Hemiko's probably recognized that Hokkaido won't hurt her too.

As long as she's on my back, he'll hold back on the explosion output.

In a flash of heat, Hokkaido blasted himself through the hall, smashing his fist into Colt's face. With no room to retaliate, Colt stumbled to the end of the hall, ensuring that Hemiko didn't fall in the process.

Did he just-

"Kill me, you say?" shooting through the hall, Hokkaido brought his knee down atop Colt's head, "You kids can't do shit to me! Not with my super suit!"

Leaping away from his crazed attacks, Colt spread his core energy throughout his entire body.

I should keep from healing too much for now. I can just keep damage low by upping my defenses!

Hokkaido shot past Colt, snatching Hemiko from his back in the process. "What a horrible plan! Using the girl as some sort of shield?"

With his plan disrupted, Colt was blown across the floor with another explosion, bringing him to a skull rattling collision with the wall.

"You're moving around too much," spat Colt, "Just like the dirty little bug you are..."

Hokkaido grinned as he hurled Hemiko through one of the ballroom doors, "My explosions can't be used at close range, or they'll damage me along with you...Is that what you were thinking?"

As he began to mock Colt, the blaring burns lining up and down his body began to heal.

Colt's eyes widened in horror, "Y-You have a healing core power on top of the explosions?"

"No!" Hemiko stormed out of the room, "He's using our Blue Apples! Those tubes are funneling it into his mouth! How dare you?"

"I see..." Colt sighed, "That makes shit easier..."

He isn't immune to his own explosions, the suit's for protection, and for the Blue Apple juice. That suit must be tough as shit if it's still in good condition.

As for the explosions, he can clearly aim them, but I need to figure out how.

Hemiko tossed a batch of seeds in the air, sprouting a horde of trees in the hall, tearing through the very foundation of the building.

"C-Colt! I figured out how his power works..."

He ran over to her, "Really?"

"When I tried fighting him earlier, and even now, all of his attacks are charged up! If you feel for them, you can actually sense the heat building up right where he's aiming!"

"Makes sense..." Colt rubbed the sweat from his face, "Since I still have all of my core energy, he can't be combusting the target's core energy. He must be sending his core energy to where he wants to trigger an explosion..."

Hokkaido tore his way through the trees with a series of ragged explosions, charging after them both. "That attack was poorly aimed! Are we getting desperate now?"

Colt lunged forward, only to be blasted through the roof of the mansion. With the fields of debris and dust blowing in the wind, he was sent crashing back down with another explosion.

His attacks are more annoying than lethal now! He's focusing more on mobility than damage output-

The ear splitting boom of an explosion echoed as Hokkaido blasted himself straight into Colt, driving his knee into his stomach. The ground beneath them cracked beneath the pressure just as quickly as his ribs did.

Losing all air to even breath, Colt gagged on his own blood as it coagulated in his own throat.

"C-Colt!"

Hemiko's voice grew faint as the intense ringing in his ears amplified. A static haze came over his vision, and his body grew too heavy to even lift a finger.

His thoughts grew cloudy, scattering random nothingness in an abyss of darkness.

Don't lose focus...Just move your energy into your stomach. Right where the pain is originating from...

Hokkaido erupted into a cackling laughter, "What a joke! This is what happens to punks who try to stand up to me! Little village girl, get ready to be my puppy for as long as you live!"

Hemiko tugged at the collar on her neck, snatching it away. "No! This is the moment I've been waiting for. I let my anger and hatred for you blind my sense of reasoning, falling for every trap you've set for me! Now that I have a clear mind, I understand something..."

"And what's that?"

"You're weak. You hide behind all of your men, letting them handle all of the dirty work for you. And if someone manages to get through them, you have this-this cheap as core power to get rid of them!" She grinned as she retrieved a handful of seeds from her pocket, "The moment you failed to kill Colt with that initial blast was the moment you lost, and you can't take it...Even more, the only reason you're leaving me alive is to keep our fruit, and you need that because you're afraid."

"What did you-"

Colt chuckled as he stood up, "I couldn't have said it better, Hemiko."

Leaving no room for a counterattack, Colt rushed forward, smashing through Hokkaido's suit with an explosive critical burst.

Now!

Grabbing him by the neck, Colt leaned in and bit straight into the mask of Hokkaido's suit.

"M-Move!" Hokkaido held his hand out, doing nothing in response. "G-Get off! My core power won't work!"

