...Get up.
Get up.
Get up.
Bracing my broken hand against the rough debris.
Supporting my torn leg muscles.
Taking a step forward.
My whole body was staggering, but that didn’t matter.
I could feel the pain crushing down on me, but who cares about that?
Focus.
Planting the leg that was already buckling under me.
Stretching out the other leg.
Bending it.
Forcing my strength, which still wouldn’t gather properly, into a single point.
In my vision, red and sticky with blood, I could see chunks of flesh with clean-cut edges.
Those were the arms that had been severed earlier.
I pulled them in with my newly grown arms.
And then.
Crunch!
Crack-crack-crack!!
Snap!
Chomp, chomp...
Gulp!
“...Hah, hhh...”
That did it. My mind snapped awake.
I was fully alert now.
I swallowed the metallic taste of fresh blood and its fishy stench.
I slammed my fist into the ground.
Get up.
I regenerated my entire body again, organs and muscles included.
Feeling a torrent of unfamiliar power begin to flow through me.
I pierced through the blue sphere surrounding me.
And ran.
I couldn’t see its green body anywhere.
Where was it?
[Tracking]
I activated the pursuit skill I was using for the first time.
I brought all five senses to bear.
Direction through smell, distance through hearing, the flow of air caused by movement through touch, and its condition through taste.
Found it.
Far away, it was walking.
At an easy pace.
With a blatantly careless attitude.
It was a little... somewhat far away.
Didn’t matter.
I’d locked onto its position.
I drew up power inside my body.
After a few rounds of sending it through my whole body and pulling it back in, I started to get used to it.
I sprang upward.
In midair, I released the power.
Trusting my most important instinct.
Trusting my gut.
[Warp]
I used [Warp].
For an instant, it felt like the world had flipped upside down.
My vision wavered and twisted.
I felt a fleeting sensation of being knocked around from side to side.
Then, with the sensation of being yanked somewhere...
The scenery around me changed in an instant.
Before even 0.3 seconds had passed, my chaotic vision settled properly.
I could see it.
Down below, its filthy face.
“...What?! You suddenly appeared in midair—”
“Shut up and die.”
First strike.
With the flowing motion of [Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist], I sent a fist packed with murderous intent straight into its face.
But I didn’t stop there.
I concentrated this newly acquired power, hard to define, into every knuckle.
To prepare for the recoil I’d get from hitting it, I wrapped my fist in a thin elastic barrier.
I drew in a fraction of gravity, increasing the weight of the fist as it fell in a straight line.
Layering in body acceleration, hardening, and body transformation all at once.
I focused everything into the joints and surface of my fist.
[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist]
-[Psychokinetic Crushing Fist]
I drove it straight into its unguarded face.
BOOM!!!
“B-buuhhhaaa?!?”
Second strike.
I warped behind it as it staggered backward from the impact.
Its unprotected tail and back were in view.
I dislocated part of my shoulder to make it more flexible.
Rotating my wrist.
At the same time, I manipulated the air along the path my hand would travel.
Reducing friction as much as possible, I added another layer to the barrier still clinging to my hand.
This time, not a fist.
[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist]
-[No-Friction Fang-Insert Finger]
I pierced through with my fingertips.
Skkkrrt!
“Kraaaagh?!?”
It leaped back quickly.
Without hesitation, I warped after it, chewing through the tail I had cleanly cut off.
In an instant, I moved to its flank.
Third strike.
Imagining the motion of flowing water, I took the form created in the middle of a footwork step.
But instead of setting my foot down, I bent the knee of the raised leg to its limit.
I imagined it anew.
A single stream of water that smashes rock, breaks it, and then smashes deeper and deeper into what lies inside.
Something so heavily weighted toward destruction that the very idea was unreasonable.
I imagined that.
And then applied it to my current movement.
I let my upper body’s center of gravity fall forward, loading my weight as if I were toppling over.
Rising into the air, I rotated and advanced forward, adding even more force to the motion.
Then I added acceleration.
And layered the elastic barrier of power over it once more.
[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist]
-[Instant Body Step]
Adjusted.
-[Crushing Rock Flowing Leg]
I drove it into its side.
“Guhh!!!”
It landed cleanly.
At last, it coughed up blood.
Ignoring the corrosive blood it spat out, I kept pressing in.
“Y-you...! What, you suddenly got stronger... But you still can’t beat me!!! Double Biteee!!”
“[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist].”
Fourth strike.
I faced the two arms charging at me head-on.
Without dodging.
Without blocking.
Just.
My right hand to its left arm.
My left hand to its right arm.
I met them.
Letting myself be pushed, I closed the distance.
Then I unraveled the cross and let the force flow away.
