Alright here we go, were starting to get to a cohesive not skippy around plot. Also the longest fight scene I've written so yay is me. I wasn't sure I was gonna originally include it but then I was like yea, punchy punchy is fun to write. ANYways, if you like lemme know, if not, also lemme, I'm not sure if I dragged it out to far or not, but oh well.

Chapter Five: The Strongest

Saitama blocked the first punch the alien threw at him. The force of the blow summoned a tornado that whipped throughout the open chamber. Saitama's eyes widened slightly in surprise. That was a pretty strong punch.

But it was only the opener. Boros levied a series of punches at Saitama at incredible speeds. He blocked them all on his arm, impressed by the strength behind each of these blows. It was stronger than anything he'd felt in a long time. Actually, probably the strongest since he'd gained his power.

Distracted as he was, he let Boros kick him back. Saitama flipped midair and dug his feet into the ground, skidding across the floor. The alien charged at him, and Saitama started backpedalling rapidly. But the alien was quicker than Saitama had anticipated and soon caught up to him at the speed he was going.

So. It seemed like it would be worth his time after all.

The alien smiled wide, knife-like teeth worked into a savage grin as he bore down on Saitama. Saitama threw his arms up in an X guard to block the strikes Boros attacked him with. The shockwaves alone were enough to shake the ground. Saitama could feel the cracks snaking out under his feet.

Saitama jumped and ran upwards on a pillar. He could hear Boros following him, his purple aura pulsing out waves of energy. While Saitama zigzagged up the column, Boros ran a straight path, tearing upwards on the pillar. Boros finally caught up to Saitama near the top, lunging with his fist outstretched to smash him into the ground. Saitama ducked under the blow and kicked the alien back to the floor before jumping after him.

Boros landed with his hands pressed against the ground, bending to absorb the impact before pushing off in a backwards handspring. Saitama landed milliseconds afterwards, crashing into the floor with a BOOM. Boros landed and immediately charged at Saitama again. This time, Saitama did not flee. Instead, he ran back towards the alien conqueror. At the last moment before they collided, Saitama slid, going beneath the aliens legs. But he grabbed one as he slid and rose to his feet before Boros could react, whipping the alien over his head and slamming him into the ground, once, then again before throwing him into a pillar.

Boros smashed through the first pillar and twisted in midair, landing gracefully on another pillar, his legs bent to absorb the impact. With a roar, Boros rocketed back towards Saitama. Saitama leaped up at him, his own fist clenched tightly and the barest hint of a smile on his face.

The two strongest beings on earth and in space collided midair. The shockwave was so great it obliterated every pillar that was still standing. They both landed a moment later, a hundred feet apart with their backs to one another. A few seconds later, there was a meaty slap as a chunk of meat hit the ground.

Boros' eye widened in surprise. "Even though my full power has been released, you still managed to keep up."

Saitama turned to face him, raising a smoking fist. "Yup. You're pretty strong."

While it wasn't the same as the fights in his dreams, this being had pushed him the farthest he'd had to try in a long time. It would definitely take more than a normal punch to kill him. Probably didn't need to use a Serious Punch, but it had been so long since he'd used one. If only this guy hadn't committed genocide, Saitama would have been tempted to leave him alive.

But that was neither here nor now. Purple energy flared off of Boros' body, casting a wicked light around the room. Saitama raised an eyebrow. He'd never seen an ability like that. Hopefully it was something good.

With a primal roar, Boros extended his hand towards Saitama. Saitama let the energy flash by him, planting his feet firmly on the ground so he wasn't launched away. The strange power smashed through the few remaining pillars and tore the roof open, scorching the area on top of the ship.

Saitama looked around. That was certainly an impressive attack. In an instant, the whole room had been razed to ash. The sky was blue above them, only a few clouds in the sky. Such a nice day for all this chaos.

While he was looking up, Boros had lunged for him, slamming his fist into the side of his face. The force of the blow turned Saitama's head down and sent him skidding back a few feet. Oh yeah, there was a bad guy.

Saitama looked back at Boros, who appeared shocked and cracked his neck. "Ok. My turn."

In an instant, Saitama appeared in front of the alien, smashing his fist into his face. Saitama felt blood splatter on his fist and his face before Boros' body flew up and away. Saitama saw it smash into a tower before turning away. Shame, he was kind of hoping it'd last longer. Oh well, time for lunch.

