Hook no longer had his lofty bearing now that he was all tied up in the middle of a hall, with even a few needles stuck to his nose—courtesy of someone who had wanted to humiliate him in this way, which were so tightly packed they were blocking his airways and forcing him to breathe through the mouth.
While his nose was large, his mouth was small, so he was currently panting laboriously like a dying man, for the air he was getting through the mouth could seemingly not supply his body with enough oxygen.
The battle was one-sided. Hook's men easily outnumbered the once-imprisoned warriors in the Blood Matrix. Hook's men were well-equipped and well-trained, whereas many of these warriors from the Blood Matrix were injured, with most having scrawny physiques and gaunt faces from long-term suffering and imbalanced diet, which had led to severe malnutrition.