Saitama lands, rubble scattering everywhere. He locks eyes with Gaio, whose grin fades as his fighting spirit surges.
"Hey, you wanna keep going?" Saitama asks with a smirk, his eyes gleaming with pure battle lust.
"You got anything else up your sleeve?" Gaio tilts his head slightly, his left hand already resting on the sheath at his waist.
"Oh, you bet." Saitama flashes a confident grin.
"Alright then." Gaio's lips curl upward, his right hand gripping the Enma Blade, striking a poised iaido stance.
At the same moment, Saitama crouches low, fingers splaying wide as he jams them into the shattered earth beneath him!
"Serious!"
Buzz!
A massive force surges deep into the ground!
"Table Flip!!!"
ROAR!!!
BOOM!
With Saitama as the epicenter, the entire ground for miles around heaves upward, as if ripped from the earth itself!
A wall of rock and ruins, dozens of meters thick, rises like a tidal wave, blotting out the sky. It crashes toward Gaio with apocalyptic momentum, like the heavens themselves are collapsing!
Gaio's pupils narrow.
His right hand flashes, drawing his blade!
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
The Enma Blade becomes a blur of ghostly blue, carving massive, crisscrossing slashes through the air in front of him!
Crack! BOOM!
The colossal wall of earth and debris slams into an invisible web of blue cuts, instantly sliced apart midair! It disintegrates into countless massive chunks, tumbling and crashing to the sides and behind, kicking up clouds of dust and stone!
Amid the chaos of the collapsing fragments!
A figure bursts through the dust storm like a comet tearing through a tempest!
It's Saitama!
Using the cover of the table flip, he closes in on Gaio at a speed too fast for the eye to follow!
His right fist, already cocked back to its limit, pulses with power! The muscles in his arm bulge, veins visible even through his glove.
His target: Gaio's head!
"Serious!"
Saitama's voice rumbles like thunder!
"Punch!!!"
The fist rockets forward!
Pure, concentrated destructive force, compressed to a single point! This punch could split a planet in half!
As the space-shattering fist nears Gaio's face!
A glint of brilliance flashes in Gaio's eyes!
His left hand, resting on the sheath, moves!
CLANG!
A distinct, explosive sword cry erupts, like a furnace bursting open!
A surging, all-consuming blaze of crimson-gold flames!
The Flowing Blade Like Fire!
The moment the sword leaves its sheath, a tidal wave of crimson-gold flames surges skyward!
In an instant, it engulfs the space around Gaio for dozens of meters! The terrifying heat warps the light, boils the air! The ground beneath him melts into glowing red magma!
Gaio takes a fierce step forward!
His right hand keeps the Enma Blade poised for dimensional slashes!
His left hand grips the Flowing Blade Like Fire in a reverse hold!
He spins!
The blazing flames spiral with his movement, forming a crimson-gold torrent that tears through the heavens!
"Residual Flame Blade: Spinning Dance!"
BOOM!
A massive fiery tornado erupts from the ground! With an aura of utter annihilation, it surges toward Saitama's ultimate, space-shattering punch!
Crimson-gold flames that burn the heavens!
A world-destroying fist that shatters space!
The two collide!!!
The world falls silent in that moment.
Blinding white light swallows everything.
Atop the Hero Association headquarters, all S-Class heroes instinctively raise their arms to shield their eyes.
Tornado's green curls blaze like fire in the intense light, Bang's beard gleams snow-white, and Metal Bat's bat reflects dazzling spots of light.
"Hold steady!" Gojo Satoru's lips move, but his voice is swallowed by the absolute silence.
The next second— a shockwave hits like a tidal wave!
The entire building shakes violently, the tremors dozens of times worse than when Boros razed A-City!
Sexy Prisoner's nosebleeds gush, Tanktop Master's eardrums rupture, blood dripping from his ears.
Then— sound returns.
BOOM!!!
It's not just an explosion—it's the wail of space itself being torn apart.
Everyone feels their eardrums hammered, sharp ringing drowning out all other sound.
The building tilts a full fifteen degrees, the screech of twisting steel echoing relentlessly.
At the battlefield's center.
Saitama's fist presses against the edge of the Flowing Blade Like Fire, his clothes long incinerated.
His bronze muscles glisten under the heat, every fiber tensed to its limit.
Gaio chuckles lightly, his right hand's Enma Blade suddenly flashing like blue lightning!
Saitama's pupils shrink, instincts kicking in as he tilts his head— Swoosh!
The blade grazes past his nose, his eyes widening. He dodges the blade but not the spatial force it unleashes.
A bloody gash tears open across his chest.