He'd only taken a few steps before a force collided with his spine, sending him smashing through the floor. Saitama fell, crushing several aliens as he fell. Most never even saw him coming. Before he'd even stopped falling, a hand gripped the back of his bald head and threw him sideways, sending him flying through even more walls. Saitama twisted midair and dug his fingers into the floor, carving trenches in the metallic floor as he skidded to a stop. The moment he did though, a knee appeared in his field of vision, launching him upwards through a bunch of roofs. Saitama sighed. He was kinda getting annoyed at the amount of wall smashing he was doing.

Finally he broke the surface, flying several feet in the air before losing momentum and falling back to the top of the ship. He saw the obsidian skinned alien charge upwards at him. Saitama waited for him to reach the top, sidestepping out his way. Boros' own momentum propelled him up in the air as well, but Boros reacted by helicopter-kicking Saitama. Surprised by the alien's flexibility, it caught Saitama on the chin and knocked him back a few feet. He and Boros recovered at the same time, Boros immediately going on the offensive and levelling a punch at Saitama that was guaranteed to turn a city block to rubble. Saitama ducked under the blow and lashed out with a kick, hitting Boros in the stomach. Boros groaned and doubled over. Saitama saw the opportunity and smashed downwards with a hammer strike to the back of the alien's skull. The alien collapsed to the floor, the impact shaking the ground.

He didn't stay down for long though. With a sweep of his legs, Boros tripped Saitama while at the same time pushing himself to his feet. Before Saitama had even hit the ground, Boros punched him in the gut, amplifying the force of his landing and sending him crashing through the already shattered floor of the ship.

Ok, this was just getting annoying. Couldn't he go five minutes without falling or flying through some kind of wall?

Rising from the debris, Saitama saw Boros jump down after him. Quickly Saitama gathered up a bunch of scrap material and started throwing them at the alien. Boros tried to dodge and weave, but his weightlessness didn't give him much maneuverability. Most of the objects ended up smacking into him or piercing him, some tearing all the way through him.

Boros landed with a chop aimed at Saitama's neck, which he easily moved out of the way of. Boros adjusted and turned his fist to strike Saitama's knee. Saitama didn't fall as the alien expected him to though. Instead, Saitama grabbed the alien's hair and punted him back up to the surface, jumping up after him.

Boros was shaking the rubble out of his hair when he got up there. Saitama waited for the alien to rise, watching him closely.

Boros chuckled. "You know, for all the myriad beings I've faced over my long life, I've never met someone as strong as you. But your efforts are futile. While you will only sustain more and more injuries, I have been blessed with unparalleled physical strength, the ability to regenerate and latent energy. You may be strong, but you'll only grow more and more tired. When I can do this-"

Boros grunted and the stump where Saitama had punched his arm off wriggled and disfigured, new flesh erupting from the wound to form a new arm.

"How can you possibly hope to win? My world was a harsh one, a constant battle just to stay alive. I conquered my own species, and as the strongest among them I was responsible for-"

"Dude," Saitama interrupted, making Boros pause in surprise. "Shut up. I don't care about your life story. Are we gonna do this or what?"

Boros blinked, then growled in true anger this time. Fine, if this ape was so eager to die, then so be it. Channeling all his energy, Boros roared.

Saitama merely yawned as Boros did his little power up, his purple energy forming a sphere of light around him. His skin turned white with black veins visible on his now pale skin. His pink hair grew to enormous length and turned white as well, now impossible to tell apart from his skin. His singular eye flared yellow and Boros roared once more, the sound echoing across the surface of the ship.

Then he attacked, rocketing towards Saitama. The bald hero was impressed by the alien's speed. It was a lot faster than before.

He also hit a lot harder. In the same manner Saitama had punched Boros in the face, Boros punched him, ripping his feet off the ground and throwing him across the ship. A wave of death followed, the heat of it melting the strange purple metal as it chased him. Boros appeared behind him, and Saitama saw his eye for the barest fraction of a millisecond before Boros hit him again. His eye was filled with unbridled rage. And joy.

