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Say goodbye to your organs
Virtually ALL of the fights in the manga are in one way or another awesome. Each fight is treated as an important fight, with a large amount of focus on each and every battle, fleshing out each character's fighting style and personality.
Ashura
- Murobuchi vs. Wakatsuki. We get to see how the man with over 300 wins fighting, and does not disappoint. Although Murobuchi has no martial arts experience, he's a juggernaut who got by a Kengan record of 19 wins and only one loss to Wakatsuki himself through nothing but his athletic prowess. None of his blows were able to truly harm Wakatsuki and only one running knee to the face is able to even make him budge. Then Wakatsuki delivers a punch to the gut strong enough to launch Murobuchi into the arena wall and knock him out. In this whole match, Wakatsuki only delivered three hits.
- Okubo vs. Agito Kanoh, the Fang of Metsudo. In spite of being the unbeatable champion of the Kengan matches, it is not a one-sided curb-stomp. The entire time, Okubo puts up a good fight, even turning the tables on the Fang at one point with a mix up of throws, holds, locks and blows. Then the Fang decides to get serious and knocks him out with a blow to the head.
- Special mention goes to the choreography of this scene, showing some truly incredible depth in grappling techniques.
- Midway through the fight, The Fang announces that he's seen everything Okubo has to offer, and Wakatsuki states that none of Okubo's attacks will land now. What does Okubo do in response? Charge forward, feint, and clock The Fang directly on the temple with a massive hook punch, leaving the entire stadium stunned as he proceeds to beat the tar out of the Fang for the next 15 pages. This particular confrontation ends with Okubo flat-out soccer-kicking Agito in the head, leading multiple members of the audience (including Sayaka, in the dub) to think that Okubo had killed him.
- After the fight Agito praises Okubo as a Worthy Opponent, which is something considering how dismissive he was of most everyone else, including our main character Ohma.
- Suekichi Kaneda vs. Kaolan Wongsawat. At first, Kaolan didn't expect much of him, disappointed by most of the tournaments' roster so far. While he's very much justified in being assured of victory, he's surprised by Kaneda's ability to read him. He's barely able to block most of the boxer's strikes, but the fact that he was able to react to those incredibly quick strikes in the first place is impressive on its own.
- On Kaolan's side, he utterly decimates him. While Kaneda gets points for being able to take advantage of Kaolan hitting him and pull him into a few holds, Kaolan is able to immediately slip out and counterattack every time.
- While Suekichi lost the fight, he makes up for it by earning Kaolan's respect. And then some. After a drawn out beating, Kaolan walks away assured that Kaneda's knocked out and already impressed by skill. Then Suekichi gets back up and furiously demands that he stop holding back on him, despite knowing full well what Kaolan is actually capable of. Kaolan admits he doesn't want to hurt him out of respect, Kaneda just yells at him some more for it. He knows he's fighting the world's greatest boxer, that he doesn't stand a chance, and in general just how weak he physically is. And he doesn't care; he will not stand for someone not taking him seriously.
- Cosmo vs. Akoya. After Akira intercepted Hiyama, Akoya goes into a murderous frenzy and starts brutally torturing Cosmo, sending the young fighter into a Heroic BSoD faced with an opponent who wants to kill him for the first time in his life. Then he gets a second wind and breaks out of the hold, having realized he likes about fighting: Winning. He puts Akoya into tight hold, never letting go even as Akoya smashes him against the wall with his body and thrashes around until the Executioner is unconscious.Cosmo: I AM THE KING OF STRANGLERS! IMAI COSMO!!!!
- Ohma vs. Raian. Ohma starts the fight unveiling his newfound strength and progress from training for round 2, overwhelming on Raian with a series of strikes while the latter just barely able to touch him (and gave him a nasty kick to the jewels when he did!) This manages to shock every fighter watching him...
- ...Then Raian knocks him down with a clothesline, revealing that Ohma's beatdown didn't even get him winded. Raian then proceeds to give him a beatdown of his own, demanding that he uses the Advance while doing so.
- Eventually, Ohma does use the Advance, prompting Raian to use his Removal in response. What comes next is a fast-paced, unrelenting Pummel Duel between two men-turned-bloodthirsty demons.
