With a sudden burst beneath his feet, nearly half of the Moon's surface exploded into countless fragments, drifting helplessly through the void of space.
Saitama locked onto the trajectory he had just flown from; his body ignited with blazing light, and like a meteor he plunged straight into Earth's atmosphere.
Oh, right!
As if remembering something crucial, he nervously unfastened his tattered white cape and hugged it to his chest, afraid it might burn to ash on the way down. After all, aside from the yellow leotard, this cape had cost the most—Hero Association-grade hero attire.
"Damn it, aren't the satellite feeds ready yet?"
Sitch barked orders, frantically watching the screens.
While King and Saitama had been waging their cataclysmic duel, the Hero Association had been detecting terrifying energy fluctuations, reaching God-level Disaster potential. Yet every satellite feed had been hopelessly distorted, jammed by the sheer magnitude of their attacks. No clear image could be obtained.
Sitch's nerves were shredded. Everyone expected KING—the Strongest Man on Earth—to be formidable. But the newly promoted S-Class Hero, "Caped Baldy,"? His raw power far exceeded any reasonable estimate.
The collateral shockwaves alone had already been classified God-level, capable of annihilating humanity. The thought of them continuing unchecked made Sitch's stomach churn. Battle-crazed superhumans like this were impossible to contain.
Suddenly, the wailing alarms went silent. The shrill siren that had been grating on everyone's ears fell abruptly quiet.
It's over?
A staffer staring at the satellite feed cried out, voice trembling:
"Got it! The feed's back! The fight between Mr. KING and Mr. Saitama appears to have ended!"
Sitch rushed over. The desert that had been their battleground now lay flattened into a basin of abyssal craters.
"If I remember correctly, this was a desert… Did they switch locations?"
"No…" the staffer stammered, drenched in sweat. "This is still that desert—except their fight leveled everything, turned it into a basin."
Sitch rubbed his temples, taking deep breaths. You guys are way beyond scale.
"Where are Mr. KING and… Saitama now? Any sign of them?"
The staffer hesitated. Then:
"W-well… we still haven't located Mr. KING, but we have found Mr. Saitama."
"Where?"
"In the desert? The jungle? Or… did he fight all the way back to Hero Association HQ?!"
Sitch ran through every possibility.
"Mr. Saitama appears to be on the Moon—he's falling back through the atmosphere, and left a huge crater when he took off."
Sitch froze. What the hell are you saying…?
Mid-air, King floated, utterly drained.
Moments earlier, he had endured dozens of Saitama's Normal Punches. In an instant, his body had been reduced to mincemeat. Without his freakish regenerative abilities keeping him conscious with only half a head, he would have been dead.
The Death Gate had closed, leaving him in a thirty-minute debuff that sapped his strength—relatively speaking. Yet even now, he could one-punch a Dragon-Level Monster if needed.
Thinking back on his bout with the Bald Demon King, King laughed. He had been cocky, coming to spar with Saitama as if it were a casual workout. From start to finish, he hadn't once cracked Saitama's defenses. Even the Night Guy attack under stacked Death Gates hadn't left a scratch.
"Well then, bro… you win—take it all."
[Ding! Detecting host's first fierce fight with the Bald Demon King Saitama lasting over five minutes and resulting in survival—attribute points ×5,000 awarded.]
Five thousand points—not bad at all.
King immediately allocated them: 3,000 to Strength, 2,000 to Speed. What he needed most now was raw firepower. Defense? His insane regeneration had that covered.
...
(End of Chapter)
[Throw some stones]