But I didn’t stop there. I twisted the direction a little more and sent it toward its face.
Still running, I shoved both arms out hard.
Minimizing the friction between its body and my fist as much as possible, I maximized the force.
[Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist]
-[Flowing Water Formation]
BOOMBOOMBOOM!!!
“Buhk...!!”
Fifth strike.
A spinning straight punch slammed into its chest.
“Gahk!”
Sixth strike.
I drove a stabbing side kick into its abdomen.
“Krrk!”
Seventh strike.
I let its punch slide off, then shoved it back hard enough to rebound several times over and make it shatter its own shoulder.
“Kuaaaah!!!”
Eighth strike.
Acceleration on top of acceleration, then an uppercut.
“Kek...”
Ninth strike.
I grabbed its ankle and lifted it up.
Then I leaped.
Rotating while reducing friction once more, I added gravity to it.
And smashed it down.
BOOM!!!
“Kh...gh... You, do you really think... Gloribus is going to loseeeee!!!”
Its saliva, thick with strong acid, sprayed out.
I warped that acid and dropped it onto its own head.
“Kyaaaaah!?!?”
Tenth strike.
I lowered my body.
Drew my fist back.
Thrust my arm forward.
I gathered my muscles.
Focused everything into one point.
Hardened.
Raised my claws.
And sprang like I’d been launched.
Charging forward as I burst out.
In a world that seemed to move in slow motion.
With only my opponent in view, like a racehorse with blinders on.
I warped rapidly.
Face.
Back.
Side.
Face.
Chest.
Abdomen.
Shoulder.
Jaw.
Whole body.
All those parts from the nine strikes.
In less than 0.2 seconds total, I skimmed across every single one of them.
“...Huh? What the hell. Why are you just passing by—”
[Combined Ten-Strike Shattering Burst Life-Fist]
Tatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatata!!!
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!
“Kwoooaaaaaa!!!”
An overwhelming roar and earthquake-like vibrations.
A miserable scream.
A violent shockwave of destruction swept through the area.
And it didn’t end there; the aftershock rampaged on, following the path I’d taken and smashing everything around it—building debris, rebar, concrete, all of it.
For several seconds, the sounds of things collapsing, falling, and breaking continued.
Then a thick cloud of dust swept over my whole body.
I turned my head to check the situation.
Along the path I’d crossed, a tall, dense mushroom cloud was rising.
A crater more devastated than anywhere else.
And then.
Through the thick dust.
“Kk...uuh...gh...”
Even that bastard was still standing, covered in blood.
Was that still not enough?
My fists and legs were both completely wrecked too.
Of course, I wasn’t stopping.
Not until I killed that bastard.
I’d made up my mind.
I had nothing to fear, and nothing to hesitate over.
Get up.
“Kuhhh... Geryuganshoop! What are you doing?! You said you’d finish it off for sure!!!”
One of the three top warriors, Geryuganshoop, was confident.
He believed he himself was the strongest psychokinetic in the universe.
And at the same time, Tatsumaki, the Tornado of Terror, ranked second among S-Class heroes, thought there was no way a psychokinetic stronger than herself existed.
“...Oh?”
“This is...”
And so.
The appearance of a true rival, the first they had ever felt among monsters, was a huge stimulus to both of them.
“...Definitely psychokinesis. And with impressive precision...”
“This psychokinetic output is...”
Geryuganshoop had never once abandoned a mission halfway through.
The dangerous factor that had broken through the rapidly tightening sphere of psychic force had to be dealt with.
But.
“...Maybe I’ll enjoy myself a little.”
“Not bad. He’s pretty good.”
The rare, rare rival who was also a psychokinetic.
It was surely a first for both of them.
Rumble...
BOOMBOOMBOOM!!!
“...Before we begin, I’ll state my name. I am Geryuganshoop, one of the three top warriors of the Dark Matter Thieves, and the strategist ranked second among them.”
“This is Tatsumaki. The number two S-Class hero.”
“...Is that so? Then this should be fun.”
Come to think of it.
S-Class rank 2.
And rank 2.
A matchup that fit together with almost absurd perfection.
Whatever small talk might follow after that was unnecessary for both sides.
Things like saying someone looked like an octopus, or looked like a little kid.
For now, that was just pointless formality.
It was Tatsumaki’s side that released its power first.
Geryuganshoop also released the torrent of power he had kept sealed while aboard the ship.
The surrounding ground, the earth’s crust, the broken roads, and the ruins of buildings all twisted.
The ground rose up.
Massive vibrations and thunderous booms swept the area.
The torrents of immense energy grew denser and denser, becoming visible to the eye.
And then, at last.
Rattling the earth.
Rending the air.
Two enormous powers collided.
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