John Wick's world spun violently as the invisible force hurled him backward. His vision blurred, consciousness flickering as his body tumbled across asphalt. When he finally stopped rolling, he had only the vaguest sense of what had struck him, just the memory of vehicles arriving and figures emerging before that devastating impact.
Puar recovered faster, his shape-shifter physiology more resilient than human biology. He flew immediately to John's side, his eyes fixed on Madame Gao with newfound wariness. Since arriving on Earth with Master Smith, he'd encountered no one who posed a genuine threat. This woman had just shattered his transformation with a casual gesture, an ability that shouldn't be possible by Earth standards.
Master Smith had warned him this world held hidden depths. Now Puar understood the truth of those words.
Madame Gao studied Puar with clinical interest, her ancient eyes cataloguing details. "Fascinating. A shape-shifter? Or some form of transfiguration technique?" She spoke more to herself than anyone else, then waved dismissively. "Capture them both. Alive."
Nobu surged forward with his ninja squad, blades drawn.
Recognizing they were hopelessly outmatched in direct combat, Puar triggered his transformation, his body expanding and reshaping into a massive pterosaur. Leathery wings spread wide as he grabbed John in his claws and launched skyward.
They barely cleared ten feet before the invisible force struck again. Puar's transformation shattered like glass, his pterosaur form dissolving mid-flight. Both he and John plummeted back to earth, hitting hard enough that John's head bounced off the concrete. Blood trickled from a fresh cut above his eyebrow.
Murakami observed the display with scholarly interest. "Remarkable abilities. This creature is quite unique. Not human, clearly, but possessing intelligence and speech."
Bakuto smiled coldly. "It seems our harvest tonight exceeds initial projections. We came for Dragon Balls and found exotic specimens as well."
Puar struggled to rise, his body protesting. "John, run!" he shouted desperately.
Sowande's eyebrows rose. "It speaks? Some manner of magical species, perhaps? This grows more intriguing by the moment."
Madame Gao extended her hand, channeling chi with surgical precision. Invisible pressure slammed down on Puar, pinning him to the ground as effectively as physical chains. He strained against the force, muscles trembling with effort, but couldn't move even an inch.
Nobu reached John Wick and moved to restrain him, but John exploded into action despite his injuries. He had no weapons, no advantages, only the absolute certainty that surrender meant death or worse.
His close-quarters combat training took over. He deflected Nobu's blade, drove an elbow into the ninja's throat, pivoted to avoid a second attacker's strike. He was outmatched, outnumbered, and bleeding, but he made them work for every inch of ground.
Then a ki blast screamed down from the night sky and detonated directly where Madame Gao stood.
The explosion was tremendous, far exceeding conventional grenades or even military-grade explosives. Light and dust billowed outward in a expanding sphere, temporarily blinding everyone within thirty yards. The pressure wave knocked several Hand operatives off their feet.
The invisible force pinning Puar vanished instantly. He looked up, his vision piercing the dust cloud, and his face lit with relief and joy.
"Master Smith!"
Smith landed between the two groups with casual grace, touching down so lightly he barely disturbed the settling dust. He glanced back at Puar, his expression assessing for injuries.
"Puar, are you hurt?"
Puar shook his head vigorously. "I'm fine, Master. But be careful, that old woman's attacks are invisible. Some kind of energy manipulation I haven't encountered before."
Smith nodded acknowledgment. "Help John. Get him clear."
Puar immediately rushed toward John Wick, who was barely holding his own against Nobu's relentless assault. Only Madame Gao's order to capture alive had kept the ninja from simply killing him. Puar's intervention shifted the balance, allowing John to disengage and catch his breath.
As the dust settled, the full impact of Smith's attack became visible. Where Madame Gao had stood moments before, a crater yawned in the asphalt, easily six feet across and two feet deep. Chunks of concrete and rebar jutted from the edges like broken teeth.
The two guards who'd flanked Madame Gao hadn't been fast enough to evade. Their bodies, or what remained, lay scattered across the impact zone, limbs torn free and blood painting the shattered ground in grotesque patterns.
