Chapter 116: The First limiter
Aokiji pressed Saitama's head into the permafrost. The ground arched up violently as if a bomb had been detonated beneath it!
At the moment of impact, Saitama used the shockwave generated by his rapid descent and forced halt to throw a punch upward at Aokiji!
The wind from the punch shot into the sky!
Enduring the punch, a thick dragon tail wrapped around Saitama's legs, restricting his movement.
Raising both fists, ice-blue energy enveloped them like gauntlets.
Fists rained down violently like countless drops in a rainstorm!
Every attack shattered the main body of the massive island below!
Yet before it could crumble, it froze under the invasion of the freezing energy attached to the attacks.
Then it shattered and froze again under the next punch, a cycle repeating in an incredibly short time!
Saitama, raising his hands to block, was the same.
Ice crystals spread rapidly across his body, only to be smashed to pieces by the ensuing fists.
They turned into ice shards and crystalline grains, scattering across the ground.
Defending with his arms crossed, Saitama felt the familiar pain, yet a smile of excitement rose on his face below.
He remembered those early days.
The hardest, most painful, yet most exhilarating beginning!
Saitama suddenly relaxed his defense.
He let all the punches strike his body!
Resisting the pain, he elbowed the ground behind him!
The permafrost shattered into loose particles!
Saitama was able to sink down, gaining more room to move.
He then tightly gripped one of Aokiji's hands, leaned back, and swung with all his might, flipping them over!
Now it was he who slammed Aokiji into the ground!
A massive semicircular crater was instantly smashed out!
Saitama took the upper hand, but before he could swing a counter-punch—
The dragon tail wrapped around his leg suddenly whipped!
It dragged Saitama down and slammed him into the ground!
Both men lay flat on their backs in the giant crater.
A brief silence fell.
Fragments of frozen earth and ice that had been blown away fell sporadically.
They sat up in sync, looking at each other, the same Battle Intent surging from both of them.
"Continue?"
"Continue!"
The air split with a piercing scream!
Boom, boom, boom————!!!
Bang gazed blankly at the battle from afar; the permafrost beneath his feet rose and fell like tsunami waves.
If you two fight like this, you'll destroy the arena. How will this old man fight?
Will I even get a chance to step on the field... "Aura, Aura!" Metal Bat stood with some difficulty on the heavily fluctuating ground.
Watching the ice dust and frozen earth erupting into the sky, he spoke with words that sounded like both an affirmation and a vow.
"My Aura will be able to do this one day too!"
Puri-Puri Prisoner stepped on a flat block of ice, sliding through the waves of the earth.
"Angel ☆ Surfing!"
Puri-Puri Prisoner had a clear understanding of his own strength.
This was no longer a battle he could participate in.
Exchanging fitness tips with Aokiji-chan later and having a slight spar would be enough.
Knowing he was the weakest combat power, Puri-Puri Prisoner felt no disappointment; his goal was never to be the strongest from the start.
It's just... Puri-Puri Prisoner sighed inwardly, it's so good to be able to fight so heartily.
"The energy levels are all significantly rising?" Dr. Bofoi quickly checked various monitoring data.
Is it that those two are gradually using their full power, or... are they both getting stronger rapidly during the fight?!
Fists grazed each other's arms.
Ultimately, Aokiji, relying on his longer reach, was the first to strike Saitama's cheek.
He was embedded directly into the ground, grinding through it!
Like a demolition project with large-scale bombs buried along the way, frozen earth and ice exploded and rose, an exaggerated trench extending all the way!
Aokiji did not pursue.
He looked down and brushed his hand over his chest, where slight cracks had appeared.
The wind from the punch had caused his body to spontaneously elementalize.
At the beginning of the battle, Saitama's attacks couldn't even achieve this effect when landing directly on him.
You're improving so fast, Saitama, you guy.
Fortunately, my efficiency isn't slow either.
Aokiji's feeling at this moment was exceptionally strange.
There were no sounds or text prompts; his body spontaneously transmitted a sensation to him.
It told him firmly that he had reached the limit!
It was similar to the plateau he experienced during workouts before his Transmigration.
No matter how hard he worked, increased the weight, or put in more training time, his strength was difficult to break through.
If the Bottleneck encountered during exercise is a stone stuck in the mouth of a bottle.
Then Aokiji's current feeling was that the bottle was pressed under an indestructible mountain range!
To break through, one must reach out from the mouth of the bottle and lift the entire mountain range!
Is this my first limiter?
Aokiji looked at his clenched fist; power filled to the limit surged within!
But he no longer felt the comfort of his strength clearly rising as he did during the battle just now.
The combined strength of an Admiral and one of the Four Emperors.
Plus the dual Comprehension Ability, talent, and Aptitude from the overlapping templates, bringing the double Train efficiency of the Admiral-Emperor stack.
He finally reached the first limiter in the battle with Saitama, just before obtaining the next template!
Well then, I'll soon be able to verify my hypothesis... The edge of the floating island.
At the end of the trench was a large missing gap.
By punching toward the outside of the island, Saitama not only caused the island's edge to crumble but also stopped himself.
"Honestly, my head is rubbing against the ground again. I'm already annoyed about this hair thing."
Saitama stood up with a bit of distress.
Aokiji walked along the trench.
"Saitama, it's the final stage,"
he said. "I see," Saitama nodded.
Beyond the edge of the island was the boundless sky, where the high-speed airflow was even more apparent.
It blew from behind Saitama, swirling his cape forward.
As if carried by the airflow, or perhaps driven by the boiling blood in his heart, Saitama took slow steps forward.
The intervals between his steps grew larger and larger.
His speed also grew faster and faster!
Finally, Saitama charged at extreme speed!
Aokiji's right leg slid back, his upper body turned, and he wound up his fist behind him, concentrating all his center of gravity and power.
Resonating Battle Intent collided instantly!
——————
——————
The battle continued for a long time.
Bang and the others couldn't remember how many times this island had been on the verge of collapse and then repaired.
Finally, the catastrophic aftershocks and explosions had stopped for a good while.
The few observers then walked toward the place where the last sound had come from.
The original soil had long since turned to dust, drifting between heaven and earth; what had filled and replaced it was pure glacier.
Saitama lay relaxed on the ice.
The battle suit on his body was tattered beyond recognition.
Aokiji sat cross-legged beside him with his eyes closed, his breathing steady and calm.
"Oh, is it finally over? Who won?" Bang walked over curiously to ask.
"If I had to say, it's Aokiji. I feel like he still has some things he hasn't used. Maybe they're not suitable for a spar."
Saitama lay leisurely, enjoying the slight chill.
Today, he had truly fought to his heart's content.
"And Aokiji said at the end that he's about to break through."
"Breakthrough?"
The few of them spoke out in confusion.
He can still break through? In what way? How strong would he get then?
And he can break through just by having a fight? Is it that easy?
Before anyone could ask for more details.
The Aura on the calmly sitting Aokiji suddenly erupted with incredible intensity!
It wasn't some kind of energy or ability.
It was simply a surge of the most primal life force!
Like a life being born for the first time, the first heartbeat, weak yet firmly breaking the shackles.
Aokiji opened his eyes.
A joy originating from his genes, for the elevation of his life level.
First limiter—Released...
System: limiter? I thought it was just a speed bump. I just rolled right over it and stacked the templates for the host. this host is cheating. I'm calling the admin