To lose the battle but win the war

When they fought in the gym, only Botan's arms were enhanced. They had grown in size and morphed into hardened pink flesh. They weren't smooth as they didn't have skin. Flesh stretched down around his arms like tree roots. This time, Botan's legs were also like that.

Hikaru wasn't worried. This was the perfect chance to test his peak muscle strength. He added Botan's leg strength into his calculations.

Increases in leg strength also increase the relative power of his punches and other attacks as the movement speed from his legs is added. That was in addition to the obvious increase in speed.

Before Hikaru went to battle, he had transformed all of the skeletal muscles in his body. There are two types of striated muscle fibres called slow twitch (type I) and fast twitch (type II).

Slow twitch muscle fibres support long-distance endurance exercise like a marathon whereas fast muscle fibres support fast robust movements like sprints or strength training.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules are units of immediate energy used by the body to power everything. Aerobic respiration in slow twitch fibres uses oxygen to metabolise glucose to produce 30 molecules of ATP.

Whereas fast twitch muscles derive 2 ATP molecules per glucose molecule in anaerobic respiration. This is because this process doesn't use oxygen but as a consequence, produces toxic wastes, one of which is lactic acid.

Aerobic respiration is more energy efficient as it produces more ATP per molecule of glucose compared to anaerobic respiration but the energy-producing process is a lot slower. Therefore, slow twitch muscles are designed for endurance activities because they can handle repeated muscle contractions in the long-term.

Conversely, anaerobic respiration is inefficient but produces ATP molecules very fast.

The lower body of humans has a higher percentage of slow twitch muscles and vice versa. This makes sense since the humans used to walk a lot in the past or even now, for example, the Roman soldiers had to walk for about 30 kilometres a day.

The slow twitch muscles are fatigue-resistant partly because of the slower aerobic respiration and abundance of energy. While the upper body is designed to be more forceful and powerful.

Hikaru had replaced all of his skeletal muscles with fast twitch muscles for more power. In combination with his body limiter turned off, as is the common trait of all parasites, Hikaru was as strong as an elite powerlifter despite his slim build.

Hikaru and Botan were separated by a distance of 10 metres which was only a step away from two parasites. A common infected runner parasite can run at a speed of around 13 m/s, which was slightly faster than Usain Bolt.

Botan charged at Hikaru without warning. His enhanced legs make him run at 20 m/s, quickly covering the 10-metre distance between them in half a second. Botan stopped before Hikaru and smashes downwards with his raised clenched fists. Hikaru didn't move.

*Boom! *

A small cloud of brown dust blew out from the ground from the impact. Botan was surprised that Hikaru had caught both of his arms and was not crushed. The force of Botan's strike travelled through Hikaru to his feet, blowing a hole in the ground.

While holding onto Botan's arms, Hikaru turned around and threw him into the house he came out of earlier.

Botan crashed into the house not through the door but the wall beside it, causing some pain to his back. Although Botan's body size was not that large compared to the house, the impact brought a bigger piece of the wall down, allowing Hikaru to see almost the whole inside of the house.

Botan got up from the bed of rocks looking surprised and angry.

The neighbours must have heard that.

'This is supposed to be a covert operation!'

There would be a lot of trouble now if the public caught on. He didn't want to cause trouble to his officer Daichi.

Although it would hurt his pride to flee, it would hurt more if it damaged Daichi's reputation. Botan exited the house and began to run.

"I didn't think you'd be a coward Botan."

The voice belonged to a male and it was familiar. However, what made Botan turn around first was that the person knew his name which he never gave out.

Standing in the woman's place was Hikaru.

"What! How! You were the woman?"

"I can be anyone," Botan spoke back to him.

Another Botan was looking back at him with the same body and face.

Botan felt uneasy that Hikaru took his likeness.

"How could you betray us? Daichi thinks very highly of you. For you to disappoint-"

"Betray? I'm human. Who am I betraying?"

Botan had learnt from Daichi that these radicals were infected with the parasite but had fought off the parasite's domination, so they retained their human minds.

"Do you know why I'm showing you my face? It's because I'm confident I can kill you."

Botan clenched his jaw and gave an icy stare.

"You think you can kill me just because we fought to a draw at the gym? Let me tell you something, had Daichi not stop me, I would have killed you!"

"Then why were you running away just now if it's not because you're afraid of me?"

Botan was about to talk back but shut his mouth. He wasn't the smartest but he knew not to let his enemy provoke him. He needed to report this important piece of intel to Daichi, who also told him to prioritise on information gathering during a battle.

If he can come back with valuable intel on his opponent, they can form an attack strategy later. "To lose the battle but win the war" as Daichi said.

Botan truly revered his master not just because of his programming but he admired his intellect as well.

Little did Botan know that Daichi was only quoting a human.

Botan turned away from Hikaru to run but before he took a step, Hikaru was already in front of him, blocking his path. Surprised, Botan turned around to make sure that there was only one Hikaru.

Indeed, there was no one else.