Chapter 143 Volume III - Chapter 64: Last Giant, Last King
One of the boring bosses in the game, but one of the majestic ones, the king of the giants who once lived here, was in front of us.
"I was going to ask if you were ready again, but never mind."
Alex didn't say anything, but instead opened the mini crossbow on his arm and pulled out the needles.
"I'm counting on you for the creatures that will fight alongside the Boss, and you can help me with the big one."
Even though we had already had this conversation, Alex asked hesitantly.
"To defeat something like this, you need a team of three people stronger than us. You're sure we can get out of here alive, right?"
"Of course, I am. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. Just trust me and take care of the creatures other than the boss. Don't be afraid to use your remaining potions, use all your tricks, use your skill, and don't die. We probably won't be able to help each other, so we'll fight alone."
Alex hesitated for a moment but nodded. His eyes were on the giant sitting on the throne. His fear was more for the boss than for the enemies he would fight.
I actually sympathize with him. The armored giant sitting on the throne, also a king, looks intimidating to someone seeing him for the first time. The thought that one is standing in front of a dangerous being, the possibility of dying here, and so on... Such thoughts are stressful, stressful thoughts for anyone.
For someone without a stupid skill like me, who is facing a boss for the first time, it's really challenging.
I turned toward Alex and nodded my head to indicate that I was ready to start, and he nodded back that he was ready. So, I looked back at the giant on the throne. I took a deep breath, tightened my grip on the sword I already had in my hand, and walked toward him.
My every step echoed in the huge throne room, louder and louder as I got closer to the giant. The snowflakes stopped drifting from above, and the giant's closed eyes stirred.
I stopped walking, about five meters between me and the giant.
The giant's eyes opened wide. His eyes, blue like his skin, first looked around the room. He was completely ignoring me, but not for long. Finally, his icy blue eyes turned to me and stayed on me for a while. Then his brows furrowed, his face turned angry and he rose from his throne.
He raised the 'double-handed sword' that seemed to be stuck in the ground in front of him with one hand and his blue eyes flashed.
The giant tensed and roared. His voice made the entire palace tremble, the snow drifts on the ceiling fell to the ground, and creatures such as birds that were close by began to screech in fear and flee. The giant's roar alone was so majestic, so mighty, that it could affect the mind of an unfocused person.
I took another deep breath and raised my sword. The giant stopped roaring, didn't wait any longer, and lunged forward, swinging his two-handed sword at me without waiting.
The sword was so big and the giant so strong that the wind pressure hit me in the face before the sword did. The huge sword was coming at me through the wind, I couldn't defend it. If I was stupid and tried, I would die instantly. Thus, I jumped.
The giant sword moved as if it had just cut in half where I was standing, but I was on top of it. I put my feet on the moving sword, jumped again quickly without trying to regain my balance, and swung my sword at the giant's eye.
The giant, boss, or king... whatever he was, swung his free hand as if he saw me like a fly. The attack was so sudden that I had to act without thinking, quickly pulling myself to my feet and using the giant's arm to spring back.
The giant narrowed his eyes before attacking again, then tensed and roared again with all his might.
This time the roar didn't attack my mind as much as before, but its purpose was different in the first place.
The roar echoed so loudly in the throne room that the ice of the frozen corpses all around crackled, then broke completely. So the corpses in the ice fell to the ground, but they did not stay there.
It didn't take long for the armored corpses to stand up, their whole bodies trembling. They were just like the 'king' in front of us, but they were about three meters tall, and they looked much weaker than the king.
Yet they were not weaker than us.
"Alex, fight by running away all the time! Even if you don't kill them, harass them! The fewer of them bother me, the better."
Before Alex had a chance to answer me, the frozen knights attacked him. The king, who had stopped roaring, raised his huge sword in the air and brought it down, even though it was out of my reach. I quickly started to move away from him, and the moment the sword landed on the ground, the ground crackled. The cracks widened, a bluish color appeared in the endless darkness beneath them, and ice spurted out of the cracks.
This was a skill I knew, as I knew Boss's every move, every attack.
The crack created by the sword continued to approach me and I threw myself to the side, but it was futile because the cracks suddenly changed direction and turned back toward me. It was moving like a creature following me.
I started to run, clicking my tongue, circling the throne room to get back in front of the king, but as soon as I started running, I was blocked by a frozen knight who ignored Alex and aimed directly at me.
The knight had an axe in his hand and was approaching me with it aimed directly at my neck.
My mana spun inside me, a warm feeling enveloped my body and I raised my hand.
