Pain and frustration didn't make the monster collapse.
On the contrary, they completely ignited some deeper, more primitive and ferocious instinct for evolution inside its body!
"Hssssss—GRAAAH——!!!"
Amid that tooth-grinding sound, halfway between a roar and bones scraping together, the mutation erupted!
The huge dent in its neck left by Saitama's punch didn't crumble away or disperse. Instead, it bulged outward violently, pulsing like a beating heart!
The purple flames covering its entire body seemed to "wake up." They were no longer flowing like liquid. They solidified—crystallizing.
Chi-chi-chi——!
A layer of thick purple-black exoskeleton, gleaming with a metallic cold light like armored scales, began to spread from the wounded part of its neck at a speed visible to the naked eye.
First, it covered the crater left by the punch.
Then it raced upward to wrap its skull, downward along the spine and shoulders, and continued to spread over its chest, abdomen, and limbs!
This exoskeleton wasn't smooth. It was covered in irregular ridges and backward-curving barbs, radiating a destructive energy wave even stronger than the purple flames from before!
"It's… hardening!" Steve rushed up and saw the sudden change, his pupils shrinking sharply. "It's adapting to the damage! Damn it, this thing can learn and evolve?!"
The most obvious change showed up in the monster's speed.
Once its entire body was covered by that purple-black armor, shining with an energy sheen and lined with razor edges, it was as if some invisible shackle had fallen away.
It kicked off the ground—
The already shattered street sank another layer, but that colossal body moved so fast it left only a blurred streak of black and purple afterimages!
Its target—
Was Saitama, who had just landed and hadn't fully adjusted his breathing yet!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two giant claws, sheathed in jagged, bone-spiked scales, snapped at him like a pair of massive, rabid meat grinders. Their speed was like a gale; the purple-black shockwind they whipped up tore at the air, their afterimages instantly sealing off all space around Saitama from every direction!
The shrill keening as the claws sliced through the air stabbed at everyone's eardrums.
Even for Saitama, this time he couldn't handle it completely with just a Normal Punch.
His eyes narrowed slightly. He seemed genuinely a bit surprised. His foot slid half a step, and in the same instant his body blurred, leaving a string of super-high-speed afterimages where he'd just been standing!
Screech!
A harsh ripping noise exploded behind him.
Half a fire hydrant and the solid wall behind it were sliced cleanly into three segments by the monster's claws, as smoothly as a hot knife through butter.
Chunks of masonry and molten metal fragments fell like rain.
It missed him by a hair's breadth.
But that was only the beginning.
The monster seemed to perfectly anticipate Saitama's high-speed evasion route. The other claw followed up almost the instant the first strike missed!
From the tips of its talons, several purple-black energy rays shot out, locking down every path Saitama might use to dodge—like homing missiles.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Saitama's body twisted and shifted through the air in rapid, continuous changes of direction. The energy beams grazed past his hero suit and gleaming bald head, slamming into the outer wall of an old apartment building behind him.
They burned through it without sound, melting a row of bowl-sized, charred holes straight through the concrete. The bricks at the edges reddened, then crumbled and collapsed.
He was forced to dodge again, landing a bit awkwardly on the tip of one of the stone spikes jutting from the ground. The hard rock spike shattered under his foot with a crunch.
"Raaah!"
The monster pressed its advantage relentlessly. Its huge jaws yawned wide, and a beam of energy far thicker than before, with a molten purple-black core, erupted from its throat like a stream of lava!
It lanced straight toward Saitama's landing point!
Wherever the beam passed, the air twisted violently. The shattered stones and metal fragments on the ground vaporized in an instant.
(End of Chapter)
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