"It's time!" Boros said, his jagged purple aura fading. Instantly, he was greeted by a flying kick to the face, knocking him sprawling backwards. He quickly regained balance, wiping blood off his face, but was given no rest as Holocho assailed him with a flurry of punches. The boy's fists fell upon him, Boros barely managing to keep up. With an unexpected grab at the alien's wrist, Holocho swung him around his head, building up momentum and speed until Boros was just a blue blur above his head. He flung the dizzy alien at a nearby column, shattering it completely.
Holocho smirked. "Not very impressive, Dominator of the Universe. Get up, I want to teach you a lesson for what you did."
Boros rose from the debris, a wild expression on his face. "That actually hurt. This fight may be a good warm-up."
"Me? Warm up?" Holocho said. He moved back into his fighting stance, one that closely mirrored Bang's. "I'll make you cry."
Boros chuckled. "Your attitude is refreshing. People would usually be crying if a city was just destroyed."
Boros leapt forward over the ruined column, his fist crashing into Holocho's guard, sending him skidding back.
Holocho barked out a laugh. "Weak."
Boros merely grinned. With another leap and punch, Boros knocked the boy's defence above his head, exposing his stomach. Boros took full advantage of this, ramming home a powerful uppercut, sending Holocho flying into the air. The cyclops followed him into the air, a purple streak appearing behind him as he closed the distance between him and the boy. Holocho's eyes widened, narrowly managing to twist in mid air to avoid the alien's attack. Boros wasn't deterred, arching back towards him. Once again, and again and again, Holocho twisted and turned in the air, dodging the cyclop's attacks. The purple streak behind the alien traced a glowing flower in the air, with Holocho at the centre.
Despite literally being able to do this all day, Holocho decided to mix things up a bit. Just before Boros entered striking distance, his legs moved in a blur, propelling him away from the purple alien at ludicrous speeds.
Boros's smile widened. He increased his speed, pursuing after Holocho.
Holocho grinned wildly. Not because there was a mad alien chasing behind him, but because he was managing to fly! He veered about in the air, just managing to avoid crashing into columns and walls, but with his new technique he was able to unlock a new plane for combat - the air.
Also, he could finally reach those damned mosquitoes.
The two fighters weaved about in the air, Boros hot on Holocho's heels. They twisted and span amongst the vast columns lining the hall, Holocho's erratic flying being one of the only reasons Boros hadn't caught up to him and beat him down. Not that Holocho was flying like a drunkard on purpose - he was still learning the ropes to flying.
The boy's luck finally ran out. He looked behind him, trying to catch a glimpse of his pursuer, but was caught off-guard by a sudden flash of purple light. Blinded, he crashed into a column. Boros seized the opportunity and rushed in, slamming Holocho into and through the floor.
For the second time in this short day, Holocho ploughed through the ship, but this time he had a crazy alien pushing him down.
When they finally exited the bottom of the gargantuan spaceship, exploding through the hull, Holocho breathed a sigh of relief. It hadn't hurt much, but being pushed through multiple decks hadn't been a pleasant experience.
However, the alien was still pushing him towards the ground, rapidly increasing their plummet in the open air. With an explosive collision, Holocho was buried deep in the ground.
Holocho jumped out of the crater, landing with a crouch. Behind him, he heard a deep chuckle.
"Brutal Tempest. Even after so much, you are still unscathed. You really are something else."
Holocho turned and crossed his arms, staring up at the tall alien. "That wasn't anything at all. If that's what you call a fight, you're really nothing. Also I notice City A is still here."
Boros smiled deeply. "It seems as if your planet has more capable warriors. Perhaps I will face them next after your defeat."
Holocho glared at him. He wordlessly moved back into a fighting stance.
"You have nothing to say? No witty remark?" Boros asked arrogantly. "Perhaps you are taking this more seriously now? Perhaps you've realised how much I've been holding back…?"
"Shut up!" Holocho shouted, firing off a wave punch. The shockwave struck Boros square in the jaw, knocking it sideways with a wet crunch. The alien stared at Holocho with a wide, unsettling eye, grinning as his jaw regenerated.
"This will be fun."
Holocho sighed in frustration. Regenerating enemies are always a pain in the ass. He supposed that he would just have to overwhelm him so he gets no chance to recover. But judging by the speed of the alien's regeneration, he may finally have an interesting fight on his hands.
"Just hitting it over and over won't kill it! It just regenerates!" Sitch shouted. The battle on the roof of the Hero Association was still in full swing, the S Class heroes brutally pummelling Melzargard with everything they had. By now, they'd worked out a haphazard plan of attack - Puri Puri Prisoner and Metal Bat being the up-front bruisers, keeping the alien occupied while Atomic Samurai exploited any openings. Many other heroes, including Child Emperor and Tatsumaki had left, out of either boredom or because they had better things to do.
