Kabes Town was a well-known transit station and trading market in the region, where resources mined or harvested from the nearby Confluence were first gathered.
Various corporations operated preliminary processing plants here. Many raw materials were inspected, screened, preliminarily processed, and refined before being transported to the rear.
Whenever rare aberrant creatures were captured, they were likewise properly handled and sealed here before specialized teams delivered them to designated destinations. For that reason alone, more than twenty professional armed security teams were stationed here on a permanent basis.
The town was ringed by an outer defensive wall and housed massive enclosed farms and ranches within. Field organisms handled communications and provided data, while over a dozen laboratories maintained strongholds and commission outposts here.
In addition, mercenary groups venturing into the Confluence could acquire all the supplies and equipment they needed here.
The authorities also maintained an implant-augmented armed force of three hundred men, along with several third-limit fighters stationed in the town.
That was merely what lay on the surface. Beneath the town existed a considerable black market, and even the Classified Operations Directorate maintained an outpost here.
Thus, though it was called a town, that was merely the continuation of its original designation; in truth, it had a permanent population of at least two hundred thousand, which already counted as a mid-sized city within the Federation.
The two hired martial artists, upon entering the Confluence, had come here first to assess the situation and procure equipment and transport for their foray into the Confluence.
Both men wore standard brown formal suits that failed to conceal the lean muscle underneath. They were the Ackerman brothers, relatively well-known within East Yono's international mercenary circles. The elder brother was named Josh, and the younger was Gau.
Following the collapse of the former empire, East Yono had not coalesced into a unified regional union. Instead, it persisted as a buffer zone between various powers, comprising dozens of small states of varying sizes, and remained a land rife with frequent warfare to this day.
Proxies of various nations and corporations, alongside corporate factions, warlords, and gangs, clashed practically every moment of every day.
Due to historical reasons, this region did not lack secret arts and ancestral legacies. Furthermore, because fighting was so constant, one needed exceptional combat prowess just to survive. Consequently, East Yono's mercenary fighters were renowned across many nations, making it virtually one of the primary regions exporting fighters.
The combat strength of martial artists emerging from such an environment could well be imagined. The previous assignment the Ackerman brothers had undertaken was to assassinate personnel at a spillover aberrant creature research reserve established by the International Nature Organization. Because the reserve interfered with the interests of certain corporations, the brothers had been hired to eliminate them.
Although they had successfully slain the reserve personnel, it had also landed them squarely on the wanted lists of major international organizations and various Yono nations. With bounties on their heads, they had followed their commissioner's enthusiastic recommendation and chosen to lie low in the Federation. Thus, when the Operations Directorate offered this commission, they had accepted it without hesitation upon seeing it.
After arriving here, they did not set out immediately, but first studied the intelligence on Puppet as well as the specific conditions of the surrounding Confluence.
The vast majority of the commissions they undertook were carried out within the Confluence, so they understood deeply that danger often stemmed not merely from the commission's target, but also from the local aberrant creatures.
As they were preparing, a voice came through their cochlear worms: "The target has appeared in town, walking down the main thoroughfare. Now is an excellent opportunity. We are observing him, and so far, he is alone."
The Ackerman brothers immediately set aside the dossiers and, without a word, began readying their weapons and checking their gear.
Puppet entered the town and naturally made his way onto Kabes's busiest street.
He only knew that the rival martial artists were already here, though not their exact location. But so long as they were coming for him, merely showing himself was bound to draw them out.
His gaze appeared placid and unruffled; at this moment, his main focus was not on his surroundings, but within.
He could sense that he had to find that final balance as soon as possible. He did not know where this urgency came from, but he felt it was necessary to do so.
In truth, he had gradually found the method to grasp that balance, yet he had not managed to stabilize it completely. It often required focused attention to maintain and had not yet become instinct; in the midst of intense combat, he might easily overlook it.
He could feel that he was only a hair's breadth away from ushering in a certain transformation, yet it remained just out of reach, as if missing some small spark.
Then he could only resort to the crudest and historically most effective method: using a powerful opponent to force himself to find it.
Thinking this through, he continued forward. Music pulsing from bars on both sides of the street shook the pavement, while various field simulations mingled with colored lights illuminating the road, interweaving into bizarre, kaleidoscopic scenes.
Before long, he arrived in front of Kabes's famous attraction, the Taming Building. Here, specially made open-air cages held aberrant creatures from the Confluence. Although internal implants could control their behavior to an extent, their savagery and ferocity still gave most people pause, keeping them watching from a distance, with very few daring to draw near.
