Nathan was the first to close in on him.
"This ends now, brat!" Nathan snarled as he swung. He attacked with a heavy right hook.
But Dylan was easily able to get to his side. Amplifying his palm with Innate Energy, he easily parried that heavy attack and made Nathan lose balance.
With feet firmly planted, Dylan delivered two Innate Energy-enhanced consecutives quick and sharp straight punches into Nathan's liver which made him groan and kneel. In the same attack, Dylan also launched two rising water torrents to Nathan's face to knock him back.
BangBang
"How's that hospitality taste?" Dylan said coldly.
But Nathan's Avatars right fist was also right behind him, following up an attack. Dylan assumed a quick cross-block guard which displaced him a few meters to the side.
Boom
"Don't get cocky!" Nathan roared through gritted teeth, blood dripping from his lip. "That mouth of yours is gonna get you gutted!"
"Die!" Before Dylan could recover, Ethan was there to intercept him and attacked him while he was still in mid-air. He used his two arms to constrict Dylan while ordering his Avatar to bite Dylan's head off. The fangs dripping with deadly poison.
"You really think a mask-thief gets to talk that much?" Ethan hissed, tightening his grip.
"Ocean's Rage!" Dylan once again used his previous defensive method of using raging ocean water to blow away his opponents away.
"Fuck!" Ethan was blown back by Dylan's Ocean's Rage. Then, he saw that Dylan once again, materialized two water dragons, with surging and twisting currents as its body.
'Same trick won't work twice on me, but it looks like it works just fine on you,' Dylan thought, allowing himself a small, satisfied smile.
"Ocean Style, Ocean Dragon!" Dylan attacked with the water dragons he created.
The moment the Oceans Dragons crashed on Ethan, he was swallowed a whole and his entire body was swirling around due to the intense currents inside. He felt like his entire world was spinning.
Bang!
It was only when he crashed into a tree that he stopped. But before that, he made sure to attack Dylan once more.
"You want a taste of real venom?!" Ethan spat out, half-delirious from the spin, as he gave the order mid-flight.
Despite the nauseating experiences he was currently experiencing, he ordered his Two-headed Snake Avatar to bite Dylan. The two heads turned their heads to the side planning to leave a four holes in Dylan's body.
While Ocean's Rage was able to mitigate the attack by flooding the mouth of the two snakes, Dylan was still wounded by the fangs of the two snake heads. Fortunately, the venom it was laced with had been removed by the intense currents.
'Even half-conscious he still got an attack off,' Dylan thought, gritting his teeth against the pain. 'These three really do fight on instinct. I can't let my guard down just because someone looks down for the count.'
However, Dylan knew that the venom was still present in this water mass so he had no choice but to cancel it.
Lying in-wait, Joe lunged forward and was now the one who was attacking Dylan. He rushed against him with a shell shield and hit Dylan.
"My turn!" Joe bellowed, driving forward like a boulder.
Dylan had actually used the shell as a foot hold and backflipped. He was able to time it perfectly so he was able to step on it with a foot he coated in Innate Energy.
"Not so fast, you overgrown paperweight," Dylan muttered mid-air.
But to his surprise, the spikes on Joe's tortoise shield could actually be used as projectiles. Joe launched them and Dylan could not dodge the attack properly since he was still in mid-air.
"Thought you were the only one with tricks?!" Joe barked triumphantly as the spikes flew.
He was able to shield his vital parts by defending himself with Innate Energy but he had a lot of lacerations around his arms and feet.
'Note taken. Their martial spirits have more range than I gave them credit for,' Dylan thought through gritted teeth, glancing at the shallow cuts along his arms. 'I keep assuming beast types are all close-range brawlers. That's twice now that assumption's cost me.'
By the time he landed, he placed his hands on the ocean water below him and then used it to deliver a rising water torrent attack towards Joe that propelled him in the air.
"Let's see how well that shell floats," Dylan said flatly, watching Joe get airborne.
He was momentarily suspended in mid-air after the rising water torrent launched him. Feeling that he was about to fall, Fat Joe panicked as his heavy shield offered no control over his trajectory as he fell helplessly. "Nathan! Ethan! Help me out-! AAAGH!"
"Ugh!" Joe landed on his shell but the attack had knocked him out.
"He's mine!" Nathan bellowed, stepping forward as his shattered Silver Gorilla Avatar rematerialized its upper half, its single remaining arm pulsing with violent, silver Innate Energy. He ignored the intense agony in his liver, forced by sheer rage to attack. "Gorilla Smash!"
