503 Shakyamuni

Well, of course I dodged such a slow punch. Not even worth entering Acceleration.
I took a step back while the telephone punch went by. The thug who swung and missed turned around and froze up.
He probably never thought I would dodge it. Nobody said anything for a second.

"...Oy, bastard? The hell yer' dodging for? Trash like you should feel honored to be our beat up toy!? Haahn? Ya looking down on me?"
"Oy oy, lame! Pfft! How'd you let an amateur dodge? Ya musta gotten rusty. Look, here's how it's done!"

The other thug took a large swing at me.
He's really, really slow compared to my sparring partner in past life. I don't even need to use my power.
As someone experienced in martial arts, I want to tell him who's the amateur here.
I used my fist to teach that.

His right fist went for my face. I flicked it away with a light backhanded fist.
This must have come as a surprise to them. Including the result.

"Wha?" "Eh?"

My back fist was not at all fast. But it must have looked like a shadow flickered the fist away in these thugs' kinetic vision. The two put on a dumbfounded face.

He hasn't realized that his fist is broken from that. Only for a moment though.

"Wha? Oy! How come it's broken!? Dammit! What the hell is this! What did you frickin do!?"
"He's hiding somethin'! Must be a magic tool!? We gotta get to it! Is it a raid!?"

They're hopeless fools through and through. These small fry are so used to flaunting power they don't have.
They must have come under an illusion they're a bigger deal than they are after joining this violent gang.

At any rate, these two declared they would kill me for fun.
Then there's only one thing that needs to be done. These guys have crossed the line I have put in place inwardly.

"Sorry. I'm not gonna hold back this time. I've come, seen and experienced this assembly of trash you got here and drawn the conclusion that you are 'unneeded'. My standard for bad guys are shallow and small, with almost no room for interpretations."

If I had come before all the Waking Grass issues, I might have overlooked these guys' behavior.
But I've come this far. Their luck has pretty much run out.

I took a stance of the ultimate finisher of a certain fighting game character praised for their 'One fist, one dead' move.
But my speed far surpasses that.

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >

Have you seen 'Kata' performances by those who have seriously tread the path of Karate? A simple straight fist.
That one move is done in the blink of an eye. You can only perceive the moment they take a stance and the moment they've finished.
The actual move is over in a flash. That motion is the one chance the opponent can react against. A single utterance of an 'A' is long enough for the move to finish.
To amateurs, this is near instantaneous. Even to non-amateurs, one must fully dedicate their entire being to observe this move. Miss that instance, and you miss your chance to dodge.
In real combat, it's over once this move is executed. If you have a chance to stop it, it's during the preliminary move.
But even the preliminary move is too smooth flowing. It's too late by the time you realize. Unless you can perceive the very slight change in your opponent's center of gravity, dodging or guarding this move is a herculean's task.
Such is the dreadfulness of the ultimate finisher. As long as you can actually put it into practice, that is.

The actual 'Kata' is important. However, Katas are not something you can readily replicate in real combat.
Ordinarily, trying to follow 'Kata' to a T is impossible in practice. Kata is the ideal form, while real combat is all about flexibility. Thus you must mix both together in order to put Kata into practice.
You try to get as close as possible to the ideal while remaining flexible all the while.
This is merely my opinion. However, despite the rather short explanation, actually reaching that point takes a lifetime. And you must start planning this out from infancy.



And now, I just unleashed this move that would have been impossible to master unless you dedicated a huge portion of your life.
All thanks to this 'monstrous' body I got reincarnated into.
The punch with this monstrous strength behind it. Hit the man's solar plexus.
Naturally the end result was the fist-broken man got sent flying and crashing into the wall. He coughed up a huge amount of blood and stopped moving altogether.
The way the man got shapely caved in the wall almost made me shout 'What is this, a manga?!' out loud.
Of course the man left this world with no time to weave his death's poem.

The man likely couldn't recognize what just happened. Referring to the other thug here.
He slowly turned his eyes behind where a loud crash just echoed.
His face almost made me yell 'What is this, a manga?!' out loud again.
His jaw dropped so low, his nose dripping badly.
His eyes are wide open reflecting what was once his friend just a moment ago.

"Well then, it's your turn now. Are you ready?"

"Wa! Wait please! H-hey! It's! It's my bad, I apologize! Please let me live! Please, please! I beg of ya!"

The man prostrated before me. Anybody would throw their dignity if it's to save their life. Everyone values their life.

"...Have you ever forgiven someone who plead for their life? Have you ever let someone weaker than you live on after they begged for their life like you're doing now? Of course not. I mean, you said it yourself remember? 'We're not gonna let you off'. Ah, I'm getting angrier."

"...I! I have! Just once! I let someone off once! So! So!"

He turns his face up while still prostrating but his dirty face does nothing to me.

"Just once huh? Not all of them then. How many lives have you trampled down till now? Do you shamelessly believe that you deserve forgiveness after doing all that stuff? Nah. Looking at your kind disgusts me."

I'm no Shakyamuni. I won't dangle a spider's thread down.
In fact, I'm questioning if that story even has a moral.
People are people, evil is evil, that's it. Why would you give someone who has done so many repulsive evil deeds a chance at that point just because he saved a single spider once?
What if he managed to scale up to Paradise, what will become of those he has wronged in the world?
Well the story itself narrates that won't ever happen so I'll stop here.

"At least close the book of your life while reflecting on all the deeds you've done."

I raise my leg high up above the pleading fool.

"Wait! Wait! Please let me off! P! Please..."

Then I lowered my heel on the guy's crown of head as he kept begging till the end.

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