Chapter 931: Restricted Finals, New Player Jiahao Appears

Outside the Comprehensive Martial Arts Tournament, the city is suffering an invasion by a group of monsters; ordinary citizens are fleeing in panic on the streets, rioters are taking advantage of the chaos to loot, and the City Defense Force has set up defensive positions at key thoroughfares.

Heroes belonging to the Hero Association are doing what they can amid the chaos — evacuating civilians, rescuing the injured who need help, and fighting the rioters and invading monsters.

Gunshots, sounds of combat, wails, and roars ring out in this city gradually filling with the smoke of battle, all within a short span of time.

"Damn Guard Corps, let Grandpa Ox smash through you!"

A minotaur with tough skin crosses its arms before its body, tanks bullets and shells head-on, and smashes through the Guard Corps' defensive line.

"You lot, kill these humans who treat us animals as food!"

The minotaur roars loudly, but the mutated animal subordinates behind it who should have responded make no corresponding response.

"Boss Minotaur, watch out————"

The minotaur turns its head; a graceful figure brushes past its side.

A line of blood emerges at its neck; the tough skin that bullets couldn't penetrate has now been sliced open.

"Damn humans————"

The minotaur clutches its neck and strikes back, but the person passing by easily dodges.

"Who told you I'm human?"

Mosquito Girl dodges the attack, frowns, and retorts with a single sentence.

"If you're not human, why are you helping humans?"

The minotaur now sees clearly the extra organ on Mosquito Girl's head that looks like a hat, and is thoroughly confused.

"What I want to do is my freedom. Hmph, that alloy sword Genos lent me really isn't anything good — it dulled after cutting just this few monsters."

Behind Mosquito Girl lie mutated animal monsters, their bodies hacked into seven or eight pieces each, blood flowing all over the ground.

"Fellow livestock once enslaved by humans and treated as ingredients, you come to deal with us, your own kind — don't you feel any shame?"

"Hah, don't you get it wrong — I'm nothing like you mutated animals. Besides, to the old me, humans were the ones playing the role of ingredients!"

Mosquito Girl says this, then sniffs her own nose.

"Hmm, not to mention, it's been a long time since I drank blood; your blood smells quite fragrant — how about I have a taste?"

""

Mosquito Girl speaks those utterly improper lines, raises her alloy sword, and presses on; the minotaur tries to resist but is quickly drained dry under her speed.

"Although I have no blood sac and can't absorb much blood now, tasting this fresh blood again still has a unique flavor————"

Mosquito Girl licks her lips; the surviving Guard Corps members nearby are somewhat terrified — they don't know whether this bewitching woman who saved them and now has the minotaur's head skewered on the needle atop her head is friend or foe.

On the other side, after slaying a monster, Vivian suddenly crouches low, dodging a piercing stab from a long tongue shooting from the side, and swings her sword to sever it.

"How did you discover me? My camouflage was perfect!"

The Chameleon Monster retracts half its tongue, covers its bleeding mouth, and looks somewhat disbelieving.

"Your killing intent is too obvious; even if I can't see your existence, I can sense your killing intent."

Revealing killing intent before a Water God Style swordsman is the same as directly reporting your position; unless the opponent's base stats completely crush you, you'll only be casually parried and counterattacked by the Water God Style swordsman.

"Damn it, Awakened Cockroach, this guy counters me too hard — hurry up and help me!"

Chased by Vivian's sword, the Chameleon Monster runs while shouting loudly for backup.

"Bang~"

A swarm of cockroaches suddenly sprays out from the alleyway like a floodgate opening, attacking Vivian directly, but just as they are about to reach her they are blocked by a pale green mental energy barrier.

"Sister Fubuki."

Vivian looks up and sees Hell's Blizzard descending from the sky.

"That guy's ability to manipulate cockroach swarms is disgusting, and his own reaction speed is extremely fast — even my telekinesis can barely keep up. Be careful."

Hell's Blizzard warns; after the three of them left the Martial Arts Tournament venue, they began fighting monsters appearing in the city.

Mosquito Girl went south to deal with monsters, while she and Vivian handled monsters appearing in the north — a temporary split.

After eliminating quite a few monsters, her side ran into a humanoid giant cockroach; its attack power isn't very strong, but its ability is disgusting, and its reaction speed and instantaneous burst speed are very fast, making it somewhat troublesome.

