But Heracles's defenses were simply too terrifying. The resistances and lives granted by the Twelve Labors made him almost immune to all of Cú Chulainn's attacks, and he even drove his opponent back again and again.
"Damn it...!"
Cú Chulainn retreated, several more wounds already marking his body. "This monster!"
Heracles roared and swung his axe-sword.
Cú Chulainn dodged sideways, but the wind pressure from the axe-sword still sent him flying. He flipped through the air and landed steadily.
"In that case...!"
Cú Chulainn held his spear straight, as though drawing a bowstring, its tip aimed at the enemy's heart.
Heracles seemed to sense the danger. He growled and charged forward.
But Cú Chulainn had already activated it.
"Gáe Bolg-!"
Noble Phantasm released! The spear that pierced with barbed death!
It was a strike that reversed cause and effect. The spear's tip pierced Heracles's heart, not as a physical penetration, but as the result, imposed through causality, that "the heart had already been pierced."
Heracles's body abruptly stiffened.
"Roar...!"
But he did not fall. The Battle Continuation granted by the Twelve Labors allowed him to move even with his heart pierced. Besides, even if he had died once, he still had eleven lives. He raised his axe-sword and brought it crashing down.
Caught off guard, Cú Chulainn had no time to dodge.
He had never imagined that someone could take his ultimate attack at such close range and still live. Even if they survived, surely they should have frozen for at least an instant. Yet this one had immediately lashed out.
Just then, Aizen arrived. "Bakudō eighty-one: Dankū!"
An ethereal barrier appeared in front of Cú Chulainn and blocked the battle-axe crashing toward him, though it shattered outright in less than a second.
But that was enough time for Cú