Nanatsu no Taizai 174 Review: Tekken Combo Punches

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 174: Meliodas vs. The Ten Commandments

We get a cool little cover page with a roll call of the nine remaining Commandments, which is cool, because I forgot Estarossa's name and thus I didn't have to look it up while reviewing this chapter. Also, apparently the proper way to write his name is Gray-Lord, not Gray-Road, which made a lot more sense.

We get a bit of a catch-up as Arthur is informed that Escanor single-handedly beat Galan, and the C-listers are just confused about the presence of Dreyfus among the Ten Commandments. Elaine confirms just as much that her being present in the world of the living is because Merascylla herself is still alive. 

We get a bit of a badassery contest as Meliodas goes on to slice his brother Zeldoris in the face... only for Zeldoris to rip Meliodas's arm clean off. And Meliodas? He don't give two shits, though, even with his arm severed. And he just kicks Zeldoris into the sky, before using his demon black goop thing to reattach the severed arm to his body. 

Zeldoris stomps on it before the reattachment can happen, and Graylord, the most awesome Commandment. does this "Jubaku Rensa" thing, creating shadowy chains around Meliodas that soon disappear. It apparently means the Cursed Chains of Enmity. The power of the chains is immediately shown afterwards -- Meliodas and Zeldoris exchange several blows before Meliodas creates a giant smokescreen and tries to escape... and is immediately teleported back. Graylord talks about how Meliodas's "death" is inevitable... but is he not the shall-not-kill commandment? How does that work exactly?

Derriere charges in with her large shadow-claw, and with every blow her attack power apparently increases. Monspiet goes all Bleach on us and explains Derriere's power, Combo Star, which is basically is a fighting game style power where each successive combo punch deals exponentially more power. 100 tons' worth of power, to be exact. She deals 54 successive hits to Meliodas, and kind of fucks his arms up a little bit. Monspiet flies in and notes how Meliodas cannot use Full Counter anymore, before launching a gigantic phoenix fireball thing.

Meliodas goes all Roronoa Zoro on Monspiet's ass, though, and holds Lostvayne with his teeth and slices Monspiet's neck, almost cleanly through... though Monspiet just pops his head back in place. Still, despite this awesome display... the final page shows that Meliodas is kind of fucked. Despite his immense strength, his arms are wounded, he's already worn out from the initial battle against Dolor and Gloxinia... and honestly other than those two, and maybe Merascylla, none of the Commandments even look damaged. Monspiet's got a sliced throat, sure, but he doesn't seem to care. And neither Fraudrin nor Estarossa has even began to fight. I honestly doubt that the Pleiades of the Azure Sky can afford to do anything even if they show up -- Fraudrin and Graylord nearly wiped out the entire team ,and that's without Graylord even trying. 

So, yeah, someone better come to Meliodas's aid really soon...