"Escalation" (エスカレーション, Esukarēshon, Tonari: 125) is the 84th chapter of the One-Punch Man manga series.
Summary
As Garou is pummeled rapidly by Bang, Garou tries to counter-attack against his former teacher but his efforts are in vain due to his weakened state and their difference in Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist mastery. He ends up continued to be overwhelmed. Knowing that he cannot win, he attempts to escape and uses Death Gatling's unconscious body as meat shield to cover his escape. However, Bomb intercepts him and kicks him in the face toward the group of remaining monsters, causing the monsters to be shredded by Bomb's razor sharp Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist.
Afterwards, Bomb and Bang combine their martial arts against Garou. In the state of great pain, Garou remembers his miserable past as a misunderstood child being bullied. In the his anger and despair, he commences a counterattack by destroying the ground and grabbing a huge tree during the confusion. Garou swings the tree at Bomb and Bang, forcing them to back off. Phoenix Man suddenly appears and creates immense air pressure launching everyone away, and proceeds to grab Garou in the air while calling for Elder Centipede to cover their escape. Despite Garou's protest, he cannot do anything against Phoenix Man as he is being escorted to the Monster Association Headquarters. Meanwhile, Elder Centipede must fend off the three humans. Despite, their combined strength and even accomplishing significant damage towards Elder Centipede, Bang, Bomb, and Genos were unable to defeat the monster, due to its molting and massive regeneration power and were forced to retreat. As they retreat near the end of the forest, Bang was about to sacrifice himself and unleash his full power to buy Bomb time to escape with the unconscious heroes and Genos. Fortunately, King arrives and catches Elder Centipede's attention by tricking him into believing that King brought Blast with him, as well as taunting the monster, making the monster charge toward the S-Class hero. Elder Centipede meets his demise when an unnoticed Saitama, who was behind King, threw a Serious Punch that disintegrated his entire body from head to tail until there was nothing left of the monster besides his lifeless claws.
Characters in Order of Appearance
Chapter Notes
- The initial storyboard by ONE was 50 pages, but Murata expanded it to 143 pages.
- The chapter was advertised as over 100 pages on the official website to help the sales of the newly released Volume 15.
- In the Volume Release, this chapter was split into two chapters one in Volume 16 and one in Volume 17. The split chapter in volume 17 is called "Power".