Reta was cautioning himself strictly.
Justice 7 was most likely baiting him right now with Pueris.
If he attacked now, he would have to regret it in heaven in most cases.
Although it pained him, Reta kept within his boundaries and anticipated in dread.
Soon, the temperature began to drop as the two revolving pillars of hyper-red began to shrink and swirl back into Justice 7's heat-lit eyes.
It was through his two roughened arms covering his face that Reta could make out the figure of Pueris.
What was left of him.
At least.
The left arm of Pueris was no longer there, or anywhere in the area,
As Pueris' figure stood, stumbling and limped the arm on his left had been replaced with an empty space.
The connection from his arm to his body had been replaced by a surface that looked like a red-lit cigarette.
His pitch-black eyes wavered around, clearly being consumed by the pain and misery.
Justice 7 stretched his arms out for the last time.
"I guess I can get started now."
He took a cloak from who knows where and clipped it to its back.
It was entirely green. Forest green.
Reta acknowledged the real start of the battle.
Pushing his LED mask back with a dirty hand, a trail of dark red-black thunder started cruising behind him.
It didn't fly or trail off, but wavered up and down like a kite in the wind.
It wasn't just dark red thunder.
It was chaos.
As the Chaos grew to the level where it could probably consume a killer whale, Reta braced himself for pain.
"25% Chaos Manifestation."
Ancient Ink-Red symbols began forming all other Reta's body, only viewable due to his tattered state.
His muscles contracted and tensed due to the feeling of a hot fluid in his veins.
They all were unique in their own way however they all curved at the end.
Soon they joined, causing Reta to look like he had been infected with a real-world virus.
Justice 7 didn't chuckle, he was already past that stage.
"Getting somewhat serious, are we? But you still aren't there..."
Justice 7 took a small stroll towards Reta.
Reta adopted a combat stance, his arms before his face and his legs ready to pounce in any direction.
Justice 7 strung his arms behind his back as his walk consisted of him bouncing up and down childishly.
The two maintained uneasy eye contact.
Oddly, Justice 7 shrugged his head down. Only his squished, laughable squid hair was present-.
Boom.
Justice 7 was no longer determinable through normal vision. He had become a blur that would move faster than the eye could follow.
In a distrustful moment, Reta had crossed his arms in front of his chest as fast as his amped body allowed him to.
A figure of blue and red swooped in before he could do anymore.
No sound prevailed, that realm of speed had been long abandoned by Justice 7.
Pang.
Like a gunshot, Justice 7 slammed into Reta.
The impact caused sound to return to Reta's ears and with it, pain.
Although Justice 7 had slammed into the durable metal attachments littered on Reta's chest, it still hurt like hell.
Out of his control, Reta was in the air. Rapidly flying further upwards from momentum.
And he was with a man of the sky.
For a fragrant moment, Reta's eyes shimmered upon the sight of a green cape flapping in the wind, two deathly red-burnt eyes blinking naturally. It was as if death was peeking in and out of a door.
The humongous and vigorous trail of Chaos swarmed to protect Reta, but alas it proved futile.
Through the Chaos, Reta could not see the figure of Justice 7, but that all changed with one action.
Fzzt.
The Chaos swarm had been hollowed out in one action from Justice 7 who now flew directly before Reta. The last of the chaos outskirts fizzled out proving to be of no use.
As if playing with Reta, Justice 7 merely followed him as he began to descend.
Reta cursed darkly.
Things weren't looking good.
All the Chaos he had built up was gone in an instant.
Reta tried to make use of Justice 7's arrogance by throwing a punch or lobbing a kick but found all his efforts returned swiftly and almost invisibly as thick blurs countered each of his actions.
As his hope was struck over and over again, the only thing he could see other than a mundane yellow was the neutral if the not cheery face of Justice 7.
The two soon descended, Justice 7 still following Reta face to face.
As Reta hit the ground with a thud, a large splatter of mud rose. It slipped off Ju
stice 7's sickly pink face peculiarly as he continued flying forwards.
Reta's figure skidded a few meters, keeping his balance flawlessly Reta drew out his right arm.
He had a far higher chance on the ground in close-quarters combat.
Especially with him...
Justice 7 casually tried to slap Reta's arm back, possibly dislocating it but found that his right arm was incredibly slow.