Boros blitzed around Saitama, striking him hundreds of times a second, even as he continued to fly across the ship. When Saitama finally landed, Boros appeared in front of him and uppercutted him in the jaw. The blow was so powerful it created a whirlwind that not only extinguished the fires on the ship but also tore metal out of the ground, sending chunks of debris in all directions, some even flying off the side of the massive ship.

But it didn't move Saitama an inch. Quite frankly, he was kind of bored of flying around. When Boros punched him, the two were in a standstill for a second. Suddenly, Saitama lashed out, grabbing the alien's clawed hand. The action startled Boros, who tried to wrench his arm back, unsuccessfully. Whipping his hand up, his hand tore through the alien flesh, once again relieving Boros of an arm. Boros reeled back, but before he could go far, Saitama chopped his hand through the pale alien's neck, severing his head clean off. Blood splattered across the deck as the head fell to the floor, even as the rest of his body slumped to the floor.

Saitama shrugged to himself. That was fun. But he had things to do. Namely his laundry. Some of his clothes were starting to smell.

As he turned to go, there was a sound. The sound of someone getting to their feet. Saitama stopped, but didn't look back as Boros regrew his head and arm.

"I'll admit," Boros started once his vocal cords regenerated. His head was still nothing more than a skull now, and he didn't even have his eye. The black hole in his skull bored into Saitama's back. "You are even stronger than I gave you credit for. But still, even if you reduced me to a bloodstain on the ground, I would survive. You cannot hope to win. In all my life, I have never lost a fight, and I don't plan to start today."

"I suppose you want to keep going then?" Saitama asked.

Boros grinned, the skin on his lips returned flawlessly. "This form puts enormous strain on my body. I have only used it one other time in my entire life. It is my trump card, but also a curse. Every second I use it takes a week off my life. Not that a week is much for my kind, some of our eldest were over three thousand years old. But I'm getting carried away. The simple truth is, I'm have every advantage on you. Why do you continue to fight? You must see it is a lost cause."

"A lost cause?" Saitama wondered, raising an eyebrow. "Dude, you haven't even scratched me."

That made Boros pause. His eye closed, blinking (or winking?) once. "That's absurd."

"You can look if you want, but I haven't taken any damage. Not even a bruise," Saitama informed him.

"You lie!" Boros roared, lunging at Saitama. Saitama just sighed, slapping Boros across the face. The front half of his face shattered, blood and bits of bone spraying everywhere. But Boros continued attacking as his face regrew. Saitama dodged and weaved around the alien's attack, backing up slowly. Roaring once more, Boros unleashed a beam of energy. It struck Saitama and sent him flying again. Boros raced after him, trying to blitz him again, but Saitama blocked every blow Boros hit him with on his forearm. Growling, Boros grabbed Saitama's cape and whirled him around, throwing him up into the sky. Boros launched after him, his own innate energy propelling him upwards. He rose and punched Saitama in the back, sending him higher in the sky. He zoomed after the bald hero and punched him again, flying after him. He followed a third time and hammer struck him downward, sending this infuriating man careening back towards the ship. Boros rocketed downward, spiralling as he neared the surface of his ship. His momentum curved and he shot back up towards Saitama, torpedoing into him at supersonic speeds. The impact not only created a shockwave but a black sphere.

Boros didn't fully understand this ability himself. It couldn't be maintained for longer than a millisecond, but in that time gravity itself was inverted. It also shot black lightning that drew in electricity and brought it back into his body, energizing him. But the banger was that with this ability, both Saitama's downward velocity and Boros' upwards velocity were essentially doubled, making the blow several times stronger than some of his strongest punches. While a single normal punch could destroy hundreds of miles of land, with this ability his strength was amplified enough to destroy an entire continent. When he had used this ability on a planet he was conquering, he had actually shifted the entire planet's gravitational axis, resulting in the planet becoming uninhabitable in a matter of weeks.

When he hit Saitama, he launched the human so far into the sky, even Boros couldn't see him. Boros landed his ship, breathing heavily. It had been so long since he had gone all out. Boros looked to this world's blue sky, so unlike the grey sky of his homeworld. And began to laugh.

Saitama looked down at the earth. It looked simultaneously enormous and tiny from this perspective. Saitama got to his feet, looking around. Apparently, he had landed on the moon. Cool. Never been here before. Suddenly, Saitama remembered there was no air in space. He quickly pinched his nose and closed his mouth. Strange, his lungs weren't burning for air. That was interesting. He made a mental note to come to space more often.

