Hey Guys! Crescent Rider here, and I am back with another update of this story!
But before you all begin with this chapter, I just want to express how excited I am for the upcoming Season of the One Punch Man in 2023. However, I hope that whatever studio is in charge of its production will make things better unlike what I've seen in Season 2.
I mean sure, Season 2 does have its memorable moments such as Garou's battles. But the manga has shown a lot of hype than the season and I hope that the action sequences there will not, I mean NOT, be screwed by crappy animations.
Similar to the sorry excuse of an anime fight 'Escanor vs Meliodas'. (I haven't continued that anime, but I did watch the fight scene and saw how crappy it was)
That is all, and enjoy the updates!
Outside the Shelter
After Genos was tossed out of the Shelter by the Deep Sea King, he once again feels ashamed of his defeat as well as his weakness...
But when he heard the rumbling sounds of punches and broken stones from the shelter, he had assumed that Nadia fought the Deep Sea King alone. However, the truth was far different than what he presumed...
Inside the Shelter
The Deep Sea King was growling with irritation as Kombu Infinity stood her guard, used Silverfang's martial arts to redirect its punches, and landed several more barrages to the Deep Sea King's face.
The citizens of City - J were stunned by the sight of this battle. A monster fighting another for their sake seemingly held her ground despite the monster's strength and size.
Eventually, the unthinkable happened...
"D-Do your best," A child cheered, "Do your best!"
"Y-Yeah! Teach that thing what for!"
"We're rooting for you!"
"Do your best!"
Countless men, women, and even children cheered for Kombu Infinity as she held her ground and fought her former leader. Though as they cheer, the Deep Sea King was annoyed by their constant cheering.
"You all sicken me!" The Deep Sea King remarked, and prepares another acid ball of spit for the crowd,
But before he could spit it out, a chain was wrapped around its neck, and then pulled its head upward. When the spit came out of its mouth, it didn't reach and comes crashing down on its face.
The acid proceeds to burn its face, and it screams in agony while Kombu Infinity pulled her hair back.
"Don't count me out just yet," Archer said his hands in his pockets, and golden appears just above his head, "I haven't even got the chance to show off,"
Archer then unleashes a wave of chains at the Deep Sea King and the resulting impact had caused a large dust cloud to be formed around it.
As the two of them fight, Nadia remains on the ground as she tries to calm herself from this unknown force. The Voices were silenced, her vision was blurred, and her ears were ringing.
But despite this, she still tries to recover as this unknown force was somewhat close to a typical illusion. Though, this particular spell is somewhat familiar...
While she's preoccupied with her own problem, Archer and Kombu Infinity went on to do their very best against the Deep Sea King with the latter countering and redirecting its attacks and the former providing support by restraining its arms and neck long enough for Kombu Infinity to unleash a barrage of swift and precise attacks.
But whenever the Deep Sea King finds himself restrained by Archer's chains, it resorts to an attack by sending some sort of moray tongue and slithers its way towards Archer.
This forces Archer to release some of his chains from the Deep Sea King's body and used them to pierce and tear through the Deep Sea King's long moray tongue. Giving it an opportunity to dig its hand into the rubble, and hurls it toward him.
Archer could avoid this by using his chains to destroy it, but doing so comes with the risk of Nadia and possibly bystanders getting hurt in the process. Fortunately, Kombu Infinity was there as she split the rubble into pieces and even sent them back at the Deep Sea King's face with immense speed.
It did little damage, but it was enough to infuriate him...
"Guess having you around is quite reassuring," Archer commented,
"Can we talk after we've dealt with him?" Kombu Infinity stated,
"If you say so," Archer insisted and presses the attack by summoning a wave of his chains once more.
"This again?" The Deep Sea King commented and swats away the chains with his free hand,
Though one of the chains had coiled around his wrist, then followed by a few other chains as well. As the Deep Sea King struggles to break free, he took the time to glance at Nadia.
Archer could end the fight right then and there. However, Nadia's condition prevents him from doing so since his Independent Action can prolong a fight but not finish it since the Deep Sea King has been aware of his intentions.
When Archer tried to kill him by piercing through the head, the Deep Sea King would evade the air or use its Moray Tongue to divert the trajectory of his attacks. Not only that, Archer is being deprived of his mana and he would have trouble restraining both arms of the Deep Sea King.
He could rely on Kombu Infinity's defenses since they still remain strong. But in a logical sense, her hair would often receive some amount of damage by the Deep Sea King's relentless attacks and her offensive capabilities do little since she has yet to refine her Martial Arts from Bang's lesson.
Thus, they were met with a standstill and Archer used what he can to restrain the Deep Sea King with his chains.
"Now this is a problem..." Archer said, "If I were my older self, I would have finished it over in a split second. Can you still defend against his attacks?"
"I can, but I can't guarantee that I'll beat him since he's big and I'm still learning Silverfang's Martial Arts," Kombu Infinity replied, "But, if we time our attack. We could at least send this thing outside before it harms anyone,"
"If we're going to do this, we only have one shot of succeeding since I've wasted a lot of my mana from restraining its movements," Archer noted, "Do you think you can do it?"
"I'll try, but I will not fail," Kombu Infinity promised,
"Then let's do this," Archer declared, and readies himself for their counter-offensive.
Though the two stopped when Archer felt a hand on his left shoulder, and Kombu Infinity felt a hand holding onto her right elbow.
The two simultaneously turned and finds Nadia standing between them with her eyes shadowed by her bangs,
"Nadia-san...?" Kombu Infinity said,
"You both worked hard..." Nadia blankly praised, and walked past them, "Just leave the rest to me,"
As minutes of fighting had come to pass, the tide of battle now shifted in the heroes' favor.
