The protagonists strode out of the laboratory, and Boss 17 watched them in silence.
Without hesitation, Sone launched himself and slammed into him in ball form. The Boss blocked with his forearm. Without missing a beat, Boss 17 sent a stream of blood out of his back and shoved Sone away.
Sone shot backward but stopped himself at once.
Kiro appeared behind the Boss and drove a Serious Strike into his back.
Boss 17 was flung forward, spitting a little saliva.
*It can't be. They're stronger now,* Boss 17 thought.
Worh appeared in front of him and hit him in the face with a Strike Plus. Boss 17 was driven backward, but Eduin's slash caught him across the shoulder, and blood began to drip slowly.
*This is the moment to use my other abilities,* the Boss thought.
Boss 17 quickly raised both hands, and streams of blood poured from them and formed a circular field that closed around them like a dome.
"Behold my ability, straight out of an anime," Boss 17 said.
From outside, Sone saw the sphere and charged it at once, but it was far too tough. He took a step back, then hurled himself at full speed in ball form, hammering the sphere again and again.
Inside, Kiro, Worh, and Eduin watched Boss 17 rise into the air.
A small smile slipped across the Boss's face, and pillars of stone rose all around him.
Kiro studied the ground for a moment before leaping sideways. At that exact instant, a huge pillar erupted from where he had been standing.
Eduin quickly began to climb the pillars, using his swords and little jumps in midair to push himself higher.
Boss 17 stopped smiling and turned his gaze toward Kiro.
Kiro suddenly felt something clamp around his chest, as if something precious to him were under threat.
Eduin broke the moment, throwing a slash at the Boss's face, but the Boss dodged it by only a few centimeters.
Worh stayed quiet and moved toward the noise coming from outside, where Sone was trying to break in. Without hesitation, he started punching the wall of the sphere, and it split open at once. Worh stepped aside quickly, and Sone rolled in in ball form before regaining his composure.
Kiro bolted out through the opening in desperation, his mind in chaos. In his panic, his speed passed four times the speed of light. Worh stared at the trail of air he left behind, a little stunned by such sudden speed.
Elsewhere, in Mexico, Boss 16 used a new tracking ability and arrived at the house where Kiro's parents now lived. A smile crept across his face.
Kiro reached the country in an instant, his eyes sweeping the area, and sensed a familiar energy coming from his family's house.
He arrived in no time but froze in place. His mother and father were chained up, their wrists bloody. His sister wasn't with them, but then he heard a scream from her room. In a nanosecond he was at her door, and his expression turned grim, his eyes shining a brilliant white.
Boss 16 had Kiro's sister by the head while she trembled in terror.
"Oh, look who's here. Thanks for coming to watch me throw your sister," the Boss said.
Boss 16 hurled the girl against the wall. Her body smashed through it and fell into the yard.
Kiro saw that she was gravely wounded, and his body shook uncontrollably.
"I'M GOING TO KIIIILL YOU!" Kiro screamed in fury.
His fists clenched so hard that the veins stood out on his arms, and in an instant he landed a punch on the Boss.
Boss 16 shot away at an absurd speed and landed on another planet. The man was stunned, but without hesitating he created a new ability: space breathing.
He drew breath just before it ran out, breathing deeply before looking up. Kiro was trembling uncontrollably, his eyes weeping blood. Then he looked up and spotted him.
As if possessed, Kiro moved to the ruined country and leapt. The ground beneath his feet cracked, leaving a crater and the mark where he had stood.
Kiro tore through the atmosphere, his speed passing 8... 13... 17 times the speed of light.
He landed on the planet where the Boss was, and a huge cloud of dust rose, then vanished in the intense heat pouring off Kiro's body.
Kiro stared at him, pure rage and loss of control fused into a single emotion. Without hesitation, he lunged at the Boss and landed 20,000 punches.
The Boss's body was reduced to ashes, but his improved regeneration brought Boss 16 back to life, and he looked at Kiro coldly.
They traded punches at once, and the shockwaves from their blows made the planet tremble. Boss 16 had grown stronger and tougher from his regeneration, but Kiro was getting faster every moment.
He could see the rage on the protagonist's face. Kiro gritted his teeth and threw a punch with all his strength and all his pent-up emotion. Boss 16 dodged it by a single millimeter, but the punch landed on the ground of the planet.
