Chapter 282: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (75)
Chapter 282: Lainella's Fate is Decided by Lainella (75)
The man's memories were still drifting through my mind like scattered fragments.
I had grasped the general usage of Binding and Unbinding, but that was all.
I couldn't understand the deeper principles behind them.
It was because the most crucial scene had remained hidden until the very end.
The final demonstration of Binding and Unbinding shown by the Great Witch.
I had to see it.
My body, sent flying like a rubber ball, was on the verge of being slammed into the dirt.
If an unexpected person hadn't caught me, I might have had to face that man with the weary eyes while coughing up blood once again.
Thud. The way she caught me was remarkably steady.
An adult man's weight is no small thing. My body was lean muscle, and with the added momentum of the acceleration, the force should have been difficult to handle.
Yet, the girl simply stepped back a couple of paces, letting the impact bleed away.
A flash of gray hair brushed past my vision.
I let out a faint, hollow laugh.
"…Seria."
"Senior Ian, are you alright?!"
Seria looked just as worried as Celine. I leaned my back against Seria's chest for a moment before unsteadily pushing myself up.
I had suspected as much when I saw the Yurdina private soldiers, but seeing her with my own eyes made me even more relieved.
With this, the vanguard was fully assembled.
It was several times better than fighting alone.
As a startled Celine came rushing toward me, I gave the two women their orders.
"Seria, you take the right leg. Celine, you take the left… It’s too hard to deal with it in the air while it’s grounded."
"A-A-Are you out of your mind?!"
Of course, Celine wasn't one to follow orders submissively.
She immediately flared up and scolded me.
"D-Do you have any idea what state you're in right now, Ian?! It wouldn't be strange if you collapsed and died this second! We'll handle this place, so you should—"
"The two of you aren't enough."
It was the simple truth.
While their assistance would help, I was needed to deliver a blow that exceeded the Corpse Giant's regenerative abilities.
The only technique capable of pulverizing the Corpse Giant's arm in a single strike was 'Unbinding.'
If Binding was a technique to hold one's ground within the flow, Unbinding was the art of scattering it.
To use an analogy, it was like carving out multiple new channels for a flowing stream.
By applying this, I could scatter the very components that made up the Corpse Giant's body.
After all, connection was also a manifestation of force.
And I was the only one in the group who could use Unbinding.
In the end, no further arguments met my instructions.
Seria simply asked one question.
"…The signal?"
"The moment I leap."
That was our final exchange.
Celine looked like she wanted to say something more, but she eventually let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
She had realized that talking to me was useless.
That was Celine for you.
She knew me too well.
My gaze turned back toward the enemy.
In that short span of time, the Corpse Giant had already restored its missing arm.
The monster's hideous roar shook my eardrums violently.
Uwooooooooooo—!
I had heard that roar so many times now that I was starting to find it tedious.
A thought suddenly occurred to me, and I asked Seria.
"Seria, do you happen to have any painkillers?"
"Ah… Y-Yes! I have one for emergencies…."
As Seria fumbled to pull out a potion that looked like a painkiller, I downed the entire thing without hesitation.
Seria only tilted her head in confusion.
Of course, I had my reasons.
As the sensation of pain diminished, my mind grew increasingly hazy.
The hazier I became, the better I could glimpse the man's memories.
My body was already at its limit anyway.
Even if I wanted to push it further, only death remained. In that case, it was better to rely on the power of the drug.
Once again, a thunderstorm raged, and bolts of lightning poured down.
It was the magic maintained by the Lainella family's Magic Corps.
I found it strange that Senior Elsie wasn't making any direct moves, but I was grateful enough that she was keeping the Corpse Giant in check.
It had been a while.
The Saintess weakened the Corpse Giant.
Celine and Seria stood by my side, and Senior Elsie was likely preparing something from the rear.
The absence of Senior Delphine felt strangely lonely.
Since there was a limit to my body, I only had a few chances left.
The comrades who had joined me in this desperate moment felt incredibly reliable.
I bit my lip, feeling that this was the final stand.
The Corpse Giant also seemed to sense a strange tension, as it merely watched me intently.
Between my ragged breaths, unfamiliar landscapes seeped in once more.
Right, now.
I sprinted forward with everything I had and leaped off the ground.
It was a sudden dash, but the Corpse Giant's reaction speed was fast.
The Corpse Giant thrust its right fist forward.
