She twisted violently against the man holding her hair, suddenly finding strength she hadn’t known she possessed. She lunged toward her daughter and bit down hard on the man’s hand.The Rustliner screamed.“Ah! Fuck!”Blood immediately appeared between Lydia’s teeth.The man released her hair for a moment and looked at his bleeding hand in disbelief. His face twisted with rage.“You fucking bitch!”He raised his hand and struck her across the face.The blow was so hard that Lydia’s body was thrown sideways. She hit the ground heavily, her vision spinning as tears streamed down her face. A sharp pain spread through her cheek, but even then, she didn’t think about herself.She crawled toward Anna.“Come here,” she sobbed. “Come to Mommy.”Anna was crying now, clutching her injured elbow as she crawled into her mother’s arms.Lydia wrapped both arms around her daughter, shielding the little girl with her own body.“It’s okay,” she whispered despite the fact that her own voice was trembli

Gunner threw his head back and laughed heartily, the sound echoing across the ruined street as though the situation unfolding before him was nothing more than an entertaining joke. He slowly rose from the hood of the truck, his boots hitting the ground with a heavy thud as he looked Drax up and down. His remaining eye narrowed, studying the stranger who had just walked straight into the middle of his territory without the slightest hint of fear. Around him, the Rustliners tightened their grip on their weapons, surrounding Drax from every direction. There were more than thirty of them, some carrying knives, others holding metal pipes, bats, chains, and whatever else they could find. To anyone watching, there was only one possible outcome. The stranger was outnumbered beyond reason.“So, you’re the so-called wanderer who harmed my men,” Gunner finally said, his laughter fading into a cold grin. There was amusement in his voice, but beneath it was unmistakable anger. His men had returned

Gunner’s command had barely left his mouth before the rest of the Rustliners surged forward. More than twenty men charged Drax at once, their weapons raised as they shouted over one another. Metal pipes swung through the air, knives flashed beneath the fading daylight, and several men rushed in from behind, hoping to catch him off guard. They had numbers, weapons, and the advantage of surrounding their target, but none of those things mattered against the man they had chosen to attack. Drax simply stood there in the middle of them, looking almost disappointed. After everything that had happened, he had expected the Rustliners to at least provide him with a little entertainment. Instead, looking at the men charging toward him, he couldn’t help thinking that this was going to be easier than dealing with the bicycle.The first thug reached him and swung a metal pipe directly toward his head. Drax casually tilted his head to the side, allowing the pipe to whistle past his ear. Before the

The entire neighborhood stood frozen, staring at the scene before them as though they were afraid that moving would somehow break whatever strange dream they had just witnessed. The Rustliners, the very gang that had terrorized these streets for years, were scattered across the ground. Their weapons lay abandoned in the dirt, their bodies sprawled across the street, and their leader, Gunner, was kneeling in front of the stranger who had appeared out of nowhere. It was almost impossible to comprehend. Many of the people watching had spent years believing that the Rustliners were untouchable, that Gunner and his men were simply another unavoidable part of life in Null City. Yet in less than a few minutes, one unknown man had dismantled the entire gang without even appearing to take the fight seriously.Whispers began spreading through the crowd.“Is this actually happening?”“He defeated all of them…”“Gunner is on his knees.”“I’ve never seen anyone do that to the Rustliners.”Some peo

Drax smiled as he looked at Desmond, then glanced back at Lydia and Anna, who were still standing together beside the wreckage of the Rustliners’ operation. The atmosphere around them had completely changed. Only a short while ago, the entire neighborhood had been drowning in fear, with people hiding behind locked doors and windows while Gunner and his men treated the streets like their personal kingdom. Now the same people were standing outside openly, talking among themselves and looking at Drax with admiration. Drax wasn’t particularly interested in the attention, however. His mind had already returned to the reason he had come to Null City in the first place. He still had a mission to complete, and if Desmond’s information was genuine, he had finally found a possible direction.“Let’s get going, then,” Drax said, turning toward the boy. “We don’t have much time left, and I’d rather find this Red-Ledger thing before I grow old waiting for you to show me where to look.”Desmond nodd