'Four minutes...'

  Apart from Glenn, no one reacted negatively to the young woman's announcement; on the contrary, smiles thickened on their faces. There was still time, plenty of time.

  At that moment, Glenn dodged another punch, then jumped back, where another giant was waiting for him and grabbed him by the shirt, sending Glenn tumbling away.

  He landed hard on the ground.

  'Argh! Fucking hell! That's the second time!'

  He put his hand on his head and felt a warm liquid pour out. It was blood. A lot of blood. Then, all at once, the pain disappeared and the blood stopped flowing—he was cured. He'd noticed it before, but somehow his body refused to get hurt.

  It healed instantly. Glenn had long felt that his body was changing, but he couldn't admit it. He had indeed sought excitement before, but something, or someone, had given him something even worse, something that in the future might prove to be a curse.

  Invincibility.

  Or rather something resembling it; he was stronger, faster, more enduring, more intelligent, and could heal himself instantly. He didn't know if that was the best time to realize such a crazy thing, though.

  'Although, it's quite useful in this situation!'

  Glenn got to his feet quickly. Four men surrounded him and then charged at him suddenly. He acted unconsciously and jumped into the air, avoiding a rain of powerful blows. As he fell back to the ground, he took the opportunity to smash the head of one of the men towards the ground with a loud crash, the guard's head smashing violently against the ground.

  Without wasting a second, one of the men struck Glenn in the face, who did the same; the impact was such that the two men flew into the distance, one more than four meters away, the other less than a meter.

  When Glenn got up, he was already being charged by one of the three men he hadn't touched a few seconds earlier. He didn't have time to deal with his emotions; he had to avoid getting beaten up. So he dodged the giant, then spun around and delivered a devastating blow to the ribs of the man who had attacked.

  In all his life, he had never been violent; far from it, he was more the type to dodge problems, but in this situation, he was obliged to fight; his mother was taken, hostage. He could still survive this fight, but he couldn't leave to save his mother.

  Even if he had surrendered, he was carrying a huge weight on his frail shoulders.

  'Haaaa! That's it, I've had it. Has my luck run out or what? I feel like nothing good is happening to me lately!'

  Feeling a chill run down his spine, he jumped forward, dodging a huge crowbar from behind.

  'Wait, a crowbar? Are those bastards even allowed weapons? What are they going to give me next? A firearm?'

  As he landed, he saw two men waiting with iron bars in their hands, and when they saw Glenn in front of them, they didn't wait and brought their guns down on his head.

  His body reacted before he did and dodged the blows, at least to his head, as the two iron bars landed hard on Glenn's left shoulder, causing him to let out a loud grunt.

  Even though his body was regenerating, well, he was still feeling the pain, and receiving two huge blows from the iron bars in the shoulder was anything but a pleasant sensation.

  Glenn fell to the ground and did a few rolls before getting up again, the pain still reverberating through his body and making him feel very dizzy. After a few seconds, the pain disappeared completely. But in the meantime, the two men had had plenty of time to cover the distance between them.

  Before they arrived, a hysterical female voice echoed down the aisle.

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  "Three minutes to go!"

  Glenn glanced in the direction of the voice and spotted the woman smiling madly, apparently delighted by what she was seeing.

  'Fuck! If only I could beat that... Haaaa!'

  After letting out his silent scream of anger, he saw the two men just in front of him, and when they lowered their weapons again, Glenn grabbed one of them and slid under the giant's head. At that precise moment, a field of possibilities opened up for him, and he chose the simplest option.

  He placed an uppercut under the chin of the man in front of him, then sent his foot to strike the other man's leg. Both fell to the ground, one unconscious, while the other held his leg tightly and screamed.

  He had beaten six of the ten or so men who made up the young woman's cohort and still had time to face the others. Without realizing it, an emotion he hadn't felt for years invaded his body.

  Without worrying too much about it, he concentrated on the situation. The four remaining men were running towards him at full speed, and he had to make a quick decision. Before he could conclude, a plank flew towards him. It wasn't heavy, nor was it too big, and with a single sweep of his hand, he pushed it out of the way.

