“Guuh, gah...! Heh heh, hahahahaha...!”
At the epicenter of the impact, surrounded by dying embers, the two men remained standing.
Zaraki was visibly mangled. He had endured the Purple Flame—a force capable of incinerating anything in its path—and taken a direct, fire-wreathed blow from Yugo’s fist. It was clear at a glance that he was severely wounded.
Yet, he did not fall. Despite the lacerations covering his body, he held his ground even as he took the weight of Yugo’s strike.
Zaraki reached out and seized Yugo’s arm. With a cackle, he drove the sharp claws of his free hand deep into the boy's shoulder.
“Guuh...!”
“Brother!” Fee cried out.
As if its previous sturdiness had been a mere illusion, the Blaster armor shattered. Zaraki’s claws sank into Yugo’s flesh.
Slowly withdrawing his hand, the villain glanced at his claws, now slick with the blood pouring from Yugo’s shoulder. A smirk played across his lips.
“It was that first strike. I knew the moment you hit me. You aren’t in top form, are you? You were already nursing an injury somewhere.”
Having seen through Yugo’s condition, Zaraki’s eyes narrowed as he laughed. At the same time, some part of him acknowledged the man who had managed to inflict such pain upon him. As if offering a twisted form of praise, he continued.
“That was dangerously close. If you’d been at a hundred percent, I wouldn’t have walked away from that.”
The desperate, all-out Finishing Blow Yugo had unleashed at the very edge of his time limit had failed to reach its full potential.
Having identified the narrow margin between victory and defeat, Zaraki’s grin widened. He could feel the Magic Power radiating from the Purple Flame Armor beginning to flicker and fade.
“The recoil hit him! Yugo is finished...!”
“Dammit! Hang on, Yugo! I’m coming to—” Marcos tried to shout, but he gasped as his strength failed.
It wasn't just Yugo’s body that had been ravaged by the extraordinary heat. The Blaster, which had its metal density pushed to the absolute limit to withstand the thermal strain, had seen its Defense plummet due to the backlash.
Watching the light of the Magic Crystal on Yugo’s chest grow dim, Marcos and the others tried to rush to his aid, but their own bodies were at their limits. They collapsed where they stood.
“Yugo...!”
“This is the end! For the sake of your persistence, I’ll let you have some final words. Anything you want to say before you go? Eh?”
Zaraki spoke with malicious glee, certain of his victory. He raised his arm, aiming for the boy's neck this time. Even as the villain allowed himself the luxury of listening to a dying man’s last words, Yugo muttered something under his breath.
“...told you, didn't I...”
“Hah? What was that? I can’t hear you.”
Zaraki let out a mocking laugh, leaning in—only to recoil in shock as Yugo suddenly seized his arm.
Caught off guard by a grip far too powerful for a man on the verge of death, Zaraki stared. Beneath the helmet, Yugo wore a ferocious, predatory smile. This time, his voice rang out with absolute clarity.
“I told you... it’s a Twin Explosion!”
“Wh—?!”
Zaraki didn’t have time to process the words before he felt the ground beneath his feet shudder violently.
Sensing immediate danger, he tried to leap away, but Yugo’s iron grip held him fast, pinning him to the spot.
(Don’t tell me he planned this from the start?!)
Yugo hadn't been trying to win with the initial strike. He had been playing for this exact moment—the moment when Zaraki, having survived the first blast, completely lowered his guard.
Just as Koumaru had concealed the Gigantrose units beneath the earth, Yugo had funneled his flames into the ground at the moment of impact.
The punch hadn't been the killing blow. It was the setup.
The true, full-power strike was only now reaching its climax. As the blood drained from Zaraki’s face, a geyser of flame erupted from the earth, swallowing them both.
“Gahhh?! Gaahhh!! Guuaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Za-Zaraki?!” Koumaru screamed as he watched his subordinate get engulfed.
Zaraki shrieked in agony, thrashing within the inferno until a final, massive detonation tore through the air, sending both him and Yugo hurtling in opposite directions.
“Yugo! Stay with us!”
“Zaraki!”
Yugo tumbled toward his allies, while Zaraki skidded across the dirt toward Koumaru.
Zaraki forced his head up at the sound of Koumaru’s voice, but all traces of his former arrogance had vanished.
“You... you little brat! How... how dare you do this to me! I’ll kill you! I’ll—ga-ha...!”
Burning with murderous rage, Zaraki tried to stand, but the damage was far beyond anything he had anticipated. His strength failed, and he slumped back into the dirt.
Still, he forced his gaze upward, only to freeze. In the distance, Yugo was already pulling himself to his feet, glaring back at him with a gaze that chilled the blood.
“I’ll go as many rounds as you want... Come on...!”
“Nuuh... uugh...!”
The sheer pressure, the bottomless intensity radiating from Yugo, shattered Zaraki’s remaining will.
Watching Yugo stand with his fighting spirit undiminished despite taking a suicidal blast to the face, an emotion Zaraki refused to acknowledge began to swell in his chest.
(Don’t give me that! I... I’m...!!)
In terms of strategy, tactics, and the ultimate outcome, the victory belonged to Yugo.
Even with his Dragon’s Recovery Power, it would take significant time for Zaraki to heal from such wounds. His opponent was undoubtedly at death's door as well—Yugo likely didn't have the strength left for a final move. If it turned into a war of attrition, Zaraki, who could regenerate, should have been the winner.
And yet, looking up from the dirt at the boy who refused to yield, Zaraki felt a crushing weight in his heart that he could no longer deny.
“It’s impossible... I... I lost?! U-uwooooooh!”
It wasn't just a matter of physical power. In the realms of spirit and resolve, he had been utterly defeated.
Koumaru watched in stunned silence as Zaraki writhed in the humiliation of his loss. Then, sensing the approach of the Security Force, his expression turned sharp and frantic.
“Zaraki! We’re pulling out! Move!”