The two stood facing each other. The determined and brave Nayak faced the cunning and arrogant Pawan, ready for their duel.
Pawan interlocked his hands and stretched them behind his shoulders. While doing all this, he looked into Nayak's eyes, a vicious, confident smile on his face. Cracking the veins in his neck, he said, "Let's start."
Pawan unleashed his full strength into a stormy assault. His punches rained down on Nayak like a storm—fast, fierce, and relentless! Nayak dodged three continuous punches, but one punch struck him.
Nayak instantly adopted a defensive stance, locking both hands firmly in front of his face. The brute force of the punches was such that Nayak's feet scraped on the floor. He was pushed back not just one or two, but 10 steps.
Nayak concentrated all his power into his heels and immediately slammed the brakes on his movement. He froze in place without falling.
Pawan took a breath. He wasn't shocked, but he felt a momentary mental pause.
Pawan (smiling):
"Wow! Still standing... after my stormy punch? You're truly amusing, man!"
Nayak didn't reply. His eyes were reading the movement of Pawan's every muscle.
In the next moment, Nayak counter-attacked with lightning speed.
He threw a lethal right hook.
Pawan swiftly pulled his head back, and the blow sliced through the air, passing near his ear.
Right at that instant, Nayak changed his strategy—he ducked low and brought his body parallel to the ground. He landed a forceful, semi-circular kick to Pawan's lower chest.
Boom!
The strike was so powerful that Pawan's body suddenly sprang upward—he appeared to fly into the air.
A scream of fear erupted from the crowd of goons, but there was no tension on Pawan's face.
After remaining airborne for a while, Pawan's body returned to the ground. He descended not like a heavy stone, but lightly, like a cotton plume. It was as if his body was a feather floating down in a cool breeze.
He didn't move an inch from his spot upon landing.
He looked at Nayak, a cold, mocking laugh playing on his face.
Pawan (laughing softly):
"Is that all the power you had in your counter-attack, Nayak? Put some effort into it!"
However, his facial expression clearly indicated that Nayak's blow had indeed had an effect.
Perhaps no one except Nayak noticed this; everyone thought Pawan was invincible.
And they all started cheering for him.
"Pawan! Pawan! Storm! Storm!"
Following this, both fighters began a furious exchange of punches. One moment Nayak would land two quick blows, and the next, Pawan would land three or four swift jabs with his great speed.
Amidst this exchange, Nayak suddenly landed a fast low-kick. To avoid it, Pawan retreated instantly—just enough for the kick to graze his knee. As Nayak's foot touched the ground, Pawan lunged forward with stormy speed and hammered two deep punches into Nayak's stomach with both hands.
The force of the punches sent Nayak flying, and he crashed into a drum behind him.
Pawan, now moving with the full speed of a storm, advanced towards Nayak. He knew this was the perfect opportunity to finish Nayak.
But Nayak didn't waste a moment.
Nayak performed a backflip using the drum for leverage.
The punch struck the drum instead; the blow was so powerful it dented the drum.
"You got away," Pawan said.
Then Nayak moved with lightning quickness to attack Pawan. He raised his fist. Pawan tried to defend, but Nayak had read Pawan's defensive move, and Nayak delivered a chop with his palm to Pawan's shoulder, injuring him and causing his shoulder to slump. Taking advantage of this, before Pawan could recover, Nayak landed two straight punches to Pawan's chest, one after the other.
And then, Nayak suddenly moved in close, grabbed Pawan's head, and delivered a swift Head-butt.
The sound was like two stones clashing. Pawan stumbled back two steps and fell to his knees.
A thin stream of blood immediately ran from the side of Pawan's forehead.
The cheering crowd became completely silent. Pawan touched the blood running down his forehead.
His fake laughter stopped, and he tied his hair back.
He was now serious about the fight.
Pawan stood up and adopted a steady, solid fighting stance.
Pawan suddenly executed a combination attack.
Slightly bending down, he threw two upper punches, then sat low and delivered a low kick to Nayak's leg, throwing Nayak off balance.
Nayak barely managed to avoid falling down.
Just as Nayak was recovering, Pawan delivered a devastating overhand right punch. Nayak managed to pull his head away somehow, but the punch struck the ground instead.
Thud!
The punch cracked the floor.
Pawan's face was devoid of expression. His eyes were neither full of anger nor was he laughing now. He was simply blank. Even Nayak was troubled by this inhuman strength.
He wondered: Where did this power, in this man, come from?
The goons started cheering for Pawan again, but Pawan wasn't affected now. His hearing seemed to have shut down. He couldn't hear anything. His entire consciousness was now focused on only one figure: Nayak.
Nayak stood firm. Pawan was glaring at him.
Pawan suddenly rushed towards Nayak at a supersonic speed without making a sound. He reached Nayak in less than the blink of an eye. Everyone was amazed; where did Pawan get such speed? Everyone was stunned.
Pawan's punch tore through the air and landed on Nayak's chest. The punch was so hard that Nayak crashed into the opposite wall.
In an instant, cracks appeared on the wall.
Nayak's entire body trembled from Pawan's blow.
His breath stopped for a moment, and he fell to the ground.
This blow had drained a lot of Pawan's strength and stamina; Pawan was panting. He struggled to catch his breath.
Everyone was cheering him on.
Due to the intensity of his strike, a dense whirlwind of dust rose from the ground. In that golden-brown dust cloud, Nayak, who had fallen, was obscured. Pawan's eyes were trying to pierce through the haze.
As the dust particles settled in the air, an incredible sight appeared, which took the breath away from every goon present.
When the dust began to clear, everyone was shocked because Nayak was standing on his feet.
Pawan was surprised and astonished.
The pride of victory on Pawan's face instantly turned into disbelief and then stupefaction. His eyes widened.
"How... how are you still standing!" Pawan roared, his voice filled not with anger, but with deep frustration.
Nayak stood holding his chest, panting. His eyes, steady as a rock, were fixed on Pawan.
There was only one resolution in his gaze now: the annihilation of this gang.
Nayak's body filled with electrical energy, like an electric current flowing through a wire. His eyes shone with intense blue light. He took a step forward and punched the air with the speed of light.
Pawan was instantly pushed back by the blow and crashed through the warehouse wall to the other side. The wall collapsed, and a cloud of dust settled. "Pawan!" Vijay cried out to him.
Pawan composed himself, stood up, but blood was coming out of his mouth. The effect of the punch to his stomach was deep, and he started coughing. All this happened in the blink of an eye, and no one could gauge the speed of the attack.
"You people will shut down this gang today," Nayak stated clearly, without any doubt in his voice.
Vijay asked, "Why do you want to shut down this gang? We didn't even hurt that boy."
Nayak took a deep breath and said in a calm, but firm voice, "Look, what you did or what you were doing... doesn't matter to me. This gang must be shut down."
Nayak clenched his fist. The glow returned to his eyes. "From today, no bad deeds." His voice now carried immense enthusiasm and courage, echoing throughout the warehouse.
What turmoil was going on in Nayak's mind that he wanted to shut down a simple street gang? What memory from the past was finally scratching at his mind?