He only had time to put up his guard before the first strike hit, shaking the floor as it connected with his forearms.
The sting of pain peppered across his arms, warning him that taking any more such powerful punches would be detrimental. Unfortunately, he had nowhere to go.
As if imitating Ralf from KoF, Nomu rained down rapid fire punches, in such succession that there was barely any pause between the punches, and each punch was enough to shake the earth, creating small earthquakes.
Taro's heart beat rapidly as a newfound tension filled his body, his confidence waning as each punch from the Nomu brought greater and greater pain to his arms.
At first, it was a slight pain, just barely something to notice; however, as the punches continued, it increased in potency, and at this point, it was enough to force him to grit his teeth and resist the urge to scream. He could feel each punch deep in his bones.
Taro was pinned down, and the raining barrage of punches on his arms brought pain that made it difficult to think properly. He could feel his arms begin to bruise from the punches, and it hurt
'I need to get out of this'
It would be simple to forgo his guard, letting a few punches land, so he could deliver his own counterattack; however, the position he was currently in made it difficult to throw a punch that would get the creature off him, especially considering he needed every ounce of strength just to push it back.
Taking punches to the face just to throw a punch that wouldn't even deal damage was stupid.
However, he wasn't out of options. He just needed the barrage to stop, and that was easy to do. He just needed to time things just right.
Despite the pain in his arms, the young lad forced his mind to calm down and process each punch that struck him. The Nomu was not hitting him with both arms at the same time; one punch came after the other.
This meant that there's at least a millisecond pause before each fist lands, one fist hits first and then pulls back, letting the other fist land. This means there is a moment where neither of the fists are touching his arms and are not dealing damage.
It's the moment after a strike from the left fist but before another strike from the right. Taro needed to act in that moment, so he calmed himself and let his arms feel each punch that landed while his mind was processing each impact rapidly, trying to notice the millisecond where his arms didn't feel the impact of the punches, that small moment of relief.
With his mind focusing on the impact of each punch, the pain intensified. It was as if his arms were being hit by sledgehammers continuously without stopping.
The spectators couldn't help but watch in awe and in dread, Shigaraki chuckling as he witnessed an overconfident brat get destroyed by the Nomu.
The ground they stood on shook violently from the rapid fire punches of the creature. It seemed hellbent on burying Taro more than just six feet deep.
Aizawa, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel a sense of dread and a sense of uselessness. A kid was doing his work for him while he stood there, unable to do anything at all.
Each punch that reverberated through the ground was merciless and unforgiving, carried out by a creature that Aizawa was confident did not know of the concept of mercy or forgiveness
The feeling of uselessness and dread gnawed at his stomach, It was the kind of feeling that a hero like himself was not used to and was uncomfortable with and because of the uncomfortability, Aizawa could watch no longer.
He took a step. However, his action was interrupted.
"You're joking, right? you'd be nothing but a nuisance to Nomu if you joined"
Shigaraki stated matter of factly, and Aizawa knew his words were true, but as a hero, he just couldn't stop himself.
"Honestly the kid was good entertainment before the main course that is All Might. next time, he'll think twice–"
He paused and chuckled to himself as he realised that there was going to be no next time.
'I'm sure master will understand'
He convinced himself, His master was a nice guy and always gave him what he wanted, so killing Taro was a non-issue. it just means he wasn't worth his master's time.
Aizawa ignored Shigaraki and began to sprint towards Taro's direction. He didn't know what he could do, but he was going to do something.
However, just as he began to sprint, the barrage of punches suddenly halt, creating an immediate and contrasting lull to the entire central plaza.
The dust slowly cleared and revealed a deep crater on the ground, one that went deep into the ground, the underground pipes were crushed and bent, leaking small streams of water ontop of the two beings within the crater.
Taro had done it, he managed to get the timing just right and in that millisecond after a punch and before another was delivered, He moved and quickly grabbed Nomu's hands halting the barrage of punches.
However that wasn't without a heavy cost, his forearms screamed in pain, the muscles on that part of his arms ached and he couldn't bring forth the strength necessary to keep Nomu's arms in place for too long.
"Sorry Ralf, had to stop you before trying a Galactica phantom on my face"
The young lad joked with a small grin on his face. Of course, he knew that a creature like Nomu could never get the reference, but that didn't matter right now.
It was only a matter of time before his arms gave out, allowing the Nomu to continue it's barrage so he had to think fast.
If he was fighting a human, it would have been easy to use his legs by lifting them up and using them grab the neck and pull the Nomu off his body however he wasn't fighting a normal human but a monster that several times taller than him.
However he wasn't out of options, He can fly and so using that ability to fly, he pushed his body off the ground and rose a few inches off it before he immediately turned his body and reversed the situation.
He flipped Nomu on its back and had himself be the one on top and quickly gain an advantage. With Nomu now below him, he acted quickly.
Both their arms were locked in place, their hands holding as if they lovers and pushing against each other.
Taro used that to his advantage and began to rotate his wrist, twisting Nomu's arms in the process.
The plan was the same as before. Simply tear its limbs off and over tax its regeneration. He had determined that to be better than tiring himself by punching and having his punches be ineffective.
'I need to grow stronger so that shock absorption is irrelevant'
That thought crossed him mind as he twisted Nomu's arms, but the creature was resisting, and given the fact that the muscles in his forearms were damaged, he couldn't bring out the maximum amount of his strength but…
"That's how losers think!"
He shouted and grit his teeth, calling upon every single ounce power he can, he ignored the pain and pushed his aching muscles to their limits.
He twisted the Nomu's arms, hearing it's bones dislocated however he could feel his forearm muscles tear themselves apart, snapping like rubber bands.
A new kind of pain introduced itself to him, however he didn't stop, with a scream he fully twisted the Nomu's arms and the with a final effort pulled one of arms straight off its shoulder and the other he only managed to pull of the elbow.
Blood splattered on his body as he tossed the arms to the side before he unfortunately received a headbutt straight to the chest that sent him flying out the crater, but luckily Nomu struggled to get up without arms to support himself.
As Taro's body was launched out the crater, Aizawa quickly ran to him in a panic, anxiously hoping that the young man wasn't hurt too badly.
Taro crashed onto the ground and rolled for a few meters before his body stopped. He rolled on his back and looked at high ceiling of the building. His breath was heavy, his heart drumming at his chest.
He could feel that his forearm muscles were cooked, completely unusable right now, under normal circumstances they wouldn't have been torn like that, its specially because they were severely damaged that they tore when they were put under greater strain.
...