- Raian all but wins the duel and knocks Ohma down for a few seconds. Both are exhausted from using their respective techniques. Thankfully, a bloodied Ohma gets a Heroic Second Wind and starts using the Niko Style at its fullest extent to fight. He ends up winning through a concentrated series of strangles and strikes to Raian's neck.
- A non-combat one related to the fight: Yamashita going to the Kure patriarch and not only holding him to his promise to call off the hit on his son if Ohma won, but blackmailing him if he doesn't. And that was knowing perfectly he was facing someone who could have him, his entire family, and Ohma murdered on the spot if it struck his fancy, and being appropriately scared. Erioh Kure, who had already called off the hit before Yamashita arrived for the exact reason Yamashita could blackmail him (if he, the patriarch, broke his word, the Kure Clan would lose the trust of any potential customer, something Yamashita used their discussion to secure evidence for), but couldn't help but respect him-and compare him to Metsudo Katahara.
- Gensai vs. Setsuna. In a shounen tournament arc where you would expect The Rival to beat all opponents, Gensai wins, and does so convincingly, barely taking any significant damage while almost killing Setsuna.
- Special mention goes to Gensai's incredible defense. In the first half of the fight he fends off everything Setsuna can throw at him while refusing to move from a circle he's created with his feet. When Jerry Tyson notices this, he promptly loses his shit.
Jerry Tyson: It's impossible. Nobody can beat that man. - Kaolan vs. the Fang of Metsudo. We get a long fight in which Kaolan, the world heavyweight champion boxer, thoroughly beats the Fang's ass for the majority of the fight, with both showing off new techniques in an intense fight. Though Kaolan loses, we get to see the Fang not only get his shit pushed in but also have his ego shattered all in one glorious fight.
- When he first enters the arena, the entire crowd is chanting Agito's name. However, when Kaolan enters, the entire crowd shuts the hell up.
- Early on in the fight, Agito tries to fight Kaolan solely through mimicking his boxing style. Despite a massive weight and reach disadvantage, Kaolan beats Agito so severely that he briefly falls unconscious and reverts to his "Formless" state. Even then, Kaolan's boxing is so pinpoint accurate that he essentially forces Agito to keep fighting him using only boxing, as any other moves would leave him completely open. This is even noted as an in-universe moment of awesome, as Himuro and Okubo (two incredibly-skilled fighters in their own right) question how anyone could possibly use Kaolan's plan intentionally.
- After Kaolan unleashes his Muay Thai in addition to his boxing, he pushes Agito into a corner once more. It is, in fact, the only time in the series that Agito is not only aware that he could lose, but also that he could die under Kaolan's onslaught.
- By the end of the fight, the Fang fully admits that he cannot match Kaolan in terms of striking. Kaolan, for his part, also earns points by not suffering a crisis of confidence from his loss like the rest of Kanoh's opponents. He simply accepts it and trains harder.
- Hatsumi vs. Fang of Metsudo. We get both of them at their respective peak. However, Kanoh changed his style now fighting to win, showing the extent of his skills, intercepting all of Hatsumi's moves and utterly crushing Hatsumi with a few strikes total. Kanoh emerges from the unscathed.
- Props to Hatsumi by him holding his own and surviving Agito 2 Dragon Shots.
- Ohma vs. Takeshi Wakatsuki. The semifinal match and both fighters realize whoever wins will have a fight they both know they will be defeated.
- After perfecting the timing needed for the Niko Style's ultimate technique: Demonsbane, Ohma sends Wakatsuki sprawling onto the ground. Ohma, now at the brink of collapse, says that not even Wakatsuki could get up after a blow like that. Seconds afterward, Wakatsuki abruptly sits upright like a villain in a horror movie, striking pure fear into Ohma's heart for one of the only times in the series. While he eventually proves unable to fight, Wakatsuki kept on advancing until his body fully gave out on him.
- Ohma vs. Cosmo Imai. Cosmo earns points by, quite literally, wiping the floor with Ohma during the first part of the match, combining his own reaction time and newly-developed Foresight to completely exhaust Ohma. Ohma, for his part, escapes every single joint lock and choke Cosmo throws at him, while showing some incredible grappling prowess of his own (including the utterly ridiculous, and completely awesome, Water Dragon's Vein).
