Awakeners affiliated with the Association.
Among them, there were those who fought the enemy on the very frontline until the very end.
“Fall back!”
The Demon Realm’s monsters that had been buying time against those giants.
After they were all wiped out,
the Association’s Awakeners who had fought to the end likewise fell into a crisis of annihilation.
“To the Wall!”
After somehow returning to the Wall.
They were going to prepare for a final stand.
But then.
“......To the Wa......ll?”
What they experienced
was not the desperate last battle they had expected.
“The Legion.......”
A gigantic fortress breaking through that Black Wall,
and soldiers leaping down from it, preparing to fight.
The fact that the soldiers they had waited for so long had arrived was certainly encouraging.
Those who had kept fighting outside the Wall were the ones who hadn’t given up until the end.
To them, reinforcements that might be able to turn this battle around were something they would welcome gladly.
Yeah.
In a normal situation, this would be the time to shout a victory cheer and
join the battlefield together with those soldiers.
But.
“What is...... that.......”
The one leading those warriors.
Park Junggu, instead of shouting to lift allied morale,
could only watch the scene with his mouth hanging open.
When they had been waiting for soldiers to come support them,
what people had expected was a truly ordinary soldier.
Soldiers armed with tremendous firepower.
And.
That expectation hit exactly halfway.
KRRRAGAGAGAGAGANG.......
An enormous volume of firepower raining down from the sky.
That absurd firepower was turning even the monsters that had ignored their artillery and advanced into ash.
That alone was shocking, but.
Still.
If it was only “powerful firepower,” they wouldn’t have been that surprised.
RUMBLE.......
What they actually saw was this.
In an instant, lightning struck down from the sky,
and that powerful giant,
the most threatening among them, vanished in the blink of an eye.
‘Divine punishment.’
If there was anything fortunate about it,
it was that the sight of a giant so enormous disappearing in an instant was so unrealistic,
that the people watching could only go blank at the unreal spectacle.
Because they couldn’t accept it as reality, they didn’t even feel a huge shock.
But unfortunately.
It didn’t end there.
THUD!
[Fist of the Cold Wave, Farazan]
—Die, you insect-like things!
A gigantic giant.
That giant stomped hard.
Many people thought
the ones beneath that giant’s feet would be
mercilessly crushed,
like ants being trampled by a human.
However.
That thought did not become reality.
—What are you, exactly......!
The giant’s descending foot stopped in midair.
To anyone watching, it would look like the giant suddenly changed its mind and stopped its foot.
But Junggu could see it.
“Grrk......!”
A man standing beneath that foot
lifting the giant’s foot with both huge hands.
BOOM!
The ground shook,
and as the giant’s foot bounced off and its posture wobbled.
—What is this supposed to mean......!
Junggu
could only agree completely with the giant’s words.
KRAAABOOM!!!
“Kahahaha!!! Light!”
—No way......!
The giant that had tried to trample the soldiers underfoot.
That massive foot bounced away, and the giant’s body staggered.
THUUUUD.......
The vibration alone was strong enough to make the entire forest shake,
yet the soldier who did it acted as if it were nothing.
“This can’t be all you’ve got!!!”
BOOM!
With unknown black energy wrapped around his whole body,
he launched himself at the giant that still hadn’t regained its stance.
‘Charging at that giant......!?’
Park Junggu was horrified at the sight.
When they fought those giants,
those giants were closer to beings they had to avoid at all costs.
At best, they could barely slow them down by concentrating artillery on one spot.
But.
That hulking soldier was different.
KRAAABOOM!!!
“That big body’s gonna cry, you lump!”
—An insect like you dares......!
As the hulking soldier swung his fist,
the giants had to “block” that attack.
A giant crossing both arms to block the soldier’s punch.
Watching that, Park Junggu could only widen his eyes.
The hulking soldier’s punch carried tremendous force.
Power that even those giants couldn’t dismiss.
But.
The reason Junggu was stunned while looking at that fist was somewhere else.
‘It’s beautiful.......’
The motion of that punch.
