Chapter 327: The Tin Knight and the Reviving Myth – Amaryllis
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 327: The Tin Knight and the Reviving Myth – Amaryllis
The giant's presence was, in a word, overwhelming.
Its colossal frame, its powerful musculature, its destructive physical strength.
When it came to sheer physical power, it seemed no being in this world could surpass the giant.
In contrast, the girl facing the giant was so very small.
Even a man of towering stature would be dwarfed by the giant, yet the girl's frame was on the smaller side, even among her own people.
And yet, both sides confidently spoke the word "duel."
Neither the girl nor the giant raised any objection.
The ones flustered by this were the vassals of Lennart who served the girl as their lord.
“W-Wait a moment, my lord! What do you mean, a duel?”
“That thing is a monster! You must fight alongside us!”
A duel was something conducted between two people.
No one duels a storm.
Nor does anyone duel a tidal wave.
The giant before them was a being beyond all conventional measure. A disaster that the warriors of Lennart, each nearly a superman in their own right, would have to attack as a group just to have a slim chance of victory.
They pleaded with their lord, but Adelaide’s reply was simple.
“It’s alright. Leave it to me.”
Her words were brief.
They came with no lengthy explanation.
But her kin could say no more.
Adelaide’s smile was too bright, her demeanor too full of conviction, for them to add any more paltry words.
They realized it then.
Their little lord was not the least bit frightened, even when facing that calamitous being.
Adelaide turned her gaze forward once more.
The giant watched her, a belligerent smile on its lips.
The next moment, the two of them kicked off the ground simultaneously.
Vwoooom!
Tearing through the air, the giant’s club swung down toward the earth.
It was a terrifying sight, as if a great tower had been picked up by someone and was flying straight at her.
A normal person would have frozen in place or screamed, their thoughts shutting down, but Adelaide was unafraid, flinging herself out of the attack’s trajectory.
The moment the club struck the bare ground, the earth trembled as if in an earthquake, and a great trench was carved along the club's path.
The giant struck down at Adelaide several more times, but she dodged every blow, moving with astonishing speed.
《Fast, are you! Then how about this!》
The giant changed its stance.
Lowering its body, it placed the side of its club against the ground and swept it wide, as if sweeping with a broom.
The very ground was ground away, surging toward Adelaide as if the earth itself had become a wave.
Flying debris, a clouded field of vision, unstable ground.
The attack’s range was too wide to dodge forward or backward, and dodging left or right was pointless.
The only solution was to jump upward, but the giant would know this too, so it was surely a trap.
And Adelaide’s choice was simple.
Both hands gripping her sword behind her head, her body like a fully drawn bow.
The instant the giant’s club was upon her, Adelaide’s greatsword slammed down on it with all her might.
Kuuung!
The club, which had seemed capable of pulverizing everything in its path, was stopped by the attack of a tiny human.
At the sight, like a praying mantis pushing back a carriage wheel with its strength, the eyes of the Lion Duke's bloodline widened in shock.
Adelaide didn’t stop there. She leaped onto the club and sprinted toward the giant’s body.
The giant swung its club about, trying to shake Adelaide off, but she maintained her balance by shifting her position in the opposite direction of the swing.
It was a sense of balance and stability forged from experience, from running and swinging her sword across all sorts of irregular terrain—plains, forests, and cliffs.
Just as Adelaide’s body was about to reach the giant’s hand.
《Hmph!》
Whoosh!
With a short cry, the giant threw its club high into the sky.
Even for Adelaide, it was impossible to cling to the club in this situation.
The eagle that had brought Adelaide here had long since exhausted its mana.
Soaring high into the air, Adelaide’s body began to plummet toward the ground with no one to catch her.
This alone was a sufficient threat, but the giant’s actions didn’t stop there.
As Adelaide fell, the giant kicked out with all its might, as if kicking a soccer ball.
Crunch!
With a rather light, yet simultaneously gruesome sound, Adelaide’s body was sent flying backward, kicking up a long trail of dust.
