Sleeping Flame (2)
The impact hit like a goddamn bowling ball collision. The giant and I bounced off each other and flew backward in the direction we’d clashed. My body tingled faintly. The result of raw power meeting raw power. This little shit is seriously strong.
I rolled across the ground and spat out the saliva that had pooled in my mouth. The giant also showed off its talent for rolling like a dung beetle before leaping back up. It would’ve been perfect if it just retreated like that, but of course it wasn’t trying to run. The ugly giant launched itself high toward the ceiling of the crater.
─BOOOOM!!!
─KUUUUUUNG!!!
“GuU?!”
Then, like a complete idiot, it slammed its head straight into the ‘empty’ ceiling and crashed back down to the ground.
─KRAAAAAAAAANG!!
What a brainless, thick-skulled giant, headbutting first. Of course, I didn’t find it the least bit funny. The giant shook its head and got right back up. It was the kind of pathetic physical comedy you’d see in a trashy gag show that only had a week left before cancellation—completely unfunny and just killing the mood.
Still, thanks to that ridiculous stunt, I learned something.
I watched the giant stare up at the ceiling and asked, “……Veronica?”
“Yes. To my eyes, the giant clearly ‘collided with the ceiling.’”
“As I thought.”
Looked like my guess had been right. The leg strength required to clear ten meters in a single standing jump was terrifying in its own right, but that wasn’t what concerned me. The giant had leaped as if there was nothing there, nearly cracking its skull open.
──In other words, this giant couldn’t see the illusion of the ceiling?
What did that mean? I didn’t know how long this bastard had been sleeping like the dead, but if it had seen the ceiling, it wouldn’t have smashed its head into it like a moron. The fact that it couldn’t see the illusion covering this barrier meant──
“This fucker possesses the mana of the ancient gods.”
──It meant the creature held a ‘qualification’ just as vast as my own.
Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. The mana of the ancient gods was more like an achievement. Having a lot of it didn’t automatically make you stronger. Before I acquired Gerðr’s buff, all that ancient god mana had been nothing but a useless burden.
Even so, this deduction gave me several clues. It was a familiar routine. I’d solve the puzzle step by step, layer by layer, and find the enemy’s weakness.
─Tap.
I lifted my head and checked the ceiling. The barrier coating the volcano wasn’t particularly tall compared to its width. We’d climbed up and down the cave, so the altitude had increased. Based on Veronica’s earlier reconnaissance, the barrier was probably about a hundred meters above sea level.
‘This area is roughly ninety meters above sea level…… so we’re inside the valley of this volcano.’
In other words, we were inside the volcanic crater. The perfect place to hide a treasure meant to lure in its owner. Yet it wasn’t hot. The floor was just ordinary granite. I already knew why.
We’d already seen the answer.
──There was an illusion barrier laid over the valley as well.
To my eyes, the blue sky looked completely normal, but Veronica had said there was a ‘ceiling.’ What she had scouted earlier as ‘hardened lava’ was probably the illusion barrier. It had been made to look like cooled lava from a dormant volcano, when in reality it was concealing the valley inside this crater. A prophet’s precaution to keep flying enemies from discovering this important space.
‘Then we’ve come to the right place.’
The Burning Branch or whatever it was called had to be somewhere around here. Why else would they hide it so thoroughly? The fact that this area alone was unusually cool was another clue.
While thinking that, I glared at the giant standing motionless.
“My lord. That creature could probably leave this place whenever it wished,” Veronica said.
It was an obvious conclusion. If we reversed the process by which we’d entered, we could leave. And though it looked stupid, it probably had enough intelligence to figure that out.
“Yeah. If we let that bastard escape, we’re fucked. It’ll attack not only people but ships too, so we have to take it down here.”
If it got out and we lost track of it while regrouping with the party, we’d be screwed for the reasons already mentioned. And honestly, even if it wanted to leave, it couldn’t.
‘That motherfucker is blocking the only exit.’
The giant had tucked itself into the sole exit of the crater. Look at this sneaky son of a bitch. The space was just wide enough for the giant to move comfortably, so if I followed it in, dodging would be difficult. There was only front and back to maneuver in.
“It could probably leave the volcano’s barrier. But I doubt it could leave the island,” Veronica continued.
Even a corner-dwelling Yeopo couldn’t do anything alone with no one around. This was a volcanic valley where even internet Wi-Fi wouldn’t reach. Who in their right mind would sleep for a thousand years in such a remote, shitty countryside house until stones grew on their face?
“……Even if it could leave the volcano’s barrier, the island’s barrier prevented it from going outside? Then I do not understand how it entered in the first place. It does not seem as if it simply fell from the sky.”
Veronica’s muttering perfectly summarized what I was thinking.
