Descent of the Martial God 5

Zeratul finally activated 'time of the martial god' for the first time after he beat Biban unconscious. Grid didn't understand when a truck hit his face. No, it was close to a jumbo jet than a truck. He had a hunch that if it wasn't for 'White Tiger's Posture' and 'White Tiger's Posture Engulfed in Flames' he activated after losing 10% of his health to the skill recoil of 200,000 Crushing Sword, he might have been sent to a different city. Instead, he was standing in the center of a crater with a bloodied face.

'Breath, I need to breath first!'

His body wasn't listening to him. His broken ribcage was in the process of reforming. Breathing was nearly impossible due to some of his ribs protruding in his lungs. If it wasn't for the transcendent effort he was making to not faint, he would have been knocked out cold by the latest legendary fist skill Zeratul used on him. He only had one plan he could rely on. Grid called out Piaro through the bond system and ordered Mercedes as his King to stay where she is. This showed that Grid was able to retain his cool despite almost fainting.

Piaro anxiously looked at the bloodied Grid who couldn't even see him despite staring directly in his direction. The only reason Grid could even look at his direction was because the bond system at level 2 could show the exact location of people he had bonds with within a close vicinity in the event one of the parties was seriously injured. Piaro immediately hopped on Noe and began riding it. Noe's speed was second only to Grid among his subordinates while it was using lightning speed in its lightning god state. Memphis weren't called the fastest demonic beast of hell for naught.

Grid's transcendent regenerative ability coupled with his intuition to equip Doran's Ring before using Madra's skill in case he was attacked meant he had about 45% of his health left. He was surrounded by a bright shield that was formed by the First King title. Thus, in some ways, Grid's condition was better than how it seemed. Thanks to Zeratul's decreased status on the ground and Grid's status increase after he became a god, Storm of the Fire God was still running smoothly. He wasn't a god in name only. Despite this, he was still in rags.

Grid utilized the bond system to target Piaro and used freely move towards him just to stand up while avoiding his chaser. If he didn't do this, Grid felt he couldn't move properly without falling. Zeratul had already almost caught up to him and barely missed landing a devastating kick to Grid who bended his body at unrealistic angles. Freely move received an indirect buff due to the ability of myth classes in ignoring laws of physics to an extent. However, this was only the beginning.

The movement speed in freely move might be fast but Zeratul was faster. When, Grid was roughly 50-60 meters away from reaching Piaro, the Martial God used a targeted energy infiltration technique which replaces the resources used to maintain and use skill with health. In addition, although, the damage coefficient wasn't on the high end, the attack power of one of the strongest gods was more than enough for Grid to lose 10% of his health after consuming the shield created with the First King. The momentum of the skill wasn't strong, so Grid wasn't knocked forward.

The skill changed the costs of every skill into HP. Storm of the Fire God now had an adverse effect on his health while every skill he used would further decrease his health. The unwritten effects were likely to be great too. For example, 200,000 Army swordsmanship often caused Grid to feel like all his muscles were torn in the past; however, the skill description only included a percentage reduction in health. Given the potential consequences, Grid decided to seal 500,000 army swordsmanship and 5 fusion sword dances.

Grid's dash wasn't cancelled meaning he kept on running. Zeratul shot a targeted, ranged energy attack. Grid managed to evade it owing to the timely intervention of one of the magic machines. The remaining magic machines Grid summoned earlier were sent flying in succession.

As a god who had access to numerous martial arts, Zeratul had the decisive advantage in footwork. Although Grid's moving speed increased thanks to his buffs, especially benefiting from lightning speed, he couldn't outspeed Zeratul. Howling wouldn't be effective against someone who moved faster than the speed of sound. A well-timed White Tiger's cry helped him escape one blow, though not two. With approximately 12 seconds remaining until Stick's chant, and Noe being 12 meters away, Grid used the only tactic that could truly stall the martial god.

"Earth's Embrace"

The power of petrification that represented White Tiger wasn't a skill even the martial god can easily dismiss. In accordance with its origin, the skill had a high status and was irresistible unless some special means was used to escape it. That is on the assumption that the other person is hit with the aura.

Thus, Zeratul tried to escape the aura first before he was affected by it. Shunpo was unavailable due to his spatial barrier. He'd be in contact with the aura before he could change his direction with one of his footwork techniques. So he had to utilize a skill which he had sealed due to Grid's gaze earlier. Zeratul tried to use a substitution technique. This epic rated escape technique was a combination skill uniting a skill that creates a clone with another skill which uses it as a substitute to avoid a skill that would affect him. It worked similar to how decoy flares distracted incoming infrared homing missiles. Absolute evasion was unusable since Earth's Embrace wasn't an attack. He anticipated that Grid wouldn't be able to use his castration eyes properly after losing his sight. The reality was different than what he expected.

