Hellmode ~Gamer Who Likes to Speedrun Becomes Peerless in a Parallel World with Obsolete Setting~

The force behind the fist of Nestirad was so impactful it nearly introduced cracks on an Orichalcum armor, and blew away Dogora to the formation of mid-guard, prompting Shea and Kurena to jump from left and right and take the vanguard.

"I will hold it!!"

Kurena shouted to her comrades, telling them she had it covered. 

Her promptness had emerged after noticing Nestriad's posture leaning slightly forward. It was mere tilt, not even a step, but having weathered the trials of gods, all the party members knew better than to miss out on any chances of their opponent. That was especially true against a force like Nestriad. 

Nestirad was certainly planning to charge into their formation, and if that happened, their painstakingly formed tactic would be destroyed. At the same time, it would bring danger to mid-guard and vanguards.

«I'll use Limitless Beast King!! Kurena, follow me!»

Sparks blossomed from all over Nesitrad's body as a boundless attack hailed down on it, making it appear like it was about to explode. 

Shea moved with an unprecedented agility that not even her after-image was left behind. 

"Copy that! I will start then!"

A coordinated attack was required to bring out the complete effect of Shea's «Limitless Beast King» mode.

Swiftly, Kurena followed with nimble and light footsteps. Her movements were like a feather drifting in the air, as if her movements were backed with wings on her back—an effect she had after obtaining Celeste Dawn, a reward for overcoming the trial of Sword God Sesta in the Arena of Divine Realm. 

A fist from left hand aimed at Kurena, but repeating not the mistake from earlier where Dogora ended up eating the attack, she dodged it with paper-breath timing. Even more, she used the opening to swing her weapon at the arm, sending sparks flying. Kurena didn't deter, and continued her close-combat approach, repeating her flurry of strikes each time she saw the opening. It was as if she could read her opponent's move.

«Annoying...»

Annoyed by Kurena's unceasing strikes, Nestirad took a large swing of his right fist at her. 

Kurena dodged it with a spin in the air, and activated her skill while carrying the momentum.

"Haaa!! Blaze Crypt Slash!!"

Promptly, flame enclosed the two-handed claymore—Ascalon, a sacred artifact she received from Sword God—in Kurena's hand. The very air crackled itself as the flames burned intensely. 

(Woah! She has completely seen through its movement! Uh-huh, she completely has surpassed Dogora here.)

"I am not letting you take all the spotlight!!"

«Right, burn more, Dogora! We can't let ourselves be outdone by a disciple of a mere Sword god!!»

Receiving the encouragement of Fire God Freya, Dogora, after recovering from the impact, shuttle back to the forefront and unleashes his onslaught. 

Soon, Nestriad was besieged under the assault of Shea, Kurena, and Dogora.

«Hmph! Do you think an ant's bite can even do anything!?»

But, despite facing the reception of the overwhelming coordination attack of Kurena, Shea, and Dogora, Nestirad was nearly intact. Even Merus, having grasped the striking status of S-rank Angel, let out a bewildered voice.

«So annoying... Whirling Edge!»

(Haa?! Is it using a strong technique already?!!)

«Fall back, you three!! Take the helm, Lubank! Merus, stop it!!»

Allen perceived the notice and promptly transmissioned his voice using summoned Bird F skill. 

On the other hand, with its expression scrunched in irk, Nestriad started converging its spiritual force into the right arm. Then, it spread its palm wide in a hand-strike fashion, while taking its body as an axel, and took a sharp swing with its right hand. 

"Aarg!!"

"What?!"

The team had already discussed what movement to take in what scenario, and following their plan, Kurena and Dogra hurriedly retreated backward. 

The overall range of Nestirad's «Whirling Edge» was 10m, very much the limit of his right arm, but the attack covered a wide area in lightning speed. Kurena and Shea, blessed with buffs, barely managed to fall down to mid-guard range—vanguard took the whole 10m area—by the time it had accumulated spiritual force for the move. 

