Descent of the Martial God 3

[500,000 Army Massacre Sword (degraded)

[It is a single blow.

Use a high level of concentration to release an extremely fast attack. Deals 30,000% of your attack power as true damage to all enemies in sight. There is a high chance to penetrate defensive skills, shields, barriers, damage nullification etc. but not immortality.

*Sword Saint Biban has lifted some of the restrictions of the swordsmanship.

Resources Consumed: 50% of maximum mana. 10% of stamina. 750 sword energy.

Skill Recoil: Very high chance to suffer broken bones in arms that can't be healed for a minute. The probability decreases by a significant amount for every 1,000 stat points in strength for those with status equal to true transcendents and above.

Skill Cooldown Time: 1 hour.]

A swordsmanship skill that even Sword Saint Biban wouldn't want to use unless he had exhausted all the other alternatives. Unlike Grid, he didn't have mythical status resistance that lets him partially ignore the laws of physics. His strength stat was high, but he would die the moment skill backfired on him. Thus, it was like a russian roulette to him. A gamble with potentially fatal consequences… That's why he didn't use the attack even though he had the ability to do so.

Grid on the other had a better resistance and had items that could clear abnormal states like the white tiger equipment. The skill 'Rock' was a versatile skill which he generally used for its ability to make himself immune to damage from strong attacks. Clearing out abnormal states was another valuable use. In addition, Saleos' gloves had the option to greatly reduce hand injuries.

Despite all the advantages he had, the performance of the degraded skill still performed above Grid's expectations. Biban had hurt his hands mid-skill while he was demonstrating the technique after their spar.

It was also helpful that Zeratul's undivided attention was on Biban. During the fight, he had witnessed how versatile a sword saint was, using all sorts of tactics for evasion and counterattack. However, he still wouldn't have been hit under normal circumstances even if he was caught off-guard given his superior senses. This showed just how fast, 500,000 Army Massacre Sword was even in its degraded form.

Honestly, the performance of the martial god had scared Grid. That's why he chose to use this skill for the first time. One of the disadvantages of the sword dances were the slow deployment of ranged skills. Madra's swordsmanship was still better in this respect. Grid guessed his body couldn't handle using open potential with Madra's swordsmanship anymore and Biban hadn't fixed the next technique in the skill branch. That's why he opted to use 500,000 Army Massacre Sword instead.

Finally, Grid used Falling Moon Sword just in case. Mercedes previously described to him how much effort Biban put in to cut through the protected skin of the martial god. It still happened in less than a fraction of a second but, this was not enough to comfort Grid given the amount of damage Zeratul could inflict in such a short amount of time.

The moment sword energy cut through Zeratul's thick muscular waist in a diagonal angle, which included the arm that was holding the defeated sword saint, Mercedes used a dashing skill with haste and placed her wall-like shield to protect the near-death sword saint who was barely breathing and looked like he would die from being hit by a passing fly.

Using keen insight, Mercedes calculated that she could hold Zeratul for 10 seconds on her own should the need arise. It was the worst-case scenario. With Noe this number would increase further thanks to the 'become majestic' skill. Her liege ordered that she protect Biban while Piaro and Asmophel were busy protecting Sticks who was chanting mass teleport.

After Biban's defeat, his mental world was unsummoned. However, Zeratul's teleportation ban was still present. Thus, Sticks' actions would have looked nonsensical to any casual observer. Fortunately, Grid was different. He had witnessed Sticks teleport him and his colleagues from 9th Vampire City where teleportation to outside was prohibited by Beriache's barrier. The barrier carefully developed by a great demon from the beginning was of course stronger than the half-baked barrier Zeratul had created on the spot while trying to preserve the amount of time he had left. The current barrier was much weaker than the barrier that prevented teleportation to the Martial God ruins in the past. Moreover, Sticks had studied the mechanisms to bypass a ban on teleportation after the experience with the vampire city, the war with the Saharan Empire. In particular, the latter used it on a regular basis to prevent the emergence of variables in their wars.

Sariel was busy healing the unconscious Biban who was under multiple abnormal states such as internal damage (massive), paralysis, fracture and many more… Grid still remembered the healing ability of the fake Sariel who healed the Templars in real time. Grid wasn't content with this since Mercedes told him Zeratul added an additional curse in his penultimate attack which reduced all healing effects by 80%.