- Gensai vs. the Fang of Metsudo, full stop. Against all odds and backed into a corner several times by the overwhelming force of nature that is post Character Development Agito, Gensai wins, in one of the most protracted and intense fights in the series.
- One of the highlights of the fight was a twist absolutely NO ONE expected. Gensai manages to counter Agito’s 2 centimeter punch, the Dragon blow by catching it and TWISTING IT, completely destroying Agito’s Right hand, and rendering his right arm useless for the rest of the fight.
- Numerous times during the fight, Gensai shows off his status as the consummate Genius Bruiser. Despite being older and smaller than Agito, he perfectly times his strikes to hit exactly when Agito is shifting from "Formless" to "Martial Arts", resulting in damage that not even Wakatsuki could match, as well as preconditioning Agito to fear the Devil Lance from the first few seconds of the fight, leaving Agito open to all of Gensai's other techniques. Agito might be an absolute genius in terms of combat, but Gensai's status as an Old Master is never in question.
- After Kanoh dislocates one of Gensai's arms, and breaks almost all fingers in the other, Gensai simply take his Sanchin stance and weathers the incoming barrage of blows without falling. He then sets his arm back in place and shows he can still do the Devil lance as long as he has one finger left on his hand. While he doesn't look like it, Gensai admits he is in extreme pain, but he has such control over himself it doesn't show.
The Narrator: Two great stars collided, and one star fell... The star that shone brighter, shone fiercer and shone stronger remained. The name of that star was...Sayaka: "THE WINNER IS... KUROKI GENSAI!!!!!!" - Ohma vs. Gensai. Both fighters are extremely weakened and have beaten both Wakatsuki and Agito, who were the favorites to win the tournament respectively. Kuroki is able to easily counter Ohma's attacks and maintain the upper hand in the fight and inevitably defeat him due to being far healthier and also having much more skill and experience compared to Ohma."Overcoming his despair... The Man Forms a Fist Once More"
- Even after two fights in a row and had-death, Ohma shows how far he's come by utilizing his tactical genius and techniques to hold his own, even combining the Advance and his own Niko Style.
- Ohma pulling out a Demonsbane while in Advance as a final attack, injuring Kuroki's arm to the point where it goes limp. It's futile, but he put the biggest dent in Kuroki out of all of the old man's opponents.
He threw that blow fully aware of all the risks involved. But even that couldn't reach Kuroki...
Omega
- The walk-out of both the Kengan and Purgatory teams is jawdropping, full of character for each individual fighter and puts their varied and colorful outfits on full display all at once, whereas the Annihilation Tournament rarely featured more than two fighters in the spotlight at a time. Seeing twenty-six of them walk menacingly at one another in two full spread pages is amazing.
- Upon being assigned to train Koga and Ryuki, Himuro immediately shows his mettle by casually backhanding Koga for being rude, before easily blocking Ryuki's Earth-Crouching Dragon like nothing. He may not have fought in the Kengan Annihilation tournament, but Himuro is not to be taken lightly.
- Pretty much the entire fight of Kaolan vs. Medel. Just two of the world's greatest boxers going all-out is a sight to behold. Kaolan establishes that he is unquestionably the better fighter of the two, but Medel proves his craftiness through his incorporation of Capoeira and strategic use of the ring to secure a victory.
- At one point, nearly a dozen pages are devoted to Medel completely outpacing Kaolan, with even Kanoh noting that Medel's weight decrease had led to a massive speed advantage. Medel himself claims to be faster than light...just as Kaolan punches him in the face.
Kaolan: I can read you. - Toa Mudo vs. Julius. Julius reveals that his training has given him insane muscle control, allowing him to control each individual muscle in his arms. He finished the fight smashing Toa into the ground.
- Toa gets points for not only going toe-to-toe with the steroid-infused monster using nothing but his own natural strength, but also nullifying most of Julius' blows and turning his own strength against him.
- Misasa vs. Yumigahama. Misasa shows why he's the new Fang of Metsudo by easily and utterly humiliating the Traitor Fang and caving his face in. Bonus points for doing it to avenge one of his fallen comrades. Misasa might be a Nice Guy, but he is not to be trifled with.
