Only I Could Pull This Off (3)

A derived skill: Gravity Armor.

The principle was simple. Take a gravity barrier that grows stronger the tighter you draw its range, compress it to the extreme of extremes—down to a size that fits my body exactly—and force the output past its limit.

And the power I was putting out now had already blown past a hundred percent. Yeah.

"One hundred and fifty percent."

The moment I stepped forward, a heavy shock split the air, as if a boulder had been dropped from on high. Spiderweb cracks raced out around the foot I'd planted.

"Grrrrrr...!"

The giant faltered, as if it had sensed that something was wrong.

If it didn't feel like coming to me, I'd be kind enough to go to it.

I bent my knees and launched, sprinting straight in.

KWA-GA-GA-GAK—!

The ground I left behind was obliterated, and dirt exploded into a choking cloud.

"Getting hard to tell which one of us is the giant."

At this point, I had to weigh more than that thing. I closed on it head-on, the idle thought still drifting through my head.

That enormous single eye fixed on me. It drew its right fist back, long and loaded.

"Going for another hit?"

If it wanted to swing that badly, I ought to let one land.

Whoosh!

The fist aimed at me came around in a huge arc. This time, though, I didn't go flying.

Instead—

Crack!

The clenched fist shattered like a stick of taffy.

All I'd done was throw my own fist into the space where its punch was about to arrive.

"?!?!?!"

Sorry. I'm not planning on getting launched as easily as last time.

"You got one punch in, so I get one too, yeah?"

Before it could pull the fist back, I raised the leg wrapped in Gravity Armor and stamped straight down.

KWA-KWANG!

The ground split as if an asteroid had slammed into it, and the giant's fist was crushed flat beneath my foot. I grinned and put more weight into the stomp. The giant lost its balance and buckled onto one knee.

"Kirik...!"

Maybe it had decided that staying in would only drag it deeper. It severed its own already-pulped fist and retreated in a hurry. From the cut, some liquid—blood, or something that only wished it were—streamed down in ropes.

"What are you, a lizard? Chop a piece off and run?"

Tentacles surged from the stump and, in no time at all, reshaped themselves into a hand.

"Must be nice. If I lose an arm or a leg, it doesn't grow back."

That settled it. The thing had regeneration at least equal to what it had before the transformation. No—stronger.

There was no subjugation record of its final form, so Iris hadn't been able to pass me an exact strategy. Even so, the place to hit was written all over it.

That eye.

Smash that huge, grotesque eye, and it was done.

Tzzzzzt...!

The only problem was that the mana in my body was starting to scrape the bottom.

Damn it. This is exactly why I wanted to save this for later.

Even before the regression, Gravity Armor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been one of my core skills. I just hadn't been able to use it often, and there were two big reasons why.

The first was the strain it put on the body. Even if I ignored eighty percent of the amplified gravity, wrapping my whole body in a transcendent weight still meant the remaining twenty percent was a serious burden. That problem, though, had been solved when my constitution changed to the S-rank Gravity Sovereign.

What still had me by the ankle was the second reason.

Not enough mana.

Gravity Armor was a skill that demanded delicate mana control. Naturally, the amount required just to maintain it was beyond imagination. Even with my mana efficiency pushed to its limit, at my current level I could hold it for barely three minutes.

And even that was only because it was me. Another player with the same stats wouldn't have been able to activate the skill at all.

So if I wanted to beat this thing for real, the next blow had to decide it.

"Hoo..."

Gravity Armor rattled in answer to my breath. I drew a cool smile and locked both hands around the hammer's grip, then kicked off from point-blank range and shot forward like an arrow.

"Kra-ra-ra-ra-ra!"

The giant's body swelled grotesquely, and hundreds of tentacles tangled together in the air. What they formed was a downpour of fists—a scale that would have shaken even me, and I'd seen just about everything.

So this is what they fought, with no stat adjustments. No wonder the kingdom fell.

A rain of fists filled the sky, rushing in to kill me and me alone. But with the armor on, that much was nothing but a drizzle.

Vmmm!

I drew a little of the mana burning away in real time into the hammer. I braced hard on both legs, then swung—gravity and mana snarled together—with everything I had.

The wind pressure born from the hammer twisted the fists' trajectories into chaos.

KWA-GA-GA-GA-GAK!

The punches hammered, useless, into the ground all around me. I used the opening to detonate mana from the soles of my feet and launched into the air—forward, more precisely, just far enough to meet that eye head-on.

"Kerak?!"

The thing hurriedly wound tentacles around its eye, layer after layer. It was trying, in a panic, to throw up a barrier. But—

I was carrying a top-grade defense-penetration buff.

If this one strike doesn't win it, I lose anyway.

So I burned everything to prepare the strongest blow I could.

Clack! Rattle!

Gravity Armor wrapped itself around the hammer. It swelled another size larger and turned menacing.

