Name: Noah Vale
Lifespan: 19 / ???
Strength: 8.0 → 8.5
Endurance: 8.0 → 8.7
Mind: 8.0 → 8.3
Charisma: 1.4+
Unspent Points: 0.2
There were 0.0054 seconds left before Noah would be pulled back.
Less than a blink. Less than a thought.
And yet, in that fraction of time, his body had already begun to evolve. Every exchange, every impact, sharpened him. Strength, endurance, awareness, all climbing at once as if his body had finally found something worth chasing.
For the first time, he wasn't lagging behind.
He was keeping up.
Saitama moved first.
"Serious consecutive punches."
His fists blurred into existence, not just fast, but relentless, flooding the space around Noah with a storm of strikes. Each one carried enough force to erase continents.
Noah didn't block.
He redirected.
Every punch that should have landed on him slipped away, twisted aside at the last instant, flung outward into the distant reaches of Jupiter's atmosphere. The diverted force tore through the planet's surface far below, each impact detonating with power that would have dwarfed the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Saitama's eyes flickered with surprise.
That lasted exactly one instant.
Because Noah's fist answered back.
It connected.
This time, Saitama felt it.
A sharp, unmistakable pain.
His lips curled.
Finally.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and struck back.
The clash escalated instantly.
Fists collided faster than sight could follow, shockwaves folding space around them. The atmosphere churned violently despite the vacuum-like conditions, as if reality itself was struggling to keep up.
Noah was forced back a step.
Just one.
But it was enough to tell him everything.
The system registered the shift, feeding him a quiet stream of insight.
Saitama wasn't static.
He was rising.
Every second, every exchange, his strength ticked upward. Not dramatically. Not explosively.
But steadily.
Relentlessly.
Like a tide that never stopped climbing.
Noah didn't need the numbers to understand it. He could feel it in every collision, every impact that grew heavier than the last.
And more importantly—
Saitama was enjoying it.
For the first time, he had someone who could stand in front of him without breaking.
And that excitement was fueling him.
Noah exhaled slowly.
Then stepped back in.
His own strength surged again, faster this time. Sharper. More aggressive.
He drove Saitama back with a series of heavier strikes.
If both of them could keep growing…
Then this wasn't a matter of limits.
It was a race.
Let's see which of us gets there first.
Far away, watching from a distance, Blast felt his stomach tighten.
At first, he could follow them.
Now?
They were already slipping beyond perception.
Their movements blurred into something abstract, more like flashes of force than physical bodies.
If this kept going…
It wouldn't just be Jupiter.
The entire solar system, maybe more, could be caught in the aftermath.
He clenched his fists.
This has to stop.
Gravity twisted around his hands as he prepared to act.
He couldn't interfere with them.
But he could at least remove everyone else.
Nearby, Boros was the only one who noticed.
The distortion of space.
The subtle shift.
What are you doing…?
Before he could react—
Everything collapsed inward.
A black sphere swallowed the battlefield's observers in an instant, space folding in on itself as Blast forced a mass teleport.
As they vanished, Boros let out a strained cry, caught in the violent transition.
Then—
Silence.
Back on Jupiter, Noah and Saitama both felt it.
The absence.
No more witnesses.
No more collateral.
For a fraction of a fraction of a second, they paused.
Then—
They went all out.
The escalation broke past reason.
Their strength didn't just double or triple.
It multiplied beyond comprehension.
Time itself seemed to fracture, sliced thinner and thinner as their movements accelerated. Moments stretched into something finer than nanoseconds, each instant packed with thousands of exchanges.
Saitama kept growing.
So did Noah.
But eventually—
The curve split.
Noah pulled ahead.
His fist landed first.
A heavy, clean hit.
Saitama's body absorbed it, but not without consequence. His skin bruised. His muscles trembled.
He felt it clearly.
He'd been surpassed.
No excuses. No tricks.
Just pure growth.
And he had lost that race.
Saitama stood there, feeling the pain settle into his body.
It didn't bother him.
Not really.
But beneath the excitement, something else stirred.
A faint, unfamiliar frustration.
Noah didn't react.
He simply kept punching.
Each strike heavier than the last, carving visible damage into Saitama's body.
To him, this outcome felt… inevitable.
I can keep going.
That thought settled in his mind with quiet certainty.
He didn't need Saitama.
He didn't need an opponent at all.
As long as he kept pushing, kept refining, he could grow endlessly within this tiny slice of time.
Ten times stronger.
A hundred.
A thousand.
Or something so far beyond numbers that counting lost meaning.
Limits like light speed, time, space…
Those weren't walls.
They were inconveniences.
And if they got in the way?
He could break them.
So he did the only thing that made sense.
He stepped forward.
And fought.
Their eyes met.
No words.
Just intent.
Two fists surged forward at the same time, each carrying power that had already surpassed anything either of them had thrown before.
Saitama felt it.
This one could kill him.
His durability had limits. He knew that now.
But strangely—
He didn't hesitate.
If this is what it takes…
Then so be it.
He threw everything he had into that final punch.
And just before impact—
Light cut through the battlefield.
A sharp, silent flash.
Noah vanished.
The collision never came.
The fight—
Ended before it could finish.