Therefore, Grid felt he needed to use more means for healing. Unfortunately, Biban told him before that aside from Hayate, Fronzaltz and Betty, all the Tower members had already eaten a white peach in their travels. It was the worst situation with no silver bullet. Grid would have uttered unspeakable curses if he knew Biban ignorantly consumed White Peach when he felt like eating peaches one day rather than in a life-threatening situation.

'There's no use talking about what could have been. The strategy we devised during the battle will have to suffice.'

Thus, Grid had to get creative. He used Request to Stand with Me on Ruby to borrow the 'Hope' skill. As a unique (transcendent) rated skill, it could heal between 20-80% of someone's total health. Since Grid wasn't the saintess, he didn't possess the 'Denial' title which prevented the heals of a saintess from overlapping with the healing skills of followers that worship a god such as Sariel.

Grid also used item transformation to turn 10 of his god hands into Ruby's Wooden Staff. This let him increase the effect of healing from hope by 7% while using the hand of kindness skill to heal more wounds and rescue Biban from the abnormal states. 5 God Hands held the greed staffs and hit Biban with their staffs as if he was a pinata while the remaining 20 God Hands turned into Raiders as an additional protection layer.

Even Zeratul questioned if Grid held a private grudge against the pitiful sword saint. He felt a strange sense of relief from being the most normal person in the area compared to the Overgeared God and his followers who looked unphased by the excruciating torture going on in front of them, towards their ally no less.

Then, the fighting energy surrounding the martial god brought the two pieces of his body back together. The aura wriggled as if it was a living, colored and gaseous lifeform. Subsequently, it infiltrated the wounds and acted like a glue. The aura stitched both pieces in no time.

He had to resort such a workaround since his no attribute divine power didn't give him holy healing powers and the sword made from that hateful moon night iron prevented all buffs for 3 minutes. The prohibited buffs naturally included techniques that accelerated natural healing and regeneration. The natural state was rendered meaningless as well and the immunity against 'being cut by sword energy' was gone. It was about compatibility. Zeratul among Asgard's gods was the only god without healing skills. He was content with his recovery and regeneration skills which were comparable to best healing skills. Dispelling the effect would take a little less than 30 seconds and Zeratul was unhappy after noticing a flaw in his skill set.

'I will have to create a healing martial art later.'

Zeratul's face crumpled due to being cut by someone much weaker than him and exposing his weakness. His philosophy didn't let him admit using items was a legitimate road to true power. Given the emotional state he was in, his frustration easily turned to anger. His will unconsciously manifested into a giant storm covering an area comparable to a city.

Grid used ten of the transformed Raiders to block wind while Piaro instantly grew plants with the wind nature energy. It had the effect of reducing the effect of divine willpower on others while the growing dense trees granted an additional protective layer against wind due to their low crowns. These layers were added on top of the 15 Raiders preventing the wind from reaching Sticks and Biban.

"You must have come here to die alongside that heretic. At the very least I applaud you for not running away in fear without looking back. You are braver than most. But know this, I'm going to return that blow a million-fold to you now."

Zeratul bent his flexible body and disappeared. Grid's transcendent senses didn't lose his whereabouts entirely, yet, in spite of that, Grid couldn't relax in the slightest. He felt a sense of crisis and decided on using the fastest sword dance available to him, pinnacle.

After dividing one second to the maximum amount permitted by his current level of transcendence, Grid used Pinnacle to pierce through Zeratul's punch and inflict a wound that reopened the imperfectly stitched arm.

The sword dance that depicted Chiyou's strike pierced the hand of Zeratul who had decided on beating Grid to near-death in front of his subordinates. He thought regular punches was enough for this and he didn't need to use his secret techniques. In other words, Zeratul didn't take the weak Grid seriously enough and assumed that getting cut once was a fluke caused by the variable of moon night iron. He wanted to beat Grid to a pulp similar to how he beat Biban after catching him.

"You dare use that cheap imitation's skills in front of me!!! And you imitate a counterfeit! You imbecile of a god, I will unleash divine punishment upon you!"

Grid had merely used pinnacle since it was his fastest blow and didn't predict this would anger Zeratul who was slowly running out of time. With little more than 12 minutes remaining, he decided to engage in a technical fight where he intended to knock his enemies out with precise strike to their weak points.

His magical insight which had the effect of greatly increasing his attack power and significantly reducing the damage he received, was sealed for more than 2 more minutes due to being a buff. It was an unintentional consequence of uniting multiple skills such as attack boost, martial insight and debuff skills with skill synthesis. As a side effect, he had to guesstimate the power level of his enemies through his experience and prior knowledge. Consequently, he didn't make the mistake of using clones due to knowing the black flames associated with Grid's sword.

