Ch.78Giant (1)

A six-meter giant charges at me, wielding a crude weapon.

-THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Each time the creature stomps the ground, the vibrations travel through the earth, shaking Gus beneath me. The footsteps alone create small earthquakes, causing destruction with mere movement.

The already shattered carriage is now being reduced to dust, while the scattered body parts on the ground explode into bloody mist and chunks of flesh.

This was clearly not just a phenomenon caused by the giant’s strength and weight, but something magical happening through some mysterious interference.

“Let’s go—!”

“—Neigh!”

Even in this situation, Gus and I moved without hesitation, trusting and relying on each other.

The intelligent warhorse Gus used the shockwaves transmitted through the ground—caused by the giant’s innate gait—to his advantage, moving fearlessly while protected by the aura he borrowed from me.

-WHOOOOSH—!!

—Clippity-clop, clippity-cloppity-clop!

We easily avoided the giant’s downward axe strike, widening the distance between us. Simultaneously, Gus skillfully pivoted rightward in a circular motion, charging rapidly toward the giant’s flank.

Such a sharp turn would break the ankle of an ordinary horse, but Gus was no ordinary warhorse—his bloodline was different.

Thanks to him creating this distance in such a short time and adding a charging bonus with his speed, I felt grateful to Gus as I swung my Basilisk Bone Zweihander with both hands, converting our momentum into striking power.

—SLASH!

“UOOOOOOHHH—!!!”

With the sound of flesh being cut, the giant’s armored abdomen was wounded, and it let out a pain-filled scream while glaring at me.

Blood trickled from the half-split gap in its belly, while its eyes now clearly recognized me as an enemy to target.

And I noticed, through the strangely faint feedback from my strike, that the wound was more superficial than it appeared.

The cause was obviously the thick layer of fat covering the giant’s belly. What looked like just an ugly potbelly was, despite its repulsive appearance, protecting the giant’s vulnerable internal organs.

And the next thing I learned was… that giant flesh was tougher than I had imagined.

To make a comparison, it was like an ogre’s rock-hard muscles had become slightly softer but much tougher.

Even with the acidic fluid on my blade, it was nearly impossible to cut through the belly skin and fat to reach the internal organs.

Of course, there were still clear limitations.

With the combined factors of two subspecies of giant strength, absorption of residual factors, body enhancement using aura, and equipment assistance—all these together would make carving out giant flesh not much of a problem.

But the biggest issue now was… finding a proper way to approach the giant.

Though its arms weren’t abnormally long like a troll’s, its sheer size gave it considerable reach, extended further by that crude weapon made of scrap metal wrapped around an axe head, making reckless approaches dangerous.

Especially concerning was that despite its size, it wasn’t particularly slow—the enhancement to its physical abilities outweighed the gravitational constraints from its increased weight, making this approach even more dangerous.

Just considering its speed moments ago, if I had been slightly slower, I would have been knocked away like a bowling pin.

One wrong move and I’d be struck by that club, which even I couldn’t afford to ignore.

Despite my enhanced durability from the factors and aura, there were clear limits, and that club swing was definitely an attack beyond what those limits could withstand.

Nevertheless, I boldly decided to approach and swing my sword—more precisely, to imbue my weapon with the intent of “cutting” to utilize an extended slash.

Although an aura-extended slash is relatively slower and weaker than a direct strike, it’s still fast enough to hit such a large body.

This made it more than worth gambling on this strategy.

“—Gus!”

The moment I signaled, the intelligent Gus read my intention and began sprinting to close the distance between us in one go.

As the distance between the giant and us rapidly decreased, the giant suddenly pointed its club toward the ground as if playing golf, and swept it across the surface, launching small stones at us.

The closest weapon to these projectiles—propelled by the giant’s monstrous strength from its six-meter frame—would be a shotgun. The stone fragments spread like buckshot toward my body, but—

—Tink-tink-tink-tink.

Unfortunately for the giant, Gus and I were wearing this cumbersome armor precisely to block such attacks.

With the unpleasant sound of stones randomly striking our bodies, we pushed forward relentlessly through the rain of projectiles.

Perhaps seeing that its shotgun attack was ineffective against us, the giant raised its club, seemingly waiting to intercept us.

In that case, I just needed to twist its expectations.

—SLASH!

After I swung my sword from a distance where it normally couldn’t reach, the aura slash extended along the trajectory and cut through the same part of the belly I had slashed earlier.

The wound, which had somehow healed slightly despite the acidic solution, was split open again by the incoming slash, and blood gushed out as fresh pink, writhing intestines spilled forth—

“—Gus!”

Following my urgent command upon seeing this alien sight, Gus quickly widened the distance between us. Meanwhile, intestinal tentacles (provisional name) flew toward the spot where I had just been, striking the empty air with all their might.

‘—What the hell!’

These intestinal tentacles, which could have shattered Gus’s body if not mine had we failed to dodge, made me immediately focus my magical power on my “eyes”—

[—Petrify!!]

With this brief incantation, the petrifying power emanating from my eyes wrapped around the intestinal tentacles, turning them to stone.

Normally, this petrification ability could be activated naturally without any incantation, but I added the chant to strengthen it using the “law of equivalent exchange.”

—CRACK!

Thanks to this, the giant’s magic resistance—which normally would have been impervious to mere petrification—was penetrated, causing the intestinal tentacles, which were transformed parts of its body, to completely solidify.

—Clippity-cloppity-clop!

Not missing this opportunity, I directed Gus to approach the giant. Gus quickly closed in according to my command, gradually twisting his body to match my movements….

—BZZZZZZZZZZ!!

At that moment, a sudden buzzing sound like flies came from one direction, followed by what seemed like thousands of flying insects… Huh?

[Petrify!]

I hastily channeled magical power into my petrifying eye to turn the swarm to stone, but despite my magic passing through them, the flies didn’t react at all.

By their presence and movement, they seemed like nothing more than ordinary flies, but the fact that mere flies could resist my petrifying gaze—which could turn even humans to stone—defied my common sense….

“…No way!”

Even as I cried out in shock upon realizing their true nature, Gus managed to dodge the approaching swarm—no, the magic attack disguised as flies.

Yes, these weren’t real living flies at all.

They were clearly just magical attack effects in the shape of flies, so instead of using any special power against them, I chose to dodge them.

I followed the instructions from the librarian and my father that evasion is the most basic response to magic, as spells might carry unknown additional effects.

And right after that, as the presence of the disappearing fly swarm faded, the momentarily neglected giant moved again, swinging its crude club-axe.

—WHOOSH—CRASH!!!

The giant’s monstrous strength remained formidable despite its torn belly and spilled intestines.

Another shockwave spread through the ground from that point, but the impact seemed diminished, likely due to its injuries.

Therefore, I made a bolder decision.

I would ignore the giant, which was too severely injured to move much anyway. Instead, I turned my horse toward the cultist who had cast the spell and reduced the giant to this state.

With its belly skin torn and petrified intestines spilling out, the giant’s entire muscular system was clearly distorted. It seemed more prudent to deal with the cultist first.

And this choice of mine—

“Found youuuu—!!!”

“…Y-you damned bastard!!!”

—proved correct when I encountered the magic user a short distance from the scene, dressed in attire that screamed “I’m a dark mage!” at first glance.