Chapter 974
974: The Power of a Grown Titan
The titan glared at us with the rage clearly visible on his face.
Up until now, we’ve only seen antidemon commanders show anything like emotion. But it seems that these titans, who were more powerful than commanders, naturally had them as well.
「Ruah!」
『Are you just a one-trick pony?!』
The titan crouched down to pick up debris once more. This time, however, was a bit different. He grabbed the debris with both his left and right hands.
As we watched in surprise, the titan stood up and raised both his hands at the same time.
「Ruuuuogh!」
The titan-type distorted his face as if smirking, before bringing only his left hand down.
『He’s going to throw two in a row!』
（Master, what should we do?）
『Launch me at him! Fran, you stay back a little bit and store any on the path to hit.』
（Okay!）
Fran twisted her body and threw me as hard as she could toward the giant’s left arm. Even after accelerating myself with skills and magic, I knew this would do little damage. The real purpose was to close the distance between us.
The closer I am, the more powerful my telekinesis will be.
『Telekinesis first!』
As before, I activated the telekinesis to interrupt the titan’s throw. The rocks thrown by the Scholz titan fell at his feet once more.
However, the titan wasn’t done yet. He twisted his body further, using the momentum of his left arm to swing his right arm with even more force.
Such agility! But unfortunately for you, I’ve already anticipated that! Here’s my countermeasure!
『Have fun hitting yourself!』
「Ruooogh!」
I read the trajectory of the titan’s arm and opened up a Dimension Gate in advance. Since his movements were so similar to a human’s, this made him pretty easy to predict.
Activating my Sorcerer skill and Wisdom God’s Blessing at full power, I made the biggest gate I could handle. It grew over 10 meters in diameter.
Some of the rocks still flew past the gate, but I successfully swallowed a vast majority of them.
Meanwhile, the paired gate was placed very close by. Right behind him, in fact.
The numerous pieces of debris flew out of the gate and pierced the titan’s back.
「Ruooooooourgh!」
『How’d you like that!』
「Ruaaaa……!」
Even his immensely durable body took damage from such a powerful impact. Several of the rocks remained impaled in his back, with gobs of mana starting to spill out.
Though the damage itself wasn’t that considerable, he seemed confused by the incomprehensible situation. The giant began to repeatedly glance around his back.
After pulling the trick off successfully, I now know the perfect timing for creating a Dimension Gate. Next time, I’ll create the gate closer to make sure he gets a full refund.
That’s what I was thinking about when I saw the titan crouching down again. But this time, he showed no sign of getting back up.
『Come on, stop sitting on your ass――』
「Ruuuuuuuaaaaargh!」
『Wha――!』
A tremendous rush of magical power exploded from the titan along with an ear-splitting roar. I was safe because of my barrier, but he turned the entire block into a crater.
I looked up as quickly as I could, and saw the titan’s body flying into the sky. He wasn’t crouching to pick up debris, but gathering power in his legs for a long jump.
He must have combined the physical strength of his huge body with the momentum of mana release to make this ridiculous leap possible.
After concluding that throwing wouldn’t work, it seems he switched to direct attacks. What a pain in the ass!
The titan over 200 meters tall flew a distance greater than his height. The huge shadow slid across the ground, eclipsing the sun above the second division.
Shit, he’s gonna land on them!
『Urooogh!』
I quickly teleported to the rear of the titan and slammed him with wind magic, in a desperate attempt to divert his trajectory.
However, that had little effect due to the magical barrier protecting him. Meanwhile, those on the ground were doing their best too.
A band of fire flew towards the titan, reminiscent of a dragon’s breath. Even the titan could not fully defend against Izario’s attack.
The titan used his left arm as a shield, taking burns and losing his balance mid-air. Forced to veer off the original trajectory, he landed quite a distance away from the rest of our division.
However, the titan still flailed around to get one hit in.
While falling on his stomach, he desperately extended his right arm and slammed it down at the second division. The earth shook with the impact of the titan’s fall, and the second division was unable to escape fast enough.
The skyscraper-like arm just barely reached them, with the palm larger than a big truck crushing a few of our men.
「Guys!」
『Shit!』
We rushed back to the second division and grit our teeth at the extent of the damage.
More than fifty people probably just lost their lives, including adventurers and old soldiers from Hagane. There must have been just as many wounded too.
『Fran, we need to heal them!』
「Nn!」
Fran ordered the soldiers to hurry and escape while she was healing them. At this rate, we’ll be sitting ducks to the titan after he gets back up.
Immediately after the titan used his right arm to prop himself up, we saw a red light rising next to him.
It was Izario.
I thought he might have released his divine sword, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Actually, he was purposely emitting a large amount of mana in order to attract the attention of the titan.
『Fran, get everyone out of here now!』
「Nn. Guys, let’s move!」
Though we just took major casualties, these guys were elites. They immediately responded to Fran’s instructions and began their retreat, all while carrying their wounded comrades.
In the middle of this, we saw the kneeling titan swinging his right hand down towards Izario. But by that time, he was already gone.
Izario continued dashing around at high speeds to avoid the titan’s attacks, before swerving around to the titan’s flank and striking with his flames. This may look like a simple distraction, but those flames came from a Rank S adventurer.
He easily pierced through the titan’s defenses and scorched the surface of his body. Although these burns immediately began regenerating, everyone could see he dealt a significant blow.
The titan’s attention clearly shifted from the second division to Izario. He must have identified Izario as his first target.
「While Crimson Blade-dono is drawing him away, we’ll prepare the ritual magic! The adventurers assist the wounded!」
Following Shikimi’s instructions, the survivors began lining up. We took up position in front of them to protect everyone.
（I won’t let anyone else die.）
Fran built up her mana, ready to unleash her biggest move at any moment. The best plan would be to use Hagane’s ritual magic to whittle him down before finishing him off with attacks from Izario and us.
We’re too close to the town, but we can’t be concerned with that any longer. A little collateral damage is an acceptable price to pay.
Just when we had decided on our move and prepared ourselves, Fran turned her head to the side.
We saw the figures of something flying in the western sky. At first I thought it was a flock of birds or something, but that couldn’t be it. There were no birds that big on this continent.
「Something is flying in!」
『It’s rocks! Store them, fast!』
「Nn!」
A bunch of rocks were flying at us. Rather than random debris, they looked more like boulders that had been smashed into small pieces before being thrown. More than 20 of these rocks rained down on us.
Who could be responsible for this? We’ve been watching the titan’s movements the entire time. There’s no way it was him.
Then, I noticed something approaching us from afar at a tremendous speed. It looked like a person, but that’s not possible. The size was just too huge.
『Another titan is coming straight at us!』