Vwoom! Vmmm!

A fine noise rose from the air around the hammer.

Right here.

I poured in every last grain of mana I had, not a speck held back. Mana was sucked into the hammer, and blue sparks crackled around it.

"Done."

The strongest single strike I could produce right now.

A skill in resonance with my realm had leapt two stages at once. I tried to hold it down, but the corner of my mouth kept climbing.

"Here it coooomes!"

With the shout, I hurled the very best I could do at the giant.

KWA-GWANG! KUUUUUUNG!

The roar burst twice ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over. The instant the hammer connected, it tore the tentacle barrier to shreds and smashed the enormous eye outright. The eye burst, literally, and a gaping hole opened where it had been set.

"Kr... rk..."

The giant spat out its death rattle, staggered, and collapsed. Thankfully, there was no cliché of it suddenly regenerating and shifting into some new pattern. It simply melted, slowly, and faded out of existence.

In the end—

The Channel's system certified it. That I had brought that calamity down.

I flashed a grin at the chat, which was scrolling like mad, and said:

"Clear."

When I came to, I was somewhere familiar.

Iris's Secret Outpost.

"Nngh..."

My body was heavy with my mana scraped dry. I forced myself up, and a small hand shot out beside me to stop me.

"Please rest a little longer! You collapsed the moment the battle ended."

I turned my head. Iris was there, smiling softly.

She was doing her best to look calm, but I could see it—the corner of her mouth trembling, her damp eyes flushed red.

She'd been crying and laughing for a good long while.

Well, of course. How happy must she be? The crisis of ruin was over.

...Oh?

That was when the urge to tease kicked in. Put an innocent kid in front of an adult, and the instinct to mess with them wakes right up.

"I know you must have so many questions. Still, please have this first..."

"Who... are you...?"

"...Pardon?"

I narrowed my eyes and clutched my head. I didn't forget to bite my lip hard, as if it hurt.

"Ugh...! The truth is, I haven't been able to remember a thing since a little while ago..."

"T-that can't be...!"

"Where is this? Wh-why am I here?!"

I put my soul into the act, and the life drained right out of Iris's face. She murmured under her breath, then wrinkled the bridge of her nose and started to sniffle.

"Memory loss, twice...!"

"Hic! That's too cruel... Even heaven is heartless. To steal away the memory of the hero who saved the world, again..."

"First, that soup..."

"Soup? Oh, yes! If you eat this, you might feel a little better...!"

"No. I was hoping you would eat it."

"Me...?"

"If the soup burns your tongue and tangles your pronunciation, maybe my memory will come back..."

"......"

Blink. Blink.

Those great sapphire-blue eyes stared at me, blank. In the end I couldn't hold the laugh in, and it burst out of me.

"Good evening, Lady Iris."

"Aaah...! Aaaaaaah!"

Her face flushed tomato-red with shame, and she grabbed whatever came to hand and threw it at me.

"That was mean! Mean! I was so worried I couldn't even think straight!"

"All right, I'm sorry. I won't—ack! That hurts! That's a rock! A rock!"

"Why would you pull a trick like that?! You awful man!"

Only after I'd barely managed to calm Iris, who had been storming around in a fit for quite a while, could I hear what had happened afterward.

Once I brought it down, the giant had vanished without even leaving a corpse. No separate calamity, and no new monster, had appeared since.

"I can feel it. The terrible calamity that collapsed the kingdom... it's over."

Iris clasped both hands tight, her face overflowing.

"It's finally... over... Thank you. Truly... truly, thank you, Sir Jaeha!"

"That's right. You should be thanking me. Even so—"

I had no intention of swaggering as if I'd taken it down entirely on my own.

"The information and the records you remembered and told me, Lady Iris. And the blessing you cast. Those let me bring it down more easily."

"......!"

"So let's call this one we caught together. Shares can be about nine for me and one for you, yeah?"

"Pfft! Please value my share a little higher!"

"Aaah—no can do. That thing was nastier than I expected."

It wasn't the sort of opponent you'd meet in a placement match. At minimum, this was a strength you'd only run into once you reached Gold. Factor in how complicated its patterns were, and it could go even higher ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than that.

"You know not just anyone can take something like that down, right? Only because it's me."

"Yes. That's right. It was only possible because it was you, Sir Jaeha."

"That almost sounds sarcastic..."

I pushed myself up and looked to the side.

Iris was there, tears falling, wearing a lovely smile. Starlight poured down and spilled along her golden hair.

"For coming to me. Truly, thank you, Sir Jaeha."

...That tickle in my chest again. Déjà vu.

I shook it off as best I could and pulled both corners of my mouth wide.

"Don't mention it."

With that, the final match of the placement exam—Princess of Ruin—came to an end, along with a strange feeling that I would see Iris again.