Itsuka Quanteng was strong, she knew that. She had fought enough enemies in the Multiverse that she was aware of the fact.
It hadn't meant anything. Itsuka had died, just then, and the only thing that had saved her was a friend's Quirk. She had tried to restrain herself, to hold on for a few minutes before going all out, and she had paid the price.
Not anymore.
She built some distance for the time required to do her thing, and closed her eyes, focusing on each state of her Qi.
The Human Fist, Renlei Quan. The natural state of mankind, the potential for good outweighing the urge for evil. She focused her mind on that, feeling as if a circlet had formed around her head.
The Shou Quan, the Animal Fist. Neither positive nor negative Qi, for Animals acted neither out of benevolence nor out of malice, they just lived for their needs and instincts. She felt her arms and legs strengthen, and a tail of Qi sprout from her back.
The Equi Quan, The Angry Ghosts Fist. For those that fell into depravity, those men and spirits that lost themselves to their appetite. She felt her body grow both number and hotter, as if she had been let loose of all inhibition and pain.
The Diyu Quan, the Fist of Hell. For the truly fallen, a pit of darkness that threatened to devour her entirely. She breathed out, feeling a large pit form in her chest, one that begged to be filled with light.
The Axiuluo Quan, the Ashura Fist. The path of those that had climbed their way up from Hell, the path of the fighter and the destroyer, the path of those that fought evil to not fall again into it. She felt it shape around her body, as a bo of Qi appeared in her hand, as the circlet around her head finally took shape, as her limbs were covered by wraps of Qi, as the emptiness in her chest moved and reshaped itself into a gourd around her hip.
And finally, the Tian Ren Quan, the Deva Fist. The pure light that contrasted against the darkness, covering her body, stabilizing it, shining brightly to spread itself outside.
All at once, that was the secret she had yet to teach any of her students. A fine control of each part of your body, tuning your Qi in each area at once. Forming the true essence of her style, the technique that had defeated Shigaraki.
The Wukong Quan, the Fist of the Monkey King, the Seven Times Immortal. Mixing all the six ways in a seventh one was dangerous, but she could do it.
And that was what made her the pinnacle of strength in Martial Arts in the Multiverse.
That's what made her the strongest.
She jumped, propelling herself high, high in the air, and then extended her aura. A cloud of Qi formed under her feet, allowing her to stand in the air.
"Grow, Ruyi Bang." She called, and the Qi weapon started to grow. Her Qi flowed through the staff as it grew in size more and more, and then she dissolved the cloud. She brought the gigantic staff down like a hammer, and she knew she had reached the maximum size when she started to feel cold. How much did it weigh? Four tons? Five? She wasn't sure she had reached the legendary Ruyi Bang her image was based on, the weapon of the Monkey King that could weigh almost eight tons, but she was as close as she could be.
Of course, Izmird didn't ignore her, even as the Green Scar rushed toward him. He swoop the man away with his tail, opened his mouth, and fire burst out of it, incandescent flames burning through the moonless sky, accompanied by Canary's song.
She freed one hand, knowing gravity was already doing most of the job in carrying down the Qi construct, so long as she kept the other hand connected to it, and grabbed the gourd on her side, pointing it at the pillar of fire.
Qi flows in all things, and it defines them. The Qi gourd was a construct that contained the power of the Fist of Hell, a darkness that absorbed all Qi it came in contact with. When she used it, the fire was snuffed out, as the Qi it contained was absorbed by the Qi construct, and Itsuka descended, shouting as the the Ruyi Bang impacted against Izmird the dragon roaring as the biggest construct Itsuka could create hit him and slammed him into the ground.
The strongest technique of the ultimate style of her martial arts, the pinnacle of her strength, hit.
-x-
The Green Scar was strong, he knew that. He had to be to survive for so long. Back in his forty-five years old body, he was truly the Green Scar. He was the man that had fought the Solarian Army, that had punched, kicked and lead his way through a war to save the people he cared for.
He had founded a Kingdom, even if he hadn't been there to see it truly blossom, and had his suspicions on the true lineage of another. He had married twice, loved twice, and lost twice. He had been a Hero and a monster, a Knight and a traitor, a legend and a bogeyman, The Green Scar and The Green Knight.
None of that had mattered when he had been killed by Izmird. The Dragon was something else. Stronger than Solaria, stronger than her Knights, stronger than any monster he had fought before.
