The Thunder Step
The principle behind the Thunder Step was simple. All it took was stomping the ground hard enough to be mistaken for a clap of thunder. That ure was both the beginning and the entirety of the technique.
And through that ure, I pour out the immense power I’ve gained, using the control I mastered while perfecting my walking stride.
Thanks to that, whether in destructive force or speed, the result always fell into a completely different category from anything normal. The impact generated through the ure amplified the full-body muscular strength by two to three times. That was the true identity of the explosive speed and destructive power currently hammering the evil god.
BOOM!
It went in.
The solid sensation of the strike landed clearly through the Heavenly Fist. But at the same time, it had failed.
He blocked it.
The clean hit had gone through, yet the opponent had already been on guard. Roughly half the force had connected properly. The rest had been blocked or deflected.
Doesn’t matter.
A man has two fists, after all.
I twisted my torso and swung the opposite fist. A textbook one-two punch.
BOOM!
The other Heavenly Fist slammed into the evil god’s cheek, and this time it was a clean hit.
Thud. Thud. Crash!
The creature bounced across the floor like a skipping stone before flying away.
“■■!”
Even in death, it was still an evil god. It tried to regain its stance with a sharp scream, but it was already too late. The moment my attack landed, Diana had finished her preparations as well.
“Capture: One Shot, One Kill.”
"Capture: One Shot, One Kill"
⟨ Silver Fish Bow ⟩
A burst of compressed air exploded from the elegant silver bow in her hands. The steel arrow she fired pierced straight into the evil god’s chest as it was sent flying into the distance.
“!!!!”
It was only a single arrow, but it must have struck some kind of core. The evil god let out a cry of agony. Yet despite the sound, the creature didn’t move from its spot.
That fish-biting effect! It landed perfectly.
The special ability of the Silver Fish Bow—the ultimate weapon of the sniper-archer build—came with a full parade of status ailments: blindness, deafness, silence, sensory blockade, paralysis, binding, mana overload, instinct confusion, and more. It was a weapon designed with the philosophy that if the enemy couldn’t find me and stayed in place, they would inevitably die.
When combined with the build’s ultimate technique, the absolute one-shot system, the enemy simply became a long-range target dummy. The distinctive fish-biting effect appearing around the embedded arrow was proof that the status ailments had successfully taken hold.
“Three seconds.”
“Confirmed.”
But it didn’t last long against an evil god. Its rank was simply too high, and this type of status ailment belonged to the domain of malice. Still, three whole seconds was an extreme deal of time for those who could divide a single breath into sixteen parts to fight.
“Flash Strike.”
The first thing to land was a telephone punch thrown while charging in. Along with the scientific theory that speed and weight equal power, a fist that could crush even steel flashed forward like lightning.
“Rising Heaven Strike, Twin Heaven Blow, Thunder Cloud, Thunder Dragon Descent.”
Following that, I stomped the ground, launching the enemy into the air with ure as I unleashed a barrage of attacks. Both fists rapidly shredded the foe, and finally, I brought down a single, unified punch.
The moment it lost its footing on the ground, it had no choice but to take every impact with its body. As it fell back to the earth, it was struck from both my fist and the ground itself.
“Flash Pierce.”
I struck the slightly airborne enemy with the fastest straight punch possible. Once again, the evil god was sent flying into the distance.
“Distant Thunder.”
KRRRRR—!
Thunder rumbled faintly from far away. At the same time, a striking palm descended upon its body.
The Heavenly Fist grew slightly hot, releasing heat and steam. I had unleashed everything I could within three seconds. Considering the mass and impact force of the Heavenly Fist, it wouldn’t have been strange if the attack had blown away an entire city.
It was a movement squeezed out from the depths of my sincerity, clearly pushing close to my limits. Yet…
“…It’s still alive after taking that?”
The name “evil god” was not to be taken lightly.
“■■■.”
It didn’t look particularly pleased, but there were no signs of fatal injury.
“Aren’t you being a bit too greedy? This is an enemy that even the strongest people in the world would need to form a party to face.”
A light scolding came my way.
Wait, is she actually encouraging me?
Whether I felt that way or not, Diana immediately continued her assault.
“Enhance: Explosive Arrow, Gatling Arrow.”
The weapon now in her hands was a majestic purple bow. Along with her words, a faint mana flowed from her hand and the bow, and then—
KWAGWAGWAGWANG—!
A barrage so fast her hands were barely visible hammered down on the spot where the evil god had flown.
“Purple Heaven Bow?”
“I didn’t only bring one, you know.”
Diana had switched to the Purple Heaven Bow—the final weapon of the annihilation archer build—and was firing roughly seven hundred arrows per minute.
“■■■■■!”
No matter how much of an evil god it was, it couldn’t escape damage from an attack of this magnitude. Its previously relaxed expression twisted into the hideous face befitting an evil god, and its once neat armor was now tattered everywhere. And as if it were only natural, a black aura began to surge around it.
It was clearly the precursor to phase two.
“You think I’d just sit back and watch that happen?”
While Diana rained down her bombardment, I placed my hand on the ground and crouched low. A crouching start position. It looked proportionally bizarre because of my enormous arms, but it was still a crouching start.
