The Beast King's unyielding resolve

Kirata pulls out all the power he has left in his tank to end the battle with Hunter for good. As Kirata stands back up, Hunter smiles in excitement.

"Hahaha! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my god, finally we are getting serious! Beast King Kirata, let's have the battle of the century!"

Hunter flaps the wings on his back and starts to fly up.

"You're flying too high, boy!"

"???"

From the sky, hundreds of lightning bolts hit Hunter relentlessly. Kirata completely stands up despite his many injuries. The lighting sent Hunter spiraling to the ground with multiple burns on his body. Before Hunter could even hit the ground, Kirata took a step and, with lightning, teleported behind him. Without wasting a second, Kirata punched a hole through Hunter's torso and released a lightning bolt from his mouth to destroy the rest of his torso.

"This battle ends now, Hunter! You will leave the Moro zone in its time of peace now!"

Kirata throws the rest of Hunter's body onto the ground. Hunter starts to regenerate, but it's way slower than his previous regenerations. As he watches him regenerate, Kirata comes to a realization.

"He's starting to run out of steam soon; his OGI tank will be empty, and then I can kill him for good."

Kirata surrounds his hand with lighting and rushes down to where Hunter lies in shambles.

"Damn it, I can't move! That stupid paralysis!"

Kirata attempts to slam his fist onto Hunter, but Hunter starts to release a purple gas from his body, which forces Kirata to back away from him.

"Hahaha! Ok! Ok! I admit you got me that time, but you know about the Jajell gas! Inhale this shit and your lungs will be destroyed, and with the shape you're in, I'm sure this gas will kill you on the spot."

"Yeah, he's right about the way my injuries are affecting my breathing, but not even the strongest Jajell can produce that gas forever. He will eventually have to come out of that gas and fight me head-on, so I will wait up here to attack him."

As Kirata waits patiently for Hunter to reveal himself inside the cave that Arcta took the boys into, Wayne awakens after being treated by Arcta. When he wakes up, the ceiling completely looks red because of all the blood that has leaked into his eyes.

"What the hell?"

Wayne sat up and saw ice all over his wounds. Arcta has an ability that allows him to heal people's wounds by just freezing the injury. Wayne looks over to his right and sees Arcta treating Unknown's injuries with Lex, who is sleeping right next to him.

Oh, Arcta, thank you for healing my injuries."

"Kakaka"

Wayne looks over to his left and sees Kage with his torn-up shirt watching something on his phone.

"Oh, Kage, you're awake too."

"I mean, yeah, Arcta treated me first because I was basically on death's door. His healing ability is pretty impressive—not as good as the doc's of course, but still impressive."

"Yeah, I'm glad, but what I really want to know is, where is Pops?"

"Well, from all the noise out there, I'm pretty sure he's still fighting Hunter."

"Wait by himself! We've got to go help him before it's too late."

"Wayne I hear you, but my body has no energy whatsoever. I used it all up fighting Hunter, and going back out there to fight him again would be completely useless at this point. Plus, with all that work we put into fighting him, I'm sure Hunter is fighting on fumes right now, so I think the beast king can handle him."

"Well, you might be right, but I just have a bad feeling about leaving him out there on his own."

Outside the cave, it's been approximately two minutes since Hunter hid himself in gas to escape Kirata's onslaught.

"I don't like how long he's been sitting in that gas. Who knows what he's plotting in there? I don't want to use my lighting bolts since I already pushed past my energy limit, but I can't let this go on for any longer."

Bolts of lightning come down from the sky and clear the gas, revealing Hunter's dead body.

"Wait a minute, did he?"

"Yes, I did!"

Hunter came down from the sky and slammed his foot into Kirata's head. Kirata speedily spirals to the ground.

"Damn it, he tricked me into thinking it was just a dec—."

Kirata starts to spit out gallons of blood from his mouth.

"Hahaha, yeah, sorry to break it to you, the gas wasn't a decoy; I just used it to execute my bigger goal. Since I knew you couldn't come into the gas, I used it as a way to hide me moving my position! As I did before, I used my blood on the battlefield to regenerate a new body! It took longer than usual, but I got it done, and with you hyper-focused on my gas, I had enough time to fly up and kick you into the leftover gas in the air! I would have loved to fight you one-on-one without having to use dirty tricks, but what's most important in a battle is winning, and too bad for me, my OGI tank is running dry, so I need to end this battle here and now!"

Kirata tries to surround himself with lighting so he can fly, but the poisonous gas flooding into his lungs is stopping all his efforts.

