C190: Round Two. Fight
Alt Title: Prototype the Game
Date published: 2/17/2025.
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After Axel had left and the Arena was cleared up, A piece of news was shared with the audience from Axel that he would not be using the same abilities or powers that he has already showcased. This causes a notable outroar as the humans feel he would be potentially handicapping himself. Meanwhile the gods in the upper stadium, primarily Zeus, Hermes and Ares, have finally arrived, having already missed the first fight. They fall under the impression that Axel had overexerted himself and thus could not use that gods power anymore. Yet even as they discuss amongst themselves, the next stage begins.
The main stage of The Ragnarok, God versus Humans began underway. From the god's side was Thor, wielding his Mjolnir, a living hammer larger than his own body. His long red hair paired with his Chiton and Járngreipr, a pair of pitch black iron gauntlets. His body is covered in vein-like patterns that appear closer to circuits than lightning patterns.
His hammer shares these circuit-like patterns but the purpose of them is unknown. He uses these Iron Gauntlets to prevent his own 'monstrous' strength from breaking Mjolnir. Most originally thought that the gloves were there to protect Thor from the heat his hammer naturally emits or prevent any backlash when swinging, yet this is false as his hammer Mjolnir is in fact a living creature.
As such, Thor wears his gauntlets to protect the slumbering hammer creature until it awakens and the gloves are deemed useless.
Opposing Thor is the vilest, strongest, absolute worst Human that has ever existed, Lu Bu, A tall asian man with tattooes coating his body. After some theatrics, Lu Bu holds the Valkyrie turned spear, Sky Piercer. A divine weapon capable of injuring a god even when its user is mortal. Yet it comes at the cost of The Valkyrie themselves bonding with Lu Bu, so if he falls here then they shall both die, if not then their bond shall be eternal.
Goll found out about this bond for the first time and can't help endlessly crying and pleading with Lu Bu to win the fight. Yet as their battle continues and they begin unleashing their best moves, Lu Bu in the end is torn apart and given a warrior's death. The human and his creator acknowledged their equal and endless love for battle in a touching show of battle intent and strength.
But to the on-watching audience, the spectacle was much less suspenseful or impactful as compared to Axel's fight against Shiva. Thors' and Lu Bu's power was certainly awe inspiring, especially with their equally ancient friends and rivals watching from the stands, Lu Bu's own army cheering his name. Even as Lu Bu dies, his army never gives up on him and charges onto the battlefield where they are annihilated by the frustrated Thor. The battle against Lu Bu proved that he is still far from being Axel's own rival as he certainly could not push Axel as far as Shiva did in his transformation.
His hatred was so much that he continued destroying the arena further, even when the entire army was turned into paste and further rendered by lightning into dust did he finally stop. The only thing left of their battle is Lu Bu's dead body and his horses too. Thor makes his way out so he can rest and recover, on-watching what comes next as he evens out the current score against the Humans.
Not too long after Thor leaves, Axel arrives at the arena, he returned back into his teenage state once again. Everyone notices that he has a black cloth wrapped around his arms, likely to stabilize his own injuries as the first official fight had not lasted more than half an hour. In the audience, the advisors and allies of Lu Bu continue to mourn his death. Yet their tears begin to falter as they watch Axel kneel before Lu Bu's body, placing his hands together, he prays for the soul of the fallen legend, with that done. He places his hand on the mortal's body.
Swish. The humans and gods witness that Lu Bu's body seems to Disintegrate and turn into Ashs, Axels hand then falls to the ground where the chunks of flesh and blood lie scattered in the arenas sand. Those too begin to fade and turn to Ash as all their accumulative power flows into Axel.
"hooo" Said person lets out a turbulent breath of air as he clenches and unclenches his fist. "Not bad, In terms of stats, he was comparable to me when I was around early to mid level 4, maybe level 5 if I factor in a bit of the Valkyrie I absorbed." He speaks, mostly to himself yet as he clenches his fist further, the black wrappings on his body explode, revealing his unharmed body to all.
"His strength shall continue to flow through me" he announces to all and that elicits a cheer from the crowd while the gods are also in an uproar but their thoughts are more tempered by fear. "You're serious, that bastard can grow stronger?" "No way" "somebody just kill him already!!" Their rage palpable and Heimdall tries his best to calm the crowd as he announces Axels next opponent.
