Ch-28: [Jacob’s Limbs•Seven Forms]
(As I describe various aspects, ability and source of different authority it may look like or it may be an 'info dump' but, fret not it's only at the starting chapters, later totally vanished.)
St. Martha is one of the saints of Christianity. In the Gospel of John, St. Martha appear in connection with two incidents: the raising from the dead of her brother Lazarus and the anointing of Jesus in Bethany.
There are not many records of St. Martha's achievements. Besides being a devout believer of Religion of Cross and proclaiming the Gospels of Christianity in various lands, her greatest achievement is to subdue the dragon that plagued the town of Tarascon.
In the book– Golden Legend, Martha and her sister, Mary Magdalene, traveled to Marseilles, France, after the Ascension of Christ.
In the town of Tarascon, Martha encountered a dragon referred as Tarasque. The Golden Legend portrays it as a beast from Galicia; a great dragon, half beast and half fish.
Holding a cross in her hand, St. Martha sprinkled the beast with holy water. Placing her sash around its neck, she led the tamed dragon through the town. This the legend of Saint Martha on Earth.
However, in this world, the great dragon has been portrayed as the Sinful King of Dragons of France who plagued the whole nation. He was also the child of Leviathan, one of the three beasts of Revelation.
In the legend, St. Martha didn't use the holy water or sash to tame the dragon. Jacob's Limbs, the greatest Biblical Martial Arts, was invented by Jacob, later inherited by Moses, and then later by Martha.
Although there are various opinions on the details of how Tarasque was finally suppressed, most accepted is the myth where St. Martha subdued the dragon at the seventh hour.
As the spawn of Leviathan, the evil dragon Tarasque possessed unparallel defense, due the scales it inherited from Leviathan.
A protracted battle will cause unprecedented damage to the common people. So, during the first six hours, St. Martha tried to understand the dragon attribute of Tarasque.
On the exact seventh hour, St. Martha created a phenomenal combat move that deals extra damage to dragons, suppress the flow of magical energy as well as deals infiltration damage from inside— Dragon Subduing Saint Fist. And at last defeated the Evil Dragon King.
This myth manifested to become a move of Roy's <Jacob's Limbs>.
No matter how she inspires the dragon to surrender in the Golden Legend in earth, in this world, she suppressed the dragon with her fists.
Roy's <Jacob's Limbs> is the strongest fighting technique in the Christian Mythos. So, naturally it has more than one forms.
According to Roy's own research and understanding, it is divided into seven moves. Each move and style has the power manifested from legends and myths of the Religion of Cross.
<Dragon Subduing Saint Fist> was punched out, and a phantom of golden scaled dragon blasted towards Metatron with the power to suppress mythical beasts, any legendary dragon would be defeated by this punch.
Metatron in giant humanoid posture is no different from the legendary dragon. The punch of the <Dragon Subduing Saint Fist> is an absolute force, which is powerful enough to suppress the power of any creature.
"Boom———"
A terrifying shock wave spread out.
The rocky ground at Metatron's feet was torn apart in an instant and the heretical Angel also let out a painful cry.
His body was hammered into the ground from Roy's punch, the rocks jammed his waist, making this 'Secretary of Heaven' unable to even stand up for a while.
At this moment, Roy is like a martial artist in the martial arts novels, who has reached the extreme in the way of martial arts.
Roy's right hand that had been stuck in his pocket suddenly stretched out, and a mosaic-like figure appeared on his right shoulder, distorting the air and space around it. This is exactly the vision of Roy's right hand.
He raised his right hand and tucked his thumb into the palm so that it forms a 90-degree angle at the thumb joint.
He turned his hand into knifehand strike posture, and made a sweeping jesture down at Metatron's left arm.
" <Jacob's Limbs•Second Form>! "
" <Moses Splits the Sea>! "
His karate chop is far sharper than any other blade. The blade aura emmited sundered Metatron's arm from his body which caused lava-like blood of the Heretic God to spray out onto the ground.
However, the remaining small blade aura which Metatron evaded displayed more visual destruction.
Directly splited the only small town on the island of Ponza in half, tore apart the Chiaia di Luna Beach, split the Tyrrhenian Sea into two halves and without stopping, reached the far horizon out of view.
This magnificent scene is like wrath of Sea God Poseidon, splitting the sea with his trident.
"Boom———"
After separating the sea, when the force of <Moses Splits the Sea> dissipated, the sea closed again, and hundreds of millions of tons of seawater collided together.
Setting off a huge tsunami like wave, directly submerging the remaining Chiaia di Luna Beach together with the town on the island.
The Book of Exodus tells about the escape of the enslaved Hebrew people, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egyptians.
Moses first encountered God in the form of a burning bush. God then charged Moses to lead his believers who were enslaved out of bondage and bring them to the Promised Land.
Mosses requested an audience with Pharaoh regarding God's will. Unfortunately, his pleas to release the Hebrew slaves fell on deaf ears.
To punish Pharaoh, God sent a series of plagues to bend Pharaoh's will. The River Nile turned to blood. Thousands of frogs covered the land, soon followed by gnats and flies.
Hailstorms ravaged the fields and destroyed the harvest; locusts consumed whatever remained. Then the land was cast in darkness.
But only the tenth plague finally broke Pharaoh's resistance. That night, the firstborn sons in every Egyptian family were killed.
Pharaoh finally relented at last. "Take your flocks and your herds," he told Moses, "and be gone" (Exodus 12:32).
In jubilation, Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt, but Pharaoh tried to ambush the Hebrews near the 'Sea of Reeds'.