So he would do what the Green Scar always did.
He would push past himself, fight to his limit for those that needed him. He would show that dragon why an entire Kingdom feared him once, why Solarian Knights never travelled alone.
He dashed forward, Fa Jin pumping through each step as he ducked under claws that were slicing even the air, leaving behind a trail of what Izuku realized was a vacuum. Magic, after all, was always scary, he knew that better than anyone.
The ground burst into lances of metal and stone, but he used Float to ignore them, flying at full speed. Each spear exploded in a burst of ice, thin daggers that flew towards him, but the Green Scar didn't stop, wouldn't stop. He trusted the song he could hear in the air, as his body was pierced, and he ignored the pain, feeling it heal up as Immortals kept him alive.
Instead, he activated all of his Quirks. The Seconds' Quirk speeding him up even further than just Fa Jin alone, The Third's Quirk charged into his fist and legs, the Fourth's Quirk keeping him aware to dodge the truly fatal blows that would stop him in his tracks, the Fifth's Quirk coiling around his arms ready to fire, the Sixth's Quirk surrounding with a thin layer of smoke to make Izmird's hit less precise without obstructing his eyes, the Seventh's Quirk keeping him afloat as he reached the dragon's body.
He could see the emeraldine body of the beast shine, covered by some sort of protective magical layer, even as his head was aimed above to try and stop Itsuka, who was coming down from above with her own attack. The Green Scar couldn't see it, but he could feel it, feel the pressure of whatever technique of her own she was using.
Izuku breathed out and extended Blackwhip. Two tendrils grabbed on Izmird's wings, while a third one shot out of his back and dragged him toward the ground. It was the biggest slingshot in the world, charged and ready to fire against the gargantuan beast, and the projectile…
The projectile was, most likely, the most experienced Izuku with One for All. At least, those had been Itsuka's words. There were older Izukus out there, but Izuku had fought a war for thirty years. Those weren't the kind of skills one gained otherwise. He knew how to defeat someone.
He had blown up a mountain top, once, with this move, after all, and the person he had used it against… well, it was quite ironic, but he refused to change the name.
"Mewnie…"
The Blackwhip on his back vanished, and he shot forward, slamming feet first Izmird's chest.
"SMASH!"
The air shook at the blow, the attack rippling through the dragon's body, the creature roaring in pain as his magic shield and his scales both fractured and broke apart, at the same time as Itsuka's attack also hit.
The Green Scar shouted, Fa Jin and the Second's Quirk propelling him forward, his feet pushing into Izmird's flesh, the sound of breaking and cracking accompanying the dragon's pain.
As he pulled himself back, he watched the imprint his two reinforced boots had left together in the dragon. An imprint that looked a lot like a butterfly.
He breathed in, and swung right back, now turning his attack into a rain of kicks.
"Rabbit Kingdom SMASH!" He shouted, each attack a one hundred percent kick and more.
Izmird felt each blow, but the Green Scar didn't stop.
He had to win, and he would.
-x-
Izmird was in pain. If he hadn't used so many reinforcement spells on himself, or if he hadn't set up beforehand automatic healing spells on himself, ready to fire when he was hit hard enough, he hated to admit he would have likely lost already.
But Izmird was strong, he also knew that. He knew that he was, pushing pitiful humbleness aside, that he was the strongest magic user of his time. He was a Dragon of untold power, he was the pinnacle all other magic users compared themselves to.
And so, even as he was half squashed to the ground and half tormented by a thousand bone crushing kicks, he didn't lose his cool. He opened his mouth and casted the next spell, and then another, and another. Air froze still in to thin barriers, each able to take one blow from the Green Scar before shattering, and more and more kept appearing in front of him.
Meanwhile, the weight on his back lessened. He pushed upward, using his enhanced strength to raise the Qi construct that he couldn't see but could feel. His legs swelled, as muscles grew in size and thickness pushing the Dragon back up. He roared in defiance and his neck shot forward and bit.
Itsuka was bisected at the waist, falling to the ground in two halves… only for the upper one to grow new legs and resume her attack. Whatever she had done, however, vanished with her 'death'. Just an instant, before it would undoubtably come again, but Izmird took the chance to open his mouth and unleash a torrent of fire on the Green Scar.
