“Gnats!”

  The giant roared, his voice shaking the battlefield. He twisted his body and shed out, his massive leg sweeping in an arc to keep the demons at bay.

  And this created the perfect opening for a certain grey high-demon.

  A massive bde, the discarded on of another fallen giant, hurtled through the air like a missile.

  Its partially rusted steel glowed with Xaren’s signature dark red magic power as it pierced into the giant’s thigh with a siing bsp;

  The gia out a howl of pain, his hands instinctively reag for the on embedded in his leg.

  ‘It’s not deep. I remove it fast and block the wound with aura!’

  Such were his thoughts, but before he could execute them, Kravok dashed forward, his warhammer glowing with demoniergy.

  “Let’s see you stand after this!” Kravok bellowed, leaping high and bringing his hammer down on the pommel of the embedded bde.

  Xaren pyed suppain, doubling the weight of Kravok’s hammer at the st moment as the strike hit with a deafening g, driving the rge sword deeper into the giant’s flesh.

  Blood erupted from the wound, spttering across the ground as the giant howled again, louder this time.

  In a fit e, he swung his massive arm, catg Kravok in mid-air. The blow sent Kravok hurtling through the ruins, his body smashing through walls before disappearing into a cloud of dust.

  “Kravok!” Bjorn shouted, his voice eg, but there was no time to che him.

  The other level 90 demons seized the moment, ung another wave of attacks. Magid steel struck from all sides, f the giant to defend. He staggered backwards, blood p from his wounds, his aura flickering like a broken shield.

  R once more, the giant poured more aura into his arms and drove his fist into the ground.

  The earth erupted like a bomb, the shockwave tearing through buildings and scattering the attag demons like leaves in a storm. The sheer force fttehe nearby structures, sending debris and dust spiralling into the air.

  As the shockwave tore through the battlefield, demons scrambled to blod dodge.

  Some of those skilled in wind magic like Ilya propelled themselves into the sky. Earth magic types erected walls of solid rock to shield themselves, thealiated with stone spikes aimed at the giant's torso and limbs.

  Fire magic demons focused their fmes on the embedded giant sword, heating the metal and scorg the wound, hoping to worsen the injury.

  This giant, however, had a deep well of vitality, even for his level. He wasn’t going down from just this.

  He infused his aura into his legs to block the fmes, then reached out to snate of the fire demons.

  The captured demon struggled, but the giant’s grip was to. Ign the struggles of the demon in his hands, the giant hurled the demon upward at one of the wind magic users.

  The impact came barely a sed ter, knog the wind-using demon out of the air and sending both of them plummeting to the ground.

  In the process, they also knocked down another demon who leapt into the air to attack the giant.

  The giant had splendidly taken out two birds with oone.

  And he wasn’t about to let his lucky stone go just yet.

  Despite the sword impaled in his thigh, his massive frame dispyed surprising agility as he leapt skyward.

  He snatched two of the falling demons in mid-air before they could recover, then spun and hurled them like projectiles.

  One demooward Ilya, who was mid-attack, and the other careeoward Xaren, preparing to strike from the opposite side.

  These were Level 90+ demons, in other words, they had strong attack potency that the giant could not easily ignore.

  Ilya and Xaren moved to save these demons from further harm. While Ilya used a gust of wind to cushion the ining demon’s fall, Xaren used Gravity Attra to pull them close to himself.

  The move spared the demon from crashing hard into the ground, though the distra cost Xaren preoments.

  Just as Xarehe demon down, the ground shook violently.

  The giant nded with a thunderous crash and immediately crouched, his muscles coiling like a spring. Before anyone could eve an atta, he luoward Xaren with terrifying speed, his injured leg barely slowing him down.

  If it was the Xaren of his past life, he would have noticed that the giant had activated a skill—the real reason behind his sudden bursts of speed.

  But even if he couldn’t sense skill activations like before, Xaren’s danger senses were still in perfect w dition.

