Matthew Atkinson & Natalie Russell
Tenth Layer of the Supernatural Realm
"You don't need to worry. He is the friend I've been waiting for." Natalie said to Paige.
Paige Cooper immediately looked at Matthew with curiosity. She noticed that Matthew, like April, was clean and looked very healthy, with no signs of malnutrition.
It seemed that the two of them really had come from the same shelter.
"Hey, beauty, who is this guy?" At this moment, Captain Tiger from the opposite side spoke again, "Is this the man you claimed could kill me?"
Natalie seemed to be in a great mood after seeing Matthew, and upon hearing this, she actually nodded seriously and said, "Yes. It's him."
"Oh?" Captain Tiger stared at Matthew with a sinister gaze, then sneered, "Beauty, how about we make a bet? I'll have a one-on-one fight with this little guy. If I win, you'll obediently come with me and bear me children, how about that?"
"Matthew, this scoundrel has been staring at me with disgusting eyes for a while now. I'm leaving him to you. Please let his end be a painful one," Natalie said.
"Hmm?" Hearing this nomad's words and Natalie's request, Matthew's expression darkened, and involuntarily, a powerful killing intent surged from him.
He stared intently at Captain Tiger, and at this moment, his eyes filled with unconcealed rage.
And Captain Tiger, seeing Matthew seemingly blinded by anger, immediately showed a disdainful smile. He had said that just now on purpose to provoke this hothead.
Suddenly, Matthew spoke, "If you were trying to provoke me, then congratulations, you succeeded. However, this may not benefit you. Because, originally, you could have died quickly. But now? I'm afraid not."
Hearing this, Captain Tiger was stunned for a moment, then laughed and beckoned to Matthew with his finger.
"Kid, anyone can boast. If you're capable, come and try it."
"I don't try. I just do." As his voice fell, Matthew suddenly moved.
His figure directly disappeared from where he was, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Captain Tiger, startling him.
Because Captain Tiger couldn't even clearly see how Matthew got there. Not only Captain Tiger, but no one else saw Matthew's movements.
At this moment, Captain Tiger was very surprised by the speed Matthew displayed, and his vigilance towards Matthew increased even more.
Even for speed-type ability users, possessing this kind of speed wasn't common. This clearly indicated that his opponent was truly formidable.
So, seeing that Matthew had made no other movements after arriving in front of him, Captain Tiger decided to strike first.
He quickly raised his huge fist and punched towards Matthew's face. After his transformation, his fist was like a large iron ball. Not even a tank could withstand this punch without sustaining damage.
-Bang
A dull thud sounded. However, it wasn't Captain Tiger's fist that hit Matthew's face. Instead, Matthew raised his hand and actually grabbed Captain Tiger's fist.
Although Matthew's palm was much smaller than Captain Tiger's fist, it firmly blocked Captain Tiger's fist, preventing it from advancing a centimeter.
Captain Tiger's expression immediately changed. He didn't expect this guy to be not only fast but also incredibly strong.
"If this is the extent of your arrogant strength, then prepare to have a good taste of fear and despair."
As his voice fell, a white aura sphere suddenly appeared on Matthew's hand. That was the sign of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit Ability activating.
A huge white aura sphere enveloped both his palm and Captain Tiger's fist.
"What is this?" Seeing the white aura sphere, Captain Tiger subconsciously asked.
Soon, he learned what it was.
In a very painful way.
-Crack
As if something had cracked open, Captain Tiger's huge fist instantly deformed, and blood gushed out.
"AAHHHH..." Immense pain caused Captain Tiger to let out a deafening scream.
He desperately tried to pull his fist back, but found that Matthew's palm was as if welded to his fist. His fist was completely unmovable.
It was only when Matthew voluntarily let go that Captain Tiger fell backward, temporarily escaping from Matthew.
Then his deformed fist slowly started to recover.
"Do you also have self-healing ability?" Matthew saw this and suddenly smiled, saying, "It couldn't have been better."
As his voice fell, Matthew suddenly pounced on Captain Tiger, directly knocking Captain Tiger's massive body to the ground.
Then, Matthew raised his fist, covered it with the white aura sphere, and punched Captain Tiger's body.
-Crack
The void shattered.
Although Matthew deliberately controlled the release range of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit Ability, the entire basement still shook.
His Super Strength was simply too great.
Even without the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, he could sink this place with a single punch based on his base strength alone.
This punch also made all nomads around tremble in their hearts. And Captain Tiger, who bore the full impact, couldn't even scream because Matthew's punch directly shattered all his bones and crushed his internal organs.
Yet, he had a self-healing ability, so as long as his brain wasn't severely damaged, he wouldn't die for a while, only spitting out large mouthfuls of blood.
His self-healing ability was still very far from the abnormal level of Wolverine's self-healing ability.
After that, Matthew deliberately waited for a while, and when Captain Tiger recovered a bit, he delivered another punch.
-Crack
The basement shook again. In front of his Tremor-Tremor Fruit Ability and Super Strength, Captain Tiger's proud defensive ability was as fragile as paper.
As for his self-healing ability, at this moment, it not only couldn't help Captain Tiger but instead harmed him, causing him to endure an unbelievably immense pain.
It could be imagined that Captain Tiger would next endure the bone-chilling pain of his entire body shattering, recovering, and then shattering again, a cycle repeated over and over.
-Crack
When Matthew delivered the third punch, Captain Tiger was already disoriented, convulsing with pain. At this point, even an idiot could tell that in front of that young man, the powerful Captain Tiger was no stronger than a child.
A nomad wanted to sneak away but was discovered by Matthew's Observation Haki.
Matthew's eyes quickly turned red.
-Buzz
Two crimson heat rays shot out from Matthew's eyes, directly piercing the bald man who wanted to sneak away.
