measly level of subsonic speed, and Hayden was confident enough in his Ability to defeat a person with that degree of physical prowess without the exploitation of his Indestructible Devil. Palpably, if he used Indestructible Devil, it would be overkill and the fight would be finished within a fraction of a second.

Landing on his foot, Hayden twisted his body, sending a heel kick to the back of the man's head. Reacting to Hayden's kick, the man ducked and reached for Hayden's legs overhead. Unfortunately, Hayden antic.i.p.ated this beforehand by perceiving the tightening of the muscles of the man.

In response, Hayden boldly decided to do an unexpected attack instead of the usual wanting to escape the opponent's hands. He slammed his legs downwards, the enormous force from his calf hitting the man's wrist.

One must know that legs are always stronger than arms, unless you exclusively focused your energy onto training your upper body, or your Ability exclusively strengthens the power of your arms.

For wielders, it would be technically impossible to possess arms that can dish out more power than your legs as most wielders doesn't train as Hayden does. With this in mind, circulation of essence energy forges the body's physique equally, hence, arm strength is inferior to leg strength.

This was naturally the case with Hayden, with his legs able to release force of up to roughly 3.6 tons, three times his own arm strength.

This attack of Hayden's resulted in the man's arm hurtle to the ground, with Hayden redirecting his legs once more to kick the man's body. No matter how fast the guy can react or move, Hayden's attack would've landed no matter what as it was clean and had no wasted movement whatsoever.

Flying outwards, the guy flipped and slid on the floor, stopping the inertia from Hayden's kick. Looking up, Hayden's fist covered his eyes. This time, his guard was up, able to react by leaning backwards.

Unluckily for the man, Hayden has predicted this, his earlier attack being a faint, allowing him to gather more force and punch with his right fist with a hook. Hayden's relentless and spontaneous fighting style was troublesome for the man as he was. .h.i.t in the temple.

As a wielder, this wouldn't shake him, though that didn't prevent him to nearly collapse. Using his right foot, the man propelled himself out of Hayden's reach.

Midair, the man was thinking. 'Tsk, hand-to-hand combat isn't my strong suit… Why did I even propose no weapons!? To think that he's this strong at his age… Such refined combat sense… He has definitely killed a person with his own hands…'

To top it all off, the man was sensing small amounts of killing intent escaping Hayden's body time and time again, a positive sign of Hayden's illicit past. And with Hayden's cold-blooded gaze to him contemporaneously, he could deduce that Hayden has undergone a lot, meaning, those people he killed weren't innocent, deeming his kills as a form of self-defense.

Landing, he didn't wait for anything else and accelerated instantaneously and launching a kick to Hayden's head. Hayden, who was sprinting and met with the man's strike, paused and ducked without delay. Subsequently, Hayden rolled to the right, used his right hand as a support, and sent a kick to the masked person.

As this was an unforeseen improvised attack, the masked person was kicked by Hayden at the stomach, sending him flying, nearly coughing out blood in the process. What kind of legs were those!? Keep in mind that he currently sealed his powers down to a Level 2 wielder, including his base physical prowess.

Taking a deep breath, Hayden's eyes sharpened, his movements becoming as smooth as flowing water. 'This is the right time to see if the martial arts I have developed is effective.'

In the past six months, Hayden wasn't purely absorbing knowledge from his teacher and MMA fighters through screens, he was also extrapolating absorbed knowledge, which is why there was no wasted movement in his moves at all.

He still hasn't come up with a name, nor would he need to as it more or less followed the principle of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do. Jeet Kune Do, as Bruce Lee described, was not a martial art, it was a principle, a formless style that aimed to intercept its opponent with minimal effort and maximum effect.

It was Hayden's ideal style, though he expanded on that and combined nine martial arts, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Krav Maga, Taekwondo, Aikido, Judo, Karate, Boxing, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In addition, if Hayden was wielding either swords or his karambit knives, he could incorporate the Kali Eskrima into this formless style.

Adapting the peek-boo style of defense in Boxing, Hayden leaned down incredibly close to the ground and begun swaying around, akin to dancing, his footwork unpredictable even to the powerful discerning eye of the masked man.

"A combination of Capoeira and Boxing, huh?" The masked man laughed as he landed squarely on the ground. "You've opened my eyes today. If anybody ever fought with you without any form of Ability, they would be demolished in an instant. Now come, show me your full power."

In that instance, the guy vanished. Hayden similarly burst towards the man, zigzagging in an unpredictable pattern. As the masked man was swifter, he arrived in front of Hayden first, throwing a punch that packed immense force that cut through the air.

The moment the masked man moved his arms, Hayden has already swiveled to the other side, narrowly eluding the attack. Respectively, Hayden still didn't get a chance to attack as he lowered himself further, a fist missing his hair by a breadth.

