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Chapter 86: Little Rookie (Bell Cranel) vs. Phoebus Apollo (Hyakinthos Clio)
We must rewind the clock slightly, back to the moment Bell arrived at Hyakinthos's location.
"Let's settle this."
"A match? The fact that you managed to reach me is certainly unexpected... but it changes absolutely nothing about the fact that you will lose to me. I will crush you in an instant."
Desperate to wash away the humiliation his Familia had suffered, Hyakinthos lunged forward. Leveling his Flamberge, he unleashed a lightning-fast, one-handed horizontal thrust straight at Bell.
"Wha—!?"
But Hyakinthos's blade never reached its target. Without taking a single step back, Bell had driven the Hestia Knife directly into the flat surface of the undulating blade.
Just before the Flamberge could skewer him, Bell had thrust his dagger upward from below, completely piercing through the wavy metal of Hyakinthos's weapon and stopping it dead in its tracks. A sharp crack echoed through the room as the upper half of the Flamberge shattered, snapping the sword in two.
"Guh!?"
Hyakinthos had never imagined his weapon could be broken. That sheer shock created a massive opening. Bell didn't miss it. He stepped into the Captain's guard and drove a brutal left front kick directly into his abdomen. Hyakinthos folded in half, rocketing backward through the air.
The impact was softened...! However, Bell realized the feedback from his kick felt light. Hyakinthos had instinctively leapt backward at the exact moment of impact to mitigate the damage.
I-I was struck by someone like him...!? Forced to take a hit from an opponent he considered beneath him, Hyakinthos clutched his stomach and glared at Bell with burning hatred.
Without hesitating, Bell charged straight toward him again.
"Don't get cocky just because you landed a single hit!"
"Gah...!?"
Hyakinthos, usually calm and composed, screamed in fury. As payback, he unleashed a devastating right front kick of his own, catching Bell squarely in the stomach. The force of the Level 3's blow sent Bell flying backward, crashing into the rubble of the destroyed throne room.
"You may be the World's Fastest Record Holder, but you are still Level 2, and I am Level 3. There is no reality where you can possibly... What!?"
Hyakinthos's declaration of absolute victory caught in his throat. His eyes widened in sheer disbelief. Kicking the rubble aside, Bell stood back up, looking completely unfazed.
"D-Don't get cocky!"
And so, the brutal cycle repeated. Hyakinthos would strike Bell with tremendous force, knocking him away, and Bell would simply stand back up and charge at him again.
.....
Floor 30 of Babel.
"Yes! Yes, Hyakinthos! Crush him!"
"Bell..."
Apollo cheered ecstatically as his Captain seemingly dominated the fight. Hestia, on the other hand, wanted to look away as her child was continuously struck down, but she forced herself to watch, unable to tear her eyes from her Familia's desperate struggle.
"This is..."
"Is it no good...?"
Hermes and Asfi watched with dark expressions. They felt that no matter how incredible it was that Bell had achieved the Great Feat of becoming the fastest Record Holder, overcoming a pure Level gap against someone like Hyakinthos was simply impossible. The other Gods watching the one-sided beating shared the exact same sentiment—challenging a Level difference head-on was pure recklessness.
"What a letdown. I figured their only Level 3 would put up a decent fight, but he's nothing special."
However, amidst the tense atmosphere, Reborn watched the fight with an utterly bored expression, muttering his disappointment.
.....
Ruins of Shreme Castle.
"Haa... Haa..."
Hyakinthos continued to drive Bell back with a relentless flurry of attacks, but his breathing was becoming ragged. He was beginning to show signs of severe fatigue.
Why!? Why won't he stay down!? He had already sent Bell flying more than ten times. By all logic, Bell should have been unconscious or dead by now. Hyakinthos was clearly dominating the fight, landing blow after blow, yet for some reason, he was the one feeling cornered.
It's all thanks to Mr. Reborn's training...
Bell had fought Hyakinthos twice before. In both of those encounters, a single strike from the Captain had been enough to inflict near-fatal damage. But thanks to Reborn's hellish, near-death training, Bell's body had been battered and broken so many times that it had become astonishingly durable.
The reason Reborn had ordered Bell to remove his armor during their sparring sessions wasn't just to make it harder—it was to deliberately subject Bell's bare body to intense physical trauma, forcing his flesh to adapt and become terrifyingly tough.
"It doesn't really hurt that much..." Bell muttered absentmindedly.
"D-Don't bluff!"
Hyakinthos shrieked. It was impossible for his attacks to have so little effect after landing so many times. Driven by panic and rage, he resumed his frantic assault.
.....
Floor 30 of Babel.
"W-What are you doing, Hyakinthos!?"
Apollo was unable to hide his panic. He was watching a bizarre spectacle where Bell refused to go down, while Hyakinthos—the one dealing all the damage—was the one being driven to the brink of exhaustion.
"Reborn... is this...?"
"Yeah. That guy's attacks are barely doing any damage. My training bumped up his Endurance by a ridiculous margin."
"I-I see..."
