Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: The Cyclops Falls
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'Crazy.'
To see the thorn ropes wrapped around the Cyclops's wrist from here, how much had it mutated?
And look at that—it shaped the end like a spear point and stabbed it into the ground.
Thanks to Kane shouting in time, everyone had pulled back for a moment. I slammed my magic right into the Cyclops while its hand was fixed to the floor, momentarily halting its body.
Kwaaazzzik!
"Graaaah!"
Even Meisha, standing at a good distance, froze for a second from the sheer force of the blast.
Unlike Chaser who escaped via spatial transfer, smoke rose from the Cyclops's directly hit body, and chunks of charred, crumbling hide rained down from it.
But most of the impact must have gone into shattering the shield, because its hide rapidly regenerated. It looked around wildly, grabbed a nearby boulder, and glared at me with that massive single eye.
"Ah, this won't do!"
I hurriedly shoved the codex forward and deployed multiple Pーツ shields in the air.
With the dull sound of a glass window shattering, the rock destroyed the Pーツ shield with its sheer power and flew toward me. At the same time, the invisible Aegis revealed itself, soaring into the air to activate its shield.
With a bang, the boulder halted midair as if caught, then plummeted straight down, rolling off the cliff. The Aegis, having expended all its mana in that instant, wobbled toward me, so I slotted a mana stone into its core.
"W-What was that just now?"
"A minimal safety measure."
I caught my breath as I replied to Meisha, who stared at Aegis in bewilderment.
Meisha seemed to recover quickly from the near-death scare of the boulder, rapidly reporting the situation to Reinhardt while firing a signal flare into the sky.
"Everyone low on mana, fall back!"
Someone bellowed the order, mana amplifying their voice. Dozens pulled back, and dozens more gripped their swords and charged the Cyclops again.
They weren't high-circle mages, but the few who remained linked up, unleashing spells that exploded flames across the Cyclops's body and coated it in frost.
Enraged, it scraped and kicked at the ground, sending shattered rocks flying everywhere.
"Ugh!"
Fragments rained down on the mages midway up the cliff, out of melee range, while the rest scattered everywhere.
Before they could crush the mercenaries rolling on the ground, Leaf dashed in with swift movements to block them, regenerating his own damaged body at the same time.
I fired a fireball at its back, hitting its spine. As the Cyclops turned its head, I disrupted its vision with overlapping flashes right in its eye.
Blinded by the sudden bursts of light, it flailed wildly.
I immediately gripped an attribute stone in one hand, combining it to fire sequential fire-attribute magic missiles straight into that single eye, linking up with the other mages. Below, they dragged out ballistae and began aiming.
Pung-pung! Though weaker than fireballs or fire arrows, strong flames still erupted.
'Can't use this often.'
Enchanting with attribute stones consumed no mana but drained mental power instead.
I tossed aside the spent stone and tried generating more magic missiles, but the spell forming in the air fizzled out.
Passeu—
Magic stones crumbled to dust from the codex's spine.
I slotted new mana stones into the empty slots, calculated the timing, and regenerated enough spells to fill the air.
Overdid it, maybe—my head throbbed like it might split, my eyes stung, but I gritted my teeth.
'Feels like I'm gonna puke.'
Still, I unleashed dozens more spells at the rampaging Cyclops stomping the ground.
And in that moment, chain-tipped iron bolts flew in, piercing its body.
"Pull!"
"Uwaaaah!"
Mana-depleted backup fighters, injured ones slowed down and carrying comrades inward from the cliff edge instead of fighting—
Everyone latched onto the five chain ends and pulled from all directions.
"Careful! Don't just yank blindly!"
Pull too hard, and they'd snap.
Like a massive fish hooked on a taut line.
When the Cyclops thrashed and raised an arm, they let the chain slacken, getting dragged a bit, then tightened it from the other side.
"Positions."
Kane yanked hard on one chain, making the Cyclops's body lurch.
Subjugation team members who'd been rolling on the ground spat curses and scrambled to the ballistae, following Kane's finger signals as he clenched and released his fist.
As if they'd drilled it a hundred times, they disassembled the iron frames on the ballistae into supports and tossed them back, while others drove the chain-linked ballista supports into the ground.
Dozens of stakes hammered down, and the ballistae that fired the chains—artifacts themselves—had mana shimmering along the links.
Tougher. Stickier.
"Don't release now—keep pulling!"
They only pulled full force when it tried yanking out an arrow. With two chains pierced through one arm, people infused their muscles with mana and heaved, while Kane, Rachel, Reinhardt, and others swarmed the unpierced hand.
"Krararara!"
As it struggled in a tug-of-war from all sides, I layered grease spells at its feet.
Dozens of spells, once more.
Then Dig on top.
One foot slipped on the slick, the other sank into a deep pit—the Cyclops finally lost balance and toppled.
Dirt sprayed everywhere, dust clouds billowed, and someone pink leaped onto its head.
'Luna?'
