Chapter 102
Chapter Title: The Fall of the Gigantes
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The crowd at the Erek Training Grounds held their breath.
Before them, the first-year students had begun their assault on the colossal Gigantes.
“The first-years are incredible! To think they can fight a Gigantes like that, even if it’s not fully grown!”
Watching the astonished and admiring Ril, Elena smiled faintly.
“Isn't that right, senior?”
“……”
“Senior Elena?”
Ril looked at Elena with a slightly puzzled expression.
Then, her eyes widened.
Elena was staring intently at Leo on the screen, her mouth slightly agape.
‘What was that word again?’
Just moments ago, only despair had filled the ranks of the first-years.
It was to be expected.
A Gigantes?
Even if it wasn't an adult, wasn't it too great a trial for first-years to overcome?
It was no wonder they felt such overwhelming despair.
‘But when that boy appeared, the atmosphere changed.’
It wasn't just because their combat power had increased.
Leo's arrival changed everything.
‘There are many great heroes in this world.’
And among this year's first-years, there were many who clearly showed the qualities of a hero.
However…
‘But that boy... he's on a different level.’
Turning despair into hope.
A being that illuminates the path in the darkness.
There was a special word for such a person.
‘Yes.’
Elena felt a shiver run down her spine.
In the eyes of the heir to a family that had long guarded the Hero Record, Leo resembled certain individuals.
‘A Great Hero.’
***
Whoosh-!
Aboard the Wind Wyvern, Abad began to chant an incantation.
Grrrrooooooar!
The Gigantes roared and swung its arm.
Whoosh-!
The massive forearm narrowly grazed past the Wind Wyvern.
A mere graze would mean instant death.
But Eliza, controlling the Wind Wyvern, remained unshaken and pulled on the reins.
The heir of the Hergin family.
Eliza Hergin had possessed an exceptional talent for handling mystical beasts since she was young.
Drawing out the Wind Wyvern's abilities to their maximum with her spiritual power, Eliza was literally like the wind.
Abad, a wind mage, sensed this instinctively and smiled gently.
“Impressive.”
“If you're going to praise me, how about landing a big hit on that damned magical beast?”
“Alright. Can you get me near that thing's mouth?”
“Are you crazy? You want to die?”
“Didn't Celia just blow its head off?”
Eliza scowled and glanced back at Abad.
He was wearing the same smile that supposedly made all the first-year girls swoon.
Of course, Eliza didn't bat an eye.
“So?”
“The wind of Llewellyn cannot lose to the flames of Jerdinger.”
“Hmph!”
Eliza scoffed, the corner of her lip curling up.
“You know it's a huge embarrassment if a mage's attack is weaker than a knight's, right?”
With that, Eliza yanked hard on the reins.
The Wind Wyvern spread its wings wide and soared into the sky.
Then, it began to descend at a tremendous speed.
Its eyes flashing at the immense mana it sensed in the air, the Gigantes opened its maw wide.
Flash!
A violet breath attack lit up the sky.
With near-acrobatic maneuvers, Eliza dodged the attack and rapidly approached the Gigantes.
Woooooosh!
The Gigantes's fist aimed for Eliza's side.
‘Tch! I can't get any closer…’
Just as Eliza, realizing she couldn't approach, was looking for an opening.
Fwoosh-!
Chen Xia appeared, leaping into the air.
Chen Xia pulled back her right hand.
Simultaneously, a massive aura of water formed in the air.
Boom-!
As Chen Xia thrust her open palm forward, the palm-shaped water aura struck the Gigantes's arm aside.
“Excellent, Xia!”
“Young Master Leo gave the order!”
At Chen Xia's shout as she fell, Eliza's expression turned to one of surprise.
‘To think he predicted my movements and commanded Chen Xia…!’
Reaching the Gigantes's face, Eliza let out a small laugh.
“I have to admit, his command skills are impressive.”
Whoooooosh-!
A furious gale swirled around Abad.
Abad, cloaked in mana so dense it was clearly visible, unleashed his spell.
