One Punch Man: Heroics Start with Dual Kamui

Chapter 158 158: Concept God

Rapid-fire Incineration Cannons, canceling recovery frames with precise attacks, weaving in fancy movement between blasts; and the shocking part was how accurate it all was. If Genos had been doing it himself, he would've needed at least a moment to lock onto the target.

Maybe this was what it meant to be a Concept God. Zero-frame reactions and gauging distance with the naked eye were just King's most basic abilities.

"Amazing...!" Genos couldn't help but marvel inwardly.

If King and Genos were "mechanics monsters," then Vaccine Man was a "stats monster."

Right now, Genos's numbers sat somewhere between peak Demon and low Dragon, while Vaccine Man's stats were solidly high Dragon, maybe even peak Dragon. At the very least, it's definitely stronger than Overgrown Rover.

Even with King's perfect mechanics, taking down Vaccine Man was still extremely difficult.

Vaccine Man tanked Genos's Incineration Cannons head-on. After all, those were low-damage rapid-fire shots that at best chipped away at his health bar.

Then, dropping the flashy moves, he summoned multiple glowing orbs that floated behind him.

"Careful you don't get blown to pieces," Vaccine Man warned Genos before firing.

"No problem!" Genos replied, gritting teeth in excitement.

As long as his core in the chest wasn't destroyed, he could survive even if that was all that remained of his body.

As the massive orbs came flying in, King immediately took over with his flawless mechanics. Though Genos's speed wasn't as overwhelming as his destructive power, in King's hands, it was more than enough.

He perfectly dodged every orb, even counterattacking during the gaps between evasions.

King knew Genos's stats couldn't match Vaccine Man's, so from the start, his strategy was set: wear him down from a distance.

Taking blow after blow without landing any hits forced Vaccine Man to change tactics. He tried closing the distance. Since the long-range orbs couldn't hit, switching to close combat was the only option.

But the moment King saw him move, he instantly read Vaccine Man's intent and began kiting like crazy.

In his normal form, Vaccine Man's raw stats weren't that absurd. His main advantage lay in the energy orbs.

And with Shinji telling them to hold back, Vaccine Man hesitated. He didn't dare go berserk.

Even so, in his untransformed state, he was still faster than Genos. But King's control was too precise, making it impossible for Vaccine Man to get a clean grab.

Feints and missteps made Vaccine Man dizzy, and each time distance was regained, Genos countered.

Even if the low-damage Incineration Cannons were like "tickling," they fired instantly with almost no recovery time. In King's hands, that was enough to kite a no-mobility bruiser to death, just as a squishy ADC could kite down a warrior. But the stat gap was huge. King's margin for error was essentially zero.

If he slipped up even once and Vaccine Man landed a shot, a single orb to the face would instantly disable Genos, maybe even destroy his core.

Yet with the "game controller" in his hands, King couldn't make mistakes. That was the nature of a Concept God; logic didn't apply, just like with Saitama.

Under King's control, Genos could only lose if crushed purely by stats. A gap that wide couldn't be bridged even with flawless play.

...

Dragged around endlessly, Vaccine Man grew increasingly agitated. Vaccine Man wanted to go berserk immediately, but he hesitated, afraid it would break the rules.

Shinji noticed his restraint and spoke up. "Don't hold back now. Go all out. Just remember to stop before the end."

Even if Vaccine Man lost control, Shinji could end the fight at any time. With that reassurance, Vaccine Man finally unleashed himself and entered his explosive form.

His body swelled in size, his appearance shifting into that of a towering monster. His stats skyrocketed, strength, speed, everything surged to a new level.

Seeing this, King's pressure spiked as well. He focused harder than ever, ready to push his control to the absolute limit.

"Finally caught you...!"

Vaccine Man's speed was overwhelming. In a flash, one of his hands seized Genos around the waist.

But King had never planned on letting Genos dodge. He had already predicted Vaccine Man's movements, and by the time Genos was grabbed, his Incineration Cannon had been fully charged to maximum output.

Maximum output without tapping into his core, that is.

If he used the core's energy, it would be another story. But that would drain him too quickly, no different from admitting defeat. That option could only serve as a desperate last resort.

"Hm?"

Just as Vaccine Man prepared to slam a glowing orb into Genos's face, he saw the cyborg's arm cannon pointed straight at his head.

Boom!

The devastating blast engulfed Vaccine Man completely. Yet Genos's expression didn't ease in the slightest. King, too, never loosened his grip on the controller.

When the smoke settled, sure enough, Vaccine Man was still standing. However, he looked a mess, his body charred in multiple spots, his chin and the hand clutching Genos melted away by the Incineration Cannon.

"I'm done, I'm done. Too cheap. Let's call it your win."

Although his body was already healing, Vaccine Man had lost the desire to keep going. Even if he could get his hands on Genos again, he wouldn't be able to unleash his anger without holding back. And until then, he'd just keep taking blow after blow, reduced to little more than a punching bag. He wasn't going to keep playing along.

In truth, if they kept sparring, Vaccine Man wouldn't be able to pin Genos down, while Genos's firepower couldn't truly hurt him.

Even if Genos tapped into his core to unleash his most powerful blast, unless it killed in one hit, Vaccine Man would simply regenerate.

Strictly speaking, Vaccine Man still had a slight edge. After all, Genos's stamina, or rather, his energy, was limited. Then again, so was Vaccine Man's.

Which of them would burn out first was anyone's guess.

If you didn't overanalyze it, the outcome could be considered a draw.

And reaching that kind of result was already astonishing. Under King's control, Genos had been forcibly brought up to almost the same level as Vaccine Man.

King not only ensured Genos made zero mistakes, something Genos himself often failed to do when distracted, but also pulled off high-difficulty maneuvers and unpredictable tricks that Genos could never have imagined, like canceling recovery frames with basic attacks.