I canceled the eye-targeted spell I was prepping and instead shielded Luna's body, catching my breath.
Zero drove his sword into the Cyclops's eye, and Luna stomped it in deeper.
"Chains 4 and 6!"
Other mercenaries pulled its limbs on Kane's signals as Rachel smashed its throat with a two-handed hammer fist, throwing her weight behind it.
Kane, who'd been charging solo like a lone general, now directed people, preempted attacks, and shifted positions.
Who knew the communication-blocked, hopeless Kane had grown this much.
Amid my pounding headache, I grinned in satisfaction and fired a magic missile into the Cyclops's eye as it turned toward Luna.
"Twist it!"
As Reinhardt thrust with a heavy strike, Kane signaled and mana-amplified his voice to command others, blocking its rise while swinging Skaar.
It looked like the Cyclops was on the back foot, but the situation could flip any second.
And then—perhaps the mana stones in the ballistae ran dry?
One chain snapped during the struggle, giving the Cyclops more leverage.
Screams of agony and death cries rang out, along with those barely clinging to life succumbing to its aura.
The canyon floor deepened with blood, bodies piling up.
No high-circle mages, but everyone gritted their teeth and squeezed out mana. Even so, limits hit—mana backlash caused vomiting blood and collapses left and right.
With numbers so few they could be counted on one hand, the burden grew, and the Cyclops hurled boulders at those mages.
"Don't waste your strength pointlessly!"
It wasn't full power, so layering Pーツ shields saved them, but unlike infinite 1st-class shields with just mana stones, Pーツ was 2nd-class.
Once the codex's Pーツ shields ran out, I clenched my jaw.
Wanted to send out Aegis too, but if Luna and the others noticed, even one might leave the battlefield.
The 200 pages I'd meticulously filled were mostly blank now.
All 2nd-circle+ attack spells gone, except area ones.
Slotting mana stones into the codex's now mostly empty spine, I switched to vision disruption—endless magic missiles in the air—then clamped my mouth against rising nausea.
'Pushed too hard.'
Focus limit hit.
But the Cyclops was the same.
Nearly out of mana, green blood pooled from unregenerated wounds.
"Graaak! Kek!"
Tang! Tang! Kaang!
No strength left to grip chains—more rolled on the ground exhausted. With a final massive thrash, the ballistae bolts ripped free, chains snapping.
"Mana reserves zero. Cyclops restraints released."
Meisha's hollow voice beside me, as she shouted updates to Reinhardt amid the screams.
Never expecting mere humans to resist this much, bloodshot veins burst in the giant Cyclops's eye, green pus oozing down.
It yanked out the iron bolt still chained through its arm, slammed it down, and crushed it.
Its rampage shook the canyon like an earthquake—even the upper cliffs rumbled, one side crumbling.
No longer sprawled, even slightly hunched it rose, making everything but its legs hard to reach again.
Most mercenaries and subjugators hesitated, mana spent. Kane bellowed, splitting people to flank its rear while he charged head-on.
From the side, Reinhardt unleashed his full power in a massive aura blaze, horizontally slicing the now mana-less Cyclops's knee with his sword.
To flare more aura now, Reinhardt would have to burn his life force.
"—!!"
An ear-piercing shriek.
Meisha and I—barely civilians—staggered; blood trickled from her ears.
I dropped to one knee, sounds muffled like head underwater, shaking it off—then Kane's voice pierced via siren.
[Fire magic at me.]
Didn't ask what for.
Palm on codex page, I opened my mouth, familiar now.
"By the power of truth."
Damn it, protagonist's cue to settle this.
Before Reinhardt burned his life.
Squeezed out the spell despite spinning vision, peering down the canyon.
Using magic missile knockback, Kane leaped high, severing the Cyclops's thumb clawing at him with aura many times his size, then slashing the giant eye.
At the same time, the split flanks swarmed, squeezing out final aura to hack its body.
"Kane!"
Someone screamed his name.
The Cyclops's head split slowly in half; Kane dropped inside.
Even halved, not dead yet—tattered arms tried closing it. Rachel and Luna climbed its body.
They punched and kicked the eye; their auras twisted together, drilling through—brains and blood burst from the back of its skull.
"Gruk… Grurrr."
Foam white-green cascaded from its mouth like a waterfall as it slumped, head lolling.
Luna and Rachel extracted Kane from shoulder-deep inside, reaching in to haul him out from the split-open head.
Thanks to scattered flares, who knew if dusk or dawn in this hazy light.
I collapsed to the ground, muttering. Blood trickled from my nose, metallic taste sliding down my throat.
'User's Eye.'
[Kane Reyners—The Riser]
Main Traits: [Unforgettable (SS)] [Perfection (B)]
Hidden Traits: [Craving (S)] [Miracle (A)]
Crazy bastard, that guy's a total lunatic.
Lying flat on the ground, I laughed madly at the sky.
We'd crossed the threshold, after all.