Madame Gao herself had barely escaped. Her walking cane lay destroyed, its wooden exterior splintered to reveal the hidden blade within. She held the sword now, her grip steady despite the close call, though her breathing came slightly faster than before.
Smith studied her with clinical detachment. The Five Fingers were K'un-Lun trained, even if they'd been expelled. A single ki blast, even one he'd charged with intent to kill, wouldn't eliminate someone with centuries of combat experience. Still, it had served its purpose: establishing the power differential.
He crossed his arms, his posture radiating arrogant confidence. "Madame Gao. The fact that you survived my opening attack is enough to brag about for the rest of your life." He paused, his smile turning cold. "Which should last about another five minutes."
The other four fingers converged on Madame Gao's position, forming a defensive semicircle. Their expressions had shifted from confident superiority to wary calculation. They'd all witnessed the attack clearly, the devastating power, the precise control, the effortless execution. Smith Doyle was operating on a completely different level than any opponent they'd faced in recent memory.
That crater would have required an RPG or comparable military ordnance to create. If that attack had landed cleanly on any of them without preparation or defense, they'd be scattered in pieces across the industrial district.
Madame Gao's voice carried steel despite her near-death experience. "Smith Doyle. You're impressive for such a young man. Tell me, did you consume the Dragon Balls to gain such power? Such abilities far exceed normal human limitations."
In her mind, shaped by centuries of using dragon bone to extend life and enhance abilities, the only explanation for Smith's capabilities was that he'd somehow ingested the mystical orbs.
Smith's face twisted with barely contained amusement and disdain. Consume the Dragon Balls? What does she think I am, Shenron?
He tapped the scouter fitted over his left eye, and numbers materialized in his vision as the device analyzed the five figures before him. Their power levels fluctuated as they channeled chi, climbing steadily before stabilizing:
Alexandra: 45
Bakuto: 43
Madame Gao: 50
Sowande: 44
Murakami: 42
Smith's eyebrows rose fractionally. Impressive. K'un-Lun training really does produce results when properly applied.
Without their chi enhancement, these five would register barely above normal human baseline, maybe seven or eight at most. A well-placed bullet would kill them instantly. But with their energy channeled and defenses active, they'd elevated themselves to genuinely superhuman levels. Not enough to threaten him, but enough to warrant taking them seriously.
"The feud between the Fraternity and the Hand ends tonight," Smith declared, his voice carrying across the battlefield with absolute authority.
Madame Gao immediately turned to the remaining Hand operatives. "All forces, eliminate the wounded targets. Leave this one to us."
She recognized instantly that her foot soldiers would be worse than useless against Smith. They'd be distractions at best, casualties at worst. Better to commit them against Wick and the shape-shifter while the Five Fingers combined their power against the true threat.
Smith raised both hands, ki gathering in his palms with visible light. He formed blast after blast, launching them in rapid succession toward the five elders. He wasn't putting significant energy into each individual attack, this was the Prince approach, overwhelming opponents with volume rather than raw power per shot.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosions rippled across the battlefield in a continuous drumbeat of devastation.
Madame Gao's eyes widened as she recognized the tactic. "Full power! Defensive formation!"
The Five Fingers acted in perfect synchronization, born from centuries of cooperation. Their chi merged, creating an invisible barrier, thicker and more powerful than anything they could generate individually. The first ki blast struck their combined defense and detonated violently, the explosion washing over the barrier like water against a dam.
The defense held. Barely.
Smith observed the result without concern. He switched from two-handed bombardment to one-handed, but increased the energy output per blast. The intervals between shots lengthened slightly as he channeled more power, but each subsequent explosion hit harder than the last.
BOOM!
The enhanced blast tore through their energy barrier like paper. The invisible wall shattered with an almost audible crack, and all five elders jerked as if struck. Blood trickled from the corners of their mouths, internal damage from the feedback as their defense collapsed.
Smith showed no mercy. His ki blasts continued without pause, now targeting the exposed elders directly.
Five simultaneous screams pierced the night as the attacks found their marks. The explosions lifted each finger off their feet and hurled them backward like rag dolls, their bodies tumbling across asphalt and concrete before finally coming to rest in various states of broken disarray.