This battle was going on for a while and unfortunately, the Spartan had not made much progress. While yes, he had been able to distract the titan for some time with all the statues, he wasn’t able to do any lasting damage. The armor was far too strong, and he could not do any lasting damage with his spear to the flesh. This meant that there was no way to do any serious damage at all.

Which meant there either had to be an Achilles’s heel to exploit or to bleed out the titan. There were some problems with two of those options: the Achilles’s heel was something he had to find here and now and even through all the attacks, there were no signs of any weaknesses. The bleeding out was something he did not believe would even exist, as this titan had been bleeding for quite some time and still hadn’t perished yet.

Though, there was one thing that he noticed that was quite interesting: the wounds he had inflicted upon the titan had not healed at all. The problem was that the monster did not care about any of those injuries at all, merely letting its lifeblood leak out of its open wounds. That meant the wounds did nothing at all, nor did the bleeding take an effect. Despite it not regenerating, there was one thing, the Spartan could figure, that kept it alive.

There had to be a flesh protrusion somewhere that kept it alive and walking. The mystical ability that was able to maintain this bastard continue onwards with false life, something that should be taken care of as fast as possible. Though, the question became: where?

Where on earth would this hidden weakness be? He couldn’t path into the flesh to find it, the stone statue distraction didn’t last long enough to… to…

He turned to one of the stone statues. What if… Perhaps…

He went ahead and slammed a spear into the nearest statue, destroying the head completely. He then stomped on all the remnants remaining, breaking down every bit of the body to try some kind of flesh that could be housed within. However, he found nothing at all that could act as the housing material for flesh, meaning all this had been for naught. These truly were nothing more than stone statues made in the shape of a praying human being.

He couldn’t help but scowl at this news. There went a possible means forward, which meant he truly did have to stab all over to find something to destroy this titan. He went ahead to grab another stone statue to throw, before realizing something.

The titan was staring right at him with pure hate behind its gaze. With a single growl, it lifted its ballista and opened fire once more, before disappearing in a blink.

The Spartan quickly moved and used his divinity to divert the attack away from him, but he was able to tell that he was in danger. The titan was dashing towards him right at this time from the side, which meant he had to move fast. He tried to focus on his divinity to move away from the area, but he was far too slow with his divinity and his own instincts.

The titan kicked him. Hard. He could hear his bones crack and shatter, his flesh burned with pain as he flew across the room from the sheer attack. He slammed against the wall and his entire body shook hard, with his teeth chattering as he fell onto the ground. His whole body was in pain, and he almost blacked out.

The only reason he stayed conscious was because his divinity warned him of the titan coming in to stomp right down on his head. He scrambled up quickly and navigated a path far away from the incoming attack, going towards the other end of the room in the nick of time as the titan struck. His foot slammed onto the ground, making the room shake and tremble with a single stomp.

This battle was unwinnable. He had to leave, right here, right now. He turned towards the entrance to the hallway and began to hobble away. There was no way for him to succeed anymore, he needed to recover, needed to find something to turn the tides once more. He–

Found himself staring at the titan’s leg. His eyes widened. How? His divinity hadn’t warned him, he could not even detect the movement this time around. No, this wasn’t possible, unless… No.

This monster. Did it adapt to my divinity and find a way to move without being detected by my capabilities?

He scrambled, but he was unable to dodge. He was grabbed and lifted into the air. The titan looked at him with a baleful glare, one full of hatred. The anger was one that was rather unnatural, something that seemed to have sprouted from nowhere. Though, there was something that could have an explanation: the statue.

He should have known. The way this titan was treating them with respect, with how it diligently placed them down onto the benches…

That was a mistake. He should not have done anything to those statues, and simply continued using his advantage to try to probe for a weakness. But now, he was going to die. This time, there was truly no means to get away or defeat this titan with his spear.

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But that did not mean he was going to go down without a fight. He lifted his spear and started to stab into the wrist constantly, hoping that the damage done should have inflicted some pain to this monster. Either that, or his weapon could go through enough flesh in time to allow him to dismember its hand and give him the chance to run away.

Except that wasn’t what happened. After his fifth stab, the monster slammed him against the wall. Not strong enough to do any truly lasting damage, but enough to loosen his grip on the spear and make his weapon drop onto the ground. Now he was without weapon or capability.

