"BOOOOM!"
The air split open as William's fist collided with the Hulk's face in a cataclysmic eruption of force. The Hulk's massive cheek compressed inward from the devastating impact, his skin warping, bone bending under the pressure, before his head snapped backward with a sickening crack, his body flung like a cannonball toward the earth.
The resulting shockwave flattened the landscape beneath them. Trees were uprooted. Boulders crumbled into dust. The sky itself seemed to flinch.
"GRAAAAHHH!"
A roar, primordial and defiant, tore out from the crater even before the dust had settled. Hulk erupted upward through the remnants of the shockwave that had pinned him, muscles bulging even larger than before, green skin shimmering with barely restrained gamma fury.
His eyes locked onto William with the focus of a predator scorned.
And he charged.
No hesitation. No fear.
William met him in midair again, and the two titans slammed into one another with bone-breaking velocity. Their fists collided in a series of shockwave-inducing blows, each one like the hammer of a god pounding against a steel anvil.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The impacts were relentless.
No finesse. No tactics. This wasn't martial arts, this was war in its rawest, most primal form. A brawl stripped of technique, dominated instead by rage, pride, and raw strength. Each blow sent ripples through the sky, leaving streaks of distorted air in their wake. Ground below them cracked and lifted from the sheer force of their battle in the heavens.
And then—
"POW!"
The rhythm broke as both warriors locked hands mid-punch, palms slamming together with the sound of a thunderclap. They gripped one another's wrists, eyes locked, bodies quivering with the unbearable strain. The earth trembled beneath them as the sky churned with violent winds.
It became a contest of will.
Muscle against muscle. Spirit against spirit.
Hulk snarled as his veins bulged like writhing serpents beneath his emerald skin, his massive frame somehow growing even larger, powered by an endless well of fury. He began to push forward, inch by inch, his bare feet grinding against the shattered ground. William's heels dug trenches into the stone as he strained to hold his ground.
And then, something changed.
The golden glow around William intensified. His aura began to crackle, arcs of raw lightning dancing across its edges. His hair spiked further, now surrounded by wild surges of electric energy. His eyes gleamed with renewed fury.
Super Saiyan Two.
The transformation detonated outward in a brilliant explosion of power that split the air and sent shockwaves rolling in every direction. The tide shifted instantly.
William surged forward with a roar, his strength now magnified far beyond what Hulk had faced seconds ago. Hulk grunted as he was forced backward, his feet dragging deep furrows in the earth before he was slammed downward into the ground.
William didn't pause.
He released Hulk's hands and drove a glowing heel directly into the green titan's sternum.
"POW!"
The impact cratered the earth.
Hulk's body arched upward violently, his lungs evacuated in a brutal exhale, the sound halfway between a gasp and a roar. His massive form slammed flat against the ground, temporarily stunned.
Before Hulk could draw a breath or summon another surge of rage, William reached down with one hand and gripped him by the chest. His fingers dug into Hulk's skin like clamps of energy-enhanced steel.
Then, in a flash of blinding gold—
"WHOOM!"
They were gone.
William launched into the sky with Hulk in tow, blazing across the horizon like a meteor on a collision course with destruction.
Far ahead, a mountain range stood in quiet ignorance of what approached. Birds fled, animals scattered, and then—
"BOOOOOOM!"
The entire mountainside exploded like a dormant volcano had been awakened by divine wrath. A cascade of stone and fire erupted skyward. Shards of rock, ranging from pebbles to car-sized fragments, were ejected in all directions, whistling through the air with deadly speed and range. The shockwave flattened trees in a ten-mile radius.
The only thing louder than the explosion was the silence that followed.
And somewhere within the storm of smoke and debris… two titans were still moving.
From a distance, the battlefield looked like the wrath of the heavens had descended upon the mountain itself.
A colossal cloud of dust and debris loomed over the peak, swirling like the eye of an apocalyptic storm. The air crackled with tension, and every few seconds, arcs of lightning forked through the haze, brief flashes that illuminated chaotic silhouettes locked in a deadly dance. The landscape below was silent in awe, yet the sound that followed was anything but:
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The thunderous rhythm of fists colliding echoed like war drums across the land, each strike capable of leveling cities. Within the storm, the very concept of safety had ceased to exist. No creature dared approach. This was not a battle, it was a cataclysm.
And then—
"CLAAAAAP!"
A titanic sound exploded outward from the mountaintop, a single clap that shattered the veil of dust and scattered it to the winds like smoke from a divine purge.
