The artificial cyclone howled across the skyline.
Concrete fragments, twisted steel, shattered glass, and loose chunks of asphalt spiraled endlessly through the towering funnel, the deafening roar echoing for blocks in every direction.
"COIL!"
Inasa clenched both fists.
WHOOOOOOOM!!
The enormous tornado immediately responded as the towering funnel compressed.
Its immense body folded inward upon itself as every layer of rotating air collapsed toward a single center. Hundreds of violently conflicting currents converged simultaneously, crushing the cyclone into a smaller, denser form.
Within seconds, the colossal pillar had become a gigantic sphere of violently rotating wind suspended high above the city.
"GO!"
With a violent thrust of both arms, Inasa launched the condensed sphere forward.
BOOOOOOM!! The compressed vortex tore through the sky like a miniature hurricane given physical form. Without hesitation, Inasa accelerated after it.
'I have to get it away from the residential blocks.' His eyes swept the streets below. Office buildings, apartment complexes and morning traffic. If that monstrosity fell back down to earth here, the collateral damage would be catastrophic.
All he had to do was guide the mass toward the industrial bay. 'Just a little farther. If I can ... Huh?' BWOOOOOOOOOM!! A sonic wave shot out barely a second later. Inasa barely managed to dodge, feeling the violent pressure spike change ahead of time. 'This thing again?!'
Inside the dark funnel of the tornado just moments prior, Hood's yellow eyes had tracked the rapid, grinding rotation of concrete and glass.
'Wind... spinning... low pressure,' his morphed arms automatically thickened to twice their original size. Muscle Augmentation. Power. Transforming Arms.
The moment it swung its arms, the carefully balanced pressure gradients collapsed instantly. The absolute force of the shockwave blew the condensed gale completely open, sending a physical wall of sound rippling across the sky.
"Now... where..." Hood rasped, his massive wings unfurling to catch the sudden vacuum.
He quickly snapped his head to the side, and the first thing he saw was Inasa's fist, heavily charged with compressed air, just a few feet away from his face.
"Wind Blast!!" A concentrated, high-velocity tornado blast erupted directly around his palm, slamming into Hood's chest at point-blank range. The High end Nomu was engulfed in the wind torrent, violently blasting him backward through the air.
'Dammit! He broke out,' Inasa thought, frantically restructuring the scattered wind currents around him to maintain his altitude.
His breathing had already become uneven.
'Plan B then. I'll keep forcing him farther away until ...'
Halfway through his thoughts, the roaring wind from his blast was violently pierced through.
RIP!
Five independent, jet-black tendrils extended directly out of the receding blast radius, shooting toward him at rapid, blinding speed.
Inasa's eyes widened. He twisted his torso mid-air, but the obsidian tips scraped across his torso, tearing away large patches of his Hero costume and drawing jagged lines of crimson blood across his skin.
"Get away ..." Inasa slammed his hands down, creating multiple miniature wind tornadoes to attack. The High end dodged every single one with ease and blasted towards him with his jet thrusters.
Inasa hurriedly put up an air barrier.
WHOOSH!
Only for it to be broken easily as a gust of wind rushed past him. Following which his body was engulfed in tendrils just as X less was and yanked at rapid speeds.
RAWR!!!!
Hood roared as he swung his arm around into the nearest building structure.
BOOM!
The impact was deafening. Inasa's back shattered through the thick concrete reinforcement beams of the buildings exterior. The reinforced fractured into a spiderweb of deep fissures as the kinetic energy of the impact rippled through the building. Dust, pulverized mortar, and shards of structural glass erupted outward in all directions.
Inasa didn't even have the breath to scream. The sheer force of the impact drove the air from his lungs in a single gasp, his vision darkening for an instant. His hero costume had never been made with withstanding damage in mind.
Leaving his trained body to bear the full brunt of the blunt trauma transferring directly into his ribs and thoracic spine. But Hood wasn't finished.
The High-End's yellow eyes gleamed with malice as he maintained his grip on the constricting tendrils. With a brutal twist of his torso, the monster yanked the cables backward, tearing Inasa out from the wreckage of the pillar only to swing him downward with the force of a falling meteor.
WHOOOOOOOOSH!
