In that moment, while the dust was still hanging in the air and the ground was slowly calming down, Louis decided it was time to end this challenge.
He took a small step forward, looked straight at Saitama, and spoke in a calm voice that still carried some seriousness:
"Saitama… how about we finish this with one last punch?"
"One punch from you, and one from me… at the same time."
A spark of excitement flashed in Saitama's eyes, and any trace of boredom disappeared from his face.
"Hmmm… that sounds fun," he said with a small smile.
"Let's see who's stronger then."
The cooldown time for the Power Stone had already ended, and Louis felt his body ready for one last round.
There was no time to waste.
As soon as the two of them stood facing each other, a few meters apart, each of them raised their fist.
Saitama simply raised his right hand…
while Louis summoned the Power Stone again into his left hand, then channeled its strength into his right hand, focusing all his energy.
The purple aura appeared once more, wrapping around Louis' arm like a silent flame.
This time, he couldn't think about attacking only…
He had to defend as well.
"Attack alone isn't enough…"
"I have to endure his punch too."
He tightened his fist and began focusing the Power Stone's power, trying to split it between blocking Saitama's strength and returning as much force as possible in his own punch.
On the other side, Saitama was completely calm.
Both of them took a light breath, then…
They moved at the same time.
Louis' fist flew toward Saitama's face.
Saitama's fist flew toward Louis' face.
The air between them compressed for a moment, as if the world itself stopped breathing.
Then—
BOOOOOOOM!!!
This time, the sound of the impact was not just a bang…
It was a shockwave that shook the ground and blasted through the air in all directions.
At the exact moment their fists met, Louis tried to use his teleportation skill again to bend the center of Saitama's punch upward toward the sky, just like he did the first time.
But this time, things were different.
The power inside his body was split:
Part for attacking,
Part for enduring the hit,
And only a small part left for teleportation.
Because his focus was divided, he couldn't redirect the majority of Saitama's power like before.
Only a small portion of the force was teleported away…
The rest exploded at the point of impact.
The result… was brutal.
The ground under their feet shattered as if a giant bomb had gone off between them.
A swirling storm of wind, dust, and rocks burst outward in a huge circle.
And in the middle of that chaos…
Both of their bodies were sent flying backwards!
Saitama, who was more prepared this time, twisted his body in the air and used his weight to lessen the impact.
He slid back a bit more than one kilometer, carving a deep trench into the ground before finally stopping on his feet.
"Oh… this kind of clash… is pretty great," he said with excitement while brushing dust off his shoulders.
Only a few moments passed before he bent his knees and jumped back toward the battlefield, landing almost exactly where he had stood before.
As for Louis…
His situation was much harder.
The moment he returned the Power Stone to the system storage, the reinforcement on his body disappeared completely, leaving him to face the full recoil of the impact.
It felt like the air itself had turned into a wall of iron smashing into him again and again.
His body was thrown at a crazy speed, so fast he felt like his scalp was burning from the air resistance.
If he didn't have the basic Knight body, the shock alone would have broken him already.
"Luckily… it feels like my bones are still in place."
"But… if I hit the ground at this speed… I'll turn into meat paste."
"No other choice, it seems," Louis thought as he tried to adjust his body a little.
"If I crash without the Power Stone's strength… I'm done."
In one brief moment of focus in the middle of the chaos, Louis activated his teleportation skill for the third and final time that day.
*** *** ***
Back at the original battlefield, the dust was finally starting to settle as Saitama returned in a single jump, landing where he had been before.
He looked around, but saw no sign of Emperor.
He stood there for a second, scratching his cheek:
"Hmm… did I hit him too hard?"
In the distance, Genos was staring in the direction Louis had been blasted, while the systems in his body tried to track any heat signal or trace of energy.
Tatsumaki and Golden Sun were also looking that way.
The same thought passed through all of their minds:
"Did… Emperor lose?"
Had the reputation of the strongest man on Earth just ended like that?
Did he fall somewhere far away, either dead or unconscious?
Silence filled the area for a brief moment.
Then…
A calm, familiar voice cut through the air from behind Saitama:
"Are you looking for something?"
Everyone froze.
Saitama turned his head slowly, Genos quickly raised his, Tatsumaki's eyes shifted in surprise, and Golden Sun's eyes widened to the limit.
There, sitting casually on one of the broken rocks, was Louis.
He was resting his elbow on his knee, his chin on his hand, as if he had been waiting there for a while. There was no heavy dust on him, and no clear injuries.
All eyes locked onto him.
Genos stared with admiration and shock:
"How… just… how did he do that? What kind of ability is this…?!"
Tatsumaki bit her lip. Inside, she couldn't deny the truth:
' That bastard… how dare he appear so relaxed after it looked like he got smashed by that bald guy…?!'
And yet, she couldn't hide her interest in the Emperor's power and the skills he possessed.
As for Golden Sun, he felt like his soul was shrinking:
'Just… what did this player choose from the system's list to get this kind of result…?'
Then he glanced at Saitama.
'And what kind of monster is THAT…?'
'Why wasn't there any information about him from the family…?'
Saitama blinked twice, then said simply:
"Ah… so you were there the whole time, huh?"
Louis just gave a light smile, and his eyes focused on Saitama once again.
In that moment, everyone who was watching understood one thing:
Even if this challenge ended here…
its story was far from over.