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Chapter 46: Giant and Serpent

The jade serpent descended like a falling mountain. Its enormous body tore through the emerald chamber with terrifying momentum, every scale reflecting the cavern’s light while emerald venom dripped from its fangs, burning smoking craters into the stone below. At the same moment —

BOOM!

The stone giant’s twin crystal axes crashed downward with enough force to split the battlefield apart. Dan Moriarty’s pupils contracted. For the briefest instant, he was genuinely stunned, not because the monsters had attacked, as he had expected that eventually, but because they had coordinated so perfectly.

"The scorpion retreated and they covered it."

That wasn’t instinct. That was intelligence, real battlefield intelligence. Even veteran Streamers would have struggled against such teamwork. Yet that moment of surprise lasted no more than a heartbeat. Panic and surprise were not the same thing: surprise visited everyone, even the greatest warriors, while panic was choosing to let surprise become your master. Wise men recovered before their enemy realized they had been shaken.

Dan inhaled once, and his eyes became calm again.

"If they want to fight together, then I’ll fight all three."

BOOOOOOM!!

The serpent arrived first, its jaws snapping shut where Dan had been standing, but only empty air remained as the ground exploded beneath the bite. Before the serpent could recover, Dan appeared above it, his body twisting in midair as Night Sovereign descended.

SHING!

The Divine Sword carved a deep line across the serpent’s neck, and darkness seeped into the wound. The serpent roared in pain, yet before Dan could continue —

WHOOSH!

The stone giant’s right axe swept toward him. Dan immediately kicked off the serpent’s head, and the axe narrowly missed, its momentum continuing uncontrollably.

CRASH!!

Instead of striking Dan, the axe smashed directly into the serpent’s shoulder as blood erupted and the jade serpent hissed furiously. Dan smiled.

"Good."

"They’re large."

"And large opponents often obstruct one another."

His feet landed lightly upon a crystal pillar as the giant roared and raised both axes again. Dan quietly observed, its movements were powerful and stable, every swing carrying enough force to flatten buildings. But they were too committed.

A warrior who invested everything into every strike possessed overwhelming offense, yet if that strike missed, recovery became painfully slow. Dan had already understood the giant’s greatest weakness.

He disappeared. The giant swung and Dan was already somewhere else. The second axe descended, and again nothing. Each miss became another opening, and each opening became another opportunity.

The serpent lunged from behind. Dan smiled faintly.

"Perfect."

His body blurred, and the serpent’s bite struck the giant’s arm instead.

CRACK!!

The jade fangs pierced stone flesh, the giant roared, and its free fist slammed into the serpent’s jaw.

BOOOOM!!

Both monsters staggered. The livestream would undoubtedly have been exploding had Dan bothered reading it, instead his entire attention rested upon battle. This was where he belonged. Night Sovereign hummed softly as Dan slowly raised it.

Darkness quietly spread beneath his feet, not outward but inward, like ink disappearing into black paper. Then he moved, and the first of the two techniques he had personally created unfolded naturally. The chamber became strangely quiet. The serpent looked directly at Dan, yet its instincts suddenly lost him.

He hadn’t become invisible. He had simply become forgotten. Its eyes searched, its senses screamed that something dangerous was nearby, but where? Darkness did not always conceal the body, sometimes it concealed intention.

Dan appeared beside the serpent’s neck. One slash.

SHHK!

A second wound opened, and before blood could even fall, he vanished again. The giant swung both axes wildly at nothing. Dan appeared behind its knee with another slash.

CRACK!

The joint fractured and the giant nearly knelt. Then the second technique emerged. Unlike the first, this one announced itself, the darkness coating Night Sovereign condensed until it resembled liquid night, and every trace of light touching the blade seemed to disappear forever.

Dan’s eyes reflected no emotion as he thrust the sword forward silently. The darkness detached from the blade, not as a beam or an explosion, but as a thin black line so impossibly narrow it almost couldn’t be seen. It crossed the battlefield instantly.

The serpent sensed death and desperately twisted — too late.

SHHHK!

The black line passed through three emerald crystal pillars without damaging them, then through the serpent’s body. Silence. Nothing happened. The serpent blinked. Then its upper body slowly slid away from its lower half.

BOOM!!

The gigantic corpse crashed onto the cavern floor and the emerald chamber trembled violently. Dan lowered his sword, his breathing remaining steady.

"So It works."

The skill hadn’t relied upon brute force — instead it had condensed every fragment of darkness into a single perfect edge. There had been nothing unnecessary, nothing wasted, only absolute cutting intent.

The stone giant froze. Even the retreating Emerald Scorpion King stopped moving, and for several seconds the entire cavern remained silent. Then the giant roared — not from fear, but from rage — and charged with both axes abandoning defense entirely. Dan calmly watched it approach.

The giant swung horizontally, and Dan stepped inside its reach as Night Sovereign pierced forward, but not toward the chest, but toward the elbow.

CRACK!

The right arm collapsed and the axe fell. Before the giant could react, Dan rotated with another thrust toward the left shoulder.

CRACK!

The second arm became useless and the giant staggered backward. Dan refused to give it room — darkness flowed around his blade as one strike became two, then five, then ten. Every attack landed precisely where the previous one had weakened the stone body, and the giant’s enormous frame became covered in fractures. It attempted to retreat, yet Dan’s expression remained indifferent.

"The battle was decided the moment you abandoned your rhythm."

Night Sovereign rose. A final slash.

BOOOOM!!

The giant’s chest exploded apart and its massive body crashed backward, shaking the entire chamber. It wasn’t dead, but it could no longer fight, its breathing became ragged, stone fragments continuously fell from its broken frame, and slowly, painfully, it began retreating one step at a time.

It no longer looked like a terrifying Boss. Only a defeated warrior trying to survive. Dan watched quietly, having no intention of chasing. The giant was already finished.

Then a presence descended. The temperature throughout the cavern plummeted, and the retreating giant froze — not because of injury, but because something stood behind it. The Level Forty-Five Black Knight. Until now it had never moved, merely observed. Now it had taken a single step.

The giant slowly turned, almost pleadingly, and lowered its head as though asking forgiveness. The knight remained silent, its crimson eyes burning beneath the helmet. Without warning, its colossal greatsword moved, no roar, no gathering of power, only one simple downward swing.

SHHHK!

The stone giant stopped moving as a thin line appeared from its head to its waist. Then —

BOOOOOOM!!

Its entire body split perfectly into two halves, and the corpse collapsed lifelessly onto the cavern floor. Silence followed.

Dan’s eyes narrowed.

"...It killed its own subordinate."

Not accidentally. Deliberately. The message couldn’t have been clearer — retreat was unacceptable, and failure was punishable by death. The remaining monsters lowered themselves instinctively, and even the wounded Emerald Scorpion King trembled.

The masked mage didn’t move, and the six-eyed wolf remained crouched as the knight slowly lifted its massive sword from the giant’s corpse. Dark blood slid from the blade before evaporating into emerald mist.

Then, very slowly, it turned toward Dan. Those burning crimson eyes met his, and for the first time since entering the chamber, Dan felt genuine pressure.

The knight stood motionless, its sword resting upon one shoulder, neither attacking nor speaking. Yet the entire cavern seemed to acknowledge a single truth. The true ruler had finally decided to recognize him.