A strong gust of wind flew out of my hand, hitting the axe directly and slowing it down, if not stopping it, slowing it down enough for even a child to avoid it. It also knocked the knight off balance, not knocking him down, but enough to make him stagger.
I swung my sword and the knight raised his arm, realizing that he could not defend himself with his axe.
My sword entered the knight's arm, cut it, though with some difficulty, and the knight's arm fell to the ground. The knight's expression didn't change, he didn't seem to feel any pain, but I didn't care. The knight turned around for a moment to try to catch me, but as soon as he did, the ice from the crack that came after me literally riddled the knight with holes.
I kept running, only to realize after a few seconds that the spikes of ice behind me had slowed down and I prepared to turn back, but as I turned around, I saw a hand only half a meter away from me.
My eyebrows rose in shock and I tried to move my body. But I didn't have enough time.
The king's hand hit me like a slap, I felt my ribs crack and I was knocked off my feet.
I jumped up, the slap was so strong that it took me a second or two to hit the wall of the room and the wall reacted with the same force.
I felt my ribs strain even more as I hit the wall, even my organs could have been damaged.
"Aiden!"
I heard Alex's voice but he didn't follow up, he was surrounded by several knights. He had obvious cut wounds on him, but he kept his distance. His eyes glowed silvery instead of the old brown, indicating that his skill was active. He had already killed one of the knights he was fighting, the knight lay lifeless on the ground with three arrows piercing his heart.
The arrows had all landed exactly on top of each other.
Alex dodged the knights and tried to run to me, but as soon as he tried, one of the knights almost caught him. Alex narrowly avoided him by diving to the side, the silvery glint in his eyes intensifying.
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue, tried to get to my feet, and that's when I heard a sound, a heavy sound, that made me unable to focus on anything but it. The friction of an armor made of metal as it moves.
I turned my head in the direction of the sound. The king was walking slowly toward me, a faint smile on his face.
I gritted my teeth.
Mock, go on.
My ribs dug into my flesh, and blood came out of my mouth, but I managed to stand up. The king was still approaching me, but slowly, he wanted to put the weak people who dared to step on his throne in their place. So, he would humiliate them, us, first.
'You seem to be in a difficult position, Aiden.'
I heard a voice in my mind that sounded like my own.
'Things don't seem to be going well.'
It was tempting, I wouldn't regret it for a while if I gave in to him, but I resisted.
No, I will do this on my own, I will not surrender my mindset to madness, I will win this battle by being 'me'.
I closed my eyes and focused, I transferred mana to the Absolute Mind, and I felt my mind clearing.
I also withdrew the mana that strengthened my body and gave it to the Absolute Mind. Slowly, the pain in my chest began to subside. Still, I was not getting any better, only the pain was diminishing. So, I had to be careful.
With the help of the Absolute Mind and the potion, the pain lessened and I opened my eyes.
As I continued to channel mana into the Absolute Mind, I purged all my thoughts to focus on this moment alone. A vast emptiness enveloped all my thoughts, trapping all but a few within itself.
Everything was temporarily erased from my mind except Alex's situation and what I needed to know to defeat the boss in front of me. I had this amazing focus thanks to the Absolute Mind.
"I'm fine, Alex. Keep defending yourself."
My voice sounded soulless. My emotions were so dull as all my thoughts were erased.
I cut off the mana I was transmitting to the Absolute Mind and called hoarsely into the void.
"Sith, wake up."
A yawn echoed in my mind. A short silence followed and I heard another voice ringing in my ears.
'I told you to wake me up!'
'I'm sorry, I wanted to finish the job without disturbing you, but it's urgent. We need to do what we did in the preliminaries.'
Sith was silent for a moment.
'Okay... but don't act on your own again. You'll make me hesitate to go to sleep.'
'I apologize.'
I smiled awkwardly and at that moment my mana seemed to bubble up inside me. I felt like I was being stung in a furnace... like my mana was rejecting me as it merged with Sith. On top of that, my already damaged organs strained my body even more.
A metallic taste appeared in my mouth, but I swallowed it back before vomiting blood.
The teal-colored glow that normally enveloped my sword enveloped my body this time, just as it had during the preliminaries. The glow intensified at certain points and turned into a halo of light. When the dazzling glow of these halos began to fade, a crown that seemed to be made of tree branches appeared above my head.
I put down my sword because it could not withstand the amount of mana in my body. I narrowed my eyes, then looked coldly and emotionlessly into the king's icy blue eyes.
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