With that, Nadia walked towards the Deep Sea King and transfers most of her mana into her right hand as she clenched it, and the rest was transferred into her feet.
She then assumed a stance with her right fist being close to her and left stretched forward. The sight of this stance had Archer widen his eyes. For this stance was familiar...
Once again, Archer opens several more gates and what came out were several chains heading their way towards the Deep Sea King.
The Deep Sea King stares at her with confusion, but the aura she emits was something it didn't know...
'W-What's with this runt... First, she was confident, now she's different,' The Deep Sea King remarked in confusion,
"Nadia-san..." Kombu Infinity muttered,
Nadia remains silent and concentrates on the restrained Deep Sea King. She then breathes in to enhance her physical condition past her current limit and ease her mind.
Once she was ready, she dashed toward the Deep Sea King at immense speed. In the eyes of spectators, they thought that she's was teleporting. But in Archer's eyes, he was hit with nostalgia as the same attack was made long ago...
What followed was Nadia punching the area where the Deep Sea King's heart is located and it screams in utter pain. Not only that, she even released the magic power of her fist through the Deep Sea King's thick skin.
In the end of her attack, the Deep Sea King was knocked straight through the same hole Genos had made while Archer's chains disappeared.
As soon as Nadia falls from the air, Kombu Infinity uses her hair to catch her in mid-air and slowly drops her to the floor.
"Thanks," Nadia thanked while holding onto her right forearm,
"S-Sure," Kombu Infinity responded, 'To think that she would defeat him with a single blow... I guess being with her isn't as bad as I thought,'
After their supposed victory, the Citizens of City - J began to cheer for the three as they defeated the Deep Sea King once and for all.
Some even gather around them and began thanking them for their heroism. Even Kombu Infinity received her share of their praises.
Though that was cut short as well when someone refused to acknowledge a certain fact in the matter.
"I refuse!" A Citizen yelled, and everyone turns to him as he points at Kombu Infinity, "There's no way a monster like that can call itself a hero!"
Kombu Infinity was soon agitated by the man's outburst and the same can be said for the other civilians around him.
Then that person continues to run off with his mouth as he points out baseless facts such as a monster is still a monster, a hero must always be a human hero, and such and such.
The people around this person muttered to themselves for a brief moment...
...
...
...
Then that person was swiftly suppressed by the people as they don't acknowledge his facts especially when Kombu Infinity publicly renounced her own kind for their sake to the monster's face.
Even after that man's suppression, Kombu Infinity still remains agitated as one of those facts held some truth. But she snaps out of this trance when Nadia nudged her with her able arm, "Hey,"
Kombu Infinity turns to her, and sees Nadia smiling, "You did great out there. I'm proud of you,"
Kombu Infinity had her mouth agape, but she hummed in response before making a genuine smile for the first time.
Archer glances outside and widens his eyes when he sees the Deep Sea King slowly rising outside the shelter. Visibly weakened from Nadia's attack, 'It's not dead? But how... She hit him dead on,'
Nadia slowly raises her head, then noticed the Deep Sea King as well, "Why isn't it dead? That blow would have killed him,"
"It's the rain," Kombu Infinity revealed, "He grows stronger as long as he's exposed to a source of water. The same can be said for his healing abilities,"
Nadia clicked her tongue at this, "I should have aimed for the head,"
The Deep Sea King loudly cursed Nadia for hurting him, though his movement was slow as his injury has yet to recover. Though his intentions were clear and it marches its way back to the shelter to kill everyone that defies him.
But as he slowly walked towards the shelter, someone else comes into the scene, "Justice Crash!"
A bike crashes onto the Deep Sea King's body, and it looked unfazed by the bump. As it turns to the culprit, it was none other the Class - C's top hero, "The Cyclist for Justice, Mumen Rider is here!"
"It's Mumen Rider,"
"Mumen Rider came for us,"
"But he..."
'Out of his league here...' Nadia remarked, 'He's going to get himself killed,'
Mumen Rider charges forth and attempts to punch the Deep Sea King. But was easily caught and effortlessly smashes him to the ground until the sleeve of his shirt was ripped off.
The Deep Sea King cared little about the hero and focuses on the shelter. But stops when Mumen Rider picked his feet up and pressed onward, "Justice Tackle!"
Mumen Rider tackles the Deep Sea King and attempted to hold him in place. But such an attempt is fruitless for an average hero.
The Deep Sea King soon felt irritated with him, and it easily swats him a few meters away.
One of the civilians then turns to Nadia, "Hey, you're heroes right? Can't you go out there and save him?"
"I can't, Not in this state," Nadia admitted, much to their dismay,
With that, the civilians soon became concerned over Mumen Rider as they watched him struggle to pick his feet up. But as he does so, Mumen Rider kept yelling the fact about his weakness and his status as Class C.
He shamelessly admits everything to everyone about being unworthy of Class B and his awareness of a losing battle. But despite all that, he was still willing to try.
"It's not about winning or losing!" Mumen Rider yelled, "It's about me taking you on right here, right now!"
Citizens of City - J stuttered at Mumen Rider's words while Nadia was somewhat speechless by this person. Even though he wouldn't stand a chance against someone bigger than him, he would go this far to show that his service is to the people and not to his own.
But after her pause, Nadia's thoughts had one certain opinion of this hero, 'He's... an Idiot,'
Then, the people of City - J started cheering for the Hero despite the futility behind Mumen Rider's actions.
And in the end, Mumen Rider failed and was knocked out by a single punch from the Deep Sea King's fist.
However, before the cyclist hero could fall to the ground. Saitama finally arrives and catches the fallen hero before he hits the ground.
The people of City - J were confused about who Saitama is, but Nadia couldn't help but smile as this incident is about to end decisively...