'I can use the gravity skill to make the elf and his bodyguards kneel open a pathway for a precise strike with my willpower to disrupt his casting.'

However, he had made the mistake of not watching Piaro's skills in the years before since Piaro chose to become a farmer. Zeratul didn't feel Piaro would accept his doctrines and follow them. Thus, with his insight sealed, he had overlooked Piaro's strongest technique.

Just as he was preparing to cut Sticks with his willpower, Piaro summoned an enormous pounding mortar. The mortar was many times larger than the usual and imbued with the energy of earth to make it as durable and heavy as a rock. It was even larger than Reinhardt itself. Piaro never thought he'd use his offensive trump card as a defensive skill to prevent Zeratul from attacking.

Destroying the pounding mortar would require using at least a legendary (transcendent), if not mythical skill by Zeratul and that would almost definitely be a rapid drain on the time he has left. Moreover, the ground was a part of his domain as a legendary farmer. This prevented the martial god from using various sneaky underground attacks and disruptive crowd control skills such as the secret techniques he used in the earlier fight.

If Zeratul chose to go with ranged attacks while remaining outside the range of pounding mortar, Sariel could utilize her ranged damage immunity to protect against the incoming attacks. In other words, she could act as a tank with her ranged damage immunity.

Originally, Sticks who was equipped with items that reduced casting time could finish chanting mass teleport in 10 seconds, but the duration increased to 40 seconds due to the barrier. Given the head start he got thanks to Mercedes predicting the end of the fight and the latest clashes, he had 30 seconds left to finish chanting.

Zeratul looked at the falling meteor like object with an expressionless face. He was a bit annoyed that he had to deal with the mortar first before he could use willpower to attack Sticks.

He manifested his willpower in the form of a giant arm from below the mortar and grabbed it. He was inwardly slightly impressed by the condensed power of nature coming from a non-martial artist. Then, he used the rare-rated rock rolling secret technique that Grid learned after defeating Haegak. The skill in its max level had the ability to push and move objects regardless of the strength level. Unlike the 'power of not knowing defeat', pushing without relying on the concept of strength did not count as a buff and was not affected by Falling Moon Sword's effect.

Pounding Mortar was shoved aside as if it was a mere obstacle. This process took roughly two and a half seconds. During this time, Zeratul couldn't use another attack. Piaro was astonished. He actually felt motivated to increase the strength of his skills further after seeing a grandiose display. He was slightly afraid as well after experiencing the horror of powerhouses like Sitri and Zeratul. He quickly regained his focus just the same.

In the meantime, Grid had used Transcend and completed 4 steps to raise the power of Drop Dragon Pinnacle Kill Wave. Zeratul didn't dare underestimate the attack that depicted the fall of a god through the momentum of an ascending heavenly dragon. Although the attack wasn't as fast as the 500,000 Army Massacre Sword, it was still very fast, and Grid's acceleration hadn't stopped.

Seeing that it's a charging skill, Zeratul made a quick calculation in his head before deciding on using a legendary rated immortality skill. Although he has thought about using the neutralization skill which creates an attack made from the same kind of energy, he decided against it after observing the penetrative power and real time acceleration of the skill. The latter made the skill's power larger with each passing split second. By contrast, the immortality skill provided immunity against a single blow and was as hard to bypass as the 5 second immortality legends had.

Zeratul's body turned pale blue and looked like steel. Grid frowned after learning about the effectiveness of the skill and quickly worked his head around to plan his next move. During this entire fight, Mercedes was using the bond system to give useful insights about Zeratul's skills such as their weaknesses and effects.

Unfortunately, all the Raiders magic machines were busy protecting Biban who had finally survived the lethal aftereffects such as the internal damage and remained unconscious while Sariel tended to him.

'Now's the chance.'

Just as they were making contact, Grid decided to try his chance and let Fire Dragon Sword emerge from his inventory at the last moment in order to use up Zeratul's immortality skill though it didn't work out. The sword was lightly pushed by an instantly created willpower sword. Bringing the sword from inventory while moving did not mean it carried Grid's inertia and because it wasn't equipped, it was pushed by the willpower of Asgard's second strongest in individual combat prowess.