A member of the younger generation of gods, specifically a demi-god, one who forged his legend by defeating The Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of War and Fate in battle prior to the Ragnarok. He inflicted upon her plentiful scars but while that makes her hate this god with a passion, she wants to be the one to end him. Yet here he stands now, before Axel. A young looking man with a fit body, white hair, a special leather looking set of armor that covers his shoulders, waist and parts of his legs, leaving his chest mostly bare.
Carrying a giant piece of rope entangled within itself to depict a spear, far larger than the youths own body, he carries it on his shoulder with apparent ease. This is Cu Chulainn and his Gae Bolg (yes, the rope is a spear).
Bang, Suddenly Cu Chulainn sets the rope down with a heavy thud that shakes the ground a bit. The people notice Axel has a contemplative look on his face as he seems to extend his fingers one by one as if counting.
"What's on your mind?" The demigod questions Axel as he does some stretches to prepare for the fight.
"Just thinking about what to use to fight against you." "huh?" The demi god is confused by the statement but Axel continues, "I have quite 'inheritances', so I'm pondering which is the best to use against you without it being so overwhelming like it did against Shiva. I want to enjoy the battle a little. I'll be nice and even let you choose. Pick a letter: M, R, or K"
"What is that supposed to mean, I'm supposed to choose a letter? Isn't it normally a number in these types of situations?"
"Well the letters represent the names behind the power I would only use in this fight, only against you. So come on, what's the chance that you choose another otherworldly god's power and be destroyed?" Axel teases which seems to annoy the Celt as he makes his choice, "M, for Morrigan, a fellow god that I had beaten, I'll repeat this feat here against you"
"Hoo, such fire, such passion, really hypes me up. Im ready" Axel exaggerates his reaction as he begins to hop in place, getting ready himself. Heimdall announces the start of the match when the Celt seems to disappear. Many are confused but Axel just turns his head up and finds Cu Chulainn in the air, he had jumped and is swinging his Gae Bolg towards Axel who just like Ra-Horakhty during the canon gods tournament, Axel sidesteps the attack, completely unphased by the dust cloud.
BAM, Axel backhands Cu in the face and he is sent flying away, but after a flip in the air, he orients himself and charges with his horizontal swing of his Gae Bolg once more. Axel completely leans back like he is doing the hardest difficulty of the Limbo, going right under the rope spear. A long cut along the Celt's leg suddenly forms before Axel gets back up.
Axel continues to seemingly only dodge yet Cu Chulainn continues to get more and more injured. The celt is sure that Axel is attacking him but he can't seem to see it.
With another horizontal swing of his Gae Bolg, His right hand suddenly let's go of the rope and he seems to clench at air yet a moment later he finds that some sort of metal spike was a second away from gouging out his eye.
"Oh my, how lewd, I didn't know Celts were so intense with Hand Holding" Axel gives a remark and Cu finally processes what he grabbed. Axel's left hand had stretched and his fingers had condensed or mutated into spikes which he had been clawing away at him this whole time. Undoing the transformation too quickly for anyone to notice.
Still holding onto Axels claw hand, Cu pulls Axel towards him and moves to punch him in the face when Axel's face begins to warp and split into two with a giant jagged maw that is poised to bite down on his hand. Cu tries to pull his hand back or pull Axel's still held arm but that limb just stretches further.
From that extended limb, multiple new blades sprout and claw out at the side of Cu's chest and around the bottom of his right arm or the right side of his right leg. As Axels maw is about to bite down, Cu lets go of Axel and dashes forward, headbutting Axel and sending him flying back by 50 ft.
"Not bad" Axel says as his maw fixes itself back to normal and his long left arm unstretches and returns to normal.
"So what is this 'M' that I chose?." Cu Chulainn questions since the technique was already revealed to all.
"Migi, it's the name of a specific parasyte, not the parasytes race but the specific one who was the source of my power. It's a bug that blooms from a flower that then sends them airborne. Upon landing they rush towards the nearest living being. Upon entering, this race rushes at the creatures brain, taking over their entire body in the process."
"From that point they gather information to act like whatever their new race is like while they continue to also hunger for that same race. So if this parasite possesses a human then it hungers for humans. Their powers are quite interesting as they can freely change their bodies" His left hand itself stretches then reverts back to normal, the next moment the 'bones' of his hand become apparent but with a seemingly metallic sheen while muscles also become visible. The fingers are then converted into claws like it was before.
