The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 11, page 5
Despite the old giant’s size and despite how much he defied common sense, at the end of the day, he was still a living being. A powerful thunderbolt passing through his entire body was nothing to sneeze at.
“We got him, right?” Augurey muttered. We were both slowly approaching the old giant. We held our swords aloft, though, ready for the possibility that he’d get up.
Augurey reached the old giant and poked him with the tip of his sword. No response.
“Looks like we did,” Augurey said, turning back to me. “Thank goodness for that.”
But just as he was breathing a sigh of relief...
“Augurey!” I yelled.
With a rush of wind, the old giant’s arm swung out wide. I grabbed Augurey and jumped back, quickly making some distance.
“Grrraaahhh!” The old giant let out a half-human, half-bestial cry, and began to slowly sit up. He placed his hand on the ground, and with a hard push, made to stand.
“You’re kidding me!” Augurey said. He was still in my arms, watching the old giant.
I couldn’t blame him for being shocked; I was too. “Incredible” didn’t even begin to describe the amount of endurance and toughness it would take to stand up after eating a spell onslaught like that. The old giant was a monster who broke all the rules, pure and simple.
“It hurt him though,” I said, letting Augurey down. “That’s for sure.”
Observing the old giant calmly, I could tell that his movements were definitely duller. I could hear his joints cracking too as he made to stand. Lorraine’s thunderbolt had done a lot of damage.
Finally, the old giant rose to his feet. A pair of bloodshot eyes on a scorched face focused on Augurey and me, and with a snarl, he came straight for us. All traces of his former composure were gone.
“Augurey! Can you keep going?!” I shouted.
“I can do this all day! The only problem is, how are we going to bring him down?”
“I’ll do it. I’ve got a trump card I can use. I don’t know if my sword can handle doing it more than once though, so if I miss, we’re done for.”
The old giant had started his assault on us already, so we were calling out to each other as we dodged. The “trump card,” I was talking about was divinity-mana-spirit fusion. Although my sword had been forged to withstand any of the three, it probably couldn’t resist all of them together.
The technique caused anything it hit to violently crumple in on itself, and it was likely that the same would happen to my sword. That was why I wanted to avoid using it as much as possible, but if now wasn’t the right time, then I didn’t know what was. There was a chance it wouldn’t even work, or that it wouldn’t be enough to be a finishing blow, but it was better than doing nothing and just waiting to lose. If I was going to lose—not that I had any intention of doing so—it would only be after I’d given everything I had. And even then, I was preparing myself to run before I went down.
Escaping hadn’t seemed like an option before, but now that the old giant was so injured, the three of us could probably manage it. I doubted he’d chase after us in the state he was in, and I was confident in our ability to get away too.
That raised the problem of Ferrici and the villagers, but I supposed we could always just evacuate them somewhere. Either that or take Goblin and Siren as hostages and try to strike a bargain. It was definitely villainous of me to consider that, but, hey, whatever means necessary.
At any rate, none of that was important compared to what I had to do right now, so it was probably best that I focused on the present.
“All or nothing, huh?” Augurey said. “All right, I don’t hate it. I’m the decoy this time, right?”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’ll just run if it looks like I’m going to die, so don’t blame me if that happens. Besides, I can’t let you and Lorraine do all the work.”
“I’m counting on you, then. But don’t overdo it. Unlike me, you can’t get crushed and walk away in one piece.”
Although, the truth was that I couldn’t exactly do that either, given I didn’t know how many times it would take before I vanished completely. I could probably guess based on the young vampires I’d encountered in Maalt, but that was far from being a sure thing.
Long story short, the danger was mutual. Augurey and I would just have to do the best we could. We steeled ourselves for the task at hand—not that we hadn’t been ready before.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Hey! Over here!” Augurey shouted. True to what he’d just told me, he’d deliberately run out right in front of the old giant to act as a decoy.
The problem was whether our opponent would take the bait, but I’d figured that if he couldn’t see me, he’d have no choice but to go for the only visible target. Therefore, I used Division and hid myself in the shadows of the woods to ensure he focused his attention on Augurey.
If anybody saw me in this state, unless they were clued in on what I was, they’d think of me as nothing more than a patch of shadow. Although the old giant probably had some idea that I wasn’t normal, I doubted that he’d figured out enough about me to know I could turn myself into darkness.
I was proven right. The old giant glanced my way for a moment, but it didn’t seem like he’d noticed me, because he soon switched his focus back to Augurey and began moving away. He might even have been suspecting some kind of trap, but he’d been left with no choice anyway.
I was worried about how well Augurey would hold out, but to my surprise, he was doing just fine. The fact that his combat style focused on speed instead of power was paying off. Part of it was that his opponent’s movements had dulled considerably, but Augurey was dodging the old giant’s attacks with room to spare. Of course, that did nothing to detract from the danger Augurey was in, since all it would take was one slipup for him to suffer a serious injury—or even possibly die.
