Jonathan sparred with the angel, trying to get a better idea of its weapon abilities. He was not going to win this battle through brute force. He needed to do it through skill. As he fought, he realized that the Cherubim possessed little in the way of actual weapon mastery, and it seemed to rely solely on its overbearing physical stats and elemental attacks to fight. When every strike landed with the force of a missile, there was little need to work on sword forms.

However, Jonathan was skilled enough, and strong enough, to even the gap somewhat, and at the cost of a few devastating strikes, he was able to inflict more damage on the glowing centerpiece of the angel’s body with his Void abilities, causing it to diminish in brightness noticeably. In response, the assaults had only sped up, and Jonathan quickly came to realize that the angel had been holding back the entire time when it suddenly put on a turn for speed that let its sword swoop past his defenses and slam into his neck piece faster than he could even see.

His windpipe was crushed, and he was sent skidding backwards with his neck almost broken. Gasping for air that would not come, Jonathan shook his head as his windpipe regenerated itself. Although he didn’t rely on air as much anymore, it was still very disconcerting to suddenly be unable to breath. However, it was far from the life threatening injury that it would have been on Earth.

He got to his feet as the angel swooped in, and its sword came down like a bar of silvery light, moving so fast that the air itself seemed to heat up before its passing. Jonathan had tuned out the various sonic booms from the battle, but he realized that every single time the angel struck, it was causing one. No wonder it was so hard for him to catch up.

In a few rare strikes, when he put his entire body behind it, Jonathan could break the sound barrier, but he could sense that the Cherubim was attacking like this as a matter of fact. Its true strength would be far faster. So far, he had not taxed it enough to be able to draw out its full power.

After the little brush with death with his windpipe, Jonathan quickly realized that his base state would not cut it. It would simply lead to a battle of attrition that could only go one way. With a snarl, the golden light of Divinity rippled across his form, granting him great power for the new few minutes. The actual effect of the skill was not as potent as it had used to be, but because of his heightened Divinity pool, he could draw more out of it. Skills in this world did not have set energy costs, and they scaled with how much power one put into them.

With ten points of Divinity, an energy source that was far more potent than things like mana or stamina, he was able to boost his vastly inflated stats with it to the same degree that he had been upon coming to this world, with far fewer levels under his belt.

As the next strike came flying in, Jonathan caught it on his gauntlet, tightening his hand around the sword. With a quick use of his stamina redirection skill, he tore the blade out of the cherubim’s hand, and threw it to the side. Rushing in, he drove a hard right punch into the monster’s shield, and knocked it off balance. It flew backwards, and as he rushed in, his hands glowing with the Void, it screamed, letting out a note of pure celestial rage. A shockwave erupted out of its body, and knocked Jonathan backwards, doing something to his cells that caused him to stumble when he rose. It felt as if he was viewing things through a funhouse mirror.

Checking his System log, something that he rarely did in battle, he found out what he had been affected by. He only had time to briefly scan it, but it turned out that he was under the effects of something called Cellular Reorganization, which would make it a lot harder for him to fight. Even worse, with no healing abilities, there was no real way for him to deal with it except for burning more Divinity.

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He pulsed the golden energy through his body, managing to get his sense in some semblance of order before the angel charged him again, picking up its sword with a tether of light that extended from its free hand.

He raised his gauntlets to block just in time as it brought the weapon down, and he was pummeled into the earth, sinking into the ash and stone from the sheer force of the blow. The angel whaled on him for a few seconds, sending dozens of strikes in that time, and he was only able to block or narrowly evade them.

Eventually he got his bearings however, and was able to erupt out of the hole, dodging the next strike with a quick roll to safety. His body was battered from the experience, but he still had some gas left in the tank. Whirling around, he pumped stamina into his right hand. layering it with his Void energy and spare Divinity. With a roar, his fist passed through the air like a thunderbolt, slamming into the angel’s backside.

There was a thunderous eruption of energy as his fist discharged its load into the angel, and the creature briefly was blasted apart, before recorporating a moment later. However, its light was even dimmer than before. It whipped its sword around, and slashed across his breastplate, sending him a few steps backwards, and breaking a few ribs on the way. As the angel realized that it would be unable to do anything to him as it was, it keened in rage and threw its shield to the side, taking up its sword in two hands.

It came towards him at higher speeds than before, and raised its sword above its central body, building up power. A blaze of white light erupted around the blade and it brought it down, sending its weapon speeding towards Jonathan. It was moving too fast for him to dodge, and he only had time to meet it with a strike of his own.

With a roar, he sent his fist flying up to meet the strike, empowering it as much as he could in the limited timeframe. The two attacks collided, and both fighters were blasted backwards, with Jonathan taking injuries from the attack. His bones crumpled midair as a shockwave passed through his body. However, the angel flickered as well, as a wave of Voidlight coursed through its shimmering center. In its briefly weakened state, it was not better off than Jonathan was. He rushed forwards, cringing as pain erupted through his broken bones, and sent his fist careening into the center of the angle, discharging thousands of points of Void aspected mana. The creature was blasted apart, and its hands started to fade. With a howl of mana, it forced itself back into reality.

“You are far too powerful for your level. What foul magics do you use?” The angel asked, seemingly confused.

“In the simple words of a gaming veteran, get good,” Jonathan replied with a smile.

As the angel tried to parse what he meant, he raced towards the creature, sending another punch rocketing in towards its center. The angel dodged, flitting aside on pinions of light, and sent its sword streaking towards his neck. Jonathan parried the blow, wincing as his wrist was almost broken, and sent his left hand into the monster’s body. It was near the end of its rope, but so was he. He was only in fighting shape because of his ridiculous endurance and his level.

Jonathan drew more power to his hands, and blasted the monster’s guard aside with his right, sending both hands into its body. With a scream, he emptied his mana into the creature, causing its body to explode. Essence entered him in a steady stream, sending him up an entire two levels. Other notifications waited for him as well.

You have upgraded a title!

Giantslayer:Epic->Greater Giantslayer:Legendary

In defeating a being over fifty levels higher than you, you have shown that your tenacity and power has no bounds. This highly impressive feat was made only greater by the fact that you were facing an opponent uninhibited by the lower tier mana of the realm. You are a monster in the making.

Bonuses:+5% to Strength, +5% to Resilience