This area, a desolate, high plateau of scorched bedrock stretching into the ether of Asgard, was perfect. It was a place where energy could be expended without consequence, a vast, empty canvas for divine power.
Su Yi and Thor faced each other, separated by a hundred yards. Odin, the Allfather, stood far back near the perimeter, his single eye watching the scene with the utmost intensity. This was more than a duel; it was a critical assessment of the power that had humbled his son and disrupted the destiny of his kingdom.
Su Yi felt the raw, ambient power of Asgard feeding into him, a gentle, constant hum granted by Odin's Blessing. This passive regeneration and energy buffer significantly increased his confidence.
He wasn't entirely sure he could defeat Thor at his absolute maximum, but with the Blessing, and his own strategic advantages, he calculated he had about a sixty percent chance of securing a decisive victory before Thor could overwhelm him.
But a simple victory was not the goal. The system's Challenge Card had been activated, requiring a victory over a major, established figure to earn a substantial reward. This wasn't just about winning; it was about forcing Thor to reach his peak so that the victory, when it came, was worth the maximum Destiny Points.
Su Yi nodded, settling into a low, combat stance. "Thor, I'm ready."
Thor gripped Mjolnir, the hammer shimmering with restless lightning. "Me too. Prepare yourself, warrior. I will hold nothing back."
"Then let's begin."
Thor roared and launched himself forward, but it was a feint. Mjolnir spun out of his hand, a roaring missile of Uru metal and focused thunder, flying directly towards Su Yi's head. Its speed was extreme, a blur across the desolate landscape.
Su Yi's physical Reaction Speed (Lv7) and Agility (Lv7) allowed him to track its trajectory. Crucially, Mjolnir, having acknowledged Su Yi's temporary worthiness and the granting of Odin's Blessing, did not impose the suppressing enchantment. It was merely a powerful, extremely fast weapon.
Su Yi didn't dodge. Recalling the terrifying display by Hela, he used a concentrated surge of his own strength, stabilizing his hand with reinforced Ki, and caught the hammer.
He didn't have the cosmic power to crush it, but stopping the hammer—its massive inertia and velocity—was enough to prove his physical superiority. The impact sent a painful tremor up his arm, but he held fast, the stone of Mjolnir vibrating violently in his grasp.
Thor, having closed the distance during the hammer's flight, knew this one blow wouldn't defeat Su Yi. He charged, unarmed, slamming a fist imbued with crackling lightning into Su Yi's chest. The two engaged in a fierce, brutal brawl.
In close combat, Su Yi was utterly fearless and possessed skills forged through countless calculated battles. Thor was strong, but his fighting style, refined over centuries of relying on his hammer's varied capabilities, was predictable.
WHAM! Mjolnir, still held by Su Yi, was yanked back towards Thor's free hand, impacting Su Yi's arm in the attempt. It hurt, sending a jolt of residual electricity through him, but Su Yi returned the favor instantly, his left leg snapping out in a devastating, bone-jarring kick to Thor's ribs.
The battle immediately escalated into white-hot intensity, a blur of lightning and brute force. Su Yi's strategy was clear: restrict the hammer, restrict Thor's mobility, and expose the weaknesses in his thousand-year-old technique.
After the initial probing exchange, Su Yi quickly gained the decisive upper hand. Thor's attack methods were almost entirely predicated on the rotation, recall, or lightning strike ability of his hammer. Without Mjolnir, or when Mjolnir's power was constrained, Thor's Combat Skills—which Su Yi assessed at a respectable, but limited, Lv6—were no match for Su Yi's fluid, precise, and ruthless Combat Skills (Lv8).
Su Yi blocked a swinging arm with an elbow, twisted his body to avoid a glancing lightning bolt, and then executed a swift, debilitating counter-combo, aimed at nerve points and major joints. He used rapid movements and body weight leverage, forcing Thor to fight flat-footed.
"You focus too much on the throwing arm, Prince," Su Yi grunted, driving a shoulder into Thor's sternum to momentarily wind him. "Your defense is slow when the hammer is airborne."
He managed to restrict Thor, preventing him from unleashing the full, destructive power of Mjolnir. This strategic suppression allowed Su Yi to dominate the rhythm of the fight.
After a few minutes of intense fighting, Su Yi had also roughly figured out Thor's base physical stats. In terms of raw Strength and Stamina alone, the pre-awakening Thor was slightly inferior to Su Yi's base Lv7. He was powerful, above Lv6, but not yet at a truly celestial tier. Only his mastery of energy, the nascent Thunder God power, posed a serious threat.
