Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Chapter 77 A Reward of a Different Dimension
While the opponent hadn't exactly introduced themselves, it wasn't difficult to figure out their identities.
Beings who wielded lightning while carrying hammers made of the same material as the Ur I had obtained from the 7th floor trial.
And a giant man wearing a lion's hide over his head, holding a massive bow and club.
'It seems like they weren't even trying to hide it in the first place.'
The auras flowing from each of their bodies also resembled Odin's Avatar and Zeus's Avatar respectively.
Of course, they only resembled them, and when you looked closely, there were many differences, so I couldn't predict what abilities they would use.
"Isn't it a bit embarrassing for sons of supreme gods to gang up two against one just to catch a single person?"
Moreover, when I assessed their levels with Odin's Eye, they weren't significantly inferior to Zeus or Odin.
At minimum they were Upper-Grade Gods, and at best they might even be Highest-Grade Gods?
"If it were an ordinary person, I would have faced them alone, but thinking of you as a Demon King who invaded the Divine Realm and tore my subordinates apart, I don't particularly feel that way."
Thor's words clearly showed what kind of personality he had.
He probably valued his territory and people.
"I also want to fight alone, but Father said you're more dangerous than the Gigas, so he told me to go and conduct battle, not a fight.
If it's battle, I must use everything available."
Heracles seemed to clearly distinguish between fighting and battle.
Fighting for enjoyment, battle for victory.
Neither of them seemed to have any intention of attacking separately.
'This isn't a tutorial but a trial, so it can't be helped.'
It was impossible to face them one by one, get used to them, then face both simultaneously.
But when have I ever had comfortable fights?
"Then come quickly.
I'll beat both of you."
As I waggled my finger to provoke them, both Thor and Heracles smiled and swung their weapons.
Thor with lightning, Heracles with brute force.
Their directions were different, but both attacks carried tremendous speed and power.
Even while reading their trajectories with Odin's Eye, avoiding both simultaneously was impossible.
So trusting in my electric shock resistance, I received Thor's Mjolnir with Taijiquan while dodging Heracles' club by turning my body.
CRACK! SIZZLE!
Of course, the power contained in Mjolnir was beyond imagination, so I couldn't properly deflect it and the bones in my receiving hand broke.
'As long as I don't get electrocuted, there's no big problem.'
Building resistance by continuously receiving lightning that mimicked Zeus's divine authority on Hell difficulty 6th floor had been significant.
Thor's lightning could only sear the body but was insufficient to stop movement.
He must have felt this too, as interest appeared in his expression.
"Huh... to be unaffected by my lightning that even stopped Jormungandr's movement."
Heracles was equally surprised.
"It's been a while since someone dodged my attack..."
Certainly, if it had been before obtaining Odin's Eye, these attacks would have been too fast and strong to read their trajectories.
Both continued swinging their weapons with expressions of enjoyment.
'Neither of them learned combat techniques professionally.'
More precisely, they had learned something, but they only had the basics of martial arts, not martial techniques.
Naturally, unlike the gods I had faced earlier, they fought very well and moved excellently, but this came from instinct and senses rather than contemplation of martial arts.
They had been overwhelmingly strong from birth and had excellent combat sense, so they had simply continued polishing what they were born with.
That alone would have been enough to never lose to anyone.
The movements of natural-born strongmen who had no need to learn the fighting methods of the weak.
CRACK! BANG!
Every time I received their attacks, bones broke or organs were damaged, but it didn't feel that threatening.
As proof, while their attacks continued growing stronger in power, the damage I received was actually decreasing.
Certainly, movements based on instinct were irregular and powerful, but even they inevitably had habits.
The patterns shown when an opponent takes specific actions couldn't be different every time.
Having fought countless battles, they had optimized answer sheets engraved in their instincts.
'I just need to find that.’
Once I had fully analyzed the opponent's patterns, breaking them wouldn't be difficult.
Just like creating martial techniques, I could create methods to counter Thor and methods to counter Heracles.
From the moment the methods to counter both were completed, the tide of battle changed.
Once I had figured out what they would do at specific timings and what they would do in response to specific actions, I deliberately induced their actions and then showed movements different from usual.
BANG!
Now I could land my attacks while receiving theirs.
Shock appeared on both their faces.
'This is the first time they're fighting someone who fights like this, isn't it?'
Rather than constantly applying debuffs or curses, I used them appropriately only when needed to break tempo, creating moments of hesitation by obscuring vision or changing the material beneath their feet.