The sooner I took the old giant down, the better. I thought about where I should aim my strike and came to the conclusion that going for the head was probably my best bet. The old giant had already proven that his arms and legs could take a beating and still keep going. In that case, how was I going to reach his head? I considered using my wings to fly up, but that was too risky. I only had one chance at this; I couldn’t waste it on something so uncertain. I had to think of something else—
“Ah!”
But before I could, I saw Augurey’s foot catch against the root of a tree.
The old giant’s fist swung at Augurey, but before it could connect, I dashed out, grabbed my friend, and ran to the side...where I realized my way was blocked by trees.
Left with no other option, I jumped as hard as I could. The old giant’s arm passed below me, only barely missing, and I landed atop it as it went by. But just as the old giant’s attention was about to focus on me, I heard the sound of a chant.
“Gadól Barák!”
A thick bolt of lightning struck the old giant. It had come from Lorraine. Clearly, she could still manage spells like this even after the grand onslaught she’d cast earlier.
A crackling sound rang in my ears as some of the lightning passed through the old giant and into me, but otherwise, I was mostly unaffected. I could still move. I didn’t have my monster body to thank this time; it was my robe that had done the job.
That being said, I had started to go a little numb, and I was pretty sure that being on the receiving end of any more would be a bad idea. I leaped off the old giant while he was busy recoiling from the lightning and once again hid in the trees.
I dropped Augurey off, and then, noticing that the only sound he was making was incoherent babbling, healed him up with a little bit of divinity.
“Wow, that spell did a number on me,” he said. “Sorry. I didn’t get the job done.”
I didn’t think that was true, given his performance out there. On top of that, it had just given me an idea. It was relatively simple, but I thought it had a chance of working out. I told Augurey, and he nodded.
“That...might just work. I mean, it’s not too different from what you just did. Well, it’s still crazy, but this is you we’re talking about.”
And so I had Augurey’s approval.
The two of us went out to take on the old giant again. Augurey, just like earlier, ran out in front and began dodging his attacks. Meanwhile, I kept a close eye on him, waiting for the perfect time...
Now!
I broke into the fastest sprint I could manage. The old giant had thrown a punch, and as a result, he was slightly hunched over. The slight angle between his legs and head meant that his back was a steep slope.
That’s right, slope. I jumped on. After seeing me do so, Augurey dodged out of the way of the punch without a moment to spare and fell back.
“Hmm?!” The old giant tried to stand up straight immediately.
Fortunately, I had already reached my destination: the back of his neck. It was a vital part of the body for any living creature, as well as the most vulnerable blind spot, and although some creatures were extraordinarily tough or had sharp thorns or similar defenses, a giant’s body was basically the same as a human’s, just bigger and sturdier.
In short, their vital organs and weak points were in the same places too, so the back of the old giant’s neck was the perfect spot for me to strike. Probably. Whatever the case, I was already committed. If this didn’t work, I’d just resort to my next best plan: beating a hasty retreat. As for the time being, I channeled all of my mana, divinity, and spirit into my sword and swung it as hard as I could.
The old giant was too injured to react in time. He failed to guard against my strike. It connected directly with the back of his neck, and despite the fact that I was now in a free fall through the air, I had a clear view of his flesh as it immediately began to crumple.
Then I saw a spray of blood burst forth from the old giant’s neck, accompanied by the sound of something rupturing.
“All right!” I struck a victory pose midair...then realized what was about to happen. “Wait, no, crap!”
But it was already too late. The old giant slumped limply forward and began to collapse in the same direction I was falling. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was about to be turned into paste, and given the situation, it didn’t seem likely that I was going to get a timely rescue. Well, at least I was fairly sure that I wasn’t going to die.
Channeling spirit into my wings might’ve saved me, but unfortunately, I’d just used up every last drop of strength I had. While another ten seconds probably would’ve been enough for me to recover enough spirit to channel, I’d definitely be crushed before then.
I prayed that I wasn’t on my final squishing. I was, of course, talking about using Division to recover. I thought I could still manage it, but I couldn’t say for sure.
Then, with a loud smack, I was crushed. And I mean it—no doubts, no last-minute dodges, nothing. I was really crushed to a pulp.
◆◇◆◇◆
Reconstructing my body from pulp felt kind of strange. I used Division to temporarily become a mass of shadow, then formed myself back into my original shape. The expressions on Lorraine and Augurey’s faces as they watched me return looking none the worse for wear were difficult to read.
“I already knew you weren’t human anymore, but that really puts it into perspective,” Lorraine said.
“That’s a pretty unfair trick,” Augurey added. “Remind me never to pick a fight with you, Rentt. How’s a guy supposed to beat that? At least with giants it feels like you have a chance because you can tell that you’re slowly chipping away at them.”
I thought those were pretty awful things to say.
“It’s not like I can take an infinite amount of punishment,” I said. “Even I’d die at some point. Probably.”