But he still refused to give up. He sunk one of his hands into the open wounds he had made earlier and focused all of his divinity within. He focused to try to find a way to bypass its defenses to see if he could do any lasting damage, anything at all. He had to do something to fight back, whatever the means.

There was no change. His divinity was not strong enough to bypass its supernatural defense. At this moment, he had truly no means to defend anymore. Perhaps he could flee?

He tried to navigate a path out of his circumstances, but nothing could come out. His divinity wasn’t able to successfully get him out of this grip and at this moment, he was truly done.

This was the end. This time for real. There was no way out now. He had truly done everything to escape and was found wanting. He could not escape anymore.

But, just because he was going to die now did not mean he wasn’t going to go without a fight. He started to dig his fingers into the open flesh and started to rip and tear out bits of meat out as much as possible, only to spite the titan. At least, until he was being lifted into the air as the titan prepared to slam him into the ground. He couldn’t prevent the scream that was coming out of his mouth as he found himself flying to the ground at such high speeds that he would become nothing more than paste. At that moment, in his weakest moment, someone intervened.

In a single second, he found himself in the hand of the titan to in the grip of another human being. He blinked, before looking up and finding himself staring at the Crusader.

What? Why was he here? No, more importantly, how did he get him out of the grip of the titan?

The Spartan turned his eyes towards the bastard and his eyes widened. The hand that had been holding him hostage was on the ground now, with a giant puddle of blood underneath. The titan was gripping the open wound with one of its hands, the ballista on the ground.

How? How was this possible? This man, who had not received a single upgrade at all, managed to do significant damage? How had he been able to do all of this when he himself had not been able to do any lasting damage whatsoever previously, even with his spear and all of his capabilities?

He looked the person up and down. There were no differences in armor at all, except for one thing.

The sword. The sword the man had used so much earlier was holstered by his hip, with the giant greatsword that was held in the corpse earlier held in his grip. That weapon seemed to glimmer with some kind of white smoke that surrounded the whole being, which gave off a pure hint of power.

He had no words. Why did this man take the weapon but not the armor? Why did he leave behind such useful defenses and continue forward with his battle damaged armor to take on this monster? No, more importantly, why did he save him?

Before he had the chance to ask any questions, he was put down on the ground and given a few bottles.

“Drink.” The Crusader stated, “It would be best if you were able to ignore any of the pain you have so that you can continue fighting. I fear that this monster is something that requires both of our abilities to defeat. You can do something with that, yes?”

The Spartan didn’t say anything. Rather, he took one of the bottles and kept an eye on the titan. The monster still had yet to regenerate the fallen hand, but it had proceeded to rip the trident out of its shield in preparation to fight. Though, that meant they still had to deal with the battleaxe and the shield, but that should be doable. With his divinity and his associate’s super speed, victory was now possible.

He uncorked the bottle and downed the whole thing. Any flavor that he would have enjoyed were thrown out the window as he focused on trying to figure out a plan. Once the bottle was empty, he tossed the thing and spoke.

“The ballista will automatically reload and shoots explosive bolts. The shield will regenerate any damage done to it, the battleaxe can attack you despite its range, and the trident can summon lightning bolts. The titan is fast and far capable of attacking, and it can get distracted.”

“So we can win, then.”

“Indeed.” He nodded, before standing. Any pain he should have felt was no longer there as the alcohol did its job. He felt numb and there was nothing that could make him quite scared anymore. Liquid fire burned through his blood as he started to navigate multiple paths to defeat this titan.

“Alright. Let us disarm and dismember the titan. I’ll navigate the paths that you need to take, reserve your abilities for when it is truly needed. You have a far limited amount, and here and now, it is the ace in the hole that we truly need.”

“Understood.” The Crusader got his sword ready, “Then launch me to this vile monster and allow us to do what is necessary.”

The Spartan couldn’t help but smile at those words. With a deep breath, he activated the first path forward. His associate began to move forward and found himself right at the left leg of the titan. He did not hesitate or act shocked by the sudden movement, nor did he stop to figure out what to do. The man acted on instinct and stabbed through the gaps of the armor to strike deep into the knee.

The attack struck true. The titan roared as the Crusader swiped left and right, before ripping his sword out. The Spartan pathed him back away, just in time to avoid the titan’s collapse.

He couldn’t help but break out a smile. This was possible. They could win now.