"In the simplest phrasing of the word, it's Biokinesis, the ability to change one's own, or others' biology. Now in that world, this parasyte had clear limits based on their hosts mass and available flesh or muscles. Yet I don't hold this issue." Axel takes a boxer stance as his right arm is fully changed to showcase the tight muscles, bones and claw hands, yet his hand is clenched into fists as the claws are shorter than normal.
Axel finally takes to the offensive as his legs warp and allow him to close the distance between himself and the Celt. BANG, Axel's augmented fist strikes Cu in the chin which sends his head back but not before Axel hands out a second punch towards the Celts gut.
Then the final move is a whip-like boot as Axel spins. Yet Cu recovers enough that he can at least put his arms up to block the strike in exchange for a heavy whip-like slash to cover both of his hands. After repositioning himself, Axel continues to take the offensive with more of a boxer mentality, sometimes channeling a bit of Asuras aggressive style but not fully utilizing it's abilities.
At this point, Cu's white hair has become bleached with his own blood, his clothes lie on the floor, scattered into pieces from his own attempts to retaliate against Axel.
"It's here" From the stadium a buff woman with white-pink hair, wearing a full latex though with considerable amount of buckles around her thighs. She has an excited expression as she watches what happens next. She remembers back to her own loss, a situation which should have by all accounts flowed in her direction changed at the last minute when Cu unleashed the beast within himself.
Nearby, Zeus also begins to sense the changes in Cu Chulainn as the battle progresses. His attempted counterattacks became more reckless, making him even more injured but also more powerful. He can only theorize that this personality is akin to the Celts other half, his battle mania which was sealed away under his tempered personality and skillful spear use.
As for Axel himself, he pauses in his onslaught as he feels a powerful aura begin to bloom from Cu Chulainn. As if Cu Chulainn was possessed by the spirit of self-doping like Tokita Ohma from Kengan Ashura. Except Axel can easily notice that while Ohma became faster and more reckless, Cu Chulainn instead had an overall performance boost, so much so that he had been landing a few hits on Axel that he couldn't dodge and maintain a perfect appearance.
Not enough to be actually hurt but Axel allows the sight of a few bruises and blood seems to seep out before his body twitches and muscles or bone hide the injury.
BAM. Yet as the battle seems to grow stale at neither the celt nor Axel moving, the audience is shocked at the speed that Cu Chulainn moves as he roughly grabs his spear and horizontally smacks Axel into the far wall. The woman in the audience stands up in excitement, "That's it, that's the Cu Chulainn i'll kill. Only me" The woman who is the Strongest Goddess, Morrigan, states as she strains her body to absorb all that the Celt does in these next moments.
Axel breaks off from the indent he left in the wall as he shakes off the dust, stretching a bit casually, he subtly heals himself. While the attack didn't really hurt him, he had to give the impression for the audience that he was hurt and change the layout of his exposed muscles to signify this. Yet Axel cant help but let a grin become exposed on his face as he further utilizes Migi's ability to compress his muscles far beyond human limits. His body takes on a new bronze hue but anyone can tell that it's a different type of bronze than the previous battle(Asura's darker stone skin coloration).
Axel and the Berserk Cu Chulainn rush at each other. The celt stabs at Axel with his rope spear, Gae Bolg while Axel punches out with his reinforced fist. BOOOM, Cracks line the arena floor where they clashed as they draw into a stalemate, but unlike the celt who has to reposition to attack with his spear again, Axel only has to sidestep before he unleashes the next series of attacks to the Celts chest and face, Bloodying him up even further. He returns the first strike by sending Cu Chulainn all the way to the other side of the arena, knocking up another dust cloud.
SWISH
A hole in the dust cloud from the Celts direction is seen and Axel has to suddenly dodge as something comes flying at him said direction. A sizable explosion is heard as the unknown object collides with the wall but Axel waves away the dust cloud to showcase what looks like a tightly spindled piece of rope, twisted so hard that it's density has increased. Yet Axel can't feel any more energy from it so it is unlikely to move again,
Twip twip twip. Axel is suddenly forced to dodge as the dust cloud by the Celt is destroyed under the onslaught of hundreds, if not thousands of thinly twisted ropes. The giant form of the Gae Bolg naturally is missing due to having shattered into these chunks. It seems Axel's previous stalemate attack against the cursed demonic spear was not for nothing as it brought out its next phase.
