The snake surged forward, jaws wide open, its head having been raised so high out of the air allowing it to reach incredible speeds as it lunged, crossing the fifty kiloters that separated it from the battleships in seconds. As it passed, the ocean beneath it began to boil, becoming a roiling maelstrom that would literally shred anyone who fell in. And the effect was only spreading.
Going overboard had just beco a death sentence for most of the fighters.
The snake continued to co closer, ever closer and then its head was smacked into the water with such force that it was pushed almost a hundred ters under as the first nuclear missile struck.
Isaac had told everyone that he might have an ace up his sleeve, but they couldnt delay long enough to find out, as it would take a while for nuclear missiles to reach their target.
And there was a damn good reason the ships were this far out. They were all enchanted to protect their crew from radiation, and to a degree, the explosion, but that was hardly enough for a point-blank duel while the most destructive weapons in the world fell like hail.
This was the plan, always had been. An opening salvo of nuclear weaponry to get in a few solid strikes and to get so information on the monsters durability, then have people start unleashing their big attacks, and finally transition into a fighting degree for however long it took to kill that thing.
So hed have to wait out that initial barrage, all the while vacuuming up every scrap of information.
The first strike had hit the top of the monsters head, flash-boiling every drop of water on it and knocking the incredibly long snake for a loop, but most of the energy practically splashed off its scales.
Missile after missile impacted, every strike forcing the monster to shift and contort, locally pushing it around, but barely scratching its scales. And if the shockwaves were affecting its insides, it wasnt showing it.
In ten seconds, the number of nuclear weapons deployed in anger throughout all of history quintupled, and it barely did much. Except for one.
One missile did, through luck or operator skill, smack the monster squarely in one of its house-sized eyes, and that did pop the organ like a muck-filled balloon once it detonated, having already created a ter-thick divot in the mbrane, but it repaired itself in under ten seconds.
Isaac stared at the monster for a long mont as it drew its head back, [Wisdom of the Simurgh] and [Hunters Gaze] active at full blast.
There was sothing different about the new eye, though. It seed duller, sohow, but he got the feeling that the monster would be a lot harder to hurt there.
So, the eyes got less effective but more durable when destroyed. How would that work with other body parts? Would scales just regrow tougher and tougher until the monster could no longer move? Were there any limits to that? Hed been warned that this thing was tough, but it couldnt be invulnerable, right? There had to be a limit and hed find it.
The very instant the final missile had gone off, Isaac had spent the briefest of instants checking to make sure that there wasnt another warhead still in flight, and then, he charged.
His Stats had all increased massively, the altered numbers displayed on his status sheet unlike normal, but Magic Regeneration was labeled as n/a, since it didnt really exist for him anymore. Any mana he spent would be replaced almost instantly from [Final Defiances] pool.
And the sa went for [Aspects of the End], anything he spent would be replaced before the pool could dip even in the slightest.
His movents left behind white trails, his muscles burned with red light beneath his armor and behind the visor, his eyes glowed with rainbow light.
Opposite him, the Leviathan had risen to almost its old height, but upon seeing him charge, sohow, it selected him as a target, surging forward with flas building up at the back of its throat once again.
As he closed in, a titanic burning [Aura] pushed against him, attempting to keep him back, but Isaacs [Aura] had been boosted just like everything else had been.
A tidal wave of fire flooded towards him, but between his astronomical Agility and [Speed of Hati], he dodged the main wave easily but briefly dipped into the corona to assimilate this particular variation. Hed absorbed enough hellfire variants to be almost completely immune to it, but that had been upgraded to absolute immunity now.
And then, he began to assimilate the attack, taking over the hostile attack with [Divine Fires] Level 20 effect.
The Leviathan fought it, of course, and under normal circumstances, Isaac never would have been to try anything, but he had almost five million points of mana to play with. He couldnt freely use it for anything he wanted, but it nonetheless made him ludicrously powerful in many ways, including breaking past certain limits.
