Chapter 37: The Battle Begins
Logically speaking, as one—or rather, a group—of Godslayers about to clash with a group of gods, the former should be very happy and eager.
However, Hikigaya and the others did not ascend Mount Aobayama with such a mood.
The reason was simple: when the Godslayers were climbing the mountain and breaking through the monkey army's defenses with various flashy moves, planning to make a grand entrance like a handsome guy before the battle started, suddenly large flocks of birds unexpectedly fell upon them like rain.
Actually, falling birds wouldn't matter, but if it was a bunch of uncontrollable birds pooping everywhere, that was really disgusting.
Voban said that in all his years, it was the first time he used his divine power to resist bird droppings! This old man declared that from now on, he would no longer be friendly to birds and was planning to become the future Earth's top "bird slayer."
Putting aside Hikigaya and Luo Hao for the moment, Doni's psychological trauma wasn't small either—or rather, he was in a state of utter misery—because his body reacted faster than his mind, and for the first time in his life, he had actually used his sword to slash at feces.
Coincidentally, the straightforward and blunt Hikigaya casually called him "the poop-slasher king," which caused Doni's mental state to become unstable from then on.
In short, this incident was very unpleasant, and the Godslayers took it as an expression of disdain from their enemies.
As a result, when these elders climbed the peak, they were filled with murderous intent—more passionate than ever before when facing mortal enemies.
Without verbal communication, the four Godslayers simultaneously launched their attacks upon seeing their opponents.
Hikigaya leapt up, smashing the auspicious clouds beneath the Great Sage Equal to Heaven's feet with a punch and blocking the latter's staff strike aimed at his ribs.
Luo Hao immediately appeared before another ape god using her sorcery, unleashing her Flying Phoenix Twelve Palms and creating afterimages as she fought the armed deity.
In comparison, Voban and Doni's styles seemed rougher.
Doni, upon seeing Perseus, immediately ignited his sword's aura, while Voban transformed into a werewolf and dodged the knight god's preemptive strike, then turned and left a shocking bloodstain on the opponent's mount with a claw.
Overall, the gods did not expect the Godslayers to strike without warning; except for the silent knight god who took the initiative first, the other three deities were somewhat caught off guard.
But divine realms don't gain advantage from sneak attacks; this sudden fierce battle gave neither side any benefit nor loss, only the mountain peak suffered.
The highest peak among the sunlit mountains was instantly gouged out by the powers of eight transcendents, with divine energy wrapped around exploding rocks that first soared into the sky, then rained down upon the entire mountain range, creating a catastrophic apocalypse-like scene.
Obviously, for eight divine beings of godly realm power, this mountain was too small.
Seeing this, Hikigaya furrowed his brow, dodging the Great Sage's enthusiastic staff strike, and turned like the wind, flying toward another peak.
"Hey! Godslayer, where are you going? Trying to run away?" The Great Sage immediately followed, riding on clouds, shouting all the way.
Hikigaya ignored him and just flew, stirring the wind and tossing stones and such behind him.
To ensure enough power, he added a little extra, like Set's flames and so on.
From behind came a chaotic clamor; presumably not only the Great Sage but others—or the gods—got hit as well.
To be honest, setting aside the gods, the few Godslayers were quite sensitive to things falling on their heads today.
Hikigaya thought the slapping sounds coming from Luo Hao's side seemed much louder…
"Oops, sorry about that," he thought to himself.
If Luo Hao asked later, he would just say it was the monkey's fault—monkey throws stone at stone, perfectly reasonable, no problem.
Before long, a bell-shaped volcano appeared ahead, and Hikigaya descended.
But just as his feet landed and before he could even greet the place, a sharp sound of air being cut pierced his ears.
This damn monkey really had no patience, not even giving a moment to turn around.
Hikigaya used his footwork and keen hearing to dodge several staff strikes, while the ground beneath was smashed, scattering rocks and creating pits bigger and bigger.
"Are you playing whack-a-mole?" he got angry. "Let me say something first."
Though he said that, the air behind him began to tremble, turning into a roaring shockwave.
Seizing the moment, he finally turned to face the Great Sage.
The shockwave behind him sliced off dozens of meters of ground, turning it into a flying sandstorm that swept skyward.
In mid-air, the Great Sage was swinging his Golden Cudgel like a wind-fire wheel, quickly creating a hurricane no weaker than Hikigaya's, clearing away the sandstorm and landing back on the ground.
"Not bad, I appreciate your move," the Great Sage's eyes showed the joy of facing a worthy opponent. Pointing his cudgel at the sky, he said, "Since that's so, before our fight begins, let me show you my technique."
"I was born from the pure essence of the sun and moon, the spirit stone bursting forth, the sky, the mighty wind, the fire-starting stone—by my command, kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
With these divine words, the heavens and earth began to change.
The sky darkened, the air stirred violently, wild winds arose, and the ground trembled.
The next moment, the earth was drowned in deafening roars as countless meteors fell from beyond the heavens, and amidst the storm appeared stone shadows—massive stones long hidden beneath the earth suddenly shooting skyward.
They all glowed with firelight, flying toward Hikigaya.
As a diligent Godslayer, Hikigaya immediately understood the ancient power behind this.
One of humanity's oldest worship concepts: in primitive tribal wars, the victorious side would regard stones that helped defeat the enemy as sacred stones. After humans learned fire-starting techniques, stones that could produce fire were revered.
Most revered of all were natural stone movements, like meteors falling from the sky and boulders flying with hurricanes, which primitive humans saw as gods throwing sacred stones, often worshipped and prayed to.
This ancient Stone Age spirit stone worship was reflected in Journey to the West as "Spirit Stones" and "Immortal Stone Monkey" episodes. The Great Sage before him was the Stone God worshipped by humans since that era.
Even after becoming a monkey and being linked to the war god Chiyou's bronze skin and iron bones, his indestructible divine essence still originated from this.
Honestly, this was exactly why Hikigaya chose the Great Sage as his opponent. Seeing this technique confirmed his reasoning.
Facing the stone swarm, Hikigaya gave a cheeky grin.
"Good monkey! Take my Ora Ora!" he shouted, unleashing the ancient underworld king's flood power and the earth king's quake power with full force.
The flood power extinguished the divine fire, while the quake power capable of breaking all earth powers shattered the meteors and giant stones shielded by divine might. Set's storm absorbed the debris, all becoming Hikigaya's power, which he ruthlessly returned to the Great Sage. The volcano trembled and was swallowed by a pitch-black gray hurricane.
In the first round, the Godslayer Hikigaya Hachiman claimed the expected victory.
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