"...I can't do...anything...I can't breathe."

Kirata falls to the ground, unable to fight back against Hunter's dirty trap. Back in the cave, Unknown and Lex have been treated and are back on their feet. Wayne notices that the noises from outside have gone quiet.

"Hey everyone, I think the battle is over! We need to go out there just in case Pops needs us."

"Kakaka!"

Arcta screams in agreement and starts rushing toward the exit of the cave, with everyone else following. As they run out of the cave, Unknown runs near Kage to ask him a question.

"Hey, Kage before we get out there, what do you think we're going to see out there? After fighting Hunter for a while, I can see why he was made a feared legend, and with the beast king's old age, do you think he could actually pull off a victory against him?"

"You know, Unknown, after experiencing a lot of stuff, I've learned the future is unpredictable, and expecting too much is the easiest way to destruction."

As those unencouraging words came out of Kage's mouth, Unknown realized he was right and continued running toward the cave exit. Outside of the cave, Hunter starts to fly down so he can kill Kirata once and for all.

"You know this was a nice battle, and I can't wait to devour you!"

"I can't let him kill me now, especially when he's so weak."

With his life flashing before his eyes, Kirata mustered up all the power in his body to form a lightning bolt in his hand. Kirata lifts his right arm and attempts to throw it at the approaching Hunter, but before he can, he gets his arm ripped off by Hunter, who was closer than he thought.

"Ahhh!!"

"Hehe, fighting till the end—I like that, but now it's over."

After Kirata loses his right arm, a rusty dagger with strange writing and a gem at the base comes out of Kirata's body.

"???"

Hunter walks up to the dagger and picks it up. As Hunter takes a closer look at the dagger, Kirata starts to remember some key details.

"Wait, that dagger seems so familiar. Oh, I remember that dagger was given to me by the chief of Wayne's village. He told me to protect it with my life. I wonder why."

Hunter's face turns to shock after examining the dagger closely.

"Wait no way hahaha I came here on a detour from the main objective but ended up doing part of the main objective anyway. Hahaha, Nisugui is going to go crazy when she hears this one! Well, I've got your arm, which should be enough to gain your power, so in that case, I'll let you enjoy life for a few more minutes! Bye-bye now!"

Hunter, finally getting what he wants, grows wings out of his back and takes off. As he takes off, Wayne and the rest finally come out of the cave, only to barely miss the battle's conclusion. Wayne looks over to Kirata, who is currently bleeding from where his arm was.

"You bastard!"

Wayne quickly takes out his shotgun and attempts to shoot Hunter out of the sky, but realizes his gun isn't reloaded.

"God damn it, I can't let him escape; he's almost dead!"

As Wayne rushes to reload his gun, Kirata calls out to him.

"...Wayne st...stop this nonsense."

"!?"

Wayne looks over to his father, who looks to be halfway dead at this point.

"Papa!"

"Not too loud, son; I can hear you perfectly fine."

Wayne runs over to Kirata with tears in his eyes.

"Papa, please hold on. You have to stay awake. I'm sure Arcta can treat your injuries, or maybe we can call doc over here!"

"Wayne, I ca–"

"There has to be a way, damn it!"

Tears start to run aggressively from Wayne's eyes without any sign of stopping.

"I...I...I can't lose you. I can't live without you! Please, Pops, I just returned home and proved I was a man of ambition; don't leave me here! I still need you more than ever!"

"Wayne"

"!!!"

"I'm sorry. I tried my hardest to beat him without dying, and in the end I lost my life. Even with that being said, you don't need me anymore. You proved that today when you stood in the face of death and were fully prepared to fight it head-on, even if it cost you your own life. You truly are a man of ambition, and I'm sure you can handle the world without me in it."

"Please, Papa, stop talking like that; you're going to live!"

"Wayne, make sure, no matter what, you never lose your way because the world will need people like you one day. Hunter's interest in that dagger proved it to me. You have not only Lex by your side but also the other friends you met and the ones you will have in the future."

Lex and Arcta start to cry alongside Wayne as Kirata passes on his last piece of advice.

"Also, I'm telling you all this now because it won't take long before the Moro zone falls apart without me, so I ne—"

Kirata coughs up blood before he can get his words out.

"...Well it seems this is it...Wayne, I will always lo–"

"Papa!!!"

On that day, after centuries of living and spending most of it keeping the peace in his zone, the one and only Beast King Kirata died.

Chapter 40 end