Since both basically had resistance, they weren't greatly affected by debuffs, but those who fought with such instincts needed time to adapt even to the slightest differences.
They needed to move according to the answer sheets they had used so far, but the minute differences made those movements impossible.
If they had trained in martial techniques, they would have instantly finished adjusting their bodies and shown similar performance, but they weren't like that.
With each exchange, my wounds decreased while theirs increased.
Of course, I was still taking the greater wounds, but the difference in regenerative ability was overwhelming.
"What the hell are you doing...!"
"Why isn't recovery working properly?"
Their regenerative abilities were also quite excellent, but the Divine Demon Qi, poison, and curse power that had seeped into their bodies were thoroughly interfering with their recovery.
And to prevent them from easily healing those areas, I intermittently seared them with Hellfire, so the wounds were definitely festering from within.
"It's because you both fight stupidly with only brute force.
You should have prepared for situations like this."
Thor and Heracles would normally have beaten opponents to death with overwhelming power before they could regenerate, so they probably never thought about methods to block regenerative abilities.
It was their fault for not preparing against an opponent who had a giant-level tough body, instantly regenerated wounds, used all kinds of black magic and Spirit Arts, and handled martial techniques at a high level.
[Everyone in Pantheon and Pandemonium says that's impossible.]
These people are Marines... no, Han Yeong-min is relentless.
'Fighting spirit, I don't know. Fighting spirit?'
If it doesn't work, I have to make it work.
The two seemed to think close combat wouldn't work, so they tried to create distance and use their divine authorities, but I had no intention of letting them.
I immediately used Gigantification to maximize my body size, making my reach ridiculously long and making it much easier to close distance.
I immediately swung my fist with full power at Heracles who was moving away, and his body instantly flew and crashed directly into the temple wall.
"Crazy monster bastard... take this too."
Thor, who had jumped to the opposite side, succeeded in creating distance and put overwhelming divine authority into Mjolnir, throwing it with full power toward where I was.
Mjolnir flying at tremendous speed to smash my skull.
But just before it reached me, I canceled Gigantification, so Mjolnir momentarily lost its target and I ran straight toward Thor.
As a weapon that moves according to its master's will, it rotated and flew toward me, but since it had to reduce momentum and change direction, it had no choice but to hesitate momentarily.
In that time, I had already arrived in front of Thor, and Thor took a defensive stance thinking I was going to attack.
But instead of attacking, I chose to grab him while blocking his vision, and before the returning Mjolnir could smash my skull, I released my grip and ducked.
CRACK!
Normally, it would have reduced speed before reaching its master, but since the distance between us was too close, Mjolnir smashed Thor's skull instead of mine.
I injected plenty of Divine Demon Qi and burned it with Hellfire to prevent any possible regeneration, and it stopped moving.
What remained was Heracles alone.
He had also regained consciousness and was preparing to shoot an arrow infused with divine authority.
It contained incomparably more power than the first arrow I had been hit with, and he maintained his stance as if he would definitely hit, waiting for me to approach.
'Waiting until his strength depletes would be one method, but...'
I decided to play along with the opponent's plan.
I approached Heracles directly.
Looking at the power contained in that arrow, taking a direct hit while closing distance seemed very dangerous.
Not enough to be annihilated in one blow, but enough to lose most of my body and have difficulty recovering?
But I still approached.
For a more perfect victory.
Just before reaching Heracles, at a distance where it was absolutely impossible to dodge, he released the taut bowstring, and just before it touched my body,
I used Gigantification, the exact opposite of when dodging Mjolnir.
So the arrow that should have struck the center of my body and torn everything apart only ended up destroying one leg, and I immediately breathed Black Dragon Breath.
With one leg missing making it hard to maintain balance, I thought this choice would be more effective.
The breath enhanced by Gigantification displayed even more powerful force than before, and Heracles was barely managing to block the breath using all his remaining strength.
But having consumed most of his divinity and with greatly reduced resistance, he was helplessly suffering from curses, debuffs, and attacks from spirits.
With Hellfire added to attack his mind and the Divine Demon Qi that had infiltrated his body constantly tormenting him, his previously solid guard finally opened.
Black Dragon Breath completely melted Heracles.
I wondered if something more remained, but the message that appeared before my eyes told me otherwise.
[You have cleared Baal's mission.]
'If it's Mama, she'll give a reward of a different dimension, right?'
But the content of the additional message that appeared was somehow strange.
[Please select an additional reward.]
[1. The corpses of the gods.]
[2. No reward.]
'Mama...?'
It certainly was a reward of a different dimension.
Completely unexpected.