Asahi lifted his right hand, which Hikaru had crushed earlier. It looked perfectly fine now.
"Good as new." He said chuckling.
Asahi was holding onto a dead hand from the body on the ground, which he took a bite out of.
"I didn't quite catch your name," Hikaru said.
"Dickhead, c*nt, f*ckface, whatever you want. The Triad knows me as Asahi. Cos I drink so much of that beer! Hahaha!" He said with bits of flesh flying out of his mouth.
Hikaru didn't notice until he pointed it out, but he looks Chinese now that he mentioned it.
He was more focused on the fact that Asahi kept his personality after parasite infection. Unlike his parasite neighbour Genkei, Asahi is likely to be a "liberated human".
It was best to avoid a battle with another parasite since he didn't know their capabilities.
"Asahi, since you're one of us now. It's meaningless to fight. Why not hunt some humans together? Perhaps you'd like some monetary compensation?" Hikaru said with his open palm to the side.
Asahi had started bent over laughing when Hikaru was talking. He slapped his thigh and sighed after he settled down.
"What? You're afraid of me now? Tell you what, that guy over there. I just slapped him once, and he fainted! It was really easy getting into his stomach I tell you. It was like- like ehhhhh- ah tofu! Haha!"
"Well, now I got one of those things inside me. I'm the lion of the jungle. You're just a lion cub." Asahi said, pointing the dead hand at Hikaru.
The dead hand had only one finger left which was sticking straight out at Hikaru.
Hikaru looked at him expressionlessly.
Asahi spat out some meat and threw the dead hand aside. It annoyed him he didn't get a reaction out of Hikaru.
"Now I want to see what you taste like." He said, licking his lips.
"As a parasite, what abilities do you have?"
"Dumbass! Why would I te-"
Hikaru was nowhere near where he was before.
He had siphoned some biomass into his legs during the conversation and charged fast from his position that Asahi instinctively flinched back as if a fast-moving ball was going at him.
Hikaru then turned and skidded unsteadily around to Asahi's back before throwing a punch at him. Naturally, being a parasite infectoid, Asahi reacted in a fraction of a second, turned around and caught Hikaru's punch. Hikaru punched with his other arm, and he caught it too.
They were in a stalemate but while both stood in the same place, Hikaru's upper body and arms were getting pushed down. Asahi's grip strength was causing Hikaru's knuckles to crack.
He grinned maliciously.
He was getting his revenge for when Hikaru crushed his hand earlier.
Since Asahi had an adult's body and so started with more muscle mass, he had a higher base strength than Hikaru.
"After I break your arms and your legs, I'm going to give your ass a good pounding before I eat you all up!"
"Could you not open your mouth? Your breath stinks." Hikaru said nonchalantly.
"Hah?"
Asahi was so shocked by what Hikaru said that his rage didn't settle in until after a couple of seconds.
"You're going to regret that you little c*nt!"
Asahi was holding back on his strength because he wanted to savour Hikaru's pain. He now squeezed on Hikaru's fists with all his strength.
To his surprise, Hikaru didn't budge. Instead, he was growing bigger and taller!
While Hikaru was growing, the tables turned around as Asahi was now being pushed down to the ground.
Once Hikaru grew to 2.5 metres tall, his fists broke free from Asahi's grasp. He then quickly grabbed Asahi's hands and gave it a little squeeze.
Blood exploded out of the brief gaps in Hikaru's hands. Asahi screamed in pain.
His hands had been crushed again.
Still holding onto his hands, Hikaru twisted Asahi's arms 360 degrees, causing a lot of cracking noises.
Asahi cried out again.
His skin was coiled around the arms looking like a screw. Hikaru let go of Asahi's hands, letting them drop lifelessly to his sides.
While Asahi was screaming all kinds of profanities, Hikaru noticed that the top row of his teeth was white while the bottom row was yellow. The whiter teeth must have been new ones that grew.
"Your teeth look whiter after I smashed them. You're so ugly that getting beat up does your face wonders…"
Asahi looked up angrily at the 2.5 m tower that was Hikaru.
"I'M GOING TO-"
Hikaru punched him in the mouth, causing all but one tooth to blow out of his mouth. Seeing that there was one white tooth sitting on the top front, Hikaru commented "Much better."
Hikaru could have easily beaten Asahi earlier if he rammed into him while moving at a high speed, but he wanted to assess a parasite's capabilities. He moved behind Asahi to see how fast a parasite could react to his speed.
The speed was satisfactory. But he learnt he needed to practice on the footwork at high speeds. He skidded awkwardly earlier.
Realistically, he wasn't moving fast enough to become invisible to the naked eye as he hoped for.
He had also tested out his base strength with Asahi's and compared it with his muscular form.
Asahi who was on the ground shakily got up with his arms hanging to the sides.
"Is that all you got?" Hikaru said.
He was trying to see if Asahi had any other abilities. It didn't seem that way.
Well, there was one other way to find out.
Hikaru drew his fist back to punch him with all his strength.
The moment Hikaru's fist touched him, Asahi's stomach folded over it. His skin wrapped around it as Hikaru rotated his fist during the punch.
Asahi was launched back as if he was hit by a cannonball that propelled him through the air.
He flew five metres back and smashed into the dead-end wall.
He fell onto the ground on his side with his tongue out. Watery fluids and blood squeezed out of his mouth as he started seizing.
The only thing that kept him alive was that he wasn't human.
Tentacles popped out of Hikaru's back as he walked towards him.
***
System Log
[Calculating...]
[Received an amendment request from Goddess of Fortune]
[Request denied]
[Calculation completed.]
[Sending the Hero...]
[Calculating destiny path... calculating quest path... calculating causal path...]
[Calculation completed]