The Blood Giant's Fall
That night, after losing track of Shimak's whereabouts.
"You want me to call Lady Lyla? Here?" Chrome tilted his head, and Fiore nodded.
"Yes, you have a direct line of communication with her, don't you, Brother?"
"I do, but even so, it's not something I can just casually summon her with. She's not the kind of person you can order around like an errand girl."
"But you were fine using her as a date partner for the festival's daily shifts?"
Chrome averted his gaze at the pointed remark. Fiore continued.
"If you invite her to watch the martial arts tournament, the princess probably won't mind too much. At this rate, it looks like you'll be able to climb quite high yourself, Brother."
Chrome scratched his head. Fiore, who seemed a little hesitant unlike usual, asked,
"Is it too difficult after all?"
"Well, I'll give it a try. I don't know if it'll work just because I want it to."
"Thank you, Brother."
In the end, he didn't get a definite answer from the princess. She only replied that she would drop by if she had time. So he hadn't expected much.
"Her timing is as impeccable as you'd expect from the main character. It would've been much easier if she'd come a little sooner."
Chrome grumbled, though the complaint was more of a white lie to mask his genuine relief.
Just then, the Starlight Message Earrings chimed. Chrome, worried she might have overheard his muttering, cautiously checked the message.
[I didn't know watching the martial arts tournament would be like this, Chrome.]
Fortunately, the princess didn't seem to have ears in hell.
[My apologies, Lady Lyla. This wasn't the plan, but that guy—] Ah, right. The voice message can only be five seconds long. Chrome shortened it.
[That guy's bad. I thought he was a training dummy and—bang!]
At that moment, the enraged Blood Giant swung its massive quarterstaff without warning. The shockwave alone sent a gale across the ground where Chrome stood, but Lyla evaded it effortlessly with flight magic.
Chrome added briefly: [He didn't like getting hit, so he rebelled. And started moving.]
[Understood. Be quiet now.]
Yes, ma'am. Chrome shut his mouth. Even without her order, the giant's leg was now right in front of them, so he had no choice anyway.
"Just being big doesn't mean everything!"
Crow was the first to charge. His flashy double strike rushed toward the giant's left ankle, but all that came back was a sharp metallic clang. Realizing the red stone shell covering the giant's skin was far tougher than expected, Crow clicked his tongue and leaped back. Akasha's greatsword followed, slamming down on the giant's instep.
Thud! With a heavy impact, the shell—or shoe—covering the instep crumbled, revealing red liquid beneath. But before Akasha could strike again, the outer shell regenerated and blocked the attack.
"Ugh!?"
Akasha tried to regain her stance, but the giant was faster, swinging its left leg with full force. A deafening roar followed as the giant's foot swept across the ground like a broom, kicking away buildings. Akasha, who had been standing on one, crashed through several structures before tumbling across the ground.
Any ordinary person would have died instantly, their body unrecognizable. But the toughness granted by the Tushin blessing and mana-enhanced physique was extraordinary. With Fiore's healing, Akasha rose again, and Crow immediately targeted the giant's ankle once more.
At first glance it looked like a repeat, but Crow's attack this time wasn't a simple slash. He unleashed the spells embedded in both his flame and ice magic swords simultaneously. This time, the giant's left ankle was severed, and its right ankle exploded and collapsed at the same time—thanks to Chrome throwing every remaining fire-attribute stone he had.
The now-shorter giant swung its quarterstaff in an unstable stance, but Ligret countered it. Her war hammer, brimming with centrifugal force, shattered the quarterstaff's surface, and she drove her dagger into the exposed interior. The Wedge of Gluttony, upon contact with the red liquid, began greedily devouring its energy. In an instant, roughly a third of the massive quarterstaff evaporated.
The hollowed-out shell could no longer maintain its shape and crashed to the ground, each fragment shaking the earth with thunderous noise.
Retreating from the debris, Crow spat out a curse.
"Damn it, that last attack drained all my mana!"
"Use mine! It won't match Red Light's effect, but it should still help! Akasha—"
"I'm fine. I can manage to some extent with just my body."
"Everyone, take some potions! Don't expect any more healing spells!"
After tossing wound-recovery potions to the group, Chrome asked Ligret,
"How are you holding up?"