"Incineration Cannon!"

At this moment, a pillar of flame shoots toward them; Hell's Blizzard instantly increases the strength of her psychic barrier.

The Incineration Cannon's flame stream is split apart, not harming the two inside the protective barrier, but burning a pile of disgusting cockroach swarms clean.

"Now, without the cockroach swarm for cover, let's see how you deal with us alone."

The Awakened Cockroach discards its charred Chameleon companion, its expression somewhat ugly, yet it does not retreat.

"Don't think I'm a monster who only manipulates cockroach swarms — now I'll let you witness the survival law of the cockroach: Household Dead-Corner Body Technique!"

The Awakened Cockroach's figure vanishes from the spot in an instant; even watched by three people, it still pulls off a burst of speed that breaks free of their vision.

"How about it? My terrifying speed, this extreme burst power and reaction speed — can you guys even catch my figure?!"

The Awakened Cockroach's voice rings out from all directions; it hasn't left this street, but gradually approaches Vivian, the closest of the three.

Just now it fought both Genos and Hell's Blizzard — one a cyborg, one an esper; although their nerve reaction speeds aren't faster than its own, they aren't enemies it can easily finish off either. Now outnumbered, the Awakened Cockroach naturally chooses to attack the weak point among its opponents.

【As long as I grab the weakest-looking girl and use her as a hostage, I can make the other two helpless————】

Thinking this, the Awakened Cockroach suddenly feels something brush past its side.

"How is that possible?"

Its high-speed repositioning figure halts abruptly; the middle-aged man's face atop its head also reveals a disbelieving expression.

A blood line appears from the middle of its forehead; *thud* — its body is bisected, splitting into two halves that fall to either side.

"You guys are way too slow at handling monsters. By the way, this familiar burnt smell — Genos, you didn't go burning mosquitoes again, did you?"

Mosquito Girl, having rushed over, looks displeased; the scent of scorched protein drifting in the air brings back bad memories.

"No, I only burned some cockroaches."

Genos's face showed a response, but in his heart he felt some admiration: 【A mosquito's reaction speed is far inferior to a cockroach's, but staying by Mr. Broly's side, Mosquito Girl, this former enemy, can now easily slash the cockroach monster that even I would have trouble taking down in a short time—truly worthy of Mr. Broly!】

0000

"Achoo~"

At the Martial Arts Tournament venue, on the final ring, Broly suddenly sneezed.

"What's wrong, did you catch a cold?"

Saitama asked him with concern.

"No, my nose just suddenly got a bit itchy."

Broly waved his hand in reply.

"Could it be someone is secretly drawing circles and cursing you behind your back?"

", looking at your expression, it seems like you're looking forward to someone drawing circles and cursing me?"

"Ah, nothing of the sort, I'm just worried someone might harm you."

Saitama immediately denied it; he would not admit that because he received a cursed letter, he also hoped others would receive similar cursed things—that dark mentality.

"Let's hurry up and decide the winner quickly!"

Saitama changed the topic.

"This place, if we don't rein in our power a bit, we'll definitely be finished."

"Uh, that's true, there are so many spectators around."

"Since that's the case, why don't we set restriction conditions on our own power? Whoever violates the restriction conditions they set for themselves counts as losing."

"That's good, but how do we set them?"

"Very simple. I will limit my own power, using only half of the power you use. As for you, you must limit the destruction your power causes to the surrounding environment. If any battle aftermath you create leaves the ring and might endanger the surrounding spectators, you lose. How about it?"

The Martial Arts Tournament ring should be a place where contestants give their all to compare martial arts and measure strength, but such a contest fitting the martial spirit does not quite apply to Broly and Saitama.

These two's power is too great; if they fight without limiting their power, before the win/loss is decided, a large number of surrounding spectators would die.

"Putting it that way, I've actually taken quite an advantage from you. After all, the me now probably isn't your opponent yet."

Saitama didn't hesitate and directly nodded in agreement.

"It's fine, I don't mind. After all, for me personally, a fight without any suspense in the win/loss is somewhat boring."

A final match with restriction conditions for both sides soon began after the referee announced the start, and those already eliminated losers all watched the last two's match from under the ring.

