Chapter 179: The Shoulders Of Giants
Inside the giant's skull, moments before Min's voice tore through the cathedral waters, Seo-jin's body began forming inside Gundant's ear canal. Bone and sinew bubbled out of the torn claw Panic had carried in. Wet tissue pulled together, muscle knitting over it. Seconds later the Broodfather stood whole.
Panic didn't wait for orders. Even as the fleshy world around then shook and bucked, he was already pushing deeper into the passage, dagger and sickle carving, leaving a trail of torn pulp behind.
[Almost feel bad. The Elderwarren was one thing, but this… yikes.]
'I doubt he'd feel the same scraping us off his foot.'
Raising a cleaver toward the exposed flesh, he paused.
'Should I?'
[I know you hate it when I listen to your thoughts, but you should totally do it. She'd be so pissed.]
'It's fine. And yeah, she'll be mad, but that's Gundant's problem.'
Two wet screeches burst from his back as system light filled the cramped canal. Standing shirtless, the Twinback Growths convulsed and began vomiting out heavy chunks of flesh. The mass twisted and pulled together until the shape of a massive woman formed.
Seo-jin saw it the second her eyes opened.
Bloodshot Madness.
Her aura detonated as her head snapped back.
"DESTROY EVERYTHING!"
'This should tire her out. Too bad the others won't be able to—shit!'
Min's glowing yellow eyes snapped onto him. Dodging just in time, her fist sailed straight past his head.
Dancing around her follow-up punches, Seo-jin realized the mistake immediately.
'Panic!'
Deeper in the canal, the broodling lifted his head. Strips of something hung from his mouth.
'Ya?'
'Run!'
The moment the warning left his mouth, Seo-jin triggered Rotflow.
[-5SM]
[SM // 13/52]
[Rotmark // Mark 2 // Activated]
He threw himself sideways as Min's fist tore through the space he had occupied. His body broke apart mid-motion, flesh collapsing into rot until nothing remained for Min to hit.
Nothing except the broodling running straight toward her. Unfortunate for him, it was his only way out.
Standing guard over the second claw, Hex felt the piece twitch. He stepped back as Seo-jin began knitting together again.
The moment Seo-jin's vision cleared, his hand filled with system light. A Soul Stone appeared in his palm. His eyes snapped toward the giant's head as he crushed it.
[+40SM]
[SM // 52/52]
[Hellfire // Deactivated]
Seo-jin let Hellfire fade. Keeping it active now would only drain him. Watching the giant struggle, Gundant thrashed violently, clawing at his own skull as something inside continued tearing at him.
Hex leaned in, fingers strumming his guitar.
'Broodfather, is it over?'
'I doubt it.'
Seo-jin pulled his gaze from the giant and looked over the brood. They were still standing. His army of lessers was noticeably thinner, but that was the price of Feed.
'Get out!'
Gundant's roar snapped Seo-jin's attention back, just in time to see Panic shoot out of the giant's ear. The broodling clutched his backside, face twisted, but he didn't slow. Using the momentum, he kicked through the water and rocketed straight back to the Broodfather's side, still rubbing his ass.
Seeing everyone staring, Panic grinned.
'She kicked me. Huuuuge foot.'
Seo-jin rolled his eyes and turned back to the fight.
Still thrashing on the seabed, Gundant clawed at his own skull. His broken leg dragged uselessly behind him as he rolled. Fingers dug into his scalp and tore it open. Blood spread through the water in thick clouds. The giant's eyes burned with wild violence, lost to the pressure building in his head. Yellow flashes leaked from his ears and nose. Each spasm locked his body stiff before another violent tremor cracked the stone beneath him.
'Out! Out! OOOOUUUUUTTTTT!'
Something shifted.
A tight warning crawled up Seo-jin's spine.
'Everyone get ready!'
Gundant forced himself upright. He held his skull between both hands, trembling, then slowly, he leaned back and dragged in as much oxygen as his lungs could hold, water flowing into his gills in huge, frothing torrents.
Then he slapped one hand over his mouth and pinched his nose shut.
The giant bent forward and blew.
Blood and splintered bone erupted from both ears in a violent fog, clouding the water. A moment later Min shot out of the skull like a cannon round.
She came screaming, cursing the whole way, before slamming hard into one of the vents.
'Snare, Panic, get her to drink no matter what.'
Producing a flask, Seo-jin shoved it into Panic's hand as bloodlight began to crawl over his skin.
The fight wasn't over yet.
Shaking his massive head, blood streamed from Gundant's ears, mouth and nose, drifting through the water in dark ribbons, but the rage and pain had finally faded from his expression.
Still gripping his skull, he scanned the cavern until his gaze settled on Seo-jin.
'Nasty tactic. Very nasty. I've fought thousands of small folk over my lifetime—'
The giant's aura began to surge, piling around him like a rising mountain of dense brown light. The water trembled under the pressure.
'But I have never been humiliated like this. New experiences are rare for me, so thank you. But forgive me if I stop holding back now. You have earned the right.'
'Wait—holding back?'
Seo-jin's stomach tightened.
He barely knew this giant. Truthfully, not at all. But he had seen enough to know one thing without doubt. Gundant wasn't a liar.
When the giant gripped his axe, the water around them began to grow colder. Pressure crept in with it.
Seo-jin didn't hesitate.
'Retreat! NOW!'
Any other moment, and they might have hesitated. But every broodling felt the urgency in their father.
As Seo-jin's aura flared in answer to Gundant's, the brood scattered. He could feel Snare and Panic already pulling away. But another presence was rushing straight toward him.
'He the boss?!'
