"Hulk CHOP!"
The Hulk's robust, massive body sprinted rapidly forward, the sheer kinetic force of his footfalls shattering the asphalt and brickwork in all directions. He leaped high into the air the moment he neared Meliodas, blocking out the sun. Forming a massive, green blade with his open palm, the Hulk chopped down fiercely.
BOOM!
Countless clouds of dust and pulverized concrete kicked up where Meliodas stood, completely enveloping both their figures in a suffocating smokescreen.
As a heavy breeze blew past, clearing the air, their figures emerged once again.
The Hulk's massive, descending palm was being held firmly in place by a single, small hand. Meliodas stood perfectly still, his boots anchored into the cracked earth. The Green Goliath couldn't push his hand down a single inch.
"A beast?" Meliodas tilted his head, his dead green eyes completely unimpressed. "Your strength is only so-so!"
While speaking, Meliodas suddenly yanked the Hulk's arm downward, pulling the off-balance giant directly toward him. He clenched his free arm into a tight fist and swung upward with catastrophic force.
CRACK!
Struck squarely in the abdomen, the Hulk's entire multi-ton body was violently lifted off the ground and thrown into the air. He crashed down heavily, tumbling through the ruins of a tank. Lying on the ground, the Hulk clutched his stomach and groaned in a low, pained voice.
"ROOAARR!"
In just a few seconds, the incredible gamma healing factor kicked in, and the pain left the Hulk's body. After suffering that heavy, humiliating blow, the rage in the Hulk's heart surged even more violently.
After scrambling to his feet, he began to roar furiously at Meliodas. At the exact same time, his massive musculature visibly began to swell, expanding under the biological influence of his rising anger.
"Oh?" Meliodas murmured, sensing the shift in energy. "The power of rage? How familiar."
Meliodas was known across Britannia as the Dragon's Sin of Wrath. Today, in this strange world, he saw a creature that utilized the exact same emotional power source as his own innate curse.
The corner of Meliodas's mouth curled into a wicked, arrogant arc. His eyes narrowed slightly. Reaching over his shoulder, he smoothly sheathed the Demon Sword [Lostvayne].
"Let me see," Meliodas challenged, raising his bare fists. "To what extent your rage can truly reach."
Meliodas abandoned his attempt to kill the target as efficiently as possible. A dark, demonic curiosity had taken over; he wanted to see exactly where the absolute limit of the Hulk's rage lay.
"ROOAAARR!!"
The Hulk's only response to Meliodas's taunt was a deafening, furious roar. Massive green fists pounded incessantly toward the boy like a barrage of meteors.
But Meliodas merely dodged with slight, fluid sideways movements, effortlessly evading every single earth-shattering attack.
This humiliating scene made the Hulk even angrier. His expression turned hideously distorted, his green veins bulging as he wildly swung his fists, clapping them together in desperate attempts to crush the blur.
"Die! Hulk wants you to DIE!"
Like a massive toddler having a tantrum because he couldn't get the toy he wanted, the Hulk's fists swung wildly and without technique.
However, how could such telegraphed, clumsy attacks possibly touch Meliodas's body? Instead, the surrounding environment, the tanks, and the military barricades were completely destroyed by the Hulk's missed strikes.
"A beast?" Meliodas dodged another hook, a look of profound boredom flashing in his dark eyes. "No. I should say an infant."
Even if an infant possesses great, unyielding power, they cannot fully or efficiently unleash it without focus. Looking at the Hulk's current performance, Meliodas was let down. He had originally held high expectations for the creature, since they shared the domain of Wrath.
In the end, the Hulk's performance was completely disappointing.
'An infant swinging a big stick,' Meliodas evaluated coldly. 'Boring.'
"Go to sleep!"
Meliodas's figure instantly flickered, bypassing the Hulk's guard completely to appear standing lightly on the giant's broad shoulder.
He swung his leg out in a brutal roundhouse kick. A sonic boom echoed through the air as his heel connected squarely with the side of the Hulk's jaw.
THWACK.
The Hulk only felt his vision spin intensely, his massive body swaying like a felled tree. He stumbled backward, raising his large green hands to clutch his ringing head tightly as he began to wobble. Double visions of the ruined Capitol Building began to surface in his eyes.
"Hulk! HULK!!" the beast chanted to himself, shaking his head violently. "ROAR!"
Meliodas's supersonic whip-kick did not successfully send the Hulk into a forced slumber. Instead, the concussive trauma caused the Hulk's gamma rage to rise yet another terrifying level.
The Hulk's speed and baseline strength both spiked instantly. Just a moment ago, he had been entirely unable to keep up with Meliodas's movements. Now, with a blindingly fast backhand, he forced Meliodas to cross his arms and block.
