The troll's roar thundered like an underground storm, shaking the ground and sending small stones rolling. The fire from [Flama] burned on its leg, spreading across its stony, rough skin, but it wasn't intense enough to deal a fatal blow.
The giant rose with a clumsy leap that made the earth tremble beneath my feet, throwing me off balance. Was this the Earthquake skill or just its raw strength? I quickly moved toward the faint light in the forest as the giant shook its massive leg in rage, extinguishing the flames in a shower of sparks and smoke that reeked of charred flesh.
I ran a bit before glancing back and saw the giant had already begun its pursuit, slowly closing the distance. I almost forgot: despite its enormous size, it was faster than me.
My heart pounded like a war drum, but there was no hesitation in it. I activated [Short Sprint], an excellent skill that boosted my speed by 50% for a few seconds as long as my stamina held.
I could feel those huge eyes, black as an abyss, watching me as I neared the forest. I leaped with a great bound.
"I should have some time before it can cross the river."
Glancing at it briefly before continuing, I witnessed something terrifying: the giant bent its legs as if preparing for an impossible jump. Checking its stats while it crouched, I saw its magic drop by 20 points in an instant. It launched into a massive leap, soaring several meters toward me.
"Shit, shit!"
The giant landed just shy of crushing me. Its fall buried its legs in the ground, shattering the earth beneath my feet and sending debris flying in all directions.
Out of nowhere, a sharp pain hit my head. My left eye's vision darkened; I'd been struck by a rock, and blood was pouring, obstructing my sight. When I realized it, a throbbing pain began pulsing in my head.
I collapsed; my legs gave out. Before I could panic, an arm grabbed me from behind, helping me to my feet as the giant used its long arms to push itself out of the ground. It was Kris; he'd come back to help due to my delay, it seemed.
—Hey, you okay? Can you hear me?
With my non-bleeding eye, I could see his lips moving, but his voice didn't reach me. What was he saying? Was it important? He hoisted me onto his back and started running as a giant chased him.
Kris was running with the body of a young man on his back. The man's face was pale and bleeding from the head; the rock's wound had penetrated deeper than they'd thought.
Still, Kris stuck to the plan: lead the troll to where Jess was. During the preparations, they'd mentioned that Jess and Kris had passed through an area about 500 meters from the cave where the forest terrain was particularly uneven.
That made movement difficult. The idea was simple: lure the troll to that area to bring it down.
Thanks to the distance Kris gained, he managed to slip into a bush to catch his breath, avoiding the beast. He needed to recover; running alone was one thing, but running while carrying another body was entirely different. His stamina was draining fast.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed Kris from behind, covering his mouth in an instant. The hand was pale and slender, delicate but marked with small cuts and burns. It was Jess.
Kris's eyes widened in shock, but he quickly understood. Jess had covered his mouth to keep him from making a sound.
In a whisper, she said:
—What's going on? What happened to Levy?
Kris frowned and, in a weak voice, explained: how the giant made an unexpected leap, wrecking the area and hitting Levy in the head, leaving him unconscious.
Jess pressed her lips until they curved downward. Levy's blood dripped slowly, so she began improvised first aid. Suddenly, the troll was approaching slowly. Could it see us or something?
Without thinking, Kris burst from the bush and, with what little stamina he had left, ran toward the plan's location. A minute later, Levy regained consciousness under Jess's care.
—What's going on, Je… Jess and Kris?
Jess shook her head.
—Kris took the monster to the area a moment ago.
My blood ran cold as a sharp pain burned in my head.
—We have to help him, Jess.
—No, you stay here.
"Huh?"
Before I could stand, Jess got up and ran to support Kris, leaving me alone in the bush: hidden, weak, useless.
I clenched my teeth until they ground together. My body burned again. I was furious.
"This isn't over."
I stood with what little strength I had and began walking, leaning on trees. This wasn't going to end like this.
Kris was fleeing with the little energy he had left, using both his skills to slip between the trees. The colossus followed relentlessly, slamming its body against trunks and shattering them without injury, its thick, tough hide impervious to damage. As if nothing could pierce its surface.
—Ugh, damn it…
His body was failing. Suddenly, he spotted a slender figure: Jess, behind the creature, signaling with her hands. Kris quickly changed course, circling the beast with [Short Sprint], dodging a powerful blow the troll swung under its arm.
Kris and Jess were together again. In the distance, perhaps 20 meters away, a wounded young man walked, glaring furiously as he approached.
Kris and Jess ran close to the creature, luring it to the unstable terrain, circling it and forcing it to spin abruptly just to keep them in sight.
At one point, Kris vanished from the creature's view, and Jess became its target. She ran straight through the terrain wrecked by the giant. Suddenly, she spotted a rope tied to a tree and looped around it once.
She stopped instantly and, using [Short Sprint], changed direction back toward the same tree. Now the rope wasn't loose on the ground; it was taut, stretched between two trees. Due to the giant's height and poor vision, it didn't notice the rope.
The giant kicked the sturdy rope—the union of the three survivors' ropes—stretching it until the trees creaked. The trunks were yanked so hard that their roots were torn from the ground.
Even so, the giant only fell to its knees, its arms keeping it from collapsing fully. In that moment, Kris lunged with his sword and [Short Sprint] to sever one of the arms. The sword's impact sounded like striking rock.
Kris's face darkened as his slash was stopped effortlessly. Distracted, the giant grabbed him with its other hand, staying on its knees, supported by one arm, with Kris screaming in panic in its grip.
Jess, watching it all, went pale. Kris was being crushed in the giant's hand; his face darkened, and blood began pouring from his mouth under the pressure.
Jess screamed in panic, echoing Kris's cries of agony. As the scene unfolded, no one noticed the small shadow—small compared to a four-meter giant, of course.
A man with dark hair, a face pale as if sick, a blood-soaked pink shirt… had positioned himself beneath the troll's torso with a dark glare.
—Flama.
With that single word, the arm supporting the giant began to burn. The giant, unaware of the boy's arrival, writhed in pain, instinctively raising its arm, falling face-first and releasing Kris's broken body.
He seemed alive, coughing blood frantically. But that didn't matter now. I stared at the creature on the ground. It turned its head toward me, fixing those pitch-black, pearl-like eyes on me.
Those crystalline eyes… those soft eyes… those burning eyes.
I raised my sword with my right hand, holding the blade horizontally, and ran my left hand along the edge, not caring that it cut me.
I didn't care about anything.
—Flama.
I could feel my mana wasn't enough, but still, my sword's blade ignited with a beautiful crimson glow. My body felt weak and dizzy, as if my life were slipping away.
It all happened in an instant: the troll falling and staring at me, Kris's agonized cries as he was thrown, Jess's sobbing as she watched Kris, my blade burning… my sword buried in those dark eyes.
I drove my sword into its eye sockets as they burned with a fire that wouldn't extinguish for some time. The giant screamed in pain—a scream of agony that slowly faded… a scream of death.
I stepped back to avoid its thrashing. I watched my sword burn in its eye.
Until a new message appeared: