Chương 78: Chapter 77: Boss Fight

The warhammer descended with a deafening, air-splitting shriek, carrying enough momentum to utterly pulverize the rooftop into shreds. Lio's eyes tracked the trajectory. To anyone else, it would definitely be lethal. But to him, he could easily avoid it. In fact, he was already shifting his weight to his left heel, so that an [Mach Heart] activation would let him slide backward just enough to let the head of the hammer kiss the air in front of his nose. He could do it without tearing a single muscle fiber.

He tensed, getting ready to activate it— Clang! A sharp metallic sound echoed through the air. Before Lio's boots could lift off from the shingles of the roof, a couple of razor-thin metal strings whipped out from the haze, wrapping around his torso, forearms, and thighs. Then they went taunt, violently yanking him backward. Lio was dragged across the roof just as the massive warhammer slammed into the exact spot he had been standing.

The impact shattered the building, halving it almost completely, sending waves of splinters and pieces of fungi raining down into the streets below. Sliding backward through the debris, Lio tilted his head up, his eyes locking onto the monstrosity that had just tried to turn him into a paste through the newly opened gap in the smoke. The giant entity loomed above, draped in heavy ceremonial robes, gripping the massive blocky warhammer in one hand and holding a set of giant iron scales in the other.

Lio frowned, completely unbothered by the near-miss. Calmly tracking the glint of the razor-thin wires constricting his chest, he followed the metallic lines across the alleyway to the opposite roof. Three figures emerged from the rolling grey smog, stepping cautiously over the shattered roof tiles. Lio raised an eyebrow, recognizing them instantly.

It was the Mayor's personal trinity of elite bodyguards, though right now, they looked as if they had just crawled out of the wreckage themselves, battered and thoroughly worn down. Briar, the teleporting woman, was smeared with soot, with dried blood caking the entire half of her face. Demetri, the delicate, spectacle-wearing man with ink-stained fingers, was wheezing violently, his round glasses cracked across the left lens and his neat coat shredded.

And holding the other end of the metallic strings was Grandmother. The old woman's fingers were trembling, blood dripping from her cuticles as she pulled hard on the wires that [Fila Cruoris] had generated. She looked haggard and exhausted. Looking at the state of them, Lio pieced it together. It seemed that these three hadn't been hiding in some bunker. Instead, they had been actively skirmishing with the behemoth, desperate to keep it from setting complete foot into Trestfall.

After all, a single clean swing from that massive warhammer wouldn't just smash a building. At worst, it had the potential to wipe out half the remaining population. They were throwing their lives away just to buy seconds for the mundane townsfolk to escape in time How noble.

"Got you," Briar grunted, lunging forward and grabbing Lio by the scruff of his collar. In the blinding smoke and ash, she didn't seem to recognize him as the intruder who had infiltrated the bunker. To her, he was just another weak Delver who had stupidly gotten trapped on the roofs.

"Don't try to be a hero, kid. You'll get yourself pancaked!"

"Hey, wait—" Lio started. But before he could say anything, Grandmother reeled in her wires, and Demetri shoved him toward the edge of the roof.

"We need to move him now!" Demetri wheezed.

"That thing's getting closer!" The trio hauled Lio over the lip of the structure, dropping down into the choked chaos of the streets below. The majority of Trestfall residents had gathered here, becoming a huge mess of militia, screaming citizens, and falling debris. A heavily armored defensive phalanx of town guards had circled around them, forming a wall.

"Clear a path! Make way!" Briar yelled, using her shoulder to violently force open a gap through the outer perimeter of locked shields. The bodyguards shoved Lio forward, pushing him deep into the packed crowd of guards. Lio stumbled, his boots skidding on the slick cobblestones, before bumping squarely into a man dressed in ruined, dirt-stained robes. The man snapped his head towards Lio, his expression one of surprise. It was Mayor Lackspur Lavigne.

Even with his clothes ruined and stained with blood by the fallout of the attack, the unbothered composure he had displayed back in the bunker hadn't entirely vanished. He didn't look frantic or panicked. Instead, there was a dangerous brightness in his gaze.

"What is the meaning of this?" Lackspur asked, putting his hand on top of a rapier slung to his side.

"Just a straggler, Your Honor!" Briar reported.

"A weak Delver caught in the crossfire on the roofs. We pulled him out before the giant could squash him. Keep him in the center!" The guards immediately closed ranks, their heavy iron tower shields locking together. And so, Lio found himself tightly boxed in, shoved shoulder-to-shoulder with the settlement's ruler. Lio sighed. This was a bit of a detour.

The clock was still ticking, and unfortunately, he didn't have the time to play the role of a protected civilian, nor did he want to navigate through a panicked militia. So he would have to do something about this. Next to him, the Mayor cleared his throat, then looked down at Lio with a scrutinizing gaze. Though it was clear that the man didn't recognize Lio as the Dark Supreme Crow Thief of the Eighteen Nebulous Stars, he still seemed darkly amused for some reason, his lips twitching.

"A Delver. Tell me, boy, what did you see from up there? What's going on in the other parts of town?" Lio was silent for a moment, letting his face become conflicted, appearing as if he was genuinely considering the Mayor's question. Then he reached beneath his cloak. Without a sound, Lio drew his Adamantine knife and pressed the cold tip directly against the Mayor's side, just beneath the ribs. Mayor Lavigne froze. His dark amusement vanished, replaced by a flicker of surprise.

He didn't cry out but his eyes narrowed into slits as he looked down at the boy. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"What do you think you are doing?" Lackspur demanded, his hand tightening on the hilt of his rapier. Lio simply shrugged, keeping his expression entirely casual.

"Just making sure I have your undivided attention. To answer your question about what's going on around here: Trestfall is finished. With that giant approaching, the settlement is a slaughterhouse for us all." The Mayor snarled, but he maintained his icy composure.

"So what? You pulled a knife in the middle of a massacre just to give me a status report? Are you going to kill me?"

"No," Lio replied, smirking.

"I just needed to keep you quiet while I talked. If you start barking orders or panicking your guards, it makes it a lot harder for me to leave." Lio sighed. He looked back up at Lackspur, his gaze turning serious.

"Tell me something, Mayor. Would you be sad if your bodyguards—and everyone left in Trestfall—died right here?" The Mayor stared at him. For a moment, the dangerous brightness in his eyes wavered. He looked past Lio, glancing at the crowds of guards surrounding him.

"Of course," Larkspur muttered. Lio hummed. Then, he pulled the knife away from the Mayor's side, vanishing it back into the folds of his cloak.

"You owe me a favor then," Lio said flatly. And before the Mayor could process the statement, Lio cracked a wide, devilish grin. He tapped his own chest.

"But I guess you already gave me that Prosperous Mantle earlier, so thanks for that. Consider us even." The Mayor's eyes widened in shock as the pieces finally clicked in his mind. But before Lackspur could do anything, Lio was already gone. Activating [Mach Heart], he pushed off the slick cobblestones, launching himself into the smoke-choked sky.

"What are you doing? Come back!" a voice shrieked from the phalanx. Lio didn't stop, but for just a fraction of a second glanced back, catching the shocked looks on the citizen and guards. He also spotted Briar's head snapping up nearby, her soot-stained face twisting in sheer disbelief as she watched the scrawny Delver rocket straight into the sky. Lio turned back forward, the wind howling past his ears. His eyes were locked onto the towering silhouette looming ahead.

The giant Judge stood like a monument of ancient stone and iron, its ceremonial robes billowing around it. The horrific, multi-eyed stone demon mask stared down at the burning ruins of Trestfall, its right hand brandishing the blocky warhammer with ease. Then— Thump. The giant's chest swelled as it swiveled its massive torso around, its sight locking onto Lio as he rocketed directly toward it.

"GUILTY!" Instantly, the warhammer grew in size. The iron groaned under its own sudden weight, while the atmospheric pressure dropped so sharply that Lio felt his ears pop. The swing had become visibly slower, but the sheer destructive potential had also tripled. Lio activated [Atropos's Lens]. As his subjective time slowed down, he thought about what he'd just seen. The verdict mechanic. Could it be that yelling 'guilty' simply increased the mass and volume of the giant's weapon?