"Very strong defensive power!" Meliodas grinned, skidding backward from the kinetic impact. "Still don't want to go down?"
Meliodas clenched his fist and charged forward, finally beginning his true physical counterattack. Since the Hulk still wanted to brawl with him, he naturally wouldn't refuse.
The two monsters finally began to trade blows.
The deafening, concussive sound of their bodies colliding rang out across the battlefield every single second. Even though the Hulk's physique was vastly larger, he found himself continuously at a disadvantage in this pure struggle of strength.
At this moment, Meliodas was no longer dodging. The two were engaged in a brutal, stationary physical slugfest. A one-on-one battle of raw, unadulterated power.
Yet even so, the catastrophic kinetic force transmitted from Meliodas's slender, demonic body was something the Hulk found increasingly difficult to resist.
"HULK!!" the giant screamed. "ROAARR!!"
BAM!
Sent flying backward through a brick wall by another one of Meliodas's crushing punches, the Hulk let out a burst of impotent, desperate fury.
'So strong!' the Hulk's primal mind raged. 'I need power!'
"Let me out, and I will give you the power you want..."
The Hulk roared internally; he didn't want to lose. He wanted even greater, world-breaking power!
And just then, deep from within the dark, psychological abyss of the Hulk's own mind, an ancient, terrifying voice gave him a response.
"Come. Open this door. I will give you even greater power."
Inside the desolate psychological landscape of the Hulk's mind, a massive, ancient door was emitting a terrifying, sickly, radioactive green light.
[The Green Door]
The manifestation of the small, child-like Hulk looked at this imposing door. Seduced by the promise of unlimited rage, the small Hulk's green arm was already involuntarily reaching out toward the glowing handle.
"Wait! Hulk!"
Bruce Banner's thin, human figure suddenly materialized, frantically grabbing the small Hulk's green arm and stopping his movement.
Banner had never consciously known that such an ominous door existed deep within his own psyche. But just by looking directly at the malevolent green light seeping through the cracks of the frame, Banner felt a profound, cosmic sense of suffocation.
At the same time, his brilliant mind and human instincts were constantly screaming a desperate warning.
'Don't open it! Whatever you do, do not open it!'
Looking at the ignorant, desperate look in the small Hulk's eyes within their shared mindscape, Banner crouched down and gently held the Hulk's massive hand.
"We work together," Banner pleaded, staring directly into the Hulk's eyes with absolute solemnity. "We can definitely stand against that guy out there if we combine our strengths. But the thing behind that door... he must absolutely never be let out."
Although Banner didn't know exactly what kind of apocalyptic entity resided behind the Green Door, he trusted his primal sixth sense.
The child-like Hulk within his mind hesitated, then slowly nodded. He agreed with Banner's opinion.
From Banner's initial, years-long rejection and suicidal attempts to destroy his alter-ego, to finally accepting the Hulk as a part of himself... the Hulk could feel the genuine truth in Banner's thoughts. The two had always been two minds trapped in one body. To survive this demon, they needed to act as one.
"Hehehe..." The dark, terrifying voice behind the Green Door was not angry at their choice to turn away. Instead, it was full of chilling, inevitable confidence. "You will be back."
Everything within the inner mindscape happened in just a fraction of a microsecond.
In the outside world, Meliodas had absolutely no intention of stopping his attacks just because the Hulk seemed momentarily distracted. Countless, blindingly fast punches struck the Hulk's face directly, a brutal, supersonic barrage.
And the Hulk stood there like a massive green sandbag, just blankly enduring the devastating impacts without raising his arms to resist.
FWOOSH.
Suddenly, a brilliant, intelligent green light flickered to life in the Hulk's wide eyes.
The merged entity—possessing both the Hulk's world-breaking strength and Bruce Banner's absolute genius wisdom—came online.
He raised his massive arms with sudden, precise technical form and exerted concentrated force with his palms.
SMACK.
The Hulk's two massive palms firmly, flawlessly caught and trapped Meliodas's blurring wrists in mid-strike.
"Now for Round Two."
The Hulk spoke, but the calm, measured, articulate voice echoing from the giant's throat undeniably belonged to Dr. Bruce Banner.
With a forceful, perfectly leveraged swing of his massive arms, Meliodas was violently sent flying backward by the overwhelming, combined strength.
After tumbling gracefully once in mid-air, Meliodas landed steadily on his feet, his boots skidding across the asphalt. He looked up, his demonic eyes narrowing with renewed interest.
"Oh?" Meliodas smirked. "A change of person?"
The merged Hulk did not reply with a mindless roar. Instead, that massive, gamma-irradiated body lowered its center of gravity and flawlessly assumed a highly technical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu starting stance.
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