From Bullets To Billions

Chapter 723: The Monster

For the members of the Stern family, watching a literal army of a hundred men pour out from every single nook and cranny was making them extremely nervous.

They had never seen anything like it before in their lives. At least most of them hadn’t—Chad had a little bit of experience with street fights, but seeing so many people completely surrounding one single person just felt unfair. It felt wrong.

”What is that idiot thinking?” Karen mumbled, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the railing. ”He should have never come here on his own. He has so much wealth at his disposal, he could have hired top-tier private security, he could have brought his personal bodyguards with him—anything but this. Do we really have to stand here and watch this? Watch him get beat down right in front of us?”

Bobo turned her head to look at her mother, completely stunned. She was honestly seeing a side of Karen she had never witnessed before in her entire childhood. Now that her mother finally realized everything she cared about could be lost in a split second, was she starting to value her family more? Was she actually caring about Max?

That was when Karen did the completely unexpected.

”MAX!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing over the water. ”What the hell are you doing? You won’t be able to survive this! Just call your Grandfather! Make the call right now! He won’t want to see his own flesh and blood killed in this way—he’ll step in and solve the situation!”

Donto’s furious eyes immediately snapped to Karen. Turning on his heel, he steadily walked over, lifted his hand, and threw it right across her face, slapping her hard enough to send her falling flat on her back.

”Shut up!” Donto shouted down at her. ”What are you even doing, calling Grandfather over this? All of you have done terrible things constantly to Max in the past and never dared to tell Grandfather a single thing, and now you suddenly care about his safety? Give me a break.”

”Oi, Donto, you damn bastard!” Chad roared, struggling against his ties. ”How could you hit my mother like that? She’s your aunt!”

”So what? Now all of you are starting to care about family family family suddenly?” Donto asked, turning on him with a sneer. ”Did you all get hit in the head too hard by Max or something?”

Up at the bow, Dud found the family feud quite entertaining. Since it wasn’t disrupting any of their actual plans, he didn’t say anything to stop it and just continued to watch the show with a grin.

That was when Bobo quickly scooted over on her knees, pressing herself right up against the wooden railing.

”Call Grandfather, Max!” Bobo shouted down to the docks. ”Tell him that Donto is completely ruining the heir selection! Tell him that he’s trying to get you killed! Even if Grandfather doesn’t care about us individually, he would never allow such dirty means to take the seat!”

Donto’s entire fist was shaking with anger, but it was more so because he secretly feared they were right. If he knew anything about the family dynamic, there was a very good chance his Grandfather could stop this entire operation with a single word, and he wasn’t sure if the prisoners he was working with would really see Dennis as a threat until it was too late.

”Just shut your mouths, all of you,” Donto said, turning his back on them and returning to the handrail. ”Even if he called Grandfather, it wouldn’t work on these people anyway. Max will be completely beaten to a pulp before Grandfather could even do anything about it.”

Having said all they could, Karen managed to push herself up off the ground. She wiped her mouth, watching in horror as the massive group of mercenaries continued to close the distance on Max.

Suddenly, the crowd exploded, charging in and running straight toward him. One vanguard fighter was clearly faster than the others, sprinting well ahead of the pack with his weapon raised.

Seeing the incoming assault, Max didn’t just stay still. He exploded forward, charging right ahead to meet them. He jumped high up into the air, managing to get a massive amount of height due to his sheer speed, and shoved his knee forward—smashing it right into the lead runner’s face with a sickening crunch.

The exact moment Max landed back on the pavement, he spun and swung a heavy fist, hitting another mercenary hard in the temple and sending him skidding across the ground.

A few meters away, a man carrying a heavy bike chain swung it around in a wide arc. Max put out his arm, shifting his stance slightly forward to absorb the impact. When the bike chain wrapped violently around his sleeve, he could feel a sharp, stinging pain through the fabric, but he braced through it, bearing the hit.

With his free hand, he gripped the links and yanked hard on the bike chain, snapping it clean out of the person’s hands. Before the guy could even react, Max swung the metal chain across the pocket, hitting three other mercenaries who were trying to get close.

Then, from his blind spot, a rather large, heavy man came barreling in for a tackle. He crashed into Max right around his waist with full force—but Max’s body didn’t budge a single inch. Standing his ground like a brick wall, Max lifted his knee, slamming it hard into the man’s face. He followed up instantly with a devastating side kick straight to the stomach, lifting the giant right up into the air and sending him flying backward until he crashed onto the concrete.

The waves of incoming attacks almost froze at that exact point. Up on the ship, Karen and the others were staring down in absolute disbelief.

”How... how could he do that?” Karen mumbled, her voice trembling. ”How is he able to move like that against so many?”

That was when Darius started to let out a loud, wet laugh from his chains, which immediately caught the attention of Dipter.

”You said you wanted to beat him, right?” Darius called out, a bloody smile on his face. ”I told you idiots before. Max didn’t just take down the Black Hounds’ territory. When he was going up against us, he took on me and the leader of the Gilt Rats at the exact same time. I don’t think any of you realize the kind of monster you are actually dealing with.”