To someone who didn’t know, it would look like he was just stuffing brute force into it and swinging.
But Junggu could see it.
In that man’s fist,
there was something enormous that he couldn’t even comprehend......
a concept that could be called the principle of martial arts.
As he thought that,
staring blankly at the fight.
—Get lost, you insect-like thing......!
KRAAABOOM!!!
That giant swung its hand,
and he saw something huge dropping before them at terrifying speed.
“Heh...... yeah.”
The dust cleared.
And the shape embedded in the forest floor slowly revealed itself.
“This is what makes it fun......!”
Wiping the blood from his mouth,
that figure
was the very warrior who, just a moment ago, had made the giant’s body stagger.
‘An incredible warrior......!’
A soldier hit by that giant’s attack had been flung here.
‘Me too......!’
The warrior who had shaken that giant’s body.
At that sight.
Park Junggu felt something inside his chest boil up.
‘I want to fight together with them too!’
GRAB!
“C, Captain Junggu!”
“It’s dangerous, stop!”
Park Junggu, despite the others trying to hold him back,
threw himself into the middle of the battlefield where the fighting was happening,
rushed to where that hulking warrior was, and shouted.
“My name is Park Junggu!”
“......Huh?”
A feeling different from when he saw the Chair,
or when he saw Shin Youngjun.
“You people...... you’re the soldiers who came from Gangwon Province, right!”
“Ptoo, and if we are?”
“Let us fight together too!”
That warrior.
He was a warrior who made his soul ring.
Fighting those giants was certainly dangerous.
But even if it cost him his life.
An intense desire to fight at that warrior’s side was dominating his mind.
“Together......?”
And.
Toward him like that.......
“How dare.......”
“......!?”
That hulking warrior
growled as if he were feeling anger.
“Are you saying you’ll steal my prey......!”
“N, no, that’s not.”
Park Junggu panicked and staggered back.
A tremendous amount of black energy surged out of the fallen man’s body.
‘Ghk......!’
Magic so dense.
It was hard to even breathe under that pressure, to the point of doubting it was power coming from the same human species.
‘This magic...... this emotion.......’
Junggu felt the energy contained inside that magic.
So murderous,
and intending to kill everything beneath the sky......
no, even to kill the sky itself.
A powerful, savage killing intent.
‘I’m going to die.’
Right before Junggu was crushed by that magic and about to collapse to his knees.
“Hoo—calm down!”
SMACK!
The warrior at the center of that energy slapped both cheeks with tremendous force.
Then.
The darkness around his body began to subside little by little.
“Whew! Please understand. My mastery...... my training is still lacking, so sometimes I get like this.”
“Ah, ah?”
DRIPDRIP.......
“Anyway. You said you want to fight together?”
The fallen soldier pushed himself up.
And.
Seeing that body, Park Junggu, for the first time in a long while,
had to experience what it felt like to look up at someone.
‘How big is he.’
Even before the fall, Park Junggu had been tall.
Even after awakening, his height kept growing.
Even the Chair, who he privately thought was a stronger warrior, and the knight executives of the Association were not taller than him.
But.
“Haha, I appreciate it, but I’ll pass.”
That hulking warrior was a full head taller than him,
and the completeness of that physique, too,
was on a level beyond comparison.
“P, pass?”
“Look. You can hear it.”
Brushing the dirt off his body, the soldier pointed to the sky.
The fortress was still there, still pouring out artillery fire.
And from that fortress.
{The Legion’s large-scale operational activity is in progress.}
{Citizens, please hide in as safe a place as possible, and refrain from actions that may interfere with the operation.}
A tearing mechanical voice
kept echoing.
“I know you’ve fought hard up until now. I think it’s an incredible thing.”
“.......”
“I’m even looking forward to the day we fight together! But.......”
He smiled apologetically,
then slightly shook his head and said.
“Not now.”
“......!”
“You’re...... still a bit lacking.”
He didn’t say it outright,
but Park Junggu could understand what he meant.
‘Refrain from actions that may interfere with the operation.......’