I didn’t have the experience to back that up, but I had seen it happen to others before. It was a sad way to go out, and one I wanted to avoid. If I was going to die, I wanted it to be while I was at peace in bed. Then again, that was probably too much to ask for considering I was an adventurer, so I’d settle for any kind of decent death. Absentmindedly fading out of existence was just too half-baked. Did that even count as dying?
That said, I probably didn’t have the right to be picky since I’d already died once. Maybe it was fine if round two ended up being kind of a throwaway. The only thing was, I couldn’t really remember much about what my first death felt like. I’d have to make sure to commit my second one to memory if it was the last thing I ever did...which it would be.
But that was enough joking around for the time being.
“Now this is a surprise,” I said. “He looks so small now.”
I was looking at the old giant, who was now back to being a skinny old man. He was lying in the hole made by his larger self’s fall, his cloth draped over him. The sight was kind of sad and lonely, actually.
You didn’t really hear of it happening around these parts, but sometimes poverty-stricken villages and such would abandon their elderly in the woods once they’d reached a certain age. I’d come across them several times on trips out to the countryside, and it was always rough to see. I couldn’t just leave them, of course, so I’d always tell them to come with me. Returning to their home villages obviously hadn’t been an option, so I’d helped them find a place where they could earn themselves a living—which hadn’t been too difficult, actually. Turns out all you needed to do was look in the right places.
I doubted the old man lying in front of me needed to worry about that though. You could probably toss him in any old tavern and he’d easily earn his own keep by arm wrestling people and betting on it. A knightly order or the military would work too, and he’d definitely do fine as an adventurer.
I wondered why he’d picked this cloak-and-dagger business instead. Maybe the pay was good? To be honest, I had no idea.
“I think we can safely assume that his gigantification was due to some kind of special ability,” Lorraine said. “That would explain why it reverted after he lost consciousness.”
She was probably right; I couldn’t think of any better explanations.
“We can leave that for later.” Augurey shook his head. He sounded astonished. “I can’t believe it, but I think he’s still alive.”
It was easy to understand how Augurey felt. To have taken a beating like that and survived? The old man’s sheer durability was astounding.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wound I’d made on his neck was still there, but it was a lot smaller than I’d thought it would be. It was clearly bleeding, but you couldn’t really call it a fatal injury. He’d likely gone down because my divinity-mana-spirit fusion strike had hit him hard in the back of the neck...which probably meant that I had been cutting it real close back there. Any other outcome probably would’ve ended with me lying in the dirt.
“Should we finish him off?” I asked. “We’re done for if he wakes up and gigantifies again.”
“You’re right, but I want to hear what he has to say,” Lorraine said. “We still don’t know exactly why we’re being targeted. Although, I do have a decent idea.”
I did too. It wasn’t that hard to connect the dots. This had all happened right after we’d met the princess, so the person who’d sent the assassins after us was most assumably one of her enemies. Chances were it was one of her royal siblings or their supporters.
Still, that was the extent of what I could deduce. Lorraine was right about wanting the specifics. Our future options hinged on having that information. The princess would probably want to hear it too, so perhaps that could give us some breathing room in our negotiations with her.
“So...what now?” I asked. “Should we cut him up so he can’t move?”
I knew it was a pretty horrifying suggestion to make, but that just went to show how strong the old man was. If we left him alive, it would be hard to keep him in check. I wasn’t sure we had any other option.
Augurey’s face lit up like he’d suddenly remembered something. “Oh, how about this? I figured they might come in handy at some point, so I kept some on me. I know you can’t usually force a person into one, but we’ve got Lorraine with us. You think it’ll work?”
He pulled a familiar-looking set of documents out of his bag.
“A magic contract, huh?” I said. “That’s not a bad idea. You’re right that we’d usually need the person’s consent, but we could probably trick a contract of this quality.”
I made it sound simple, but it was a feat only possible because we had Lorraine. Your average mage wouldn’t know how, and even if they tried, it’d take them a lot of effort.
On top of that, magic contracts came in varying qualities to suit the occasion. The better one was, the harder it was to meddle with. Anyhow, it was convenient that the option was open to us.
“Should we restrict him from using his ability without our permission?” I asked. “He’s stupidly strong even without it though. What do we do if he gets out of control?”
“Make it so he dies if he does that,” Lorraine replied.
There was a pause.
“That was a joke,” she said. “It’s not a terrible option, but it’s not really a clean one either. It’d be hard for a magic contract of this quality to enforce that in the first place. We’d need a potent one from a temple of Hozei for that. The best this will let us do is restrict his ability. Even then, chances are high it’ll break easily, since we don’t have his consent. It didn’t seem as if he could do much magic, though, so I’ll just restrict his mana usage.”
Lorraine sounded disappointed as she explained things while quickly drafting the contract. After she finished, she began casting some kind of suspicious spell on the old man...
Just kidding. She was doing exactly what she’d said she would: setting up a field that temporarily prevented the use of magic. A magic contract was a type of magic item, so if you wanted to break the agreement that it dictated, you needed to use magic too.
