Chapter 524 - Work With Me (1)

The battle seemed as if it would never end. Despite all the hurt, Thor had been subjected to, his will to get revenge did not allow him to give up. It was somewhat similar to what Arnold was thinking. After all, by killing Thor, Arnold was surely going to increase both his universal influence as well as his manifestation power as [The One Above All]. 

Both of them had their own goals to accomplish and for that, one of them needed to die.

"Wouldn't it be easier for you to lie down and accept defeat with grace?" Arnold asked through his gritted teeth as he punched Thor once again right in the face.

The Asgardian spat a couple of teeth out before turning towards Arnold with a look in his eyes as if mocking Arnold. It was clear that Thor was not going to give up, and neither he could defeat Arnold. Forget about defeating him, Thor could not even penetrate his opponent's armour. 

Other than that, it did not look like Thor was in a mood to chat anymore. Arnold took the hint and shut his mouth as well. They were there to kill each other, not to solve a disagreement between each other.

'If he wants to waste his time, then who am I to stop him.' 

The winner of the battle was already clear. The result was inevitable, and yet Thor was not ready to give... honestly, Arnold thought it was quite frustrating. If only Thor would have accepted his defeat and died by his hands, Arnold would have been able to invade some other planet.  But Thor's stubbornness ended up holding him back. 

Though they were battling in silence, Arnold's mind was in full-blown calculative mode. He was constantly calculating the cooldown to his physical skills, the damage he dealt to his opponent and Thor's remaining HP. 

His own HP was quite high than Thor, and that coupled with the durability of his armour made Arnold quite literally become a punching bag for Thor's desperate attempt. However, just like a punching bag wasn't usually affected by someone's punches, Arnold was unaffected by Thor's punches too.

If anything it appeared that Thor was dead set on breaking his fingers by slamming his fists onto the strongest material to ever exist in the universe. 

It was at that moment that something unexpected happened. Arnold's armour... it started to give out. It seemed even the Adamantine had its limits, and Thor's relentless punches were rapidly pushing it to the brink of destruction as multiple cracks appeared on its surface. 

As the cracks began to appear on the armour, simultaneously a smile popped up on Thor's face as well. It felt as if he was finally getting closer to his goal. At a speed of a snail, but still, he was proceeding. 

The gods who had been eagerly watching their battle were shocked as well, but none of them was as shocked as Zeus. As that very same armour was the thing that protected Arnold from when he was tried to smite him. And now, he had seen that the armour had a weakness as well, the next time he met Shiva's former vassal, he would end him for sure.

As for the Asgardians, as soon as they saw Arnold's armour breaking, they started debating whether or not they should send help to aid Thor in his battle. Most of them wanted to send the army to help their crown prince out, but all that changed when Baldr refused them all without any delay.

In his mind, he was the reason Loki was able to do what he did and put Vale in a condition that he may never ever wake up from. They could blame Loki all they want but Thor was equally responsible for potentially triggering Ragnarok.

"He made his bed, and now he can lie in it." 

Those were the exact words Baldr spoke before disbanding the council and banning any of them from trying to aid Thor, even if it meant he would die. Everyone headed to seek Odin's guidance, but surprisingly, Odin was content with the decision Baldr had made. Thor had acted on his own, and now he had to suffer the consequences. 

Arnold on the other hand was beyond pissed at that point. His unbreakable armour was on the verge of being reduced to pieces and he did not even know how the hell Thor managed to do something like that.

'This bastard until the very end...'

Arnold thought and gather all of his strength to finish off Thor in one strike. In the meantime, he had to drop his defensive stance allowing the mighty Thor to pummel his armour pushing it deeper to the verge of breaking apart. 

Just when it appeared that the armour was about to fall apart, Arnold smashed his fist to Thor's face sending him flying across the fields with a loud boom. After what seemed an eternity, Thor finally came to a halt. His body had finally gone past the limits. Thor did not even have enough strength to lift a finger let alone fight someone.

As for Arnold... a few small chunks of his armour were missing. But otherwise, he was relatively unharmed when he walked up to where Thor was lying on his back. 

Arnold could hear Thor coughing as he got closer to the god. Blood dripped from the corner of Thor's lips as he saw Arnold standing over him. At that moment, the realisation of his defeat finally dawned upon him. 

"Haha... I underestimated... you..." Thor mumbled in his weak voice, "You defeated me... with a punch... quite a feat..."

After saying that, Thor waited for a few moments. Maybe he expected Arnold to say something, but he carried on when Arnold didn't. 

"We could have... been quite some pals... if the circumstance were... different."

"We can still be." Arnold finally said something before squatting down, "You can still resurrect Sif."

As soon as Arnold uttered those words, Thor's eyes that were losing the light in them shone brightly once again. But before he could do or say anything, a bullet pierced his head killing him in an instant. 

"Let's discuss the terms when we meet again, shall we?"  Saying so, Arnold put Thor's corpse inside his domain along with his almost broken armour. 

The skies finally started to clear once again and as the light penetrated through the dark clouds, something was seen shining on the battlefield. It was the legendary weapon Mjolnir, lying there in the middle of the ravaged land. 

"Now what should I do with this?"