“Maybe it drifted here by accident. And look at that fucker staring at us so hard. Must be starving like hell.”
“……I think I understand why there are no animals on this island.”
It was a chilling thought. According to Franc, the complete absence of animal traces went back decades.
‘Just how much does it have to eat before even bugs stop showing up?’
Even noise between floors can drive a person insane in a year. If an ugly stalker with a face like that roamed the island every night, it wouldn’t be surprising if the locals died of heart attacks and frailty. Or maybe the animals of Garden Island took one look at its hideous mug and decided to pack up and move out. Like NPCs in Animal Crossing seeing the village mayor’s face and immediately relocating. A true upside-down world of lookism.
As I thought that, I suddenly felt a sense of unease.
“……Is it scared? It hasn’t attacked first.”
Normally I could make decisions in two or three seconds with accelerated thinking, but this time I’d been talking with Veronica. About three minutes had passed. Yet the giant still hadn’t made the first move. What, did it have some kind of three-minute courtesy rule? It wasn’t like an absolute master granting three seconds of mercy. The giant was stubbornly sticking to a camping strategy at the entrance.
Hiding its body inside the exit and staring at us with that hideous face was beyond horrifying. Wariness? ……No.
Its glistening eyes were locked onto us like it would never let us out of its sight. And though I said ‘us,’ the difference in interest between me and Veronica seemed massive. When Veronica moved slightly behind me, the giant’s eyes followed her.
“Hey, Veronica. Are you popular? Looks like it fell for you at first sight.”
“That is genuinely repulsive, so please stop. While I do wish to lift the curse, I at least have the right to choose my first partner, do I not?”
Veronica muttered with a look of utter disgust.
“I have no desire to be toyed with and then devoured like a mantis. I would rather bathe in a sewer.”
She said that and waved the levitating pillar around. The giant’s eyes followed it exactly as expected.
“Indeed. It seems both I and this pillar are nothing but trophies to that creature,” Veronica said, trying to ease the tension with a joke.
“My lord. As you can see, that thing is clearly trying to steal your precious belongings. In that case, would it not be fair to call it what you refer to as a ‘professor’?”
“I’ll take the full list of what you consider ‘my precious belongings’ later…… but yeah, the second part is spot on.”
A wicked, lawless being that would shamelessly steal someone else’s stuff even while half-asleep with a groggy brain. It perfectly fit the definition of a professor.
“……Krrrrr.”
A beastly growl slipped from my throat. I tapped my lips in surprise and controlled the anger rising within me as if it had been waiting for this moment. I probably wouldn’t lose control from this level of rage, but better safe than sorry. A lion’s preparation is never wasted.
At that moment, Veronica stroked my back and said,
“I cannot fully follow your profound professor-extermination theory, but that creature appears to be a type of Jǫtunn before it is a professor.”
“That thing’s a Yotun?”
It was very different from what I knew. The Yotun I knew were scrawny, backstabbing Smurf-like brothers. This one looked like some mutant Hulk. Its strength was comparable, but its defense seemed even higher.
“Yotun skin is insanely fucking tough, yeah.”
Anyway, its race wasn’t the issue right now.
‘Look at that motherfucker just camping the entrance the whole time.’
No matter how long we waited, the giant didn’t budge. Whether it was a Yotun or a giant kidney stone, it clearly had no intention of letting us go.
‘A staring contest would only hurt us.’
That giant was more like a tardigrade than a Yotun. Trying to win a battle of endurance against something that could stop its life functions and stay frozen without even emitting mana? We’d starve to death once our food ran out. And even if we screamed our lungs out, it probably wouldn’t reach the party members waiting outside. Worse, if we took too long, our wives might come into the cave, and that would be disastrous. In such a narrow hole, we couldn’t deploy the ultimate annihilation formation, the Encirclement Annihilation Array. We’d be lucky if we weren’t picked off one by one.
The future where each member of our party got turned into a pancake by that bastard’s fist had to be avoided at all costs.
‘In the end, Veronica and I have to draw its aggro and finish it ourselves.’
If that thing learned about the rest of the party and took hostages, we’d be in deep shit. Goddammit. Why did boss fights always end up being done with a small number of people? Well, thinking that forming a team meant we could always fight together was a mistake.
‘They say parties often split up during adventures.’
I had no objection to the saying “united we stand, divided we fall,” but sometimes splitting up happened whether you wanted it or not. Just like right now. It sucked, but what could we do? We’d fight with what we had.
“Veronica. Do you happen to know any weaknesses on that thing?”
“It is not exactly a weakness, but Yotun are born with power identical to the rune ᚦ (Thurs) within their bodies. It is a racial trait.”
Veronica said this and spread her palm as if steeling herself.