The man punched in response, the air displacement enough to extinguish most of the fair, but Izmird had expected that, and the ground below the Green Scar opened. A torrent of fire sprouted from below, the result of a portal spell applied in his throat with a quick casting, and the Green Scar shouted as he was turned to ash before he had the time to recover… only to re-emerge from the ashes like a phoenix. A very, very angry phoenix.
Pain. Quanteng got close and personal, her fist powered up by her technique enough to send Izuku stumbling back, and then came the Green Scar, punching him from below right in the chin.
His mouth clashed shut, but Izmird, if possible, now was even more furious. Those insects thought that just because they were immortal now they could hurt him? Maybe kill him?
He clawed, ripped, slices, bit, breathed fire, ice, electricity, acid and poisonous gas. He killed them, one or both, several times, but so long as the song went, they came back, like an annoying parasite, and any time he tried to reach Canary, he would be stopped.
But he would win.
He just had to endure and attack.
-x-
Canary knew he was strong, but that his true strength was in his role as support. He kept singing, and as he reached the last few lines of Immortals, he racked his brain for the right songs. There were a few, but most were gambles. They might only apply to him, after all, and he didn't need that.
As Immortals entered its final verse, he nodded and took a decision.
~Stronger – The Score ~
"I don't do this for the riches…"
-x-
Itsuka and the Green Scar felt the change instantly. They could feel the weight of each wound grow slightly, the pain from each attack not numbing instantly.
And so they did what they had agreed to do. They shielded themselves.
Itsuka slammed both arms together, and mixed Shou Quan's Black Tortoise Shell, Axiuluo Quan's shield creation and the same expansions she had used to attack before to protect herself. At the same time, the Green Scar grabbed her and took flight, shooting upward as she kept the shield going. Izmird roared and took flight too, his wings beating in the air.
Then, they felt it. Something akin to a flame lighting up within both of them. They glanced at each other, and smiled, as the wind carried upward Canary's voice as far as it could reach.
And they dove back down.
"Set me on fire, set me on, set me on fire…"
The Dragon opened its mouth unleashing his fire, and flames enveloped the descending duo.
Only for their own fire to burn around them, one a bright crimson flame, the other a green burst of energy.
"Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life!"
Both Itsuka and Izuku punched at once.
"Stronger!"
The fists impacted, and they were powerful.
-x-
Izmird grimaced as he hit the ground, sent tumbling there by a pair of fists that had no right being as strong as they were. In all of his long centuries of life, he had never fought three humans that alone could put him through so much using merely their skills.
Valuable. So, so valuable. The Multiverse held so much. Power, knowledge, those things called Quirks and magic he didn't know. All was there, right at hand, and all he had to do was pass this ordeal. He had to step through and prove why he was the strongest magic user.
He'd do anything to conquer more treasure. That was what it meant to be a dragon.
-x-
Kiruka rushed out of the medical bay of the Arena, finally sure all of the captured enemies and the convalescent allies would be taken care of. They had broken them up in two different wings, to keep the people with the Crest safely restrained in case they went berserk once awakened. She had also gotten top security and an assurance that no one but the League would go in and out. It had taken a lot of time, but it was time she needed anyway, due to her power.
Kiruka's Quirk to traverse the Multiverse was a combination. Her Teleport, for whatever reason, was an anomaly that, even after training, didn't direct correctly when she tried to use it in the Multiverse. It would take her to another world, but it would take her to a random location in that world. That, alone, wasn't good enough.
However, she had a Quirk called Link. It allowed to connect two spots in space and move back and forth at super-speed. Combined with Teleport, however, Link allowed her to select a position she wanted to be in anywhere in the Multiverse, and from there to Teleport back and forth.
The only catch was that, unlike Guide, Link needed to recharge heavily. The longer it connected two locations, the longer it took for it to change one of the connection points. And so, now she was waiting the cool down time, before she could connect to the Deadlandverse.
She rushed to the corridors, to catch up with their final weapon. As she turned a corner, she bumped into another woman. She stumbled back, and Kiruka crossed eyes with an Itsuka.
"Sorry!" She said, quickly helping her up, and giving her back a large witch hat, wondering which universe she came from.
"Oh, not at all, my fault." The Itsuka replied, "I'll go." Kiruka nodded, and turned around. "Good luck." The woman added, but when Kiruka turned she had already walked away. Normally, she might have asked her what she meant, but she was just too busy. She had to go.
