Still busy, so posts may be delayed again unless I find some free time.
Anyway, enjoy.
Chapter 318 – Ugly Giant "No way… So huge…!?"
Arnold"s gaze stiffened, seeing the green giant that suddenly appeared. Nay, it was not just him. Everyone, aside from BeJohnny, who stood there was at a loss for words, merely staring at it as if they were a third party.
"It"s ugly, right~? I also wanted it to look more beautiful, but given that it was created by synthesising monsters, I suppose it"s fine for it to come out this ugly~. Let me introduce it. This is «Ugly Giant»!" yelled BeJohnny at the top of the checkpoint. "I"ll be leaving the rest to it~"
Just as he was about to leave the checkpoint,
"Hold right there!"
Ionis looked at him with a face full of wrath that she usually never showed.
"…What"s the matter~?"
"Are you running?"
"…Ahaha, intending to avenge that man? That"s an ugly emotion~"
"Kh…"
"Then try and overcome this~. I"ll be waiting in the royal castle… so come and kill me."
Instantly, he emitted an unbelievable level of bloodthirst, bringing about an intimidating air enough to bring tension in the air and p.r.i.c.k their skin. His easygoing nature from before had, unthinkably, vanished in but an instant.
He looked down on her with cold eyes and serious expression, but it was quickly replaced by his usual grin.
"Se you~"
With those words, BeJohnny vanished from that spot. And at the same time, a terrific sound of destruction struct everyone"s ears. It was caused by the giant crus.h.i.+ng the checkpoint as it advanced.
"We can"t let it destroy the bridge nya! Everyone, stop that thing nya!"
Each step it took shook the ground, leaving the giant footprints behind as it advanced towards the bridge. If they let it approach the bridge like this, there was a high chance that it would be destroyed.
They finally captured the bridge after so many sacrifices, planning to use it as a way for supplies and marching, so their effort would come to nought were it to be destroyed.
Everyone present understood that they had to stop the bridge from being destroyed by any possible means.
The soldiers still present on the bridge all lined up into a wall to stop the giant"s advance.
However, as the giant swung its mighty arm towards the ground, they were a.s.saulted by a power comparable to a small explosion.
"Stop close combat! Weaken it with Magic and «Binding»!"
Reacting to Ionis" yell, everyone took distance and started to attack with their Magic and «Binding». However, although they found «Binding» to be usable, they were, for some reason, unable to use Magic. Due to that, the "Evila" soldiers started to fall into disorder.
"What"s going on………Ah!"
Ionis suddenly remembered about the red stone BeJohnny destroyed. Looking around her, she noticed the stone fragments were still faintly floating in the air, roughly in a 30-meter radius.
"Don"t tell me…"
She quickly left its range and tried to cast Magic once more. And this time, she was certainly able to use it.
"That red stone seems to be a crystal that generates the «Magic Negation Field»…"
It appeared that no magic could be used within its range.
"Everyone! Take more distance! If you do, you will be able to use magic again!"
Ionis shared her point with Crouch and the rest and gained their consent. After that, "Gabranth" took the position of vanguards, while "Evila" acted as rear guards and attacked with Magic. Fire, wind, water, lighting and such various elemental attacks were discharged towards the Giant. However, when it came to Magical attacks, they dispersed and disappeared the moment they entered the field where the red stone fragments drifted.
"…So they disappear even if they are discharged from the outside…what else can we…?"
It appeared that, even if Magic was usable from the outside, it would still be turned invalid once it entered the range. The soldiers also felt perplexed, unable to think of another way. At any rate, now that Magic was turned unusable, the only choice left was to fight it using weapons like swords. It seemed that Ionis was feeling jealous of «Binding» for the first time as she was looking at the Beastmen with envy.
She ordered "Evila" to attack from a distance with bows and such to the best of their ability, but after about ten minutes had pa.s.sed, she noticed that the drifting red particles had started to thin out.
"…Wait."
Thinking that, she used Magic inside the range and it worked as she expected it would. It turned out that even that negation had its time-limit. After letting the "Evila" soldiers know of that fact, they all became delighted to find out that they would be able to use Magic once again and started attacking with it all at once.
As their target was big, all their attacks landed, and the soldiers finally found hope, screaming things like "We are doing it!" and "Keep attacking!"
However, as the smoke of the attacks cleared up, what appeared was almost unhurt Giant. Moreover, even the injuries it did suffer were healing on the spot.
"Are you telling me that it could even self-regenerate!"
As Arnold stated, it seemed that the Giant was indeed bestowed the ability to self-regenerate and the injuries it suffered were healing in the blink of an eye and returned to its original state.
Even the swords and spears piercing its green skin were being pushed out and falling to the ground. You could say it was not taking any damage at all.
"Oh come on, just how can we deal with something like this! Ah! Muir, get back!"
Arnold saw Muir as she was about to be trampled by the Giant. However, Muir nimbly moved her small body and escaped from that place.
"Are you alright, Muir!"
"Yes, Uncle! B-But what should we do? At this rate, everyone will…"
Soldiers who formed a wall to somehow stop the Giant"s advance were much like a wall made of sand for it, and it was able to continue advancing while lightly shrugging them off.
It was like a fight between an adult and a child, nay, a bear and a child. It did not even view them as opponents, merely swatting them away like flies with its limbs and scattering them apart.