- Misasa's performance is so impressive that Rolón notes that while he has no doubt in his ability to defeat Misasa, it definitely wouldn't be easy. Coming from one of the biggest Smug Supers in the series who would later handle Akoya and Nicolas like bickering children, that's saying something.
- Agito vs. Lu Tian. Both are survivors of the Gu Ritual and students of "The Other Niko Tokita". While Agito was able to prevent Lu Tian from even landing a hit on him. Lu Tian revealing his perfected Formless and capable of outmatching Agito's Formless which is later revealed to be incomplete and "Marital Arts" individually forcing the latter to use a combo of both styles at once to overwhelm him. Before Lu Tian revealed he is capable of using Removal at a WHOPPING 96% PERCENT. Then Agito defeats him with a Dragon Shot.
- Also despite not fighting in the Kengan matches for 2 years, Agito has not only retained his fighting skills but even was able to still improve himself by lowering the lag between the switch of his two fighting styles to the point it's basically negligent. Gensai even acknowledged if they have a rematch it will be much harder for him to beat Kanoh.
- Before the fight, Lu Tian also effortlessly blocks a punch from Raian despite standing several meters behind Raian's intended target when the punch was thrown, with his other hand still in his pocket. Even Raian is a little spooked.
- Furthermore Agito gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Lu Tian after he activated his Removal and is revealing his true colors.
Agito: It doesn't matter how much your physical abilities have improved.Agito: I have overcome my "beast's soul". You who have lost your humanity can never defeat me. - Raian vs. Alan Wu. Both are hyped up to be nigh-unstoppable assassins. While he plays around at first, once spotting Edward Wu, Raian promptly ends the fight by ripping Alan in half, to show how deadly he can be if he goes all out. Notably, he offered Alan a chance to leave first, and only tore him apart because Alan was in his way.
- Also, Ohma admitting that, at the time, Raian was stronger than he was.
- Kudos for Jurota for witnessing this carnage from the front row seats, only to immediately go up to the ring, hitting a Badass Armfold Gainax Pose against the Kengan team in defiance, and telling them to "Come."
- Masaki Hayami vs. Jurota Arashiyama. Jurota is an undisputed master of Judo, having developed a technique which allows him to throw opponents with no lag and basically zero movement on his part. Hayami, for his part, simply refuses to stay down, popping up faster and faster after each throw. Turns out that his Training from Hell with Meguro has made him nearly impervious to Judo throws, and his use of striking gives him an upper hand on the older Jurota. As Hayami notes, Jurota might be stronger, but he's faced much scarier opponents before.
- While watching this fight, both Donaire and Gensai note that Arashiyama is in their ballpark when it comes to sheer strength, while watching him repeatedly dunk the Judo prodigy Masaki on his head like he was a bumbling amateur. Agito admits he would never be able to pull off what Jurota's doing and says he's never seen a grappler this good ever before.
- Nicolas Le Banner vs. Seishu Akoya. Akoya absolutely towers over his opponent, and has been noted to have nigh-superhuman reaction speeds. Nicolas kicks off the fight by nonchalantly slapping him in the face before he can even react.
- Realizing Nicolas paralyzed his arm, Akoya decks him using his shoulder.
Akoya: I will purge all evil, even if my flesh should rot away.- Akoya begins clobbering Nicolas with his head, raining down headbutt after headbutt. Several of his teammates point out that Akoya is smashing his face against the strongest part of Nicolas' skull, but he isn't deterred in the slightest.
- Rolón intervening and shoving both men from killing each other showing his strength. When they retaliate against him Rolón swiftly defeats them with a single strike even dodging their hits with ease.
- Let's not forget the fight that took Koga out of the tournament. Despite seriously training for only half a year at the time, he goes toe to toe with about a half dozen armed men, and wakes up from the fight broken, bloodied, and stabbed, but alive and the sole victor. He has a long way to go before he can catch up to the rest of the Kengan cast, but he's a beast himself.
- Liu Dongcheng vs. Tokumichi Tokuno'o: Early in their fight, Liu deduces that Tokumichi will by relying on his grappling techniques, and immediately plans for all eventualities to avoid being grappled, striking Tokumichi with a heavy blow to the face. Tokumichi reveals, however, that he is very durable, and he easily outmaneuvered Liu by using the strike to let him grab Liu's arm and deliver a crushing blow of his own. Liu responds with a devastating kick to the face that knocks Tokumichi down...only for him to get up, go head-to-head with Liu in striking, and again outmaneuver Liu before slamming him down head-first into the ring.