Now, it was time to move beyond sparring and apply the necessary pressure.
Su Yi broke from the clinch, allowing Thor to momentarily call Mjolnir back into a spinning defensive orbit around his hand.
"This ends the initial test, Thor. Brace yourself."
Su Yi inhaled, concentrating his massive, internal Ki reservoir into his right arm. He leveraged the full extent of his genetic ability.
"Take this punch! Qilin Arm, 7x amplification!"
The punch was not just fast; it was a concentrated, world-shattering force. It moved faster than Thor could react or even raise Mjolnir to defend. The entire plateau groaned as Su Yi's fist connected squarely with the side of Thor's chest plate.
BOOOM!
The sound was immense, not a sharp crack, but the deep, echoing sound of a catastrophic event. The force of the blow overloaded Thor's internal defenses, shattering the air and creating a visible shockwave that rolled across the plateau. The power amplification—seven times his already colossal strength—was more than the Thunder God could bear in his current state.
Thor, his armor severely dented, cried out and was sent flying. He crashed into the bedrock ground a hundred meters away, creating a fresh, jagged crater of pulverized stone. Mjolnir, unable to maintain its defensive orbit, slipped from his grasp, tumbling uselessly into the dust.
Thor rolled into the distance, his movements jerky and uncoordinated. He looked badly, but not fatally, injured.
Su Yi quickly pursued him, pressing his advantage, not allowing Thor a moment to recover or regain focus.
Thor was thoroughly beaten, temporarily unable to resist, struggling weakly to push himself up.
"Get up, Prince!" Su Yi shouted, landing over a dozen non-amplified, heavy punches on the groaning Asgardian, specifically aiming to cause maximum pain and psychological torment without critical injury.
Odin, watching from the periphery, lifted Gungnir, ready to end the sparring match; he was starting to fear for his son's life.
However, Su Yi sensed the moment of transformation was near and intensified the pressure, leaning over the beaten warrior.
"Tell me, Thor! What kind of god are you?!" Su Yi's voice was sharp, cutting through the haze of pain. "The God of Hammers? Is that all your great lineage amounts to?! A strong arm and a piece of enchanted metal?!"
He grabbed Thor's faceplate and forced the Thunder God to look at Mjolnir, lying uselessly fifty feet away.
"You are Thor, the Thunder God! The thunder and the lightning have always been within you, not in the hammer! That hammer was a training tool, a focus for your immaturity! It was meant to make you worthy of the power you already possess! You have only ever relied on it as a crutch!"
Su Yi stepped back, pointing a challenging finger at the prone figure. "Stand up! Unleash the Thunder God power within you! Stop relying on the tool and become the weapon! Come on!"
Thor struggled against the weight of the beating and the truth of Su Yi's words. The sheer, naked humiliation of being beaten senseless by a "mortal"—a mortal who had earned Mjolnir's approval, no less—burned hotter than any lightning. His eyes, fixed on the distant hammer, gradually began to change. The blue faded, replaced by a storm of pure, crackling, internal electricity.
Su Yi could see the transformation beginning. Thor was already starting to awaken. But it wasn't enough; he had only just started to tap into the well. To truly awaken, he still needed a final, crushing level of pressure.
"Yes, just like that!" Su Yi egged him on, his voice a battle cry.
Thor roared, a sound of pain and sudden, divine recognition. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the searing pain in his chest. Mjolnir began to tremble, flying towards Su Yi from behind, seeking to rejoin its master.
Su Yi was overjoyed to see Thor's raw eruption. He immediately charged forward, taking the initiative. Before Mjolnir could even fly over, Su Yi had already delivered a final, concussive blow that knocked Thor down again. Then, he turned and grabbed Mjolnir, holding it in place, denying Thor his last crutch.
Thor was defeated again, but his internal morale and resolve were unbroken.
Su Yi continued to provoke Thor, leaning in for the final push. "Thor, stand up! Look at you! Is this all you've got?! When Odin dies—and he will die—who will protect your mother and brother?! Who will protect Asgard?! Who will protect the Nine Realms from the Goddess of Death, Hela?!"
As Thor listened to Su Yi's words, the latent Thunder God power that had been shackled by Odin's enchantment and his own psychological reliance on the hammer could no longer be controlled. It erupted.
The Thunder God power burst forth from Thor's entire body, not just his hands. His eyes shone with white, incandescent light. Electricity cascaded off his skin, turning his armor black and white, and arcing across the battlefield. The immense, newly awakened power affected the entire world around them, summoning storm clouds instantly.
At this moment, Thor finally became the true, self-sustaining Thor, God of Thunder.
