Seed? Now may be a good time to offer a charge.
It stayed silent.
Of course it's got nothing to say.
Luke looked at the giant's equally giant fist with incomprehension, his life flashing before his eyes as he struggled to think of a way to escape. Wondering if this was how he was going to die.
Honestly, it's better than dying in a car crash. Way more impressive, if nothing else. Is this really the end? Already?
No.
It can't be. Maybe the Seed is going to try and put me in a different body when this one—
A bolt of lightning shot through the giant's head, turning it to ash as it passed and pausing the creature's movements.
Or it was waiting for that.
Luke blinked in surprise as he scrambled to his feet and leaped back from the creature that had almost ended his life.
Is it dead? He looked at the monster's headless corpse, watching with disgust as squirming tendrils of lava erupted from its neck.
NOPE.
"Get away!" Nel flew to him and scooped him into her arms, carrying them both a good distance from the town and the earthborn.
Dropping him to his feet, she turned back toward the giant, and they watched in apprehension as the tendrils formed into a new head. The giant set its eyes into a smile and waved at them cheerfully.
I really hate how that thing is so happy, Luke thought. It really makes this way creepier than it has to be. I'm already scared for my life—isn't that enough for it?
"This is bad!" A worried frown worked its way onto Nel's face. Sighing, she held out her hand, and a spear freed itself from deep beneath the earth and flew to her waiting palm.
A second later, her ring flashed, and a talisman appeared in her hand. She ripped the end off carelessly, and Luke watched in awe as it folded itself into a bird and, faster than his eyes could follow it, disappeared in a stream of light.
What was that?
A look of resolve came over her face, and she clutched her spear tightly. The smell of ozone filled the air as arcs of lightning traveled up and down the shaft of her spear.
"I'm going to keep it busy. We can't let it run free no matter what happens. The wards protecting the town won't hold up forever. I called for help, but if I die, tell my mom I love her!"
"Wait, let's think this—"
Her foot braced against the ground, the earth crumpled, and Nel appeared in front of the creature.
She had moved so fast that even with his freshly enhanced Agility, Luke struggled to see more than a blur. What he did see left him feeling nothing but dread.
Nel's spear was caught in one of the giant's hands, and it was cocking its still partially formed head curiously. Its chest rose and fell in what Luke was sure was perverse laughter.
"ARRRHHRR," Nel screamed at it before relinquishing her spear and flying higher into the air. A bow appeared in her hand, an arrow already nocked. From high in the sky, she rained down one arrow after another. Each one wormed its way into the monster's body and exploded, leaving deep gouges in their wake, peppering every surface of the giant's body.
The monster just stood there, weathering her attacks and seemingly unconcerned by the damage that was being done to it. Its posture practically screamed boredom as it rested three of its hands on its hips, drumming its fingers against its rocky flesh while it inspected her spear. Slowly turning it over and occasionally stabbing the air with it.
Luke observed the battle from the ground, slowly beginning to realize that the monster was not only beyond him, but Nel, too.
It was too fast, and too strong. Whatever damage they did was pointless in the face of its ability to regenerate itself, and it knew it.
There has to be something I can do, right? If things keep going the way they are, it'll exhaust Nel, and then what's stopping it from killing everyone else?
Should I run? A treacherous part of his brain whispered that he had no real connection to these people. That he didn't even know who they were.
No. I can't. Not only is that scummy, but something tells me this thing likes playing with its food, and it won't let me go. It won't let any of us go.
Think. Think. Think.
The First Stance … it drained all my mana. It was stupid of me to use it without fully understanding how it works. It did the same when I was fighting Yjarn, but using it and the boots at the same time was a mistake. I didn't think that the drain would be greater the stronger the enemy is. What did it show me, though? Clearly there's a way to kill it. Maybe it has a core somewhere in its body. A critical point, one that it can't regenerate. Maybe its heart, if it has one, he thought.
In the distance, Luke watched as the Inner Disciples who had circled the walls earlier came running before coming to a stop as they witnessed the battle taking place. Standing between the town and the monster, they argued among themselves briefly before one broke away from the crowd and reached into his robes. Kneeling to the ground, he attached a slip of paper to a rock and pelted it at the giant.
Luke recognized his intent almost immediately. The cultivator had thrown an explosive talisman, one of the ones Nel had given them earlier.
If her explosive arrows aren't doing the job, then neither are his explosive talismans. Luke shook his head. At least he's doing something, though.
The battle, if it could be called that, continued in the same vein for minutes longer. The giant seemed content to let them attack it, and that's what the disciples of the Rising Sun did.
As the minutes dragged on, however, despair settled into their hearts as they came to realize their foe wasn't something that they could defeat.
Suddenly it looked around, its eyes widened in fright. Bending its knees, its hands once again sank into the earth and came back with six obsidian orbs, before it stopped and stood eerily still.
Threat detected.
Wha—
Arke descended from the sky. Bathed in the light of the setting suns, her white wings looked as if they were on fire.
Shit.
Luke could feel his heart beating frantically in his chest as the not-angel flapped her wings rhythmically, floating between him and the giant. Just a few feet away.
What's she doing here?
"Is this paltry creature what threatens your domain?" She craned her neck and looked right at Luke. His heart almost leaped out of his chest as she addressed him.
My domain? What?