The storm cleared.
What remained was silence, and two warriors, standing on opposite ends of a devastated crater.
William and the Hulk.
Both were bloodied, battered, breathing heavily. Cuts and bruises painted their bodies like war markings, red streaking William's torso, green slicking Hulk's massive chest. Their eyes met, each filled with unrelenting fury, unbreakable will.
Between them, at the very center of the crater, a dark pool had formed, where their blood had mingled. As it congealed, something ancient stirred.
A faint shimmer, barely perceptible, flickered within the center of that mingled pool, pulsing once like a heartbeat... and was gone.
But the two titans didn't notice.
"BOOM!"
They vanished from sight in twin blurs of motion and reappeared mid-collision, their fists once again colliding as they tumbled along the jagged ridgeline of the mountain.
Debris exploded in all directions. Craters formed with every missed step. Trees disintegrated from proximity alone.
Then William, eyes narrowed, and teeth clenched, gathered a vast surge of ki into his right fist. The energy sparked and pulsed like a newborn star. With a primal roar, he drove it into the Hulk's abdomen.
"CRACK-THOOM!"
The impact was devastating, William's ki-enhanced fist tore through Hulk's skin, distorting muscle and tearing open a gaping wound that sent the gamma titan hurtling backward like a sack of stone.
"SPLAAAAAT!"
A torrent of green blood erupted from the torn flesh, splattering across the rocks, but before it could even fully hit the ground, Hulk's healing factor roared to life. The wound sealed in seconds, muscle and sinew reforming with brutal efficiency.
"HRRRRRRRRRAAAAHHH!"
A hiss of pure fury escaped Hulk's mouth, accompanied by steam. His entire body radiated heat like a reactor gone critical. The irises in his eyes vanished, overtaken by swirling flames of gamma energy. He wasn't just angry, he was evolving.
And William felt it.
Sensing the build-up, William teleported to the far side of the mountain, both hands coming together as he began charging an enormous sphere of ki. The pressure warped the air. Wind howled around him in concentric circles. Stones and rubble lifted from the earth and hovered, caught in the orbit of the power being summoned.
"WHOOSH!"
The very oxygen in the area was stripped away, drawn into the attack as it intensified, glowing brighter, louder, like the sun taking shape between his palms.
But Hulk didn't wait.
He charged.
"STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!"
Each step shattered the earth beneath him. Each bound sent shockwaves radiating outward. He lunged forward with both arms outstretched, aiming to grab William by the throat and end it.
But William didn't flinch.
He breathed in slowly, calmly.
And then—
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
With a mighty cry, he unleashed the full force of the charged ki attack. A massive beam of golden energy erupted from between his hands, like a solar eruption given purpose. It slammed into the oncoming Hulk—
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The Hulk's hand was the first to make contact, and the first to suffer.
The flesh singed and split. The roar that followed shook the mountain's foundation.
"AAAAAAARRRRRGGHHHHH!!"
The Hulk pushed forward, straining with every ounce of rage-forged strength he possessed. The beam scorched his chest, carved through skin, and boiled the blood that poured from his wounds, but still, he pushed on.
William's eyes widened.
The beam, which should have overwhelmed anyone else, was being overpowered.
Hulk grew.
His mass expanded grotesquely, violently, bones stretching, muscles multiplying. He was now a towering behemoth, nearly three times William's size. His body, half-burnt and bloodied, was still surging forward through the beam as if it were mere mist.
Energy lashed around him like snapping whips, but he pressed through, step by agonizing step.
He reached out once more—
And then, William smiled.
His voice rang out with sudden power and defiance:
"KAIO-KEN… TIMES THREE!!!"
The world stopped.
William's golden aura detonated outward, then ignited again as a crimson blaze enveloped it, twisting and roaring with wild, chaotic force. The pressure tripled. The very mountain groaned under the weight of the unleashed energy.
The ki beam that Hulk had been marching through suddenly intensified, it became an irresistible force, a storm within a beam, and the earth beneath Hulk's feet crumbled into vapor.
"RRRAAAAAGHHHHHH!!!"
Too late.
The Hulk's footing gave way, and with a cry of rage and disbelief, he was flung backward, consumed by the beam's renewed fury.
His massive form was sent crashing through boulders and stone, until finally—
"KRA-KOOOOM!"
He vanished over the edge of the mountain, swallowed by a cascade of shattered rock and fire, tumbling down into the desert below.
