The Sleeping Flame (3)
I had fought a giant who wielded spear techniques from the Mythic Age, born thousands of years ago? Even after saying it myself, I could hardly believe it. If that was really true, just how ancient was the bastard I was fighting? Even if we ignored the concept of lifespan, why the hell was something like that playing statue in the island founded by the Bicorn prophet?
Of course, it could have been my imagination, but the fact that the giant had predicted my technique was an undeniable truth. If I had thrown the spear as planned, it would have once again cursed its pathetic owner and snapped in half at the waist. Then I would have been forced to throw bare fists at that walking gore meme.
…Guess I’ll observe a little longer.
I kept the possibility of my techniques being read firmly in mind and enchanted the tip of my spear. Whoosh! It was the Burning Hand enchantment, something I could now do as easily as breathing. Golden flames bloomed at the spearhead, fueled by the Golden Sun’s breath!
The giant showed no sign of caution. “Gvvvv.” If anything, it seemed eager to crush me quickly and lay its hands on Veronica. The son of a bitch wasn’t even wearing anything around its waist, so its pillar-like cock swung freely. Fuck. So that’s why giants in movies and comics are always depicted as eunuchs. Whether I looked up or down, it was just an endless barrage of disgusting images.
“Die, you face-deformed freak!!!”
“SsW!!”
The giant swung its arm with a meaningless roar. I gauged the distance and launched a full-buffed attack at that arm. Dirty blood like sewage sprayed out as the skin split open. I had succeeded in wounding it, but I clicked my tongue.
“Tsk!”
The wound was too shallow. This bastard wasn’t a dealer—it was a tank. Its defense was far higher than its attack power suggested.
Hssssss…
I had figured out one more thing. I spun my spear like a windmill to scatter the toxic blood vapor and frowned. The wound isn’t burning!
Even though it had taken the Ansuz-enhanced flames—which, in full buff state, were basically a welding torch—directly on bare skin, the giant’s injury only resulted in evaporating blood. Its body is tough and it even has fire resistance!
Was that how it had endured so long on this scorching island? Weren’t Yotun usually ice-types? Then again, it might not even be a Yotun, so thinking about it was pointless.
“Veronica!! Fire magic doesn’t seem to work!!”
“I already know that!! Just hold on for ten seconds!!”
I half-listened to Veronica’s reply. Ah, I see. She must have realized from the Orichalcum pillar’s reaction that the bastard possessed a massive amount of fire mana.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
I dodged the rushing fists, found an angle, and unleashed the fourth form of my counterattack technique. I thrust the spear tip into the punch to absorb the impact. The giant, as if waiting for it, twisted its wrist to snatch the spear away.
“Touching someone else’s stuff makes you a thief!!”
Smack!!
I whipped the spear shaft like a switch. A dark bruise bloomed on the back of the giant’s hand. Because its blood was black, even the bruise looked pitch-dark. Blunt impacts work better than bladed ones?
While analyzing the information, I extinguished the flames on the spear tip. If it had heat resistance, then flashy electric attacks would also be a waste of mana. Looking at it this way, I didn’t actually have that many attack patterns.
If heat didn’t work, then cold it was. My lips moved in a chant.
“Freezing Hand.”
Crack!
As I circulated mana, frost clung to the spear. The giant’s facial muscles twitched at the sight of the cold energy, but looking at that disgusting face was already nauseating, and I couldn’t even tell what emotion it was showing, so I gave up. Provoking it was difficult too. There was no language system; its words didn’t translate at all. Goblins and beasts had language, but Yotun didn’t? That was nonsense. It was more likely that the bastard was simply silent, or that it wasn’t a Yotun at all.
Then it was just a fight. Nothing but a fight!
Swish swish swish!!
I unleashed a barrage of thrusts from the first form of my offensive technique. It was a simple move, so even if it read it, it shouldn’t have been able to block it completely. But because of our height difference, unless I threw the spear, it could only reach up to the giant’s chest. The leather pierced by the spear gained a thin layer of frost, but once again, it didn’t look like a fatal wound.
“Gpll── llrrrrrrl!!”
Confident in its defense, the giant raised its arms to crush me. Its massive body that filled the passage looked insanely intimidating thanks to its cock-shaped face, but I snorted and retreated. Ten seconds had already passed.
As I escaped the cold crater, the giant tried to chase but stopped. I naturally thought it was because of Veronica chanting her spell, but for some reason the giant looked at the sky before her.
“──Gqeeee!!!”
Its facial muscles darkened as it radiated killing intent. Its hesitant feet finally leaped out of the crater, but by then the spell was already complete. Veronica pressed down on the giant with her finger as if crushing it.
Boom!!