  Without hesitation, he abahe wounded demon, fog entirely on lightening his own body and leaping away.

  But the giant was too fast. The edge of the massive hand grazed Xaren’s side and due to the speed, Xaren’s body was thrown onto the ground with a thud.

  Pain surged through him as he tried to roll away, but before he could move, the giant’s enormous hand closed around him, lifting him like a doll.

  “Got you, bastard!”

  The giant growled as he lifted Xaren, only for his arm to suddenly fall back to the ground as Xaren doubled the giant’s arm weight, along with his own.

  Though he stumbled, the giant quickly infused his arm with aura and forced Xaren’s gravity magic back.

  Xaren gritted his teeth and unleashed a bst of bck fmes, but the thick aura coating the giant’s hand absorbed the fire's impact.

  The pressure around Xaren increased as the giant’s fingers began to close. He could feel his ribs groaning uhe weight, the air in his lungs thinning.

  ‘Fuck! Gravity Sph-’

  Xaren couldn’t plete his skill activation, as a blinding fsh of light crackled from the side in that moment.

  “Tordenkl?r! Burst!”

  Bjorn’s voice rang out as his lightning-coated fist smmed into the inner part of the giant’s wrist. It broke the aura that was already weakened from Xaren’s fmes, and the giant’s hand twitched involuntarily.

  In that same moment, several other demo into a, their ons smming into the giant's wrist, and simultaneously, another demon struck the embedded sword in the giant’s leg.

  The bde quivered, then pushed further through the flesh, pierg ly out the other side.

  Blood spurted from the wound, pooling on the ground and the gia out a thunderous bellow, his grip on Xaren faltering.

  Carack took advantage of the moment, direg a stream of fmes toward the giant's face. The fmes roared, f the giant to lift his free hand to shield his eyes.

  It was the opening everyone needed.

  Bdes sshed, hammers struck, and arrows pierced from all dires, b the gialessly.

  Despite the aura proteg his body, the sheer volume of coorditacks drew blood, weakening his defenbsp;

  Bjorn, seeing his moment, climbed the giant’s hand with the agility of a leopard. Reag the enormous thumb, he grabbed hold and pulled back with all his might. Sparks of lightning flickered around his body as he growled with effort.

  *SNAP!

  The siing sound of the giant’s thumb breaking reverberated through the air and the giant howled in agony, his grip on Xaren finally releasing.

  Xareo the ground, his battered body screaming in protest as he hit the dirt. Pain radiated through every nerve, but he knew hesitation could cost him everything.

  ‘Cockroach-like vitality indeed…’

  Xaren had this thought about his Tenacity skill as he lightened his body with gravity magid kicked off the ground with all his might. Bck fmes surged around his Runebde and focused his aim on a vulnerable spot he had targeted on a previous giant.

  The groin.

  The bde sshed ly through, and the giant’s scream of pain was deafening. The sound echoed across the city, drowning out even the roar of fmes and the csh of steel.

  Xaren nded lightly on the ground, spinning around with his sword still abze. ging his grip, he hurled the on toward the giant's exposed back like a spear.

  The fming sword tore through the air, embedding itself deep into the giant’s flesh. Fmes erupted from the wound, spreading across the giant’s back as the massive foe staggered forward.

  The giant howled, his massive hand instinctively clutg his groin where Xaren’s bde had cut deep. His pained roar was soon joined by another as the fming sword lodged in his back sent searing agony through his body.

  While the giant filed to deal with the pain, Xaren seized his moment. He leapt onto the giant’s back, grasping the hilt of his sword and yanking it free with a sharp pull.

  The bde came loose in a spray of blood, and Xaren immediately stabbed it down again, aiming for another oint.

  But before he could drive the bde in a third time, the giant’s body shifted. A shadow loomed over Xaren as the giant leaned backwards, intending to crush him against a nearby building.