Axel begins to zig and zag around, his body morphing all around to dodge or strike at the incoming stakes to knock them aside or break them again. This continues for a solid 2 minutes, truly showing off the Migi's weakness in handling multiple opponents or even ranged combat weakness yet with the brutish style of the gods fighting style of this world. They hold no capability to exploit this supposed weakness.
With all the stakes of the Gae Bolg scattered around, many believed that the fight was over in favor of Axel when a single word was spoken, "Return". The spikes begin to shake and then fly backwards to the one who had just spoken. Cu Chulainn is once again standing tall, his face dark due to all the dried blood while his body is scarred and bloodied with multiple internal injuries. He would need a long time to recover should he win this match.
The spikes regather, connecting, twisting and the final form of Gae Bolg is formed. Parts of the spear seem to wrap around the Celt's body, helping him stand after Axel's brutal attack. The back end of the rope-like spear also seems to be extended to the ground, acting as a form of stabilizer so Cu Chulainn can hold the spear with one hand. The Celt tenses before rushing forward with the spear in hand, the essence of his spearmanship now properly visible as it is no longer treated like a blunt object.
"Sure-Hit, Sure-Kill Cursed Spear: Gáe Bolg" Heimdall announces the name of the Celts technique as Axel can feel the laws of spears compressing upon the Gae Bolg, signifying its connection to Karma and fated strike.
SPULSH, the giant spear stabs into Axel's chest, seemingly eviscerating him as a large chunk of his vital organs. Blood flows from Axel's mouth as he seems to be supported only by the weight of the Gae Bolg. The human audience's expression turns to fear as they fall under the impression that Axel is now dead and the gods have technically obtained another point.
There is a small group amongst the humans who disparage Axel for being overconfident in his abilities but most of them are silenced by other humans who thank Axel for already giving humanity hope by giving them a single point so early in the competition.
"Are you planning to pull out any time soon?" A voice calls out to Cu Chulainn who shakily turns his head back towards Axel, to find that while he is slumped over the Gae Bolg, he has both his arms on it and is casually lying his head down on said arms.
"Im a fan of sticking my 'spear' into other beautiful things as well, primarily my wives, but there is eventually a time I have to pull out. So, get on with it" Axels lewd but casual words don't pair well with the circumstances as he is supposed to be dead due to his heart being destroyed along with all his upper body organs.
"Ah, I guess you still don't realize the situation you're in. I told you all before that I am no longer human so you shouldn't put me on the same pedestal as other humans. Yet you still did and thought just piercing through me was enough to kill me."
Thats right, the karmic and fated power that belong to Gae Bold has no value against someone like Axel whose karma is outside this world. While the spear may stab him, it's power is far below that of the complete miniature Rhongomyniad Axel possesses, which means the Gae Bolg is unable to kill him or even wound him to a certain extent.
As Axel finishes speaking, his body begins to morph one while time, yet this time he does not change his muscles or sharpen his fingers into claws again. Instead his body seems to become droopy before all signs of humanity disappearing as all that is left behind is a star like blue slime sitting on top of the Gae Bolg.
"What! What are you?" SQUELCH. The celt can't help but question but he receives no answer except 2 rapidfire needles into his eyes. Blinding him in an instance as he begins to flail his broken body which is only supported by his spear. Axel's slime body stays on the spear even as multiple thorn like threads stab into him.
The gods in the audience could have never expected such a change of circumstances, from a supposed sure kill technique to a complete Reversal as Cu Chulainn loses his eyes and having already unleashed his killer technique, his madness was lost along with his eyes.
"As I mentioned before, Migi and the parasyte race might be limited under human bodies but i do not possess such weaknesses" Multiple tendrils extend from the slime as they begin to form sharp blades that start to spin like fans in multiple directions. Starting from shredding Gae Bolg into dust, the spinning blades speeding up as they go until only a moment later Cu Chulainn disappears into a cloud of red dust that lingers in the air.
Landing on the ground, the slime body begins to elongate until it retakes its human form. He begins to make his way out of the arena, rubbing his right shoulder from how long the fight took. Afterall, massages still feel good even to someone like him who isn't human. As Cu Chulainn was not part of the official line up, Axel does not speak about Humans gaining another point and just leaves.
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Alt Title: 3762
Word count: Parasyte the Maximum, Sure Kill technique fails, Racial reveal.
(maximum is a play on words since it sounds close enough to Maxim which is the original anime title.)
Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.