"What if we seal its movements with Io-chan"s Magic?"
Hearing Muir"s proposal, everyone looked at Ionis with expectant looks. However, the person in question merely looked at them apologetically.
"What"s the matter, Io-chan?"
"You are right… Io"s Magic should work on it as long as it"s not made of Magic."
"T-then!"
"But, with a Giant like that… No, never mind, let me give it a try for now."
"Ah, but just now-"
Ionis grasped the «Kaiten» in each hand and broke into a run towards the Giant. She arrived at its bosom while dodging the Giant"s attacks.
Then she did a big leap towards its face and released her «Kaiten» at it. They accurately landed near its brows, but it only caused the Giant"s face to bend back a bit with no real damage dealt.
Ionis landed with a spin, then touched the ground and started discharging the magnetism.
"Sink!"
Just as the electrical discharge phenomenon rose up from the ground, the Giant"s movement came to a halt and its giant head started gradually dropping towards the ground.
"You did it! Good job, Io-chan!"
Muir, as well as everyone else, started grinning from feeling delighted at the fact that they could stop this Giant with this just like it was with Nigg and BeJohnny.
However, its falling face suddenly came to a stop.
"GA…GAGAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
It released a yell so terrific everyone had to cover their ears, and the pressure it brought forth blew off everyone around it. Ionis was no exception to that and forcefully crashed to the ground.
With that, the Magic seemed to have lost its effect and Giant started to freely rage about.
"No way… Io-chan"s Magic has no effect?"
"Kh…"
"Io-chan! Are you okay!?"
Muir rushed to Ionis who laid fallen to the ground.
"Ugh… As expected, Io"s Magic is hardly effective on such a giant body…"
It seemed that she had already figured it out but tried attacking it anyway, only for it to end as she expected.
"Just now, it was that thing, right? The «Magic Warding Roar»."
"But Uncle… isn"t that a power only the particular races of Beastmen can use?"
"Yeah, I"m not sure what kind of being that enormous thing is, but it was exactly like the one I saw before."
"…You have seen it before, Uncle?"
"…Yeah, you should know about it too, Muir."
Arnold"s words caught Muir off guard. And then, Arnold continued with his answer.
"It"s about your father."
"F-Father!?"
"Yeah, the «Magic Warding Roar» should have a magic-repelling effect. It was the speciality of your father."
"…I see, so it was father"s."
Muir slightly cast her eyes down with a meek expression, seemingly recalling her deceased father. Then she swung her head side to side to abandon the idea and continued.
"If Magic does not affect it, then what should we do, Uncle?"
"No, I"m not saying that Magic has no effect at all. All I"m saying that the Magic will be repelled with that roar. And that usually uses a ma.s.sive amount of power, so it"s not something you can use so easily, but…"
Looking at the Giant moving about with no visible fatigue made him frown in displeasure.
"It looks quite lively to me… but anyway, don"t a.s.sume that Magic has no effect! Like we saw before, it seems that it has little resistance to fire and wind. If everyone showers it with the concentrated attacks of those two attributes, we might be able to at least stop its advance."
Indeed, it seemed that fire and wind Magic and «Binding» were especially effective compared to the other attributes, and could easily wound its skin. Of course, even that quickly healed with its regeneration, but if they concentrated it in one spot, they would be able to deal far more damage, such was Arnold"s idea.
"Sounds good nya! Let"s go with Arnold"s idea nya!"
"Got it! Everyone who can use those two attributes, gather up!"
Hearing Ionis" words, "Evila" and "Gabranth" soldiers started a.s.sembling in succession.
"I"ll explain what we have to do! We are going to concentrate fire and wind attribute attacks into one spot and attack the Giant! We are first going to aim for its right leg!"
Indeed, if they aimed at its legs, parts that it advanced with, and managed to destroy it, they would be able to hinder its advance.
The soldiers, despite their tense expressions, found hope of stopping the Giant with the suggested plan and responded energetically.
They formed respective units of fire and wind and positioned themselves on each side of the Giant, sandwiching it between them.
"Listen everyone nya! Aim for its right leg as it takes a step forward nya!"
By concentrating fire and wind attacks from left and right to the same spot, they judged that it would definitely deal a large amount of damage to the Giant.
"Everyone else distract the Giant so it doesn"t attack the units on either side nya!"
If the Giant directed its attention towards those units the plan was highly likely to fail, so Crouch ordered the ones in front of the Giant to provoke it.
While everyone else was desperately pulling its attention by Magic and «Binding» from a distance, the two units on its sides started gathering powers to discharge their respective strongest moves.
Magic power was being gathered in them at a terrific speed. Everyone believed that this much would be enough to at least destroy its right leg.
But then, the Giant"s movement stopped. Perhaps it was getting ready for another Magic Warding Roar». Thinking that to be the case, Crouch signalled the two squads with her hand to hold off the attack for now.
The soldiers, too, felt that once the roar ended and it started moving once again, it would be the perfect time to attack. However, their expectations were cruelly betrayed.
Suddenly, the Giant"s stomach swelled up with a dangerous light in its eyes. And then, the moment those eyes caught sight of the fire unit on its left, it opened its giant mouth――――――――――――――――――
―――――――――――――――――――――――――――and released a condensed lump of light, filled with killing intent.