The party left the poorly-made stage that had been constructed solely for the purpose of the literary criticism competition and returned to the wasteland by the Demon Lord’s castle! Darkness had fallen, and moonlight illuminated the vast emptiness!
“Hmph. I’m itching to fight you, Wataru...” sneered the Demon Lord.
“Heh, you won’t have that smirk on your face for much longer!”
“Now, now, there’s no need for bravado. You’re merely human, after all. You don’t stand a chance.”
“We’ll see about that...!”
Deus and Wataru stared menacingly at each other, both ready for the fight with every fiber in their being! Meanwhile, Aria and Résistance watched them from afar.
“Why do you challenge me, Wataru? You have no reason to die trying to fight me,” Deus asked, his white coat flowing in the wind!
“Isn’t it obvious!? I want to face strong opponents! And I want to save those you’ve taken captive! What other reason do I need...!?”
Deus smiled in exaltation! “Hm hm hm... How single-minded. I like it. Straightforward and uncomplicated. Now that we’ve had this little tête-à-tête... Let us begin!” Deus flexed his fists, and an insidiously dark aura of power began to form itself around his hands!
“Wh-What is that...!?” Aria cried out nervously!
“It can’t be...!” Résistance gasped!
“Do you know what it is, Résistance!?”
Résistance nodded! “It’s the Demon Lord’s most infamous attack! The hidden technique of the Holy Fists of the Demon Lord: ‘Hardened Fists!’ By concentrating his magic into his fists, he hardens them beyond their physical limits!”
What in the world were the Holy Fists of the Demon Lord, you ask!?!?!? “The Holy Fists of the Demon Lord is a martial arts style developed by Deus himself! He uses a variety of refined magic spells to amplify his already monstrously powerful physical attacks! It’s a cunning and powerful fighting style!” Résistance expertly exposited!!
“Heh, cool moves...!” Wataru could hardly contain his excitement in facing Deus the Demon Lord! The more powerful his opponent was, the more Wataru unlocked his potential!!
“...Any last words?” asked the Demon Lord politely!
“Don’t worry about my last words, Demon Lord!!”
“Hmph...” The corners of Deus’s lips twisted into a grin! “Wragh!!” He sprinted towards Wataru, and threw a right punch!
“Pnch!!!!” Wataru countered with a left punch!
Their fists collided!
Graggghragghgabbbragghaghh!!!!!
A shockwave burst out from the point of the incredible impact! The powerful blast of air lifted a sharp rock from the ground, which stabbed Aria right between the eyes!
“Agggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”
“Just their fists colliding caused that...! It’s incredible!” Résistance uttered in amazement, ignoring Aria screaming beside her!
At that moment, but a little bit away...!
“Hey, what was that sound!?”
“Who knows!? Let’s check it out!”
A number of monsters came rushing out of the Demon Lord’s castle when they heard the commotion!
“Whoa, what’s all this!?”
“Look at that! Master Deus is fighting a human!”
“Heh, a human? He doesn’t stand a chance against Master Deus!”
“Get him, Master Deus!”
Before Aria and Résistance knew it, a crowd of monsters had formed behind them!
The monsters chanted out in unison: “Deus! Deus! Deus!” The Demon Lord had the absolute home-field advantage!
After healing her head wound with magic, Aria nervously looked around at the horde of monsters now surrounding her! “Yikes, this is a lot of monsters.... We’d better play along. The last thing we want is a fight.” Aria began chanting along with them. “Deus! Deus! Deus!”
“Hm. You have a good point,” Résistance admitted. “Deus! Deus! Deus!”
Oh, the humanity! Aria and Résistance were now cheering for Deus as well! No one was cheering on Wataru anymore! How could our heroines live with themselves!?!?
Still, Wataru was unbothered by any of that! “Rrrraaaggghhhh!”
“Hragh! Hragh!! Hragh!!!”
Wataru dodged Deus’s 700 km/h punches by a hair and countered with a 790 km/h kick! Deus, in turn, calmly maneuvered to elegantly avoid the attack, and thrust a flattened hand to stab Wataru in the face, knowing that the face was the most vulnerable location on the human body! A direct hit would be seriously damaging!
“Grr!!!” Wataru quickly arched backwards to dodge the attack! Deus’s darkness-enveloped hand nearly pierced his face, but Wataru managed to remain unscathed! He twisted his waist from that position and turned his dodge into a spinning kick! To pull off a kick like that from such an imbalanced starting position would not be possible without incredibly strong core muscles... but each and every muscle in the body of the hot-blooded fighting teen Wataru was incredibly strong!
“Hragh!” Deus teleported, appearing directly behind Wataru!
“What was that!?!? Magic!?!?!?” There was no magic in Wataru’s old world! Therefore, Wataru had no effective way to combat Deus’s vast arsenal of spells!
“Take this!” Deus cleanly landed a punch into Wataru’s spine at the speed of 800 km/h! Ouch! That had to hurt!! A lot!!!
“Graggghhhhh!!!!!” Wataru fell to the ground at the speed of 890 km/h!
Crrrrrrrrddddddddssshhhhhhh!!!!!
The impact created a giant crater in the ground! Everything happened so fast that no one watching could understand what was happening!!! Their fight was on an entirely new level!!
“Mwahahahaha! Is that all you got, Wataru?” Deus cackled at Wataru!
“Take that!” jeered a monster from the sidelines!