-x-
"Just how tough is he?!" The Green Scar shouted, his mouth erupting into flames and smoke as the internal organs that the attack he had just suffered had pierced repaired themselves thanks to the song Canary was still singing.
"A lot." Itsuka replied, shaking a bit as she landed next to them. The Green Scar noticed that she was keeping her hands in a different position now, and he couldn't feel the pressure of the weapon she had been holding before. Glancing at Canary, he was pale, barely standing. Yeah, two songs like that in a row probably had him spent.
Then again, he was the only reason they were even alive. Sure, they had been very reckless, but still…
"Even counting that, you would have died three times for sure." The Second supplied.
"I counted five." The Third replied.
"I gave him the benefit of the doubt on that claw to the chest and that sudden ice spear, I think he could have dodged both with the right timing."
'Can we not discuss how fucked I am if Canary stops singing?' The Green Scar asked, and then he blinked, feeling the pain in his body finally vanishing entirely, devoured by the flames. "Alright, back at it."
He made to rush forward, but Canary jumped in front of both him and Itsuka and shook his head, and the Green Scar realized why. He was done. The song had finished.
"What now?" Itsuka asked, and the Green Scar nodded. Izmird seemed suspicious for now, studying them from a distance, but he would likely charge in again. The dragon wasn't doing well. They had kept the pressure up. One of his wings was broken, the other at least badly bruised. His healing spells, however many he had, seemed to have run out, or at least he had a reason to not use them anymore. Hopefully, they were like drugs, and he was taking too many. That would have been nice.
"I think I can… do one more, but not an healing one." Canary replied, his breath heavy. "Not the whole song, but I should be able to strike the first chorus and finish it, before I collapse. Do you have a single, big attack you can both use?"
"I can do one." Itsuka said, panting, "It's not as powerful, but it should hurt, at least."
"I can too. Well, I can hit him with Mewnie and Rabbit Kingdom Smashes again, they hurt at least." The Green Scar added.
"Good. I will hold him down. You go on the offensive."
Itsuka and the Green Scar looked at each other, and as one charged forward, without questioning it.
Izmird roared and slammed his hand to the ground, more spikes emerging… no, they were constructs. He wasn't going to let them attack him directly anymore. Large stone monsters armed with metal spears and shields bursted out of the ground and charged.
And they were shaped like Solarian Warriors.
"Oh that piece of…" When had he even found the time to read the Green Scar's mind? No, that didn't matter. Izuku kicked forward and through the chest of the monster, shattering it into pieces. It might have been a copy of a Solarian Warrior, but it was a pretty poor attempt at making Izuku lose focus…
Danger Sense rang and Blackwhip extended, dragging him back just before the construct exploded into spikes of rock and metal that covered the ground around it and would have turned the Green Scar into a meat skewer. He dashed past them, and heard a song raise.
"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise…"
Metallic chains sprouted from the ground around Izmird and the constructs, enveloping them tightly. Izmird pulled and tried to set himself free, but the chains grew tighter and tighter around his body, limbs and mouth, keeping him to the ground.
"And if you don't love me now, you will never love me again…" En sang, helping him keep up with the lyrics. One chorus, Canary had said, so this was it. Glancing at Itsuka, who had instead dodged a bunch of constructs and was attacking Izmird. She pushed her cupped hands back, and then she trusted them forward.
"… Did she just do a Kamehameha?" Banjo asked.
There was no visible beam, but something struck Izmird, something strong enough that the chain rattled and pulled as he was hit by the full force of the attack.
"You would never break the chain…"
And the Green Scar struck. Another Mewnie Smash, flying through the hair and hitting Izmird's chained body right in the face, the dragon howling in pain as his nose broke painfully. Izuku brought up his leg, and then hit down with a Manchester Smash, planting the Dragon's face into the ground, and propelling himself into the air. Itsuka had followed him up there, jumping on her own, and as Izuku used Float and Fa Jin to push himself down, she used something else to stop in mid-air and do the same.
They struck, him with his kick, her with some invisible weapons, and the ground shook at the blow as it impacted Izmird's back.
"You would never break the chain-" Canary finished, and then he fell to the ground, unconscious, the chains vanishing. Izmird chanted a spell, and the shadows on his back protruded upward. If Danger Sense wasn't there, the Green Scar and Itsuka would have both been skewered by the solid shadow, but Izuku pushed both of them out of the way, the attack spearing through his leg and her shoulder instead.
