Chapter 3 The Strongest Soldier

Cleo hugged James's arm and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his slightly stubbly cheek.

James smiled and reached out to push Cleo's forehead away, glancing at Bianca whose eyes were darting around evasively.

He opened his arms too.

Bianca looked up, then quickly lowered her head to stare at the lab bench, not responding to James's invitation for a hug, but her ears quietly turned red.

James didn't mind and turned to leave the basement.

The moment he walked out the door, the smile vanished from James's face.

He rolled his wrists, his eyes becoming sharp and focused.

This was the battlefield he knew, this was how he should be.

Those small fries needed to be dealt with.

"That guy on the motorcycle has been inside for a long time! What do you think he's doing in there? Could he be a new bodyguard?"

A man holding binoculars crouched on a tree branch, looking toward the white house.

"I thought he just went to use the bathroom. Could he really be backup those two women called? If you ask me, we should just force our way in tonight. The boss only wants the short-haired woman anyway. I think that long-haired woman who came out earlier looks pretty good! I want her!"

Wesley crouched on another branch, looking through his binoculars while fanning himself with a straw hat, a leaf stuck in his mouth.

"Don't talk nonsense! If we go inside, we're breaking and entering! Once they call the cops, we're in the wrong. But as long as those two women dare to step outside the yard, we can grab them directly!"

Xavier sat on another branch. He clearly had better core strength—both hands weren't even holding onto the trunk.

"Wait... Xavier! That guy seems to be coming out!"

Wesley said in alarm.

"Where?"

Xavier squinted, about to focus, when he heard a magnetic and gentle male voice from below the tree:

"Looking for me?"

With a few big strides, James had rushed from across the street to the base of the tree, tilting his head to look at the two men in the branches.

His expression even carried a hint of a smile, but his eyes were cold as ice.

"Fuck! Someone's asking for it! Xavier! Get him!"

Before Wesley's binoculars could become a weapon, James had already reached out and grabbed his ankle, yanking him hard off the tree.

Wesley's legs split front and back on the branch, and the binoculars instantly flew from his hands.

"Fuck! Xavier! Shoot him!"

The moment Xavier saw James move, he had already quickly switched positions.

With a long arm grabbing the tree, he jumped down, then swept his leg viciously toward James's chest.

James leaned back slightly, and the leg whooshing through the air swept past his chest but didn't touch his low-cut black tank top.

Then Xavier quickly switched legs, lifting his other leg high, swinging with his torso. Just as it was about to reach James's left ear—

James grabbed Xavier's ankle.

Xavier froze instantly.

How was this possible?

He was a fighting champion!

At only twenty-seven, he'd already won the black market fighting championship gold belt three times!

His leg strength had been measured before—a full sixteen hundred pounds of force!

Never mind ordinary people, even athletes couldn't catch his leg with one hand!

Who was this man?

James's fingers clamped onto Xavier's ankle like steel claws.

Xavier felt that if he didn't pull free soon, his ankle would definitely be crushed.

He was horrified to discover that there was no sign of strain on this man's face—in fact, there was even a hint of... excitement?

Seeing that Xavier wasn't attacking again, James finally threw his leg aside.

"Who sent you?"

James planted one foot on Wesley's chest and pressed his other hand on the back of Xavier's neck.

His voice remained calm, but the fighting spirit radiating from his bones made Xavier's hair stand on end.

"Let go!"

Wesley shouted incoherently.

"I'll talk, I'll talk! Stop stepping on me!"

Wesley felt like his internal organs were being crushed.

"It was the Davis family's orders!"

"Lying?"

James pressed down harder with his foot, and Wesley instantly felt acid rising from his stomach.

"He's not lying, it is the Davis family!"

Seeing that Wesley seemed about to be crushed to death, Xavier had no choice but to speak up.

If it were him being stepped on, he definitely wouldn't have spoken.

Though he wasn't a mercenary, he was a gold-tier security personnel at a security company.

If Wesley hadn't lost money gambling last time, he wouldn't have followed Wesley into the black market mess.

He never expected to actually meet someone tougher than him one day.

"Where's Michael?"

James's patience was running thin.

Normally, he wouldn't need to interrogate people like this.

He would either beat them to death or... still beat them to death. He never gave people a chance to speak.

But not today. The person he was looking for today was very important and couldn't be hurt at all.

"We don't know! We really don't know!!!"

Wesley shouted loudly, but half of it was just breath, clearly James hadn't eased up on the pressure.

"If you caught someone, where would you take them?"

"The Davis Villa."

Xavier said slowly.

He had no choice. Once you betray your employer once, there'll be a second time.

People like them who lived on the edge could only talk about loyalty if they stayed alive.

Dead, they'd have nothing.

He could die, that didn't matter.

But Wesley couldn't die.

"Take me there."

"Can't. We don't have clearance."

Xavier said slowly,

"In my pocket, there's a phone specifically for contacting the Davis family."

"I actually can't tell you right now whether the person who hired us is the head of the Davis family or a subordinate, but it's definitely connected to the Davis family."

"Let him go! If you're going to hit someone, hit me!"

James raised an eyebrow and lifted his foot from Wesley's chest.

Wesley instantly felt like he could breathe again.

He instinctively spread his hands to shield Xavier, then backed up two steps, moving out of James's immediate attack range.

But only Xavier knew that as long as James wanted, never mind backing up one step—even if they backed up three more steps, with his skills and methods, catching the two of them would be easy.

This man was definitely not ordinary!

Xavier thought to himself.

That move just now—the quick stride and simultaneous attack and defense—seemed so familiar. Where had he seen it before?

Where was it?

At that moment, on a huge screen at the black market arena, a short video was playing on loop:

"All you newcomers see that? Quarterback defense, defend while attacking, don't give the enemy a chance to recover! And you can't just take hits, understand?"

"Yes, boss!"

On the screen was a man wearing a mask and face covering, dressed in a black hoodie with a large M printed on it.

The man's every move was being studied frame by frame by the crowd sitting in the octagon...

And at this moment, the movements and posture of the man on screen gradually overlapped with the man before him...

Xavier's eyes suddenly widened as he stared at the man in front of him who had just caught his full-force strike with one hand.

He'd watched that video at least three hundred times.

He'd dreamed of meeting that man.

And now, that person was standing right in front of him, stepping on Wesley's chest, pressing on the back of his neck, asking if he would lead the way to the Davis Villa.

Xavier's legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees.

"You... you're..."