Chapter 167: papabear vs one punch man 2

Clean hit. One Punch Man took it across the ribs and bent sideways from the impact, fire licking up his side before he smothered it.

Rose straight back up.

“You’re smart,” he said quietly.

It wasn’t flattery. It was the specific kind of acknowledgment someone gives when they start fighting seriously.

His movement changed. The drifting footwork began — slow, deliberate, impossible to read, shrinking the angles Jelo had been working. One Punch Man wasn’t giving him clean lines anymore. Every position Jelo picked, the geometry was slightly worse than before.

Jelo felt it. The compression. His legs were burning from the repeated Wing Bursts, exhaustion stacking quietly beneath the surface. He had a limit and he could feel its outline now.

He made a decision.

Everything. Right now.

He ignited both hands completely — fire roaring up to his elbows — and thrust them forward, Dragon Claws forming from each simultaneously, both blazing, both enormous, one high and one low to cut off any vertical dodge. The combined strike was enormous, a wall of tearing energy and fire that blotted out everything behind it.

One Punch Man looked at it coming.

Pulled his fist back.

Punched straight into the center of it.

His fist split the attack directly down the middle. Both Dragon Claws sheared apart, the fire exploding outward in two directions, the shockwave from the punch itself canceling the energy projection behind it. He emerged from the blast, burned, bleeding from three places, one eye half shut from heat — but walking forward.

Still walking.

Jelo stared.

The fire between his fingers guttered.

What does it take.

He activated Skilled Guard and made the call — close distance, point blank Dragon Claw with fire channeled through it simultaneously. His skin hardened. He pulled every bit of remaining focus into his hands.

Wing Burst — directly in front of One Punch Man.

Both abilities fired at once. Dragon Claw and fire, fused, released at zero range.

The impact was enormous. One Punch Man was lifted completely off the ground, carried backward through the air trailing smoke and flame before he crashed down hard, bouncing once, sliding to a stop.

A long still moment.

Then movement. A hand on the ground. A knee. He pushed himself upright, slow but continuous, like something that didn’t know how to stay down.

Jelo had already Wing Burst back, Guard fading fast, legs shaking slightly on the landing. His fire was dimming — the fuel behind it running low the same way his bursts were thinning. He could feel both limits now, fire and mobility both bleeding toward empty.

One Punch Man stood fully.

Burns across his chest and arms. Blood drying at his temple and ear. Clothes reduced to scraps. He looked like the fight had been trying to kill him for the last ten minutes.

Which it had.

He looked at Jelo and said nothing. Just adjusted his footing.

Jelo committed to his last real combination. Three Wing Bursts cycling a triangle in under two seconds, each position launching something different — Dragon Claw from the first, pure compressed fire from the second, both fused together from the third, the heat and energy arriving in overlapping waves with no recovery window between them.

It was everything he had left coordinated into one sequence.

The Dragon Claw clipped One Punch Man’s shoulder and staggered him. The fire burst hit him while he was staggered and knocked him sideways. The third — the fused strike — was already in the air, aimed perfectly at the unbalanced position, no way to absorb it cleanly—

One Punch Man turned into it.

Took it across the front instead of the side. Chose the worse pain to keep his footing. The fire wrapped around him, the energy tore at him, and he stood in the middle of it with his feet planted and his arm already drawing back.

Jelo triggered Wing Burst.

The delay.

The half-second of effort his exhausted legs could barely pay.

One Punch Man was already there.

The punch landed.

Sound came after — deep, total, rolling outward in a wave that flattened everything still standing nearby.

Jelo’s Skilled Guard fired one final time on pure instinct at the moment of contact. It wasn’t enough to stop it. It was enough to matter — when he finally stopped moving, far away and completely still, he was breathing.

Barely. But breathing.

One Punch Man stood in the wreckage.

Burns. Cuts. Blood dried in lines across his face. He breathed slowly, each breath deliberate, and looked down at his fist.

The knuckles were scorched from the fire.

He hadn’t expected that.

He looked toward where Jelo had landed, silent for a long moment, and something in his expression shifted — not quite respect, not quite surprise. Something between the two that didn’t have a clean name.

He lowered his fist.

That fight had cost him something.

And for once, that meant everything.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Jelo smiled. He had expected this when he decided to send One Punch Man a request.

After the match ended, his avatar regained its strength. That was how the system was programmed — after every fight, the avatar recovered completely.

Still, Jelo was surprised.

One moment, it felt like he had some control. The next moment, he was down — completely beaten. There had been no dramatic back-and-forth, no gradual wearing down of health bars, no moment where Jelo could point and say there — that was where it turned. It had simply ended, the way a candle gets snuffed out mid-flicker.

Some people are just on a league of their own, Jelo thought.

He sat with that feeling for a moment. Not bitterness — more like the clean sting of something honest. He had gone in knowing the gap might be wide. He just hadn’t known it would be that wide.

Now, should I quit the Arena Nexus and work on something else? Or should I continue and use my full two hours? he deliberated in his mind.

He had blocked off the time specifically for this. Logging out early felt like a small defeat on top of a larger one. Besides, there was still essence to earn, still ranking points that moved whether you won or lost — as long as you kept fighting.

I guess I’ll find more people to fight, Jelo concluded as he opened the interface and started scrolling.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep