23 Giant Monsters

"We have a problem," I told Robin. "The sword has absorbed seven times more magic than a Hero will normally earn in his entire journey, and most of that in the past week. That says to me that the world's demon problem might be apocalyptic in nature. Let's get a move on!"

I held my hand out to her. Robin looked like she wanted to question me more, but she realized it would have to wait. Truthfully, I didn't want to tell her anything anyways until I knew she would stay with me even after the Hero journey. Verification on that needed to wait until we knew each other better, but this world's Laws made it a high probability.

Instead, she gripped the sword hard in her right hand, and put her left hand in mine. I flipped gravity for us, and we fell into the air. She didn't scream this time, and merely squeezed my hand as hard as she could. Despite her leveling up a few times already, this only made me feel a slight pressure.

Regarding her leveling, she started to immediately be enhanced once I connected her to my energy core. It just took time for the saturation to reach the next level. I wondered when the need to pee would hit, and resolved to stop before the next battle so she could take care of it.

We fell for about a mile before I started to slow us down by switching the gravitational pull back to normal. Once our upwards momentum had almost zeroed out, I negated gravity's pull on us. Looking north west, I noted trees that appeared to be moving. Those must be the giants that passed us by before.

I concentrated again and twisted gravity so that it pulled us to them. As we shot closer I dug in my shoulder bag for the DS-9002. I pulled it out, aimed at the gargantuan figures, and squeezed the trigger. The recoil sent us spinning, but I stabilized our space and stopped us midair. A loud scream told me I'd connected with my shot.

Robin looked like she was going to throw up at this point, so I let normal gravity pull us to the ground. She staggered to a tree and threw up. Then she looked desperate, and did her business too. Afterwards, she staggered away and flopped to the ground. "No more using that projectile weapon in midair, please!" she moaned.

I looked sheepishness at her. "I'm terribly sorry, Robin. Don't worry, I'll brace us next time!"

She just closed her eyes and moaned again.

"Well," I said. "If you're just gonna lie there all day, I'll go and clean up the giants by myself. Be right back!" I reached into my bag, pulled out one of her water skins, and tossed it next to her.

Then I headed off toward the angry noises of my prey. I pulled out DS-9001, because 2 guns are better than one, and just charged in. As I got nearer, I noticed that the enormous monsters had extremely long ears and noses, were colored green, and held trees in their hands as clubs.

Thankfully, a double shotgun blast to the head put down each giant quite easily. They tried to fight back by swinging their tree clubs at me, but they were just too slow and weak. Weird. Before I dispatched the last giant, I commanded, "Analyze!" Oh boy. These weren't giants. They were goblins gigantified due to the increased mana density!

They gave good experience points, though.

As I headed back to Robin, I ran some calculations. The goblins originally would have been child sized, maybe 3-4 feet tall, but they were 18-20 feet tall. An actual giant was probably five times taller than a goblin, so if the ratio of increased growth was constant, giants were probably 100 feet tall! Not only that, but this was in a lower density mana area due to the sword suctioning magic up in the stone. Other areas would produce even bigger monsters, unless there were enchanters who created mana absorption enchantment rituals. I made a note to ask Robin about that.

When I got back to her, she was sitting up, her head between her knees, and crying. Her emotions were complicated, with depression warring with anger for dominance, love mixing with wrath, and doubt running hand in hand with happiness. I sensed she was not happy about missing the battle, but appreciated that I cared about her enough to let her recover.

She looked up at me with tears dripping from her chin. "I don't want to be sidelined. You brought me along to help you in battle, but you left me behind!" She was yelling now. Her scream of depressed rage blew all loose detritus away from her by five feet, leaving her standing wide eyed with a stunned expression on her face. She definitely got stronger.

"There will plenty of fighting in the future, and I won't wait for you when it comes to removing nearby threats. You either keep up, or clean up. I don't always have time to get every last demon, so if you want to clean up any remaining, that's fine. However," I growled, "I don't see you scouting around for any demon I missed. You were sitting there feeling sorry for yourself instead."

If I thought that she was moody before, now she was a tempest of emotions. Rage, even hate, warred with self recrimination and the realization that I wouldn't treat her feelings gently. I felt her pride and resolve rise, and she rose, snarling at me. She picked up her sword and ran off.

I watched her go with approval. She was going in the right direction; System had pinpointed the two remaining goblins on the map for me already. I did feel bad about offering harsh words instead of comfort, but from my analysis of her exposed psyche, that's what she needed to motivate her to compete with me. It also would help with the decision about if she wished to come with me after this was all done.

Five minutes later, after lots of yelling on her part and pained screams on the goblins part, she returned. Thankfully, she was no longer angry, and was now firmly resolved to try to keep up with me. However, her expression told none of that. Instead, she looked shocked and afraid, almost like the end of the world had come.

"They were just goblins," Robin said quietly. "Armageddon is truly upon us."