( Rocky’s POV )

The moment the Lich’s barrier broke, Ravan sprang into immediate action.

“Boy, come follow me quickly, you must mirror my movements exactly now…..” Ravan said with a sense of urgency behind his voice, however, that sense of urgency seemed to be paired with palpable excitement.

*Sizzle*

*Sizzle*

Feeling like he were a boiled potato, Rocky took his first step trying to follow behind Ravan, however, just as he moved ever so slightly, the nerve endings on his burnt skin protested, sending waves of pain through his body.

Apparently, it wasn’t just his exposed lips and face that had suffered severe burns, but even the rest of his body was cooked, with every inch of his skin suffering some form of burn damage or the other.

Despite the pain, Rocky gave following behind Lord Ravan his all as he did not even bother looking towards the Lich or what happened to it under Cassius’s attack, keeping all of his focus unilaterally concentrated on the God Of War in front of him.

Circling behind the Lich, Rocky saw its grotesque lower body still standing on its two feet, whereas its upper body was utterly annihilated, as the God Cassius seemed to be celebrating his victory.

“We did it- the lich is dead….” Rocky murmured under his breath, feeling happy that the Lich had died, however, at that moment Ravan said with a sharp smile on his face ” Oh, it’s not over yet….”

Feeling confused, Rocky clutched his dual swords tighter as the War God in front of him began cracking his neck and jumping on his toes, as if hyping himself up for the next attack.

For a moment, Rocky just like Cassius truly believed that the Lich could not possibly survive such an attack, however, just like Cassius and the billions watching world-wide, Rocky was stunned as well when the Lich’s body began regenerating before his very eyes.

“Run…. We must run” Cassius said, as the moment it seemed like the Lich was not dead and was going to regenerate himself, Cassius decided to run like a coward.

“Stop you coward! Your opponent is not dead yet-” Rocky shouted, his frustration level reaching its peak as his pain and fatigue lowered his filter of speech.

Nonetheless, The God Cassius did not seem to care for his words, flying straight out of Earth’s atmosphere, he escaped like there was no tomorrow, leaving Earthlings to deal with the regenerating Lich themselves.

“No! How can he just run away like this?” Rocky said in pure anger, as Ravan looked towards him and signaled for him to calm down.

“Shhh…I’m sure this is brother’s doing, he must be influencing the threads of fate to save Earth a fortune in paying Cassius what he’s owed.

Gosh, he’s really biased towards Earth to go this far…..

If I know him correctly, he has already maximised the probability of you succeeding in what we are going to do next” Ravan said, as Rocky felt like he was being given information that he was not really meant to know.

Threads of fate?

Maximizing probability?

He had no idea what the great god Shakuni was planning behind the scenes, however, he got the premonition that something big was about to go down.

************

( Meanwhile the global audience )

For a moment, the hearts of Earthlings sank, and their dreams seemed shattered as the war camera captured their hired mercenary god, Cassius, fleeing for his life.

Tears streamed down the faces of many as the crushing inevitability of defeat loomed large.

If even the lesser god Cassius could not vanquish the Lich, who else could possibly stand a chance?

Despair gripped the citizens of Earth, leaving them feeling utterly hopeless.

Then as the camera angle cut back towards the regenerating Lich, the first people that the camera noticed, were Pope Cole and Paladin Patrik, who were staggering back to their feet, having their armors sizzling with heat.

In the background, a large human seemed to be standing, however, with his face burnt and the situation so grim, not many realised that it was Rocky.

“We must stop it from regenerating…. Patrik, unleash your strongest attack” Pope Cole said, as he stumbled around on his feet trying to regain balance, but failing.

“Yes, Pope Cole” said Patrik, as he struggled to stand straight as well but focused all his remaining mana into his sword.

[ Justice Slash ]

Patrik said, as he unleashed the strongest move he was capable of unleashing under the circumstances, however, the Lich whose upper body had regenerated uptil it’s shoulders, flicked the incoming sword slash aside like it were nothing, although it did not have a head.