Saitama spotted the alien ship below him and nodded to himself. Bending down, he launched back towards the planet and the alien that threatened to destroy it all.

Unfortunately, he misjudged the amount of power he needed to get back. Instead of landing on the ship, he barreled straight through it, opening a hundred foot hole straight through the center of the ship. He slammed into the earth below, creating a tidal wave of rock and debris. Saitama hissed in sympathy before jumping back up to the surface of the ship to face his opponent once more.

Tatsumaki saw Saitama rip through the ship and jump up a moment later. She heaved a sigh of relief. When he disappeared like that, she had been worried.

She had followed Saitama's aura as he traveled throughout the alien ship, extinguishing the alien's auras as he went. She had witnessed his battle against the other esper, and how quickly he made work of it. Of course, that esper had been nothing compared to her, but it was only more proof that he deserved the number one spot ahead of her.

But when he met that purple aura, something changed. One blow had not killed the purple aura. In fact, it only grew stronger, like something that was contained had been set free. Their fight had been epic, the two combatants releasing power that was staggering, even to Tatsumaki. That was expected of Saitama, but this other being had kept fighting, surviving city levelling blows and giving them right back.

But while the purple alien's aura had waxed and waned throughout the fight, Saitama's had remained a constant red. It was indestructible and indomitable. Even as he was thrown across the ship and subjected to power similar to that of the strongest nuclear bombs, his aura never wavered. But then something strange happened. The alien had warped his aura and a second later she couldn't feel Saitama's aura.

There was no small amount of relief when Saitama had reappeared. Because if there was something that not even he could beat, the rest of them might as well kill themselves for the good they would do. Obviously. There was no point in deluding herself that there was any other reason she was glad Saitama reappeared.

But his reentrance had also reminded her that she could still be doing things to bring down the ship. Sure, she had been throwing rocks at it and she had reversed those missiles, but she hadn't been doing all that much damage altogether. Not that she was trying, of course. But maybe it was time she actually did something, unlike the other useless hero wannabes below her. Cracking her knuckles, Tatsumaki dropped all the debris she had been holding. She reached out with her ESP and took hold of the ship, starting with the hole Saitama had punched through it. Tatsumaki clasped her hands together in concentration. She couldn't drag the ship down, something was resisting her. But she wasn't aiming to drag it down.

Reaching through the crack Saitama had formed, Tatsumaki sought to widen the crack. She pulled her hands apart and pulled them down, trying to bend the spaceship like she folded a piece of paper. The metal groaned and resisted her, but still, it bent.

Tatsumaki was sweating from the effort she was exerting. Not only was there something that was resisting her powers, but the metal itself was also slippery and dense. Tatsumaki let her hands drop releasing her hold on the ship. She hadn't ripped it in half like she had planned, but the damage was done. There was a sizable crack now, nearly a third way through the ship. If Saitama somehow managed to destroy whatever was resisting her, she could pull it apart. But it didn't matter anyway. The battle was practically over.

Saitama erupted from the ship, appearing just fifty feet away from Boros. The one eyed alien stared at him in shock. Saitama just smirked at him. "Overshot it a little on the first jump."

Boros' expression turned to rage and he lunged at Saitama. The bald man just sighed, allowing the alien to hit him over and, never even flinching. Annoyed at his relentlessness, Saitama spoke a few words. "Normal Breath."

Saitama inhaled, then blew a gust of wind out of his mouth. The wind ravaged what little was left of the surface of the ship. It also sent Boros flying, only for him to come back just just as fast, propelled only by his innate energy. Boros roared, firing a beam of energy at him. Saitama jumped up to avoid it and Boros changed directions midair to hit him. Saitama just cocked his fist back, saying "Normal Consecutive Punches."

Under a flurry of countless punches, the alien turned to mush, what little remaining of him exploding in all directions. Boros pulled himself together, chunks of himself flying towards his form. But the force of Saitama's blow had scattered him pretty far, so it took him a couple seconds to regenerate.

Suddenly, the ship buckled, and there was a great grinding sound. Saitama felt the ship tilt downwards, a good thirty degrees by his estimate. Saitama looked behind him to see the hole he created turn into a massive crevice, spanning at least three miles long, if not more. Probably more. Ok, definitely more now.