"You think quite little of me, Lady Arke." A tall and thin man, dressed in pure gold and wearing the most pretentious crown he had ever seen, walked out from behind Luke and joined her in inspecting the giant. What to Luke had been a deadly foe was to them a mere curiosity.
What— How long has she been here? How long has he been here? Luke thought frantically.
Arke laughed softly as she tracked the new arrival with her eyes. "Come, Cyzicus, you know as well as I do that my opinion of you is perfectly apt."
"Truly, you wound me." He bowed to her, then looking to the sky he yelled, "Agnella! Come down and say hi to your grandpa!"
Seriously, what the fuck is going on?
Luke's eyes darted from Arke, to the man in gold, and to Nel, who looked equally astonished by what was going on.
"I'm fighting a giant!" she yelled back.
"Oh, of course." Cyzicus waved errantly at the creature. A curtain of golden sparks sprayed out of his hands and doused the still monster. When they were gone, so was the giant, leaving a pair of large couch-size feet on the ground as the only evidence that it had ever existed. He looked back up to the sky again. "I do apologize for stealing your kill, Agnella. I'm afraid this particular creature is, for the moment, beyond your ability to destroy. You've only just entered the Warrior tier, after all." He nodded to her, looking beyond regretful for having saved her life.
"I, uh … Yes, Grandfather!" Nel bowed to him in the sky before she realized that she was still flying, and, blushing, she flew down, bowing to him and then Arke a moment later. "I thank you for your aid."
"No thanks needed, Granddaughter." He laughed jovially and rumpled her hair. "How goes your expedition?"
Nel blushed deeper. "Poorly. We are no closer now than we were the last time we spoke. I fear the creature may have fled farther than we dare tread into the cyclops's territory."
He frowned deeply before sighing. "No matter, then—what is lost is lost. Perhaps it's time to return home?"
"Tha—"
Cyzicus cut her off with a wave of his hand. "The Tide is near, and it is increasingly dangerous to wander in the wilderness."
"Yes, Grandfather." Nel bowed once again. "We will return home."
"Where is Lukeus? He left with you, did he not?"
"I sent him and the Outer Disciples to the town to organize matters with the mortals. In case the mortals panicked," she lied smoothly.
"Isn't she just wonderfully smart, Lady Arke?" Cyzicus beamed at his granddaughter proudly.
"Very," Arke said dryly.
"I knew you would agree! I think Agnella will be the one to succeed me as emperor once my old age catches up to me," he supplied to the uninterested not-angel, looking every bit like a proud parent. "I thought I'd introduce you, in case you're still here when that happens."
Did he just—
Luke buckled to his knees as something pressed down on him. He lifted his eyes and saw that, with the exception of Cyzicus and Arke, everyone was on their knees, from Nel to every Outer Disciple.
"Be careful how you speak to me, Cyzicus."
"Of course, my lady. I would never dream of being anything other than my most hospitable." He bowed down to her. "As you know, I've mobilized every cultivator on all of Sylcra in search of your thief, and we will not rest until he is found."
"And yet, he does not stand before me," she bit out.
Technically correct, Luke thought as he mulled over their conversation. I am on my knees.
"I cannot present to you a thief that is not here, my lady, as much as I desire to do so. Nor can I present to you a thief I have never seen, or whose abilities I do not know, or a thief that you do not know is on this island." He grinned at her.
The pressure doubled, planting Luke's face deep into the earth.
Cyzicus frowned distastefully. "I humbly ask that you not torture my subjects, Lady Arke. Especially not those who so valiantly fought a battle far above their abilities in defense for those I'm sworn to protect by the creed," he said, his voice suddenly cold. "A duty I will fulfill even if you kill me."
"You do not command me."
"I wouldn't dare. However, many grow increasingly impatient with your antics. No ship has docked on the archipelago for weeks. I cannot afford to turn them away much longer."
"You will do as you're told," she hissed.
"I do as the divines bid me."
The pressure suddenly eased, and Luke lifted his face from the ground.
She doesn't even know it's me, and I'm already eating dirt.
"Pray tell, what have the gods told you?"
"That is between me and them, I'm afraid." He adjusted the crown on his head. "You should know the rules."
"Humph." She flapped her wings, and for a moment Luke thought he would be carried away with the resulting gusts, but the wind vanished, and he heard the Emperor sigh in relief.
"Okay, the mean lady is gone now; we can all be normal." Cyzicus clapped his hands and smiled.
Luke shakily rose to his feet and looked around. She was gone. A fact that brought no small amount of relief to him.
"You!" Cyzicus grinned and pointed at Luke. "You were brilliant! Never in a thousand years have I seen a mortal charge a Warrior-tier monster so brazenly. Truly spectacular. For a moment I even thought you would succeed. Incredible. Truly amazing." He turned to Nel. "And you, so heroic!" He rumpled her hair again. "If your father was still alive, he would be so proud of the woman you've become. Come give this old man a hug!" He stretched his arms wide, and, not even bothering to wait, he closed the distance between them and captured her in a bear hug. "And you!" He pointed to the Inner Disciple who had thrown the explosive talisman. "So brave. It warms my heart to see my family surrounded by fine, upstanding cultivators."
Luke opened and closed his mouth as the emperor of Sylcra drowned everyone present in compliments.
Is this how he always is? Luke thought, amused. I kinda like him.