- Some of the Kung Fu moves Liu uses are breathtaking, managing to weaponize his upper back in one instance when Nitoku tried to tackle him and turning his guts several times over with the One Inch Punch. Awesome Art is in full effect for this fight.
- Liu takes the cake, however, by recovering and launching a barrage of strikes at Tokumichi. Tokumichi recovers and gets him in an armbar, only for Liu to break his own arm to escape and finish the fight with a devastating kick to Tokuno'o's midsection, blasting him out of the ring from the center, ending one of the closest fights in the entire tournament in a decisive Purgatory victory with zero caveats.
- Before the fight, Rolón mentions that Liu, when at his best, can go toe-to-toe with him. As Rolón is nothing short of monstrous, this is a hell of an accomplishment.
- Carlos Medel, that we saw as fast enough to dodge Kaolan's jab and hit back, admits that when Liu is in a right state of mind he can't even land a finger on him.
- Terashi vs. Okubo: Terashi starts off the fight by just being so goddamn weird that he utterly unnerves Okubo. From his completely silent entrance to easily nullifying some of Okubo's most powerful punches, Terashi leaves the normally-boisterous Okubo in a cautious approach while also nullifying his formidable grappling and causing his hands to spurt blood.
- However, Okubo quickly deduces that Terashi's abilities are based on vibration, and centers in on the one part of Terashi's body that can't vibrate to nullify damage: his head. Terashi remains confident that he can dodge Okubo's strikes...only for Okubo to rapidly beat his face in and shatter his mask. His boxing is so effective that both Medel and Kaolan, the world's two greatest boxers, note his skill. Okubo might be an oaf, but he embodies everything that's so dangerous about a Jack of All Stats fighter.
- Terashi, for his part, reveals that his eyes and brain have been surgically altered to give him kinetic vision that exceeds even Koga or Kazuo's, allowing him to keep pace and dodge Okubo's strikes. However, Okubo quickly turns the tables, striking Terashi from his blindspots and tackling him to the ground, handily ending the fight with a monstrous guillotine choke and emerging no worse for wear. While he was defeated in the Kengan tournament early, Okubo's performance here stands out as one of the few outright curb stomp battles of the Purgatory tournament.
- Fei vs. Wakatsuki, full stop. Even the author called it a true battle of superhumans in an author's note for the release of the full volume.
- Fei manages to do a one armed shoulder throw to Wakatsuki, almost three times his size and a 400 pound brick wall of a man, overhead to the ground. When Fei follows up with a roundhouse kick in the back of his head, Wakatsuki simply isn't affected; something that would kill a lesser man only manages to piss him off. Overall the fight is on relatively even terms, but Fei pulls out a Weeping Willow even managing to redirect Wakatsuki and putting him on a firm grip before revealing he's the Tiger Vessel.
- Fei pulling out unknown Niko Style techniques such as Binding Demon to counter out Wakatsuki's attempt to throw him and then using Ironbreaker Barrage to counter Wakatsuki once he attempts to throw him out of his hold. This doesn't even phase Wakatsuki who responds with a powerful straight punch knocking down Fei.
Fei: This geezer is human, right?- It's later revealed that Fei has a high mastery of the Redirection and Water Kata of the Niko Style which explains why he has barely sustained damage from Wakatsuki's blows aside from accidently biting his tongue. Fei even manages to knock down Wakatsuki with Obliteration and push him back with Flashing Steel: Blast.
- Until Wakatsuki reveals that he was planning a tactic to counter Fei by using his overwhelming strength and previous experience to seal off Fei's Niko Style forcing him to endure heavy damage showing that Wakatsuki is not just a overwhelmingly strong bruiser but an highly capable tactician. Wakatsuki even believes he can fight Fei with the Advance, aware of the weaknesses of that powerup. Fei has something different in his mind, activating a new powerup, Divine Devil, and blowing him across the ring with one strike, leaving a dent on Wakatsuki's chest.