"No problem. You?"
"I'm fine, so don't worry."
"Then we're good."
Though they spoke calmly, both knew the other was running on empty. Chrome's main offensive tool, the Attribute Stones, were consumables, and the sheer quantity he'd used throughout today's events was enormous. He could probably manage one more attack powerful enough to blow off the giant's ankle. Ligret's situation was worse, thanks to the Wedge of Gluttony's nature. While the dagger had performed exceptionally well, its absorption ability didn't distinguish between friend and foe. No matter how much energy it drained, none of it returned to Ligret—instead, merely holding it continuously sapped her strength. This wasn't a normal injury but a state of exhaustion that healing spells and potions couldn't fix.
On top of that, there had been the duel with Joy, breaking through the city filled with blood clots, confronting the enemy boss at the tower, and now this fight with the giant. Even with Ligret's superhuman stamina, there was a limit.
Boom! Crash! Boom!
Even as they caught their breath to regroup, the battle between the giant and the princess raged in the sky. The Blood Giant relentlessly attacked Lyla, trying to shake her off, while she dodged with flight magic and returned fire with various spells. Her ability to hold her own alone was reassuring, but her attacks were growing less frequent. She was focusing entirely on evasion and had no room left for offense. Raising her altitude might let her escape the attacks, but then her own strikes wouldn't reach the giant either.
"Damn it, if we just had a little more support…"
Chrome muttered without thinking. It was little more than a grumble—
Slash!
—yet as if in response, two-thirds of the giant's right arm was severed just as it tried to thrust the quarterstaff forward. The unbalanced attack missed its mark, and Lyla's spell struck the opening, triggering a massive explosion.
While the giant flailed amid the bombardment and continued regenerating, a knight who had landed from the sky grumbled,
"I was aiming to cut it clean off in one go, but I only managed a little over half. And here I was trying to make a flashy entrance. How disappointing."
The knight, Daniel Richter, asked Chrome,
"Sorry, young ones. Was I too late?"
"I was planning to complain later that the knights of Mars just stood by during a major incident, but it looks like that won't be necessary now."
"Ouch, that's harsh. There's nothing scarier for a working man than being called a freeloader."
Even though the reply could have sounded rude, he laughed it off with a playful shrug before turning serious.
"What do you need me to do?"
Chrome pointed at Ligret.
"Please help her reach the giant's heart."
"Got it."
With that, Daniel charged forward, and Chrome's group followed.
"Guoooooh!"
Sensing danger, the Blood Giant lowered its stance and swung the quarterstaff. It was an unavoidable horizontal sweep that would mow down everything in its path like a giant broom. Simple, crude, yet effective—but the sight ignited a man's fury.
"What have you done to our territory, you bastard!"
Daniel's sword clashed with the giant's staff. Given the size difference, one might expect him to be sent flying like a fly, but the mana and the sword aura of a master directly defied common sense. Guided by the sword's supple technique, the staff was driven into the ground. The group climbed atop it and sprinted toward the giant's upper body.
The giant tried to release its right hand from the staff, but Chrome's barrage of Ice Fragments and Ice Crystals forced it to stop. Akasha and Crow knocked aside the left hand the giant extended to block them. Ligret leaped into the giant's embrace. The giant gathered the outer skin covering the red liquid to protect itself—the crimson stone armor that had once been part of the massive tower. Even at full strength, Ligret no longer had the stamina to break through it.
Fwoooosh!
She didn't need to. From the sky, Lyla unleashed her most powerful mana bombardment yet. It struck the Blood Giant and shattered the thick armor. Inside the armor, at the position where a human heart would be, lay a dried corpse—nothing but bones remaining. The Wedge of Gluttony in Ligret's hand mercilessly pierced that spot, and the Blood Giant's torso evaporated.
Having lost its contents, the remnants of what had once been the tower, the giant's skin, and its armor rained down onto the ground. Atop that mountain of debris, the group checked on each other and confirmed that, miraculously, no one had been buried alive. As one, they either collapsed into sitting positions or lay flat on their backs.
Watching Lyla slowly descend from the distant sky, Chrome muttered,
"If another bonus boss pops out, I'm seriously going to kill it…"
Whether it heard him or not, no further incidents occurred that day.