It didn't feel hard to move but rather blank.
Like no matter how hard he pushed, it would be stuck at the same slowed speed.
Before he could solve this conundrum, Reta's arm was exposed and revealed many metallic implants before it smashed straight into the middle of Justice 7's face.
A satisfying and strucid wave of chaos-energy formed a deep and sharp eruption as his fist made contact.
One of the most basic appliances of Force Control.
Not willing to lose the opportunity, Reta continued smashing his right arm into Justice 7's face.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Up and down.
Behind and front-.
Justice 7 had stopped closing in on Reta, aware that he was only going to take more hits to the face.
Reta shrugged slightly joyous of the damage he had impended upon the World's N.1 Hero.
His right arm felt like a hunky chunk of scrap metal as with every movement Reta felt like he was being pierced by rusted bars.
The dark-red-black shock-bursts produced from Reta's Chaos Force Control had already met the ground and decapitated.
Normally they could be the size of entire buildings, but Reta scaled them down to fit Justice 7's face to utilize pure raw power.
Justice 7 was standing whilst tediously cracking his neck by whirling his head around inhumanely.
The chorus of cracks made its return.
"Why don't you stop this one."
"Pueris."
His eyes seethed red magnificence.
BEUUUUUM.
The pillars made their return as well, twice as radiant as the ones used on Pueris they threatened to incinerate Reta to shreds.
Justice 7 no longer possessed a face, it looked as though he was a headless corpse emitting two holy-red beacons of light.
Reta knew this move.
Allowing Chaos to trail behind him he strained his eyes and didn't blink once.
Up.
His figure blasted off the ground, causing dirt to spurt into the air.
The same dirt was predictably eradicated by two holy beams of pure-red death.
The beams swerved left and right, up and down but could not catch Reta as he shifted across the landscape with insane speed.
No, it wasn't his speed that helped him survive and weave the impending doom.
It was his agility.
His capability to instantly turn to his max speed.
With it, he was gone in moments.
But soon, he fell victim to his agility.
He tripped.
The idea of going from 0 to 100 was perfect at first, but the change could be disorienting.
As he fell, Reta placed his hands down suddenly.
The world seemed to fall on his shoulders in that brief lapse. But he ignored it. Swiftly yanking himself away.
But not fast enough, unfortunately.
Two roaring and crashing towers of red throttled at a speed that could be considered manifestation.
Rather slowly...
Time had slowed in the area.
Reta gave Justice 7 a devious wave before pouncing off, this time his descent would let him land on Justice 7.
Justice 7 was in a pickle.
His beam and vision were trapped. He couldn't move his head fast enough to incinerate Reta.
That damn Pueris.
Justice 7 shut his eyes firmly and allowed himself to cool off. The faint afterglow burned his eyes but he didn't mind.
Pain was nothing for Justice.
Readying his left arm, Justice 7 was ready to blow Reta down to Hell.
At least until he got entirely serious that was.
The two were moments from impact.
Time seemed to have slowed.
Reta swooped in from the sky, his right leg bent to release a kick to discombobulate Justice 7.
Justice 7 planned to smash Reta away in a similar fashion that he had experienced earlier.
Although he had taken some very minor damage to the face, it had long been regenerated by his suped-constitution.
Time ensued.
"Pfteu."
Reta's kick grotesquely jabbed Justice 7's chin back.
Justice 7's arm was once again slowed through time.
Reta used his momentum and began something of a combo.
A punch with his left arm to the face.
A punch with his other arm to the stomach.
A sweep.
A punch.
You get the gist.
The two were fighting at a level where the following actions could occur in under a second.
Justice 7 could neither fight nor dodge as he found himself slowed again and again.
Jolts ran through his body as his constitution instinctively jerked in a direction with every hit.
Although he was far stronger than the Current Reta and any damage could be healed easily, it felt like he was being blasted with comically-large rubber pellets every milli-second.
Reta's agile and unpredictable figure was soon halted as Justice 7 flew to the skies, escaping his time restraints in the process.
The red marks on his pink face slowly faded as his eyes shot at the reason he was taking loss after loss in a clash that should've ended long ago.
"Pue-ris."
Boom.
His figure shot down, causing air loops to soar and widen.
Time slowed.
The injured Pueris and the frustrated Justice 7 were a moment from impact.
The plane between life and death.