Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

The name of Mort's Mountain Breaker carried multiple meanings. It was a divine tool to break mountains. When breaking something, it carried the weight of a mountain.

And when someone punched the pickaxe hastily and sloppily raised in defense, it felt like being hit by a mountain when it crashed into Mort's side.

Nessa's punch sent Mort and the pickaxe flying.

Mort tumbled through the air with only a hint of the grace from last time. But he was still quick in getting back on his feet, even if he could feel the crescent shaped mark left behind by the pickaxe like an engraving on his ribs, side, and hip.

Nessa felt a chill run down her spine when Mort raised his head and looked straight at her with eyes that sparkled like diamonds in the bedrock. His short hair rustled in the still air, and the dirt from it blew off him. The hem of his shirt flapped loose as he stood up and swung his pickaxe twice through the air, drawing airy trails behind.

Nessa's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

The speed Mort demonstrated with those two swings was a cut or two above what he had shown so far.

Mort pointed at Nessa with the pickaxe.

"Face Pester's piercing wrath, Summoner!" He shouted before transforming into a blur and shooting forward.

Zach's eyes widened.

Mort was using divine energy. That didn't come as a surprise. But he was using it similarly to how martial artists used martial energy. It was even slightly similar to how he himself used world essence energy. He used it to empower his body.

Just now, he had sent a flash of divine energy into his feet and calves and used explosive power to leap forward.

While swinging his pickaxe like a madman at Nessa, turning it into a blurry weapon of mass destruction that didn't even need to touch the ground to rip it apart, Mort had thin tendrils of divine energy running through the veins of his arms and shoulders.

Zach's eyes narrowed.

Seeing Mort's usage of divine energy with his Eyes of Truth revealed how Mort managed to fight toe-to-toe with Nessa with just a human body. Training was a large part of it. But the rest was explained by why Mort was only using a sliver of divine energy at a time.

It was similar to how Zach's world essence energy worked.

It was too powerful for the body of a human.

World essence energy was the energy of the world.

Divine energy was the energy of a god.

An ordinary mortal wouldn't be able to handle the fully unleashed power of divine energy, just like Zach wasn't able to handle the energy of world essence energy. It stayed in a dormant state and passively empowered him until he managed to awaken it and cajole it to listen to him.

Divine energy was a little different, especially that belonging to a god. It was affected by the god's properties and wasn't as unrestrained as world essence energy.

Zach would need to study it further to learn more. But for now, he could confirm that physically oriented apostles and followers of strong gods could have insanely powerful bodies if they chose to do go through grueling training and repeated healing.

It seemed Mort had been a little lazy, and that was why he could only rely on short bursts.

But if there was one thing Zach knew with his entire heart, it was the fact that there were people in the world who weren't lazy, who were crazy enough to repeatedly destroy and rebuild their body until it became an indestructible work of art.

He would more than likely come across such people during his stay on Kuros. His eyes lit up with excitement as he watched Nessa fight back against Mort with glitter covering her fists.

However, if he noticed it, so did Mort, and Mort was a miner. He was used to situations where breathing was bad, whether it be coal dust filling the air, poisonous spores from strange deep rock mushrooms, or toxic gases from the harrowing cracks or monsters.

Divine energy veiled his mouth and nose, protecting Mort from Nessa's Dust of Dreams. She couldn't even make him sleepy, much less put him to sleep.

She was barely avoiding Mort's quick and light swings by continuously backing away and using the antennae on her head to scout her surroundings behind her. But while Mort's swings looked light, it was only because he was strong.

Combined with Mountain Breaker's sharp tip, one touch would be enough to get through Nessa's armor. But her Exoskeleton wasn't useless. It was giving her the strength and speed to dodge. It was also protecting her from the sharp winds carried by Mort's weapon and the occasional kick or punch he threw in.

But it wasn't enough to win.

She brought out her next skill, Robber of Light, from her Dawnthief Bat's contract.

It was the skill that let her take the light from her surroundings and create an area of complete darkness.

It was enough to stun Mort.

It would have been enough to render most others helpless long enough to seize victory.

Mort, however, had spent a large part of his life in caves, tunnels, mountains, and underground.

Light made his work easier, but it wasn't always he had it. He was as used to darkness as he was used to rocks.

He was only stunned because he hadn't expected it, not because he wasn't used to darkness. It took but a moment for him to readjust and close his eyes, focusing on his other senses and the web of perception granted by the divine energy.

He sensed Nessa's approach by the change in air pressure. He could smell and hear her. There was no way she was getting close enough to attack him without getting a pickaxe through her.

Still, Mort realized the greatness of this skill, and he knew how others would have reacted in such a situation. So, he pretended to panic and floundered in the darkness, looking helpless.

A second later, Nessa was right by his side, half a step up in the air with her fist aimed straight at Mort's head.

At the same time, the tip of Mort's pickaxe made contact with her side.