Shooting lasers was great and all, however even when making them much weaker, they still consumed 10-20MP per shot. Combined with flight, Gerald's Mana stores were dropping quickly. Even drinking potions didn't help completely mitigate this as the cap of 1.000MP/h regeneration still remained.
He then decided to use some fire instead. Nine Fireballs formed in a circle around him and gradually brightened. With a flick of his finger then they, one by one, fell from the sky and found their target.
A chain of explosions disrupted the peaceful day as the flames engulfed the screaming beasts on the ground.
Gerald then kept flying forward while shooting down superheated balls of plasma, leaving a trail of fire and destruction in his wake. The ground and plants around were wet and muddy so there was no risk of the fire spreading and going out of control.
However, the fun times soon came to an abrupt stop. Gerald suddenly noticed dead monsters lying on the ground and excessive blood mixed with mud and gore.
It was not an isolated incident either. Many Goblin and Hobgoblin corpses littered the floor as he went, and he could swear some torn pieces of clothing in their grasp were weirdly familiar.
Soon he figured out why. A few Royal soldiers were torn apart on the ground with a dozen dead beasts laying on the ground around them. It was not difficult to imagine what happened.
Gerald frowned and flew forward, shooting a Fireball here and there, picking off any Goblin he could find.
The corpses of humans became more and more common while the rank of monsters gradually went up as well. A few dismembered Wargs were also mixed in among the dead as well as a lone Orc every few hundred meters or so.
Discarded broken weapons and armor were also prevalent and were freely scattered across the ground. Gerald made sure to collect most pieces he could find if they were close enough. He still had places to be, after all, he couldn't waste too much time.
Myrtana's dead soldiers became more and more common so that Gerald already counted at least a few hundred. However, all of a sudden, they stopped.
The tracks split up and one of them was clearly human while the other wasn't. Gerald could imagine approximately what went on.
Seeing that there weren't any signs of struggle where they split, he could guess that the soldiers were following behind and killing off the slower and weaker members of the monster horde.
The Giant was nowhere near the battle or else there would be clear evidence of mass destruction and possibly many disfigured corpses.
However, the evidence clearly pointed to a clash of two equally strong forces and the dead of both sides clearly spoke of the conflict.
"So they finally decided to give up, huh?" Gerald muttered and picked up another sword. Looking at the thousands of footprints in the mud he shuddered at the thought of what kind of army of monsters was still out there.
After gathering as much loot as he could and recharging his Mana, he decided to speed up and see what was going on up at the front.
And it didn't take long.
A dark mass of flesh and fur was slowly moving at the horizon and a figure so tall that the massive centuries-old trees only came to its chest.
"Yikes! That guy's huge! How do you kill that thing?" Subconsciously he flew even higher, gliding at approximately half a kilometer from the ground. He felt plenty safe up there. No way the beast could jump that high, right?
As he flew closer he could already smell the stench. These thousands of monsters haven't had a shower in thousands of years and now the rain moistened the shit stuck to their fur. It was revolting.
But all of that was still nothing compared to the Giant. Saying it stank was an understatement. Gerald had to purposefully use Wind magic just so he could breathe.
The Gian was massive, and its muscles bulged under the sparse fur. It looked somewhat like a human if the proportions were squashed down and made chunkier. It was not athletic-looking at all! And the worst was its face. It was as if someone pummeled it right before it froze itself in that crystal, which might have actually happened.
"Hey, big guy!" Gerald shouted. "I know you can understand me!" His voice was amplified by Wind magic to be a hundred times louder.
The Giant slowly turned around and then lifted its head and looked at the tiny speck shouting from the sky.
"Turn around and go back from where you came from! If you go and attack the Empire I can promise I'll let you live!" Just to show that he was serious, Gerald created two biggest Fireballs to date and held each of them in one of his hands.
The Giant stared at him for a little while, almost as if contemplating his words. Then it turned around and continued on its way.
"Hey, don't just ignore me!" Insulted by the Giant's dismissal, Gerald hurled the two Fireballs directly at the back of its head.
Boom! Boom!
Two massive fiery explosions lit up the sky, and the Giant nearly lost balance for a moment. It had to take a quick step forward to steady itself. And as the smoke cleared the damage was revealed. It was minimal.
The hairs on the Giant's neck were singed off and the skin was slightly red, however, no major damage could be seen. The Giant then slowly turned around once more, and this time its eyes carried not indifference, but anger!
"Going to listen now? Stupid beast," Gerald smirked. He saw the way the Giant looked at him, but he wasn't concerned. But just to be sure, he went up another hundred meters or so.
The Giant then slowly went to one knee on the ground and struck its hands onto the soil.
"What is it doing? It's kneeling?" Gerald lifted one eyebrow in confusion. From all the things it could do, this was not something he expected. It wasn't even looking at him anymore.