“Now!” Wolf ordered, and suddenly, pandemonium broke loose. There was total confusion because of the solid execution of the plan, and the old dog and his crew were the first people to react. Wolf pounced forward with incredible speed, and he reached Jonas in an instant. However, Ahmed's reaction was just as fast, and he pushed Jonas out of the way. The old warrior knew that his young friend, in his current condition, would be unable to fight Wolf.

Ahmed's arm went numb as he received Wolf's attack, and because of how strong it was, he knew that his fellow top-five had made great strides since their last spar. It was the kind of electrifying hit that dampened a fighting spirit. Ahmed felt a fire in his belly grow: it burned through his stomach, up into his heart, through his lungs, and into his extremities. It caused his Sin Scars to glow with splendor and his spirit to roar with vigor.

Jonas fell to the side and hit the floor. His mind told him to get up, but he had trouble doing so because his legs were numb from sleep. Blood poured from the wound in his back like a turned faucet. Jonas tried to look up, but he had hit his head so hard off the stone floor that his vision was foggy, and he could barely make out the scene of his companions swarmed by the wolves.

He felt like he was in a scene from an old war movie. The bombs had fallen, and the shell-shocked soldier would look at the chaos as his ears rang, and he tried to process the situation. Jonas saw Ahmed having a desperate duel against a rage-infused Wolf; he saw Pete jumped by a few of his old companions. He saw Ralph throwing men across the gym, while others hung on his shoulders like human backpacks. Simon was fighting two-on-one, and Johnson was stomping the head of a skinny wolf who had gone limp.

There was a moment in his mind where things began to click. Wolf had used a petty trick against Jonas and was the type of thing the young Crusader could use to fuel himself. Also, he had his empathy used against him, and who he thought was a new companion: Terry, was really a wolf in sheep's clothing. Jonas also understood that his friends were in danger, and he was lying uselessly on the ground.

If Wolf feared Jonas so much that he needed to resort to petty tactics, then Jonas would give him a reason to be scared. As Jonas' Sin Scars began to glow, a layer of skin grew, and the wound healed. The wartime scene ended, and Jonas found that his brain had finally roared to life.

"Let's do this," the feeling in his legs came back, and he quickly clambered to his feet. The blood made him slip, but he caught his balance. Then he clenched his fists and charged into the fray.

“Ahmed!” Jonas shouted, “Help them!” and with all the strength he could muster, he leaped and kicked the first enemy in his path. Jonas' feet exploded against the fighter's shoulder, and his body was sent flying with a violent force. He blasted a few feet away and crashed right into Wolf, who was completely unprepared. The two of them tumbled out of sight, and it gave Ahmed a moment of respite.

As he saw Jonas running toward him, Ahmed looked surprised; his eyes widened, and then he shared a bloody grin. The old Berserker nodded his head and ran toward Pete, who was in desperate need of help.

The room was still crazy as ever, and the unaffiliated fighters had formed a circle around the brawl between the two gangs. Wolf pushed his fallen subordinate off himself and hopped to his feet, prepared to do battle once more. He and Jonas didn’t waste words because the time for talking was over, and the time for killing had begun. Jonas flew toward his opponent, and Wolf welcomed the attack. A serious bout of parrying and countering began as the two fighters unleashed their full arsenal of attacks.

Jonas was worse for wear, and he could tell that his punches were slower and contained less impact than his opponent's attacks. To be fair, Jonas had lost a lot of blood and was in tremendous pain from whatever organ had been ruptured.

Wolf’s attacks were explosive, and it wasn't long before he drew blood. His black-buckled boot connected with Jonas' nose, which exploded in a shower of crimson. Jonas was drenched with gore, but he had no time to focus on the blood because he only had milliseconds to react to his enemy's next attack.

Wolf's transitioning speed was his greatest strength; he could connect subsequent attacks like combos performed in an arcade video game. However, Wolf also had a weakness: his agility.

Often in the past, Jonas had watched Wolf spar. From his observations, he'd learned that his much older enemy suffered issues with quickly changing direction, as well as making fast, flexible body motions. Wolf would rather parry than dodge, and all of his attacks were straightforward with no minute changes in direction.

Jonas threw a haymaker punch toward Wolf, then he watched as his opponent awkwardly tried to dodge. Jonas knew the key to victory would revolve around making Wolf extremely uncomfortable, not allowing him to get into a rhythm.

Jonas initiated his plan by flipping his stance and fighting south-paw. He knew that he wasn't left-handed; however, he was a much more versatile fighter than Wolf, and his gamble temporarily confused his opponent, who misjudged the timing of the next attack and ended up with a punch to his chin.

Jonas struck south-paw once again; however, Wolf managed to block the kick. Jonas threw his momentum to the side and switched back to his normal stance, and he was forced to go on the defensive as Wolf had begun throwing a succession of quick, powerful jabs.

The punches felt like trying to block hits from a metal baseball bat, and Jonas could feel his arms turn numb. He clenched his jaw and responded in turn with a massive punch that hit Wolf right in the sternum.