“Tempest.”
Whoosh-!
The swirling wind vanished, and for a moment, silence fell.
The Gigantes's face was completely gone.
“With this…!”
As Abad clenched his fist.
Squelch--!
Flesh began to sprout from the Gigantes's head.
Eliza hastily put distance between herself and the Gigantes.
“No way! How in the world are we supposed to kill this monster!”
Blowing off its head was useless.
Even grievous wounds healed in an instant.
Just how were they supposed to defeat it?
“Move it!”
Just then, Celia's voice came from above.
Seeing her in the air, Abad opened his arms to catch Celia.
Seeing this, Celia made a face that screamed 'No way!' and turned her body.
And fell on top of Eliza.
“Kyaa!”
“Sorry!”
“You could have fallen on Abad, why did you have to fall on me!”
“As if I'd let a Llewellyn like him hold me!”
“Is this really the time to be picky about that!”
“Celia. What are you doing here too? Even for a Wind Wyvern, carrying three will reduce its mobility.”
“That's right! Get off!”
“Leo told me to come here!”
Celia readjusted her grip on her sword.
“Abad, get ready. Chloe said she's finished her preparations.”
At those words, Abad smiled.
“I see.”
“We need to hit that huge thing with one big shot to stop it until the spell is complete.”
Abad raised his staff and stirred his mana.
At the same time, the sound of runic chanting could be heard.
It wasn't because it was being shouted loudly.
It was a natural phenomenon that occurred as the mana in the surrounding area began to resonate with ‘a single mage.’
Krrrack-!
Leo, who had just sent a blast of flame toward the Gigantes with a swing of his sword, looked toward the inner castle.
“It's begun.”
“Wow! Wow! I'm feeling courageous all of a sudden!”
Hearing Chloe’s chanting, Chelsea shouted, full of fighting spirit.
Swoosh! Sizzle!
Duran and Chen Xia combined their powers.
As water and lightning have good synergy, their coordination maximized their effectiveness.
Lightning's weakness is its difficulty in converging on a single point, but Duran's lightning followed Chen Xia's stream of water, focusing it.
Grrrrooooooar!
Sensing Chloe's extraordinary mana, the Gigantes roared and began to charge toward the inner castle.
Its back was struck by Duran and Chen Xia's attack.
Crunch! Sizzzzzle!
Uwoooooooooh!
Even as its entire body was being electrocuted and fried, the Gigantes didn't stop its charge.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch! Thwack-! Thud-!
Just then, massive chains of earth wrapped around the Gigantes's neck.
Woreden, having created the chains with a Spirit Armor using an earth spirit, was pulling on the Gigantes's neck.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
His strength momentarily explosive due to his contract with the earth spirit, Woreden held the Gigantes in place with sheer physical force.
Snap! Pop!
The chains made of earth spirits began to break.
Thwack! Clang!
After breaking the chains, the Gigantes sprinted toward the inner castle.
At that moment, the spell Chelsea had prepared activated.
“Gale Harpoon.”
A harpoon of raging wind pierced the Gigantes's left eye.
Thwump-!
Grrrrooooooar!
Its eye burst, and blood poured out.
The Gigantes clutched its face and staggered, but it didn't stop running even as it bled profusely.
Even this fearsome creature, at the apex of all magical beasts, felt it instinctively.
If it didn't stop the attack, it would die!
Ignoring the barrage of powerful attacks, it ran in a straight line, solely focused on the inner castle.
Just then, Fwoooooosh!
A massive storm of flames erupted.
Celia, her sword wreathed in a storm of flames, blocked the Gigantes's path.
“Just die already, you monster!”
The towering storm of flames descended upon the Gigantes like a death sentence.
Krrrrraaaaaack-!
Starting from the Gigantes's left shoulder, the storm of flames tore through it.
Grrrrooooooaaaar!
The Gigantes let out a roar.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Her eyes flashing, Celia roared and tightened her grip.
Riiiiiiip!
From its left shoulder down to its right flank.