The blade doesn't stop. Gaio swings again, the Flowing Blade Like Fire sweeping out with heaven-scorching flames!
Saitama leans back, the searing blade grazing his chest, leaving a charred mark.
"Again!" Saitama laughs, his bare feet shattering the magma beneath as his right fist rockets forward!
Gaio crosses his dual blades, blue and crimson-gold light weaving into a net— BOOM!
Another earth-shaking collision.
The shockwave spreads in a ring, gouging the ground another three feet deep for miles around.
The Hero Association building's anti-seismic structure lets out a final groan, tilting another five degrees.
Saitama is knocked back dozens of meters, his feet carving deep trenches in the ground.
He steadies himself, brows furrowed, staring intently at Gaio.
"Hey, Gaio!" Saitama calls out, "You're still holding back, aren't you?"
Gaio flicks the Enma Blade, blue demonic flames dancing along its edge.
He raises an eyebrow. "Oh? How'd you know?"
Saitama tilts his bald head, dead serious. "Just a gut feeling. My body's telling me."
Gaio laughs. "You sure you want me to go harder?"
Saitama glances around. The surroundings are a scorched wasteland, the earth shattered and overturned, lava flowing—no trace of a city left. He shrugs. "I'm thinking if we keep this up, the world's gonna break."
Gaio nods, standing straight, his left hand's Flowing Blade Like Fire vanishing silently.
He assumes the fight's over.
"But!" Saitama grins wide, his smile radiant. "One last hit, how about it?"
Gaio pauses, then his grin widens. "Deal!"
Buzz!
Gaio assumes his iaido stance again. But this time, it's different!
He slowly closes his eyes, the space around him rippling violently. Strands of blue demonic flames rise from his body, the air seeming to freeze!
An indescribable oppressive aura blankets the shattered battlefield!
Saitama's pupils contract! His muscles tense like steel! He senses it—an unprecedented threat!
"Ultra!" Saitama roars, his right fist pulling back to its absolute limit! The space around his fist warps, collapsing under the strain! "Serious! Punch!!!"
BOOM!
The punch breaks all physical limits! Pure destructive force erupts!
Where the fist passes, space shatters like fragile glass!
A pitch-black, light-devouring spatial rift roars toward Gaio with deafening cracks, moving at blinding speed!
The fist's force crosses dozens of meters in an instant!
Just as the planet-shattering punch closes within five meters of Gaio—
Gaio's eyes snap open!
His pupils are no longer human! Blue demonic flames burn wildly within, cold and lifeless!
Buzz!
He draws his blade!
The Enma Blade slides from its sheath, silent and unassuming—no earth-shaking fanfare, no piercing cry!
An invisible arc slices through the void!
"Dimensional Slash: Time Break!"
Where the blade's path passes—
Time itself is severed!
The ultra-serious punch, capable of destroying stars, freezes five meters from Gaio—
It stops dead!
The scene freezes!
The raging fist's force, the torn spatial rifts, the roaring energy—all of it, paused as if on hold!
Frozen eerily in midair! The destructive power's roar cuts off, its forward "time" severed!
Unable to advance even an inch!
Saitama, still in his punching stance, his dead-fish eyes wide for the first time, clearly "sees" his ultimate punch halted before Gaio!
The entire battlefield's time is cut off.
Spatial rifts hang frozen, energy currents twist in stasis, even drifting dust remains still.
Saitama himself, locked in his punch, his dead-fish eyes bulging, can't even blink.
Gaio slowly sheathes his blade, the blue demonic flames on the Enma Blade fading.
He steps through the frozen time, walking toward the immobilized Saitama.
His boots click crisply on the solidified magma—the only sound in the absolute silence.
Tap!
Gaio lightly taps Saitama's bald head with the hilt.
The flow of time crashes back!
BOOM!
Saitama's fist force erupts, but its destruction is precisely contained five meters from where Gaio stood.
"Huh?" Saitama, still in his punching pose, blinks in confusion. He looks at his fist, then at Gaio, now standing right in front of him. "Did I… just lag or something?"
Then, "Ha…" He lets out a short sound.
Far from defeated, his dead-fish eyes blaze with unprecedented, fiery excitement!
"Gaio!!!" Saitama's shout cuts through the air, brimming with pure thrill. "You're… freaking awesome!!!"
Gaio's battle-fueled intensity softens, but the fire in his eyes still burns.
He looks at the even more excited bald hero, a complex but exhilarated smile tugging at his lips.
"You too, Saitama." His voice cuts clearly through the chaotic air. "Next time… let's find a sturdier place."
Gaio glances pointedly at the wasteland around them.
