He shook his head. This wasn't the time for jokes.
'Oh come on…Just when I'd gotten away too…Well, guess I need to have a change of plans.' He sighed drearily as he analyzed the battle from afar.
Sharp winds howled and cut through the air, tearing into the giant's neck but doing rather mediocre damage, only a gash around a centimeter deep and a pencil's length appeared on the left side of its neck.
At first, William was shocked. 'The scholar with the wind ability?' He thought. However, his rationality told him otherwise.
'The scholar has no real reason to interfere here…Should her objective be to take out the highest-ranking players on the leaderboard in an attempt to win, right? If anything, she'd be going after Sang Pianyi now that he stole all of the Lord of Shadows' victory points. That and the fact that the winds were relatively weak for a scholar ranked verifier tells me…' A lightbulb flashed above his head.
'Replication!'
The replication ability of the Reader of Experience, in this case Li Jiaojie, had successfully recreated the same howling winds they had experienced a few days ago, albeit at a mere fraction of their power because of his limited experience with them.
'So he's here too…That means-' William's thought process was abruptly cut off, as the giant began to shake violently, their body looking as if vibrating through the power of…
Fear!
Fei Kangzhen, with his hand outstretched, whispered confidently. "Xenophobia, the fear of the unknown."
One of the unique abilities tied to the Fear core ability was the power to instill fear in others, both rational and irrational. In this case, Xenophobia, or the irrational fear of all things foreign, worked in their favour adequately.
However, even with the duo's combined efforts, they hadn't managed to slow the giant down at all; in fact, staying far away from the giant's area was the only reason they hadn't been hunted down already, as well as the fact that the giant was already dealing with a nasty prey.
"Go frog ball, I choose you!" Lian expertly tossed a sphere with a peaceful-looking frog design straight into the giant's stomach, though, given the vast difference in physical ability, the impact was no more than a small scratch.
Ribbit!
But the true power of this epic item was its ability to turn its target into a frog temporarily, depending on its power level! As the towering giant suddenly shrank, shrinking until it had formally adopted the form of a small black frog.
Lian then rustled around in her hair before pulling out an ornate golden hairpin, which upon the words. "Unsheathe." She chanted, and immediately a finely crafted longsword grew from her hand, which she then drove into the helpless-looking frog.
Luckily for the amphibian, it managed to leap out of the way before catastrophic damage could be done to it. Due to its power level, it had already begun to morph back into a giant; it had give or take ten more seconds before it returned to its previous level of power, meaning Lian and Co would have to get things done quickly, or else things would become dicey for them.
Lian struck at the frog once more with her hairpin longsword, slashing at it with fierce eyes. Like before, the frog leapt into the air to avoid the strike, only this time, Lian was ready for it.
Before the blade reached the ground, she turned it around so she could strike the frog whilst in mid-air, successfully cutting off both of its hind legs, effectively crippling it and preventing it from moving any longer.
"Fool me once, shame on me; try to fool me twice, and you're gonna be shamed!" She radically pummeled her words into the frog's face.
The frog continued to grow as she said this, regaining enough of its former strength to set up a suit of malleable, condensed shadows around its body for protection. Then it began hopping away to stall for time whilst Lian, Li Jiaojie, and Fei Kangzhen chased after it.
Li Jiaojie recalled a blood-red war domain that enveloped the black frog, beginning to weaken it slightly. Fei Kangzhen continued to try to instill fear into the creature, with only a disappointing degree of success.
Their ineptitude allowed for the frog to grow to the size of an average human, expand its arms, birth a cranium, and return to its previous brilliance, with the sole exception of its two legs. However, they also began to heal at a rapid pace, a seemingly more experienced version of what the lizard fiend had done moments prior.
As William watched the giant return to its former glory from afar, a sudden thought struck him in the head.
'Why are they fighting the giant?' It was a question he was amazed he hadn't asked himself sooner, 'If they're here to secure my safety, why fight a scholar-ranked monster just as I got away? Unlike the giant, they aren't blind, so it shouldn't be entirely impossible to see me through the dark.' An unsettling feeling began crawling under his skin.
Back on the battlefield, the Giant, now with stumps for legs, began to fight the three attackers simultaneously, without moving an inch. He blocked Lian's longsword with shadows, parried the winds sent by Li Jiaojie, and conquered his own fears strengthened by Fei Kangzhen.
As the battle progressed, Lian brought out new gadgets, such as a small automaton frog that spat corrosive acid at targets, and a small frog drone the size of a fist that shot minute blasts of ingenuity at the fiend.
The giant, not wanting to be pestered by the small creations, formed a large, longsword out of shadows and severed both of them in quick succession. However, this trap created an opening for the giant, allowing for retaliation.
These proved to be good distractions for the team, as Li Jiaojie, the physically strongest of the group, was able to get close enough to the fiend to strike it in the gut. Fei Kangzhen, seeing an opportunity, used the same opening to whip out a steel dagger and cut into the giant's backside.
Clang! Whoosh!
Sensing the two through Ingenuity, the giant decided to pull its longsword close and use its hilt to deflect Li Jiaojie's punch before flipping backwards and slamming the flat side of its blade onto Fei Kangzhen's head.
Fei Kangzhen tumbled to the ground with a loud thud, as iridescent crimson blood began to flood out of his cracked skull, unconscious.
Li Jiaojie panicked; he was in a bad situation now that he had gotten this close, so he tried his best to disengage from the close-quarter battle, pushing back using his right foot in an attempt to leap away.
