Now the main battle could begin, as Garou finally realized who this bald man truly was.
Now having recovered from Saitama's punch, Garou stood up to properly begin fighting him. They began exchanging blows while crossing kilometres in just moments, reaching far into the upper atmosphere. Saitama attacked Garou with a punch aimed at his head, but Garou, having literally ascended, managed to dodge it before axe-kicking the bald man into the ground, causing a huge section of land mass to instantly rupture, sending rubble shooting out.
When Saitama stood back up onto his feet, Garou leapt down towards him with a hand chop, striking his head directly and causing a forceful impact on the surroundings. However, the hand chop was not enough to faze him, and he retaliated with a simple headbutt that shattered Garou's forearm.
Despite this, Garou managed to regenerate his forearm and attempted to punch Saitama. However, the caped hero was faster, and managed to punch him back first. After being knocked back a considerable distance by Saitama, Garou's body, in response to his anger, underwent a mutation that increased his size and stature as well as his strength.
At this moment, Tareo — the little kid who had been such a hero fan, with the whole catalogue and all — was now a mad Garou fanboy. Just before this point, he had somehow managed to evade all of the other heroes trying to make him flee, and had made his way up behind the bulked-up, demonic Garou.
He then told him that he was a hero to him, which annoyed Garou, who tried to explain again to Tareo that he was not a hero at all. Yet even after what Garou said, the boy still insisted that he was the greatest hero to him, and told Garou to stop pretending to be a monster.
Saitama slowly came up to the two of them and commented on the terrible things Garou had done — murking heroes, crushing dojos, and now playing monster, causing this innocent kid to break down and cry.
As Saitama took his steps towards the hero hunter, Tareo tried to stop him from further fighting the hero. However, Garou still laid out Saitama and punched him hard in the head after getting provoked. Though, as per usual, Saitama was completely unscathed even after taking a punch head on. He then boldly reassured a shocked Tareo that Garou would not be able to hurt him.
Angered, Garou tried to kick Saitama, but was immediately slapped away by the hero as if it were nothing. Back with Tareo, Saitama asked him if he would like him to stop Garou but not kill him, and return him to normal, to which Tareo solemnly nodded in agreement.
So, finally, it was just the two big bad boys standing there, and Saitama questioned why Garou was acting like a monster despite previously having helped heroes. Garou tried to reason that he had merely been using them to further his goals of absolute evil.
Yet, after Saitama casually lumped Garou's absolute evil together with world peace in a randomly coincidental way, Garou angrily charged at him. He managed to parry a punch from Saitama. Then, using the momentum, he hand-chopped him right in the side of his face and landed a punch to his head before elbowing him in the stomach — all done within the fraction of a second.
When Saitama grabbed Garou's arm, the enlightened hero hunter performed several lock-on moves that eventually hit Saitama in the hip. Garou instantly followed up and proceeded to use his God Slayer Instant Attack, slamming his foe into the ground with a flurry of monstrous punches. However, Saitama, having evaded the attack, soon emerged nearby after digging underground, and threw a massive rock at Garou while asking the hero hunter if he was able to avoid his punches due to his special martial arts skills.
Garou confirmed this while shattering the rock with his jointless rotating arms. He attempted a barrage of attacks on Saitama, but the hero managed to dodge, prompting Garou to remark that Saitama had amazing reflexes and agility, but still lacked skill and had plenty of openings.
Claiming to be able to read all of Saitama's moves now, Garou declared that the hero would lose due to his lack of technique and being a complete amateur, before sending him absolutely flying and crashing into several buildings with his God Slayer Ascending Attack. Instantly after this unfathomable feat, Garou caught right up to Saitama and used his Great Fujin. The buildings lifted up and then slammed together. The Great Fujin sent the big bald man crashing through more buildings, lifting them up off the ground and ultimately pulverizing them into nothing but dust and smoke.
Believing he had won now, Garou stated that Saitama might have incredibly tough skin and bones, but he could not train his internal organs, which Garou believed to have been damaged by his attack. However, to his surprise, Saitama emerged completely unharmed.
It was then shown that Garou, in destroying the buildings and following in the way of absolute evil, had accidentally saved five Hero Association staff members who had been trapped inside an underground shelter. As all of them showed their gratitude to him before leaving, Saitama ironically commented on how absolute evil was actually good at saving people.
Enraged that he just wasn't evil enough yet, Garou attacked Saitama again and soon evolved even further, taking on a demonic form that had almost disproportionate-looking wings on his back.