Its severed upper torso flew through the air.
Seeing the fatal wound, everyone thought it was over.
Thud-! Thud-! Thud-!
“N-No way!”
Its horrifying vitality remained, even after nearly half of its torso had been blown away.
Dangling its one remaining left arm, the Gigantes ran.
Toward Chloe, who stood atop the inner castle wall, holding her staff.
Leo blocked the path of the charging Gigantes.
Clack-
Leo readjusted his grip on his sword.
A magical formula then appeared above it.
‘Magic Sword.’
A swordsman's technique of imbuing a sword with mana.
Fwoosh-!
Flames swirled across the sword's surface.
The magic reacted to the Aura and fused with it.
Whoooooosh-!
“Inferno Blade.”
The magic created a colossal blade of fire.
Leo plunged the blade into the Gigantes's chest.
Halt-!
The Gigantes's movements stopped.
‘It worked!’
Just as everyone clenched their fists in their minds, Leo grimaced.
Thud-!
The Gigantes began to move again.
Leo gave chase.
Having exhausted all his mana, all he had left was his Aura.
The students on the wall, who had been watching with anxious faces, scrambled to flee as the Gigantes charged.
“Aaaaaah!”
“I-It's coming!”
“Get back!”
But Chloe did not stop her incantation.
“Chloe! Get out of the way! It'll be too late!”
Karl shouted in alarm, but Chloe, her eyes closed in concentration, did not stop.
Karl gritted his teeth and began chanting a spell to protect Chloe.
“Hey! You idiots! Stop running and block that monster!”
Just then, Iliana snarled and began her own incantation.
Howl readjusted his grip on his spear and charged toward the Gigantes, shouting.
“It's half-dead! If we can't even stop that, what kind of hero candidates are we?!”
Other students also tried to stop the Gigantes to buy time for Chloe to complete her spell.
Spells exploded, Auras slashed the Gigantes's body, and spirits and mystical beasts launched a concentrated assault.
With each attack, the Gigantes's charge slowed, little by little.
Finally…
Thud-!
The Gigantes fell to its knees right in front of Chloe.
Twitch- twitch-
The Gigantes's body trembled minutely.
The severed parts of its body were regenerating.
Whoosh-!
The moment the Gigantes, refusing to give up, raised its left arm to stop Chloe's spell.
“What to do? You're not allowed to lay a single finger on our mage, you know?”
Leo arrived in front of Chloe.
Fwoosh-!
A fiery Aura blazed to life.
He would have needed Piora to maximize its power, but Leo didn't have enough spiritual power left to summon her.
He had used most of his spiritual power on Kiruan to support his allies.
‘Still, I can block at least one attack from a half-dead Gigantes.’
Leo's red eyes flashed.
Shwack-!
A slash of fire shot upward.
The recoil from using the Brave Hero's Breath burned away Leo's left arm.
The instant the Gigantes's remaining left arm flew into the air, Chloe's blue eyes opened.
“Ice World.”
Crrrrraaaaaack-!
Ice spread out from the ground where Chloe stood.
Crrrackle! Snap! Crack! Shhhhatter-!
An absolute, frigid cold enveloped the Gigantes's body.
Staring intently at the frozen body of the Gigantes, Leo gave the massive figure before him a light push.
Stagger-! Thump! Shatter-!
Watching the Gigantes fall to the ground and shatter into pieces from Leo's gentle touch, all the first-years held their breath.
And then…
“Woooooooooaaaaaah!”
“We won!”
“We really defeated the Giganteeeeeees!”
Cheers erupted.
Chloe, completely exhausted, collapsed to the ground.
“Haha… you guys are really… incredible.”
Karl approached on trembling legs and handed Chloe a mana potion.
Then he looked toward Leo's direction and shouted.
“You were like a hero straight out of the Hero Record! Leo! This is practically a great deed…!”
“……”
Leo was nowhere to be seen on the wall.
“Where's Leo?”
Chloe asked, flustered, but Karl just shook his head.
“I-I don't know.”