Chương 473: Chapter 474: Giant

The first attacks that whistled through the air were from our side. Mages and our small squads of archers started to shoot at the horde of rats, as well as the giant - but their attacks were undirected. I grimaced. It seemed like the commanders of our side weren't dong their job - perhaps due to panic, or perhaps for some other structural reason. Either way, the arrows and spells were far less coordinated than usual. I looked at our lines, and finally realized the problem.

Normally, big battles weren't fought on the backs of village-bearing beasts. The village-bearing beasts were fast enough to outrun most normal types of enemies, and so the overwhelming majority of our battles were fought after our ember stopped and we had time to set up defensive lines. Now, we were on the backs of our village-bearing beasts. That meant that there was no easy way to send messages from one beast to another, and there were no defensive lines we could set up that made any sort of sense.

We were in a situation we only rarely encountered, and we were paying the price for it. Even more frustrating, our melee oriented warriors couldn't interfere yet. We were still in motion, and the enemy hadn't actually boarded our village-bearing beasts - or at least, they hadn't done so yet. But even before worrying about the rodents swarming the village-bearing beasts, we had a bigger problem. Literally. The giant that was making its way towards us.

The one hundred meter tall giant that towered into the sky barely seemed to notice our attacks. Village-bearing beasts were huge - after all, they were large enough to carry entire villages on their back. Our village bearing beast was a bit bigger than the one hundred meter tall giant… but the giant seemed optimized for combat, while our village-bearing beasts were built for carrying weight and moving long distances reasonably quickly.

If that thing attacked our village bearing beasts a few times, I suspected our towns would be crushed to bits, possibly followed by our beasts. The giant leered down at us as it continued to stride closer, and I realized that the creature was hunting us. It didn't need to do much to end us - all it had to do was stomp on us a few times, and we would die. The rodent swarm wouldn't matter if that happened, because we would already be dead by then. Then things got worse.

Several of the rats near the front of the swarm started to writhe and squirm, as if there were maggots underneath their skin. Then, they grew wings and launched themselves into the air. <They can shapeshift? > said Felix. <Clearly, they can, > I said. Since the rodents didn't have very much life force, I hit one with an extinguish, to see if I could extract a good skill from it.

Slaughter: Kill a rodent of the roots for the first time Achievement +300 Endless Hunter of the Ocean has devoured a rodent of the roots for the first time. New Skill created. Servant of the Roots - you may draw power from the roots of the universal tree from a greater distance than usual, and through your bond with the roots, communication between both parties becomes easier. I immediately deleted the skill.

I had a strong suspicion that the leader of the invaders wouldn't be sending me any free essence anytime soon - and creating some kind of bond with the invaders just seemed like a terrible idea. I didn't need to give them an easy way to track my location. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. <First thing's first - we need to deal with that giant. The shapeshifting rats are a problem, but the giant represents an existential threat to our entire clan.

We can figure out how to avoid being overwhelmed afterwards, > said Felix. <I have an idea, > said Sallia. <I'm not entirely sure it'll work… but I think it's worth a shot? Miria already confirmed that the giant isn't one singular being, right? Instead, it's a combination of a bunch of smaller monsters that work together like a colony? > <Yeah, > I said. I double checked the giant again with my soul-sight, and nodded.

My initial assessment hadn't been wrong - the creature was, indeed, a giant colony of smaller creatures. <Good. I figure that the creatures must be communicating with each other somehow - otherwise, there is no way that thing would be able to move at all. There are too many different kinds of monsters working together to simulate muscles, tendons, and so on. I think I can even feel some of it - so I want to mess up that communication, and see if the whole colony falls apart.

It'll require using up my {Suppression Field} item, which will put it on cooldown - but I think it's worth a shot, > said Sallia. <If we're lucky, the colony will literally fall apart. If we're less lucky, it'll still probably lose the ability to use its limbs for a while. > <What's the range on your {Suppression Field}? > asked Felix. <Fifty meters. The giant is one hundred meters tall, so it can't cover the entire body, but it can definitely disrupt enough of its body to seriously mess it up.

> <I think it's a good idea, > said Felix. <Our tribe doesn't seem to be inflicting any effective damage on it, so your idea is worth a shot. > Sallia grinned. <Then I'm going for it. Miria, can you buff me with your new feat? > <Of course! > I hesitated for a moment, before I decided to give Sallia the biggest possible boost I could.

I used {Empowered Spell}, the new ability I had gotten from the Market last visit, to pump up the power of my healing spell, and then gave Sallia a huge boost when it came to her physical strength. I saw Sallia's lips twist into a manic grin. <This boost is huge! > She started layering her own physical boosts onto herself. Absorption essence flared up as she poured it into her runes. Manifestation essence wove itself into spells. Ability after ability was activated. Then, Sallia grinned. <This feels amazing.

I'm off! > She leapt off the back of our village-bearing beast, and hurtled into the frozen soil beneath us. Then, she dashed towards the legs of the giant. The giant completely ignored her - obviously, it didn't put much stock in the threat level of Sallia. However, the horde of rodents flew towards her - only for Sallia to rip them to pieces with her blade. <Help me! They're coming from too many angles, and I need to focus my attention on climbing! > yelled Sallia through our bracelet.

I immediately swapped to magic support, along with Anise. The two of us began hurling fireballs, icicles, and extinguishes at the horde of rats as we aimed to keep the rodent swarm away from Sallia. After a few more seconds of dashing, Sallia reached the foot of the giant. She slammed her blade into the side of the giant's leg to create a foothold, then leapt onto the sword, and then leapt upwards. The sword vanished a moment later, and then reappeared in her hands.

More essence flared out of Sallia's body as she used her barrier ability to create a new foothold in midair, then stabbed the blade into the giant's body again. The horde of rats finally seemed to realize that Sallia wasn't just a madwoman charging without a plan. Nearly a quarter of the incoming rat horde diverted its flight away from the village-bearing beasts and began to swarm Sallia's position.

Anise and I struggled to keep the rat horde under control - but Sallia's movements were also far faster than a regular warrior's would have been, thanks to her ludicrous physical stat boosts. The giant didn't react to her at all as she clambered up the beast's body, until she reached its torso. Then, Sallia slapped down her {Suppression Field}, and activated it. A burst of essence flared out of the item and into the surrounding fifty meters of air, covering most fo the giant's upper body.

Then, the creature disintegrated.