Titan Rumble Ch 20: An Exchange Of Fists, Small & Large!

The dojo was still. All eyes were on Rika, who lay sprawled across the polished floorboards, one hand lightly stroking her cheek. She blinke

The dojo was still.

All eyes were on Rika, who lay sprawled across the polished floorboards, one hand lightly stroking her cheek. She blinked a few times, clearly trying to make sense of what just happened, as if the slap of reality hadn't just come from the size of a beetle. Slowly, she sat up, her body groaning as her elbows pressed into the floor. The crimson flush on her face hadn't faded, and neither had the stunned look in her eyes.

The other students stared at her, then slowly turned their attention to the speck standing proudly in the center of the dojo. Cain—barely visible, smaller than a toe joint, standing there like he hadn't just launched a titan across the room with a punch.

The same thought, unspoken but shared, flickered across their minds:

There's more to this Omega than we thought... way more.

The quiet didn't last long.

BOOM.

The floor trembled as Rika stood up, her body unfurling to its full, towering height. She wiped the drool from her lip with the back of her hand and stretched her neck with a satisfying crack. A grin spread across her face, wide and wild, the kind only someone born to fight could wear.

"Amazing," she said with a low chuckle, peering down at Cain. "That was the first time I've been hit by someone I couldn't swat like a fly... and it actually hurt." Her eyes sparkled with something dangerous. "How the hell did you punch like that? Last I checked, Omegas weren't supposed to be strong."

Cain, who was casually rolling his shoulder like he didn't just fly-punch someone five hundred times his size, glanced up with a smirk.

"Beat me and I'll tell you."

Rika's eyes lit up.

"Deal."

Her muscles surged. Veins bulged under her skin as she flexed, limbs hardening like stone. She shifted into a fighting stance—feet spread apart, arms raised, fingers flexed. For someone the size of a building, she moved with terrifying grace.

And then—she lunged.

Cain was already moving.

Rika's foot came down like a meteor, the stomp so powerful it cracked the floor beneath. But Cain was gone before it landed, a blur that zipped away in a blink.

"What the—!?"

She spun, her enhanced sight just barely catching his afterimage darting along her ankle, up her thigh.

"Found you!" she shouted, swinging her fist in a wide arc. Her punch tore through the air, the sound like thunder trapped in a jar, aimed to smack Cain clean out of existence.

He leapt—not away—but toward the fist.

The crowd of students gasped as Cain landed on her knuckle mid-swing, using the momentum to launch himself again, his tiny form spiraling through the air.

"Wha—how is he using me to fight!?" Rika barked, frustration growing.

Cain bounced off her shoulder, then her collarbone, springboarding from one part of her like a pinball made of shadow and speed.

"Gotta say," he called out, his voice faint but clear thanks to Omega acoustics, "for someone who just got floored, you're pretty confident."

"You little—!"

She spun around and slammed both hands downward, trying to catch him between her palms like a mosquito that owed her money. Cain shot upward, missing the squish by a hair's width, his body surfing the gust of wind the clap created.

From the side, Emiko squealed. "He's so fast! He's like a... tiny ninja bug!"

"Is it weird that I still want to hold him?" Nao added with sparkling eyes.

Yuna, standing off to the side, said nothing. Her gaze was focused, but her lips were twitching—amused and impressed all at once.

Back in the air, Cain flipped and landed lightly on the top curve of Rika's shoulder.

"I'll admit," he said, resting a hand casually on her enormous neck like it was a steel wall, "you're not bad."

"You're infuriating!" she barked, twisting around in a flash.

Cain zipped off again before she could grab him, bouncing off her bicep and using the force to angle back down. Rika tried another stomp, but it was like trying to squash moonlight—he moved just before impact, the BOOM shaking the dojo walls.

"You fight like a tank on legs," Cain taunted, now gliding over her thigh. "Big. Loud. Kinda slow. Very smashy."

"I'm gonna smash that mouth of yours!" she growled, laughing through her frustration.

Rika drew back her fist and slammed it down where Cain landed—a perfect strike that should've obliterated the floor.

But Cain phased—slipping into that strange half-real state—and her fist passed right through.

He reappeared a moment later, skating across her knuckles again, leaping higher this time.

"Gotta do better than that," he said with a grin. "But hey—points for enthusiasm."

Rika panted now, sweat dotting her brow. She wasn't tired, not yet, but this was different. She was used to fighting things she could hit. Something she could feel. Not some minuscule ninja ghost with a smart mouth and a punch like a cannon.

Still, her smirk didn't fade.

"Oh, I'm just getting warmed up."

Cain, still sailing mid-air, chuckled softly.

"So am I."

Cain grinned wildly as he soared above Rika's outstretched hand, his body shimmering with that flickering aura of personal nonexistence. The moment her massive fingers clenched into a fist, he zipped in, looped his tiny arms around her pinky—her pinky, of all things—and with a raw shout that echoed like a mosquito in a canyon, he yanked.

"HYAAAA!"

What happened next didn't make sense by any reasonable law of physics.

Rika—who had to weigh several tons, whose body had muscle packed onto muscle, whose sheer size made Cain look like a speck of lint—flipped.

Her body arced backward in a shockwave of motion, her legs lifting off the floor with a gasp from the other students. Her massive frame slammed into the dojo floor like a felled tree, the ground quaking beneath her with a BOOM that sent dust and air rippling in all directions.

The floor groaned beneath her. Nao and Emiko screamed. Yuna's mouth twitched open just an inch. And even Satsuki, still leaning against the wall, raised an eyebrow.

Cain hovered above the scene, arms crossed and panting slightly, sweat beading on his brow. He was starting to feel the burn in his lungs, the fire in his limbs—probably not the best idea to toss a mountain with nothing but stubborn confidence and one good shoulder grab.

He didn't even get to savor the moment.

Out of the corner of his eye, something moved.

Fast.

Too fast.

A streak of motion, almost invisible. A blur. Before he could react—before he could even phase—WHAM!

A foot slammed into his side like a freight train made of meat and fabric. Cain twisted, braced his arms just in time, and barely softened the blow before he was sent flying through the air like a kicked pebble.

He bounced once. Twice. Skidded along the dojo floor with a trail of smoke and scuff marks. Finally, he slid to a stop, limbs splayed and groaning.

"Ow," he muttered into the wood.

He blinked up.

Towering above him, one foot still raised, was Satsuki.

Expression unreadable. Arms folded. Hair tied back tight. Her stance—disciplined. Precise. Like she had been waiting for just the right moment to strike.

Cain squinted up at her as he pushed himself onto one knee, still coughing. "Okay... yeah... this just got more interesting."

Satsuki didn't say a word. But the corner of her mouth twitched up, ever so slightly.

Game on.