It was a strange fla, really, one that acted just like regular fire in every respect save one. It could literally not interact with water, which ant it could not only be freely used underwater, but it would also ignore the water in living beings, making it capable of causing utterly devastating damage.
Enough fire to wipe out a good-sized island was sucked into his hand, compressing into a sphere the size of a basketball, leaving hundreds of imps colored the sa as the Leviathans scales suddenly exposed as they flew through the air. Suddenly visible, they were blasted apart in seconds.
Huh. He hadnt even been able to spot those before, but still, it did make sense that a [World Boss] had minions, and it had had The Living Hellgate among its titles.
And what to do with this fireball? The polite thing would be to return it to sender, but the monster would likely be immune to its own fire. On the other hand, the fire was already struggling to decompress, and he was forced to cannibalize so of it to keep the rest stable. The flas might not do anything, but the shockwave sure as shit would.
Isaac grinned as the monsters jaws snapped shut next to him, its head so huge he could barely perceive it as a living being, it seeming more like an angry asteroid of falling rock than anything else.
He sprinted across the air straight to the previously damaged eye, and with all his might, pushed the fireball past it and into the ocular cavity. Where it exploded. Gorily. ssily. In a way hed never unsee. Unnaable fluids gushed down the side of the monsters face as it roared in pain and fury, unleashing another breath attack, this one just consisting of the sa imps it had previously used.
Once again, the eye began to regenerate, but more slowly than the last ti, and Isaac could tell it was even worse than the first replacent. So they would be able to blind this thing, but it would take a long ti. Probably better to destroy all eyes one by one, instead of focusing on a single one until it was gone for good.
Hed shot past the monster and was now above it, the sky already darkening as the atmosphere thinned, then flipped around and began running earthward, a combination of gravity and kicking at the empty space above him to accelerate pushing him well past normal terminal velocity.
Four massive swords manifested, one held in each hand and glued to the bottom of each shoe with the traction enchantnt, and then, activated [I Am The Sword Activated] in its optimal penetration setting, making him fall like a teor, just in the right mont when the Leviathan was lined up ju-u-ust right, its spine crossing the trajectory of his unstoppable movent not once, not twice, but seven tis.
Isaac crashed through the top of the Leviathans skull, into its brain, out the bottom of its jaw, into the front of its throat, through the spine, and out the back, falling back in the empty air for a bit longer, and finally, right back into the massive coil in the ocean.
With two eight-ter blades and both arms fully extended, he left behind a cut almost eighteen ters long that fully severed the spinal cord in seven places, with the blades on his feet having been largely superfluous.
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Being a boss, the monster had ways around that, nerve signals jumping across the gap or simply being redirected through the surrounding musculature being only the start of it, but every gap would slow down its movent a little bit, all the way until the very end of its body, beyond the seventh cut, which should be severely hampered.
And the best part was that his cooldowns had been reduced by 99%, which ant that that [Skill] would be available again in just 36 seconds.
Of course, hed overshot a little and was now buried a couple of kiloters underground, but hed already phased the very second his [Skill] had ended and erupted straight back out of the ground, holding a freshly manifested fireball.
It splashed across the monsters scales, burning into it and the skin beneath. It should have, considering hed thrown the entirety of his mana pool at it, and itd been enhanced to 20,000 points.
The nukes might have had more raw power, but Isaacs flas were magical, bent for destruction, focused in ways that nukes could not be. They were chaos incarnate, natural forces unleashed by conventional explosives kicking so enriched uranium or plutonium in the ass until it blew a gasket. Good fucking luck structuring that into anything.
Apparently, the pain had made Leviathan forget what had happened the last ti it had breathed fire on Isaac, and tried roasting him again.
He t its aggression head-on, flying up through the stream, gathering it and pulling it behind him, then slamd it right behind the twice broken eye, almost obliterating it.
