zefangs said:
Subbordinate Gods are way weaker and do not ofter authorities upon defeat
Normally not, but that doesn't quite seem to be how it works for Issei. All three of his Authorities are from what are technically subordinate gods, albeit unconventional ones. Though honestly I've started to feel that how much a Campione gets from a God they slay may at least partially depend on how said god feels about the Campione in question. Because Godou got a lot more from Verethragna than anyone else ever got from slaying a single god, and Godou and Verethragna, especially in the Light Novel, were actually kinda friends, plus Verethragna wanted Godou to become a Godslayer. In a similar vein, by the end of it all three Gorgons liked Issei. Now obviously a God can't prevent a Campione from getting an Authority for slaying them, I do feel that while they can't pull their power away from the Campione, they however can push towards to give the Campione more. That may in fact be how relative niche legends like Stheno and Euryale, who unlike Medusa don't even have their own stories and are more footnotes, each gave Issei an Authority; they pushed their power to him to make it happen.
nimistar said:
in a way that's even worse. without some trick issei just doesn't have the ability to take on the heretic god. if he got power ups from the other members of the story, especially ones that pertain to their legend, i could see him pulling off a win.
I agree, though honestly Sanzang alone, who I could see willingly sacrificing himself to empower Issei (especially since I suspect just appearing in front of Issei may have been a test of character that the boy passed with flying color by hurting himself, albeit not badly, rather than risk injuring Sanzang despite the fact the two are technically enemies), would probably give Issei a pretty big advantage just by gifting him knowledge of the headache-Sutra. I do however notice that the Authorities that Issei got, while useful, tend to be on the weaker side of Authorities.
Mineral Garden is incredibly useful in a multitude of ways, but every serious enemy showed that the divine marble was more a speedbump than an obstacle as they could all break it with minimal effort.
Screech Wail was shown to not last very long against Luo Hao, and it likely wouldn't fare much better against other gods. It does stun them for a few moments, and I imagine that entities with sensitive hearing might be out of it a bit longer, but ultimately it's something that's meant to create an opening or buy the user a bit of breathing room.
Doctor Venom is the Authority with the most potential for direct damage, however it is hampered by the condition that it needs to be transferred through a bodily fluid, ideally blood, so it's difficult to use against an enemy. The most effective way I can think of would be Issei smearing his blood on a weapon created by Mineral Garden and then stabbing his enemy with it, but that runs into the problem of Mineral Garden's constructs being rather flimsy against something on the level of a Heretic God.
Issei's Authorities aren't useless, however ironically enough they're more suited to dealing with a large number of weaker enemies rather than a single powerful foe. He simply lacks a finisher, a powerful attack that can end the battle in one blow. In fact, Issei doesn't have any real way of dealing significant amounts of damage yet, which kinda makes him the exact opposite of canon!Issei. This could easily become a pattern with Campione!Issei having a large number of Authorities, however they are mostly either not that powerful offensively or highly situational, requiring Issei to think and plan in how to use them to win rather than being able to just rush forward and beat his foe into submission. He's currently more a debuffer than a damage dealer.
WyverNine said:
No offense, but what else would Stheno and Euryale be if not slightly unconventional Subordinate Gods? Medusa if you squint does at least have her own Legend with how popular of a figure she became in modern mediea, she could qualify as a Minor Goddess in her own right, but the other two Gorgons are footnotes at best, they are offhandedly mentioned as Medusa's sisters who in contrast to her were Immortal, they tried to find Perseus after he killed their sister but failed, Euryale screamed loudly in despair over Meduas's death, oh and it's mentioned that their blood is a key ingredient in Asklepius' medicine to revive the dead because of its special properties. That's literally it for the other two Gorgons, and unlike their sister they barely have any presence in modern media. Most people could tell you at least broadly what Medusa is, at least they have an image in their heads. In contrast, the average person doesn't even know the Stheno and Euryale exist. At the absolute most they would qualify as Subordinate Gods of the Heretic Goddess Medusa, Wukong's companions are far more well-known characters with far more story around them than Stheno and Euryale.
WyverNine said:
I mean, probably yes, but there is some ambiguity in that Wukong wasn't trying to summon Subordinate Gods, he was trying to create Doubles. Heck, Sanzang is bitching at Wukong for pulling him out of, presumably, Nirvana, so it's not entirely impossibly that what happened is that Wukong accidentally did an imperfect summoning and forced actual independant Gods closely tied to his own legend to partially descend in an incomplete state much like Lancelot did for Guinevere. Or it would have been before this little WoG, I guess. Though it's not impossible that before they are slain, some if not all of these Subordinate Gods grow to like Issei much like the Gorgons did, albeit with less romantic overtones. Wukong already openly stated multiple times that he likes Issei, and Sanzang at least seems to have good impression of the kid as well. So it's not impossible that at least some of these Subordinate Gods might end up doing what Stheno and Euryale did and basically push their power towards Issei to make him get an Authority.
Because in all honesty, I don't see another way for Issei to get a win here assuming nobody else steps in to finish the job for him. Issei is a debuffer with very low DPS, going alone against a party containing four decent to spectacular damage dealers. Even if he gets to fight them one at a time, he doesn't have an effective way to finish the fight, he's basically relying on chip-damage and hoping for a Crit to happen. That might work once, it might even work twice. It's not going to work 4-5 times (depending on if Sanzang would actually fight) in a row. So honestly, Issei getting some new Authorities from at least a few of Wukong's comrades is the only way for him to turn this whole thing in his favour. Even if he awakens Boosted Gear in its full non-Twice Critical right now, I don't think it'd be enough, not against someone like Wukong who is very much accustomed to throwing hands with ridiculously powerful enemies.
sentinalslice said:
So did Rias and co. Get turned into monkeys?
Also, hopefully we see issei getting creative. Maybe getting his palm and infusing the blood into his stone spears, or just doing a poison dip with his poison blood.
From what it reads like, partially. They weren't fully transformed, however they clearly suffered some degree of transformation, most notably the tails. I imagine they look like Kakuen (from Monster Girl Encyclopedia) versions of themselves.
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