Despite not taking damage, Zeratul still had a large hole in his lower abdomen due to the piercing effect. Perhaps the birth origin of the sword dance made its penetration particularly powerful. Penetrating through the defense of an absolute god and piercing it had enormous symbolic value. Plus, Zeratul's skill had the effect of making him immune to damage and not impervious to an attack. The greatly strengthened body of course couldn't be pierced or harmed by most attacks and an extreme penetrative power is one of the few ways of inflicting harm in spite of the massive increase in defense.

Zeratul's face was completely crumpled, and he looked like he was going to kill Grid the next moment. This time, he neither used moon night iron nor blindsided him. It was a cut made with martial prowess. Denying it would be rejecting his beliefs which he wasn't willing to do. Being wounded by the person he came to embarrass… It was a great shame that he would still remember thousands of years later with his transcendent memory.

Moreover, he used his willpower to counter both pounding mortar and Fire Dragon Sword to protect himself. Looking forward to the future, it was certainly plausible that Zeratul might need to use his willpower again to protect himself against other attacks. Thus, he had to give up on his plan to use willpower to cut Sticks. But this wasn't the most urgent matter at the moment.

Drop Dragon Pinnacle Kill Wave caused multiple abnormal states with a high probability, and they ignored status resistance. Zeratul lost his balance, bled, and suffered from unrecoverable state for 5 seconds while he resisted the collapse and despair states. In addition, Grid used the skill while not losing his contact with the ground. It was as if he expected he couldn't hurt his enemy with the skill and was content with having a lower damage coefficient.

The very next moment, the blood shed by Zeratul started boiling. Taking the shape of a condensed water stream, it started following Grid and almost hit him. The martial god was a monster who knew numerous techniques. The moment he shed blood, he used it like a water jet cutter while imbuing with acidity and boiling properties.

It wouldn't knock Grid out, but he certainly expected the sudden surprise attack to cause injury. The blood came to an immediate stop the moment it was about to hit Grid and lost its shape. It was the power of 'Blood Master' attached to Beriache's underclothing. After many tests, it was found out that the item prevented any attack that used the medium of 'blood' and not just blood magic. After all, Beriache had the title of 'Blood Ruler'.

Zeratul was annoyed. He kept using various techniques for naught. If it continued like this, he would just be wasting his time even further. While the blood technique he used utilized two separate techniques, they were all rated rare. For that reason, they were very cost-effective in terms of time calculus.

'It seems correct to view him as a walking treasury. He uses all manners of tricks to delay me because of whatever vague hope he has. I'll crush him and show him that tricks are meaningless in front of absolute power.'

The moment Grid came to a halt, the martial god used shukuchiho to appear next to Grid and used force palm to ignore his defense and hurt him. Khan's legacy started cracking. Numerous red indicators started going off indicating the low durability of Valhalla. Although he activated rock before the punch, it didn't deploy fast enough to cover his armor. It did prevent him from flying and taking damage. A wind faster than a hurricane emerged in the aftermath of the palm.

Zeratul was the fake martial god. Even so, his power was real. It was considerable since he couldn't even benefit from all the attack power, hit correction and attack speed buffs that came from his berserker skills and natural state. Fighting energy was mostly used to speed up his regeneration by stitching the wounds.

Nonetheless, he retreated when Grid was fixed in his place due to simultaneous trigger of 'Rock' and 'White Tiger's Posture'. 5 Raiders had also come to assist Grid and Zeratul didn't want to increase his wounds in the unrecoverable state. His abnormal states ended a bit earlier than Grid's rock, but he spent 3 more seconds to regenerate from the major hole in his chest.

He was getting more irritated about the effect of the cold moon night iron sword that cut him earlier. He had infinite stamina as the martial god but triggering the world of transcendence would have a higher cost now than the time cost of using 'time of martial god' in the fight against Biban. The sword saint had made him waste too much of his time and the sealed buffs made it harder to perform at his best.

Rock instantly saved Grid from the internal damage state he was inflicted with due to the force palm. Sticks had about 20 seconds left. Biban recovered more than 40% of his health and the stalling tactic seemed to be working. In fact, unlike the sword saint who had to focus on defending and counterattacking, Grid had even taken the initiative a few times while stalling. He didn't use Storm of the Fire God given the risks associated with exposing his mental world. However, he was using Red Phoenix Breath to heal himself in real time. Then, he was shocked by the sight in front of him.

The martial god equipped an actual weapon. He who argued items were not a path to true strength had equipped an item himself. It was something he hadn't done even against Biban.