Compressed fire could cause so serious damage, couldnt it? Why hadnt he done that before?
Right, because compressing flas like that was normally a pain in the ass. But then, sothing had just occurred to him. He could register any flas he wanted, including
Isaac manifested [Protheus Wrath], compressed it, registered the compressed version, and thrust it behind the next eye.
[Protheus Nova] detonated the organ, and the monster focussed its full attention on him, its head chasing after him while its body sped through the water.
Only its front fifty or so kiloters were directly moved towards whatever target it had chosen to delete from existence, but every movent rippled down the entire length of its body, a two-hundred-ter wide mass of scales and muscles unleashing record-breaking tsunamis with even the tiniest shift.
It wasnt that bad yet, with it still largely being coiled up in one spot, but every ti it moved, shifted, stretched, it spread out more and more.
Still, hed largely gotten its number now. The outer layer of scales was tough as fuck, the skin underneath, a little less so. It had anger issues and had trouble learning lessons, sothing that would hopefully last for the entirety of the fight.
Destroying sensory organs would make its senses worse, and while theyd grow tougher and regenerate, the recovery also slowed. Just keep hitting those.
And it had all the usual boss-durability bullshit.
Isaac drew on the [Round Table] before going in for his next attack run.
Japinders [Exemplar Action] could teach everyone who watched it a little sothing sothing about what he did, but it could also perfectly bring across the aning behind his actions. Such as warning his allies where he was going to be even more effective than rely coordinating via the party.
In fact, Isaacs connection to the table had deepened as well, allowing him to reshuffle [Skills] on his own, and use multiple, just like Arthur. Of course, Arthur could still override him, but hed never do that.
The first air strike was about to strike, able to work around him perfectly, but before they hit, he cleared the way for them.
He could repeatedly discharge the entirety of his mana pool with barely any pause in between, and that was exactly what he did.
[Protheus Nova] spam was not sothing even soone entirely focused on their mana pool could pull off, but normal was a label that applied to Isaac even less than it did most of the ti.
Small fireballs slipped under scales, [Champion of Mankind: The Thinker] allowing him to direct every single one.
Once emplaced, the flas burned into the skin a little and went as deeply as possible until holding them together was prohibitively expensive, then promptly detonated, shredding flesh and ejecting the scales above.
It was then that [I Am The Sword] ca off cooldown and he burst through the monster again, unleashing an imnse blast of [Protheus Wrath] in the very instant he passed through the spinal cord, [Stars Heart] draining his physical stamina but leaving behind a massive hole. And his physical exhaustion was wiped from existence as well.
Of course, the monster wasnt happy with any of that, but the thing was that it really couldnt do much to hurt him, specifically. He was too fast, but unlike the normal all speed, all the ti builds, Isaac could inflict damage. Serious damage.
By the ti the fighter jets ca into missile range, the Leviathans raised body portion was practically naked.
And a split-second before impact, one Jean Ardouin finally acted.
His fifth Evolution [Sage-General of Magic and Warfare] was exactly the sa as his [Arcane Warsage], just stronger and with a less snappy na. His [Gates of Hell] had beco a hell of a lot stronger, able to redirect fire from a lot further away, and thered been a similar boost to his other capabilities, but the real gain had been the two central [Skills].
Isaac could picture the man shrink in on himself as he nad them.
[Cry Havoc], [Let Slip the Dogs of War].
[Cry Havoc] was a formation killer, taphorically speaking. It utterly trashed any attempt at making a proper formation and holding to a strategy when used against a group of enemies, but apparently, it could be used against individuals as well.
Like a yo-yo being reeled back in, the giant snake was pulled back together into a single spot, and tied into a knot. Yes, it literally turned the world boss into a knot.
In the anwhile, [Let Slip the Dogs of War] was just the mother of all boosting [Skills].
As an extra fuck you, Isaac threw both [Deaths Embrace] and [Titanic Presence] into his own [Aura] and pushed away the Leviathans flaming [Aura] away from the missiles, ensuring that the monsters first reaction to the attack failed utterly.
And, then he threw in another salvo of novae for good asure sothing was off. That impact had looked weird.
Before he could zero in on what had happened, the missiles hit, supported by countless more heavy projectiles fired through portals manifested by Ardouin, hitting the monster in the split second Dr. Han had struck the tied-down monster with [Tyrants Die], which weakened its stupendous defenses.
For a brief instant, the monster was cloaked in flas, screaming in pain and fury.
But once the damage beca clear, so did the problem.
Its body grows tougher the more its damaged, Isaac stated almost in a daze, before quickly hurrying to explain the entirety of the issue.
The more a body part beca damaged/destroyed, the tougher the remaining bits would beco. At least the boost wasnt as overpowered as the ocular regeneration, and the spine also seed to just beco more durable, as opposed to recovering.
The monsters skin had already grown tougher by thirty or so percent, which ant theyd have to focus on carving big holes into its defenses and shooting through those, else, they might be stuck firing through countless pinpricks.
So, ti to kick ass.
Isaac dumped the entirety of the power remaining in [The Thinker] into novae, blew apart two eyes, and finally triggered [Form of Horror]. Hed shifted things around a bit, creating new forms specifically for this occasion.
[Form of Horror: Blender] was literally just every blade Aspect hed ever slotted, combined into a single package that he ran at the monster with until he started sliding down its body and triggered [I Am The Sword] for the third ti, tearing along it like the worlds largest cheese grater, tearing a massive gash in its defenses.
He supposed he could have used [Form of Horror] more, but there was one small issue with it: he might have had enough mana at his fingertips that it was seemingly infinite, but it did have its limits. And the cooldown reductions were expensive.
Attack after attack landed, with Isaac switching to dual-wielding his giant swords, digging them under scales to flick them off, shallow cuts effectively flaying off the monsters skin in a way that didnt make it significantly tougher.
Anything and everything he could do to ruin this fuckers day.
On occasion, he opened up the distance, granting the others the chance to slip in a nuke or cooldown [Skill], but all in all, for half an hour, he led the [World Boss] on a rry chase across Oceania, and carved it apart to the point where it looked more like a modern art exhibit than a living being.
During that ti, the waves alone had wiped out most of Papua New Guinea, Sulawesi, Timor, and most of Borneo had been utterly trashed. The islands were still there, mostly, but between the waves and the occasional earthquake, massive chunks had been washed away.
Australia and the Philipines had been badly hit as well, but still existed.
And his mana was bottoming out.
So he ran. Straight up.
The Leviathan surged after him, going straight up as quickly as possible.
Then, a form blurred past Isaac, and he knew he was safe.
Convincing Sun Wukong to sit out the first phase had been an achievent worthy of legend and Isaac did not want to know how much the food had cost, but sohow, hed stayed put in orbit until now.
Until soone needed to tag Isaac out and tank a [World Boss].
For his 5th Evolution, hed beco the [Great Sage Equalling Heaven], with two of the most absurd cooldown [Skills] ever at his disposal.
One that granted him the legends ability to transform his hairs into clones of himself, and a second that gave him the form that had kicked the ass of celestial generals.
One hundred and fifty ters tall, three faces, six arms, in full regalia, with three identical staves that looked like they should have been bridges. Crimson eyes burned as the Monkey King, fivefold, dropped into the face of the biblical beast, the imnse weight knocking it straight back down.
Oh, and the Kaiju Form was a hell of a lot denser than Suns regular stone form.
The Leviathans head fell, even its muscles unable to resist what effectively amounted to stone statues dropping from orbit, and right where it would impact, a massive ice spike was growing and being enchanted, perfectly situated to run the monster through.
That should do a nice bit of damage, but right now, it was Isaacs job to recover.
Unfortunately, the monster would still be there when he was all better again.
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