Broly stared down at the smokescreen that covered the city. He stared at the point in the smoke where Solutus crash-landed.
In the attack just now, he had to use Kakos' fighting style to accelerate his kick and come out of top against Solutus. He had vastly underestimated this assassin. He really hadn't expected to have met this powerhouse now. What surprised him, however, was the fact that he didn't remember the name, Solutus, on the list of the 100 most powerful beings in this universe. The first ranked opponents that he had met were assassins from this organization.
Reap and Kou were ranked 16th and 18th respectively on the list and there were at least 10 more that were on the list of the 100 strongest beings. It was only obvious to assume that Solutus would be on the list as well. Logically, he should be at least in the top 10 or even higher approaching the title of the strongest, but he was nowhere to be found.
Broly thought that Solutus might not be his real name but thinking about his warrior-like demeanor that was highly unlikely. Maybe he isn't from this universe or he couldn't be detected in this dimension by Shenlong.
Either way, Solutus could be said to be the strongest being Broly had ever fought if he excluded Mechikabura and his daughter.
The ground of the city was trembling as a whooshing sound underground became louder. Broly merely watched on and waited for Solutus to come back up. He had some suspicion on how Solutus was able to suddenly increase his speed when Broly kicked him.
The smoke was scattered by a wind blast as Solutus finally emerged from the ground. A bit of blood was running down his forehead. Solutus wiped it away before it could get into his eyes. He coldly looked at Broly who was calmly hovering in the air. Broly was scrutinizing Solutus' every movement.
Solutus didn't exchange any words but directly dashed towards Broly. In just a blink of an eye, he reached Broly and swung his sword. Broly's eyes turned yellow once again and his body gave off steam as he stepped backwards to evade the attack.
Just as Broly thought he had evaded the attack, a strange energy shot out of the blade splitting everything in its path as it aimed for Broly's neck.
Broly's skin turned slightly red and more steam was coming out of his body. Broly suddenly accelerated his evasion and barely came out of the attack unscathed. Broly was currently burning his lifeforce to keep up.
Of course, Solutus didn't wait for Broly's turn and directly followed up with a barrage of attacks. Broly was being pushed away by the dangerous blade that threatened to split him apart with a single slash. After he recognized its properties, Broly knew that his ki or magic barriers would be sliced apart without being able to slow it down at all. He could only use his body to contend with the blade and Broly didn't need to directly meet blade with his hand to know that he would be cut up.
Still this didn't mean he couldn't use ki blasts, after all, Solutus himself wasn't immune to ki blasts and would need to slash any strong incoming energy attacks with his sword. Broly in the middle of evading, shot out some ki blasts at Solutus to distract him and make him focus on deflecting the attack.
After getting a breather, Broly charged up an attack and directly fired it Solutus. This time it wasn't a ki sphere but a ki beam that was shooting at Solutus. Solutus, however, only raised his sword and continued to close in the distance between the two. The beam was split into two as soon as it met the tip of the blade, giving Solutus a clear path.
Broly realized that it was futile and his whole body started glowing slightly, it was similar to when he kicked Solutus. Solutus seemed to have felt something and had obviously seen it as well and started lowering the number of attacks.
His slashes became less frequent but also stronger and faster. It was clear that he wouldn't hit Broly with his barrage of attacks, so instead he tried to focus his energy on faster attacks and surprise Broly with its sudden increase in speed, but Solutus wasn't able to hit Broly no matter how fast his attacks became.
Given, his attacks weren't able to become much stronger, only 10 or 15 percent of its original power, but such an increase would be deadly in this kind of high-level battle.
Broly's eyes flashed as he saw that. He was currently using Kakos' fighting style on his whole body. Although it was very straining on his soul to cover his whole body, he could still keep it up for some time.
He stopped analyzing Solutus fighting style and directly closed in. Just as Broly approached Solutus, his sword suddenly accelerated and was about to behead Broly.
Solutus eyes widened as he saw his sword less than a centimeter away from Broly's skin, but before he could touch it, Broly's figure suddenly turned into a blur as it suddenly ducked under the sword and crossed the distance between the two. The glow on Broly's body lessened and focused on just his arms.
