Nuwa twisted her body and slipped to Griffith's flank. With a flick of her right arm, the top-grade bio-metal whip in her hand lashed out like lightning. Infused with spirit energy, arcs of turquoise electricity exploded along its length as it coiled and slashed toward the junction where Griffith's back met his bio-metal skeletal wings.
At the same instant, Athena's Chaos Chain-Blade darted forward beneath Nuwa's arm. Spirit energy surged, igniting orange flames along its chain and blade as it stabbed and seared toward Griffith's exposed ribs.
A spear over three meters long, wreathed in golden lightning, shot past Nuwa's cheek—Odin's Eternal Spear, thrusting like an enraged dragon straight for the horrifying crimson eye embedded in Griffith's chest.
Thor, meanwhile, had tethered Mjolnir with a rope of spirit-forged blue lightning, wielding the hammer like a meteor hammer. With a savage swing, he sent it crashing toward Griffith's temple.
Mars, gripping the trident Scourge of the Progenitor, unleashed scarlet bolts of lightning that roared along its prongs, stabbing toward Griffith's brow.
In a mere spark's span, the five of the Mythic Squad launched a storm of attacks, their coordination flawless, encircling Griffith in a tempest of death.
Roya watched through his spirit-sense, fully absorbing the flow of their offensive. He could not help but admire their ingenuity and the creativity of this new combat style.
The five's spirit energies were interlinked—like signals on the same channel, seamlessly sharing every fragment of information in real time. Each of them could sense not only their own awareness but the perceptions of the other four, maximizing situational knowledge.
At the center of this link, squad leader Nuwa processed the flood of data, calculating the best tactical choices, then broadcasting them back through the spirit network. With her coordination, their teamwork became seamless.
Such cooperation, bound at the level of spirit energy, was infinitely stronger than the "tacit understanding" ordinary soldiers spoke of.
In the future, spirit legions would form squads this way: warriors interlinked with their leaders, leaders interlinked with each other, creating layers of connection that all converged on the battle-group commander—Nuwa.
Her twin brother Fuxi did not fight, but with their natural spirit bond, he shared the burden of processing the overwhelming flood of information once the number of spirit warriors grew too large.
In this structure, every spirit warrior could operate alone or merge into a squad strike, pushing both individual and collective strength to its limits.
And now, in this thunderous joint assault, Nuwa's Mythic Squad demonstrated the terrifying might of this system.
Their combined strike rivaled the force of three Seventh Overlords together, weaving a death-net that closed fully around Griffith.
Nuwa believed the battle was already won, that this blow would both slay their foe and showcase the overwhelming power of the spirit battle system.
But then—
Griffith moved.
The skeletal wings on his back flared open. The three main bones of each wing suddenly split apart with explosive force, springing Nuwa's whip wide.
Then, before her stunned eyes, they reformed into six arms of uneven length. From his shoulders and ribs, they reached forward, intercepting every incoming weapon.
The lowest pair ignored the flames burning along Athena's Chaos Chain-Blade, seizing it barehanded. With a twist and wrench, the chains tangled tight around his arms. A sudden pull—and Athena was yanked helplessly toward Griffith's embrace.
The middle pair of arms made no move to stop Odin's spear. Instead, one swept outward while the other twisted backward unnaturally.
In that very instant, Thor's lightning-bound hammer struck—only to be caught as if it had been offered up, one hand grabbing the crackling chain, the other seizing Mjolnir's head mid-swing.
Odin's Eternal Spear had already pierced Griffith's chest. The golden lightning detonated across his skin, blasting through and racing along his blood vessels, searing into his body.
Odin gave a cold snort. "Even with six arms, you cannot block our combined strike!"
But the words had barely left his mouth when the scene twisted into nightmare.
The crimson eye in Griffith's chest suddenly blinked shut. A rosy eyelid slid over it—an eyelid etched with a grotesque, mocking face. Its lips twitched as though laughing at Odin's ignorance.
When the spearhead touched it, the mouth snapped open and bit down.
The Eternal Spear could go no further.
At the same moment, Mars' Scourge of the Progenitor struck Griffith's brow. Scarlet lightning exploded, scattering his silver-white hair and revealing a face so exquisitely beautiful it seemed beyond gender—enough to drive mortals mad with envy.
But Mars, the war fanatic, felt nothing. Beauty meant nothing; only the thirst of his trident for enemy blood mattered.
And yet—
The highest pair of Griffith's arms snapped up, catching the trident a hair's breadth before it pierced his forehead. Their grip was ironclad.
Athena, dragged forward, slammed into Nuwa's back. Both staggered, losing balance and unable to reform their assault for the moment.
The others, with their weapons trapped, found their attacks broken as well.
Nuwa had expected that even if Griffith somehow survived their opening strike, he would crumble before their relentless follow-ups.
But before the first round was even complete, their formation had already collapsed.
Unless Odin, Thor, and Mars abandoned their weapons for barehanded combat, the joint assault was shattered.
Yet even if they did, how could their fists hope to break the defense their finest weapons could not?
It would only mean defeat faster, and more miserably.
"Let go of me!!"
Mars, the most hot-blooded of them, roared in fury. Scarlet lightning burst again along the Scourge of the Progenitor.
His mecha's right arm screamed with the grinding pressure of bio-metal bones pushed to the limit, force transmitting fully into the weapon.
The trident began to spin counterclockwise with monstrous power, like a frenzied electric eel, body arcing and discharging torrents of lethal voltage as it twisted violently—trying to wrench free of Griffith's grip.
Please drop some power stones support me at my
PS: Access the complete/finished chapters/series at Patreon: NanamiTL