The moment his clone appeared, it vanished. It seemed to be the doing of Overgeared God who mumbled something about his comfort. Zeratul recognized the power of evil eyes, but it was too late. Grid's boss like regeneration abilities had fixed one of his eyes first and was able to cancel Zeratul's skill. Although he was careful not to use clones throughout the fight, there weren't many skills he could use that could protect him from the incoming aura in his current weakened state.

A thick irresistible aura of Earth started to encroach Zeratul. Summoning his mental world would consume at least two hours of time. In other words, it was impossible even in his fight against Biban, let alone Grid. With the absorption skill in cooldown and his divinity skill being sealed due to not forming trinity, the best skill he could use was natural state to absorb until he used a skill that dispelled the abnormal state. The cooldown of the previous dispelling technique had ended after the fight with Biban concluded. The absorption technique was used to bring the aura outside his body, preventing the skill from being treated as a buff.

The first problem was Mercedes told Grid whenever Zeratul tried to use a dispelling technique. His secret techniques were canceled before he could complete them because of the effect of 'Howling' and the remaining 'White Tiger's Cry' skills in Grid's and Piaro's equipment. The reason these skills could affect the Martial God was two-fold. Those skills also belonged to a god which meant their status was considerable in themselves. In addition, descent from Asgard and losing trinity had a huge impact on his current status. This meant the usage of White Tiger skills were viable. Zeratul had never hated battle gear as much as he did now.

The second problem was Falling Moon Sword's buff prevention reduced the amount of earth aura he could absorb at any given time. Thus, he had to absorb Earth Aura for at least a few seconds to escape his entrapment. While saving a few seconds, it still wasted too much time and the high-elf's casting was the on verge of completion.

The third problem was Grid's apostle. He kept injecting fresh Earth Aura into the petrifying Earth aura in Zeratul's body. As a farmer, Piaro had worked with nature all day and improved his proficiency in the natural state. He eventually acquired the ability to buff surrounding people by injecting them with various forms of natural aura. This time, Piaro used in contrary to how he first envisioned this talent and strengthened the aura entrapping Zeratul. Thus, the time he had to absorb had increased to 8 seconds.

Finally, the insignificant cat was using the skill that represents Blue Dragon's authority over lightning. His attacks did not do damage. It wouldn't be different even if he wasn't immune to damage due to his petrified state. His skin could already nullify attacks far stronger than what a ugly fat overgrown cat can muster. Nonetheless, they were annoying since Zeratul lost all his mana, greatly restricting the skills he could use. Absorbing the lightning would mean remaining in a petrified state for an even greater amount of time and that was unacceptable.

During the time he was trapped, Grid had fully regenerated his arm, his remaining eye, fixed his breathing and increased his health back to 75% with the help of Holy Light Armor. Red Phoenix Breath didn't consume any resources, bypassing the effect of consuming lifeforce. The energy infiltration skill caused him to lose at least 5% of his maximum health every time he used a skill that originally consumed mana. He was in a combat-ready condition again. Then, he ordered Piaro to use Earth's Embrace as well.

Zeratul also used his time effectively. He had to hand it to Grid whose items reproduced part of White Tiger's power. Of course, his pride let him praise Grid's equipment solely because it granted him the opportunity to modify the skill neutralizing secret technique he used against Biban. The modified martial arts could be used against all manner of incoming aura even if they don't technically count as 'attacks'.

Therefore, Zeratul was able to use earth aura to counter the Earth's Embrace used by Piaro and send them both flying with an explosive punch. Seeing that Sticks was less than a second away from finishing his spell, Zeratul had to resort to strategy rather than overwhelming might again.

'It makes me furious to no end that I have fallen to their level in order to prevent them from protecting one man!'

It was an important shift in his mindset. During the course of the fight, Zeratul had finally accepted he failed to overpower the feeble weaklings in front of him and decided to use tricks instead.

As a last resort, Zeratul used the epic rated skill thunderclap. It is simply a fast clap that can unbalance the enemies. His purpose was to disrupt the elf's spell. The operating logic of this technique was slightly more nuanced. As the effect comes from the resulting soundwave, it could not be prevented by skills like revolve or 200,000 Army Crushing Sword. He expected it to disrupt the Overgeared God's plans at the very least. Even though he failed to kill Sticks or Biban in the last 39 seconds, disrupting the chant would afford him more time in the next minute. He had about 225 seconds left on the ground. Seeing the horror in the eyes of the traitor would be worth the trip.

