BXBX NOVEL Chapter 64: An Eagle and a Cockroach.
"Urgh..." Sol blocked several more punches that were trying to drive him into the ground crashing across the surface as he stared at his status.
[Divine mana: 68%]
[Godslayer: 27m remaining]
He was now sure that his usual short fights weren\'t happening here, Saat could go the distance and she seemed to have plenty of power to spare because even according to her; she still hadn\'t been taking him seriously enough after all the damage he had done to her, she was trying to make an example out of him.
"I can\'t fight her recklessly here," Sol dodged her next attack, caught her by her arm,and swung her over his shoulder with a grunt slamming her into the ground and then taking a few steps back and falling into a fighting stance while her body made a crater before him.
"I can\'t end it in an instant even if I wanted to, the most I can do is force her to reveal all her cards and exhaust her before [Godslayer] runs out..."
"Weak," Saat spoke as she stood from the crater and brushed herself off. "All of your attacks thus far have been weak!" She rushed at him again, still assuming her appearance of pride.
"She\'s using her regular voice now instead of divine [speech]." Sol carefully guided himself through her two punches and rested his fingertips against her stomach.
"It means she does have a limit, whether that limit is close or not I can\'t tell, so until then-" His fingers folded into a fist and slammed into her flesh causing the air around them to burst as he delivered a 1-inch punch with all his might. "-I\'ll focus on breaking you as much as I possibly can!"
Before she was sent flying again, Sol spun and grabbed the belt of her thin dress, pulling her into a roundhouse kick and another follow-up kick before the effects of the earlier punch had worn off.
"If I have the power to break her body, then I\'ll just keep doing that!" Sol tackled her to the ground and pressed his hand to her chest as he was flipping out of the way.
[Mana drain]
Sol made away with a portion of her divine mana, landing on his feet and falling into a crouch as he looked at his hand shocked.
"Did you just!?" Saat arose with the aid of just her legs, holding her broken jaw and snapping it back into place with a roar.
[Divine mana 66% (+1k)]
[How dare you...!] Saat stared at Sol\'s hand as it glowed with her mana. [Steal from me, my precious mana, how dare you...!] Her eyes rolled over and turned pitch black, and the tips of her fingers turned a dark purplish hue as her body shrunk in size and her teeth gnashed. [I\'ll kill you!]
[Saat, Goddess of Sin: Wrath]
[Clockwork] Sol activated his technique again, staring before him as her hand was opened right before his face, it was on instinct, but the mere speed she displayed was beyond his expectations, even if he had poured everything into [godspeed] he doubted he\'d have been able to match that kind of speed.
"[Clockwork] is a cheat skill I learned after I fought the demon god on Atla." Sol pressed his palm against Saat\'s face as her eyes very slowly tried to catch up to him.
[Mana drain] Sol began taking her mana away, for every observer it happened in a split second, nobody was aware of how exactly [clockwork] functioned, so they were not privy to sol stealing a massive amount of divine mana from the goddess in an instant, to them, all that happened was her attacking Sol and then getting blasted away by a giant pillar of her own divine powers.
"I never imagined it\'d work like this," Sol looked down at his hands as they hummed with foreign mana.
[Divine mana: 50% (+27k)]
"If this is the case, I won\'t lose ever ag-"
[CLOCKWORK]
"!!!?"
Sol\'s mind went into panic as his body froze leaving his consciousness to react in real-time. "No, no fucking way, that\'s impossible!!" His eyes were in the slow process of widening as he saw Saat walking toward him with a sick grin. "How did she... No, that\'s not important right now!"
[Heal]
[Regenerate]
[Harden]
[Heal]
[Heal]
He continued trying to cast, but even his mana had been frozen.
"Fuck, how did she copy my divine abilities, [fire-bolt] is different, it\'s just fire, but how the fuck can she copy [clockwork]?!"
[What a delicious little ability you have here, I had to experience it twice before I was able to "steal" it.] Saat grinned and pressed her palm against Sol\'s abdomen.
[Mana Drain]
"This...bitch!" Sol helplessly stared into Saat\'s eyes as she smiled at him and siphoned his remaining mana as well as the mana he stole from her before. "She baited me into thinking she was getting weaker, because she wanted me to use clockwork again...!?"
An explosion suddenly appeared where Sol and Saat was, and back on Arkadia, Ikaris who was in the carriage with the others gasped and held her mouth as tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
"...How?" She whispered.
