King saw the scene below with wide eyes and pale face. He tried to struggle to get away, but it was clearly too late.
Meanwhile, Metal Bat who was not far from him also saw this and couldn't hold back his admiration in his heart.
"Amazing, King! The strongest man on earth is indeed different! He deliberately landed right on top of Ancient King's head. Such confidence and courage... I truly can't match it!"
This admiration was sincere from the depths of his heart, but he had absolutely no idea that right now King himself was scared half to death.
"Hmm?"
Ancient King finally noticed the movement of two small insects near him. No, more precisely just one insect. Because right now King had already landed on top of his head—in his visual blind spot—so he couldn't see King at all.
However, Metal Bat's loud shout had attracted his attention. A pair of terrifying vertical pupils stared sharply at the falling Metal Bat, radiating dense death aura.
Death aura directed at Metal Bat.
Stared at by those eyes, Metal Bat got goosebumps and his body shivered with cold. However, at this time, he didn't feel afraid at all. Not only because of his stubborn personality, but also because he felt he had King, the strongest man on earth, as his backing behind him.
He grinned coldly, then pointed at Ancient King's nose and shouted loudly: "Trash is still trash! Even though you've already swallowed good stuff like Dragon Source which is the divine dragon essence, you still just turned into this strange half-dragon half-ghost creature. You're just a disgusting lizard!"
As soon as those words came out, the atmosphere at that place seemed to freeze. Even King who was perched on Ancient King's head stared at Metal Bat with an incredulous gaze. He didn't expect his partner would hurl such harsh mockery. That was the same as courting death!
"Damn insect, you're seeking death—!"
Sure enough, Ancient King let out an earth-shaking roar. Giant sound waves transformed into visible physical shocks, striking Metal Bat hard. Not only that, from his large open mouth, he spewed hot fire waves forming wild fire dragons to pounce on Metal Bat.
Metal Bat was shocked, but he acted quickly. He immediately used his hands to cut his parachute cord. His body immediately fell at high speed downward, barely avoiding that fatal attack.
Though not directly hit, the high temperature from that fire was still very tremendous. The heat instantly turned Metal Bat's clothes and hair into charcoal that immediately flew scattered in the wind. While falling in the air, Metal Bat released his signature move. His muscles swelled drastically as he slammed his bat with all his might at Ancient King's body.
*CLANG!*
However, beyond his expectation, the attack strong enough to split steel instead made a metallic boom sound when hitting Ancient King's body. The opponent's skin and muscles only trembled slightly before returning to their original form. Metal Bat's attack didn't give meaningful physical damage at all.
"How is this possible!" Metal Bat's face changed drastically. He didn't expect his attack wasn't effective at all.
Actually, his attack wasn't without effect. Metal Bat used a blunt weapon whose damage wasn't just on the surface, but vibration to destroy internal organs. However, he overlooked two things:
Ancient King's body was too large. His blunt physical attack wasn't strong enough to penetrate skin and muscle layers that thick to reach internal organs.
Ancient King had just evolved. His skin was now coated with dragon scales far stronger than ordinary skin.
Nevertheless, that attack still gave pain to Ancient King.
"Damn insect, I'll kill you—!"
A giant claw covered the sky like a black cloud, charging downward toward Metal Bat.
Metal Bat paled. This was the first time he felt death so close. He felt his entire existence had been completely locked by Ancient King.
"King! What are you waiting for—!" Metal Bat screamed in panic. He didn't want to die yet.
King who was on top of Ancient King's head also panicked. He struck that giant head with his fist while shouting: "Damn creature, stop that—!"
From the corner of his eye, Metal Bat saw the moment when King "attacked," and his eyes flashed with joy.
Saved!
With that person's power, Ancient King's time was up!
However... After striking, King's facial muscles instead twitched violently. His hand almost broke. Those dragon scales were far harder than steel.
King was just an ordinary human; that punch didn't even feel like a scratch to Ancient King. Their mass difference was too great, to the point Ancient King didn't even realize he had just been punched.
That giant claw continued descending without stopping.
"How can this be?" Metal Bat was shocked seeing King's attack seemed ineffective.
Even this man's power wasn't capable of killing Ancient King?
When that giant claw contacted Metal Bat, terrifying collision force directly struck his body.
*BAM!*
Metal Bat vomited fresh blood, his bones broke, and he immediately fainted. However, in the next moment... all time seemed to stop.
A figure from who knows when had already appeared beside Metal Bat.
One punch!
Just one punch that landed right at the center of that giant claw.
Under Ancient King's terror-filled gaze, his body began cracking inch by inch. That giant body exploded into meat fragments scattering to the sky; some of the flesh even melted like snow exposed to heat.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Even before having time to scream, Ancient King's mountain-tall body had shattered into blood rain that painted the ground below deep red.
A bald young man with a pair of golden wings on his back floated in the air. One hand held the severely injured Metal Bat, the other hand caught King who had just fallen. He stood upright blown by wind with an expressionless face.
He was 3rd place on the Gold List, Saitama!
King exhaled long and stared at Saitama: "Lucky you came in time—otherwise we'd really be finished this time!"
Saitama slowly descended and landed, furrowing his brow seeing the ground transformed into a sea of blood. "Coincidentally I wasn't too far from here. As soon as I received your message, I rushed right over..."
King just remembered—the emergency message he typed on the plane earlier apparently successfully sent.