He didn't plan on using counters here as his opponent's fist would reach earlier than his own. Well, regardless, he was on the inside of his opponent already, and with the opponent's two arms still recovering from the first two attacks he threw, Hayden made use of his left arm and did a body blow to the liver.

Howbeit, he wasn't finished. The second his fist made contact, Hayden followed it up with his elbow. At the same time his elbow was traveling, his right arm motioned into an uppercut, striking the person on the jaw straight.

Still, Hayden wasn't done. He transitioned into one more attack, opening his right hand that was on the man's chin, and pushed his neck down, using his opponent's body as a springboard to push himself off the ground and executing a backflip.

With his perfect air maneuvering skills, the backflip's rotation was fast, his feet coming down on the masked man's mask accurately. The mask cracked under the immense pressure that Hayden's feet brought, along with the floor, albeit the floor suffered a smaller crack.

All of those events happened within two seconds. Stepping off the man's face, Hayden deactivated Divine Perception and turned back. "You okay?"

"Yeah…" The man stood up, coughing. Removing his shattered mask, the man exposed a rugged handsome visage with short scruffy beard. The man's beard and mouth was b.l.o.o.d.y. "You have no mercy, d.a.m.n…"

"I show no mercy to opponents." Hayden's killing intent accidentally exploded outwards. Upon sensing Hayden's unadulterated and intense killing intent, he was astounded. "Anyways, I know I couldn't have killed you either way. In certainty, I should be the one thanking you for suppressing your Level."

A moment of silence ensued. A few seconds later, the man sat cross-legged and laughed, slapping his thighs in the process. It was as if Hayden didn't beat him up at all! "What a man! I remember the good old days back when I was personally fighting those sc.u.m… Ahh, the nostalgia…"

Hayden remained motionless, not talking. Basing from the man's words, he was much older than he looked. Precipitously, a staggering pressure radiated from the man.

"How rude of me." The man stood up, sauntering to Hayden. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Gerald Kaloobang-Bakal (1). I am known as Apolaki."

Hayden was shocked speechless with Gerald's introduction. Wasn't Apolaki one of the Walong Sinag ng Araw of Puting Araw? He was even the third seat, or the third strongest of the eight members. What was he doing here?

If Hayden recalled appropriately. Apolaki is stationed at the headquarter central Luzon branch of Puting Araw at Nueva Vizcaya, acting as a guardian or aegis.

The aegis of the Head Branch, aka the Main Branch, of Puting Araw is the second seat, Engkanto. There was also a subsidiary branch of the Head Branch at Quezon Province.

As for the other branches, Hayden only knew of Apolaki as his epithet was eye-catching, Apolaki, the G.o.d of sun and war. He did know though of the approximate locations of the other seven Main Headquarter Branches, namely, Apayao and Nueva Vizcaya in Luzon, Panay and Samar in Visayas, Surigao Del Sur, Cotabato, and at Zamboanga City in Mindanao.

Take note that all of these are merely the Main Headquarter Branches, with the Main Head Branch, also called the Main Branch, the Makati Branch, as it is located in the National Capital Region of the Philippines in Luzon. There are tens of other subsidiary branches under the Main Headquarter Branches.

"May I ask your business here, Third Seat?" Hayden's impa.s.sive tone transformed into that with slight respect. Based from Apolaki's nickname, he was strong, and despite Hayden thras.h.i.+ng him with… Well, ease, he was bound to respect Gerald as one of the strongest members of Puting Araw.

"Don't call me that, Hayden," Gerald laughed boisterously, reaching beside Hayden and patting his back. "We've fought, we're now brothers! Plus, I'm not even that old! I'm just 28 years old. Oh, yeah, don't tell anyone of my presence here."

"Oh, that's why you have a mask…" Hayden rolled his eyes, dropping formalities. Gerald was right, they fought, their bonds were as close as brothers now. "It makes no sense for me to have defeated you. There's only one conclusion, and that would be you held back."

"No, you're mistaken, I did not hold back…" Gerald scratched his head, wearing a wry smile. "It's just that I spouted the agreements on the fly and impulsively… My Level 2 Ability is this…"

Thereupon, a kalasag, a traditional Filipino s.h.i.+eld, and a bolo knife materialized in Gerald's hands. "Yeah, I said that no weapons are allowed regardless of Ability-origin or not, right? I didn't expect you to be that powerful! I've underestimated you."

Hayden flashed a smile without any other intention. However, he felt contempt within him. He has met another idiot that doesn't think straight and is impetuous! A person similar to Daniel, but much worse!

"Now that that's out of the way." Clearing his throat, Gerald dematerialized the spear and s.h.i.+eld. "I'd like to offer a hand of invitation for you to become my student."

"I refuse." Hayden indifferently spoke.

…..

1 Kaloobang-Bakal – Translation: Iron-Will, or Iron-Spirit, whatever you guys prefer, it can go either way anyways.