To those soldiers,
they were
so weak that merely existing on this battlefield would interfere with the operation.
“Kahahaha, don’t be too disappointed. A day like that will definitely come someday.”
“.......”
“It’s just not now. Right now...... the Legion’s operation is in progress.”
HOO.......
“The thing you need to do is simple.”
The black energy that had settled down swelled up again,
and his face changed like a beast’s.
“Hide somewhere safe and watch the Legion’s fight.”
“Watch......?”
“What kind of power the power you’ve been waiting for really is.......”
BWAAANG!
“Watch it with your own eyes!”
That huge body
launched back toward the battlefield.
*****
‘Watch?’
At first, he wondered what he was supposed to watch.
But soon, he could actually see it.
—Brother!
A warrior fighting a giant alone.
And naturally.
Other giants weren’t going to just watch that.
The other giants moved to join in.
No matter how strong those warriors were, they couldn’t possibly handle two giants.
‘We still have to help......!’
As he was thinking that.
TAAAAANG!
Next came a sound
that was closer to “soldier” than the one fighting with fists as weapons.
‘A gunshot......!’
A thunderous gunshot
rang out from somewhere in that forest.
And.
—Grrk......!
The giant that had been moving to support
stopped.
DRIP.......
—Guh...... huh.......
From that gigantic giant’s throat,
a blue liquid was spilling down.
‘It pierced a giant’s throat......!’
The fact that a hole had been punched through the body of a giant that was enduring even the artillery barrage pouring down from the sky
made everyone recoil in shock.
‘Even for the giants we did manage to drop, we had to suffer like hell just to wound their bodies.......’
Even if Jang Ji Han, their best ranged attacker, came back,
at best he would only be able to leave scratches on that giant’s body.
But an attack that fully pierced it.
[Arrow of the Cold Wind, Naroun]
—There’s...... a hidden insect.
However.
A powerful monster ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ did not die easily just because its vital point was hit.
With a hole in its neck, the giant stared into some part of the forest.
—You may have thought you hid well.......
It raised a hand into the air.
And behind its back, dozens of massive ice arrows took shape.
—All the cold of this world...... is with us.......
THUUUUD!
—I can clearly feel your heat!
The spear the giant threw pierced a place in the forest several kilometers away.
Arrows fired with tremendous explosive force.
From the impact packed into that single shot, every tree within dozens of meters was blown away.
‘That...... can’t be endured.’
No matter how strong that sniper was.
If they were hit by that attack, they would be ground into dust.
But.
—Where, where did you go!
‘Huh?’
The giant that had thrown that dreadful attack
only looked around the forest as if flustered.
And soon.
TAAAAAAANG!!!
—Kuhh......!
From a completely different location than before, the same gunshot rang out again.
Junggu had been watching from far away,
so he could understand what the situation meant.
‘In that short time, they fired and moved?’
That sniping happening somewhere in the forest.
Its power was clearly incredible.
But.
Junggu remembered something he had once heard from someone.
‘Staying on the same floor even though you know the enemy has identified your position is enough to make me doubt you have the qualities of a sniper.’
A sniper’s qualities
do not end with mere firepower or accuracy.
‘Evasive maneuvers.......’
A quality their shooting unit captain did not possess,
but which had been mentioned as something a sniper, naturally, must have.
TAAAAANG!!!
—A loach-like, kuh...... bastard......!
That sniper tearing through the forest
had that quality.
*****
“What in the world is this.”
“They’re incredible powerhouses.......”
A fighting style that completely smashed the existing common sense the Association’s Awakeners held.
Powerhouses with insane strength that could fight giants evenly with human bodies.
As Park Junggu stared in shock at that sight.
“C, Captain Junggu.”
Someone
grabbed his sleeve and spoke to him.
For Park Junggu, who wanted to keep his eyes on that battle,
the call was unwelcome.
But.
“Those two aren’t all.”
“......What?”
At those words,
Park Junggu’s gaze turned.
And only then.
With a wider view.
He could take in this battlefield.
......And what was happening across that battlefield.