"BOOOOOOM!"
The Hulk slammed into the earth like a meteor, the force of his landing sending a shockwave rippling across the cracked desert floor. The ground split in jagged lines beneath him, dust plumed skyward, and the mountain's base trembled from the impact. Chasms of fractured stone opened beneath his hulking frame, and rivers of green blood seeped into the parched earth.
High above, perched on the rim of the battered mountaintop, William hovered like a war-weary sun god, his dual auras of golden and crimson energy flickering violently around his frame, licking the air like wildfire and lightning. His chest heaved. His muscles trembled. But his expression showed something close to relief.
He thought it was over.
He turned his back.
And that was his mistake.
Down below, the Hulk's eyes snapped open, bloodshot, manic, seething. The rage that filled them had transcended logic. This was no longer a battle, it was primal vengeance, raw fury incarnate.
"RRRAAAAGHHH!"
With a thunderous snarl, Hulk surged back to life, rocketing from the ground with a trail of gamma-soaked blood in his wake. His massive form tore into the side of the mountain like a living missile, and the collision sheared off a gargantuan boulder that he grasped mid-flight and hurled upward.
"RUMMMMMBLE!"
The boulder, large enough to crush a small city block, crashed into William before he could react fully. His instincts kicked in just in time to form a partial guard, arms crossing defensively, but the sheer weight of the projectile still sent him hurtling backward through the sky, his aura sputtering from the hit.
As he staggered midair, pain ringing in his ribs, a flash of green streaked into view.
The Hulk.
With a savage grin stretched across his face and madness blazing in his eyes, Hulk drove his fist squarely into William's side.
"CRA-KOOOM!"
The blow would've launched any other being into orbit, but Hulk wasn't done.
His giant hand clamped down around William's head like a vice. Then came the barrage.
"POW! POW! POW! POW!"
A brutal flurry of punches pummeled into William's stomach, each one folding his body around Hulk's fists, each impact ripping the breath from his lungs and drawing more blood from his lips.
"CRACK! CRASH!"
They tore across the mountaintop, Hulk driving William like a battering ram, slamming him into stone walls and craters, the ground shattering beneath every footstep and punch. It wasn't a fight anymore. It was a massacre.
William's golden aura dimmed as he was slammed into the mountain's core.
Then came the stomp.
"POW!"
The Hulk brought his foot down with the wrath of a god. The entire peak seemed to cave in from the force.
And yet—
From beneath that crater, a tremor pulsed out across the battlefield.
A shift.
The wind stopped.
The birds went silent.
The world noticed something had changed.
The Hulk felt it too. A weight in the air. A pressure, heavy as gravity itself, pressing down upon him. He looked down and saw William.
Still alive.
Still transformed.
Head bowed. Knees bent. Blood dripping but not broken.
Then William's head snapped upward, and the look in his eyes made the Hulk freeze.
"KAIO-KEN… TIMES SIX!!!"
The explosion of energy was instantaneous.
A tidal wave of red aura tore outward, blasting the Hulk off his feet. The sheer force of the transformation reshaped the battlefield, rock turned to dust, trees to ash, and the very air itself warped from the sudden surge.
Hulk's hand, still grasping at William a second ago, was now recoiling, unable to withstand the sudden intensity.
William moved.
Fast. Too fast.
In a blink, he launched forward, grabbing the Hulk by the face and dragging him across the mountain with enough speed to dig trenches hundreds of meters deep.
"SKKKRRRRREEEEEEE!"
The Hulk's face carved through the mountain like a plow through ice before William launched him skyward with a shout and a furious toss.
"WENG!"
The gamma titan rocketed into the sky like a cannonball. But he wasn't alone.
In a blur, William appeared above him, moving faster than light to those watching from below, and struck downward.
"FLK!"
The hit bent the Hulk's spine backward midair, sending him flying like a comet into the horizon.
But William was already waiting.
Another blur.
"POW!"
The Hulk's body contorted as William struck him from the left.
"POW!"
Then from the right.
"POW!"
Then an uppercut from below sent him spiraling.
"POW! POW!"
To any onlookers, if any dared to watch from below, it seemed as if the Hulk was being tossed around by phantoms. His body ricocheted through the sky, careening in multiple directions, and yet William still hovered motionless atop the mountain, seemingly untouched.
But the truth?
He was everywhere.
Too fast to be seen. Too strong to be stopped.
And for the first time in this entire fight—
The Hulk was being outclassed.