Nathan drove his fist downward, aiming to catch Dylan while he was still resetting his stance from launching the water torrent.
Dylan didn't try to evade. Instead, he forced his Innate Energy into his right leg, sweeping his foot through the shallow water to create a blinding arc of spray directly into Nathan's eyes.
"Argh! My eyes!" Nathan winced, his downward punch straying off target by a fraction of an inch.
*BOOM!*
The massive phantom fist smashed into the muddy ground right beside Dylan, sending a geyser of mud and water flying into the air. Dylan immediately capitalized on the opening stepping onto the forearm of the gorilla avatar, he launched himself straight at Nathan's exposed chest!
Dylan slammed two Innate Energy-coated palms directly into Nathan's chest, shattering his remaining gorilla armor in a bright flash of light.
*CRACK!*
Nathan coughed up a wave of blood as he was sent tumbling backward through the mud, his avatar completely dispersing from the shock of the blow.
"Joe, now!" Ethan roared from the tree line. Despite his body being battered and bruised from the water dragon's crushing currents, Ethan forced his Two-headed Snake Avatar to surge forward, using its extended bodies to wrap tightly around Dylan's legs and pin him to the ground. "Hold him down!"
"Got it!" Fat Joe yelled as he finally plummeted back down from the air. He tucked his arms and legs inside his tortoise shell, activating his avatar's spin to become a crushing, ten-meter anvil falling straight toward Dylan from above. "Tortoise Heavy Press!"
Dylan felt the tight, scaly grip of the snake avatar anchoring his boots to the earth. Above him, the massive shadow of the spiked shell descended at terrifying speed.
'Trapping my movement to guarantee a hit...' Dylan thought cleanly, his mind remaining cold and precise despite the mortal threat. 'Their teamwork really is sharp.'
He didn't panic. Instead of trying to pull his feet free, Dylan concentrated his pure Innate Energy into his core, allowing the starlight resonance to flood his upper body. He raised both arms, placing his right hand over his left fist to form a heavy defensive guard, aligning his sternum to take the impact.
*BOOOOOOM!*
The massive spiked shell slammed directly onto Dylan's raised arms. The force of the impact exploded outward, creating a five-meter crater in the flooded yard and snapping nearby wooden fences into splinters. The sheer pressure drove Dylan knee-deep into the pulverized earth, blood spraying from his mouth as the severe strain cracked his ribs and left forearm.
"Guh!" Dylan gritted his teeth, feeling the bone-deep ache radiating through his body.
"Hahaha! We hit him directly!" Fat Joe laughed triumphantly from inside his shell, keeping the crushing weight pressed down on Dylan. "He's finished!"
"Don't let up, Joe! Crush him completely!" Ethan shouted, staggering forward to join the kill.
Beneath the crushing weight of the spiked shell, Dylan's eyes opened, glowing with an unyielding, pristine white light. A bloody, exhilarating smile carved across his face.
"Is that... all the weight you've got?" Dylan rasped.
*FWOOSH!*
The pristine white energy swirling at his navel burst outward in a violent, localized shockwave, forcefully repelling the massive spiked shell upward by a few inches! Taking advantage of that split-second gap, Dylan freed his arms, planted his right foot, and delivered a devastating, Innate Energy-infused open-palm strike straight to the underside of the shell!
*BANG!*
The kinetic rebound sent Fat Joe's massive shell flying backward, crashing heavily into the mud and uncurling the dizzy, blood-vomiting cultivator inside.
Dylan pulled his legs free from the mud, coughing up another streak of blood as he stood tall in the ruined clearing. His breathing was heavy, his body bruised and bleeding, yet his fighting spirit burned brighter than ever. He wiped the blood from his chin, his eyes locking onto the three exhausted, terrified gang members.
"Come on," Dylan smirked, raising his hand in a silent challenge. "Show me what else you've got."
"He's slowing down!" Ethan called out, wiping blood from his mouth as he staggered back to his feet. "Look at him, he's breathing hard!"
"Then, we finish it now!" Nathan's voice was ragged, his Silver Gorilla Avatar flickering at the edges from the damage it had taken, but his eyes were murderous. "Joe, pin him. Ethan, blind him. I'll break his spine myself this time."
"With pleasure," Ethan sneered, already weaving his arms in a wide arc, gathering venom at both fangs.
Joe didn't bother with words this time. He simply charged, shell first, faster than his size had any right to allow.