- After activating Divine Devil, Fei not only easily beats Wakatsuki around the ring while reacting to Wakatsuki's attacks in Bullet Time, he also reveals one of the most bizarre attacks in the entire series. His heart is so overclocked that he can literally shoot droplets of his blood out of his hands like a machine gun. It's not overly damaging, and Wakatsuki weathers it just fine, but it's incredibly unnerving.
- While Fei beats down Wakatsuki, Fei drops out of Divine Devil for a bit to ease the strain. The moment Fei reverts back to normal, Wakatsuki stands up and lands a kizami tsuki (a lunging jab used in karate) before finally using his Blast Core. While Fei manages to use Dancing Snake to just barely dodge Blast Core, but the still powerful impact makes Fei cough blood out of his mouth.
- Wakatsuki putting Fei in a tight hold keeping him still until the latter releases the maximum output of Divine Devil breaking out of the hold and knocking him out with a massive Counter-Attack hook punch, but he bleeds out instantly afterwards because of his Super Mode's drawbacks forcing a draw. On the other hand, Wakatsuki being able to endure that much damage from the fight is very impressive despite not being able to land as many hits as Fei, and unlike Fei, he was just beat up and had suffered no permanent damage, waking up almost immediately after the knockout.
- Following the Fei/Wakatsuki fight, Tiger Niko is revealed to have easily handled Muteba, leaving him for dead in a crater against a wall. However, Muteba reveals that he's very much alive, mostly unscathed, and planned to shoot Niko in the face if Niko returned to finish him off.
- Ohma vs. Rolón Donaire: After a long, long buildup, we finally get to hear a bit more about Donaire, namely that he has an astounding 422-0 win record in Purgatory. Even more amazingly, he apparently fought Gensai to a draw.
- Once the fight kicks off, Donaire closes the distance and launches off a barrage of punches. Ohma, showing impressive growth, easily dodges them by reading the "perception of intent", a technique which even the likes of Gensai and Medel took decades to accomplish. Even then, it only takes a few seconds for Donaire to outpace Ohma and send him flying due to him outpredicting Ohma's Pre-Initiative.
- Ohma continues fighting toe-to-toe with Donaire even battling him at point-blank range, with several fighters noting that he is not using his usual style. Instead, he's using Kure-clan techniques.
- Ohma continues to endure Donaire's assault but at the time as he's getting close to the edge of the ring, Ohma takes the hit sending him flying with a counter aimed for Donaire's neck with Heaven-Shaking Supreme Fang. Donaire endured it by going limp in his joints rendering him uninjured.
- Ohma using the maximum input Advance to slug Donaire in the jaw. Unlike other hits that either annoyed or excited Donaire this one shook him so hard he briefly lost consciousness. Then Ohma follows up with Change of Scenery, flipping Donaire into the floor hard enough to crack a good portion of the arena.
- Credits due to Rolón for getting back up after that.
- Ohma and Donaire's final clash and it ends up with Ohma outplaying Donaire by using Earth-Scraper then finishing him up with a perfectly timed Flashing Steel: Smash.
- Edward Wu and his clan vs. Erioh Kure, Wu Xing and Raian Kure.
- The fight starts with Raian lying face down in his own blood, where it's shown he took on Edward and two of his clan members and Huisheng copies, Fabio and Solomon Wu. Raian gets up and the three Wus show perfect coordination in beating Raian up. They are interrupted by Erioh stabbing Fabio through the chest with a sword.
- Fabio survives and uses Guihan at 100%, only for the elderly Erioh to dispatch him with ease, throwing a needle in his throat before using the sword to slice him vertically from chest to head, all without using Removal.
- He then attacks Edward at the same time as Wu Xing, who had been looking for a surprise attack. What then assumes is a fight where Edward handles both Erioh and Wu Xing with relative ease unarmed, while both are attacking with swords before removing his shirt. Meanwhile, Raian is clashing with Solomon.
- Wu Xing then takes on Edward by himself while Erioh recovers, using his sword with rope like a whip, spitting needles and feints to almost stab Edward, but Edward defends and knocks Wu Xing away. Cue Solomon Wu flying towards Edward as Raian steps up to fight in their place, as they both deny him and all three use Removal/Guihan at 100%.
