From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Stomp Them Out

Most adults would freeze up if a guy came at them with a blade. Even trained fighters sometimes got tunnel vision, eyes locked on the weapon, brain scrambling to calculate every move. That’s just human nature.

So seeing Max handle the situation the way he did? That caught the Rejected Corps off guard. All of them.

He was just a high schooler. No military background. No combat history.

But the way he moved, quick, focused, deliberate, wasn’t just good. It was professional. He’d disarmed the attacker and dropped him with a single, clean blow. Efficient. No wasted movement.

What really shook them, though, was how he did it.

The technique Max used? It wasn’t random. It mirrored some of the exact methods they used. Stuff they were trained in. Moves they’d picked up through years of hard, ugly experience.

And Max had done it after seeing it once.

There was no way he’d learned that from some self-defense YouTube tutorial. Watching a move on video and pulling it off in a life-or-death moment? Completely different ball game. And the kind of stuff they trained in? It wasn’t the kind of thing civilians were ever supposed to learn.

So the only logical conclusion? Max had been watching. Studying. Processing. And in a high-pressure moment, he’d replicated it near perfectly.

That wasn’t luck. That was instinct and skill. And anyone with real experience would’ve been impressed.

"Will you look at that," one of the Rejected Corps muttered, ducking just as a meat cleaver sailed past his head. Without missing a beat, he caught the attacker’s wrist, twisted it, and forced the guy to stab the blade into his own shoulder before dropping him with a heavy kick. "Guess there’s a reason the boss wants to meet him after all."

"I never met that Dipter guy," one of the Rejected Corps said, brushing blood off his sleeve. "But I’ve heard stories. If you’re his replacement, kid... I think I’m starting to see why."

Another member cracked a grin. "What do you think, Rain? Maybe the kid’s not half bad after all. Guess you knew what you were doing when you sucker punched him outta nowhere."

Rain didn’t answer right away. He just stared across the room at Max, who was still standing by the entrance, untouched.

The fight was winding down. Most of the Chalkline boys were either unconscious, bleeding, or running. No more knives flying, no more chaos, just bodies on the ground and the smell of blood and broken food in the air.

Upstairs, Dud was finishing things off in the most Dud way possible, fighting three guys at once.

They were big, fast, and knew how to swing a blade. But Dud? He looked completely at ease. Confident. Every step he took had purpose.

He didn’t hold back either. His strikes were brutal, aimed at the neck, quick, relentless shots, not once, but in bursts of two or three, all in the same spot.

Then one of the biggest men lunged, and Dud pivoted, slipping behind him. One hard kick sent the guy flying into the upper-floor railing. _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

Without missing a beat, Dud charged. He leapt, knees first, crashing into the man’s chest.

The barrier gave way.

Both of them flew through the air.

They slammed into a table below, the impact shattering it into splinters. The man’s body hit first, cushioning the fall. Dud landed on top, rolling off like it was just another Tuesday.

"Good thing the guy was built like a truck," Dud muttered, dusting himself off. "Otherwise I’d be the one getting scraped off the floor."

If he told them street-level high school fights were even close to this, they’d laugh him right out of the building. Hell, hewould’ve laughed if someone had told him that before.