At God's command, Moses held his staff out over the sea, and a strong east wind divided the sea, and the Hebrews walked through on the dry land with a wall of water on either side.
As soon as Pharaoh's chariots tried to chase after them, the waters returned and Pharaoh's army drowned.
And Roy reproduced the legend of Moses dividing the sea with <Jacob's Limbs>.
However, he distorted the 'record' in it by assistance of his knowledge from 'Book of 777', so that Moses didn't split the sea with his staff, but rather split the sea with his palm!
Similarly, the strong eastern wind was changed into a sharp blade aura condensed out of wind.
"<Jacob's Limbs•Third Form>!"
"<Binding of Isaac>!"
After two moves, Roy didn't give Metatron any chance to react. He lifted his left hand and pointed his index finger at the Angel's chest.
This form is the replication of Abraham's intention to kill his child Isaac to prove his pious belief.
In the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 22, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, he complies God's command. After Isaac is bound to an altar, Abraham picks up the sharpened knife.
Howbeit, a messenger from God stops Abraham before the sacrifice finishes, saying "now I know you fear God." Abraham looks up and sees a ram and sacrifices it instead of Isaac.
This story has been the focus of a great deal of commentary in traditional Jewish as well as Christian sources.
Some say that Abraham understood that Isaac was to be "raised up as an offering", and God would use the opportunity to teach humankind, once and for all, that human sacrifice, especially child sacrifice, is not acceptable.
This legend was twisted by Roy and he turned the knife with which Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son into his finger.
This form precisely represents the devotion of faith and the determination of mankind.
For the sake of God, even his own children can be sacrificed– this is myth condensed in this form.
Humongous killing intent is condensed at the tip of one's finger. Nothing can resist this finger, will definitely be penetrated by it, and then ravaged by the monstrous killing intent.
<Jacob's Limbs> is not the strongest of Roy's seven <Holy Right>, but it is the most practical and distinctive for long term combat.
Roy has thoughts, whether to travel to China to meet Martial Leader Luo Hao, and compare his <Jacob's Limbs> which contain the principle of biblical legends with Martial Leader's 'Twelve Divine Palm Strikes of the Phoenix', which contains the principles of taoism.
Roy's index fingers pierced the Angel's chest. Before Metatron counterattacked, Roy channeled the mana into his legs and swiftly jumped away.
Since <Jacob's Limbs> has the word 'limbs' in it, this is a set of Martial arts in which the Martial artist uses both his hands and legs.
However, <Jacob's Limbs>'s attack forms are mainly hand based and the legs are only used for evading attacks and movements.
Metatron's left arm was directly cut off, and a huge aperture was exposed on his chest. Magma like blood was flowing out from his wounds.
A mortal was supposed to have already welcoming his death at this time, but the vitality of a Heretic God is extremely powerful, so it didn't really caused a heavy injury to Metatron's 'elemental form'.
It is mentioned in the Book of Enoch— "This Enoch, whose flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire, his eye-lashes to flashes of lightning, his eye-balls to flaming torches, and whom God placed on a throne next to the throne of glory, received after this heavenly transformation the name Metatron."
Metatron's elemental form is definitely a Authority related to this legend.
Roy's combos one after another, stunned Metatron's, and when he finally reacted, the killing intent rampaging in his body led him to let out a painful roar.
He hastily waved his thirty-six pairs of wings to completely shatter the cliff, so that Roy would lose his footing.
Roy was already far away by this time. He once again channeled mana in his legs to take a huge leap towards Metatron.
Erica, who was standing behind Roy, had already ran far away on Roy's warning. She was gasping heavily while leaning on a tree, and her red dress was also torn apart in many places, revealing the delicate fair skin inside.
The Italian girl was holding her sword, using her swordsmanship and magic to block the rocks hurling towards her.
When the incoming rocks stilled for a while, she raised her head to look at the scene in front of her.
At that moment, the whole world seemed to be paused for a second, a chill passed through her whole body, bitterness seemed to be nipping her heart, the hand holding the hilt subconsciously tightened.
The right hand holding the sword was trembling, her facial expressions petrified, the beautiful blue eyes were filled with shock.
It only took Roy a punch, a chop and a poke to completely obliterate the Ponza Island, a tourist attraction in Italy; and the most absurd fact is that he never targeted the island itself, this was just the aftermath caused by a punch, a chop and a poke!
The only town on the island has long become history under the gravel and the tsunami, the almost all the parts of the island has completely sunked into the bottom of the sea.
Is this still a human?!
It's not that mages can't do this level of destructive damage, but it requires the union of many mages to launch such great magic through rituals; sometimes the preparation can even take months.
'Heretic Gods are a moving natural disaster, and the Campiones are the devil kings on earth.'
At this moment, Erica finally understood the deep meaning behind those titles, and felt ashamed of her boldness and dissatisfaction from before.
Erica believes that she might be able to hold a single punch from Roy, but a punch more and she will be half-dead.
If Roy uses his Divine Authoriy, she would not be able to hold for even a second.
"Metatron, it seems that the injury that Michael brought upon you was quite serious, you have not fully recovered until now."
Roy again inserted his right hand in his pocket, the distorted mosaic vision on his right shoulder disappeared.
He looked at the heavily injured 'Secretary of Heaven' in front of him, his blood was still boiling like magma, urging him to fight desperately, to tear this Angel into pieces, but his tone was extremely relaxed.
Like a friend genuinely concerned about about his best friend's situation.