[Flesh and Blood Long Limb]: A warm, still-pulsating piece of flesh and blood, a "Weapon Favored by the Dungeon's Dark Miracle".
Whether human or monster, all initially confront powerful enemies with their bodies; this is the primal first step, and the foundation of everything.
In the boundless long night, when you touch it, you will understand—
[Flesh and Flesh are Always Tightly Connected].
Combat Art: Flesh and Bone Vestment
·Generates flesh and blood armor on the body
·Upon release, can resist three non-fatal attacks within three minutes
·During the duration, suffering a fourth damaging attack will result in death
(Kobolds always feast, searching everywhere for food—
until hunger becomes unbearable.
They will even devour their own flesh and blood.)
Isagi had initially wanted to name his new weapon "Great Meat Stick", but realizing its inappropriateness, he decided to keep its original designation.
Just like the previous [Blade of Myriad Skeletons].
'Perhaps the Dungeon itself had named it?'
He actually found the weapon's combat art decent; it seemed quite powerful, yet it could only resist three "non-fatal attacks".
'What defined a "non-fatal" attack?'
'Did it mean he first had to test whether specific moves from certain Floor Bosses could one-shot him?'
And the fourth hit inevitably resulted in death.
This made it less useful against multi-hit attacks. Fortunately, he possessed resurrection ability; otherwise, a normal person would likely hesitate to use such a skill.
Theoretically, however, as long as he sustained only three hits within three minutes, he could continuously reactivate it to refresh the count once the duration expired.
While its effect against unknown Floor Bosses might be mediocre, it could indeed be leveraged to bypass certain special phases of known ones.
He held the item, fiddling with it for a while.
Then, Isagi switched to his "Puppet Nation" Character Card and combined the [Flesh and Blood Long Limb] with other weapons.
It was then he discovered.
Indeed, once assembled as a "Handle", its flesh and blood spread, completely engulfing the section designated as the "Blade".
This imbued it with the ability to alter its length, thickness, and size, among other functions.
However, its transformation range was somewhat limited. For instance, when combined with a greatsword, it would always remain a blade over two meters long, regardless of its alteration; it couldn't shrink or arbitrarily morph into other weapons.
He continued to experiment with it for a long while.
Cecil and Lefiya watched eagerly from the side.
Until afternoon…
The summer sun blazed outside. After lunch, the two girls still had errands to run.
The Goddess had mentioned she was preparing to move back to the Astrea Familia's original headquarters, the [Courtyard of Stars].
So, Cecil and Lefiya had recently begun spending their days off, when not working, to "clean and tidy the house" there.
Soon, they would be able to move in directly.
Isagi had initially wanted to follow, but the Goddess called him aside.
"How is your body feeling now?"
As she spoke these odd words, she also reached out to squeeze his arm and shoulder.
The Goddess knew. She was inquiring if his body had adapted after leveling up; otherwise, he might have mistaken it for some form of older sisterly teasing!
"It's fine, almost completely adapted."
"Then, let's practice this afternoon."
The Goddess said softly.
Deliberately, she waited until Cecil and Lefiya had departed before, like a child, whispering softly into his ear.
"Isagi, you have to be serious, okay?"
'Eh?'
"The loser must grant the winner a wish~"
'?'
'Even stranger!'
But the Goddess of Justice and Stars merely narrowed her eyes.
'She needed to quickly find an opportunity to "lecture" Isagi, otherwise, after he grew for a while longer, she might truly be unable to defeat him!'
'Astrea had never, ever imagined such a thing!'
Furthermore, the Goddess had originally thought that even if Isagi and Hestia were somewhat "unreliable"—Lefiya, the Elf girl, adored Isagi a bit too much; she believed whatever he said—he was still the Familia's biggest "problem child"!
When Ryuu returned, she could also let Ryuu educate them.
But Astrea thought carefully for a long time and found that Ryuu seemed even more unreliable, because the foolish elf might be easily tricked by Isagi!