In response, the silver aura blazing from my sword cleaved through the world.
A silver line pierced the Corpse Giant's fist. Immediately, corpses scattered with a spray of blood.
Through the falling bodies, another fist swung through the air.
It was the same chain attack that had already defeated me once. At this rate, my second defeat was certain.
However, there was one difference from before.
I now had allies.
A dark blue flash raced fiercely across the Corpse Giant's right leg.
Seria's downpour of sword strikes was like a torrential rain.
She slashed the ankle and leaped. Then, Seria lightly stepped across the countless corpses, carving sword scars from the enemy's calf to its knee.
Each clean strike severed the Corpse Giant's key joints.
So that it could no longer support its own weight.
As its right knee buckled, the Corpse Giant instantly lost its balance.
Kieeeeeeeeeek!
The fist aimed at me naturally swung through empty air.
Instead, I landed on that very fist and began to sprint up the giant's arm.
Flames scorched my vision.
The memories of the strange man invaded my sight once again.
The Master raised an index finger and spoke.
"Binding is about establishing yourself against the flow. If you can maintain your mental image without wavering, you too can be free from the flow."
Yes, that was it.
Wasn't that why I was standing against this impossible foe?
I shook off the hallucinations and auditory illusions as I continued my sprint.
Past the forearm, onto the shoulder.
In the meantime, the Corpse Giant targeted me with its half-restored arm.
Of course, such a trick wouldn't work on me.
My sword point thrust forward, drawing a straight line.
Though the tip of the blade only made a slight thud of contact, the Corpse Giant's palm could not advance any further.
It tried to grab me with its fingers too late; it was already over.
The corpses forming the giant's hand scattered and rained down onto the ground.
In the end, the Corpse Giant only had one arm left.
The monster tried to swat me away even if it meant using its last arm.
But by then, Celine had already reached its left knee.
Boom! A small explosion echoed in my ears.
Celine's specialty lay in pouring out a massive amount of mana all at once.
Her skill might be lacking compared to Seria's, but it was no exaggeration to say that the power of her full-strength strike rivaled Seria's.
No, now that she had consumed the 'Dragon's Pure Blood'—the prize from the Hunting Festival—she was even stronger.
The Corpse Giant's left ankle was shattered instantly.
Having lost another support, the Corpse Giant's body descended rapidly with a heavy thud. While the giant's balance was shaken once more, I adjusted my posture and thrust my sword.
The giant's palm and my sword met.
In terms of volume or mass, the giant's palm held an overwhelming advantage.
However, the result was the exact opposite.
The giant's palm cracked with a creak, and a silver mist of light leaked out.
What happened next was predictable.
Bang! As if detonating, the Corpse Giant's remaining hand exploded.
Chunks of flesh and bone fragments scattered in all directions.
Time began to flow sluggishly.
In that space, I was unearthing even deeper memories.
It was another unfamiliar scene.
"…And Unbinding is this."
The Master spoke, slowly drawing his index finger downward.
"It is to explode."
There was no need to ask what, because the condensed mana was already boasting its grand presence.
The moment the Master's finger pointed toward the ground with a light tap.
Everything was torn apart.
Neither time nor space was an exception.
Nothing remained in the laceration in the air.
It was pure void.
For a fleeting moment, I witnessed the emptiness of the world.
Then, a woman's voice echoed in my ears like a ghost.
"Yourself."
The Master said that, too, was a mental image.
The world shifted once again.
"Gasp!" I snapped back to reality, panting heavily.
Time began to flow again. The sound of blood pattering down was proof.
There was no time to catch my breath.
I immediately climbed up the Corpse Giant's head.
Kieeeeeeeeeek!
Several faces let out unpleasant screams, but they fell silent after a few swings of my axe.
To be precise, it was closer to me crushing their maws until they were quiet.
It was just as I somehow reached the Corpse Giant's forehead.
The Corpse Giant suddenly let out a bizarre shriek and slammed its own head into the ground.
Boom! A massive impact surged through me, right down to my marrow.
I vomited up the blood that welled in my throat.
I had used Binding at the last second, but it wasn't perfect because I lacked the time.
The sickening sound of crushed internal organs rupturing echoed through me.
I wasn't the only one caught in that sudden counterattack.
Seria and Celine, who had been supporting me from the sides, were also sent tumbling across the ground by the aftermath.
My eyes flew open from the excessive pain.