Taking a quick look over the current state of affairs, our side had two holy knights whose survival was currently unknown and one who had lost his life. Despite that, we hadn’t retreated and were continuing to fight hard. Myself, the princess, and Blizzard’s holy woman, Nemophila, were engaging the One-Armed Giant. The other six were holding back the horde of curions advancing on us from the city center.
With the help of two holy women’s divine protections, I had just cleaved open the giant’s right arm. “All right, what now?” Regardless of how outstanding all the members of this mission might be, human stamina had its limits.
Imagine an entire city’s worth of people turned into undead. If they all rushed in at once, could six people fend them off alone? Obviously it was impossible, but they stood their ground anyway. They were holding out thanks to the holy women’s magic and the holy knights’ combat prowess, but they wouldn’t last forever. We couldn’t afford a drawn-out fight.
Despite my exhaustion, I had to make quick work of the giant. And I had one more limitation—I couldn’t draw any attention to my curion powers. My fight with the Grave Keeper of the Golden City, Theophilus, had been one-on-one, so I’d been able to keep them under wraps, but creating fire or bone swords on the scale necessary to affect the giant would immediately get me discovered. Only a few people knew my true identity, and I wasn’t trying to add anyone else to that list.
I had to see this fight through to the end with my flesh intact. Although I wished I could continue using my greatsword, I changed it to a normal size. With one swing, fragments of bone peeled away and clattered to the ground like scales, slimming the sword down.
“Not exactly ideal for beheading a giant, but it’ll have to do.”
The giant let out a pained scream for a moment, but it didn’t back down. Using its split arm like a double whip, it aimed at me and swung. Only an undead would have such blatant disregard for its body.
Should I deflect it with my sword or try to cut it down? Would I be able to handle the double whip speeding toward me while protecting the holy women behind me?
“Sir Albert, please, don’t hesitate to use it.” As Nemophila’s voice hit my back, I immediately understood what she meant—Golden Garden.
A moment later, a wall of thorns emerged from the ground, completely blocking the giant’s attack. Though the attack shook the earth beneath us, we were unharmed. And the thorns didn’t just block the giant’s attack—they wrapped around its arm at the same time. Using what I’d picked up on earlier, I spread the roots of the thorny vines deep into the ground. It wouldn’t be able to shake them off easily.
I glanced behind me to confirm I had the right idea and saw Nemophila holding Theophilus’s Heavenly Sword. It was the sword given to him by the kingdom to signify his appointment to the Twelve Saints. Although it didn’t actually have any power stored inside, the official story was that it contained the power to control plants. In other words, I could use Golden Garden and we’d be able to play it off as Nemophila using her partner’s Heavenly Sword. I was grateful to have another option available to me, and that wasn’t the only sign of things taking a turn for the better.
“Albert, mind letting me handle things here?” I saw a figure passing under the giant’s legs and smiled.
“Go right ahead.” The figure picked up something that the giant had just dropped, then regrouped with our allies holding off the horde of curions.
“Vulpine Razor.” As she mumbled her sword’s name, its blade split into six ribbons, each extending to their wielder’s whim and tearing into the throng of curions.
“Lycoris!” Irislaevi’s face lit up with joy.
“Yep, it’s me. Your adorable junior, Lycoris.” Though her uniform was in tatters, Drizzle’s holy knight, Lycoris, was safe.
“I knew you were still alive!”
“Ma’am, I appreciate the tearful reunion, but how about we save it for later?”
“Wh-What tears?!” Irislaevi shouted. True enough, now wasn’t a great time for Irislaevi and Lycoris to have a heartwarming talk.
“Where’s my Heavenly Sword?” The voice of the other missing holy knight echoed from atop a ruined building nearby.
“Oh, I’ve got it!” replied Bronze’s holy knight, Serrulata.
“Pass it here!”
“Catch!” Serrulata threw the Heavenly Sword without a moment’s hesitation, then drew her spare blade and continued fighting.
Scorching Sun’s holy knight, Glenn, caught Radiance out of midair and swung it as he hit the ground. “This is how you use Radiance when facing multiple opponents.” Violent flames erupted from his sword, tracing his slash and racing toward the oncoming curions.
✦ ✦ ✦
With that single strike, half of the curions burned to ash in the blink of an eye. It was impressive firepower. His ability seemed pretty handy when fighting a group alone. So that’s what the Twelve Saints are all about. Their true skills come out when exterminating curions.
“Glenn! What took you so long?!” his holy woman cried out.
An apologetic look washed over Glenn’s face. “Sorry for worrying you, Campsis.”
With their strength restored, the ones holding off the horde would be fine. That meant I could focus solely on the enemy in front of me. Just as I’d left dealing with the horde to them, they’d left taking down the giant to me. I had a whole bunch of beautiful women counting on me. I couldn’t call myself a man if I let them down. Technically, there was also a man named Glenn included among that group, but I decided not to think about that part.
“Let’s go.” The giant was still ensnared in the thorns. I raced up its trapped right arm. This thing’s given us a lot of trouble. No wonder it’s still kicking after all these years. In this fight alone, it had blown away two holy knights from the Twelve Saints. But that all ended now.
Jumping off its elbow, I flew through the air and readied my sword overhead as I faced the giant’s skull. It had bitten and flung Glenn aside earlier, but I wouldn’t make the same mistake. Its massive maw, capable of biting even a whale in half, opened wide. Not missing a beat, I swung my sword down, striking its upper jaw. Then its upper jaw crumbled away.
The giant let out a silent scream. Its agitation was palpable. I wasn’t the type to reveal my secrets, but I figured I could give it a hint. “Tremor Transmission.” It was the ability originally possessed by the Shaman of the Heavenly Garden. During my fight with Theophilus, it had broken my bone sword and turned it to dust. This time, I was using it on the giant’s bones.
I’d determined how much vibration it would take to destroy its body when I’d cut its arm. The giant’s skull was crumbling to dust. Past it, its cervical vertebrae came into view. I continued gliding through the air, heading straight for its neck.
“Mom...”
“See ya.” Now that it had lost its last means of resisting, I severed its head. The One-Armed Giant was dead.