He felt it was a waste if parallel processing wasn't being used all the time.
The further the derivative was away from the original ability, the harder and more error-prone it was. It took many iterations to get here.
He learnt what strength enhancement was. It was simply a technique of layering muscle fibres upon muscle fibres. It looked like the result of a super steroid that made muscles grow out of control as if the growing muscle fibres had hit a wall from the lack of space in the body and rebounded and grew inside a mass of its tail fibres.
The muscle fibres then seemed to have found a structural pattern like a complicated but efficient knot. So intricate that the vector of the net forces was in the same direction as the function of normal muscles, despite the different directions the muscle fibres have interwoven in. In simple terms, the muscles were much denser than the fascicles of human muscle.
It took time to extrapolate the pattern into the different muscle tissues in his body. Hikaru was glad that Botan was able to transform his whole body so that he wouldn't have to take the time to figure it out.
With his enhanced arms, he deflected the car to his side which then passed him at a slight angle from its original trajectory.
The old-time national champion finally got her out of the rock and was lending his shoulder to her. They started running and then they saw the car hurtling towards them.
He never let go of her.
The car flattened them but their deaths went unnoticed.
Hikaru was now being flung backwards at an asymmetrical angle and all the bones in his arms were broken.
Botan didn't give Hikaru a chance to recover, he was already before him delivering a punch.
Hikaru brought his broken arms to his chest to defend himself and wrapped himself with soft level 4 tentacles. He then shelled himself with dense bone spikes over it like a ribcage and then topped it up with spikes pointing out of it in between the gaps.
The spikes didn't deter him at all, he smashed even harder seeing it. Against the black shell on his gargantuan fists, the spikes snapped like they were toothpicks. The rest of the rib cage crumbled; the soft tentacle tissue absorbed the impact. Hikaru didn't have to worry about his broken arm anymore. They exploded.
Hikaru's defence was completely broken apart and he was smashed into a house after house like a wrecking ball. Hikaru landed in the fifth house under the rubble. Almost all of the bones in his body were broken but luckily his vital organs were still intact.
Botan had seen that Hikaru had lost both his arms and he must be almost dead if not already. He followed the trail and crossed the streets. Initially, he was walking because he was confident of his victory but he remembered how sly Hikaru was. He started "jogging" at Usain Bolt's speed.
Survivors of the demolished houses had escaped. Some were still getting up and upon seeing Botan's approaching dark silhouette in the smoke, they wailed and ran away. Some were even more injured and shambled away. The ground rumbled every time Botan stepped.
There was one man who was determined to crawl across the ground, even just several inches to move away from his path, but the man was too late. Botan stepped on his foot. Under the immense weight of Botan's giant fists, his foot was completely shattered.
He didn't need to worry about an expensive surgery to remove all the bone fractures in his feet because it was so damaged that they would have to amputate the foot. After all, there were no existing blood vessels or even vague anatomy to repair.
Botan didn't step onto him on purpose. He just didn't care enough to move around. The man was simply there where his foot would step on.
Botan appeared before the rubble that Hikaru was under in the 10 seconds after he was punched. Hikaru only had a mere 10 seconds to pray to the gods.
'Then, I'll crush you so hard that you'll reincarnate as a crippled in the next life.'
Botan was about to brush the rubble away to confirm that Hikaru was under there but the rubble moved on its own. Hikaru stood up.
Botan was a bit surprised that he could stand but it only made it more convenient to-
'What!'
He just realised that where Hikaru's arm stumps should have been, there were healthy and uncrushed arms, never mind that, it was moving!
Hikaru was brushing the dust off his clothes nonchalantly as if the dust was more trivial than the guy who crushed him. Or did he crush him? Was the scene of an armless Hikaru getting blown away his imagination?
Perhaps, Hikaru was flying too quick that he saw a mirage?
However, it was clear that Hikaru's defences were blown away without much resistance. Then the leftover force should have severely injured him if not kill him...
"You have healing abilities!" Botan sputtered.
"What took you so long, I was waiting for you." Hikaru casually said as he was brushing off the dust.
Then he stopped, the dust suddenly vanished from his clothes in Botan's eyes. Hikaru had realised that he could just absorb it as his clothes were his skin. He shook his head while wearing a self-deprecating smile.
Hikaru looked at Botan's bulging eyes but didn't address his surprise.
"Was that everything you got?" Hikaru asked.
Botan's eyes snapped back into focus.
"Instant regeneration?"
"I think it's time we end this," Hikaru said sounding done and bored.
A dark shadow shrouded Botan's face. Hikaru made it sound like Botan was too weak to even get him hard. Bloodlust radiated out from his skin.
In an instant, Botan blocked the moonlight as his shadow towered over Hikaru. His fist becoming infinitely huge as it comes crashing down on Hikaru.
'Then I'll just hit you so much harder even your regeneration can't keep up!'
Hikaru vanished leaving a swirl of air where he was.
Botan's eyes opened wide in surprise.
*Boom*
Botan swiftly turned his body looking for where Hikaru might be. Then he realised that something was on his back.
Hikaru impaled him with a sharp spike.
Botan swung at where Hikaru was crouched on but he jumped away with a glob of red flesh.
Hikaru landed on a nearby roof. His spiked tentacle - made of Juro's whip with a spike tip - snaked back to his hand with Botan's throbbing heart pierced through its pointy end.