Chapter 6: The Decisive Blow (Climax)
1
Lung stopped laughing soon.
Victory was a momentary pleasure. Fools and the weak enjoyed that, but at his level, it only meant that he had reached a high, yes, he had ridden the crest of a wave that would not rise again.
He had defeated his enemy and that was it, there was nothing more.
Next time it would be even harder to reach such a high, to find an enemy that was at least as challenging.
His heart knew it.
His power and his body knew it too.
He was deflating, losing scales, losing height and altitude, now that there was no battle to fight. Lung made sure to touch the ground before his wings disappeared completely, no, before his size decreased enough to render them useless for flying.
An instant after his feet touched the ground, there was an explosion of pain in the center of his chest.
Lung gasped, spitting blood. He saw the drops flying through the air with a sense of unreality as if he were dreaming awake.
"How is this possible?" he managed to mutter.
But only after falling to the ground did he realize what had happened. The huge hole in his chest. The blood flowing like sprayed from a sprinkler, falling and spreading, forming a red carpet on the ground.
Is this the end?
Then he was overcome by darkness. He knew he was only losing consciousness.
He knew the absolute terror of knowing that it didn't matter, that it wouldn't guarantee that he would wake up again.
2
The lightning, shot through the smoke, hit the target head-on.
He knew it instantly, even amidst the general commotion, he heard his opponent's slight gasp when it struck him. Maybe he hadn't ended the fight with that, but he had messed him up good, as he also heard him crash to the ground.
The dragon had fallen to the earth to never rise again. He would make sure of that.
Kazuya flew, not without effort, out of the crater. He crawled, limping through the smoke wall. He soon noticed Lung on the ground, he would have seen him instantly if he hadn't expected him to have returned to his normal size, a human size.
He had transformed and the laser had dealt him a mortal wound.
The hole in his chest was so large that an arm could pass through it to his back. The blood and the burning mess of his flesh were, above all, what concealed the heart.
Kazuya clicked his tongue.
Just to be clear, he had not intended to use a dishonorable tactic like waiting for him to transform back to attack, taking advantage of the enemy's power weakness that he had confessed himself.
He got stronger as long as he was in a fight.
It just happened that way.
Good luck, bad luck, some kind of luck, in any case.
He wouldn't stoop to do something like that against an opponent of this level, but that didn't mean he would waste the opportunity to crush his enemies if it was handed to him on a platter. His blood was colder than death.
Therefore, without hesitation for a moment, he crawled towards Lung to finish the job.
He couldn't, but not because his pulse trembled for the first time in his life for some mysterious reason or because his own body failed him after such a devastating attack.
Instead, he was simply attacked.
A spear that seemed to be made of electricity pierced his side, throwing him to the ground. Under normal circumstances, it would have bounced off his body, but these circumstances were anything but normal. It was an effort just to stay on his feet, let alone move.
"We arrived too late." His attacker, he assumed, said that.
Kazuya didn't know as he had fallen headfirst to the ground. Biting the dust. He gritted his teeth.
"Just in time. It could have been worse." A woman's voice this time.
"Yes," admitted, though not too convinced, the previous voice.
Kazuya, being a good Mishima, wasted no time while they were on that. He was propping himself up on the ground with his hands and giving it his all to do something as natural as it should be to stand up.
If Lung hadn't defeated him, he wouldn't let these nobodies who had just arrived do it and then take the credit after he had, in a way, softened him up.
Besides, the fight wasn't over yet.
Not really.
Kazuya ignored the approaching figures, more than two and more than four as well. He reached Lung, put his hands on his head. And began to squeeze. He soon felt the skull crunching under his hands.
"Stop!"
He ignored the pathetic plea of whoever it was, naturally.
Lung was a worthy opponent.
For that very reason. He had shown him that he was too dangerous to let live, wherever he was in the end.
So he crushed his head like a ripe watermelon with a big smile on his face.
"God."
Then someone vomited. Maybe the same person. He didn't care. Irrelevant, not worth even talking about. The important thing was that he still had strength.
Not to fight, but to... save it for another time.
Kazuya roared.
The purple aura of power enveloped his body again, an aura that took your breath away, sealed throats. He took off like a dark star. And the insects crawling on the ground shot at him, attacked him, tried to restrain him in various ways, as he had always done, his life had been a struggle against any bondage.
But of course, he flew far away before they could capture him.
Naturally.
Power was freedom.
3
"This has been a complete failure," said Miss Militia, shaking her head as she observed the destruction.
He couldn't blame her.
It couldn't even be said that they had saved lives. By the time they arrived, the fight was already over. Those two monsters had torn each other apart, as well as the surroundings.
"Well, at least Lung won't give us any more trouble."
Militia gave him a cold look. He wondered if he was being judged for what might seem like a joke. He might have been a villain, but Dauntless hadn't wanted that man to die like that, just to face justice.
Maybe he was overthinking it.
Maybe her look wasn't cold because she was judging him, but because she didn't care one way or another.
"That stranger, apparently, is worse than him. And obviously more powerful."
"Okay, true. I'm not good at looking on the bright side, but I've been trying for a short time."
Dauntless shrugged.
The divorce, life, in general, for years. One thing after another.
Not everything was bad, and he knew he was privileged compared to millions of people. He knew it, but it was hard to have perspective when you were in the middle.
How would they deal with the aftermath of this incident?
And what would happen with that strange parahuman with bat wings and a demonic appearance?
4
Kazuya kept flying, moving away.
But he wasn't fleeing under any circumstances. He was no coward; he had judged what the most appropriate course of action was and had followed it without hesitation. That was all.
"I can crush them, but I'm not myself. That animal has weakened me. I need some time."
Kazuya clicked his tongue.
Talking to himself was useless. Well, it was just thinking out loud; no one could hear him anyway.
A little time. Just a little.
Then he would recover and return with double the strength. He would crush anyone who got in his way. It had been like that forever, and it would continue to be so. Nothing had changed.
He had the power.
"Besides, it makes no sense to fight on their terms. I dictate the rules. I... I am the one who has to control everything."
Yes. It was not at all honorable or brave to get into a fight where almost everything was against him. Even if it were, Kazuya spat on useless things like that; all he cared about was getting his way in the end, and he would do anything to get what he wanted.
Something he had demonstrated countless times.
He had left as soon as Jun began to think she could tame him, making him play house with her and the brat for the rest of his life.
It had nothing to do with Heihachi having defeated him and thrown him into the volcano.
He had never planned to return in the first place, as the woman had become too pretentious.
But, even so...
Even so, he could barely contain his rage. Every cell in his body screamed at him to turn around and confront those pretentious insects, even if it was with ten percent of his strength.
It was an anger bordering on madness.
Well, Kazuya Mishima had been lost in his mad lust for revenge for decades after all.
The Decisive Blow (Climax): FIN