"All of you, stay put. No one is allowed to leave without my permission."
Matthew's Heat Rays skill was one of his weaker abilities among his many current ones. But that was only relative to Matthew himself.
In fact, his current Heat Rays skill was quite powerful, more than enough to kill most sixth-rank and even some bottom-layer seventh-rank supernaturals.
The most important thing was that this move has a long range and extremely fast attack speed, making it nearly impossible to guard against.
Seeing two red lasers suddenly shoot out of Matthew's eyes and pierce the bald man, all nomads went pale with fear.
In the eyes of those nomads, this young man was unbelievably strong and had many abilities.
Even Natalie was a little surprised. This was the first time she had seen Matthew use the Heat Rays skill.
"Matthew, leave the others to me. Their captain's power is higher than mine, and his ability might counter my flames, but I can handle the others," Natalie said, stepping forward.
-Buzz
Immediately after her words, Natalie's Conqueror's Haki activated and expanded, directly affecting the nomads.
As soon as they were exposed to Natalie's Conqueror's Haki, two of the five still-alive nomads collapsed to the ground, unconscious, while the other three were forced to kneel under heavy pressure.
After all, Natalie also possessed Supreme-level Haki. Even though her current fifth-rank power couldn't neutralize a sixth-rank expert with her Supreme-level Conqueror's Haki, these seemingly fifth-rank and lower-rank nomads were no problem for her.
Actually, even if Natalie couldn't completely neutralize a sixth-rank expert with Conqueror's Haki, she could still put pressure on them and gain an advantage in the fight.
However, she didn't use Conqueror's Haki when the nomad captain approached her. The reason was that the man considered her weak and wanted to take things slowly.
If Natalie had used Conqueror's Haki on him, the situation would have changed, and if the nomad captain considered Natalie a worthy opponent, things could have suddenly escalated.
Natalie didn't want to get into a fight where she might not be able to protect Paige, who was behind her, while Matthew was so close. So, she tried to appear weak to stall until Matthew arrived.
But now that Matthew was here, she no longer had that problem and could freely display her strength.
Once Matthew saw that Natalie had the situation under control, he left the rest to her and continued tormenting Captain Tiger.
He no longer used his fists and stepped directly on Captain Tiger's chest with one foot.
As soon as Captain Tiger recovered a little, he would use the Tremor-Tremor Fruit Ability to shatter his entire body, repeating this process.
Meanwhile, Captain Tiger wished he were dead. His self-healing ability weakened, and the time required to recover lengthened.
Because each self-healing consumed his stamina.
Finally, after a difficult recovery, Captain Tiger, seizing the moment before Matthew acted again, begged desperately while spitting blood, "Kill… kill me…"
Matthew heard this and revealed a slight smile before saying, "Looking at your attire, you should be nomads, right? I've heard about your group's conduct. As long as survivors fall into your hands, they'll wish they were dead. The pain you're enduring now is merely repayment."
As his words fell, Matthew once again shattered Captain Tiger's body.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit Ability was not limited to hands. It can also be activated with the foot or with any part of the body. In One Piece, during the Summit War, Whitebeard once descended from the sky and stomped towards Akainu with a white aura covering his foot, though Akainu dodged it.
Shattered once more, the immense pain caused Captain Tiger's entire body to convulse, and his pupils began to dilate, clearly reaching the brink of collapse.
The remaining kneeling nomads felt a chill in their hearts at the sight. They knew that once that demon finished playing with Captain Tiger, none of them would escape.
"Damn it. Staying here is also death, brothers, let's fight her." Suddenly, a tall, burly man of the three people who are still conscious.
The other two instinctively charged towards Natalie upon hearing this.
Although Natalie's Conqueror's Haki exerted considerable pressure on them, it wasn't enough to completely affect their movements. Otherwise, they would have been lying on the ground instead of kneeling.
Still, under the influence of the Conqueror's Haki, their movements were slow, and their reactions were significantly delayed.
However, the burly man who shouted quickly pulled back and fled towards the exit.
Natalie snorted at the sight, then punched out.
[Fire Fist]
-Bang
A giant fist of flame engulfed two nomads attacking Natalie, then exploded upon the lying unconscious nomads on the ground. Then an explosion echoed in the basement.
With a single move from Natalie, four of the nomads instantly died and turned to ash.
As for that clever escapee nomad, who seemed to be a defensive ability user, he actually didn't die, and merely the skin on his back was burned and turned black. But he flew out, crashed heavily against the wall, and then fell to the ground, severely disoriented.
"Ahhh!" The man let out a miserable scream, looking at Natalie with deep fear, as if he had seen a demon.
'Just one punch from her can instantly kill us!!! That woman was far stronger than we had imagined.' These were the burly man's last thoughts before he lost consciousness.
"Matthew, we still have something important to do. Can you finish it quickly? Seeing him suffer this much is enough for me." When Matthew tormented Captain Tiger once more, Natalie told him.
She had now returned to Paige's side again.
Matthew looked back upon hearing this and saw the anxious expression on the girl's face beside Natalie.
He guessed that the important thing Natalie mentioned was related to this girl, so he smiled and nodded.
Actually, at this point, Captain Tiger was already on his last legs, and his recovery was slowing down.
So, Matthew stepped out with one foot, directly crushing Captain Tiger's entire head.
To prevent Captain Tiger from recovering in some way, Natalie lit another fire, burning Captain Tiger's headless corpse completely.
Subsequently, the three left the basement and came outside.
With Matthew present, Natalie wasn't afraid of being mobbed by monsters or zombies anymore.
"Nat, what was the important thing you just mentioned?" Matthew asked.
"We need to save some people."
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.213: Nomad Camp
Ch.214: He's Just Playing with His Prey
Ch.215: You Should Have Told Me