"The hell?" Boros exclaimed. "What kind of monstrous esper do you have?"

Saitama shrugged. Boros snarled. "No matter. Once I kill you, I'll deal with this esper myself."

"Dude, you really got to get a hobby," Saitama said.

"Killing you is my hobby," Boros retorted, lunging at him once more. Before the alien could hit him though, Saitama smacked him, eviscerating the alien's body. Before he could regenerate, Saitama waved his hand through the aliens, splattering his guts again. Saitama continued shredding the alien, never allowing him to regenerate more than a torso and a limb. Boros never had a chance to counter or even defend himself, only try and keep himself from being disintegrated.

"Enough!" Boros roared, unleashing a burst of energy that sent Saitama skidding. Boros leaped up into the air, summoning all of the energy he could muster. "I will defeat you! Even if I have to destroy myself and this planet in the process!"

Lightning shot from the sphere of energy Boros summoned, the force of his power keeping him aloft. Saitama blinked, shielding his eyes from the light show.

"Collapsing Star!" Boros shouted, even as he felt his body begin to fall apart. "Roaring Cannon!"

Boros roared, unleashing all his power at Saitama, this infuriating strong man.

Saitama cocked his fist back. "Fine then. If it's a final move you want, I'll give it to you. Serious Series: Serious Punch."

As the beam of energy raced towards him, he locked eyes with Boros. The alien had a maddening grin on his face. Saitama almost sighed when he punched forward, punching through the energy, the force of his punch carrying all the way until it hit Boros and even beyond him.

Tatsumaki felt the resistance disappear an instant before a blinding light appeared in the hole she had torn in the ship. Tatsumaki gasped, shielding her eyes from the brilliance. Even at this distance, she could feel the tremors in the air.

Several of the other S Class gasped and admired the show in awe, murmuring amongst themselves. Tatsumaki paid them no mind. As soon as the light show was done, Tatsumaki stopped holding back and finished tearing the ship in half. The metal groaned in protest, but Tatsumaki ignored it's futile whimpers. The aircraft snapped in two, the innards of the ship on full display for everyone to see. There were some shouts as aliens realized they were exposed. But that wasn't their only problem.

Whatever had been resisting Tatsumaki had also been keeping the ship afloat. Now that it was gone, not even mentioning that it was split in half, the ship began to fall.

Tatsumaki watched dispassionately as the four S Class Heroes run for safety as the ship fell. If they couldn't save themselves, they didn't deserve to be saved.

Tatsumaki smiled in satisfaction as the ship crashed to the ground, the crash resulting in tremors that shook the already decimated city. That's what you get for messing with Saitama, Tatsumaki thought to herself.

Now only one question remained. Where was Saitama?

Saitama looked up at the cloudless sky. The ship had fallen about a minute ago, after Boros' 'world ending attack'. He could still see the moon high in the sky, and if he squinted real hard he could even see the cracks that formed when he jumped back to earth. It was quiet, almost serene, despite all the carnage that had been wrecked here.

A sharp inhalation caught his attention. A blackened, withered corpse lay on his back. The alien's pink hair was dry and wispy, a stark contrast to the body that had once been so full of life. His singular eye was gone, and there were no attempts to regenerate himself.

"Did I...lose?" Came a broken question.

Saitama chose not to reply. The corpse chuckled. "The battle was hard fought."

Saitama looked away, still not responding.

"I thought not." Another chuckle. "I never imagined my passage would be so...insufficient."

There was a brief pause. No breeze swept through the broken battlefield as the two titans stood alone amongst the only home they had ever known.

"You have my condolences, Saitama. I have found my peace at last. But the cost was...high."

Another broken laugh. "So much for prophecies."

The laughing continued for a moment before coming to a curt end.

Saitama looked down at the alien conqueror. He walked the steps between them and stopped before him. Saitama knelt, studying the corpse. He did not know what kind of last rites his kind observed, but this being deserved respect, even in the end.

Saitama pressed two fingers to his lips, then placed them on the aliens forehead. The brittle body turned to dust under his fingers, the ash floating up and away on a gentle breeze. Saitama watched it for a moment, then turned his back on it and started towards the earth.