"I know! But do you have a better plan?" Atomic Samurai shouted back, dodging a wild swing. Because of their skill, or luck, nobody had been hurt so far, but the rooftop was littered with craters and scars from the alien's missed punches.
Genos had been standing at the side of the roof, a spectator to the combat, watching with his searching amber eyes. He saw no solution to the heroes' problem - this fight was far different from his battle with the Deep Sea King. Although he'd faced the same problems of the enemy regenerating faster than he could inflict damage, it had been solved with a 'simple' decapitation. The Deep Sea King still tried to regenerate, somehow still surviving just as a head, but his regeneration was too slow to stop him from blasting the monster to oblivion. This alien, however, survived even the most grievous wounds, regenerating from them almost instantly. At this rate the heroes would just tire and eventually make a fatal mistake.
Genos did notice a pattern - with his sharp cybernetic eyesight, he could notice the alien always regenerating around a small black orb. Perhaps that was the secret to defeating the alien.
But he was jerked away from his thoughts by the sight and sound of something crashing into the ground at high speeds in a nearby park.
Holocho blitzed towards the imposing purple alien, the ground being torn apart by his speed. Boros was completely unprepared for his new speed, Holocho's fist planting itself deep into the alien's gut before he registered what had happened. The hero pressed his advantage, landing several more blows before Boros managed to dodge to one side. He returned with a chain of punches, each much faster than before, but only managed to hit thin air.
"You're way too slow," Holocho gloated, no trace of strain in his voice as he dodged the alien's punches. Seeing an opening between Boros's attacks, Holocho lunged forward, his fist tearing into the cyclops's head. The alien gasped and staggered back, bleeding profusely. Holocho ruthlessly followed up in his attack, each of his punches releasing a shockwave, ripping apart the land around them, as they impacted the alien's body.
Boros sank to a knee, bleeding heavily from the deep holes littered across his body. "It looks like I underestimated your power," he said, his voice cracking with pain. His wound quickly knitted themselves back together. "But it is still not enough."
"Who said I was using all my power?" Holocho said incredulously.
Boros smiled fiercely. Moving in a blur, he sprang up, but his fist moved through the boy.
"An afterimage?"
Boros was struck from behind, sending him flying forward, but was stopped by another blow sending him back the way he came. He twisted and kicked at the boy, but his foot passed harmlessly through him. Another afterimage.
Suddenly, he was attacked simultaneously from all sides, wave punches tearing into and through his body like invisible stakes spearing a vampire. Around him, a circle of flickering afterimages formed.
"This is my Afterimage Typhoon!" Holocho shouted, his voice seeming to come from everywhere at once.
"Your speed is impressive," Boros acknowledged. His wounds had closed already.
"You haven't seen anything yet!" Holocho replied. Several afterimages darted in, attacking the alien at the same time, overwhelming him with a barrage of punches. To an ordinary person, it would have looked like several copies of Holocho were attacking Boros at once.
There was nothing the alien could do. The moment he tried to form some sort of defence, he was beaten down. Holocho's plan quickly became evident - he was slowly grinding the monster into a bloody pulp, his bare hands crushing the alien's body into pieces. But the alien wasn't defenceless. With a shout, expelled a wave of purple energy, propelling Holocho away from him. His afterimages flickered and disappeared, but he wasn't giving up that easily. Orienting himself midair, he launched himself back at the alien, tearing through the air faster than ever before. But instead of dealing another devastating blow, Boros casually sidestepped his attack.
"Wha-" Holocho started, but was forced to swerve to one side to avoid a lightning-fast punch. The duo began another deadly aerial dance, Holocho dodging and diving like a supersonic fighter jet, only much more agile and fast. He heard the sound barrier crack and shatter repeatedly as he weaved between the trees and rocks of the park. Boros was behind him, swooping around him, trying to land even a single punch. For now, even though he was the one being chased Holocho felt that he still had the upper hand. He just didn't want to waste energy trying to injure an enemy that just kept on regenerating. He had to come up with some sort of plan before Boros wore him down with his sheer ability not to die.
Suddenly, Boros appeared above him, purple energy crackling around him. Holocho frantically twisted, but he couldn't avoid the alien's fist. He felt the wind being knocked out of him as Boros's strike sent him barrelling into the ground for the second time.
"His speed…" Holocho thought, jumping out of the hole he'd made in the ground. "I'm still faster, but I've gotta be careful."