It was completely different from what they expected: one side easily knocking the other down to win, or both sides engaging in fierce attack and defense, fighting to a standstill.

After the final began, Saitama directly adopted a defensive posture of shrinking like a turtle, with no intention of attacking actively at all.

"No, Saitama, aren't you going to attack actively?"

Broly, who also adopted a defensive strategy, saw Saitama's Flowing Water Rock-Crushing Fist defensive stance and was also dumbfounded, directly asking.

"When playing fighting games with you before, I clearly realized one thing."

"What thing?"

"My combat technique has a world of difference compared to yours. Actively launching an attack would only expose more openings in front of you, thereby letting you grab those openings to counterattack."

"Rather than that, I might as well do nothing, wait for you to attack me, I only defend, grab the openings you expose when attacking me, and then counterattack."

"Saitama, do you think you can catch them?"

"If it were a normal contest, I probably couldn't catch them, but now————"

Saitama revealed a bad smile expression on his face.

"You are currently limiting the exertion of your own power. In this situation, I don't think I'll fail to catch the openings after you strike."

Broly:

, "No, Saitama, between you and Genos, who is the master and who is the disciple? I've limited my own power to only half of yours, and even so you play this defense-counterattack thing with me. This is too cowardly, too shameless, right?"

Originally, with lower base values, one would rely on catching the opponent's openings to deal damage, but this bald man with thin eyebrows and big eyes, Saitama, actually pulled this turtle style on him.

"I am the master, he is the disciple, but the disciple is not necessarily inferior to the master; there are also things on the disciple that the master can learn from."

"Also, I heard Genos say that you taught him the North God Style, which contains some things that mock others' pain points, angering the opponent to make them act irrationally."

"So, no matter what you say to me later, I'll just pretend I didn't hear it————"

"No, the restriction conditions I set for myself don't have any binding force. Saitama, aren't you afraid of making me angry, letting me directly tear up the self-restriction conditions, and drag you to another place to beat you up?"

"If that's the case, even if I————"

Saitama's words behind weren't finished yet when Broly suddenly launched an attack, his figure disappearing from the spot.

The next instant, he appeared in front of Saitama.

But the surprised expression on Saitama's face turned into an expression of a successful scheme at this time.

【I've long been on guard against your sudden attack, Flowing Water Rock-Crushing Rising Dragon Fist!】

The audience, originally somewhat dissatisfied with the situation of both sides standing still and chatting in place, after the change occurred and they reacted, saw that Saitama's fist wind had plowed a huge gully on the ring, and the cloud cluster covering the sun above their heads had been punched into a huge void————

"Tsk, so close."

Saitama, whose punch destroyed half the ring, showed a look of disappointment on his face, while Broly drifted down from the air on the side at this time.

When he discovered Saitama was on guard, he used Qi to forcibly displace his body, dodging Saitama's fist attack by a hair's breadth.

"Hey, did you really not use power exceeding mine just now?"

Saitama asked.

"If I had, do you think I could be grazed by your fist wind?"

Although Broly wasn't hit by the fist, his clothes were torn by Saitama's fist wind.

"As for you, why didn't you seize the opportunity to pursue?"

"Hah, do you take me for a fool? This isn't a fighting game; you wouldn't really fall down. Who doesn't know you can move in the air? If I really went to pursue you just now, I'm afraid I'd be caught by you and beaten up."

Saitama said, and then assumed a defensive stance again.

Faced with this situation, Broly actually felt a bit troubled.

Although his battle technique far surpassed Saitama's, against Saitama's Turtle Style fight style that fundamentally didn't want to compete in battle technique, and with him having placed a self-limiter on his own power, there really was no way.

【Should I lure Saitama into a violation and defeat, or just directly admit defeat myself, then drag Saitama to another place and beat him up?】

Just as Broly's patience was being consumed, a tall, burly figure walked in through the front door of the Martial Arts Tournament venue.

"To be able to smash the ring into this state, looks like you two guys who entered the finals also count as having a bit of skill!

""

Gouketsu merely glanced at the ring crushed half to pieces, then directly performed a thunderous jump, smashing into the middle of the ring, intruding into the finals scene.

"Now, I'll give you two guys an opportunity: eat down these monster cells, join us the Monster Association, and I can spare your lives."