Fortunately for everyone — and for the residents of City A first and foremost — Tatsumaki made it outside the Association building in time, and even managed, with a displeased expression, to inquire what gave me the nerve to summon her in such an impertinent manner. In response, I simply pointed upward in silence.
Lifting her head with mild surprise, Tatsumaki could watch in real time as dozens of projectiles launched vertically downward from the gigantic spaceship. Given the coverage area, the destruction threatened to engulf almost the entire city at once.
"I see." — grimacing, the girl who wore no underwear raised her right hand, and all the projectiles instantly froze in midair — not even halfway to the ground. "This planet wouldn't last a day without me." — and with an utterly indifferent expression, she sent the "cannonballs" back the way they came. "Whoever you are... feel free to take those back!"
Now it was the alien ship that was being bombarded, not the city.
It's nice to feel useful...
Smirking at my own thoughts, I looked around and realized Saitama had already vanished. Judging by the fact that one of the holes in the ship had appeared slightly before Tatsumaki got to work on it, the baldy had gone in to break some faces. Excellent — so...
Something flew past the edge of my peripheral vision. Spinning sharply, I saw a many-armed, many-headed monster rapidly closing in on me and Tatsumaki. Since the girl was occupied with the ship, I decided not to distract her — and didn't bother checking whether her passive barriers were strong enough, though who was I kidding, of course they were — and hurled myself to intercept my first alien ever. Somersaulting through the air, I reached it with ease and literally sheared off all four heads in a single sweep.
The monster began falling, simultaneously regenerating at a rapid pace. From what I could see, it had no internal or external organs as such — its entire body was a single unified biomass that it could shape into whatever form it needed. Having fully restored itself midway to the ground, the alien tried to take flight again, but I had already dived down onto it from above and sent it strictly downward with a fresh strike. Since there were no residential buildings near the Association headquarters, the many-headed creature landed directly at the feet — practically on the heads — of the S-Class heroes who had come outside.
Together with them, additionally remembering the creature's main weakness from the canon, we dealt with the monster in about ten seconds. Breaking all the tiny spheres that constituted its true body, which it concealed inside itself to fuel its regeneration. When the last one shattered, the monster's biomass simply crumbled into something resembling ash, completely losing both its shape and any semblance of life.
Well... despite the alien invasion having begun perhaps a minute ago, most of the work was already done. Saitama was having fun on the ship and would soon defeat the primary threat — one that would have been inconceivably difficult, if not impossible, for all of S-Class combined to handle. Tatsumaki was slowly but surely dismantling the ship. And the only guard who had tried to interfere with her had already been eliminated.
Out of curiosity, I would have liked to watch the fight between Saitama and Boros — but let's be honest, at least with ourselves: there was no point in me being there. So... together with the remaining heroes, half of whom had already slipped away immediately after the victory over the many-headed creature, having concluded that with Tatsumaki on the job there was nothing left to do, I watched this aerial duel for about another minute. Then, simultaneously with a gigantic energy discharge somewhere above, the alien ship began listing to one side — and then rapidly losing altitude altogether. Fortunately, Tatsumaki didn't let anyone down this time either. Straining herself, she managed to drag it beyond the city limits before finally allowing it to fall. A vast swath of forest was destroyed both by the impact itself and the resulting fire — but compared to the canonical version, which involved the complete annihilation of an entire city, this was more than an acceptable outcome...
"I can't believe it!" — once it was confirmed that the streets were safe, Sitch emerged — the same man from the top of the Association who had organized today's gathering of the highest-ranked heroes and, somewhat earlier, had been responsible for my appointment to S-Class. "Who could have imagined that Lady Shibabawa's prophecy would come true so quickly! An alien civilization invasion! A threat above Dragon level! If there hadn't been so many heroes here, City A — and perhaps even..."
"Are you really sure the prophecy was about this?" — I was about to say, but stopped myself in time.
There's no point becoming a prophet — it's far too troublesome. If the canon hasn't completely come apart, new threats will make themselves known very soon. Thinking it might be worth checking in on Saitama, I had almost set off toward the ship that had fallen outside the city when the bald cape texted me himself with a brief message: "all good. alien boss was fairly strong"
Alright then...
Since today had been packed with events and moments that were genuinely dangerous for a great many people, tension had inevitably been building up inside me. The only problem was that I hadn't managed to release it through a proper fight. The many-headed alien had been too weak, and I hadn't even fought it alone. Everything else had been swiftly handled by Tatsumaki and Saitama.
Looking around, I realized even more heroes had slipped away into the sunset. Only Tatsumaki and Bang remained, talking with Sitch about something. Darkshine — a tall muscular black man strutting around in nothing but swim trunks, seemingly even now thinking about how everyone was admiring the gleam of his muscles.
And Metal Bat — a guy in a school uniform with the face of a career delinquent, roughly my own age, who had made it into S-Class a little before me and sat exactly one rank above me on the list. Right now he had just finished talking to someone on the phone.