Min swam up beside Seo-jin, battered and bleeding, but the madness had cleared from her eyes. The grin on her face suggested that might not be much better. The frenzy was gone. In its place, raw hunger for the fight burned through her like a flood of killing intent.
'What do you think? How ya feelin?'
Min rolled her shoulders. Her neck popped as she stretched, then she slammed her gauntlets together.
'Fuckin good. Not sure how I got here, but I'll question you about that later.'
Seo-jin caught the edge in her voice, but that problem could wait.
Across the cavern, Gundant stood like a wall of muscle and stone, even his leg appeared healed. His aura had swelled to its peak, thick brown pressure pushing through the water around him. The giant lifted his axe.
'It's a pity to end this so soon, but it is necessary. You are an anomaly that shouldn't exist, and it is my duty to end your life before your corruption spreads.'
'Corruption?'
The word snapped through Seo-jin's thoughts, stirring something in the back of his mind, but there was no time to chase it.
The axe was already coming.
A blade big as a house screamed through the water toward him.
Min flashed in front just as the axe came down. She slammed her forearms together, the two half shields locking.
Yellow aura burst outward and expanded into a massive curved barrier, just as Gundant's blade crashed into it.
The impact rolled through the water like a shockwave. Her boots dug trenches across the seabed as she slid backward, shield grinding under the pressure. The aura wall bent but didn't break.
Seo-jin moved the moment the strike stalled. Butcher's Wrath carved forward and a crimson arc of aura tore from the swing, flying straight for the giant's face.
Gundant twisted and knocked the attack aside with the side of his axe. The redirected slash cut across his shoulder instead.
The giant roared.
His next swing came faster, the axe ripping through the water hard enough to drag the current behind it. Min ducked under the arc while Seo-jin kicked through the pull of the blade's wake.
The water was getting harder to move through. Each swing from Gundant churned the sea into violent currents that shoved and dragged at their balance.
Both of them realized the same thing at the same time.
They had to take the weapon away.
Min surged forward. Her aura exploded as a massive abyssal shark manifested over her body. Her fist crashed into Gundant's forearm. The shark bit with it.
Teeth tore chunks of flesh from the giant while Min's strikes cratered muscle beneath. Gundant roared and wrenched the limb free, but the shark's jaws clamped down again, ripping another strip loose.
Seo-jin slipped in beside her. Hellfire crawled across his chest and down both cleavers as he began carving into the giant's arms. Each strike opened another wound, giants blood pouring into the water.
Gundant's swings kept accelerating despite the damage. The pressure from every movement turned the surrounding sea into a storm, currents hammering against Seo-jin and Min as they fought to stay close.
Seo-jin ignored it.
His attention locked onto the giant's wrist. He slipped inside another swing and drove both cleavers down in a crossing cut.
Steel bit deep.
The vein, thick as a man's arm, burst open. A violent jet of dark blood erupted, blasting into the open water, and the giant's grip faltered.
Gundant still mid-swing, Min didn't hesitate.
Her shark surged forward with her, jaws slamming onto the wounded wrist. With a savage wrench it tore the wound open wider, ripping flesh and tendon apart.
Gundant's arm jerked and the axe lost its path. The blade veered wide and smashed into the base of a nearby vent. Stone shattered as the weapon buried itself deep into the rock.
'Keep him busy!'
Min didn't even answer. She swam forward immediately, moving faster than she should have been able to. The abyssal shark wrapped around her body like a living engine, its mass cutting through the current.
She slammed shoulder-first into Gundant's knee.
The giant's leg buckled as Min began climbing him like an enraged hornet. Her fists hammered into muscle and bone while the shark's jaws snapped again and again, tearing gashes whenever it could find purchase.
Gundant roared and tried to shake her loose, but she didn't stop. She climbed higher with every strike, the shark biting with every blow.
Behind the chaos, Seo-jin closed his eyes.
The water churned violently around him, but he forced the motion from his mind. His breath slowed. He pictured the strike clearly in his head.
A single cut...one swing...the world splitting in two.
His aura began to gather.
At first it was subtle, then it tightened around him like a drawn wire. Every scrap of power he had flowed inward, compressing deeper and deeper into his core.
Gundant felt it.
The giant's eyes flicked toward Seo-jin for a fraction of a second. His aura flared in answer, but Min was still tearing into him, forcing his attention back.
His axe remained buried in the vent.
His wrist bled heavily.
He could fend Min away, or he could rip his weapon free. Stupidly, he tried to do both. That mistake gave Seo-jin exactly what he needed.
The aura inside him condensed until it felt like his bones might crack from the pressure. Every drop of power he had gathered into the next strike.
Slowly, he drew both blades back, and opened his eyes.
Now, he only needed the moment.
He didn't know how much health the giant had left. But looking at the damage already carved through Gundant's body, the attacks from within, the bleeding wrist, the shattered veins—
Seo-jin was confident this strike would end it.
Min surged upward again, racing toward the giant's face with the shark snapping around her, but Gundant finally caught her.
His massive hand whipped across his body and backhanded her through the water like a missile. She slammed into the seabed in a plume of silt as the giant lifted his boot to crush her.
And Seo-jin saw it—his opening.
He moved.
Both blades carved forward in a brutal cross.
Two enormous arcs of bloodlight tore from the swing and screamed through the water.
At the same instant, the giant's boot came down, and Min vanished beneath it.
For a heartbeat the world went white.
Light erupted across the cavern as the bloodlight slammed into Gundant's skull. The impact detonated, ripping a storm of silt from the seabed and blasting it outward in a rolling cloud.
Stone shattered.
The vent crater split wider.
And through the blinding surge of red light and choking sediment—Seo-jin felt it.
The boss was still alive.
And Seo-jin was completely spent.