One of the monsters' forms was especially eye-catching. Its size and outline were almost identical to Saitama's—down to the bald head and that yellow suit, all crudely mimicked out of rock. Only its face was a blur, and an eerie green flame burned all over its body.
The Sky Lord's energy body pointed at the mimic and let out a mocking, crazed laugh.
"See that? This is a form molded from your energy imprint—an reflection of the deepest fear in your heart! Tremble before the terror you yourself can't face!"
All the heroes—including Tony and Thor, who had just arrived—watched Saitama tensely, then looked back at the mimic, waiting to see what kind of effect this would have on him.
Saitama stared at the rocky monster that was copying him. He tilted his head, looked it over for a moment, and his face showed… an almost disappointed expression?
"It looks…" Saitama paused, like he was giving a serious review, "…not as strong as me. And it moves pretty stiff."
The Sky Lord's laughter stopped dead.
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Saitama was already right in front of the mimic.
The mimic seemed to simulate his movements too, lifting its rocky arm and trying to throw a punch.
But its fist had only just started to rise when Saitama's plain-looking fist moved after it—yet arrived first—lightly pressing into its chest.
"Pa-cha————!"
There was no violent explosion—just a crisp cracking sound.
The rocky monster that had been mimicking Saitama froze for an instant. Then, starting from the point of impact, its entire body shattered inch by inch as if it were being blown apart from the inside, turning straight into a cloud of fine stone powder that drifted through the Moon's vacuum.
Even the green flames it simulated didn't get the chance to flicker before they went out.
A few grains of splashed stone dust even struck the lower half of the Sky Lord's energy body.
Something shocking happened.
Those parts that should've been intangible energy rippled violently the instant the dust hit—like a stone tossed into a pond. The Sky Lord let out a muffled grunt of shock and anger, its entire energy body wavering as if it had suffered some unexpected interference!
"Impossible!" The Sky Lord's roar carried uncertainty for the first time. "How can you—"
Saitama pulled back his fist, looking at the wavering Lord. He blinked.
"Oh? So you're afraid of rocks?"
The Sky Lord's doubt instantly turned into towering rage.
To have its trick so easily broken by something it viewed as a "lowly bug"—and to be accidentally poked right where it hurt (even though it would never admit it was "afraid of rocks," insisting instead that it was some special repulsion reaction between dimensional energy and physical matter)—was a humiliation it couldn't tolerate.
"Vermin! You'll pay for your ignorance!"
With a furious bellow, the massive energy body lunged out from the center of the portal like a green meteor, smashing toward Saitama. In midflight, its arms morphed into countless gigantic claws made of pure destructive energy, grabbing from all directions with no blind spots, trying to tear Saitama into pieces.
The Moon's surface was ripped apart by that berserk energy, plowing deep trenches into the ground.
Tony, Thor, and the others tried to rush in to help, but they were tightly pinned down by the swarming rock monsters.
Facing an attack that looked impossible to dodge, Saitama didn't choose to tank it head-on.
Several blurry afterimages were left where he stood as he evaded with minimal movement—sometimes leaning aside, sometimes arching back, sometimes giving a light hop—always slipping past the tearing energy claws at the last possible instant.
His motions weren't flashy. If anything, they looked simple.
But the efficiency was terrifyingly high.
(End of Chapter)
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