So every time the entity handed down a judgment, the hammer grew heavier, slower, and more capable of erasing Trestfall from the map. Lio frowned. He could try to play clever and try to find a loophole in the giant's logic, but that required time. And "time" was something he didn't have today. If the hammer was slowly getting too heavy to block, he would just have to kill the Judge before it yelled out the next verdict. Lio plummeted toward the giant's shoulder, his leg muscles coiling and hardening. [Mach Heart].

He burst forward, twisting his body sideways to dodge the sweeping arc of the descending warhammer by just an inch. The wind pressure alone threatened to rip him off course, but he was already moving past it, closing the distance to the giant's throat. He drew his Adamantine knife. Since he didn't have time to carefully ration his life force, Lio instead gripped the edge of his own sleeve and dragged the razor-sharp blade across his entire left forearm, opening a deep, jagged gash.

Blood erupted, spraying the air, and with it, the blue-gold flames of [Pyrolysis] flared to life. The predatory flame roared, fueled by the massive sacrifice of Lio's life span. Blood sped down his wrist; the fire not just coating the blade. No, it exploded outward, becoming a towering inferno that completely wrapped around his body.

"Eat it all up," Lio whispered, directing the flames straight towards the giant's stone-masked face. The giant roared in reply, sweeping its left hand out, swinging the massive iron scales straight through the thick air like a pendulum, intending to swat the approaching pest directly out of the sky. Lio didn't try to evade. Instead, he furrowed his brow, and activated his next rune. [Isopolity].

Instantly, five perfect, razor-sharp manifestations of the Adamantine blade popped into existence, each one coated with the same ravenous blue-gold fury of [Pyrolysis]. And with a sharp flick of his wrist, Lio sent the volley of five blades launching forward. The projectiles slammed into the giant's left hand and forearm. Three of them deflected off the ancient, ornate bronze plate armor, but the remaining two found their marks, burying themselves deep into the dark flesh beneath the plating.

The [Pyrolysis] flames immediately went to work, hissing and bubbling as they began devouring the giant's tissue. The giant unleashed a roar of agony, swinging blindly into the air. The sightless swing missed Lio entirely, but the sheer displaced air pressure threatened to break his balance. Thump. The behemoth's chest swelled once more.

"GUILTY!" the Judge boomed. The massive warhammer in its right hand morphed somehow even bigger, turning into a terrifying weight, the iron visibly densifying. The weapon became so overwhelmingly heavy that the giant's own colossal arm groaned under the strain. Lio scowled. He had run out of time. The next swing would erase the majority of everything in Trestfall. But he wasn't going to allow that.

Lio overrode every automatic safety limit on his body, targeting [Mach Heart] and [Augmentation] into his right leg, manually forcing the limb into a state of maximum output while simultaneously compressing his musculature into organic pistons. Boom! The double-stacked activation propelled him upward along the giant's arm. The sheer force of the launch tore the fibers of his right calf completely apart, but the momentum carried him directly to the creature's neck before it could begin its downswing.

In mid-air, Lio willed his concentration to its absolute limit, summoning another set of five [Isopolity] blades. At the overwhelming pressure on his mind, a steady stream of blood began to leak from his nose while his body screamed in agony.

"Just die," Lio snarled. He drove his right arm forward, strengthened by [Augmentation], plunging the original Adamantine blade into the exposed throat gap beneath the stone mask, while the five duplicated knives rained down upon the giant's neck simultaneously. The concentrated assault tore through ancient armor, digging deep into the thick hide. The predatory fire of [Pyrolysis] instantly engulfed the entity's head. The giant stiffened, its colossal frame freezing.

The massive warhammer slipped from its loosening grip, falling harmlessly into the abandoned plaza below with an explosive thud. Lio cut the connections to his runes, letting the flames of [Pyrolysis] flicker out, and the ghostly copies of his [Isopolity] knives fade away. He plummeted down, checking his current status. His right leg was completely numb and his left arm throbbed with a vicious ache where he had torn several muscle fibers.

His lungs burned from all the ash, and the trickle of dark blood continued pouring down from his nose. Still, his expression remained completely impassive. That had been fast enough, right?