The giant noticed his attempt and adjusted. Instead of using his long sword, it ripped it apart with its shadowy hands, turning the longsword into a separated, sharp, metallic blade and a basic hilt.
As Li Jiaojie disengaged, the giant threw the metallic blade at his head. It was launched at such high speed that the air whistled in pain, as if it were being cut apart.
Whoom!
A hexagonal energy barrier appeared around Li Jiaojie as this happened, a recollection of the barrier ability that the King once utilized—an extremely powerful skill from the Library of Alexandria.
Crk. Crrk.
However, it still wasn't enough, as the blade slowly began to crack the barrier, and small hexagonal energy fragments started to fall. But, at this rate, Li Jiaojie would have ample time to escape.
And that wouldn't do,
The giant dashed forward, leveraging its superior physical abilities to blitz Li Jiaojie, appearing before the barrier and driving the blade forward.
Crash!
Destroying the momentary sanctuary Li Jiaojie had created.
All hope wasn't lost yet, as Li Jiaojie had expected something like this to happen and had moved accordingly, purposeful weakening his recollection over the bottom half of the barrier, which wouldn't have any large repurcussions if it were only the thrown blade, but with the giant's strength upon it, it diverted the blade's trajectory, before the giant should alter it, the blade drove straight into Li Jiaojie's chest cavity, shattering his ribs and muscle fibers in the process.
He, too, fell to the ground with a resounding thud.
The giant readied to finish Li Jiaojie when…
Bonk!
A large stick hit the back of the giant's helmet, causing him to turn his head to the saddened culprit.
Lian stood tall in the line of sight of the fiend. Her eyes glisten.
"Do you…have any idea the pain that comes with murder?" A question was thrown out.
The giant stood quietly as its legs continued to regenerate; to them, a conversation would only be a benefit, so they decided to humor the little girl.
The giant let out an amused chuckle. "Once upon a time, perhaps. But, we are unique creatures, aren't we? The things we can adapt to are truly remarkable. We do what we need to survive, whatever the cost, whatever the pain, death is the worst option."
The girl stared at the towering giant as she stood, completely drenched and darkened by the night.
"Sometimes, death is a mercy."
The giant took a step closer. "Aslong as we remain alive, there will be infinite chances for redemption. When faced with death, even the brightest of flames are snuffed out just like that."
The girl smiled softly whilst shaking her head and staring at the ground. "That's a perspective maybe only you could understand. Not everyone has an...unshakable will, you know? Let's say in a war your loved ones were captured by enemy forces, beaten, tortured and abused for months and months on end, for the sole purpose of finding where you were, only for them to refuse to give you up at any cost, you return home after a years work overseas trying to survive the brutal apocalypse the world descended into and becoming mentally scarred in the process, to find your dad, mom, younger sister, and younger brother each with hundreds of gashes that had remained so long that they had rotted alongside their flesh. At that point, when they had no arms or legs, their vocal cords were severed, and some of them were missing eyes and teeth, but they were so happy to see you again that they just smiled despite essentially being living corpses. What would you have done?" She effortlessly recounted it, as if it were a vivid image she could never forget.
Raindrops had already covered her face by this point, but even so, her tears were as clear as day. Despite the pitch-black darkness, her eyes reflected an even darker memory.
"It's a shame, ya'know? You really don't deserve it, and yet here we are…' She lifted her gaze straight into the giant's beady eyes.
The giant's body froze.
It was only then that it realized that it had forgotten someone.
By this time, its legs had healed, so it spun around at top speed and thrust forward the shadow hilt it still held in its hand.
[Attribute: Reader, has completed the reading of the area.]
[Attribute: Calculator, begins calculating the odds.]
[Skill: Insight has been activated.]
Unfortunately for the giant, this battle was already over. As a chilling bident expertly dodged the strike and pierced straight into the giant's neck from below, before surging even further and cutting directly into the giant's head, decimating its soul.
"..." The giant dropped to its knees and reveled in agony, yet didn't say a word. In death, it would find something new, if not solace, then the next objective.
William withdrew the bident with grace. Now that they were at eye level, he could deliver his final words.
"In this world, behind every joyous face is a long, long tale of suffering."
The fiend had fallen.
Only this time, the circle did not appear. No, this time, the shadows around the body began to disperse, revealing a familiar figure stuffed inside the giant's body.
The Lord of Shadows.
"W-what.." William's eyes widened in shock.
"Mr.Truthseeker? I thought you had left the party already!" The body suddenly got up and grinned. He wore a cloak of shadows as per usual.
This choice of words confused William. 'What…Did he…forget the fight we just had? No, maybe it's just that he can't remember what happens while in the giant? What's going on even…Speaking of forgetting…huh, it's all coming back to me now. There was another person that day when that ragtag group of verifiers decided to storm the watchtower, but…how did I forget about them? And…that luck reader, how did he die again…' William's mind buzzed as a treasure trove of information flooded it.
The Lord of Shadows was about to step towards William when..
Ssssss!
A figure suddenly appeared next to the Lord of Shadows; it was as if they had appeared out of thin air. They clenched the Lord of Shadows' right arm hard, shattering it instantly, before wrapping their left arm around the Lord of Shadows' neck and grabbing him by his chin, before taking a clean steel knife out of his right pocket and pressing it against the man's mouth.
"Ahh…It's time for us to begin…"