And after Lefiya had met the "Familia senior" a few days ago and reported Ryuu's recent situation back to Astrea.
'Astrea was even more certain. That child was indeed still an idiot; she couldn't be relied upon at all, sigh…'
'Such a task could only be undertaken by herself!'
And to this, Isagi, of course, had no reason to refuse…
The backyard at home was too small, so Isagi and Astrea came to the forest outside the city, where he, Anya, and Ryuu-senpai usually trained, to begin their practice.
A warm breeze blew through the Goddess's long brown hair.
Her blue and white dress was bathed in golden light under the sun, making her magnificent, pale hips appear incredibly sacred.
"Isagi, remember, the winner can make a request to the other, one that must be granted!"
The Goddess repeated herself.
Clearly, Astrea, who intended to use this opportunity to "lecture" her child, certainly believed she would not lose!
To this, Isagi merely nodded solemnly.
Then, after a brief thought, he suddenly lunged forward, covering several meters in an instant to arrive before the Goddess. Simultaneously, his right hand had already drawn another equally pitch-black long sword from within his dark cloak.
"Clang!" Blades clashed.
Continuous clanging sounds subsequently echoed throughout the heavens and earth, startling the forest birds and sending them flying away.
Without a doubt, Astrea was now an "ordinary person".
The deity was fighting him purely with skill. Logically, this should have been impossible—the destructive power of each of his sword swings would be enough to fatally vibrate an ordinary person's body beyond endurance.
Even a Level 1 adventurer, relying purely on the impact force of their strength, would be sent flying by him.
But Astrea held her sword with one hand, her left hand clasped behind her back.
Elegantly stepping in a certain rhythm, she "parried" him, her longsword effortlessly deflecting the force of his with peculiar techniques, and even managing to counterattack occasionally.
Isagi's eyes were fixed on the Goddess's hands, waist, and legs.
'How did she do it? What was the method of exerting force? How did she keep up with his speed?'
'Was it her eyes?'
No, the Goddess wasn't even looking; those brilliant, starlit azure eyes weren't focused on his blade.
'So it was intuition.'
Just like Ryuu-senpai before, she relied completely on experience and intuition to predict the trajectory of his blade.
Even beyond the next strike—to the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that.
'As if reading the future.'
This was the technique of the gods, not just their inherent "talent" for combat as "Martial Gods", but also the experience honed over an immensely long time, fighting against other gods with similar combat talent.
In a sense, it was almost impossible for children of the lower world to comprehend.
Even with monstrous talent comparable to a "War God", they lacked such an almost eternal span of time to accumulate experience.
Isagi had known for a long time: 'Ordinary methods cannot defeat a god.'
Either by becoming a First-Class Adventurer, truly surpassing a god "numerically" with a mortal body, reaching the limit they could withstand.
Or by employing techniques they had never seen before.
Isagi had previously regretted that the [Cancel] technique, for adventurers like Ryuu-senpai and Anya, whose stats were still far too high compared to his own, could still be overcome by brute force if they didn't self-limit.
But now, facing the Goddess, who was also fighting purely on skill, it was the best opportunity to display its "power"!
So very quickly, Astrea witnessed the incredibly chuunibyou ultimate technique the boy spoke of—
[Hundred Arts · Cancel Blade!]
But it wasn't a blade! Or rather, it wasn't just a blade!!
Astrea's most direct sensation was that the rhythm of the battle had changed.
The "intervals" that weapons should have during swings disappeared, replaced by a continuous "attack, attack, attack, attack…"
Like an endless tide.
Even making the Goddess feel somewhat "overwhelmed".
'How… how did the boy do it?'
Very simple: after each weapon swing, when a blow was blocked, he would swiftly conceal the weapon within his cloak's darkness.
Immediately after, he would pull out another weapon from within and attack.
And not single-handedly.
Instead, he alternated between both hands: his left hand would just slip a weapon into the cloak, and his right hand would already have drawn a new weapon to attack, while his left hand also drew another new weapon.