- Raian and Erioh both take on Edward using Removal while he handles them with ease, all while NOT using Guihan. Meanwhile Solomon is being handled easily by Wu Xing. Cue Edward using Guihun at 100% and blitzing all three at such speed that none of them are able to keep up. He then chucks Solomon a knife, ordering him to finish the three while he goes off, only to be stopped by Solomon's decapitated head flying past him as Erioh readies to take him on.
- Most noticably, Edward comments that if Erioh was at the age when they first met in his prime, he would struggle against him. Erioh counters that he was already past his prime when they first met, and if he was in his prime, this would be childs play to him, which, if not being Erioh just malding over Feeling Their Age, speaks volumes to his strength while he was the Fang of Metsudo.
- While also demonstrating a fair bit of Nightmare Fuel, Masaki Hayami finally confronting his abusive father has its moments. Not only does he easily take down Yamagata Koi, the leader of the newly-reformed Guardians by fully spinning his head 180 degrees, he also tricks his Hayami into not activating the bombs inside of him before killing the old man. Admittedly, he does reveal his insanity in the process.
- After a two-year Time Skip, much of the cast has gone their separate ways. However, Kiryu, Ryuki, and Akoya have formed their own Worm-hunting squad, and Akoya has powered up enough to take down Lu Tian, who was previously a match for Agito.
- Though he lost in the end, fatally so, credit where credit is due as well for Lu Tian. The man was still practically on death's door two years after the tournament, implied to be permanently stuck in a partial Guihun and on literal life support, clinging desperately only to his futile desire to 'redeem' himself in Niko's eyes, and he's still more than a match barehanded for a man with superhuman reflexes in his physical prime, armed with weaponry, and decked out in full-body armor. In their extremely brief bout, he has the upper hand much of the time, and it's only through a timely usage of his flashlight that Akoya is able to survive and finish him off. Even in his horrific physical shape, Lu Tian was well and truly monstrous.
- When Xia Ji attempts to kill Kazuo, he's intercepted by Ryo Himuro, who proceeds to beat the everloving hell out of him, casually dismantling a half-dozen of Xia Ji's attempts to deploy hidden weapons. It's such a Curb-Stomp Battle, Ji is left in utter disbelief as to how a "second-string" fighter like Himuro could pummel him so easily.
- Lihito breaking his losing streak against top tier fighter by defeating Saw Paing. As Kuroki explained Lihito was still trying to integrate what his master taught him with what comes naturally and what he saw others do, resulting sharp dodges of Saw Paing attack before getting him in a front choke like Cosmo did. Having seen the fight with Cosmo though Lihito add his own merits by using his great strength to lift Saw Paing off the ground, stopping him from getting out with a slam like he did with Cosmo.
- Lihito then handily wins the final against Koga. While Koga was the one that got off worse from their previous fight the ease with which Lihito feinted his Fist Eye for a quick knock out solidifies his evolution. Like with Saw Paing he wins not by using what Gensai taught him or his instincts but by understanding his opponent weakness and adding things outside his usual moveset.
- Jurota vs Agito in the Real Fighting Championship prelims. An absolute clash of two Living Legends, simultaneously showing off what Jurota is truly capable of, with Agito fighting him tooth and nail every step of the way.
- When Agito gets Jurota in an armbar with his entire 131kg bodyweight on the arm, Jurota proceeds to simply lift him like a dad getting wrestled by his child and throwing him across the room by grabbing onto his Future Spandex hard enough to tear it like tissue paper. All with enough nonchalance to give Agito time to tie his sleeves up as an improvised belt.
- Jurota being the second man to defeat Agito. Despite a Dragon Shot to the chest and flying knee to the face Jurota is able to do one last throw where he forces all the force on Agito's head, knocking him out. This doesn't stop Agito as he can fight though concussion who then grabs and mounts Jurota, in a position similar to when Masaki pounded the judoka unconscious. Jurota uses his last bit of strength to lunge for a choke, which is broken when Agito knocks Jurota and himself out, and recovers a few moment before the Kengan champion.
- The Real Championship brings together some of the top dogs in the series against one another: not only does Kanoh Agito manage to secure a spot alongside Arashiyama Jurota and Rolon Donaire, but Kaolan Wongsawat and Julius Reinhold make their returns as well. The first round pits Kaolan against Jurota, and Julius against Agito.