Yet he ignored all of it, walking straight ahead until one cage was less than three meters away from him.
Then, an astonishing scene unfolded: all the aberrant creatures suddenly fell silent. The nearest beast seemed terrified, shrinking back to the far side of its cage and emitting whimpering sounds.
This anomaly immediately caught the attention of onlookers. Implanted eyes scanned him, but soon someone cried out, cursed under their breath, and covered their eyes. Others experienced twitching and spasms in their implanted eyes, all showing expressions of pain.
The Ackerman brothers were now walking over from the other end of the street. Though confident in their martial strength, they were in fact cautious men.
For the target to appear before they even went looking meant he was either supremely confident or had prepared an ambush.
Puppet now spotted the tall and short figures appearing across the street. A single glance told him they were the ones he sought. Fixing his gaze directly upon them, he walked forward to meet them.
His steps were exceptionally steady as he regulated his breathing. Spirit poured down from above in an unbroken stream, granting him ample power while simultaneously causing the balance point he maintained to waver and shift.
Yet under the surging spirit and focused attention, he was able to perceive every minute detail directly.
At this moment, that balance point was like a small bead rolling unpredictably across a smooth porcelain plate; the harder one pushed, the faster it might roll, only heightening the danger of it rolling off the edge.
As they closed the distance, the figures of the Ackerman brothers grew increasingly distinct in his vision.
Both had typical East Yono features—dark brown hair, thick beards, high-bridged noses, and deep-set eyes. Both were expressionless. The tall elder brother, Josh, produced a hooked one-handed axe bearing a North Yono design, while the stocky younger brother, Gau, drew two round-headed hammers.
The moment their eyes met, gleaming spiritual fire flared up around all three of them.
Pedestrians on the street and in the buildings flanking it saw the state of the three and immediately realized fighters were about to clash face-to-face. Initially, some looked on with great interest, while others pulled out field devices to record the scene.
However, when they saw the spiritual fire enveloping the three, shock seized them. Living in the Confluence, most had some worldly experience and realized at once that these were no ordinary fighters, but three martial artists. A terrible sense of foreboding struck them.
Some turned on their heels and ran; others scrambled frantically into the buildings on either side for cover.
None of the three paid any heed to the pedestrians, their eyes locked intently on one another.
The Ackerman brothers' frost-bitten eyes were vicious and venomous. With every step, they observed Puppet's movements; from his stride and the rhythm of his swing, they could discern an opponent's offensive traits and predispositions.
Yet what they saw was rather strange. Puppet's movements were remarkably orderly, yet there seemed to be an undercurrent of uncertainty within them.
Once the distance closed to within a hundred meters, the younger brother, Gau, slowed his pace slightly. Born of the same mother, they needed neither mental links nor eye contact; a mere shift in movement was enough for the other to grasp the intent instantly.
The elder brother, Josh, erupted in a roar. He kicked off the ground and cleared the hundred-meter gap in an instant, swinging his axe in a diagonal cleave toward Puppet.
Bloodstaff did not dodge. Stepping forward two paces, he swung his cane to meet the blow. Josh possessed tremendous strength; once his momentum built up, as long as the gap in realm was not insurmountable, a single strike was usually enough to pin down any opponent.
Yet this time, he had met his match. The instant axe clashed against cane, spiritual fire flared outward, and Josh felt an immense force surge into his body. It not only brought his charge to a dead halt, but even forced his upper body to tilt backward.
With another roar, spiritual fire surged across him as he tried to force himself to stand firm. Even so, when his feet hit the pavement, he could not stop himself from stumbling backward.
By then, the younger brother, Gau, was already charging in. Capitalizing on his build and using his elder brother's tall, bulky frame as cover, he darted out from behind him, swinging his two hammers toward Puppet's flank and shoulder respectively.
In truth, Puppet had not exerted his full strength in that first clash, deliberately holding some in reserve to deal with the other opponent.
Thus, Gau's sudden assault came as no surprise to him. Yet just as he moved to swing his cane in response, his breath hitched slightly. The balance point suffered a violent disturbance—one rarely seen under normal circumstances.
This forced him to pull his attention inward to barely keep it steady, but because of that, his movements froze for a fraction of a second.
Gau showed not the slightest mercy. Both hammers struck him solidly. Amid the dazzling flash of spiritual fire, Puppet went hurtling sideways and crashed into a building beside the street. First, the masonry at the front crumbled inward, and then the retro facade further back blew apart, bringing down the glass and ornate sculptures above the entryway.
Chapter 1267