"Hahaha! Those idiots the Subterranean King, Deep Sea King, and Ancient King are finally dead! From now on, the world belongs to me, the Sky King!"
"Meow!"
The shockwave sweeping across the sky blasted the birdman—whatever he had been shouting about—into pieces, making Yimi glance sideways.
She had hit another bird after all.
Her earlier judgment had still been wrong. In terms of sheer physical strength alone, the monster in front of her was stronger than any opponent she had encountered in any world.
Boros smashed into the ground. After landing, his feet carved a hundred-meter trench through the iceberg where the Ancient King had awakened as he tried to brake, finally ending with his back slamming into the dinosaur skeleton inside the crater. He paused for less than half a second.
Even though her initial attack power and speed had been rather low, up to this point he still had not managed to harm so much as a hair on the juvenile before him, who seemed to have entered some kind of burst form as well—just like the Earthling he had encountered on the floating castle.
This time, however, he had seen it clearly. The reason this planet's species did not take damage was because another species was taking the damage in their place! What a despicable way to fight!
"Hah!"
Boros grabbed the kitten, who was only about the size of his head, hurled her into the sky, then instantly appeared behind Yimi and smashed her downward.
Before the physical force of his fists could even reach Yimi herself, the surface of the planet split open with a scar large enough to be visible on a map, while the force that should have injured Yimi followed a trail of white light toward monsters somewhere far beyond sight.
"Meow!"
Yimi acted as though nothing had happened and kicked both hind legs into Boros's chest, blasting his internal organs out through his back.
As long as her claws wounded him, she could keep absorbing his flesh and blood. This juvenile had grown even stronger. The feeling of personally creating an evenly matched opponent was strangely complicated. I'll probably remember you for the rest of my life.
"But that's fine—" Boros's organs rapidly drew themselves back in.
I, Boros, respect every way of fighting!
The energy of his body gathered into beams from both fists, but he deliberately did not aim directly at Yimi herself.
"Hm? What's happening?"
A monster poked its head out of a snowbank and saw light completely filling its field of vision, erupting as unbearable heat. It was the last thing it saw in its monstrous life.
Boros's beam flattened everything within more than ten kilometers. Apparently, this damage-transfer ability had no meaningful range limit, at least not within ten thousand meters.
But this was only the beginning.
He grabbed both of Yimi's front paws and spun before hurling her into the sky, leaving the kitten—whose speed and reactions had already completely surpassed his—with nothing to push off against and nowhere to dodge.
If I destroy you together with every living thing on the surface, will there still be anywhere left to transfer the damage?!
"Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon!"
That energy was very bad news.
Yimi changed back into human form, drew out her long spear again, and took out the sleeping Doom-shroom with its eyes closed.
First she opened her mouth and bit it awake to increase its power. Then she stuffed a handful of catnip into its mouth to enhance it a second time. Before it could explode, she fused it into the spear shaft and instantly refined it. At Yimi's current speed, doing all this in a short moment was still effortless.
With his excellent eyesight, Boros saw that the instant the energy cannon erupted, the Burlap-clothed Knight riding a Black Horse emerged from thin air, reached out to touch the cannon once, then vanished, helping Yimi light up the red indicator that boosted attack power.
She opened with Tornado Slash, and SAO Adaptive Power automatically assimilated the pathetic chip-damage staff technique into a boss spear technique that could not be beaten head-on.
Thanks to the energy Boros had provided, Yimi's strength had increased enormously. With every enhancement prepared, she gripped the end of her spear and swung it forward.
Even though she had not actively invoked Love Train, its light coiled around the attack as well—not to add even more power to an already overwhelming attack, but simply to clean up the weather mess left behind by a kitten with no concept of meteorology.
According to Weather Bureau observations, the destructive black light nearly cut across Earth's entire cloud layer.
Before the battle, Boros had not sensed much of a threat from this juvenile at all.
His remains fell to the ground. His tremendous vitality left him with one last breath, but standing again was probably impossible. He had burned himself out completely.
"Yimi, was it?"
That ability was far too unfair.
I really want to see it. If you could devour every living thing in the universe, what would you eventually become?
Yimi looked up at the cloudless blue sky she had personally created and gained no insight from the battle whatsoever.
She really needed to study properly from now on.
More importantly, the System still showed that her objective to defeat The Strongest had not been completed, leaving Yimi somewhat discouraged.
The little girl crouched down and poked Boros's remains. Thanks to this person, she had gotten a lot stronger again.
But he was not the strongest either? The people in this world were even more powerful than Kitty had imagined.
* * *
"This is indecent! Why are there two naked perverts among the S-Class heroes? I'm embarrassed just to be associated with you!"
Tatsumaki shouted loudly as she used psychokinesis to lift the spaceship and search underneath it.
The other S-Class heroes around her had only just finished their own battle as well.
Melzargard was the last lieutenant still putting up resistance on the other side of the Association headquarters. Being Dragon-level was one thing, but his truly formidable trait was his extraordinary vitality, along with a body that could transform back and forth into all kinds of melee weapons.
His five heads each contained a "core" about the size of a glass marble. Only by destroying those cores could his five heads truly die. Before the S-Class heroes figured out how his ability worked, even several of them attacking together had been held off for quite a while.
Seeing this, the captured Geryuganshoop sneered at Tatsumaki. "Looks like not everyone on your planet is a monster. That little juvenile you mentioned has probably already been killed by Boros-sama. Boros-sama would never hold back just because of someone's age."
"Shut up."
Tatsumaki shot him a vicious glare and brutally used psychokinesis to rip every one of his tentacles off, silencing him with pain.
She was in a terrible mood.
At the very least, she did not want that brat to die because of her.
"Haa..." Saitama lifted his head and looked toward the sky just as the clouds were stripped away.
Looked like he had missed a pretty amazing fight. He should buy some extra groceries on the way home and have hot pot to cheer himself up.
Geryuganshoop laughed. "Looks like it's already over. Whenever Boros-sama uses that move..."
Hm? Something was wrong.
This planet was not especially large. Why did it still look perfectly fine?
Tatsumaki sensed something and looked up at Yimi clumsily flying back with psychokinesis.
Had Fubuki removed the seal for her?
"Mmm."
Yimi landed in front of Tatsumaki. She caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye and instinctively tried to turn her head.
Expressionless, Tatsumaki pinched her cheeks to stop her from looking, then raised a hand and embedded the indecent Zombieman and Puri-Puri Prisoner into the wall.
Puri-Puri Prisoner: "Oh♂~ A matching pair."
Geryuganshoop stared in shock. "How could you possibly come back alive? Where is Boros-sama?!"
Yimi twisted her face free of Tatsumaki's hand. "Already took him out. He was really strong."