They gasped as the shadows latched onto them and slammed both to the ground, Izmird panting, nose and mouth bleeding, scales missing all over his body, a wing limp on the side, and pure fury into his eyes.
"You did well." He said, and the Green Scar took his fighting stance, along with Itsuka. Even that hadn't been enough. Itsuka was clearly spent, Canary was out, and the Green Scar could feel his bones shaking from all the impacts. "I will remember you both as the first fighters that put me in a pinch for so long."
"I'd rather live and tell the story myself." The Green Scar replied, trying a shaky grin. It was the best he could do, but he would fight with a smile to the end.
"Are you surrendering?" Izmird asked.
"Would you let us live that way?"
"At this point?" The dragon chuckled, a rumble similar to a thunder in the distance, "Not a chance. I have my own pride too."
"Yeah, I figured." Izuku sighed, glancing at Itsuka. "You ready?"
She nodded, her brows sweaty, "And, Green Scar?"
"Yes?"
"… Tch, nevermind. I'll tell you if we survive." She said. He raised an eyebrow, but returned to the dragon, ready to fight and… probably die. He hadn't felt this hopeless in a long time. He took his position…
And then a bright light appeared.
Nine minutes had passed.
Their last resort had arrived.
Maybe they wouldn't die, after all.
-x-
Strength was many thing in the Multiverse. It was authority, spirit, ideals, power, intelligence. It was magic, and machines, and Quirks. There were beings above humans by such orders of magnitude that no man could claim to be 'stronger'. Itsuka had been to world that were homes to uncountable horrors and uncaring gods, and to world of caring gods and invisible forces.
She knew that the strongest being in the Multiverse was a useless question.
But if someone asked her who was the strongest human in the Multiverse, it would have been the hulking man standing before her, next to Kiruka. His face was covered by a tattered mask, his long brown hair emerging from the back of it.
He wore nothing fanciful, instead using a shirt, long pants, black boots and a pair of knuckledusters.
And he was the strongest man in the Multiverse. The man that the League chose to appease, rather than fight.
The Battlemaster cracked is neck, pushed off his mask, and looked up at the dragon.
"I got dragged all the way here for this lizard." He said, a grin growing through his face, "I hope it's more than size that makes it a good fight, Slice." He glanced behind him, and chuckled, "Quanteng, how strong is he?"
"The strongest thing I've ever fought." She admitted, in all honesty. Because this was a bet. It was pitting the pinnacle of human strength against the dragon. Battered and bruised, sure, but still capable of fighting them.
If one man could beat him, it was the Battlemaster.
The true pinnacle of human strength stepped forward, One for All rushing through his body. "Well then, lizard. Come at me and show me what you got."
-x-
Izmird opened his mouth, fire roaring toward the four people standing in front of him, but Kiruka was faster, grabbing both the Green Scar and Itsuka and vanishing an instant before the fire would have hit them and turned them all to ashes.
The Battlemaster didn't yield a centimeter. He took the fire straight to his face, his clothes burning up but surprisingly not vanishing into cinder – heat-resistant material, perhaps? – and he himself just smiled in the inferno, before stepping forward.
One step at a time, he marched on, sweating bullets but not burning at all.
Izmird casted a spell while holding up the fire, and a rain of lances appeared from the sky, raining into him from above.
The man looked up, grinned, and then punched.
The explosion of air pressure was enough to both disperse the flames and send the lances flying off into every direction. One landed where Canary had been just a few minutes before, but the man had disappeared, likely Kiruka's doing.
Izmird stopped his fire and instead unleashed toxic gas from his mouth, a cloud of acidic poison that could melt a man into nothing in seconds.
The Battlemaster scoffed and punched again. The air pressure was enough to not only disperse the gas, but more importantly it was enough to send Izmird back.
"Come on, big lizard! I know the classic plays. Fire, acid, lances… That's easy to counter. Show me something new."
Izmird sighed. So he was that kind of man, uh? The kind that built himself up to be invincible. The kind that sometimes braved one of the Ancient Dragons' caves for treasure and glory. Well, so be it. Izmird would reward him with a quick death.