Hestia remembered updating Bell's Status after Reborn's training had concluded. She had noticed that his Endurance stat had skyrocketed at a highly abnormal rate compared to his other abilities.
"Well, I dragged him to the brink of death more times than I can count. It's only natural he can brush off attacks on that level."
"Just what in the world did you do to Bell!?"
.....
Ruins of Shreme Castle.
"Zeh... Zeh..."
After landing dozens of strikes, Hyakinthos finally halted his assault, his chest heaving as fatigue set in. Bell, on the other hand, still looked like he had plenty of energy to spare.
W-What a disgrace... To have landed so many blows and still fail to defeat his opponent, while exhausting himself in the process, was the ultimate humiliation for Hyakinthos.
But this isn't going to work... Bell realized that while he had begun to read Hyakinthos's attack patterns, he still hadn't found an opening to counterattack. If things continued like this, he wouldn't lose, but he wouldn't win either.
Suddenly, Bell dropped his daggers to the ground. He then reached down and unlaced his heavy boots, slipping them off until he was standing in only his socks. He picked up the boots and tossed them, one by one, toward Hyakinthos.
"What are you... Wha!?"
Hyakinthos was bewildered as to why Bell would suddenly take off his footwear in the middle of a fight, but he understood the moment the boots hit the floor. The heavy metal crashed against the stone with a deafening thud, the sheer weight of them spiderwebbing the solid rock beneath.
.....
Floor 30 of Babel.
The Gods watching the broadcast stared in stunned silence as the floor cracked under the weight of the discarded boots.
"R-Reborn...? Those are...?"
"Hm? Those are ten-kilogram weights for each leg. What about them?"
"What do you mean 'What about them'!? Why the heck was Bell wearing something like that!?"
"For training, obviously."
"There's a time and place for that!"
Hestia screamed, appalled that Reborn had forced Bell to fight the enemy's strongest combatant with such a massive handicap. The rest of the Gods were too shocked by their exchange to even speak.
"Still, to think he took his boots off against a weakling like that... I guess my training wasn't strict enough. If we had more time, I would have beaten him until he begged for death."
"I'm starting to think you're actually a demon wearing human skin..." Hestia muttered, trembling.
.....
Twilight Manor.
"Eh...!?"
"Argonaut-kun's boots..."
"His opponent is a higher level, yet..."
Ais, Tiona, and Tione stared at the screen in absolute disbelief as they saw the boots crater the floor.
"That's shocking enough, but..."
"He's taken all those hits and barely looks phased."
"His toughness is off the charts."
What shocked the Loki Familia veterans the most was the fact that Bell was acting completely normal despite enduring a relentless barrage from a Level 3.
What the hell is going on...? That damn rabbit couldn't even lay a finger on that pervert back at the pub... Just what kind of bullshit did he pull in such a short amount of time...? Bete, who had been present during the initial pub brawl, couldn't comprehend how Bell had grown so terrifyingly resilient in a matter of days. It irritated him to no end.
.....
Ruins of Shreme Castle.
"Y-You...!"
Bell picked up his daggers and hopped lightly on his toes, instantly feeling the explosive lightness in his body. Realizing that Bell hadn't even been fighting him seriously until now, Hyakinthos's face twisted in an ugly mask of pure humiliation.
"Stop screwing with me!"
Enraged, Hyakinthos kicked the broken tip of his Flamberge off the ground, launching it like a deadly projectile straight at Bell's head.
"Wha!?"
Instead of dodging, Bell spun clockwise, using the flat of the Hestia Knife to parry the broken blade, reflecting it right back at Hyakinthos. The Captain was forced to throw his upper body backward to avoid being impaled by his own weapon.
"Take th—Gah!?"
The moment Hyakinthos snapped his body back upright to resume his attack, Bell was already there. Closing the distance in the blink of an eye, Bell drove a brutal left straight directly into Hyakinthos's forehead.
"You bastard!"
Reeling, Hyakinthos immediately lashed out with a high left kick aimed at Bell's face.
"Gah!"
Bell ducked seamlessly under the kick and drove a right uppercut directly into Hyakinthos's exposed calf. Before the Captain could recover, Bell followed up by slamming the pommel of the Ushiwakamaru Mk-II into the same exact spot.
"Gohoh!?"
Using the momentum, Bell stepped deep into Hyakinthos's guard and buried his left elbow into the man's solar plexus.
"Gahah!?"
The relentless assault didn't stop. Bell kicked off the ground into a backflip, bringing his right heel up in a vicious somersault kick that caught Hyakinthos flush on the jaw. The impact snapped Hyakinthos's head back violently.
T-This guy...!? He didn't just take out my leg to kill my mobility, he's accurately targeting my vitals one after another!? Hyakinthos was terrified. By destroying his calf, Bell had robbed him of his speed, and then immediately followed up with devastating strikes to the forehead, solar plexus, and jaw—the most vulnerable points on the human body. The precision was chilling.
I have to win... I absolutely have to win! Bell's eyes burned with unwavering resolve.
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