"Can't kill him. Whack." Issei muttered, "Guess I ought to look at the bright side—I won't have to deal with any blood on my hands!"

"With this blessing from the Golden God, we get to go all out." Jorgen agreed, "I believe a thanks is in order."

"...Well?" Auros waited.

"Come on, guys." Jorgen looked at everyone else, "Thank him already."

"So you're not gonna be the one to do it!?" Maxwell yelled.

"That's just how Jorgen rolls, keep it cool." Aaron chuckled, "That being the case, we gonna have a do-over or what?"

"Ready when you are, mates!" Schnell dusted himself off before assuming a fighting stance.

This time, however, things were different. Not only did the goal change for the Generals, but they changed for Schnell as well. If he wanted to get out of here alive, he'd have to climb out of this hole in one way or another, and fast. Though the heroes can rely on endlessly thrashing him without mercy due to Auros' promise to keep reviving him, Schnell also seems to be making full use of that as well.

"Tch, dammit..." Schnell got knocked around until he got cornered, "Already? That didn't take long."

"Guess you could say we really wanna get this over with already." Issei smirked, sending him high up with a mighty Disconnect uppercut.

Despite their difference in size, Issei's exoskeleton more than made up for it with the pistons' strength. Schnell had been knocked into the air, but that didn't mean they were done with him just yet.

"Aaron, Maxwell!" Jorgen whistled, dispatching the two into a tandem attack.

Running below the airborne Schnell, Aaron had arched his back for Max to use as a stepping stone. Boosting him high up this way, Maxwell had now gained enough air to properly reach Schnell. Grabbing him by the head, he had spun around crazily to gain angular momentum, which culminated in a mighty throw. The throw was then followed up by Jorgen's sword stabbing him through the chest up against the wall he got sent flying to.

"You guys, did you even hear what I said?" Auros sighed.

"Now, while his body isn't moving!" Jorgen removed the sword from the Grandmaster Adventurer, warning the others to catch him below, "Kick him in!"

And kick he did, for Issei was standing at the ready, lining up the same Dropshot finished he used the first time he had killed him. The man tumbled and rolled down the center of the arena, where the Hellhole lay opened. The closer he got, the more speed he lost, and as the heroes held their breaths in wholeheartedly... He fell in.

"Phew." Pierre sighed in relief.

"Let this be a lesson." Auros snapped his fingers, "Always follow your opponent until they're gone for good."

Worried about the implications behind his advice, the heroes ran to the hellhole to find a lone hand tightly grabbing onto the edge. Schnell, in all his desperation to not spend the rest of eternity trapped in Hell, had once again risen from the dead in the nick of time to lift himself up before he fell in. They failed a second time now.

"I like teamwork, it gets the job done." He said as he lifted himself up, "But I don't really like it when I'm the punchin' bag!"

By this point, Jorgen was already midway through lunging at him at top speed. What ensued was a flurry of swift punches swifter than a speeding bullet. Each and every one was blocked thanks to Schnell's adaptation to Going Solipsistic. They were on equal footing, surprisingly, and yet it almost felt unfair.

"Not good." Pierre cursed.

"What?" Issei asked.

"You don't get it?" He continued, "Every time that man revives, he's in tip top shape. No injuries, no fatigue. My brother on the other hand, just can't keep up."

Exactly as he had predicted, Jorgen was launched straight off the battle arena, with the only saving grace being Auros who had grabbed him and stopped him from falling down into the moat of lava surrounding the platform. With their most menacing fighter out for the count, they now had to think a lot more carefully when it came to how they were gonna beat Schnell this time.

"Heal him!" Pierre begged the Fighting God.

"I'm already pouring all my Focus into making sure Douglas doesn't die!" Auros roared back, "I can't take care of all of you chumps! Do your part properly and don't make me mad!"

It seemed the Fighting God already had his hands too full to help out any more. The heroes truly did only have their own strength to rely on now.

"What the...? Crap!" Issei noticed some smoke coming out of his backpack before throwing it away from him, "Shit, the components melted together from the surrounding heat!"

"What's that? No more fancy tools to help you fight, little man?" Schnell slapped his knee, "Phah! Looks like luck's on my side, then! I do feel bad, want me to put on a handicap?"

"Don't mess with us!" Maxwell tackled him to the ground, "Asshole, just stop resisting already!"

Punch after punch, Max made sure Schnell's face got so swollen up that he couldn't see properly anymore. Certainly, if they wanted Schnell to put on a handicap, then this would be the best way to do it. While that was going on, a lone Issei mourned the death of his lovely gadget backpack.

"Think about that later, Foreigner." Auros pushed him away from it, "You've got a mission to fulfill first."

"But... I'm useless without my weapons!" He noted, "What the hell do you want me to do, trip him over into Hell?"

"I don't care how you do it, just don't stand there being useless." The Golden God groaned, "Come on now, Foreigner! Fight like it's your last one!"