"Ikaris?" Eris called to her.
"Are you okay?" Han stared from the opposite side. "You\'ve been acting weird ever since Sol ran off-"
"Master," Ikaris closed both ot her eyes and fell on Eris.
"Not again!" Usami rushed from the opposite side and caught her. "Why now of all times?" She asked, remembering the last time Ikaris had mentioned Sol and fallen unconscious and how impossible it had been to wake her.
"Did something happen to Sol?" Dina sat passively staring at Ikaris while Eris and Usami tried waking her.
"I relied too much on it, and it backfired!" Sol held his stomach as it bled while his legs were broken in the opposite directions and his other arm was gone completely.
[Godslayer has been deactivated due to insufficient divine mana]
[Divine mana: 0%]
[Arkadian mana: 300k]
[Mana: 150M]
"I still have plenty of mana, but that\'s not the problem here..." Sol cast [regenerate] and summoned armour over himself again. "Divine mana is 100x more potent, it lasts far longer, and it does more damage, even with all the mana I have right now; with my divine mana gone my overall power just dropped by at least 70%" He theorised and held out his hand.
[Clock-
[CLOCKWORK!]
Saat cast the technique before he could and attacked him again, creating a massive crater after it was deactivated and he was sent flying, smashing right through a hill where he was intercepted by her once more.
[CLOCKWORK]
Another moment lapsed before Sol could recover, and his broken body was sent cratering inside of the moon.
"H-heal!"
A bright light appeared inside of the crater, and the ground around it shook as Sol leapt into the air to intercept the goddess. His entire body was covered in blood and superficial wounds, and his eyes were glazed over with murder as he approached.
"How does she "steal" my abilities?" He asked thrusting his fist at her and gurgling in pain when she severed his hand and used it to swat him back to the ground while laughing with hysteria.
[The mighty Tarnished, the undefeatable Godslayer?]
Saat held her stomach and released the severed hand as she rapidly descended and landed before him, causing the ground around them to uproot and become uneven.
[What a joke little cockroach; what a fucking disappointment!!]
Her face contorted into one of scorn as [wrath] was replaced by [pride] again.
[What happened all of a sudden?] Dr\'ul sat in her chair staring in disbelief, she was sure Sol had maintained the upper hand the entire fight, his confidence was no joke, but she didn\'t understand what Saat had done to turn the tables so quickly, or why Sol had suddenly become so much weaker.
[True Goddess Ikaris is staring dumbfounded]
[The pantheon is in an uproar]
[The god of goats is laughing hysterically at you]
[The goddess of war is confused]
[The god of destruction expresses disappointment]
[The god of stories is disheartened that he may never get the knowledge you have]
Between [clockwork] and getting attacked to the point where all he could glimpse was Saat\'s face before he was hit again, getting dragged and tossed across the moon and being only able to heal and regenerate to prevent himself from dying, Sol started seeing hundreds of windows across his field of vision.
Cursing, berating, celebrating, he was completely overwhelmed and alone in a sea of pain and system windows as the pantheon raised their voices.
"After all I\'ve been through..." Sol blocked one punch and reviewed a hundred more as he was caught in [clockwork] again. "Is this how I die...?"
[Heal]
[Regenerate]
"Is this how I suffer and struggle before death?"
[Godsp-]
[GODSPEED!]
"Fuck, fuck it all...!" Sol\'s vision blurred again as he was mercilessly beat into the ground while continuously casting [heal] and [regenerate] on himself.
[Master...] Ikaris stared at his state, eyes wide in horror and fingers shaking as sweat dripped from her forehead... [Please.]
*Ding
[True Goddess Ikaris is weeping]
[True Goddess Ikaris is in dread]
[Master!] Ikaris cried out. [Fight back!]
[True Goddess Ikaris has stolen authority, ushering the anger of the gods once more, if she interferes with the challenge she will have broken the agreement, the heavens will descend upon her with full force]
*Ding
[You are at risk of dying, do you forfeit?]
[True Goddess Ikaris is staring defiantly at the pantheon]
[Don\'t you dare die yet!] Saat raised Sol out of the crater and released him midair, slamming her fists into both sides of his head simultaneously and laughing maniacally.
"I\'m gonna die here..." Sol fell to his feet, taking a blow that tore a hole through his chest.
[Regenerate]
[Heal]
[CLOCKWORK!]