He stood up, not slowly, but exploding off the ground. He didn't look at the hammer Su Yi held. He looked at Su Yi, and the world around him.
"I, in the name of Thor Odinson," he declared, his voice a chorus of thunder, "swear this day! I will protect my family! I will protect Asgard! I will protect the Nine Realms! I am The Thunder!"
Odin watched his son's spectacular awakening, his eye filling with profound relief. He felt a greater sense of gratitude towards Su Yi than he had for the Water of Life. If it weren't for Su Yi, this powerful, merciless enemy, if it weren't for Su Yi deliberately guiding Thor through humiliation and threat, Thor probably wouldn't have awakened so early, perhaps not until Hela's arrival.
Thor, having been tormented by Su Yi for so long, now fully erupted. Enveloped in endless Thunder God power, he abandoned all thought of the hammer and charged forward, a living missile of lightning.
Su Yi was also incredibly excited. He had achieved the perfect outcome. Defeating Thor in this awakened, maximum-power state should yield the maximum possible reward from the Challenge Card.
"Come on, fight!" Su Yi roared, releasing Mjolnir to crash onto the ground.
Thor met him head-on. The two exchanged massive blows. Su Yi's Qilin Arm strength met Thor's raw, Thunder God-enhanced physique. The power was so immense that every collision resulted in a miniature explosion of light, sound, and shockwaves. Thunder God power spread everywhere, engulfing Su Yi in electrical discharge.
Fortunately, Su Yi's Constitution (Lv7) and the ambient protection of Odin's Blessing allowed him to endure the raw electrical assault without collapsing.
However, Su Yi hadn't expected Thor's strength to actually increase so rapidly in such a short time. The power level had demonstrably jumped, easily surpassing his previous Lv6. This was the strength of a true celestial being, likely pushing into Lv8 territory under duress.
"Damn it, you're cheating, aren't you?" Su Yi muttered, but his grin was wide. "I'm the real cheat player; do you think I'd be afraid of you?"
Su Yi didn't care about anything else and directly went all out against Thor, matching the newfound aggression with absolute force. The fight became a dizzying exchange of blows, with Su Yi's superior Combat Skills giving him a slight, momentary advantage.
They exchanged a final, decisive punch. Su Yi's punch was charged with all his latent Ki and physical force, while Thor's counter-punch was imbued with the immense, freshly unleashed Thunder God power.
In this punch, neither was superior. Thor's power seemed to momentarily overwhelm the Ki, but Su Yi's raw, physical, amplified force repelled the lightning.
A massive collision of power erupted—the sound of two worlds colliding.
With a final, deafening BOOM, energy spread out, tearing up the bedrock and vaporizing the dust across the plateau. The destructive power could easily destroy a small mountain range.
Both combatants were thrown back over a hundred meters in opposite directions, skidding and bouncing across the scorched earth before landing on the ground.
Su Yi spat out a mouthful of blood, the internal shock temporarily overwhelming his internal organs, but he barely managed to stabilize himself using his Stamina (Lv7) and Constitution (Lv7). He reached into his inventory.
"Awesome, exhilarating!" he gasped, already feeling the pain subside under the gentle glow of Odin's Blessing.
He took out a Senzu Bean and ate it. The effect was immediate and total. His body stopped shaking, his internal injuries vanished, and he was back at absolute peak strength within seconds.
He looked at Thor. Odin had already appeared beside his son, his expression conflicted. Thor was motionless, the lightning slowly receding from his skin, revealing the battered armor beneath. He had lost consciousness, but his expression was one of profound, peaceful exhaustion, not defeat.
"Is Thor okay?" Su Yi asked, jogging over, holding the Senzu Bean bag. "I have a Senzu Bean here that can heal all injuries instantly."
Odin gently touched Thor's forehead. "He is well. He just awakened and overused his power; it has left him drained. He will sleep for a day, but when he wakes, he will be the true God of Thunder." He looked at Su Yi's restored condition with an unreadable expression. "You are indeed a formidable warrior, to walk away from that final exchange."
"That's good then," Su Yi replied, genuinely relieved.
Odin, however, was beaming with a quiet pride and profound gratitude. "You helped him reflect and awaken, and you helped Thor realize his true power. I am grateful for everything you have done for him. You pushed him past his self-imposed limits."
The Allfather turned back toward the remnants of the battle. "Thor will become the hero he was always meant to be. He will become an Avenger, he will become the protector of my World, and of the Nine Realms. He will now be ready for the darkness that is coming."
"He will," Su Yi confirmed, satisfied with this monumental outcome.