Ignomas, too, safely made his escape out of the range. Albeit, falling short on agility compared to Kurena and Shea, plus the difference between the former's two quick attack style against Dogora's axe strike that required all his momentum, Dogora falls behind in recovering from his attack as the deadly strike cut through the air and toward him at blinking speed. 

Cancelling the attack wasn't easy after all. And Allen had no doubt Dogora would be cleaved in two if he took that strike heads-on. So he promptly fired his instruction to Lubank—Lubank was assaulting Nestirad from its back side in a pincer attack—in a fraction of second. 

Meanwhile, Lubank was already on wind incarnation mode—«Storm Beast Mode», so he readily reacted and stretched the three right arms of it, attempting to tank the attack. But—

«Rrrrgghh?!»

Despite having an incredible resistance against physical attacks, Nestirad's spinning hand-strike pulverized Lubank's all right arm, and cut his torso apart in two. Completely losing its body, Lubank turned into a light bubble, and yet, there was no stopping Nestirad's hand.

«Hmph! Sparkling Slash!!»

(Whoaa, fortunately the strongest skill managed to activate in time!!)

Merus knew stopping Nestirad's attack was his role, and so, he had already activated his awakening skill «Sparkling Slash» as he jumped between Nestirad and Dogora. 

The blade of sword, having nearly transformed into the shape of living lightning due to skill, clashed against Nestirad's hand strike. The collision sent forth a shockwave even beyond 10m, felt by all the members even dozens of metres beyond.

«Grrrgh, stop for meee—aaarhg?!»

*Clatter*

(Holy heaven. The sword broke?!)

As it appeared, Merus's orichalcum sword didn't last longer against Nestirad attack. Nevertheless, Merus still held his ground by swiftly utilising the shield, it was from Angel B, he was holding on left hand. 

The hand-strike had disrupted an awakening skill, destroyed an orichalcum sword and even the shield was completely obliterated, yet there was no stopping Nestirad's attack. The attack collided against the Orichalcum armor—he had it from Angel C—and easily squashed like it was aluminium foil and blew him 50 metres away, almost around the rear-guard. 

«It's attack has stopped! Back to your position, everyone!!»

A hesitation could be felt in team members for a moment when they saw Nestirad's offense appeared too much even for the Allen's best of summon, and nearly all-rounder in everything S-rank summon Lubank, and Merus. 

And all the team members were clearly aware of Merus’s prowess as well.

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Merus Status (Simplified list + Buff)

[HP] 2,210,013 + 20,000 (Sword and Shield + Command Enhancement + Buff) + 35,000 (Armor + Enhancement)

[Magic Power] 190,840 + 20,000 + 15,000

[Spiritual Power] 190,840 + 20,000 + 15,000

[Attack 343,070 + 40,000 + 15,000

[Endurance] 170,430 + 40,000 + 35,000

[Speed] 378,040 + 20,000 + 15,000

[Intelligence] 359,970 + 20,000 + 15,000

[Luck] 171,600 + 20,000 + 15,000

—The summoned Angel B and Angel C are excluded from buff effects due to them occupying weapon and armor slots.

—Command Enhancement 5,000 (Angel B), Enhancement 5,000×2 (Angel B, Angel C)

※The stats for Angel S are already included in the status calculation.

※Imperial Skills are out of usage while in Angel S mode. 

—Water Great Spirit Thonis: Intelligence 10,000, 100 MP/sec (no effect in the divine realm)

—Thunder Great Spirit Jin: Speed 10,000, paralysis resistance (strong)

—Space Great Spirit Zigen: Luck 10,000, -50% non-critical

—Radiance Spirit Light: Health 10,000, Attack Power 10,000, comes with Light Attribute 

—Fire Great Spirit Kaka: Attack Power 10,000, 10% increased damage

—Poison Marsh Great Spirit Mouton: Health 10,000, poison resistance (strong), paralysis resistance (strong)

—Time Spirit Quick: Speed 10,000, -50% cooldown time

—Darkness Great Spirit Dark: Magic Power 10,000, Intelligence 10,000, Dark Attribute added