  'What are they doing?'

  His eyes opened wide as a shower of blades flew towards him, a dozen thrown by the group of men in front of him. He had no time to dodge or think about anything. He could only think of one thing at that moment.

  'Fuck, isn't this supposed to be the cliché of the beefed-up but completely stupid bodyguard? How can they act so smart?''

  He quickly raised both arms, and a dozen knives pierced his flesh and sank deep into his arms.

  "Aargh! Holy shit!"

  He couldn't help swearing; the pain was excruciating, almost unbearable. Blood was pouring from his arms, and he could barely move them.

  The four men took the opportunity to hit him four times in the stomach. It hurt very much. As usual, if he could ever get used to it, he flew up and landed face-first on the ground.

  His arms were pierced all over; he'd just been hit four times in the stomach and landed on his head, causing powerful dizziness. For a few seconds, he couldn't understand anything; it was as if he were in a strange universe. He couldn't see anything in front of him apart from the vivid, hallucinating colours. He could no longer see the dark alleyway and the men coming towards him.

  'Nor that bloody woman...'

  The only thing he knew for sure was that his arms wouldn't heal; his stomach felt better, and the pain in his head lessened, but his arms wouldn't. They wouldn't heal. They wouldn't heal. Glenn had finally understood the limits of his strange body: if a wound is continuous, it won't heal.

  The knives would surely have to be removed for these arms to heal. As he struggled to find his arms, Lucy's voice rang out once more.

  "Two minutes left!"

  All at once, Glenn's vision became clear again; he had cured his dizziness, which had only lasted a few seconds as the men were still running towards him.

  He stood up quickly, his arms still very sore. The men had already landed on him, and Glenn dodged the first blow, then the second, and finally the third. But another man appeared from behind the other three and landed a powerful blow on Glenn's arms, causing him to grunt in pain.

  He quickly stepped aside and removed the knives one by one. Each of his knives was a real torture to remove; the pain was immense, and he had to do it at the same time as dodging the blows of the four men at the same time.

  After about fifteen bursts of blows and dodging, Glenn had finally removed all the knives from his arms. After a few seconds, all the wounds and pain had disappeared.

  From then on, the fight became easier; the four men couldn't touch him any more, while Glenn played with them by giving them small blows to destabilize them and hurt them.

  'How does it feel, you bastards? Hahaha!'

  After a moment, Lucy announced the last minute.

  "One minute left!"

  Her tone was less playful and hysterical than before as if she'd grown tired of watching the fight.

  As for Glenn, he took advantage of this last minute to knock each of the last four men out of the fight. He landed a powerful blow in the jaw of one of them; he sent another one headfirst into a wall; he sent a huge knee into the stomach of the smallest of the four; and finally, he took one of the knives lying on the ground and stuck it into one of the arms of the man who had sent him the knives earlier.

  'Hahahaha! Vengeance!'

  Apart from the sound of grunting and screams of pain in the alleyway, Glenn stopped and glanced at Lucy in front of him. Unlike before, she had a look filled with anger and disgust.

  "What's that look on your face? You disgust me."

  Glenn didn't understand what she meant, so he picked up one of the knives and used it as a mirror.

  He was smiling, even madly smiling.

  "Oh, now you've made me angry."

  Glenn put on his usual expression and looked at Lucy in confusion. At the same time, she snapped her fingers, and about fifty bodyguards like the ones before made their appearances.

  "You know, Glenn, you've really upset me here; I'm not going to let you get away with it, but I've realized that no harm can come to you physically anyway. On reflection, I decided that I was going to give you even worse pain, worse than physical pain…"

  Glenn saw a movement in the young woman's arm. Understanding instantly what she wanted to do, he ran towards her at full speed but was quickly blocked by the horde of bodyguards who passed in front of the woman.

  The last thing Glenn saw at that moment was Lucy's smile and amused look.

  And the moment when she pressed the black button.

  Then the sound of a long, endless, powerful explosion echoed through the dark alley.