#195
White Giant (2)
Boom!
White paint-like blood erupted from the deeply carved wounds, spraying in all directions.
If it had been red blood as usual, it would have been a horrific scene, but now it didn’t even feel particularly brutal due to the alien color.
It was like watching a scene that had been mosaic-filtered.
‘Right now, I don’t care about that at all!’
Heinrich, who evaded the giant’s rebellious gestures while spinning, swung the massive light sword with the force of centrifugal motion.
In the same spot where he had attacked earlier.
The creature’s Achilles’ heel.
[———!]
At the same time, a joint attack from Harley and Geos targeted the opposite ankle, followed by Isea’s gravity magic suppressing its movements.
Immediately after facing the giant’s ominous expression.
The entire hero party, including Heinrich, focused all their strength on restraining its ankle, even at a slight risk.
They couldn’t engage as calmly as before… because the creature’s earlier reactions were quite unsettling.
As they faced this white giant, they realized one thing.
Sure, it was large with tough skin and overwhelming regeneration power, making it tricky to deal with, but if they had enough time, they could definitely handle it with their combined strength.
It was decently agile for its size, but not agile enough to catch up with them, nor did it have any particularly special attacks.
All it had was its brute strength.
‘But that sheer size is the real problem.’
The attacks infused with massive holy power and the strength of the holy sword were definitely delivering significant blows to the giant.
The issue was that its vast life force made the damage less noticeable.
However, because of that massive life force, while they couldn’t finish it off, the village’s damage was slowly piling up.
The once peaceful village was gradually being destroyed, and the screams of people and livestock swept away in the aftermath echoed from everywhere.
[“Saint! It’s trying to escape again! Ugh, the people haven’t all evacuated yet!”]
[“Suppressing with gravity is reaching its limit! Because of the size difference, I can’t control the entire area… I think I’ll need at least 5 more minutes to reactivate it. Ah, if I had known this would happen, I should’ve studied more!”]
Gravity magic was a good control mechanism against such a large and heavy giant.
If that were absent, they would have had to allow the giant to break through long ago.
But it seemed that the giant’s immense physical abilities and resistance were pushing their efforts to the limit now.
“If only I could focus entirely on the fight and had enough time!”
They were struggling with too many factors to consider, but if they faced it head-on again, they were confident they could hunt it down.
No matter how small Heinrich seemed compared to the giant’s palm, the maximum length of the light sword, utilizing “Blessing: Weight Increase,” was well over 3 meters.
That was enough to be considered a dagger for the giant, so it had sufficient lethality.
Additionally, Harley’s battle axe could easily slice through its fingers, and Geos’s spear was sharp as a needle.
If the giant’s physical abilities were even slightly lacking, wouldn’t the situation already be over?
‘…Just the fact that they’ve managed to hold such a large creature back for this long is impressive.’
Every time the giant tried to pass by, it lost a limb. It had no choice but to comply.
‘…If it breaks through even once, there’ll be a massive disaster in the village. There really is no way… Hmm? What’s that?’
At that moment, a phenomenon caught Harley’s attention.
The giant’s wounds were regenerating even while they were fighting.
[———!]
While Heinrich’s holy sword’s scars had barely entered the stitching stage, the holes made by Geos had almost completely healed without a trace.
What surprised him were the marks left by Harley…
“Wait, come to think of it.”
He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the massive toe he had previously severed.
Its regeneration speed seemed to be roughly halfway between Heinrich’s and Geos’s.
Moreover, Harley clearly understood the cause behind it.
‘…I see. After all, that thing is a host of madness. Then…’
The struggle for dominance of madness, embedded in his attack, and the madness residing in the giant’s body.
Of course, the amount in his attacks was far too little compared to the total amount within the giant’s body, so it didn’t have a great effect…
But honestly, that wasn’t a huge problem for him.
Finally, a breakthrough seemed to emerge, and a vicious smile slowly stretched across Harley’s face.
But that was also the case for the opponent.
“Ugh, no!”
“…Its magic resistance is too strong, I can’t stop it!”
Finally, the white giant twisted its face into a deformed smile as it discovered a breakthrough.
*
Just after the White Giant appeared.
Kaboom—!
A massive sound echoed from the outskirts of the village, shaking the ground as if an earthquake had occurred.
“Wha—! What the hell is that!”
“Ahhh—!”
“A monster! Everyone run away!”
Naturally, the nearby villagers screamed, calling out in panic to escape as far away as possible from the source of the chaos.
This peaceful town, known for its lack of resources and absence of notable monster habitats, was now thrown into utter disarray.
Given that a monster the size of a ten-story building was rampaging nearby, this was only to be expected.
Fortunately, since the giant appeared on the outskirts of the village, and the hero party immediately moved to respond, things hadn’t escalated further.
“Waaah—!”
“Cough, cough. M-mom…”
“Hii— a monster…!”
This panic hit the orphanage run by Chehai just as hard.
Isea’s magical barrier blocked the hostile energy, preventing direct harm, but it was natural for everyone to fall into a panic with a giant monster rampaging so close.
“Kids! Calm down; let’s evacuate calmly. Thomas, Sally? Help guide the children!”
“Yes… Yes, mom! Hoo— Billy, Hans! Stop slacking in the corner and come here! Hover, check who is leaving at the door. I’ll look around to see if anyone is missing.”
“…Did everyone hear what mom said? Garnet and Sarah come with me to the nursery to bring the kids. The rest of you, make sure to calm the kids down.”