A few members of the Lion Duke's bloodline turned pale, but the giant’s eyes glinted with interest.
《…You can withstand that?》
It was just as it said.
Though she had scrapes and bruises here and there from rolling hard on the ground, that was the extent of it.
The injuries Adelaide had sustained were not life-threatening.
A kick that could demolish a building with a mere graze had struck a human body, yet it ended with only such minor injuries.
Even considering she had defended with the Lion Duke's indestructible sword, it was still abnormal.
As if to press its advantage, the giant grabbed the club that had fallen to the ground and leaped up, kicking off the earth with all its strength.
And with its full power, it brought the club down on Adelaide.
A straightforward, linear attack, with no thought for what came after.
At first glance, the correct answer would be to dodge the attack and look for a counter, but Adelaide knew that was the wrong move.
In the virtual world created by the game book, she had already clashed with giants many times, and had even fought as a giant herself.
The shockwave from the point of impact would numb her body, and in that moment of hesitation, a second strike would surely finish her.
There was only one way to break through: meet it head-on.
She quietly settled into her stance.
Enhancing the body with mana was something any warrior who had reached a certain level could do, but there were limits.
This is because the body itself cannot withstand excessive enhancement and collapses.
This was also the reason the Lion Duke's bloodline could thrive as exceptional warriors.
This was especially true for those who had awakened the violet lightning.
The Witch of the West, upon examining Adelaide's body, had once commented that the violet lightning raised the user's base abilities.
Indeed, Hilda, who had used the violet lightning far more frequently and from a much earlier point than Adelaide, possessed some of the highest base abilities among the Lion Duke's bloodline, despite her delicate appearance.
However, in Adelaide's view, this was only half-correct.
The power of the Kalidahs was explosive and temporary.
It might allow for a momentary burst of incredible power, but it wasn't the type to raise one's base abilities.
That was closer to the giant's strength, which Adelaide had been using all along.
And the mana possessed by the Lennart bloodline was twofold.
Pzzzt!
Violet lightning surged from within her body.
The power, rampaging as if to destroy everything, wounded Adelaide’s own flesh, but it couldn't completely destroy it.
Because golden flames began to rapidly heal her body, as if protecting it.
The reason the base abilities of those in the Lion Duke's bloodline who used the violet lightning were elevated was simple.
When the lightning, originating from angels, wounded the body, the flesh, originating from the underground, grew stronger as if in defiance.
The principle itself was no different from how muscles grow stronger by being torn and repaired. It was just on a much higher level.
Having enhanced her body to its absolute limit, Adelaide swung her sword.
Craaaaash!
The giant’s full-power strike was stopped cold by Adelaide’s sword.
The onlookers were aghast, but the giant, as if nothing had happened, swung its club again.
Adelaide responded in kind, swinging her sword once more.
The giant’s attacks were truly merciless and mighty.
As they exchanged blows, the very ground Adelaide stood on began to sink, forming a massive crater.
Yet, Adelaide neither knelt nor fled from the assault.
The members of the Lion Duke's bloodline were speechless with wonder.
“What is that monster? How can she pull off something so insane…”
At Hilda von Lennart’s words, Maris instinctively turned her gaze.
The girl, famous for being a ruffian, stared at Adelaide, her face a mask of horror, unable to look away.
Maris didn't know exactly what she meant by "insane," but she soon understood.
“…She's switching between her mana types?”
Pzzzt!
The moment the giant’s club and Adelaide’s sword clashed, violet lightning surged, and Adelaide's body sprayed red blood as if self-destructing.
Fwoosh!
Then, in the brief instant before the next attack, golden flames enveloped Adelaide's body, forcibly accelerating its regeneration.
Maris didn't know the reason, but she could see the result.
Kwang!
Again.
Kwaaang!
And again.
Kwaaaaang!
With every clash of their weapons, the degree to which the giant's attacks were being pushed back was gradually increasing.
What had at first been just enough to halt the club’s momentum for a split second had now changed to the point where it felt like two warriors of the same build were clashing weapons.
However, the price was by no means light.
Blood streamed continuously from the corner of Adelaide's mouth, muscles all over her body screamed in protest, and there wasn't a single bone that didn't creak.
She had yet to land a single proper blow on the giant's body, yet just by clashing weapons, she was already dying.
Even so, Adelaide did not stop.
If she had wanted to, there were countless easier ways to fight.
She could have cooperated with her kin and launched a joint attack, or she could have stalled for time, exploiting the fact that the giant couldn't exert its full power for long.
But Adelaide did not choose that path.
She had a score to settle with the Kalidahs.
And the giant before her was a being that had once been defeated by the Kalidahs.
If that was the case, then…
‘—If I can't defeat the giant head-on by myself, I can't defeat the Kalidahs either.’
If I grow at this rate without pushing myself, I can one day reach the realm of the transcendent?
I have such great talent, so there's no need to gamble my life away needlessly?
What did any of that matter?
Her encounter with the giant had been just as sudden. There was no guarantee her encounter with the Kalidahs would be any different.
She didn't need some "possibility" that might come someday; she needed the power to defeat a transcendent being right here, right now.
Perhaps it sensed her resolve.
The giant let out a ferocious, yet joyous, roar of laughter.
《Hahaha! I see! So what was once borrowed has, at some point, become your own!》
The meaning of its words, the reason for its delight, were beyond the comprehension of the audience.
The only thing that was certain…
Was that with those words, something in the giant's heart had changed.
《—Then I, too, can no longer hold back!》
The giant’s muscles swelled, its veins bulged, and its skin turned red.
The time the eight generals could reveal their full power was short.
It might be a different story if they had an ability to absorb power from an external source like the Dryad Lilium, but the giant, a pure warrior type, possessed no such skill.
In that sense, the giant had revealed its true power far too early.
After all, it had yet to allow Adelaide a single effective blow.
But the giant didn't care.
Partly because it wasn't in its nature to hold back, but also because it had a premonition that a single moment of carelessness would lead directly to defeat.
The giant’s attacks grew fiercer, and the tide of battle, which had seemed to be reaching a precarious equilibrium, once again turned dangerous.
Just as the giant’s club was about to deliver a fatal blow.
Thump.
A sound so light it was almost anticlimactic.
It wasn't a clash of strength against strength like before, but a technique of the kind that completely deflects the impact itself.
The very technique the Tin Knight used to receive enemy attacks with his shield, Adelaide had replicated with her two-handed sword.
Faced with such a response when it had expected her to meet its power head-on, the giant’s body went slack with bewilderment for a brief moment.
It was something akin to that unique, stomach-dropping sensation of trying to step on a stair that isn't there.
In that instant the giant froze, Adelaide’s body shot like a flash of light toward its ankle.
And the giant’s ankle was severed completely.
A slash so chillingly sharp it severed the giant's tough-as-leather skin and muscle in a single stroke.
Her physical abilities, pushed to their limits through the preceding battle, and her concentration, honed to its peak in the life-or-death struggle against a powerful foe, had made it possible.
The giant put a hand on the ground to maintain its collapsing posture, but Adelaide had already anticipated this and was waiting at that very spot.
Slice!
With another slash, this time its hand was severed below the wrist.
The giant’s posture finally crumbled completely, its head lowering close to the ground.
Feeling the sharp killing intent rushing for its neck, the giant thought.
This tactic of patiently inducing an opening in the opponent, then seizing the opportunity to strike through in a single breath.
It was a fighting style surprisingly similar to that of the knight the giant had once paid respect to as a true warrior.
「Adelaide von Lennart, representative of the Lennart family and disciple of the Tin Knight. I will face you in this duel.」
Ah, now that I think about it, she did say so herself from the very beginning.
Slice!
The Lion Duke’s sword decapitated the giant.
The area near the Friedel domain.
Giant Amaryllis vs. Adelaide von Lennart.
—Victor: Adelaide von Lennart.