Saitama scratches his bald head, eyeing the apocalyptic scene, and grimaces. "Uh… yeah."
The blue demonic flames on Gaio fade completely, his eyes returning to their usual depth. He glances at the scorched earth, riddled with spatial rifts and flowing lava, his gaze lingering on Saitama.
"Gotta go." Gaio's voice is calm, his form dissolving like sand in the wind, vanishing without a trace.
Saitama, still caught up in the mind-blowing clash, nods absently. "Oh, sure…"
Only after Gaio's gone does he snap back to reality. He looks down—
"AAHHH!!!" A loud, short yelp bursts from the bald hero!
He's buck naked! His bronze skin stands out starkly against the smoky ruins and residual energy glow!
"My clothes! Gone!" Saitama flails, trying to cover himself, but in the open, devastated battlefield, with eyes watching from the distant Hero Association building, it's pointless.
A rare flush of embarrassment creeps onto his face, his bald head almost seeming to redden (or maybe it's just the residual energy glow).
"Forget it!" Saitama gives up covering himself, dropping into a deep squat!
BOOM!
The already shattered ground explodes into another crater!
He launches like a blurry afterimage, tearing through the air with a sonic boom, rocketing toward the Hero Association headquarters, now tilted nearly twenty degrees!
Atop the building.
Silence.
The apocalyptic final clash replays in the S-Class heroes' minds: frozen time, a world-ending punch…
Now, staring at the battlefield—a wasteland of temporal chaos—and the naked, sonic-booming figure hurtling toward them…
Everyone's expressions freeze, gripped by awe and lingering fear.
Bang's aged face twitches, his beard trembling, lips moving soundlessly.
In all his years, he's never witnessed such pure, devastating power collide.
Metal Bat slumps on the warped alloy floor, his bat askew, staring at Saitama's approaching figure, choking out, "…Monster…" The shockwave alone gave him internal injuries.
Tanktop Master clutches his bleeding, ruptured ears, his gaze hollow, as if his beliefs have been shaken.
Sexy Prisoner, nosebleed still dripping, watches Saitama's "majestic" form speeding closer, his expression a mix of awe and… questionable admiration?
Atomic Samurai grips his sword hilt, knuckles white.
His proud Atomic Slash feels like a child's toy compared to those two.
Child Emperor's face is pale, data streaming wildly across his monocle, every energy reading from the fight far beyond his comprehension!
Genos's mechanical eyes flicker, his core processor nearly overheating. "Teacher… and that Mr. Nero… is this… the true pinnacle?!" His engines roar with both excitement and a deep sense of powerlessness.
Tornado floats midair, green curls disheveled, her small face taut, almost cracking.
Her teeth grind, green eyes reflecting Saitama's growing figure, filled with frustration, awe, and a trace of… fear she refuses to acknowledge?
Her telekinetic shield, pushed to its limit, is webbed with cracks from the impact!
"Hey, hey, hey! He's coming! That naked bald guy's charging right at us!!" Flashy Flash's voice cracks, instinctively shifting to a defensive stance, though his body trembles slightly.
Speed? A joke compared to those two!
"Everyone!! Brace for impact—!!" Bang snaps back, shouting hoarsely! He knows too well the terrifying power behind Saitama's "casual" leap!
Before his words finish—
BOOM!
Saitama lands (or rather, crashes) precisely (or recklessly) at the edge of the rooftop!
The already tilting building lets out a teeth-grinding metallic groan!
The massive impact sends the structure swaying, concrete shards and twisted rebar raining down from the edges!
In the swirling dust, Saitama stands unscathed, brushing off nonexistent dirt (there's nothing to brush), casually scratching his gleaming bald head, reflecting the post-disaster sunlight. He flashes a slightly goofy, sheepish grin at the shell-shocked heroes.
"Yo, guys! Uh… anyone got a spare tracksuit? Cheap one's fine! Man, I'm starving after that fight!"
A gust of wind sweeps through, stirring the ruins' dust, ruffling the heroes' disheveled hair and clothes.
They stare at this bald man standing at the edge of the wreckage, butt-naked, casually asking for a tracksuit and food, with the apocalyptic, space-warped battlefield behind him…
An absurd yet chillingly real shiver crawls up their spines.
Strong! Too strong!
Beyond comprehension!
So strong… it's despair-inducing!
Gojo Satoru reappears beside Tornado, rubbing his chin, eyes glinting with intrigue, a playful smirk on his lips. "Ha? What a… wild way to wrap things up."
He glances at Saitama's bare back, then toward where Gaio vanished. "This… just got interesting."