Chapter 808 Death By A Thousand Cuts
Angakok lost nearly 35% of his total HP fighting Sir Jhonny and he was on full guard now.
Usually, god's who threw daggers did minimal damage against their opponents, however Sir Jhonny's daggers were different.
Only after being hit by them did Angakok realise that each dagger weighed as much as 15 elephants and could crack the floor if they slipped and fell.
Yet the ease with which his opponent could throw these daggers was unparalleled and a testimony to his strength beyond the void skill that he possessed.
' I underestimated this man, he might be as serious of a threat as Max ' Angakok thought as a drop of sweat nervously dropped from his forehead.
As his three enemies began flanking him from various directions, Angakok knew that he needed to take the initiative to turn the tide before they overwhelmed him.
However, what he failed to realise was that Max wanted him to take the initiative and use all his big moves.
As a tier6 god fighting endlessly day in and day out inside the levelling pagoda, one point that Max realised was that while gods possessed a near bottomless mana reserve, their divine essence reserve was much more limited.
Using domain expansion, using wind based attack to counter Sebastian's army, using strength to neutralise their attack, using his time-seed backed powers…. All of this was taking a toll of Angakok's divine essence reserve and no matter how hard he pushed back from here on out as long as the group played their cards correctly and did not take major damage, he was bound to slow down sooner or later.
Back on Earth, the Chinese used a torture method in the medeival times called ' Lingchi ' or ' Death By A Thousand Cuts '
The essence of this method was to not kill the enemy with one clean strike but to wear him down slowly with a thousand cuts so that he would slowly lose strength as the battle progressed and eventually succumb to his collective injuries.
The plan that Max had decided to choose was a more active version of the Chinese Lingchi as he not only wanted to wear down Angakok's HP but also his ability to fight at the highest level so that by the time made his move to devour his soul, he would become so defenceless that the fight in the soul-realm became a walk in the park for Max.
Apart from this strategy, Max also had a hidden trump card which was masterfully created by Sir Jhonny and Angakok didn't even realise it.
The daggers that Sir Jhonny had pierced caused Angakok to bleed a little and although the Shaman God healed fast, with his injuries closing soon after the irritant was removed, there was still small traces of fresh blood trapped between his armour and skin, blood that Max could use against him at the critical moment.
Another dilemma that Angakok faced currently was regarding the use of blood attacks.
Technically Angakok wasn't the Shaman God, he was the ' Blood Shaman God ' whose specialisation was blood based attacks.
Many of his divine attacks revolved around the use of blood and the summoning of various monsters, however, with Max wielding greater influence over blood than him, he became more conscious about unleashing these attacks.
His experience with the blood blade that he had summoned taught him that Max could use his own attacks against him and hence Angakok did not dare use his strongest moves.
" Very well, you three want to circle me? Well two can play that game! " Angakok said as he used a move that Max was also familiar with.
[ Summon Flaming Phoenix ]
Angakok used a tier6 attack that allowed him to open a portal into the fiery planet home to some of the most hostile fire creatures in the world and summon a tier6 Phoenix from that realm which was forced to obey his commands.
" Burn them all " Angakok commanded as a Phoenix appeared charging out of the portal, incinerating absolutely everything under its path.
Max grinned, he was the first in the path of the Phoenix and he smacked his lips in anticipation.
It had been a while since he drank delicious Phoenix blood and since Angakok was being kind enough to offer, Max did not feel it to be polite to refuse.
*SCREECH*
As the phoenix flew over Max, the heat from its wings incinerated Max's royal robes immediately revealing the armour underneath.
However, while the robes burnt away, Max himself was fine as dandy as he approached the phoenix freely and lunged at the beast's neck.
*SCREEEEE- *
The Phoenix began to screech and shot, it had never encountered another being that could withstand it's direct flames, however, Max with the power of the Agni-Astra was immune to flames of this level.
Angakok, who helped him obtain the Agni-Astra obviously knew this fact very well, however, he still decided to pull the phoenix out because even though Max could handle it, the other two could not and that meant that he was forced to handle the situation, taking him out of the list of fighters that could take Angakok on.
Using the same logic, he used the power of the time seed and pointed towards Sir Jhonny as green runes began shining under sir Jhonny's feet.
[ Divine Move - Time prison ]
Angakok said as he managed to seal sir Jhonny within an Impregnable time prison that would immobilise him for the next two minutes.
Although this move immobilised sir Jhonny, it wasn't perfect as the prison also kept any outside threat from approaching Sir Jhonny's body as well.
This meant that although Angakok took him out of the equation, he could not use this opportunity to attack Sir Jhonny either.
However, Angakok never intended to fight Sir Jhonny at the moment as he wished to divert his full attention to the opponent that he believed was the weakest link of the three.
As Angakok turned towards Sebastian, his purple eyes were stared right back by Sebastian's thunder blue ones.
Unlike how Angakok believed Sebastian would react, the dwarf seemed rather delighted at this opportunity to face Angakok head on as he faced the Shaman with a confident smirk on his face.
" 12 years….. that's how long I've dreamt of this exact moment " Sebastian mouthed as Angakok scoffed at his remark.
" Wait some more kid " he said as he lunged at Sebastian, not realising the mistake he had just committed.