*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
The battle between Charlie and Heracles had become a natural disaster amidst Tokyo's ruins.
Shockwaves from each clash mercilessly battered surrounding buildings, toppling weakened structures and turning rubble into dust.
Thick dust clouds billowed high, adding to the gloom of the already darkened sky.
The fight had raged for ten minutes. Charlie had lost count of how many times his body absorbed Heracles' impacts.
His Armor of Fafnir worked relentlessly, neutralizing lethal damage, but the pain and fatigue accumulated. Most frustratingly, despite his desperate efforts, he had failed to reduce even one of Heracles' twelve lives.
"ROAARRRR!"
With a resounding fury, Heracles swung his Sword-Axe in a vertical slash defying physics, aiming to cleave Charlie from head to toe.
Seeing the massive weapon's shadow eclipse his vision, Charlie tightened his grip on Terminus Est and raised it to block the attack.
*CLANG!!!*
The impact was so intense its sound was deafening. The force behind Heracles' swing was tremendous, forcing Charlie to one knee. The ground beneath him couldn't withstand the pressure; it crumbled, forming a small crater around his knee.
"Ugh..."
His arm and shoulder muscles trembled violently, bearing thousands of kilograms from the Sword-Axe. Charlie felt as if he were holding back a collapsing mountain.
(This can't go on. I need to push back.)
"Physical Enhance!"
A faint white light enveloped his body, emanating from within. Using Spirit Art, he temporarily doubled his physical strength.
"AAAAAAH!!!"
With a shout shattering the battle's silence, Charlie pushed back with all his newfound power. His muscles strained, and miraculously, the giant Sword-Axe was flung upward, disrupting Heracles' balance for a split second.
This was his chance!
Charlie seized the fleeting opening. His Terminus Est pierced straight into Heracles' chest.
*PU-CHI!*
The sound was clear and deadly. Before the Holy Sword, even Heracles' steel-hard skin and muscles were powerless. The blade penetrated easily, shredding the heart of Greece's greatest hero.
In an instant, the light in Heracles' crimson eyes faded. His tremendous vitality vanished, and his mighty body stiffened before he knelt.
"The first one. Eleven lives left."
Charlie's voice was flat and joyless. He swiftly withdrew Terminus Est from Heracles' chest and leaped back, maintaining a safe distance.
He knew it wasn't over.
And indeed, before the dust from Heracles' falling body could settle, a miraculous phenomenon occurred. Red light enveloped his body. The chest wound—a fatal one—closed rapidly, as if it had never existed. Life surged back into him.
"ROAAARRRRR!!!"
With a deeper, angrier beastly roar than before, Heracles revived. His crimson eyes blazed with renewed intensity, as if harboring rage at being "humiliated" by death once.
God Hand had revived him. One life spent, but eleven remained.
*BAM!* *CRASH!* *BOOM!*
After revival, Heracles' attacks grew wilder and more unstoppable.
Meanwhile, Charlie found himself constantly pushed into defense. Each Sword-Axe swing carried fortress-wall-toppling force. He relied on Shukuchi and Mind's Eye to evade lethal strikes, but shockwave impacts and flying debris were unavoidable.
*CLANG!*
A horizontal slash aimed at his waist was parried with Terminus Est, but its tremendous power still hurled him aside. His body crashed into a rubble pile, shattering fragile concrete.
*WHOOSH!*
He shot forward again, Terminus Est slashing swiftly at Heracles' neck. But this time, something different happened.
*CLINK!*
Instead of penetrating skin, the holy blade rebounded with a sharp clang, leaving only a thin white scratch. Heracles didn't even flinch.
(I knew this would happen. Rule-based abilities are so annoying.) Charlie thought irritably.
After revival via his Noble Phantasm God Hand, Heracles had gained resistance to Terminus Est. The Holy Sword could no longer harm him the same way.
(But not all bad. This fight gives me an advantage too. Like how Kaido indirectly taught Luffy about Haki.)
Despite the dire situation, Charlie realized something extraordinary: his swordsmanship was improving at an astonishing rate.
He had the Prodigy Swordsman skill in his Status. And now, in this life-and-death battle against one of history's greatest legendary heroes, that talent blazed with unprecedented intensity.
(A little more... I feel my swordsmanship is about to reach a breakthrough.)
Realizing this, his strategy shifted. Seeing Heracles completely ignore defense and focus on total destruction, Charlie decided to do the same.
He relied on his Armor of Fafnir—a conceptual armor making him immune to attacks below B-rank. Though Heracles' strikes still hurt and could wound him, they weren't enough for instant death while the armor was active.
Thus was born a spectacle of warriors ignoring defense, raining blows with a single focus: ATTACK.
*CLANG!* *CLANG!* *CLANG!*
Wild sparks flared like fireworks marking each clash between the silvery Terminus Est and the Sword-Axe. Both weapons moved at impossible speeds for human eyes to follow, leaving overlapping afterimages and deceptive silhouette illusions.
*WHOOSH!*
Charlie's body spun like a top, evading Heracles' skyscraper-slicing horizontal slash, only to counter with a series of low thrusts from Terminus Est aimed at crippling leg tendons. But Heracles, honed by Age of the Gods instincts, moved before the attacks landed, his Sword-Axe whirling overhead to create a steel fan shield deflecting every thrust.
*WHOOSH!*
*WHOOSH!*
They chased and dodged through the ruined landscape, their feet shattering cracked asphalt, leaving new destruction trails with every step. Their speed made them seem to teleport from point to point, appearing only to clash for split seconds before vanishing again in explosions and debris.
No more room for elaborate strategies or cautious defense. This was brutal raw power versus refined skill.
Heracles relied on immense strength and his immortal body, charging like an unstoppable storm.
Charlie countered with his own assaults, his body blurring as he exploited every gap in Heracles' near-perfect defense.
*BZZZZTTT—*
The air itself vibrated and crackled around them, torn by their movement speed. Amid this chaos vortex, where one mistake meant death, Charlie's swordsmanship continued to refine.
*PU-CHI!*
The gruesome sound pierced the battle's din. Heracles' Sword-Axe finally found an opening, landing a deep slash across Charlie's chest. Flesh and muscle tore, revealing a horrific flash of white ribs beneath. Sharp, burning pain seared his nerves, nearly forcing unconsciousness.
Yet, on the brink of pain and fading awareness, Charlie's awaited moment arrived. He achieved swordsmanship enlightenment. It wasn't mere improvement; it was Perfection!
"This is it!"
"ROAAARRRRR!"
With beastly instinct, Heracles sensed the dangerous change in his foe. So, he launched a final attack, a swing promising certain death.
But...
*WHOOSH!*
The world seemed to skip a frame. In less than 0.01 seconds, Charlie was no longer in front of Heracles.
His figure appeared ten meters behind, standing tall. Terminus Est in his hand remained in slashing position, its blade clean of blood.
"Ten lives left."
"...?"
Before Heracles realized what happened, a fine, perfect line appeared across his waist. Then, his upper body began sliding and separating from the lower. His bisected body thudded to the ground in two heavy sounds.
But it wasn't over. If observed closely, the space around Heracles' severed body rippled like disturbed water. Fine black cracks, like shattered glass, appeared and vanished in the surrounding air.
Seconds later, God Hand activated. The two body parts fused, and he revived for the second time. But as he rose, new wounds suddenly appeared—deep, random cuts, as if inflicted by invisible blades.
These were remnants of the spatial cracks Charlie created, still tearing reality around him briefly.
"Thank you, Heracles. Thanks to you, I've finally perfected my swordsmanship beyond previous limits."
While using Dia Fratel to close his horrific chest wound, Charlie sincerely expressed gratitude. His swordsmanship had reached perfection.
Don't be fooled by how easily he seemed to crack space with a sword before. This feat wasn't simple. It required a combination of many factors.
In short, it wasn't easy. That's why Charlie hadn't used swordsmanship to trigger spatial cracks against Heracles earlier.
After all, the ability to manipulate and even slash space itself was exceedingly rare in any Planar World.
And now, with perfected swordsmanship, Charlie could do it almost effortlessly.