Book 8, Chapter 43

Surrounding The Opponent

The giant didn’t enter battle immediately when he arrived, instead looking around vigilantly at the shadows flickering through the sky. The fireball had distorted the space around it, and even though it hadn’t managed to break anything completely, passing through would still leave one with severe injuries.

Richard slowly turned around, his eye now back to normal as he fetched a small vial from his robes and downed it in one go. The mana extract immediately rushed through his body, restoring everything he had consumed in a single instant.

The giant’s gaze twitched at the display of dominance, but despite the rage on his face he didn’t dare to charge through the unstable space. Seeing him just stare, Richard ended up being the first one to speak, “Are you the ancestral spirit of these things?”

“Stop killing my citizens and leave immediately, and I will pardon all of you for your sins,” the giant replied with dignity.

“Citizens? These husks?” Richard had no plans to stop the battle, his forces now tearing through the aftermath and killing the remaining barbarians.

His eyes lit up as he activated Insight on the giant. His appearance wasn’t anything noteworthy outside of the high cheekbones being unlike most of Faelor, but the ten braids of dark brown hair were covered in various ornaments which were mostly from the bones of ferocious beasts. He was wrapped in animal hide for the most part, only a small part of the shoulder actually covered in metallic armour, and in his hands was an enormous hammer the size of a small hill.

This was a true blooded giant; at a hundred metres tall, one could even call him a titan. The hammer seemed to weigh a hundred tonnes at first glance, but it was possible for it to be even heavier. This was an absolute advantage in pure strength that was difficult to match. He even sensed Richard’s probing gaze immediately, crying out in rage, “What are you doing?”

Richard had already looked away, “Half corporeal and half not, how old are you? You’re barely alive, just like the rest of these creatures; what’s the point of such an existence? Are you going to become another zombie, afraid of the sun with a muddled mind? That rotten liquid you spend every day in reeks!”

He was speaking quickly, but every word was still clear and seemed to push the giant’s buttons just right. Trembling with rage, he bellowed, “You’re talking rubbish! Rubbish!”

“Heh, you’re just afraid. Attack!”

The order came too suddenly for the giant. He waved his warhammer and was about to rush forth, but looking at the spatial instability from the astral explosions earlier, he hesitated to move in. Richard was correct in his judgement, and the incorporeal part of his body would be ripped apart by the fluctuations. He suddenly felt a searing pain from his feet, letting out a cry of pain as he lifted his right leg up. An ogre had just smashed into his sole, going right through his hide boots and crushing two toes.

The instinctive kick sent Tiramisu flying far away, but three figures immediately took his place and stuck to the giant’s calf. Zangru’s weapon immediately started to pulse as it was stabbed into the shin, consuming the flesh and causing the area around the wound to wither and shrink. Phaser and Waterflower made their way up to the back of the knee, stabbing their swords in as far as they went, but given the creature’s size they barely made it past the skin. They would need several more strikes to actually cut into the tendons. The giant’s enormous body was its best defensive tool.

Feeling the searing pain in his leg, the giant stomped back down and the ground immediately cracked, the tremor knocking many of the barbarian warriors and drones to the ground. Phaser and Waterflower were thrown off by the shaking as well, but Zangru’s polearm had dug deep enough to allow him to hold on.

Asiris immediately flipped to the last page of his tome, raising his hand and sending dense black fog towards the giant and slowing his movements. However, an angry yell quickly dissipated the curse, leaving the Dark Priest pale and coughing up blood. The curse had been the most powerful one he had, but it crumbled in the face of the giant’s burst of strength.

The giant took in a deep breath, chest puffing up as he bellowed in Richard’s direction. A formless shockwave was sent in Richard’s direction, the same darkness of spatial folding present in its aftermath as that of the fireball. However, Richard squinted his eyes, irises shrinking to almost nothingness before suddenly widening to the entire eye. The left iris turned dark gold before narrowing into a vertical slit.

The three faces appeared once again, all facing the giant and chanting as quickly as possible. A barrage of fireballs with all sorts of properties crashed into the shockwave, over a hundred of them slowly breaking apart the energy contained within. Once the attack drew within close range, the golden eye started glowing as Richard opened his own lips and said loudly, “ATTACK!”

A pale blue orb shot out from Richard’s lips, charging right into the shockwave and passing a hundred metres in. The shockwave was immediately deflected by the flames, and when the orb exploded the entire sky was suddenly swept clean of energy. The spatial folds increased in density, half of the sky now completely invisible.

As the adrenaline of that attack wore off, Richard looked at the aftermath and felt a smile crawling up his face. The giant was clearly an ancient being with exceptional power, hailing from a race where normal adults reached the legendary realm and had far greater power than humans, but that being’s all-out attack had been quelled. What came next would be much easier.

The giant’s gaze was suddenly drawn to an enormous shadow, his eyes going wide as he saw the broodmother charging towards him with full speed. He roared angrily as he squatted on the floor, his mountainous hammer viciously slamming into the top of her head and pushing half her body into the ground. Richard had to suppress a shudder in the face of such strength, but even with a metres-deep hole in her head the broodmother continued pushing on. For someone like her, this was only a minor injury.

Seeing her shift her ligaments and struggle to get up, the giant grew determined not to let her move. He stomped down on her with his foot, pressing hard and keeping her buried in the ground. In the end, she was not a creature designed for combat; while she could take a really hard beating, the only offense she had in her situation was her acidic fog. Her spiritual attacks only worked against ordinary opponents; an ancient being like this giant had a soul comparable to a god’s.

Thankfully, the acid did show some effectiveness. The giant’s skin and his warhammer started to corrode, but his hide armour wasn’t affected in the slightest. Moreover, his skin was extremely thick and it would take a long time for her to burn through.

A burst of dark red suddenly filled the giant’s vision as bullets of flame shot right into his face, an array of explosions covering him in abyssal flames. These flames didn’t have the burst potential of Richard’s blue moon flames, but over time the total damage they could cause was impressively close. The giant screamed in pain, rubbing his face repeatedly to try and put them out, but as he gave up this huge opening he heard a low voice ring out in his ear, “Attack.”

Blue streaks pierced through the acific fog, shooting into the giant’s face and torching the hair on his skin. The flesh started melting away under their liquid might, but even after going half a metre in one couldn’t see any bone. The giant slapped his forehead repeatedly and managed to put the flames out.

However, he suddenly straightened his body and moaned in pain. Richard had already blinked behind him, both Moonlight and the Judge being plunged into his lower back and dragged down. A single strike caused a wound that was almost ten metres long. And that was only the first wave of injuries; Lifesbane activated when Richard teleported away, a flurry of explosions sending blood and flesh flying off into the distance!

The giant roared in pain and tried to cover the wound, but its location was difficult to reach and the attempt only caused him more pain. This distraction was enough for the broodmother to push up and send him off balance, charging him down. He roared and grabbed her with both hands to wrestle her back, but this time he didn’t have the advantage.

In the meanwhile, Richard appeared at the back of the giant’s knee like a spectre, leaving a long gash that was a metre deep. With the tendon cut, the giant couldn’t support himself any longer and fell to one knee. He quickly felt his left leg go limp as well, this time from Tiramisu who had taken the chance to jump up and slam into the cap.

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