Tsukasa slowly stood up straight. "It's quite annoying."
He tilted his head back slightly, looking toward the white mist that had nearly swallowed the stars and the moon. The mist surged like a living thing, rolling in with a damp, cold breath. Wherever it passed, even sound was swallowed, leaving only a silence that made one's eardrums throb.
What was even more suffocating was the silhouette emerging from the mist. It could no longer be called a "living creature"—it was an island suspended in the air. Rough, grayish-white skin covered a massive body, blotting out the moonlight over the lawn.
Two giant eyes were set into the mountain-like head, slowly turning at this moment. One of them looked down, locking its gaze onto the figure below, which was as small as a speck of dust.
Tsukasa stood in the center of the shadow, his loose kimono fluttering from the airflow pressing down from above. He clearly felt the contempt in that gaze—it was the playfulness of a predator toward something destined to become bait.
"So this is the White Whale..."
He spoke in a low voice, which was now filled with excitement. "It's certainly big enough."
Having said that, he paused, the corners of his lips slowly pulling into a grin. "However..."
"Just who gave you the courage to look at me with those eyes from the sky?"
The moment his words faded, the pupil of the White Whale's giant eye, which had been staring at the ground, suddenly contracted.
On the ground, that tiny figure had vanished.
The massive head jerked around, eyes spinning rapidly, scanning the empty lawn below.
The White Whale's massive body suddenly stiffened. Its head tilted up at a speed inconsistent with its size, looking toward the sky.
In its field of vision, a fist enveloped in blue flames was rapidly expanding. Wherever the fist passed, even the thick white mist was violently pushed aside, leaving a straight vacuum trail.
Too fast!
So fast that the White Whale's mountain-sized body had now become its clumsiest burden.
It didn't even have time to turn its head before the fist burning with blue flames occupied its entire field of vision.
Tsukasa hung in mid-air, his arm pulled back to the extreme. His entire body's power surged through his spine, link by link, finally converging in one spot. At this moment, that extremely excited smile was still on his face.
And then—
BOOM!
The fist slammed squarely into the White Whale's left eye.
At the moment of contact, the blue light exploded. This was followed by a dull, squelching sound.
Splat!
The eyeball tissue instantly distorted, deformed, and finally burst under the unimaginable force. Brown fluid and translucent crystalline fragments mixed with blood mist, splattering in all directions.
The power did not stop. A terrifying shockwave centered on the point of impact, turning into visible pale ripples that boomed outward.
Vwoom!
The White Whale's head was forced back by the sheer power of the punch. Immediately after, an irresistible force was transmitted through its entire body. Its massive frame suspended in the air lost balance and began to plummet toward the earth with terrifying acceleration.
BAM!!!
The White Whale's massive body crashed into the wilderness like a falling meteor.
The earth shook violently and centered on the point of impact, spiderweb-like cracks spread crazily in all directions. Soil and rubble mixed with dark red blood, erupting like a fountain a hundred meters into the sky.
Tsukasa hung in mid-air, looking down with lowered eyes.
Just one punch had knocked this Mabeast, which had haunted legends for centuries, from the sky down into the wilderness.
"As expected."
He shook his wrist, the remaining blue light particles between his fingers scattering like stars.
"In this world, the feeling of having your feet on the ground is better."
Before he could finish—
"ROAR!!!"
A furious roar erupted from the blood pit below.
The sound wave instantly blew away the dust in the sky to reveal the mountain-like body twitching violently at the bottom of the pit. The sound wave was sharp enough to rupture eardrums.
Tsukasa's movements faltered for a second due to this sudden roar.
At the bottom of the pit, the White Whale suddenly looked up. Its only remaining giant eye was overrun with violent bloodshot veins, even as viscous saliva mixed with blood foam dripped from its giant maw.
It didn't even try to fly up. Instead, its tail slammed against the ground. Using the recoil, its massive body shot out of the deep pit.
The target—that tiny silver figure in the sky.
The air was torn apart, emitting a series of ear-piercing booms.
The White Whale was so fast it left afterimages in the sky. The terrifying kinetic energy brought by its size was enough to crush everything in its path to dust.
Tsukasa watched the rapidly approaching shadow that filled his entire field of vision. Instead of dodging, he grinned.
"You..."
He chuckled, his voice remaining clear amidst the chaotic airflow. "Are you underestimating me a bit too much?"
Facing this impact capable of shattering mountains, the smile on his face grew even more arrogant.
"If I really got hit, I'm afraid that Flugel Tree behind me would be snapped in half, wouldn't it?"
He cracked his neck, his joints popping. "Come, let me see just how much weight this desperate strike of yours carries."
The White Whale's speed was still climbing. In the White Whale's eyes, Tsukasa had now transformed into a blue meteor. His right fist was pulled back to the limit, veins bulging on his arm. The blue Cursed Energy flames once again enveloped his right fist.
A series of sonic boom clouds exploded in the air, with white vapor rings blooming one after another behind him. The distance between the two rapidly zeroed out.
The last image in the White Whale's eyes was the almost joyfully insane smile on that tiny figure's face, and the fist that occupied its entire field of vision.
The next moment.
BOOM!!!
Centered on the point of collision, a spherical force field mixed with blue and grayish-white suddenly expanded.
Immediately after, an indescribable shockwave boomed outward in a ring. The earth hundreds of meters away was peeled back like a carpet, soil layers overturned, rocks shattered, and wherever the shockwave passed, vegetation was turned to dust.
And at the core of the collision—
The moment Tsukasa's fist pressed against the bone plate on the White Whale's forehead, it actually burst with a dark red light like blood.
He tilted his head slightly, looking at his reflection in the White Whale's eye, the corners of his lips pulled back.
Black Flash!