Typhon vanished from his position and shot towards Arthur
The crimson energy coating Typhon's body detonated outward, propelling his massive frame forward at a speed that made the earlier exchanges feel restrained by comparison. Arthur's instincts screamed at him to dodge, his mind already reaching for teleportation, but the window closed before he could complete the thought.
BOOOOOOMMMMM!
The punch landed on Arthur with a deafening boom.
Arthur blanked out for an instance due to the impact, the colossal force sent him hurtling backward, his body tearing through the air for kilometers as shockwaves rippled outward in his wake and slammed him into the ground, the momentum carried him deep underground. The Godbuster Armor tried to disperse the blow, but this time even with it he felt his bones breaking and his vital organs rupturing.
Pain bloomed in his chest and shoulder, but due to Pain Tolerance he was able to shrug it off.
"Cough… cough!"
Blood spilled from his mouth as he forced himself up in the long tunnel his descent had caused. He grimaced, but the injuries were already knitting itself back together as his regeneration kicked in. The armor had absorbed most of the impact, but not enough to make the blow bearable this time.
Arthur flexed his fingers, and his breathing steadied as he assessed the regenerating organs, his eyes were sharp rather than panicked. But he felt if not for the Armor he would have become a bloody mist with that attack. And he could also feel his strength and durability increasing by a small margin.
He glanced down at his arm. 'I should avoid taking another one of those attacks head-on.' This time the improvement in his strength was minor, but if he continued to take such damage then he felt the balance between his soul and body would exacerbate, as he could already feel he had crossed a threshold by taking on the attack by Typhon.
He looked up and shot out of the kilometers-long tunnel. As soon as he reached the surface he saw Typhon was already charging towards him, his massive form tearing through the sky like a meteor with crimson energy trailing behind him in violent arcs.
Arthur didn't wait this time. Space folded, and he vanished just as Typhon's follow-up strike tore through where he'd been, and he reappeared behind Typhon's head.
The scale difference was absurd, Typhon's skull alone was as big as a tower, his horns curving up giving him a menacing look. But Arthur didn't hesitate, he drew his arm back and every muscle in his body tightened as he poured all of his strength into the strike.
The Godbuster Armor flashed briefly as all the energy it had stored was redirected toward his right arm. Arthur didn't just rely on his own power, he pulled from the stored kinetic energy the armor had been accumulating, the residual force of Typhon's previous blows that had been absorbed and contained rather than dissipated.
Before Typhon could understand where Arthur was he felt an immensely powerful impact at the back of his skill.
BOOOOOOOMMM…!
The sound tore through the air, followed immediately by a raw, furious roar filled with agony.
"ARRRRGGGGG…!"
Arthur's fist connected with the back of Typhon's skull, the force concentrated into his fist a point so small relative to Typhon's size that it made the attack even more powerful. The air detonated outward, and shockwaves ripped across the ruined planet below and blasted debris into the upper atmosphere. A spiderweb of fractures exploded across Typhon's scales, and there was a sickening crack as bone gave way beneath the blow.
Typhon was hurled forward, his massive body spinning as he smashed into the ground miles away, carving a trench through what remained of the planet's surface. At the back of his skull, a gaping wound had been torn open the size of a bus, and dark blood was spilling from the impact point. Compared to his colossal frame, the injury looked almost insignificant, but it wasn't.
The force had been immense, compressed into a space far too small for his defenses to properly disperse, making it travel inside his head and turning a small part of his brain into mush. Pain coursed through Typhon's nervous system, sharper than anything he had felt since the Throne's blade had pierced him. His vision swam as he struggled to push himself upright, his claws digging into the fractured ground as he staggered back up.
The injury was taking much more time to heal due to the presence of the Throne's energy in his system, and by how slow it was it would take hours to completely heal from an injury of this scale.
Arthur hovered in the air, he was outwardly composed, but the cost of the attack made itself known the moment it was executed. His arm screamed in protest, due to the immense power behind the attack the bones on his right arm were turned to dust and all the muscles were torn apart. Still it was a small price to pay to cause a major injury to Typhon, and the injury was already healing.
Typhon turned towards him, his pitch-black eyes glared onto Arthur with a mixture of fury and something far more dangerous, greed.
He could not understand it. This human was insignificant in size, young, and native to a dimension that should not have been capable of producing something like him. And yet, Arthur possessed the strength to wound him, a Celestial rank demon.
"You…" Typhon growled, his voice vibrating with restrained rage. "How does a creature like you possess such strength?"
His gaze raked over Arthur, lingering on the armor. And a dangerous edge creeped into his tone. "I will tear out all the secrets you possess."
Arthur met his glare evenly, whatever greed burned in Typhon's chest, Arthur had already made one thing clear with that strike, this fight was no longer one-sided.
…
The clash dragged on for the next half hour, the dead planet became a battlefield between two powerhouses that were slowly destroying it. Arthur quickly realized that fighting against Typhon in this state was suicide, no matter how effective the Godbuster Armor was.
Typhon's blows carried too much power while he was augmented by that crimson energy. If that kind of hit continued to land on him, it was enough to push him past a threshold he could feel his body was not ready to cross so soon.