An invisible weight slammed onto the blue giant’s back. The charging giant fell to its knees. It curled up like a bug being stepped on. But both of us felt more surprise than relief.
Confused, I asked Veronica, “This… isn’t an attack spell?”
“It is an attack spell using gravity. It should have been blocked by the Thurs rune──”
Veronica couldn’t hide her ominous doubt either. Magic was a means to shave away that bastard’s mana. Yotun had magic resistance as a racial passive skill. Hadn’t we said that during our strategy meeting?
“G, ww……!!”
It should have, but the giant was slamming its head against the ground, blood spraying from its skin. Does it not have enough mana to activate its magic resistance? No, if that were the case, it wouldn’t have been able to move such a massive body.
Veronica maintained the spell and said, “I thought it was a variant of the Yotun because it emitted ice mana, but perhaps my guess was wrong.”
“…Doesn’t matter. Whatever kind of monster it is, we just have to beat the shit out of it.”
There was no need to resolve the question. It didn’t seem to have any poison, so we could just drain its strength like this and cut off its head. I gripped my spear again, resolve renewed.
Thud.
The giant slammed its right fist into the ground. Blood poured from its arm as if vessels had burst from the force, but from the spot it struck, cold energy erupted like a burst canister of liquid nitrogen.
Crack!
The giant’s right hand became encased in a block of ice. It kept slamming its limbs against the floor, beginning to arm its entire body with cold armor. I felt a chill and shouted.
“Veronica! Cancel the spell! That bastard’s buffing itself!!”
“──Tsk!!”
The moment gravity vanished, I hurled my spear and leaped after it.
Thwack!
The spear flew like a ray of light and destroyed its eyeball. Before the giant could pull it out, I recalled the spear using the enchantment I had placed on it.
“Gbvvvvvv!!!!”
The giant, now missing an eye, screamed as it was freed from the gravity. Clack!! Perhaps for defense, it formed an opaque ice mask over its face like a helmet, just like the ice armor covering its limbs. Even in such primitive armament, the giant carried the dignity of a great warrior.
Fuck, if epic Latin-style background music started playing, it would fit perfectly as a fantasy game boss. I was grateful it had given itself a built-in mosaic, but the ice axe and shield it created next pissed me off completely.
“Quuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!”
Whoooosh—!!
The ice axe came down to crack my skull! I deflected the heavy projectile using the third form of my counterattack technique. But the ice axe was far softer than I expected. The moment I parried it, the axe shattered and scattered heavy fragments.
Slash!
The remaining blade and handle sliced across my torso! Aaaargh, fuck!! It hurts like hell!! No matter how soft it was, the weight and power behind it couldn’t be ignored! It wasn’t a deep cut, but blood flowed from my chest.
Whoosh!
The giant swung its shield bash with much more agile movements. Its physical specs had risen! I realized this giant had been holding back its strength until now. It had been saving power to devour us, but once it sensed it was in danger of dying, it decided to burn through its remaining mana to kill us.
This bastard had been hiding in this volcano, waiting for the day it could escape! I couldn’t just take hits like this. I planted my spear into the ground like a pole vaulter, pulled both legs in at the moment the shield collided, then kicked off. My body, refined into superhuman form through physical coordination, perfectly executed the technique.
Swooosh!!
I shot into the sky like a cannonball launched from a catapult, stepping on the momentum of the shield. Being sent flying sucked, but it was better than getting smashed by that weight!
“GuGuu!!”
The giant in ice armor threw its broken ice axe at Veronica first, as if trying to kill her. Even while flying, I threw my spear again and pierced the thrown axe.
Thud!!
The axe that had been flying like a bird stopped dead. There was no time to relax. The giant had already charged after throwing the axe and was chasing Veronica as she retreated. I landed on the ceiling barrier, kicked off it before gravity pulled me down, and jumped toward the floor. My target was right in front of Veronica. If the timing was right, I could land a dropkick on the giant’s body.
Hearing the sound of air being sliced, the giant swung its shield toward where I was flying. There were several ways to dodge in midair, but I grit my teeth and twisted my body.
“Shield bastard, cut!!!”
I poured mana into the kick. The compressed vapor from Summon Cloud added propulsion to my leg. It was a simple low-tier spell, but its power was anything but simple.
Booom!!!
With acceleration like a grenade explosion and full-buff defense, I planted a kick dead center on the shield. It was the classic K-MMORPG “overpower with DPS” strategy. I crossed my arms to protect my face. The shield shattered, and my toes drove straight into the giant’s throat.
“G, aa!!!!”
I had tried to crush its windpipe, but this bastard’s neck was apparently nothing but muscle. Even after being slammed into the ground that hard, I didn’t feel anything break. I dodged the fly-swatting grasp and landed. The spear was buried so deep that calling it back did nothing. It would take some time to pull it out of the floor.
