Shattered Star

"Let me see how much fighting spirit you have left!"

Sparta descended from the sky, coming level with his opponent and staring him down.

Neither side launched an attack first. Only the wind swept across the battlefield, stirring up fine dust.

Seconds passed. A loose stone rolled down from a mountaintop, making a sharp clatter against the silent cliffside.

At last, they moved.

Sparta raised his left fist over his head and, dragging his broken right arm and leg, rapidly closed in on the Rock Giant.

The Rock Giant dragged its heavy steps forward. With every step it took, the loose stones on the ground trembled and bounced.

As the distance between them shrank, Sparta and the Rock Giant roared.

"Ah—!!!"

"Roar—!!!"

Sparta raised his left hand and drove a punch into his opponent's battered, hole-riddled chest.

The Rock Giant did not slow down. It even accelerated as it charged forward.

The instant Sparta's fist struck its cracked, ravaged body, half of the Rock Giant's chest collapsed.

Yet it still did not stop. Bracing against the force of the punch, it continued its charge.

Sparta was shoved back over a hundred meters by the violent momentum. The moment he stabilized himself in midair, the Rock Giant's sweeping kick was already upon him.

Sparta was struck by the kick, and the sharp rocks on its foot pierced his abdomen.

His face twisted as he opened his mouth wide, and his body was sent flying far away with an invisible shockwave.

His body traced an arc through the air before crashing into a cliffside, sending shattered rocks and dust exploding outward.

When the dust settled, Sparta pulled himself free from the dent in the rock wall and lowered his head to inspect the wound through his abdomen.

After realizing it was not fatal, he slowly raised his head and locked his gaze once more onto the Rock Giant charging toward him.

"I'm getting angry."

Sparta attacked again. The cliff behind him collapsed with a thunderous roar as his figure became a blur and shot forward.

The Rock Giant stopped short, raised its right leg, and kicked straight ahead.

Sparta swiftly dodged aside and punched its knee joint.

The Rock Giant lost its balance and dropped to one knee. The ground caved into a deep crater beneath it, cracks spreading outward from its knee.

Seeing this, Sparta repeatedly struck its face, forcing the Rock Giant's head farther and farther back.

When the final punch landed, the rock head finally could not withstand it and exploded apart. Its massive body crashed to the ground as well.

Sparta stood atop the Rock Giant's remains, his chest heaving violently. Each breath squeezed a little blood from the wound in his abdomen.

Just when he thought it should all be over—

A violent tremor came from beneath his feet.

A grim expression appeared on Sparta's face.

"It's not over yet?!!!!"

He let out an unprecedented roar, clenched his left fist again, swung his arm down, and smashed it into the body beneath him.

His fist hammered into the giant's chest, of which only half remained.

Sparta's only remaining left arm broke in the attack as shattered stones flew everywhere.

The ground behind the Rock Giant's body split apart, the cracks rapidly spreading outward.

In less than a dozen seconds, the asteroid's surface cracked open like an eggshell.

The giant's remains beneath Sparta's feet began to sink as scorching lava erupted from the fissures.

Then a blinding white light pierced heaven and earth. He instinctively squeezed his swollen eyelids shut, feeling his body become slightly weightless.

"Bang—!!!!!"

An indescribably violent explosion tore the asteroid apart, hurling Sparta into the vacuum of space on the shockwave.

His scar-covered body tumbled unconsciously through space.

"It's over..."

His vision began to blur, the last image of the asteroid exploding and breaking apart still imprinted on his retinas.

Just before he lost consciousness, two blurry, indistinct figures appeared before his eyes.

They seemed to be talking, but he could not hear a thing.

At last, the entire world went black.

Who knew how much time had passed before Sparta groggily opened his eyes and stared at an unfamiliar ceiling.

White bandages covered his entire body. One eye was covered with X-shaped tape, his arms were immobilized with tongue depressors, and his right leg was likewise fixed in place and suspended high at the foot of the bed.

The pungent smell of disinfectant hit him head-on.

He turned his neck and looked around the room before parting his slightly swollen lips.

"Anyone here?"

As soon as the words fell, the door opened, and Jayce entered the room with a bandage wrapped around his forehead.

Seeing that Sparta was awake, he paused in slight surprise.

"You're awake. I'm glad you're still alive."

As he spoke, he set the cup in his hand on the bedside table.

Sparta stared blankly at him, then suddenly forced out a hoarse laugh from his throat.

"What happened? How did I get here?"

Jayce sat on the edge of the bed and answered.

"Though I didn't see it myself, they said you blew up an asteroid."

"You were unconscious in space at the time. Kaden and Digger found you."

"After that, they brought all of us unconscious people to a civilized planet. This place."

"And now, you're awake."

After hearing Jayce's explanation, Sparta's still-swollen eyelids trembled slightly.

He tried to lift his immobilized right arm, only to be rewarded with a burst of agonizing pain.

"Ah—how long was I unconscious?" he continued in a hoarse voice.

Jayce picked up the cup and brought the straw close to Sparta's lips.

"Less than five hours, probably. The medical conditions here aren't very good. They could only stop your wounds from bleeding, so you'll have to rely on your own body to recover."

Sparta took a sip of water, then suddenly began coughing.

Jayce had no choice but to pull the cup back.

Sparta pursed his lips, restoring some moisture to his dry, cracked mouth.

"What about the others? How are they?"

At those words, Jayce lowered his head in sorrow.

"Two died."

"What?"

"Yes. Eddie and another recruit died."

Jayce sank deeply into self-reproach.

If he had not insisted on choosing that planet as their temporary base, they would not have been attacked by the Rock Giants.

Sparta looked at his guilty expression and opened his mouth, but said nothing.

Because from the moment Jayce had led this group of recruits through space in search of an uninhabited planet to hide on—

He knew Jayce had never wanted this to happen either.

Suddenly, Sparta thought of something and anxiously spoke up.

"What about Clayton? Is Clayton dead?"

The moment the words fell, the door was kicked open with force.

Sparta and Jayce turned toward the sound.

Clayton strode in with an arrogant gait and a cold sneer.

The moment Sparta saw him, a look of disgust appeared on his face.

Why was this damn bastard still alive?

"Sorry to disappoint you. I'm alive and well."

Sparta looked away, unwilling to spare him another glance.

But Clayton actually moved back into his line of sight, wearing an infuriating expression.

"That's right. That exact expression."

"I just love that look on your face when there's nothing you can do about me~"

PS: (I read every single paragraph comment, and I corrected quite a few typos too. Someone actually said this was AI-written? AI isn't even that sloppy. Don't learn a word and start throwing it around. You're dismissing several hours of the author's hard work.)

(Regarding power scaling, the original work itself values group fights. A group of aliens, even armed with weapons, still couldn't kill a single Viltrumite, could they?)

(If a one-year-old baby punched you, it wouldn't break your defense. But if it stabbed you with a knife, wouldn't you still get hurt and bleed? Having weapons and not having weapons are two different things. Most aliens use weapons.)

(I'll put comments like this in the author's notes from now on, so they won't affect everyone's reading experience.)