“You never stood a chance against Master Deus, you puny human!”
“Master Deus! Finish off that foolish human!”
“Deus! Deus! Deus!” The crowd of monsters erupted in another Deus chant! Even Aria and Résistance were joining in, with genuine enthusiasm!
“Hm hm hm... Very well... Let’s end this...!” Deus slowly walked over to Wataru, lying face down in the center of the crater his body had created. “Wataru... You were pretty fast for a human, but not quite enough to entertain me for long.” When he reached Wataru, the dark aura surrounding his hand billowed out as he raised his arm to deliver one final chop!
At this rate, our protagonist would be killed by Deus the Demon Lord! He hadn’t even saved Aria’s parents!
“Wataru...!” Aria clasped her hands as if in prayer! ...She had happily joined in on the “Deus” chant a couple of paragraphs ago... but never mind that! Things are serious, now!
Deus’s chop flashed down at Wataru at the speed of 1200 km/h!!! “This is the end!”
Wataru was at the brink of death! Will this be the conclusion to our story!? But worry not, Dear Readers! Wataru was invincible! An ordinary, invincible teenager!
Therefore...!
Wrrrrssssshhhh!!!
“How...!?”
It was only natural that Wataru, who had been lying on the ground face-down, suddenly moved around behind Deus’s back at supersonic speed!!!
“Damn!” Deus cursed as he leapt out of range! “How did you teleport like that!? You can use magic, too!?” Deus implored, panicking!
“Magic? Give me a break, you think I can use magic!?” Wataru answered brazenly. “I just moved really fast!!”
Deus widened his eyes in astonishment! It was only natural. Wataru just pulled off “teleportation,” something that should have only been possible through magic, with nothing but his own muscles! I think we can cut our Demon Lord a break for being surprised!
“Anyway, Demon Lord... That punch of yours just now was awesome! It finally woke me up!”
“...Oh?”
“To be honest, I was still tired from that stupid book review contest... So first, I gotta apologize to you!!!”
Deus and the crowd were dumbfounded!!! Utterly dumbfounded!!!!!
“Y-You dare mock me...!?” Deus was enraged!
But Wataru was unfazed!! “A fighter should always enter combat in his prime condition...!!! That’s why I have to apologize!!!” Wataru shouted with his standard Nio’s expression of solemnity!
“That’s amazing, Wataru!”
“I admire your bushido, Wataru...!”
Both Aria and Résistance chimed in with the compliments this time, as if they hadn’t been chanting for Deus until just a moment ago!
“Hmph! Make any excuse you want! You still stand no chance against me!” Deus kicked off the ground, rapidly closing the distance between them!
Wataru, on the other hand...! “Come on...! I’ll catch whatever you have to throw at me!!!!!” The fighting teen reached out with both arms, ready to defend himself against the attack!
His stance was no other than the Occlupanist, a move passed down from ancient Tokyo.
(*Occlupanist — A move invented by a young man who studied Judo in Edo (now Tokyo). It is a stance that seamlessly transitions from defensive to offensive as the user outstretches both arms to catch the opponent’s attack, then uses that motion to deliver a throw. According to legends, the young man used this move to defeat the Tengu, a famous monster that lurked in Edo. The scene of that battle has been depicted in some traditional paintings. A similar move has been passed down through the art of Sumo wrestling, and many experts credit Occlupanist as its root. This reinforces the deep ties between Judo and Sumo wrestling. [11])
“Rrraggghhh!” With a fearsome growl, Deus approached Wataru at incredible speed!
However, Wataru calmly grabbed the sleeve of Deus’s coat, and seamlessly executed an Ippon Seoi Nage, a powerful Judo throw!
Deus was astonished! We can only imagine the terrifying sensation of the sky and the ground switching places in the blink of an eye! The Demon Lord was slammed into the ground, creating another massive crater!
“Gragh!”
“Now we’re even!!” Wataru declared!
If this had been an official Judo match, the referee would have called the doctor! However, this was no ordinary match... it was nothing less than a deathmatch!! There were no rules, referees, or doctors to stop them!!!
“Rrr! This isn’t over!” As Deus groaned in pain, he quickly jumped to his feet and moved to punch Wataru with his dark-aura-covered fist!
“Grrraaggghhh!!!” The clean hit blew Wataru away!
But, incredibly, Wataru was smiling! In the middle of this intense battle of life and death, he was actually smiling!! “This is it! This is the feeling... of adrenaline!!!” Wataru pulled a mid-air backflip and expertly landed on his feet! “From here on out... I’ll show you what it means to give 120%!!!!!” With a dauntless grin, he produced the hachimaki from his pocket! The Exploding-Blood Demon Slayer, the very same legendary hachimaki passed down to him from his ancestors!!! (As seen in his battle against Wolfman in Chapter 5!)
Of course, Deus didn’t understand the significance of this! He cast Wataru a curious look!
Unbothered, Wataru tied Exploding-Blood Demon Slayer around his head in one fluid motion! He quietly spoke. “Now my hot-blooded energy is multiplied a hundredfold...!!! But that’s not all!!!!!” Wataru lowered his center of gravity, and flexed his every muscle in his body! “Hragh!!!!!”
Braghlllaghhhh!!!!!
H-How could this be!? There was the sound of an explosion, and a red aura erupted all around Wataru! The tails of the hachimaki around his brow, as well as every strand of hair on his head, rose up in defiance of gravity like a flame!