“Gq……!!”
The giant, coughing violently, swept its hand across the floor. A wave of cold energy whipped left and right like a whip! It was an indiscriminate cold blast that could create ice pillars in an instant. If this hit me, I was truly fucked!! Instant 80kg frozen meat delivery, fully possible!!!
Whirl!
I activated the Thurs rune item from my pocket and stood in front of Veronica.
“My lord!!”
“Just stay still!!”
The macho instinct inside me volunteered to be a meat shield. I wasted mana to quickly recall my spear. It hadn’t been that long since I recovered, yet it felt like half my mana was already gone. I spun like a windmill using the second form of my counterattack technique and shattered the cold energy.
Rumble—!!
The spear shaft’s special effect produced a thunderous sound and repelled the mana within the cold. It was incredibly reliable, but there was a limit. Frost began forming on my arms. Fuck, hot then cold—what a goddamn mess. Fuuuuuuck!!! My fingers are so fucking cold!!!
I hid my impatience and casually deflected the cold blast as if it were nothing. At this pace, my mana pool would run dry in less than five minutes. Full buff state consumed mana like crazy. I could recover with the imperial seal in my pocket, but competing in a mana battle with that thing would still be entirely to my disadvantage. Since I was the one getting hit, the freezing beam damage was slowly accumulating in my body.
That’s why I had to act even more relaxed. The one who should be more worried about mana was the giant. It was a creature that had been trapped on a tropical island unsuited to its constitution, slowly dying in a vegetative state. Even if it killed us, once its mana ran out, death would only draw closer.
The giant’s hesitation was visible even through the whiteout vision caused by the cold. Since all the animals that could restore its stamina had either been eaten or fled, it probably wanted to conserve mana even while trying to kill us.
Hooo…
The cold blast stopped. Even after the emission ceased, the chilled air remained. The vapor I had sprayed everywhere didn’t dissipate. The temperature of the once-refreshing crater dropped to that of a freezer.
“Khh……!!”
Veronica, eyes wet with tears, hurriedly placed her hand on my back. The Orichalcum pillar glowed and warmed my body temperature. It seemed to be driving out the cold energy covering my skin—in other words, the water mana.
The giant didn’t approach and instead let out a war cry.
“GAGAGAGAGAGAAAAAAA!!!”
“What are you so pissed about, you son of a bitch?”
It must have been infuriating to see the opponent you were fighting in close quarters getting healed by a woman. Or was it angry because we were using the Orichalcum pillar? Its movements that seemed to know Mythic Age spear techniques, its knowledge of ancient Orichalcum—it really was an incredibly long-lived old giant bastard.
Considering it was trapped on the island, it must have been on the verge of death, yet it’s still this strong?
Just how monstrous must it have been in its prime? Even with its current specs, it would easily surpass the Mithril Class. This wasn’t just some random boss monster you stumble upon while sightseeing, damn it. It was like a hidden region DLC boss.
Whirl! Thud!
The giant clutched its throat and threw the broken remains of its shield at the exit. What a petty bastard. I should have broken its spine when I kicked its neck. I took out the imperial seal and refilled my mana. When I reached my hand behind me, Veronica warmed my body temperature while also placing her hand on the seal. We managed to fill it completely. There was still plenty of stored mana left. It was a relief that I had been diligently charging it all this time.
I analyzed the giant that refused to approach and blew out a breath. It was fucking cold. If I made it out alive, I swore I wouldn’t wear anything thicker than short sleeves this winter. Even breathing made my lungs sting. I never knew cold energy could be such a terrifying weapon.
Come to think of it, even in my berserk mode I had fired freezing beams. Since it was magic cast by me while under an insane wisdom buff, its power had been guaranteed.
──If I go berserk again, could I win?
I shook my head to stop that thought. Getting that angry wasn’t easy. Besides, it wasn’t like comics or movies. I had no idea what kind of disaster I might cause if I lost my will and rampaged. With Veronica here—someone who absolutely must not get hurt—I couldn’t afford to do something so reckless.
Could I break the ceiling barrier and escape? If it were just the illusion barrier, I might be able to break it. The problem was there was no guarantee both of us could escape. What if only Veronica got blocked again? Or if I was the only one left? Then escaping would be meaningless. Would that son of a bitch just quietly wait while I broke the barrier? The reason it was acting docile now was to whittle away our mana and stamina with cold. If we tried to run, it would definitely try to kill us. Because if we came back later to pick a fight, it would be annoying for the giant too.
Let’s abandon the idea of running. Finding its weakness and winning was the priority. From its reaction when I landed the kick, my attacks were definitely dealing damage. I needed to land a critical hit while it was conserving mana and letting its guard down.
In the crater covered with frost mist, I calmly raised my spear.