Solutus was mid-swing and because he had increased the strength to his maximum, he wouldn't be able to retract his sword to keep Broly at a distance.
Solutus gritted his teeth as all his muscles flexed in order to create some distance while also giving a counterattack with his free hand. He punched out with all his might at Broly's head.
"Kakos' fist style!" Broly's arms were giving off steam at the moment and his eyes were practically glowing as he put all his weight in his punches.
His arms turned into a blur and seemed to have vanished, only to be replaced by hundreds of mirages that were shooting towards Solutus.
In less than a fraction of a second, Broly's fist hammered down countless times on Solutus.
Solutus' fist that was counterattacking was crushed and his arm bend in an unnatural angle. Red fist marks covered every part of Solutus' upper body and face. The steel like muscles were now dented with fist marks. Steam was coming from the red glowing fist marks. It was like his whole body was freshly branded.
Broly breathed out after finishing his attack and seemed somewhat exhausted. Solutus was still conscious. His eyes were still glowing with determination. He coughed out some blood. Against all expectation, he calmly wiped away the blood with the back of his hand that was holding his sword and then smiled at Broly.
Broly frowned as he looked at Solutus or rather the arm that was holding the sword. Broly had, of course, targeted some attacks on his sword wielding arm, but to Broly's surprise Solutus' arm only had some bruises.
In contrast his other hand that he punched once was completely useless now.
There was also something else. After landing so many hits on Solutus' body and especially on the arm wielding the sword, he noticed some similarities to himself and Solutus. To be more precise, the Kakos' fighting style.
While clashing with Solutus he had felt that they weren't only clashing on a physical level but on a spiritual as well. He first figured that Solutus was using mental energy to enhance himself but that wasn't the case.
Now Broly was sure. Solutus had fused his soul into his flesh and it wasn't something temporary like Broly does with his fighting style.
"It seems like… haaa you have figured… it out." Solutus was speaking with difficulties. He was already heavily injured, and the winner was already decided. What could he do with only one arm? Of course, Broly didn't think this way, he wouldn't rest until he gave the finishing blow.
Broly's whole body began to glow again and he turned into a light beam, instantly reaching Solutus. Solutus' eyes were bloodshot as he stabbed his sword at Broly's head. Broly easily sidestepped the attack while closing in and stabbed at Solutus' chest with his fingers, trying to rip out his heart.
Just as he was about to reach Solutus, Broly sensed something from the sword. It gave Broly a serious sense of danger. Without hesitation, Broly jumped back. As he retreated a black sphere rapidly expanded out of the sword, swallowing everything within.
Broly was frantically retreating. He could feel the pull of this thing. Only few hundred meters away did the black sphere stop expanding. Broly frowned as he looked at the giant sphere in front of him. Solutus voice suddenly rang out from the sphere.
"Broly, you are indeed strong. If I hadn't fused my soul with my body, you would have decimated me long ago." Broly was, of course, dissatisfied, he recognized that Solutus' voice didn't sound as injured as before.
The black sphere suddenly shrunk again. It returned and formed into the sword again. Solutus had significantly healed. There were only slight bruises covering his body. He looked at his sword in his hand.
"Tch. This will take a while to recover"
Broly looked at the area the sphere was just a moment ago. Everything in the area was consumed. When Broly was looking at it with his vision of truth, he couldn't see anything, just darkness.
Space and time surrounding the area slowly filled up the area again. Solutus was standing in the middle of it with a serene expression as he focused back on Broly.
"I have to thank you. You delivered what I wanted..." Broly suddenly realized that the demeanor and aura changed of Solutus.
Broly now felt uneasy as he looked at Solutus. Solutus was no longer a warrior type but a sly snake coiling around him and then it vanished completely. 'This bastard fooled me?!' Broly was always confident in his vision, but now every energy signature had disappeared from Solutus like it was never there to begin with. He could only see and not sense him.
"…Now there is only one thing that I need you for." Solutus seemed to materialize what looked like a remote. Broly was already dashing towards him but before he could reach him, Solutus had pressed on the button.
The whole city seemed to tremble and a loud noise resembling that of an opening gate sounded out.