At the absolute last second, months of his grueling training, familiarity with his quirk, and natural talent, overrode his body's shock. Inasa didn't try to pull against the tendrils; instead, he targeted the air beneath his own falling form and triggered a high-pressure atmospheric cushion directly beneath his back.
CRASH!!
The makeshift air cushion exploded under the immense weight of the throw, absorbing just enough of the fatal momentum before Inasa skipped across the asphalt like a stone over water.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Each impact gouged a fresh crater into the pavement before finally sending him crashing straight through the glass façade of a vacant office building.
SHATTER!!
Window after window burst apart as his body tore through cubicles, desks and support walls before finally disappearing beneath a mountain of shattered concrete.
Silence.
Dust rolled from the ruined building as chunks of broken masonry continued raining into the deserted street.
Far above...
Hood hovered motionlessly. His yellow eyes remained fixed upon the collapsed structure.
There was no further movement. The tendrils around his shoulders twitched once before slowly relaxing and reforming into his arms. 'This one was ... more durable than the rest ..."
Unfortunately, that was all there was to it. Whatever resistance the wind-user had offered had ended.
His wings adjusted slightly as he prepared to resume flight to find stronger heroes.
WHOOOOOSH!!
A streak of white shot into the sky from behind him.
"There!" A Pro Hero burst upward using a large twin-engine jetpack mounted across his back. Compressed air cannons unfolded from beneath both forearms.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Rapid bursts of compressed air hammered toward Hood one after another.
The High-End turned its head as the attacks struck.
THUD! THUD! THUD! And dissipated harmlessly against Hood's body.
The Nomu tilted its head. "M-more? ..." These airblasts were significantly weaker than the massive, sweeping gales the previous hero had used against him.
"Hold on, Air Jet! We're right behind you!" Two more Pro Heroes emerged from the highway exit ramp below, running at full sprint toward the destruction.
"Dammit, what is that thing?!" a pro hero lady dressed in an orange bodysuit, looking like a fierce tiger woman, yelled in distress as she leaped over a crushed sedan, her claws extending.
The male hero sliding beside her took one look at the shattered building facade, the fractured highway, and the giant crater, cold sweat dripping down his forehead. "Isn't that one of those Nomu things from the Tokyo news?!"
The woman gritted her teeth. "If it is, I don't get paid enough for this."
Hood didn't care about their questions. "You're even weaker than the last .." Turning his chest vent directly toward the ascending Air Jet, the blowhole snapped wide open.
BWOOOOOOOOOOM!!! The high-frequency ultrasonic shockwave tore through the air like. Air Jet didn't even have time to adjust his trajectory. The concussive wave hit head on, blowing out the internal combustion mechanics of his jetpack.
"GAHHAAH!"
Air Jet's scream was cut short as the physical feedback ruptured his eardrums. With his jetpack ruined, his body fell out of the sky from a fatal height of over eighty feet. From that distance, the impact with the solid asphalt below wouldn't just hospitalize him—he was going to crash terribly and die.
WHOOOOOOSH!! A strong gust erupted from the demolished office building. Air Jet's falling body slowed down before being caught and hauled midair.
"Hah!"
Inasa roared, catching the falling hero mid air before he could plummet to his death. They both landed on the floor, tumbling with Inasa tearing the remaining fabric of his gear to shreds before he finally ground to a halt against the crushed hood of an abandoned sedan. "Ugh... cough!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood. Every single nerve ending in his body was on fire. Through the ringing in his ears, he could hear the distant, terrified screams of drivers fleeing their vehicles further down the gridlock.
"You ok kid?" Airjet's voice fell into his ears.
"I'M FINE SIR." He tried .. and failed to stand to his feet.
"Easy kid. You look terrible."
"It's ok. I CAN STILL ...." Those were his last words before plummeting to the ground unconscious.
THUD!
"Kid."
"Airjet!"
The two heroes, Feline and Mr Technoblade rushed towards his sides. The man looked at Inasa, eyes widening at his bloody state.
He couldn't.
"Who is this kid?"
"No idea." Airjet said, eyes upwards. "But we have bigger problems right now." Up ahead, Hood's eyes gleamed coldly.
"...TOO WEAK."
The words echoed through clenched teeth. Hood's fingers twitched violently.
"Too weak..."
His massive shoulders trembled.
"Too weak..."
The tendrils hanging from his back writhed like living serpents.
"...Too weak..."