The planet's core broke apart and exploded, and the blast swallowed them both.
Boss 16 slammed violently into a nearby planet, half his body gone and his organs burned.
Slowly his regeneration began to heal him, but it was weak. Healing a wound like that was slow, and almost too extreme for it to manage.
Kiro, for his part, was left floating in the vacuum of space. At that moment, the rings on both of his wrists became visible and tightened until they drew blood. His body began to transform. It was the third time.
A great beam of energy was visible in space. Boss 16 was 80% recovered, but his senses picked up an energy from his left. He turned toward a cylinder of bluish energy that could be seen surrounding Kiro.
He felt something clamp down on his chest. He quickly healed to 100% and gathered all his energy, transforming as well.
*He's out of his mind now. I'll have to use transformations to face him,* Boss 16 thought.
His body reached two meters in height. His arms were reinforced with obsidian, and four arms of the same material sprouted from his back, two on each side. His eyes turned pure green, giving off a greenish vapor that looked like energy. He was ready for battle.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Worh, Sone, and Eduin were still fighting Boss 17.
Boss 17 drove one of his blood streams into a pillar and used it as a shield. At that moment, a punch from Worh struck and shattered the structure.
Boss 17 quickly double-jumped upward as five slashes destroyed the pillars behind him.
The Boss scanned the battlefield and noticed that Sone had disappeared. Without hesitation, he created a sphere of energy. At that moment, Sone attacked but ended up hitting the blood sphere.
Boss 17 seized the opportunity, and Sone, in ball form, was captured inside the sphere.
*Damn it, I can't move my body in here,* Sone thought.
Worh quickly appeared behind the Boss and landed a full-force Strike Plus. The Boss fell to the ground with a dull thud, and multiple bolts of lightning rained down on him. Quick as a flash, he raised a blood shield and blocked them.
Sone finally burst out of the sphere in an explosion of energy. He went straight for Boss 17 and drove a ninja kick into the back of his neck.
The Boss's head smashed into the ground, but immediately four streams of blood sank into Sone's leg and hurled him into a pillar, throwing up a huge cloud of earth.
Boss 17 followed Sone's trajectory and stretched out a hand toward him, firing a ball of blood that trapped the protagonist's leg.
At once, a punch from Worh slammed into his back, and then Eduin appeared and slashed his throat, leaving a deep cut.
Boss 17 quickly released two red clouds that exploded instantly and threw both boys back.
The Boss looked up and began to spin in place, creating a great gust of air that pulled the two protagonists in like a tornado. Worh tried to break free, but a stream of blood pierced his hand and then hurled him at Sone. He did the same to Eduin.
Sone saw Worh's body coming toward the spot where he was still pinned. Worh and Eduin crashed into him full on, knocking the wind out of him.
Boss 17 got ready, his eyes burning red, but he stopped short, turned, and saw a female figure stepping out of the laboratory. It was the hybrid.
"Oh, well. I didn't expect you to be with them, Boss 19. Or what was your name again? Right, Naly."
The hybrid was startled to be recognized, and her eyes went wide, but then she noticed the protagonists piled up by a pillar, squashing Sone a little.
Worh looked up, hearing the name.
*Pretty name for someone so adorable. Kind of cute, even,* Worh thought.
The hybrid sighed, clenched her fists, and charged at Boss 17.
Boss 17 dodged her quickly, but Naly grabbed him by the shirt, yanked him toward her, and headbutted him so hard that he flew into the protagonists. The Boss crashed into Worh, who squashed Sone even more.
"Ahh, get off me!" Sone protested.
Suddenly the scientist came out of the laboratory carrying a large screen. He walked over and switched it on. It showed Kiro, transformed again, and Boss 16 on another planet, transformed as well.
"Stop fighting and look at this instead," Max said.
The protagonists and Boss 17 glared at each other, itching to trade blows, but then a smack landed on all of them. Naly had given them a firm smack on the head, and she sat down on the ground to watch the screen.
The protagonists and Boss 17 scowled at one another but turned their eyes to the screen. The scientist nodded and pulled out a chair to sit down.
A great battle was about to break out in space. Kiro quickly launched himself toward the planet where Boss 16 stood.
Boss 16 drew a sword, ready to receive him...