"Behind you!" Boros shouted in glee. Holocho backhanded him, sending him flying through several trees. "Why do villains always do that?"
He turned, searching for where Boros had flown off to. Without warning, the alien appeared behind him, striking hard in the head. The impact jarred Holocho.
He jumped away, twisting in the air and landing to face his opponent. He rubbed the back of his head. "Damn," he thought. "That actually hurt a bit."
Boros grinned viciously. "Let's stop messing around."
Holocho's mood instantly shifted. "You want to die."
"You're very arrogant. You will regret that." Boros said darkly, the grin remaining on his face.
Holocho glared at the alien. He was going to have to fight seriously against him, for the second time in his life as a hero. This alien was not one he could overcome easily, even if he unleashed all his strength. He may even have to face him as if he were Saitama.
Genos hovered high in the sky. They'd finally defeated the alien - thanks to Genos noticing the black orbs the alien regenerated around, the S class heroes were able to locate and crush them, killing the ever-regenerating alien. Now, led by the noise and havoc, he'd found where the real fight was taking place. Their fight with Melzargard was nothing compared to this. His cybernetic eyes were hard at work, trying their best to track the high-speed dogfight between Holocho and the mysterious powerful purple alien as they darted amidst the trees. Despite the various enhancements and upgrades he had had over the last months, he couldn't keep up with them. A particularly hard strike from one of the fighters sent large shockwaves racing through the air, jolting Genos and making him lose focus. As he regained his balance, he noticed another figure hovering in the air. Metal Knight.
Genos quickly flew over to the dark chrome-coloured drone.
"That's Brutal Tempest, Class A hero, correct?" Metal Knight asked through his drone. He didn't take his focus off the duel below.
Genos frowned. "Yes, he is."
"Did you know he was hiding such power?"
The teen cyborg didn't see any point in hiding the truth. "I did."
A series of loud clashes grabbed their attention. The two fighters below were now violently trading blows on the ground. Judging from the increase in speed from both Holocho and the alien, they were taking things up a level. The surrounding forest had already been blown away by the sheer force of their attacks.
The drone finally took its eyes and faced Genos. "Why did you not inform the Hero Association? A hero of such power is easily high-rank Class S. He would have been a great asset to the Association. Why did he himself not inform the Association?"
"He had expressed wishes to climb the rankings himself. He also only gained only Class B in the entrance test."
Metal Knight grunted and returned his attention to the fight. Holocho was brutally assaulting the alien, tearing holes into the alien with each punch.
"Another case of 'Metal Bat'. But this one's power far exceeds his. His intelligence must be low then ,but he would have aced the physical test. We need to make exceptions for anomalies like him." Metal Knight said, thinking out loud. "Perhaps we need to raise the score limit, but that's a thought for another time."
The scientist zoomed in the best he could on Holocho's fleeting form. The boy's speed and agility was now several times higher. For some reason, his fighting style seemed quite similar to Silverfang's.
Holocho's fists cracked through the air, each one punching clean through the alien's body. Blood spattered out from each wound, coating each of his gauntlets bright red. But it still wasn't enough. Holocho gritted his teeth. Why wouldn't this alien just die? With a fearsome punch, crushing Boros's head, he halted his attack. He was getting bored of simply pummelling him, and besides, apart from being stress-relieving, it was getting him nowhere. He had to rethink his strategy.
Before him, Boros's body regenerated. The alien chuckled. "Now do you realise it's pointless? You will only wear away, your body slowly crumbling under my attacks, but I will always regenerate myself. Look."
He gestured at his sparkling blue body. "Good as new."
"So what?" Holocho snarled. "You're nothing but a punching bag to me. I'll beat you until you can't regenerate any more."
Boros chuckled deeply, his eye closing in amusement. The boy facing him was strong, stronger than anything he'd fought before, so Boros didn't take much offence from his cockiness. But the alien still had a few tricks up his sleeve, one that would flip the boy's arrogance on its head.
"You say I'm your punching bag?" Boros said, eye now open and staring at Holocho with a startling intensity.
Holocho folded his arms across his chest and stared up at the alien. "Now that I'm actually trying, you're nothing to me."
"What if I told you… that this isn't even my final form?"
His worry about fighting the alien had evaporated once he'd started facing him seriously. Incorporating the tricks he'd learnt from Bang into his movement and fighting style, Holocho had suddenly become much more of a potent fighter. Before, he was doing the equivalent of running around and madly flailing his arms, but now he actually partially knew what he was doing.
