Chapter 143 : The Dance of Molten Metal and the Dragon's Fangs

The deafening boom of my punch shattering the steel door echoed throughout the smelting tower, an undeniable declaration of war. Dust and metal fragments rained down as I stepped through the gaping hole I had just created. Inside, the control room, which had been filled with arrogant laughter, was now dead silent.

Kain, the metal tyrant, sat on his throne made of melted pipes, his cruel eyes wide with pure shock. His remaining bodyguards, who had been relaxing around him, immediately leaped to their feet, raising their makeshift weapons—steel pipes and giant wrenches.

"So," Kain said, slowly rising from his throne, his shocked expression twisting into a savage grin of rage. "The little rat finally shows its fangs. All of you, finish him!"

His bodyguards charged forward with a war cry. I didn't wait for them to get close. I manifested my Incursio leg guards and shot forward, becoming a blurry black shadow. This fight had to be fast. I couldn't waste stamina on these extras.

I moved among them with a cold efficiency. I used my short Dragon's Fang, not to slash flesh, but to destroy weapons. With every swing, a steel pipe broke in two, a wrench was split apart. I incapacitated them with precise strikes using the pommel of my sword to pressure points, a skill I remembered from the dreams of the original Tatsumi's fights. In less than thirty seconds, all of Kain's guards were lying on the floor, unconscious or groaning in pain.

Now, it was just the two of us.

"An impressive hero," Kain said, clapping slowly and mockingly. "But you were just dealing with my dogs. Now, you will face their master."

The metal floor beneath his feet began to melt, turning into a pool of silvery liquid that flowed toward him. The metal crept up his body, forming a glistening suit of liquid armor, complete with sharp swords that formed on his arms. "Let's see if your armor can match mine," he hissed.

In a dark apartment in the district below us, Kaito and his family flinched in shock at the sound of the explosion from the smelting tower. "What was that?" his wife whispered, hugging their terrified daughter.

Kaito crept to the boarded-up window. Through a small crack, he could see the top of the tower, now brightly lit by sparks and flashes of light. He saw the figure of Kain, now encased in metal, and a black shadow moving with incredible speed.

"Someone... someone is fighting him," Kaito whispered, his breath held. "A hero... a hero has come."

Hope, a long-buried feeling, began to pulse again in his chest. He kept watching, praying silently for the victory of the black shadow.

My fight with Kain was a deadly dance. He was an incredibly difficult opponent. His Mercury Quirk allowed him to instantly change the form of his attacks. When I tried to attack at close range, he would create dozens of sharp metal spikes from the floor. When I leaped to dodge, he would shoot projectiles of molten metal like bullets.

I was forced to keep moving, relying on my speed and agility. I manifested and retracted parts of Incursio as needed, a mentally draining process. Gauntlets to parry his sword, leg guards to jump off the walls, a chest plate to withstand the projectiles I couldn't dodge.

"You're fast!" Kain exclaimed, sounding amused. "But you can't run forever!"

He slammed his hands on the floor, and the entire surface of the room began to turn to liquid metal, trying to trap my feet. I leaped onto one of the machines in the room. Kain laughed and turned his arm into a long metal whip, lashing out at me.

In her new hideout, Akame was studying the maps and data she had collected on Yozakura. She had found a pattern. Payment patterns, smuggling routes, and aliases. She was beginning to piece together a picture of how deep and how wide her clan's network was in this world. And she found a disturbing connection to Humarise and several other factions she didn't even know.

Suddenly, the wooden token in her pocket vibrated faintly. A familiar energy pulse. Tatsumi. He was fighting. She closed her eyes, concentrating. She couldn't see what was happening, but she could feel the intensity of the fight, the wild power of Incursio being unleashed. She also felt another energy, something cold and inorganic. 'Metal,' she thought. She was worried, but she also had faith. Their truce was built on the trust that Tatsumi could handle his own problems. She opened her eyes, focusing back on her maps. She had her own war to fight.

I managed to dodge the metal whip, but I knew I couldn't keep defending. I needed a breakthrough. I looked at Kain, who stood arrogantly in the middle of his sea of metal. I noticed that although he could control the metal around him, his real body inside the liquid armor was still his weak point.

I had to get close.

Kain seemed to read my mind. He grinned and created three liquid metal golems from the floor, which immediately charged at me. I fought them, my Dragon's Fang blade slashing and destroying their unstable forms, but every time I destroyed one, the metal would just return to the floor and form a new golem.

"You can't defeat the ocean, little hero!" he laughed.

It was then that I realized my mistake. I was trying to fight his power. I should have been fighting him.

I ignored the golems. I focused all my attention on Kain. I saw him preparing another major attack, gathering a large amount of liquid metal into a giant hammer above his head. This was my chance.

As he swung the hammer down, I didn't dodge. I manifested both my leg guards, and with one powerful leap, I ran straight toward him, under the swing of the giant hammer.

"FOOL!" he yelled, thinking I had made a fatal error.

But I wasn't aiming for him. I was aiming for the floor beneath him. I re-manifested my Dragon's Fang, and with all my strength, I plunged it into the metal floor at his feet. I didn't try to cut it. I channeled my dragon's energy into it.

Heat.

My Incursio armor, which had learned to adapt to fire and ice, now released a concentrated wave of heat through my sword blade. The metal floor around Kain's feet began to turn red, then melt. No longer liquid metal he could control, but a useless pool of slag.

He screamed in shock as his footing vanished, and he fell into the pool of hot metal he himself had created. His liquid armor instantly fused with the molten floor, trapping him.

I stood before him, panting, my Dragon's Fang disappearing. He was trapped, unable to move, his armor now his prison.

"You..." he growled. "How..."

"You rely too much on one trick," I said, walking closer. I raised my now-unarmored fist.

The fight was over.

I incapacitated him and contacted Ryukyu. "Target has been neutralized," I reported, my voice tired. "The industrial district... is clear."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, then I heard Ryukyu's sincere voice of relief. "Good work, Tatsumi. Very good. A recovery team is on its way. Come home, soldier."

I stood in the ruined control room, looking out through the broken window. Below, in the district that had been dead and filled with fear, I saw the lights in the workers' apartments beginning to turn on, one by one. They had heard that the fight was over. They felt that their tyrant had fallen. It was a simple sight, but somehow, it felt more satisfying than the cheers of tens of thousands at a festival.

Below, in the district that had been dead, the light was starting to return.