Moving core energy into his jaws, Colt chomped straight through the clunky steel of the mask, splitting a few of his own teeth in the process. The brief sensation of the hydrating apple juice faded out as the gritty, metallic blood pooled inside of his mouth.

Hemiko covered her mouth as she ran over, "Colt, are you alright?"

Spitting blood from his mouth, he began to heal himself. "Yup! We won, Hemiko!"

Hokkaido trembled as the Blue Apple juice gushed out from the broken tubes linked to his mask, "M-My mask! What kind of monster are you? Are you a fucking core beast?"

Colt grinned, "That metal was pretty tough, but a good core infused bite got the job done. You could've blown me away if you didn't burn through all of your core energy earlier. All of those explosive moments made it easy to read your energy flow, so a simple critical burst on top of all of that would leave you drained."

Hemiko glanced down at him, "And it actually did some damage with it too. Without the juice, you can't even heal yourself!" She pulled Colt into a hug, "You're so smart, Colt!"

He rubbed her head, "But seriously, you really were weak as hell. I had more trouble fighting Touya than you."

"Someone! Help me!" Hokkaido flailed along the floor as panic set in over him, "Touya! Charmy! Where's that damned Futsunushi guy I hired? Fuck this!"

Throwing caution to the wind, Hokkaido dove straight out of one of the windows in the hall.

"What the hell?"

"No!" Hemiko ran over to the staircase as a red glaze of hatred glossed over her eyes, "We can't let him live! I'm going to kill him!"

"Sh-Shit!"

Following her stead, Colt leapt out of the window after Hokkaido, finding himself in the middle of the frantic scene in the front yard.

The villagers and suited men turned their way.

"It's the Boss!"

"It's Hokkaido!"

"Hey!" Hokkaido reached out for the dense crowd, "Enter a core link with me!"

"Yes sir!" As his men heeded his request, sparks of core energy linked between them all and Hokkaido, flowing from their eyes in a gentle sheen of light.

What the fuck was that?

As he reached the crowd, Colt was bombarded with an endless flurry of explosions. Chunks of their remains spiraled through the air as screens of blood obscured his vision. While none of the explosions were too powerful in their own right, each small burst accumulated into a dynamic stream of damage, leaving Colt unable to keep up his chase.

How did his core energy recover that fast?

"What's up, villagers?" Hokkaido grinned as he stepped over to Lamia, prompting all of the villagers to stand between them.

Lamia winced as she met the man's gaze, "Y-You are exactly as much of a monster as I thought. Have you no shame?"

"Get away from her!"

Between ragged breaths, Hemiko drove a blade through Hokkaido's spine, reaching straight through his stomach in a clean motion. Not able to slow her crazed momentum at which she lunged forward, she and Hokkaido slid into the dirt together, further driving the weapon deeper.

Lamia covered her mouth as she gazed upon the sight, "H-Hemiko!"

"M-Mommy..." Hemiko lifted her head to meet her eyes, "I-I got him-"

Lamia snatched Hemiko from Hokkaido, pulling her into a deep hug. "I was so worried! My little angel is okay..."

As the stream of explosions finally came to an end, Colt dropped down to his knees in exhaustion. "F-Fuck...Gotta love core energy defense. I'm almost all out of it too..."

Trudging his way down the stairs, Jax scoffed. "Y-You look like shit..."

"I could say the same about you. Where did-"

"Yo!" Hisa burst her way onto the scene, flailing her axe around with a gleeful smile, "I just woke up from my nap, and I'm ready to go! Where's Hokkaido?"

Jax sighed, "About that..."

"Please don't tell me that's him over there..." Hisa whined as she pulled on Colt's ears, "I thought we agreed on letting me kill him!"

"I didn't shank the guy..." muttered Colt as he struggled against her.

Hokkaido spat blood from his mouth as he rolled over onto his back, "Don't write me off just yet! You bastards just made the mistake of pissing me off! I've been saving this for a final bet, and now it's time! Core driver!"

Jax pushed Colt and Hisa back, "Shit! Everyone run-"

Hokkaido flopped down in a depressing heap of failure, "Huh? It didn't work?"

Colt facepalmed as he walked over to him, "Dude, I don't know what you were about to do, but you wasted all of your core energy sacrificing your men to kill me. You're done."