But now his worry came crashing back, knocking him to his senses. In front of him, Boros crouched down, fists clenched by his sides. A jagged purple aura formed around him, lightning shooting out from his body. His energy formed an expanding purple dome around him, multiple blades of black lightning striking flickering into existence. In the centre of the dome, the alien completed his transformation into his final form. His body bleached, the light blue lines running down his body darkened and his white hair grew backwards, lengthening but retaining its spikiness.
Holocho took a step back, raising his arms into the now familiar fighting style. He frowned slightly. Behind the alien, he could see a group of people, one in particular seemed to be floating...
Boros slipped into a position similar to an athlete at the start of a 100m sprint, the dome of energy around him expelling tremendous amounts of light and power.
"Meteoric Burst!"
With a flash, the alien launched itself at the boy, energy dispelling behind him with a violent clap. His fist crashed into Holocho's hastily-formed block, sending the boy flying back. Searing purple energy erupted from his punch, disintegrating the park and city behind it.
A green energy barrier formed around the flying form of Boros, halting his movement, but he easily broke through, firing a deadly energy blast at S Class heroes trying to attack him from behind without looking back.
Holocho's cry of surprise caught in his throat as he frantically dodged Boros's flurry of attacks, avoiding them with a hair's breadth to spare. But he didn't escape unscathed - the energy behind each punch seared him even though no punches landed.
The boy knew that, if they were to fight, the city would definitely be destroyed. He jumped into the air, legs blurring with a newfound intensity. He crackled through the air, but before he could get far Boros had already caught up to him, smashing him back down towards the city.
He hissed in pain. The ground was already almost upon him, but he swerved up, managing to save himself from burying into the city again. Boros was already beside him. The pair powered through the city, each clash between them shattering glass and concrete. The sheer power radiating from Boros was tearing buildings apart as they flew.
Holocho twisted and turned, but wherever he flew Boros was already there, smashing him through buildings and into the street.
Around them, the city crumbled. Civilians were incinerated by the searing heat Boros's white form was giving out. Skyscrapers that took years to build were cut in half by a single punch.
"Why are you running?!" Boros shouted, as they duelled, his voice loud with delight and joy. "Come on, fight me! Don't let the death around you distract you! The city was doomed from the beginning!"
Holocho said nothing, rolling in the air to avoid one of Boros's energy-charged punches. He quickly snapped a few wave punches back at the Dominator to little effect.
Boros laughed. "Surely you're not scared of me, are you?"
Holocho suddenly screeched to a halt, twisting and planting a punch deep into the alien's gut. The explosive force behind his surprise attack shattered buildings around them and sent the alien hurtling backwards through the air.
The hero's face was dark. His fists trembled. "I'm not scared of you."
"I'll never be scared of you!" Holocho yelled, his voice cracking. He launched into a furious attack, tearing into Boros's body like he had no tomorrow. With a powerful downwards blow, he smashed the alien deep into the earth.
The S class heroes had never been so utterly defeated before. Each a monster in their own rights, these heroes had earned their right to be in the top of the top. But this single alien had managed to nearly destroy them all with a just single blast.
But the boy was still fighting him. They could feel the air tremor with each blow exchanged from their beds as they were flown away to hospital. But with each S class hero so severely burnt, they could only pray that a miracle would happen.
As the air shook from the most powerful blow yet, some started to despair.
Holocho heaved deep, painful breaths. Boros had managed to hit him several times. Trying to ignore the pain, he held his fist out in front of him. It still trembled, even as he tried with all his might, he could not get it to stay still.
"What is this?" Holocho thought, wiping away blood that had seeped through his many cuts and scratches that he'd sustained. "The pain doesn't surprise me, but this feeling… the fear…"
From within the crater came a deep, taunting laugh. "Do you realise it now, the futility of your struggle?"
The ground exploded with a column of purple energy shooting upwards through the debris into space. Boros floated upwards, his twisted and broken body restoring itself to prime condition.
He looked at the alien in despair.
Before he could react, Boros was behind him, driving home a punch that shook Holocho to the core. He staggered forward, but Boros reappeared in front of him with another painful punch. The alien didn't stop, hitting Holocho with an uppercut, sending him flying into the air. Holocho cringed in pain as Boros unleashed his most powerful attacks yet, hammering the boy from seemingly all directions at once.
Holocho felt dizzy from pain and his vision began to fade, but the relentless attack stopped, just for a moment. He could feel himself falling towards the ground, but his fall was interrupted by a knee driving deep into his gut. And his vision went dark.
He woke in a grey, dusty crater. His vision swam, threatening to plunge him back into darkness. The boy's eyes grew wide when he realised where he was - on the moon's service. He shot to his feet, pains and fears temporarily forgotten. He was where few men had gone before. Then his pain crashed back into him in giant waves, threatening to bring him to his knees. He had to get off the moon fast, or he would suffocate.