Jonas felt bones break beneath his punch, but he didn't have time to celebrate as Wolf had begun to add a variety of kicks to his attacks: a roundhouse kick that broke some of Jonas' bones, a head kick that missed its target, and a hook kick that blasted his young opponent backward.

Jonas' heart hammered like a blacksmith, and so much adrenaline was pumping through his body that he didn't try to embrace the pain, as he didn't feel any. He was experiencing other debilitating effects: lightheadedness, and weak knees, and he also noticed that his breathing was very haggard like he had been fighting for ten minutes when only one minute had passed.

Wolf was like a one-man army that never ran out of stamina or a new way of attacking. Just when Jonas thought that he had seen the old dog’s entire combat vocabulary, Wolf would surprise with a plethora of attacks chained one after another: ax kicks, butterfly kicks, crescent kicks; these kicks transitioned into different punches: jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts; and sometimes more brutal attacks: headbutts, elbows, and knees.

Jonas’ arms moved like he was fighting off ten men, but he was only fighting one, and no matter how many times he'd envisioned the fight between them, he hadn't foreseen it being so crazy.

His thoughts became a separate battlefield as he could feel anger and rage slowly creeping into his emotions, but he knew that if he let them in he would lose his life. His Sin was Pride, and he needed to focus on the aspects of the situation that appealed most to his inner nature, such as the fact that he was being looked down on by Wolf made him feel prideful. There was the fact that his companions were fighting side-by-side, and this also made him feel prideful. Finally, there was the fact that his enemy had resorted to sneak attacks and trickery: a telling sign that Jonas intimidated Wolf.

The young Crusader felt a surge of power fill his entire body as he punched out as hard as he could. The punch broke past Wolf’s guard, striking him square in the jaw and causing his head to whiplash.

However, it seemed like Wolf was also having a mental battle as his counterattack felt more powerful than his previous attacks, and Jonas felt one of his fingers snap as he tried to deflect the punch.

Jonas had so much experience fighting Berserkers that it was no surprise he knew exactly what to do to control the momentum of the fight: try and make the enemy miss as much as possible and frustrate them by not satisfying their need for pain, gore, and havoc.

Wolf was a tremendously talented fighter, and he was also the most difficult opponent that Jonas had fought against. On paper, it was obvious that Wolf should win the fight; however, there was a reason that Jonas was still going toe-to-toe: his potential was unlimited, and the past few months had refined him like folded steel of a forged katana – sharp and deadly.

Neither fighter could take momentum. Wolf had the power and experience, while Jonas had the passion and potential. The young fighter tried to inflict his will upon his enemy, but Wolf wasn’t having any of it as he swung massive paws toward Jonas, trying to grab a handful of whatever he could. Twice, Jonas dodged the attacks which tried to wrap him up, and this caused a slight panic in his chest as he knew the outcome if he tried to ground and pound with a guy like Wolf who had no problem getting down and dirty.

Jonas was carefully sidestepping around his opponent, which was hard to do because the room was still extremely chaotic, and he could barely tell what was going on or whose side was winning. However, because he had yet to be jumped from behind, his instincts told him that his guys were still putting up a heck of a fight even though they were outnumbered.

Jonas had never been worried about a battle of numbers because his crew had both Ahmed and Ralph, and those two together could take on ten fighters. Add Pete, Simon, and Johnson to the equation, and it was easy to see why Jonas' crew of six could contend against nearly three times as many enemies.

Currently, the biggest issue Jonas faced was the fact that he had lost a lot of blood, and Wolf was much closer to taking the momentum of the fight; he moved as if his limbs were convinced that victory was nearby. Jonas knew the fight would be over very quickly as soon as Wolf stole the show, so he did something daring: he dropped his guard and charged forward with reckless abandon.

Jonas had grown tired of blocking, dodging, and parrying. He had grown tired of having his back against the wall, and of feeling like he was the upstart. The denizens of Little Wrath City called him the Comeback Kid, but Jonas knew that he couldn't lag in a fight against Wolf, he needed to dominate – not have his back against a wall. So he threw his safety aside: charged toward Wolf, and threw the most powerful punch he could. It was filled with Pride, so much that Jonas resembled a lion: he roared to protect his pride.

Wolf could see the reckless abandon in Jonas' attack, and he knew his young adversary was trying to steal the momentum of the fight; he wouldn't allow it to happen. His reaction was to take the attack head-on: he dug his feet into the ground, squared his shoulders, tightened his jaw, and prepared to show Jonas how weak the attack would be.

The attack struck Wolf right in the face. In just the blink of an eye, it seemed that Wolf had taken the attack without moving; however, an after-wave of Sin blasted outward and pushed Wolf off balance. He stepped back twice, nearly fell over, and caught his balance in time to feel thick blood leaking from his nose.

“You can throw a fucking punch,” Wolf grunted, “I’ll give you that.”