From a stance focused solely on speed, ure erupted.
Thunder Step — Ure!
KRRRRR—!
The fastest movement, with all power poured exclusively into speed, folded space itself as I arrived in front of the target.
“………”
For a brief moment, I felt our eyes meet. It seemed to form a friendly, smiling gaze.
“Anti-gravity release.”
But it was meaningless. My body was faithfully following the steps I had planned from the beginning. In an instant, the mana flowing through the circuits inside the Heavenly Fist was cut off.
“Impact Amplification, maximum activation.”
And all that spare mana poured into impact amplification. The power of ure had been entirely invested into speed, so I couldn’t draw out any more force. But that didn’t matter. The weight, now free from the interference of anti-gravity, settled onto both shoulders, and the magic circle granting triple impact was assisting.
“Thunderbolt.”
The artificial lightning created by the Machine God’s Hand struck the evil god.
KWAAAAANG—!
The thunderbolt completely shattered the floor of the sealing ground and crushed the evil god beneath it.
“■■■?”
Yet the creature was still alive, as expected. It continued to meet my eyes, wearing an innocent smile, and reached out a pure hand toward me.
“You hid a blade behind my back. Did you really think I’d fall for it?”
Clang!
A weapon shaped like a spear and scythe, formed from condensed black energy, exploded from behind me. It was Diana’s sniping shot.
“■■■■.”
The evil god laughed as if asking why I was getting angry over something so trivial and waved its hand dismissively.
What terrifying suction power.
Even though I had no intention of watching, I didn’t take any other action until its gesture was finished. If it could speak on top of that, I wondered what it would have said. Once again, Diana’s claim that she had been weakened and couldn’t speak felt undeniably true.
But in the end, it couldn’t say anything right now. Persuasion with its speech sealed was already as good as throwing away eighty percent of its advantages.
Grind.
“This thing’s ridiculously heavy, seriously.”
I lifted the Heavenly Fist again after the gravity magic had been released.
“I’ll teach you that the product of speed and weight is power.”
KRRRRR—!
Once more, ure erupted beneath my feet. The force it generated was converted into speed and destructive power, nesting within both of my fists.
“I have no intention of stopping until you’re dead.”
“■■■.”
Thunder Step — Ure — Wild Barrage!
An immense impact shook the inside of the seal.
The air smelled of burning. It was proof that when all the power of ure had been invested into speed, the things covering my body couldn’t withstand the friction.
“Hoo… Hoo…”
Maybe I overdid it this time…
And unfortunately, the problem of frictional heat didn’t end with my clothes.
Shhhk.
“Ugh.”
I immediately released the Heavenly Fist, which had turned bright red and was emitting ominous smoke. With a heavy metallic clang, I barely managed to pull out my trembling hand.
“No wonder it hurt so much…”
From the hand to the forearm—the parts that had been inside the Heavenly Fist—were bruised all over, with blisters rising. Evidence of second-degree burns. It might have been even deeper than that.
“…I guess I should consider it lucky that this is a fantasy world.”
It was a wound that could be healed with divine arts and potions. In this regard at least, the modern world could never catch up to fantasy.
“Good work.”
“…Well, I’m not sure if that can really be called good work.”
Even with my lack of real combat experience, I could tell clearly. This opponent had basically been a sandbag. It hadn’t launched any proper counterattacks, nor had it shown any clear attempts to dodge.
Yet it had felt far more terrifying than the Shadow Giant, which had charged at us aggressively.
Twitch. Twitch.
“Look at that. Even after all that, it’s not dead. What a creepy bastard.”
I had poured in every ounce of my strength. Not to mention the Heavenly Fist and my burned hand, every muscle in my body had been pushed to its limit by ure and was now trembling violently. And yet I still hadn’t managed to kill it completely.
Of course, seeing it spit out what looked like blood or tar, it seemed like it would die soon. But that wasn’t because of my power.
“That thing decided to die on its own.”
Whether it had tried to deceive me or attempted to enter phase two, it had all been nothing more than instinct. Fundamentally, the creature had never intended to fight properly from the start. It had clearly resolved to die at our hands.
“In other words, even the weakened, suicidal version of it was only barely taken down?”
“You just need to become stronger. Don’t worry about it too much.”
“…Yeah.”
It wasn’t much of a comfort, but she wasn’t wrong. All I had to do was grow strong enough that it would regret giving up its life so easily.
“…………”
Gurgle. Gurgle.
So I simply watched calmly as the creature died. The evil god, its entire body crushed by the Heavenly Fist, kept spitting out what appeared to be blood from its mouth. And yet it still looked at us and smiled brightly, which made me think, So this is what an evil god is like.
But even that didn’t last long.
“…………”
Its labored breathing soon stopped, and its body went limp.
“It’s dead.”
“Yes. And now…”
“Yeah, I see it too.”
However, the black aura that had been enveloping it did not disappear. Instead, it grew even thicker and began to take on a single shape.
“It’s coming.”
“Yes.”
It was the same arm-like form I had seen when we first entered this place. And as soon as the black mass took shape, it flew straight toward me.
The beginning of possession infection.