Hisa cringed as she stood beside Colt, "So...This is the infamous Hokkaido?"

"What a letdown." spat Jax.

"W-Wait a second..." Hokkaido held his hands up as everyone began to converge, forming a circle around him, "L-Let's talk about this."

"So...What should we do about this scum?" asked Colt.

Hisa giggled, "Let's kill him!"

Hemiko motioned as if she were about to join Hisa, but quieted down as Lamia glanced her way.

Jax sighed, "No...He won't be able to suffer for what he's done."

"Eh, it's the good ole, spare the villain scene, huh?" asked Colt, "I don't really care though. I'm not some bloodlusting freak. In the end, it's up to the villagers."

Lamia rubbed Hemiko's shoulders, "As long as he can't bring harm to me and my people anymore, I'm fine."

"Wait-" Colt grabbed onto Jax's arm, "We can't just send him into the police though. That'll practically be letting him off the hook way to easily."

Jax grinned as he readjusted his glasses, "I never said that we were doing that just yet."

"Hm?"

A few seconds of silence were broken as Hisa kicked Hokkaido in the stomach, driving a groan of agony from him.

This little tip set off the chain of falling dominoes.

Jax deliver a kick, with Colt deciding to join in too.

Hemiko gave a kick of her own, with even Lamia joining.

With that, the official Hokkaido stomp out party began.

For who knows how long, they continued to stomp him out, ignoring his pleas for help or mercy. The gleeful smiles lining everyone's faces as they joined together in laughter cast a warm shine over the scene.

Though after her initial kick, Lamia simply opted to watch the "festivities" from a distance.

It was sudden, but the spectacle was certainly more fun than a simple finishing blow would have been.

"Okay, that's enough." said Jax, "We don't want to actually kill him."

Hemiko cheered as she leaned into Hisa, "That was pretty fun!"

"Of course it was, he was all like bleugh, and blah!" His continued to mock Hokkaido's agonizing cries, earning tearful laughter from Hemiko.

"This guy's a mob boss, so the bounty on his head is certainly high." said Jax, "We'll give the money to the village after."

"That's a great idea!" cheered Colt.

Lamia glanced between them both, "B-But I couldn't-"

"Nah, after everything he's done to you, you've earned it." said Jax.

She shook her head, "No. We don't have a form of currency in our village."

Jax's face went blank, "Oh..."

"That's fine." said Colt, "We could go buy what you guys-"

"Comin' through!"

A young man fell from the sky, snapping Hokkaido's neck in two as he struck a dynamic landing, driving his spiked boots through him. Kicking his head aside with the care one would an empty can of soda, he swung his electric guitar onto his shoulder.

"Wh-Who are you?" asked Colt.

"I'm Shark, the guy who received your little mail request."

"Request?"

He readjusted his shades, "Hold on, ain't you guys the village he's been terrorizing?"

Lamia glanced between Colt and Shark as she covered her mouth, "Wait-Did you receive my letter?"

"Yes ma'am." He bowed before her, "Sorry for taking so long, I had some business to tend to first."

Hemiko gasped, "I knew it!"

Lamia turned Colt's way in disbelief, "So, you weren't the one who received the letter that requested help from the guardian?"

I guess the jig's up...

Scratching the back of his head, Colt sighed. "Yeah...I honestly had no clue what was going on when I first came here. We were only out here for the rumors about some medicine, but I couldn't abandon you after I learned about Hokkaido."

Lamia covered her mouth as tears swelled in her eyes, "So you mean...you helped us for nothing?"

"It wasn't just nothing. It angered us to see you guys live like that."

Lamia ran forward, pulling Colt, Hisa, and Jax into deep hugs. "Thank you so much! You weren't even obligated to help us, but you did!"

"These little kids cleaned up my mess?" Shark readjusted his shades and started laughing, "I guess I took too long." He retrieved a small card from his pocket and handed it to Colt. "Take that as a reward."

"What is it?"

Sighing, he turned away. "Eh, ask someone else. I need to leave."

"But you barely did anything."

"Farewell, young ones." With a cheeky grin, Shark leapt off into the sky, leaving everyone just as confused as they were upon his arrival.

Putting the card into his pocket, Colt turned to face the urgent matter at hand. "Hokkaido's dead, so we can't get that bounty now."

Jax scoffed and walked in the direction of the village, "I guess we can leave now. There's no point in standing around all of these corpses..."

"Facts."