----------------------------------------

***

----------------------------------------

As Issei finally stood back up from his spot, the Generals were busy fighting for their lives. With each and every attempt at shoving the Grandmaster Adventurer into Hell, they only kept losing steam, as well as manpower. It was just impossible to keep up with a man whose stamina leaned towards infinity. At this point, they were already running low on fumes.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"Hey!" Schnell called out to Issei from across the stage, "Everything alright? Didn't get burned, I hope."

"You care about me that much? I'm flattered."

"No, not you! The backpack!" He frowned, "You had a bunch of goodies in there. It'd be a shame if they went to waste."

"Don't worry about that, I've got plenty of spares back home." Issei feigned confidence as he gulped away the uncertainty, "You done having fun with the Generals? 'Cause if you are, then how about we call it a day and send you back into that large gaping hole there?"

"You trying to die here, kid?" Schnell cracked his knuckles, "Cause this is how people die."

The only two left standing. All of the Generals had been defeated, and Auros was already way too busy making sure no one dies to jump in to help Issei himself. Quite literally, the battle was reaching its conclusion... in one way or another.

"...Dammit." Issei could barely keep his cool as he took his shirt off, shivering with each step as he approached the giant enemy standing before him, "I wanna go home...!"

"Oi, the hell are you doing?" Schnell raised an Eyebrow, "Don't tell me you're gonna start smacking me with a sweat drenched shirt? What are we, workmates on break?"

"Shut up..." Issei kept approaching him, ripping the shirt into a long piece of string and tying it tightly around his waist.

It seemed whatever he had planned couldn't be good. Schnell hadn't expected the thin, skinny man to do this, which actually made him a bit wary. One side of the string still dangled behind Issei, trailing from his back as if some sort of tassel. With all his preparations done, Issei had lunged full speed at the Grandmaster Adventurer.

"That won't work." Schnell sighed with a great deal of disappointment, "You saw how that panned our for your friends, and they actually looked like they fought for real once or twice. The hell are you gonna do without your strength armor?"

No backpack, no armor, and not even a shirt anymore—That was the current state Issei had found himself in. A hopeless situation through and through, where no matter how you sliced it, he had to just try his best and hope for victory to come his way. His lunge was slow and sloppy now that he didn't have the pistons of the Disconnect to speed it up, and Schnell could dodge every attack without even Going Solipsistic. Hell, had they not been surrounded by lava, he wouldn't have even broken a sweat in doing so. Still, Issei had gotten close... Within stabbing distance, at least.

"Ack!" Schnell laughed after pushing him away, "Guess you killed me, huh? A hidden knife, I should've expected as much!"

"Heh, look again!" Issei smirked, pointing to his stomach.

Checking the would-be wound proved quite astonishing. Schnell had expected a knife gash to stand where his appendix would roughly be, but in its stead was just a pencil. A bit of blood, sure, but whatever damage Issei had caused with stabbing him certainly didn't make it far past the outer skin layer. Schnell wouldn't die from this, so he's not gonna be getting his health back anytime soon either.

"Still don't get it." Schnell scratched his head, "So what, you stabbed me with a pencil? I guess it did kinda hurt, but if that's your plan, then I strongly suggest you toss yourself into the lava over there."

"See kids, this is why you should stay in school." Issei tightly clenched the mystery item in his palm before tossing it Schnell's way, "Cause if you did, then you'd understand what's about to happen!"

As the item flew through the air, it had been revealed to be a kilovolt battery of one of the burning items from Issei's backpack. He must have ripped it out while he was staring at the backpack, and thankfully the piece had a ton of currents passing through it still. The component hit the pencil dead on, not only pushing it deeper into the man's stomach, but also causing an added and deadly effect!

"Gyahhh!" Schnell fell to the ground in pain, "What is this!?"

"You didn't know? Lead pencils are highly conductive." Issei mocked him, standing casually in front of the incapacitated Schnell, "A ton of amps passing through cause a little known thing called heat to start getting produced. I just needed a proper way to close the circuit, and what better way than with your own body!"

Now, Schnell was the one on the backfoot, and yet he didn't die. He was incapable of standing up, all his muscles had seized up completely, yet Issei couldn't do anything to push him into Hell just yet. He had effectively done nothing, for even touching this man with a stick now would only send the shock back to Issei. They were at a mutual deadlock, and all Issei could do was use this time to rest up until it was safe to touch Schnell again. The Fighting God, Auros, was satisfied with this victory though.

"Bravo! I love it when the underdog wins!" Auros clapped and cheered for Issei, "Foreigner, you're not half bad! But what's the point of ripping the shirt and tying it around your waist like that?"

"The shirt..." He glanced down at Schnell, "Insurance."

Though this insurance still hadn't made itself apparent just yet, Issei was happy with the results he had shown so far. Beating such a strong adversary as Schnell without even having the privilege to rely on his backpack just showed how good Issei was at quick thinking. He sat down to rest, for he could do nothing else. A well deserved breather until the battle continues soon enough.