The reality was different. In truth, Grid was smiling. He found it exhilarating and fun to have hacks on his side. It wasn't a bluff. Mercedes's eyes had already seen through the skill's true nature. And Grid had an easy way to deal with sound-based attacks.

"Alarm"

In the distant past, one of the uses Grid had for this spell was deceiving his enemies with delayed shouts of the name of his skills. Fundamentally, the process worked by delaying the timing of a particular sound. As a result, Grid simply delayed the incoming sound by an hour and sent the bright ball upwards. The spell's casting time was already near non-existent as one of the most basic magic and true transcendence increased the speed of the process even further. It was faster than the speed of sound coming at him. It was only natural for a transcendent magician to cast spells, Otherwise, no magic user would be able to compete in high-level fights without the divinity skill.

The martial god was running out of feasible options given his time constraint. His thoughts spun rapidly to kill these people who kept using new tricks to resist his attacks. He had changed his strategy and means of attacks so many times and yet that damn newly-born god used his silly party tricks to counter him in every step of the way.

'They are like cockroaches. It looks like the darn elf couldn't completely nullify my barrier and can only teleport to Reinhardt at most. If I use the strongest attack I can currently muster, it will erase them alongside Reinhardt before he can recast mass teleportation again, which is what I was originally planning. The downside is his apostles will survive. It can't be helped.'

Zeratul's goal kept changing due to his inability to get rid of the overgeared cockroaches in front of him. It eventually completed a full circle and he decided to complete the original goal he descended for. He was less frustrated than the usual which was a sign he had started gradually and unconsciously appreciating the skill set of the people fighting him. He didn't even make fun of Sticks for trying to overcome the restrictions of his spatial barrier. This was partially because the purpose of the makeshift barrier was delaying the Tower Members who had to remain outside the sight of dragons every time they went out and the implementation of the barrier prioritized speed over quality. In any case, Grid and his colleagues showed a superb cooperative effort in restraining him.

The light of mass teleport flashed, and Grid took a deep breath. He used all sorts of tricks to protect Biban who had almost given up his life to protect Grid and his kingdom. Then, he witnessed the energy level of Zeratul surge. The flutter of his red fighting energy resembled windsocks in windy areas. Grid swallowed his spit. Everyone was tense. The sheer amount of energy released by Zeratul soared to the extent Asmophel and Mercedes found it difficult to breath while Grid and Piaro were able to hold their ground, albeit with great difficulty. None of them could hide their anxiety. The loss of status on the ground and the lack of trinity restricted the Martial God's mana output. It was considerably lower than the ocean of mana Grid experienced by Raiders or Hanul.

Nonetheless, Grid knew that this was merely the preparation for an extremely strong attack. He immediately created a new 5 fusion sword dance, Transcendent Drop Revolve Pinnacle Dragon, with the vague hope that it will be enough. Grid knew the moment he used any of his strongest skills, he would die due to the backlash from the energy infiltration skill. It was also the reason why he couldn't use the previous combo of recreating genuine 200,000 Crushing Sword. It couldn't be helped. The lives of his colleagues were more important.

Then, a huge explosion was heard. Everyone in the vicinity looked towards the source of the explosion including Zeratul. The spatial barrier was broken. In fact, it was beyond broken. There were no remnants. It was as if the barrier never existed in the first place.

A silver world emerged and swallowed the entire area. It had completely isolated the surrounding space from the rest of the world. The dust cloud hadn't settled yet and it wasn't possible to accurately gauge the combat power of the intruder, but he felt he didn't need to. There was only one person on the ground with the motivation and power to interfere with his goals.

Contrary to the initial bang, calm and rhythmic footsteps could be heard. A human was walking calmly towards them. Unlike his calm demeanor, the silver energy accompanying him was responding to his will and swirling chaotically.

"You've done your part, leave the rest to me."

Grid was finally able to smile after what seemed to be the most exhausting minute in his life. The aristocratic voice made him confident that, somehow, everything will be alright. He let himself go and sat to recover his stamina which had hit rock bottom.

"Hayate..." The ultimate transcendent, the absolute—Hayate, the dragon slayer that even Zeratul found difficult to treat indifferently had arrived to punish the sinning god. He wasn't smiling.