He casted another spell. This one had killed the Green Scar so quickly even his Danger Sense hadn't been enough to avoid it, or One for All enough to block it. He casted it, and a fine net, made of invisible wires the size of a hair, sturdier than iron and capable of catting through almost anything.
The net closed on the Battlemaster, who roared as it cut his skin… and stopped there, pushing but unable to make its way through his muscles. It was pushing, but as much as it tried, his body held. The man pushed outward, his knuckledusters shining a bright red, and the magic dissipating.
"You still don't get it, Lizard?! I don't give a shit about your magic. Cast a thousand spell, and not one will pass through me!"
Magic immunity? No, the net had still cut. Resistance, then. Most likely combined with those Knuckleduster having some sort of dispelling power.
Izmird took a deep breath. If that was to be the case, he would take his chance. "If you wish to challenge me in a contest of strength, wouldn't it be fairer for me to face you at my best?" He asked. He knew of several Heroes for which such line of thinking was sensible. He had faced a few, back in his world, warriors that treated each fight like a contest. He would take the chance to heal himself, now that enough time had passed for the spells to have effect again, and then would power himself up using as much strength enhancing spells as possible before fighting him.
But the man laughed and shot forward. Izmird didn't even see him move between one point and the other, and then the fist collided with his side.
Izmird had been hit several times, but that fist… it was different. It echoed within his body, and if it wasn't for the protective spells he had casted on himself in advance, his ribs would have been crushed. The dragon rolled on the ground and back on his feet, right before the Battlemaster landed with both feet where the dragon had been an instant before, creating a large crater in the ground.
"You misunderstand, lizard. I'm not some hero that is here to challenge you to a fair duel. I am the strongest in the Multiverse. That is a fact. I'm not here to test myself." The Battlemaster grinned, a crazed light in his eye, "I'm only here to have fun and enjoy myself! I will crush you, and I will do that with my fists! Now come at me, lizard! Show me this isn't just a one-sided beatdown!"
Izmird growled, quickly using what healing spells he could. He knew it wasn't true across the Multiverse, but healing spells from his worlds lost effect the more they were casted. He had to chant a long series now to heal completely, and he didn't have time for that. Instead, he casted a single, powerful one, and then strengthened himself. Muscles, bones, organs, skins, scales, teeth, eyes, he covered himself in small, quick spell, adding them up not for defense – that was useless if those knuckledusters dispelled it – but for offense.
And then the Battlemaster was on him, a punch rushing toward Izmird. In response, Izmird whipped his tail. Scales and iron clashed, resounding like a bell in the dead night, and the Battlemaster was thrown slightly back, even as Izmird felt his tail ache. "I'm not one to just accept a beatdown." He said, "Come, then. Face your death, human."
He rushed forward, hitting with his claws, but the Battlemaster expected it. He dove low, below the dragon's belly, and punched up, Izmird coughing blood and vomit as his stomach sunk inward, but the dragon didn't let up, his tail whipping forward and smashing into the Battlemaster, the sound of bone crunching audible in the silence of the fight as the tip of the tail slammed in his chest. But the man wasn't done, and he grabbed the tail, before pulling with all his strength. Izmird was pulled away and smashed into the ground like the greatest maze in the world, but he used the claw on his foot to slice at the man, a large wound opening on his torso and up to his face. Using that opening, he righted himself and bit down.
The Battlemaster grasped his mouth, one hand on each side, holding it open, but Izmird wasn't stupid. A rain of ice lances shot from his mouth, sinking into the man's body. They were stopped by the magic resistance, but they couldn't be stopped entirely. They reached deep enough that the man flinched and Izmird used that opening to claw at him, slicing his shirt and the skin below, but not cutting him in half. The bloodied opponents stared at each other, and then the Battlemaster laughed. "Ah! Now you get it, lizard! Here I come, with my full strength!"
Izmird knew he had to do the same. He casted more and more into his limb, his claws turning as hard as diamonds, and when the Battlemaster attacked, he swiped. The claws and the fists collided, and an explosion shook the air.
That single clash of power was enough to make the whole world stand still for a moment. The sky seemed to part in two, and the roaring rage of two giants could be heard for miles.
-x-
When the dust settled, Izmird and the Battlemaster still stood. The latter's right arm had blown up, the impact and the sheer force of the attacks too much to handle. His right leg was mangled, and he had a large wound open in his flank, blood spilling from it. "So, how was it?" He asked, spitting to the side.