For a brief moment, his resolve wavered. What waited for him back on earth was a world of pain. But he shook his doubts away, even if he'd lost the fight, Saitama would be there to back him up.
Holocho crouched down, ready to jump back to Earth, but just before he did, he slipped a few moon pebbles into his breast pocket. They'd sell for a fortune back on earth.
It was eerily quiet on the battlefield. So quiet that Saitama finally realised that Holocho and the alien weren't fighting any more. The bald hero stood and walked over to peer down the hole they'd made on their way down. He gasped softly at the devastation below. City A once was full of tall, gleaming skyscrapers, but all he could see now was rubble. He could barely just make out the alien (who was now white for some reason) amongst the rubble, panting heavily. His concern grew as he realised that Holocho was nowhere to be seen, but an almighty crash from the heavens alleviated his fears.
Holocho could only feel pain. He hadn't realised how fast he was going until he was moments away from impacting the ground, resulting in him landing in a twisted fashion. He was sure a few bones were broken.
"You are simply incredible, boy."
Holocho grimaced.
"I struck you with a lethal blow, sending you deep into space, but you are here before me. Again."
The dust settled, revealing Boros's stark white form standing on the lip of the crater of Holocho's crash landing.
"But I ask you, why? Why do you still choose to fight? When it is shown to you that, no matter what you do, it is futile?"
Holocho stood painfully. His legs felt weak, but he forced himself to stand tall. "Because I want to win."
Boros shook his head. In a flash, he closed the distance between them, reaching out for the finishing blow. But he found his fist trapped, caught by the boy hero.
Holocho grinned weakly. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "Checkmate."
He spun and threw Boros high into the air like a hammer toss.
"You fool!" Boros shouted. "I am just where I want to be!"
Blue lightning emerged from his shining white form, tearing apart whatever it touched. It grew rapidly in intensity, blotting out the sun.
"Oh god, he really is where he wants to be," Holocho thought in dread. He could feel Boros's energy pressing down on him, making him realise how much more powerful the alien was.
"You have shown yourself to be a worthy foe. For that I will give you a glimpse of my true power!" Boros shouted over the noise of him charging up. "Much of my energy will be released, blasting you and half your planet's surface into oblivion!"
Holocho's face darkened. Gusts of wind emanated from the alien, threatening to blow him off his feet. In the corner of his eye he could see two grey figures flying through the air. The sky darkened.
"Collapsing Star, Roaring Cannon!" Boros yelled, unleashing his ultimate attack. A blindingly bright beam of blue energy encased in yellow light powered downwards towards the planet's surface.
"Death Wave!" Holocho cried, unleashing his own ultimate attack. The strongest shockwave he'd ever produced sailed into the air, colliding with Boros's beam of light. It did nothing. Time slowed to a crawl. Holocho's mouth grew dry.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. "You tried."
Holocho turned to see Saitama standing beside him, 3DS in hand.
"Hold this," he said, thrusting it into the boy's hands.
"Y-yeah…"
"Killer move, serious series: Serious Punch!"
The last thing Holocho could remember before blacking out was a shockwave, magnitudes more powerful than his, decimating Boros's attack.
"Has he woken up yet?"
"No."
"That is too bad. I had brought lobster soup for him, but now I will have to eat it myself."
"No!" Holocho shot up and grabbed the soup out of the person's hand and devoured the contents before they could react.
"Oh. He is awake."
Holocho sighed contently, looking up from the now clean container of soup. Before him, Genos stood, his hand slightly mangled from having the soup snatched out of his hands.
Saitama looked up from his console. "Okay."
"What? What happened? Where am I?" Holocho asked.
"You are in hospital recovering from your fight with the alien leader," Genos replied. "You had lost consciousness."
"Oh…"
Holocho noticed an envelope lying on a table beside the bed. It was addressed to him.
"Oh! Yes! Finally!" he exclaimed, tearing it open to reveal a certificate showing his promotion to class S.
"I got that as well," Saitama said.
Holocho laughed. "Neat! Didn't expect them to promote us so quickly though, don't they usually take a few days to process it or something?"
"The public were very insistent on your promotion," Genos stated. "Especially after seeing you and Saitama's fight against the alien. I live streamed it."
Holocho gazed down at the certificate and smiled. He'd done it at last.
A/N: It's finally finished. Took me long enough. This will be the last chapter of this fanfic. I hope you enjoyed it.
I'm planning on writing a fic based around King and his… ability next. But I don't know when that'll come out. Soon, I hope.
But in the meantime, stay safe and take care of yourselves. Bye for now.