“You’re useless Patrik, watch me-” Pope Cole said, as he unleashed his dragon strike, trying his best to bring down the Lich as well, however, just like Patrik, his attack was swatted aside by the Lich as well, who successfully regenerated its head.

“It’s over….. it’s all over-“

“If even Pope Cole can’t scratch him, then I don’t think Earth has any other fighter left who can….. we are doomed”

“Should we start running away? Get as far away from ground zero as possible to hope live another day?”

The commoners said, feeling depressed as to them this fight seemed futile now.

However, just as discussions on fleeing broke out and everyone began to panic, there was one man who pointed at the TV screen in doubt.

“Is that the Champion Of Gemini charging towards the Lich from his back?” The man asked, as everyone’s eyes suddenly turned towards the TV screen.

***********

A god’s senses differed significantly from those of a mortal warrior, especially in perceiving threats. Just as it was difficult for a cat to sneak up on a human due to its noticeable presence, unlike a mosquito, which was small and perceived as less of a threat, gods had an enhanced awareness that prioritized dangers differently from humans.

While neither Paladin Patrik, nor Pope Cole could have ever ever hope to sneak up on the Lich because their presence was too strong for it to not notice, Rocky was still far too weak for the Lich to actively perceive him.

Still 9 out of 10 times, if the situation was fair, Rocky would have failed in his attempt to get close to the Lich, however, following Lord Ravan’s expert guidance to stay perfectly in its blind spot.

Then waiting for it to deal with Patrik and Cole’s attacks to get even closer, combined with Shakuni skewing the odds in their favor, Rocky managed to achieve the impossible when he snuck up on the Lich’s back undetected.

“The heart of the Lich is in it’s staff, but you will only have one shot of breaking it, so swing with all your strength and follow my movements precisely with all your speed” Ravan instructed Rocky, as he fake stabbed the Lich, stopping a few inches before his sword actually plunged into the Lich’s body, before rolling sideways on the ground and swinging his sword hard towards a specific point in the air.

From start to finish, Rocky could only see this sequence of moves once, however, he was expected to repeat it with absolute perfection.

Thankfully, his perfected human race had picture perfect memory that allowed him to clone the War Gods movements precisely, as with even the slightest of slip-up Rocky would have undoubtedly died.

The second he tried to plunge his sword towards the Lich, the lesser gods reflexes immediately kicked in as it turned with its staff in hand, hoping to smack Rocky in the head with the weapon.

Unfortunately for it however, Ravan had already studied it’s dominant hand and knew that the Lich was going to turn towards Rocky counterclockwise, which was why he stopped before plunging his sword into the Lich’s back by a few inches and rolled to the side in his demonstration.

As Rocky followed those movements precisely, he evaded the Lich’s blow by the thinnest of margins, not because he had seen it coming or because his reflexes kicked in at the right time, but because the War God Ravan had been perfect in his estimate.

As Rocky rolled through and slammed his sword into an overhead slash containing all the strength in his body towards the exact point in air that Lord Ravan demonstrated, his sword seemed to collide against some sort of a gem as a loud screech covered the entire battlefield.

*SCREEECH*

For a moment, Rocky felt like he had lost his sense of hearing, as all the sounds in the world went mute, however, he did not even care about his ears at the moment, as his eyes were solely focused on the scene unfolding before him.

As the purple gem on-top of the Lich’s specter broke into small pieces, the Lich’s godly aura began dissipating fast as it’s body began disintegrating into pitch black ash.

In its last moments, the Lich’s hollow eyes seemed to stare into Rocky’s soul in disbelief, wondering how a being like it fell to a puny mortal like Rocky as it seemed disappointed with its own death.

True to its nature, the Lich tried to take out Rocky with it even when dying as he extended its bone arm towards Rocky, trying to crush his head, however, before it’s arm could reach Rocky, it turned into ash, just like the rest of his body.

Still in disbelief, Rocky stared at the ashes of his opponent as the projection of War God Ravan laughed heartily at the side.

“And that Rocky…is how Hero’s are made” he said before slowly fading away just like all system notifications did.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep