Chapter 16
I lured the giants toward a park with as few people as possible.
This should be about right.
-Kwoooaar!
“Wait a bit. I’ll kill you soon enough.”
The giants charged at me in a fury. When I dodged their attacks, they grew even angrier and came after me again.
I guess I’d get annoyed if someone the size of a mouse kept mouthing off at me, too.
-Clang!
“…As I thought, you’re tough.”
I tested it with a slash, but my sword bounced off with a metallic clang.
It’s tougher than ordinary steel. At this rate, it might even be on par with adamantite.
Adamantite. The hardest metal in the world.
Of course, there are legendary metals said to be even harder than adamantite, but let’s leave those aside.
Adamantite-level hardness means ordinary attacks won’t leave so much as a scratch.
You’d need to be a genuine Swordmaster or a Grand Mage, wouldn’t you?
‘That’s strange. There’s no way anyone could create so many monsters this powerful.’
Those things are at least S-rank monsters, and this world isn’t some dystopia where they’re crawling all over the place.
…No, I guess it’s more accurate to say they used to be everywhere, until the Hero hunted them all down.
Good grief. I couldn’t believe it when I heard he’d even wiped out the ones from the DLC.
Anyway, monsters like these usually have a weakness.
Take the Cerberus, an A-rank monster, for example.
Physical attacks don’t work on it at all.
But are magic attacks effective? They can wound it, but it heals immediately, so they’re practically useless.
In theory, it’s a monster even a Grand Swordmaster can’t defeat.
So why is it only A-rank?
Because its weakness is incredibly obvious.
Despite being immune to physical attacks, that trait doesn’t apply to its neck. Just cut its neck and it dies.
Of course, Cerberus has three heads, so you have to cut it three times.
Someone like me could cut them all off at once, though!
Anyway, monsters that are incredibly powerful usually have obvious weaknesses.
The Hero took care of most of the monsters without any weaknesses.
“Hmm… What’s your weakness?”
-Kwoooooar!
I guess they wouldn’t answer me. Then again, they don’t seem to have any intelligence.
-Clang!
I tried taking a quick slash at the back of its neck, but my attack didn’t work.
Aw. A giant whose nape can’t be cut?
-Kwoaaaaaar!
The giants charged at me in a fury.
If I leave them alone, they’ll turn the whole park into a wasteland.
I guess I have no choice.
I really didn’t want to do this, but in a situation like this, I have no choice but to use that famous line.
“Shall I get serious for a change?”
-Caw. Caw.
A crow cawed somewhere nearby.
-…
It’s irritating that even the giants seem to have gone quiet.
…You’re all dead!
…
-Uwoooar!
“Stop them!”
After El led two giants away, the remaining five charged at me and the Dragon Hunters party.
A snow-white, eyeless giant. How grotesque.
“Huben. Can you cut them?”
“No! I can barely scratch them!”
“Tch.”
Huben was a formidable fighter.
If even he said that, they had to be incredibly tough.
At this rate, they might even be as tough as adamantite.
“Captain Ken! Magic barely works on them, either!”
They had high resistance to magic, too? It might be easier to think of them as golems made of adamantite.
Fortunately, the giants weren’t very fast.
They didn’t seem particularly strong, either, so their only advantage was their toughness.
Of course, with that level of hardness and mass, even a wild swing would be a lethal blow.
If it hit you directly, you could consider yourself dead.
“Have all the mages focus on defense. Concentrate on holding them back rather than taking them down.”
“Yes!”
“Huben. Take a few of the faster ones and draw their attention. Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“Got it! Let’s go!”
The mages turned the ground to mud and tried to bind the giants with vines and rings of light.
Even if the enraged giants tried to charge, it would be hard for them to ignore Huben darting around right in front of them.
They didn’t seem very intelligent, after all. They’d surely prioritize the enemies right in front of them.
-Gwoooar!
Just as I’d expected, the giants were held in place and swung their arms at Huben and the others.
It was certainly a powerful attack, but…
“Hah! You think I’d get hit by something like that?”
Huben and the others weren’t so easy to catch with such slow attacks.
If those attacks had worked, the giants would’ve been Huben’s prey by now.
At this rate, El, who had the strength of a Swordmaster, might take care of her two giants in no time.
No, El seemed to be hiding her strength, so it might take a while.
Either way, I didn’t think we’d lose.
Just as I was thinking we could hold out more easily than I’d expected…
[You worthless vermin… Kill the ignorant masses! Stop worrying about the flies in front of you!]
The man in the silver robe shouted.
And, as if on cue, the giants headed straight for the makeshift shelter.
“Damn it!”
Damn it. He’s ruining things right when we were getting somewhere!
“Stop them! Don’t let them get to the shelter!”
I shouted and charged at the giant at the front.
A massive fist came hurtling toward me.
-KWAANG!
Instead of dodging, I met the fist head-on with my sword.
Normally, my sword would be crushed to pieces. But I’m different.
“Haaaaah!”
My specialty is strength.
I’m not about precise technique or speed. I just push straight ahead with brute force.
Even a giant’s fist is weak for its size!
“Hyaaaah!”
-Thung!
…I can push it back.
-Kwoooooar!
But even though the giant at the front had been stopped, the others continued toward the shelter without slowing down.
The mages were doing everything they could to stop them, but the giants only faltered for a moment before continuing forward.
“No!”
The giant’s fist finally struck the shelter.
-KWAANG!
Fortunately, the protective magic around the shelter stopped the blow. But after the second and third attacks, cracks appeared in the barrier.
“Hyaaaah!”
I barely managed to throw one of the giants that had been attacking the shelter, but the barrier had already reached its limit.
Just as the barrier was about to break…
-Shing.
With a clean slicing sound, the giant’s hand was cut off.
“…Huh?”
Someone cut through a giant’s hand, that tough, in a single strike?
You’d have to be at least a Swordmaster to do something like that.
Which meant…
“You’ve held out well, everyone.”
The man in golden armor spoke as he swung a golden Aura Blade.
“From here on, leave it to the Imperial Knights.”
The Imperial Knights had arrived.
…
-Fwoom!
-Clang!
I blocked the giant’s incoming fist with my sword.
“Third Form.”
Immediately afterward, a blizzard swept up the giant’s body.
But the eleven thrusts only left a few small wounds. They weren’t enough to inflict a fatal injury.
Damn, you’re tough.
“Fourth Form.”
This time, I descended like hail, slashing the giant’s body. I left a long gash, but it still wasn’t a fatal wound.
Hmm… Should I be glad my attacks are working at all, or complain that this is all the damage I can do?
It doesn’t look like I can cut it in half with one strike unless I draw my Aura Blade.
Well… I’ll just have to whittle it down little by little.
“Ninth Form.”
The ground grew as slippery as ice.
No. The path I walked was actually freezing over.
And on the ice that formed, I slid swiftly along, as if skating.
The Ninth Form takes the shape of a sword technique, but it’s actually closer to footwork.
Footwork that lets me race over smooth ice as if I were gliding.
It’s fast, and its greatest advantage is that it lets me move unpredictably.
-Kraa?
The giant swung its fist, but I was already gone.
It must’ve been shocked. I’d suddenly made a U-turn and charged toward the giant behind it instead of running straight at it.
-Shhk
-Kwoaaaaaar!
My sword plunged into the eye of the giant that couldn’t react to my movements.
Oh? So the eyes are its weakness?
The giant, now blind in one eye, slowed down noticeably.
Since it was a giant, maybe it hadn’t expected anyone to attack its eyes.
…Or maybe it was planning to attack my eyes first?
As I wondered about that, I stabbed its other eye, and the giant crumbled into dust and vanished.
[What? That’s impossible! I covered their eyes with a perception-obscuring spell!]
I couldn’t see the man in the silver robe, but I could hear his voice even from here.
Aha. So he’d hidden their eyes with a spell that interfered with perception.
But what can you do? I guess that spell wasn’t strong enough to work on me, a Swordmaster.
I giggled as I looked at the last remaining giant. It had its eyes shut and was shaking its body wildly.
No… Did you close your eyes to hide your weakness? You can’t see either, can you?
Normally, I’d assume it had some way to sense its surroundings even with its eyes closed. But judging by how wildly it was thrashing around, that didn’t seem to be the case.
So it was just going to fight without being able to see…
“…This is ridiculous.”
I felt a little deflated.
I’d thought it would at least be a decent opponent…
“How boring.”
Trying to hide its weakness wasn’t bad in itself, but this was just too stupid and pathetic.
No one’s watching anyway, so I’ll just finish it in one blow.
I gathered as much mana as I could without forming an Aura Blade, then charged toward the giant’s eye.
It was thrashing around to keep me from getting close, but a little interference like that wasn’t going to stop me.
-KAAAAANG!
-Kwoooooar!
My sword pierced the giant’s eyelid.
Normally, it shouldn’t have gone in. But if I concentrated all my mana at the tip of my sword…!
I could pierce an eyelid that thin.
-Gwoooooar!
The giant’s other eye snapped open, and it glared at me as if the attack had hurt.
Oh dear. What are you doing opening your eye?
-Shhk.
With a quiet slicing sound, the giant’s massive body turned to ash and vanished.