“I will pour as much offensive magic as possible to deplete its mana. Once its mana is completely exhausted, it will lose the energy needed to move that massive body. If its movements slow down, our chances of victory will increase.”
“Does its skin’s defense drop when its mana runs out?”
“For that part, I suppose I must trust in my lord’s strength.”
So it doesn’t drop. Well, if its defense collapsed just because mana ran out, we wouldn’t be able to make armor out of monster materials. Speaking of armor……
‘Come to think of it, I don’t even have any armor.’
Thanks to Beast Regression, I almost never got injured, so I hadn’t thought much about it. But seeing that bastard’s power, I was starting to feel uneasy. I didn’t know how much a cheap suit of armor would help against attacks that could pierce my defense, but still. Armor capable of withstanding attacks dangerous even to me would cost a fortune in materials alone—gold-rank pricing.
“Wait a second?”
What about that giant bastard’s hide? If I skinned its ugly face and the rest of its body and made armor out of it, wouldn’t it be incredibly tough and useful? The bluish color even looked pretty cool. Calling it a “giant” made me feel a bit gross imagining it wearing human skin, but that thing was only a giant in name. Its face was pure monster. Just because it was a bipedal creature with two arms and two legs didn’t make it human. Bullshit.
“A tiger leaves its hide after death, a man leaves his name.”
I didn’t know that bastard’s name, nor did I care to. The only thing that ugly giant would leave behind after dying was its hide!
“──Then you are nothing but a mere tiger.”
A worthless life that fell to the level of a beast because it could not leave behind a name. Pazuzuzut─!! Realization filled my heart. Was that why it had come out of the cave after failing to endure eating mugwort and garlic, ending up with such an ugly face? If so, our meeting might be the destined rivalry between us Koreans and the plague-like monster that was this giant.
I would skin it, make armor from its hide, and thereby honor your life.
“The tiger becomes me.”
──Drop your loot and die already, you ugly fuck.
─SWISH!!
I grabbed my spear and charged forward.
“Gsssssssuqqq!!!”
The giant let out a sound that didn’t seem like it could come from any living creature and swung its forelimb. As expected, its head wasn’t completely empty. It was an attack meant to eliminate any dodging space in the passage.
‘But that also makes it easy to predict.’
I stabbed the center of the incoming front kick with the blunt end of my spear. The fourth form of Gerðr’s counter technique. I suppressed the truck-crash-like mass with all four limbs.
─KIIING!!
A sound like metal clashing! It was the noise of a clean success. The impact traveled through my hands, and the giant froze. The kinetic energy had been canceled out through the application of mana manipulation. I immediately activated the original combo.
“──Mu Mu Yeok Yeok Mu
──A combo from counter technique fourth form into attack technique second form. I struck the giant’s leg—now at zero kinetic energy—with the shaft of my spear. That was as far as the fourth form of the counter technique went. After that, all that remained was to pierce a vital point with a thrust to finish it.
The giant’s skin was as hard as it looked, so the spear blade didn’t sink in. But that was fine. Let’s see if your eyeballs are just as tough, you bastard.
“──Hwi Hwi Gong Eum
─WHOOSH!!
I thrust the mithril spear straight at the giant’s eye. The difference from Hoe Hoe Nan Man was small, so I’d named the technique similarly. The difference between slash and thrust, attack and counter. After all, the best defense is a good offense!
“GsS, Gwww!!”
But the creature twisted its facial muscles in a grotesque way and kicked off the ground. It avoided the spear aimed at its head with a backflip and jumped again! Was it trying to retreat? Excellent. The battle was unfolding exactly as I’d envisioned.
I kept my thrusting stance and drew up my mana. I planned to compress Summon Cloud and launch it from the spear shaft as a thrown projectile. If I suddenly changed from a thrust into a throw, there was no way it could block it.
─Kiiiiiiik!!
But just as I was thinking that, my eyes widened and I canceled the technique. Roughly 0.3 seconds before I could throw the spear, the giant brought both arms together in front of itself. As if trying to catch something flying toward it.
SLAAAAASH─!
When I didn’t throw the spear, the giant slid and landed. We stared at each other from a distance. Watching its strangely overdeveloped facial muscles twitch in a way that made my skin crawl, I frowned with a growing sense of unease.
“The fuck? You a mind reader?”
How the hell did this son of a bitch read my technique? My stance just now had looked like a thrust no matter how you saw it. If it had any brains at all, it should’ve been fooled. Yet that giant had prepared for the throw as if it knew everything.
Several possibilities flashed through my neurons. Starting from impossible hypotheses like mind reading or precognition, I checked them one by one and instinctively realized the truth.
“You son of a bitch…… have you fought someone who uses 【Gerðr】 before?”