Greatswords, long knives, short swords, daggers, fists, long spears—and even shields and crossbows.
His next attack method was completely unpredictable.
And as the boy gradually adapted and became proficient, Astrea even found that the already dwindling "attack intervals" almost ceased to exist.
The "tide of continuous attacks" he unleashed became even faster, leaving almost no room to breathe!
Because he could even directly toss weapons into the darkness under his cloak, then retrieve new ones.
This naturally further accelerated the attack speed.
'So intense!!!'
Not just Astrea thought so at that moment.
Ais, secretly hidden high in the forest distance and watching everything, thought so too!
'—Why was the golden-haired girl here?'
That was, of course, because she found the boy hadn't gone to sell fried potato balls that morning!
Ais, accustomed to eating red bean cream fried potato balls every morning, had to buy breakfast elsewhere.
Then she thought she would go find Isagi to "use" the techniques she had learned these past few days for greeting strange boys!
Tiona had said: "Actual combat is an indispensable part of learning!"
'Ais also thought it made sense!!'
So, while eating fried potato balls, the golden-haired girl came to the Astrea Familia's residence on Daedalus Street, not far from the window, and watched Isagi, who was still sleeping, from a distance.
After her previous "stalking".
Ais, of course, knew where Isagi lived—or at least, she knew the general street. Still, too foolish, she got lost after entering Daedalus Street and couldn't find the exact address.
But for Ais, who could fly, this was no problem at all.
'Thinking it was impolite to disturb someone's sleep,'
So the girl just stared all morning, until Isagi was called away by Cecil, had lunch, and then left the Familia with the Goddess to come to this forest outside the city for training.
By then, Ais was utterly captivated.
She even somewhat forgot her original purpose.
The golden-haired girl, accustomed to battle, now looked at the "forbidden" technique the boy was using, her face showing a kind of "enraptured" expression.
'So amazing.'
'How did he do that?'
'He erased the "latter half" of each weapon swing.'
'Such attacks have no interval, making them faster, more agile!'
'So amazing, how did he even think of such a combat technique?'
Recalling when she met him several months ago on the 1st floor of the Dungeon, he had completely transformed compared to then!
The boy now, actually… was already capable of suppressing the Goddess of Justice and Judgment?!
'No, not suppressing!!!'
Ais opened her eyes wide, because she saw Isagi's hands, constantly "producing" various weapons, suddenly pull out a [Flesh and Blood Long Limb].
The moment it was pulled out, the club suddenly extended, without any warning whatsoever, heading towards the Goddess's lower abdomen.
'My goodness!'
Astrea was also stunned.
After barely twisting her waist to dodge it, she found the long club suddenly sweeping horizontally, forcing her to continue retreating and parrying with her longsword.
But then, this [Flesh and Blood Long Limb] disappeared again.
Because it could extend not only from the front but also from the back, it could easily, without Isagi needing to operate it by hand, automatically reach into the darkness under his cloak and be retrieved.
Thus, the impending horizontal sweep turned into a sudden short sword thrust.
'It can do that too?!'
Astrea and Ais in the distance both exclaimed simultaneously!
The boy's current attack methods were completely beyond what "normal humans" could achieve!!
And even if the Goddess barely managed to block this strike again.
However, the subsequent attacks, mixed with the [Flesh and Blood Long Limb] and its various derived transformations, overwhelmed the Goddess even more.
Not suppression, but a winning advantage.
'Isagi won!'
Ais thought so in her heart, and the truth was indeed so.
There was no room for reversal.
The gods' techniques, in a sense, were also pure numerical values; once they were broken through, as long as they weren't given time to think and adapt, victory was inevitable.
As Isagi, wielding the [Flesh and Blood Long Limb], broke through the Goddess's sword perimeter.
Gently, when he tapped her on the forehead with the great club, it signified his victory.
And next, it was time for the strong to brutally humiliate the weak… ah no, it was time for the victor to make an irrefusable demand of the defeated party!
___
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