Izmird didn't speak for a long moment. He exhaled smoke from his nose, and looked down at the man. "What is your name?" He asked.
"Kendo." He sighed, "Kendo Rappa. Yours?"
"Izmird." The dragon said, exhaling again. "Tell me, Kendo Rappa. Are you the strongest in the multiverse?"
"The strongest man. Yes. Or I was. We will see how this goes, now that I'll be missing some stuff."
"They won't be able to regrow it?"
"Magic resistance is a difficult thing to turn off." The Battlemaster laughed, coughing up more blood, "Maybe I can save the leg, but the arm? I'm not that positive."
Izmird sighed again. "Very well. Kendo Rappa. Battlemaster." The dragon bowed his head, "I acknowledge you as the strongest man in the Multiverse."
The Battlemaster chuckled, "Well, I acknowledge you as the strongest Dragon."
Izmird exhaled, his vision blurring. "That is... good... to know."
And he collapsed.
-x-
When Kiruka arrived, an hour later, she found the Battlemaster sitting on the ground. He had tied up a grievous wound on his flank, was pale, and was missing an arm entirely, beyond any healing.
In front of him stood the corpse of Izmird the Emeraldine. His front left limb and most of his left side had been blown off by a punch that had completely destroyed him. There was no way to save the Ancient Dragon, Kiruka realized. "We didn't ask you to kill him." She said.
"Was there a need to ask?" The Battlemaster asked, "You sent me to fight someone. Did you expect this to end any other way?"
She didn't answer. She hated this. Izmird was dangerous, but he was so much more. He was a creature that had lived for centuries, a creature with knowledge beyond what any man had ever collected. The fact they had to kill him to preserve themselves didn't make it less tragic, in her opinion. "Let's just go." She said instead, putting a hand on the Battlemaster's shoulder - the left one, of course.
They vanished, and once again, nothing alive was left in the Deadlandverse. Just the corpse of a dragon that had learned the first and final lesson the Multiverse always taught: that there was no true strongest being in the Multiverse. Only someone stronger than you were.
(XX)
And here we go, the end of the Fantasyverse fight. I almost can't believe we are here. Our guests:
Canary from Canary by cloud_nine_and_three_quarters
The Green Scar from The Green Scar Worldbuilding Thread by Quantum01 and The Green Scar by Pro-man
So, the Battlemaster makes his true entrance into the story, by fighting and killing our biggest antagonist to date. Quite the performance, I suppose, even if it did cost him. It was... interesting, to fight Izmird's final fight. The Battlemaster in many ways was his perfect counter, and it's easy to argue that it was unfair, but by and large, that is a point of the Multiverse: the Multiverse is unfair. There is no real top of the food chain, if you go up: there is only the stronger. The Battlemaster is a fighter that simply outclassed Izmird by taking away his main advantage and then dragging the fight into his own domain.
But, before that, there is something else to argue about: The Green Scar and Itsuka. We got a sight of the Wukong Quan, the Fist of the Monkey King. Making it debute here was pretty fun. See, the Monkey King was a seven times immortal, due to the various ways he had used to gain immortality. And the Wukong Quan is called that because it mixes the six schools into a seventh one. And it debuted in an immortal realm, while the user was also immortal.
Yeah, it was fun. Also, Ruyi Bang is the staff of the Monkey King. You might remember Goku's staff from Dragon Ball, or might have seen it in The God of Highschool and in pretty much any other media inspired by Sun Wukong.
The Green Scar is also fun. As the strongest Izuku, and someone that destroyed mountains in his final fights - granted, with an opponent dishing out as much damage - I figured I would give him justice by having him do a lot of damage. His smashes are again based on the locations he visited, but in this he uses two smashes based on the two Kingdoms he served (or in the case of the Rabbit Kingdom, founded).
And then we have Canary, an absolute MVP in this Multiverse fight that can hold his own in combat. There weren't as many references to his story or personality, but that's because I had already given him a lot of space in the Jack Midoriya fight, and with the Venom fusion, so I figured it was alright to give him more of a sideline.
Goodbye, Izmird. You were a fun villain. I hope at least. In the end, you just got caught in the perfect trap, and still went out doing some heavy damage.
Well then, the battle is over, now we rest.
No chapter next week, sorry. I need the week off after this arc, before we dive into the Multiverse again. Although, something might still come. No promises though.