—Golden Egg: All stats +3,000

—Royal Guard: Health and Durability +3,000, Health and Durability 10%, All damage reduced by 30%, Health regenerates 200 per second

—Royal Aura: Health and Magic Power +10%, Attack Power and Intelligence +5,000, All attack damage +30%, Cooldown reduced by 50%

—True Support 〈8〉: Health 8,000, Magic Power 8,000

—True March 〈8〉: Speed 8,000

—True Requiem 〈8〉: Removes debuffs during activation, Debuff resistance +80%

—True Phantom Dance 〈8〉: Non-critical resistance +80%

—Mermaid Songstress 〈8〉: All stats +40,000, Attack Power, Intelligence +30%, Health,  4,000 MP/sec recovery

—Heavenly Dance 〈8〉: Speed +80%, Evasion Rate +80%, Skill activation time reduced by 80%, Cooldown reduced by 80%

—High Chanting 〈8〉: Attack Power and Intelligence +80,000, 40% Magic Damage

—Angel B Special Skill "Funny Pom-Pom": Speed 10,000, Skill activation time reduced by 20%

—Angel B Awakening Skill "Crazy Dance": Speed 30,000, Skill activation time reduced by 50%, Cooldown reduced by 50%

—Spirit God's Blessing 〈8〉: All stats +24,000, All stats increased by 30%@@novelbin@@

—Prayer Dance 〈9〉: Health, Magic Power, and Spirit Power regenerate 900 per second

※ The status may increase or decrease depending on the timing of the buffs.

※ The term "increase" in status is omitted.

Example 1: 1,000 ⇒ Status increases by 1,000

Example 2: 10% ⇒ Status is multiplied by 1.1

※ Magic Power has no healing effect in the divine realm.

※ Luck's Divine Skill «Taichi Diagram» has not been activated.

※ Keel's reinforced endurance omitted.

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Merus had as much as 40,000 stats just in attack, not to count the oblivious number of buffs which enhanced each of his status with enhanced critical chance too, but they couldn't even put a scratch on Nestirad.

(Attack maybe wasn't the problem, but the endurance and resistance is the one most lacking for sure, even with buffs.)

Allen churned his thoughts as he re-summoned Lubank and affirmed Keel was already casting full recovery on Merus.

The glaring shortcoming was obviously the endurance. Merus was trivialised easily despite his strength and buff count. And further tracing the problem, it would be that the effect of increased endurance was severely limited among his comrades. 

Just for Merus, he had 75000 upliftment in his stats with the growth of Angel B and Angel C. But once you exclude attack and agility, the status sheet would appear unimpressive. 

(It's completely a deadlock huh. Well, Luke-san, It seems it's the time.)

"Aaarggh, shit!! Debuffs are barely affecting it!!"

A grunt escaped from Luke, the debuffer of the party, while Merus was blown away after the earlier attack. His patience was cut short seeing Nestirad was barely affected by his debuffs no matter how many he casted. 

Nestirad's intelligence and debuff resistance had flipped the game for him. And the debuffs were the crucial cornerstone of their strategy.

"Haa!!"

"Hmm!!"

"Take thisss!!"

Meanwhile, Shea, Kurena, and Dogora resumed their offense on Nestirade. But it was a replay of an earlier scene, even the sacred artifacts only left sparks in their trial, not leaving even tiniest of scratch. It was obvious with how Nestirad was unfazed, and still ongoing with his attacks.

"Fine, we're stuck either way. Sophie! Coordinate with me. Alright?!"

"You don't have to say that, I will! Bring on!!"

Luke roughen his voice, and held the «Arc Jewel of Spirit King» in both his hands as he shouted.

"«Spirit Garb»!! Pray impart your benevolence, O' Great Jigen!"

Sophie promptly activated «Spirit Garb» for Luke. 

«Very well! I shall deliver the providence!!»

*Clang*

The Great Spirit of Time «Jigen» overlapped the figure of Luke as he bolted in direction of Nestirad, and formed an armor that covered him.