And actually... why not?
Giving a grunt, I walked straight toward him.
"Hey, Metal Bat!"
"Garou, right?" — turning toward me, the guy gave a brief nod. "What do you want?"
"How about a sparring match?" — without beating around the bush, I demonstratively cracked my neck with a few movements.
"Huh?" — Bat's face stretched in surprise. "You calling me out?"
"Something like that." — I gave a calm nod. "Nothing personal, don't take it the wrong way. Just after all today's chaos, I wanted to unwind a bit and have a good old-fashioned brawl. You in?"
"Not a problem, let's go find a spot. Just keep it short, yeah? I still need to pick up my little sister after her concert!" — as I had hoped, this guy didn't need much convincing. Pulling his bat from behind his back, he twirled it in his hand, then slung it over his shoulder. "Oh! Over there looks clear!" — and pointed in the direction where the spaceship had recently fallen.
Silently nodding, I followed after him. A couple of minutes later we were already standing in the middle of a field that had very recently been a forest. Now, with the S-Class hero standing five meters away from me, permanently displeased expression on his face as he spun his weapon, he looked even more like a delinquent who had decided to ambush me in a back alley...
That said, from what I knew about him, appearances were deceiving. As a person this guy was hardly a role model — but he knew his business and heroed exclusively "by the call of his heart," not for fame, money, or anything of that sort.
Would that stop me from giving him a good beating though? I didn't think so.
Especially since he would only make for a truly serious opponent after being beaten and wounded to within an inch of his life — as absurd as that sounded...
Since this was hardly a duel between two knights but rather a straightforward brawl, I opened without warning. Closing to striking distance, I drove my left fist into Bat's stomach. Face contorted in surprise, the guy went flying. Then again, and again, and again... on roughly the seventh time, he managed to deflect my fist with his bat. At that point I began attacking using not only raw strength but a touch of technique as well. Bat's flights and crashes to the ground continued... yet each time he got up, not even considering stopping the fight, just swearing and threatening to kick my ass any moment now.
His claims about being able to do so weren't baseless. Metal Bat's strength lay in his special ability — what was called Fighting Spirit. It was precisely thanks to this that the guy could keep fighting despite accumulating damage. Moreover, with every passing moment he grew stronger. If at the start of the fight I had assessed him as a mid-Demon level threat, before long he had crossed the threshold into low Dragon level — and then even mid-Dragon. Holding back at first to avoid killing him with a careless attack, I gradually intensified my assault, bringing my sparring partner to the ground again and again. And he... kept getting up and cursing at me... at a certain point, the aura around his body became genuinely perceptible.
Despite me having broken a couple of his bones not long before, the hero had reached the level of power at which I could match him without restraining myself — excluding only the lethal techniques of the Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist from my arsenal. I realized this the moment Bat's strikes — which I had previously deflected without even looking — suddenly broke through my passive defense and drove his bat into my shoulder.
Surprised by such an abrupt shift, I spun around, avoiding most of the damage. At the same time, a smug smile spread across my opponent's blood-soaked face.
"First point, you prick. Don't go getting cocky!"
"But I'm still winning!" — baring my teeth in return, I charged at him.
Now the fight had finally become genuinely interesting. Dropping all restraint, I blurred past my opponent, burying another barrage of strikes into him along the way.
And even after that, he got up again! Swinging his bat wildly in every direction like a genuine hurricane. Of course, I was still deflecting all his attacks with Water Stream techniques — redirecting them back or at least to the side. But! The fight showed no sign of ending, only picking up more and more speed.
At a certain point the realization hit me — my opponent had surpassed me in strength. His primitive attacks with his equally primitive weapon were no longer passing through my hands without consequence. Meanwhile strikes were raining from both sides, growing ever faster and more powerful. I deployed my last resort — the Breathing Technique that Bang had taught me only recently — but even that produced only a temporary effect. Bat was catching up again...
For the first time in a long while, I felt my own strength beginning to grow again. Taking small but vital steps forward with every passing second, I progressed again and again, drawing level with the blood-soaked Bat. My body, too, was no longer unscathed. Residual damage spreading more or less evenly across my arms and torso was leaving behind more and more injuries — both external and internal. And yet the thought of leaving this fight didn't so much as flicker through my mind. Giving everything I had to the battle, I felt an unprecedented surge of energy and... suddenly, it was over.
Bat — who a fraction of a second ago had been walking stride for stride with me, consistently getting the better of me on the sharpest turns — simply collapsed to the ground.
"Huh?" — snapping out of the battle trance, I quickly knelt down and pressed my hand to the guy's neck. "Seems alive... and yet... does Fighting Spirit have its own limit?... aaghh!"
Grimacing as pain flooded my entire body without warning, I dropped to the ground beside him. Remaining conscious but perfectly aware that with this much damage to everything, I had better not move — I pulled out my phone and began dialing Genus's number. Let the big brain send someone for us and get the recovery process started. What else is he being fed for...
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