Its glowing yellow eyes swept across the ruined district littered with broken buildings, overturned vehicles and unconscious heroes.
"...TOO WEAK!"
The High-End threw its head back.
"WHERE... ARE... THE STRONG?!"
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!
The roar erupted across the city.
The sound rolled through the sky like thunder, rattling windows several blocks away.
Birds exploded into the sky. Even civilians already halfway through evacuation instinctively ducked as the monstrous cry washed over them.
...
Several streets away—
The television cameraman nearly stumbled as the roar blasted across the intersection.
"T-Turn the camera back!"
The lens immediately zoomed toward the skyline.
High above the devastated district, Hood floated motionlessly against the morning sun in the sky clear for everyone in the broadcast to see
The young reporter pressed a hand against her earpiece, face clear with mounting dread. "In a turn of events... it seems the hero previously locked in battle with the creature has been defeated,"
She swallowed.
"And... incredibly..."
The microphone shook slightly in her hand. "... The villain standing entirely unopposed ... appears to be issuing some kind of challenge."
The cameraman slowly increased the volume captured by the directional microphone.
"...WHERE..."
"...ARE..."
"...THE STRONG..."
The distorted words carried clearly across the live broadcast.
The reporter's expression paled. "It... it appears to be demanding stronger opponents."
Across Japan—
Living rooms.
Restaurants.
Hospital waiting rooms.
Police stations.
Agency offices.
Multiple televisions carrying the emergency broadcast displayed the same image."Right now, no local heroes have appeared on the scene yet. Local authorities are urging all citizens to ...."
Elsewhere, Underground Nomu facility
The soft glow of dozens of monitors illuminated a laboratory filled with humming machinery.
On every screen...
The same live broadcast played the same thing.
Kyudai Garaki adjusted his spectacles. The corners of his mouth curled upward.
"...Magnificent."
His ancient fingers clasped together. "The synchronization is progressing even faster than expected."
One monitor displayed Hood's biological readings.
Another showed the countless drones transmitting telemetry from the battlefield.
Garaki chuckled.
"...Good."
"...Very good."
"No matter how many insects you crush..."
"...none of them satisfy you."
The old doctor's smile deepened.
"That instinct..."
"...is precisely why you are my masterpiece."
__
High above Aichi—
Hood's roar slowly faded.
The High-End remained suspended in the air. However, ever since the road, its body hadn't stopped expanding.
The muscles around both shoulders swelled.
Its arms bulged outward. The skin stretched unnaturally before—
SPLT.
Both forearms burst apart.
"...Strong..."
It flexed its fingers.
"...Need..."
Its wings spread wider.
"...Strong..."
The flesh around its torso visibly thickened.
Steam hissed from between expanding muscle fibers.
Its glowing yellow eyes swept across the ruined district below.
Steam erupted violently from the openings.
Then—
POP!
POP!
POP!
Several spherical masses of living flesh were violently expelled from its ruined arms, launching outward in every direction like biological artillery.
Each one spun rapidly through the air before beginning to pulsate.
Far below...
The remaining heroes stared upward in horror.
"...What..."
"...is it doing now?"
Before anyone could answer—
CRASH!
A completely different explosion echoed from a kilometer away. Far beyond the commercial district. Hood immediately stopped, snapping his head toward the source.
On the distant skyline... The roof of a commercial building collapsed inward before erupting into a towering cloud of smoke and debris. Hood looked over. From his height, the collapsing building could be seen in the distance.
Before he could look away, a faint blue flash like a bolt of lightning had briefly ignited somewhere beyond the commercial district.
"...?"
BOOOOOOM!!
The air split apart. A violent sonic boom echoed across the city as something tore through the sky at impossible speed.
Hood barely had time to register it.
SQUELCH!!
The projectile buried itself cleanly through the lower half of his abdomen before erupting out the other side.
For the first time since his creation... The High-End's yellow eyes widened.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
The chakra compressed within the spinning projectile detonated.
The explosion consumed Hood from the inside out.
His torso ballooned grotesquely before rupturing under the overwhelming pressure.
Muscle.
Bone.
Black flesh.
Wing fragments
Everything erupted outward in a storm of burning gore. The shockwave blasted across the skyline, tearing apart the surrounding air as chunks of the High-End's body rained toward the ruined streets below.
In an instant, Hood was blown apart.