So he stopped trying to meet force with force.
Arthur began to move like a shadow and each time Typhon tried to attack him, he teleported out of the way just before the impact. The demon's fists slammed into empty air or solid ground, detonating the landscape beneath them. Entire mountain ranges collapsed into themselves, tectonic plates shattered as shockwaves raced outward, and the planet's crust fractured and caused ravines that stretched for hundreds of kilometers. From orbit, it would have looked as though the planet was being methodically dismantled.
Typhon snarled as another attack missed, his massive frame twisting unnaturally as he tried to adjust mid-motion. Arthur reappeared several kilometers away, with one of his hands raised as he manipulated the air particles surrounding Typhon. The air around Typhon thickened instantly, the pressure skyrocketing as Arthur compressed it into something closer to solid than gas.
Typhon's movements slowed, he was not able to stop him, but he was able to create enough resistance for him, which let him land attacks on him. After the first attack from Arthur which caused him a serious injury, Typhon became extremely cautious so it was not easy to take him by surprise and land similar attacks, but Matter Manipulation solved that problem for Arthur.
"You hide behind tricks," Typhon rumbled, forcing his way forward despite the resistance. Each movement tore sonic booms through the dense atmosphere, scattering compressed air in violent shockwaves.
Arthur didn't respond, he was already planning his next action, sweat beading along his brow as he maintained the pressure. Manipulating the environment on this scale wasn't effortless, especially while constantly teleporting and monitoring his own body's limits.
Typhon roared and unleashed a wave of crimson energy that tore through the compressed air like a blade, dispersing it violently. The backlash flattened everything in its path, carving a new canyon through the planet's surface that stretched to the horizon. Arthur teleported again, narrowly avoiding the blast, and countered with a barrage of elemental attacks. Lightning spears and ice spears formed and shattered on impact with Typhon's body, magma surged upward from the planet's mantle at Arthur's command.
But none of it caused Typhon any damage. Arthur clicked his tongue softly, already aware of the outcome even as he continued the assault. These attacks weren't meant to kill, they were meant to distract, and create openings.
Arthur switched to holy magic, gigantic magic circles appeared around Typhon and lances made out of light which were as big as skyscrapers surrounded him and covered the battlefield. Typhon hissed as the lances struck him, his scales fading and flaking where the attacks landed. It wasn't a devastating wound, but it hurt nonetheless. The holy energy clung stubbornly to him, interfering with his regeneration in much the same way as the Throne's corruption.
Typhon's eyes burned with fury as he swung a massive arm through the fading light, scattering it violently. "You dare use Heaven's filth against me!?" he thundered, his fury boiling over.
As he was distracted a bit with the attack, Arthur appeared above him silently with his hands glowing brightly. "I'll use whatever works."
Blinding light washed over the planet like a second sun, and Typhon shielded his face instinctively, giving Arthur the opening he needed. In that instant, the Godbuster Armor flashed as he directed the stored kinetic energy towards his hands again. He reappeared behind Typhon's skull again and stuck the same place he had attacked before.
BOOOOOMMMMM!
The explosion flattened everything within tens of kilometers.
Typhon staggered, roaring as the ground beneath him collapsed into a massive crater. He retaliated instantly, sweeping his massive claws through the space Arthur had occupied a moment earlier. Arthur barely escaped, teleporting away as the claw passed through, leaving behind a vacuum that imploded violently seconds later.
And similarly Arthur found new ways to harass Typhon while Typhon chased after him.
Each exchange left the planet in worse condition. Seas boiled away where Typhon's energy struck. The sky was covered with constant storms born from conflicting energies. Entire regions simply ceased to exist, reduced to drifting debris as chunks of the planet were blasted into space.
Arthur's breathing grew heavier as time passed. His regeneration kept pace with the damage, but the strain was undeniable. He adjusted constantly, pulling back just enough to avoid getting seriously injured while still pushing Typhon hard enough to keep him on the defensive.
Typhon, meanwhile, was fuming. His frustration mounted with every missed strike, every decisive blow he was about to land just for Arthur to teleport away. The injury at the back of his skull throbbed, healing at a maddeningly slow pace as angelic corruption interfered with his power. Worse still, Arthur's attacks were targeted towards that exact place.
"You are a pest!" Typhon roared at one point, smashing both fists into the ground and sending a shockwave across half the continent. "A pest that refuses to die!"
Arthur hovered above the devastation, his chest rising and falling as he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
He felt the temperature of the surroundings was increasing at an extremely rapid rate, he narrowed his eyes towards Typhon and felt most of the heat was concentrated around Typhon.
Typhon continued with a menacing look, "Even if I have to heavily injure myself, I will kill you then personally destroy your world." And the next second bright orange fire covered his whole body.
Arthur's helmet snapped shut as he got ready, he felt that Typhon was finally going all out. And it was the right time for him to use his last trump card.
***
Become a patreon member and read 30 Chapters ahead!
patreon.com/New_Horizon1
You can join my discord channel to discuss my novel and find artwork of this novel!!
https://discord.gg/PmkQsrAdMY