However, Chehai’s wife, Milena, took charge, helping to gradually stabilize the chaos and prepare for evacuation.
With more mature kids preparing for independence at the orphanage, those who were somewhat older took care of the younger ones, allowing everyone to quickly gather their things and leave the orphanage.
And just in time.
“Milena! Are the kids? Is everyone safe?!”
Chehai, who had stepped out to see off some guests, arrived at the orphanage, gasping for breath.
He quickly scanned the throng of children, then exhaled a deep sigh.
“Phew, not really good news… But it looks like we’re ready to move. We need to get as far away from here as possible!”
Kaboom—
In that moment, another tremor and explosion erupted from the battlefield.
The shock felt more intense than when they were inside the building, stirring the children’s composure even more.
Staying any longer would be pointless.
Chehai hurriedly led the orphanage family to escape the site.
How long had they been moving?
He glanced back briefly toward where the giant was to assess the situation.
He did it to find a safer route by observing the actions of the towering beast…
“…?!”
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine, stiffening his body.
“…What the hell is this?!”
He swallowed hard, involuntarily letting a curse slip from his lips.
In ordinary circumstances, he’d want to use nice words in front of the children, but he couldn’t help it in this moment.
And understandably so—.
The moment he turned to look at the giant, it faced him, making direct eye contact despite being engaged in combat with the hero party.
No, to be precise, the creature’s eyes were still stitched up, so it wasn’t exactly correct to say they made eye contact…
But right now, that wasn’t the most important issue.
Yeah… the fact that it seemed to be looking at something, with its grotesquely twisted face, made it all the more disturbing.
As Chehai remained momentarily frozen in shock.
[———!]
With a heavy rumble that shook the surroundings, the massive being charged toward them at an incredible speed.
With its legs spanning a different dimension, when it charged, it took mere moments to close the distance to the fleeing group in front of the orphanage.
And then—
“Damn it…!”
Kaboom—!
An explosion roared from where they were, like a bomb had gone off.
*
Kaboom—!
With an earth-shattering roar, clouds of dust and shockwaves radiated outwards.
The tremors, of a scale different from any before, not only leveled all nearby buildings but also created countless spiderweb-like cracks in the nearby ground.
It was an astounding scene of destruction—the kind that seemed to come from a falling meteor.
“Ugh— what is happening…?”
As Chehai opened his eyes after the immense shock, he cautiously surveyed his surroundings.
What he first noticed was a faint blue light enveloping their group, alongside the swirling dust beyond it…
It was clearly the protective barrier that shielded the village from the shockwave.
“Phew, it seems we were better prepared this time. Though, if we had taken that impact directly, the barrier would have crumbled in an instant.”
Just then, a familiar voice he’d grown accustomed to after spending time together spoke from beside him.
He quickly turned his head and saw Isea, the party’s wizard, clutching her staff and sighing.
“Oh, thank you for saving us…”
“It’s not over yet. Let’s take care of the kids and retreat.”
“Oh! The kids! Are they safe?”
“Don’t worry. This barrier was especially reinforced.”
As she spoke, she waved her staff again, magically lifting the unconscious children behind them all at once.
Such simple floating and transporting magic took very little toll on her, even with a few dozen children.
“I put the lady and children to sleep on purpose. Being close to this chaos might traumatize them.”
“…Thank you. That would certainly be for the best. I almost dropped my heart earlier… But that thing from before, could it be…?”
Having sensed something, Chehai hurriedly followed Isea’s lead, peeking back behind him repeatedly.
Amidst the settling dust, a massive form loomed.
A shape that towered over him, like a rock, but with a round form.
It was the giant’s head, lying flat on the ground.
[———!]
As the momentary shock passed, a furious roar emanated from the giant’s massive head.
Given how it was writhing as if it might stand up at any moment, it was evident that this was far from over.
Yet, despite his doubts, he couldn’t shake the thought that…
“What the heck? Just downed by a simple stumble causing such destruction?”
It was clear that the massive shockwave’s source was the white giant, whose body was now covered in dust, looking unmistakably colossal.
The outcome was jaw-dropping, but the process was not particularly remarkable.
It had merely charged wildly and then dove headfirst into the ground.
[———!]
“Wow! What a tremendous sound! You should be embarrassed, buddy! Just take a breather for a bit! Hahaha!”
Of course, the giant didn’t fall just because it was silly.
When it had dropped its guard, someone had intervened to trip it and send its head crashing into the ground.
“…Harley?”
That voice was also familiar to Chehai.
Geos’s companion, the intimidating southern warrior the kids feared.
However, the silhouette that emerged along with that voice seemed somewhat odd.
Crouched on the ground, propping himself up with the giant head that was at least twice his height.
“What the heck is that?”
“…Wow, I’ve never seen that before. Is that what they call a warrior? …Seems a bit different from what I imagined?”
Eventually, as the dust settled, the full figure appeared.
Muscles developed beyond human limits, her body covered in gleaming scarlet scales and armored like a suit.
Its mouth lined with enormous teeth and razor-sharp claws.
Its eyes glowed red and green, as if lanterns had been lit within.
With horns sprouting from its head and a blood-like energy swirling around it.
Now, there was absolutely no trace of humanity left.
Transformed through “Physical Transformation,” exceeding 4 meters in height, and manifesting every dominant genetic trait it had accumulated through “Mutation,” it was—
The so-called ‘Complete Harley.’
