Chapter 42 – Giant

"ARGHHHHHHH!"

The giant lets out a blood curdling scream as to initiate the battle. Immediately, all four of us spread out as to surround the gigantic boss and not to became an easy grouped up target.

Petra starts by activating her sword art and using her black flame together, the samurai sword flies off slicing and dicing aiming towards his head while her flame coats the chest of the giant.

Charlotte points her summoned sword and a beam of pure light shoots out of it striking the giant in the chest.

Nathan launches a spear in the guy's direction but it only makes contact with his leg, the giant is massive and the knight can only throw it so far.

I fly up and attack the giant from a different position charging up my fire tornado and releasing it towards his head.

"ARGHHHHH!!!"

Once all our attacks land, the giant lets out an even louder scream and begins to start thrashing his arm about hitting Petra's flying blade clean out of the air.

(Petra) "Knew that wouldn't work, this is troublesome"

(Nathan) "That did nothing"

(Charlotte) "We can handle this, everyone just have faith"

While everyone else is talking, I need to see how much damage our group just did while I'm still flying about.

'Status'

[Name: Tia' Kharafi | Species: Giant | Level: 333]

[Health 52,249/55,100]

[Stamina 78,093/78,100]

[Magicka 0/0]

'Damn it, that really did barely anything, this guy must have a strong resistance to all damage'

I think I roughly used up half my magic up in one go there and he's barely been affected, everyone else has the exact same issues as me right now as well.

Now it's the giant's turn to return an attack, he swings his club towards one of my party members and uses his free hand to try and whack me out of air at the same time. Thankfully, I'm a lot faster than him but I'm unsure on my party members.

The club crashes into the ground and a pile of dust surrounds the impact crater, it looked like he was aiming for Petra but she appears out from the dust unharmed.

"Heh, try that again"

Is she playing bait? She's literally just standing still now, I know he has quite the slow swing speed but even then, she'll be crushed if she misjudges when to dodge.

While the giant swings for another attack, me, priestess and the knight all fire the exact same type of attacks into him again. We all make contact while he slams his club into the ground where Petra is standing.

"Want to try again?"

Exact same thing happened again, Petra's speed is unmatched but this time, she does something a little different after avoiding the hit, a black flame tornado, similar to my attack starts charging up around her.

"ARGHHHHH!!"

The giant screams from frustration and decides to change his approach focusing elsewhere. While that's happening, I need to sort myself out.

'Magicka?'

[<11%>]

I have to land to take my potion unfortunately, I'll be out of the battle for a second. I can't get the potion into my mouth while flying. It's completely stupid how little damage we're doing right now.

While I'm landing and finding an awkward way to drink the potion with my beak, the giant attacks again but this time, it seems he's going for priestess. She anticipates this and runs of the side.

"Stupid bastard!"

"Nat…"

The knight throws a spear towards the giant while the priestess is retreating, the giant really doesn't pay attention to the little needle that flies into his leg, the spears are basically pointless against this foe.

The crashing giant's attack lands very close to the priestess but she's still moving and responds shooting another light beam at him, it lands another hit against the giant.

Petra is still charging up her black tornado, it really looks dangerous from where I'm standing now. I think she's ready to blow now.

"Ikarus, tell me its health after this"

"Sure sure *gulp*… disgusting"

I manage to drink my potion after speaking to her.

The giant now sensing something is really wrong understands his mistake in ignoring Petra and quickly circles back around to try and land an attack on her. Before he has the chance to swing, he finds something similar to pure darkness approaching him.

Petra's black tornado fires off in his direction surrounding every part of his upper body in flame.

"ARGGHHHHHHH!!!!"

While he screams, I need to check for her. It seems that attack unsettled him for a second as well.

'Status'

[Name: Tia' Kharafi | Species: Giant | Level: 300]

[Health 29,971/55,100]

[Stamina 72,515/78,100]

[Magicka 0/0]

'Bloody hell, her tornado is hell of lot better than mine!'

Can't focus on that right, she wanted me to give an update on its health.

"Petra! It's just over half!"

I shout at her while now back in the air flying, she gives me a slight head nod and takes her potion out.

"*Gulp*… it's time to finish this, make sure to use every last drop of magicka for the next attack and wait till I say to release it"

Petra downs her potion just before speaking and looks extremely serious now, she's got something else planned I reckon.

"Okay Petra-sama… *gulp*"

The priestess very quickly drinks her potion as well, we should have enough magic to put in for one last attack, I'm going to make sure to put my all into this. I honestly can't believe just how little damage we do compared to Petra but now's not the time to complain.

"Ikarus, please try to distract him for a second to allow me to charge up"

"How do I do that?"

Trying to have a chat with Petra while flying about and she's on the floor is proving difficult but we can just about make each other out.

"Peck or claw his eyes, just please be careful"

"Got it"

(Nathan) "I'll try and provide some distraction as well"

The giant now settled once again decides to try and head back to Petra for another attack but now it's time for this annoying bird to step in. Being annoying is what I'm best at.

"Take this you old fuck!"

I'm flying about around his head trying to scratch out his eyes with my claws, it clearly seems to be working since he's having an irritated reaction. Instead of wildly swinging at me, he just decides to use his arm to block his own eyesight and precedes to aim towards my party now just swinging blindly at them.

His club smashes multiple times into the ground but no party member has been hit so we're still good to go while Petra is charging her attack up.

"Nearly done Ikarus"

I haven't even been paying attention to what she's cooking up, the attack actually looks similar to the last tornado charge she did, I don't know if this is going to be just enough if it's the same though.

I start charging up my attack since she said she's nearly done while I'm still buzzing around this guy's head like a wasp, pretty sure priestess is charging up her sword light magic beam as well, no idea what the knight is doing. He's probably still launching spears at it but I can't see him from where I am.

The giant then swings dangerously close to where the charging Petra is standing but she remains unmoved and just continues on, thankfully it doesn't take that much longer.

"Heh… it's time to go… IKARUS CHARLOTTE, NOW!"

She shouts for us to release our attacks, I'm the first to do it releasing my flame into the back of his head, the priestess's beam also hits his chest and is brighter and thicker than any of the other beam attacks she's been doing as well as the knight throws one of the spears and it somehow makes contact with the giant's stomach. However, Petra's attack still hasn't released just yet.

I look down and can just about see her in the black charging tornado, have her eyes gone pure black as well now? Her energy or aura has gone really sinister, something doesn't seem right but I can't focus on that.

Shit, the giant is now aiming for her and he swings towards her.

"Petra, watch out!"

(Petra) "Shh…"

Just before his swing has any real momentum behind it, the entire floor that the giant is standing upon erupts like a volcano, just obviously black in nature. The flames shoot out from the ground and surround inflicting more and more damage to the gigantic beast. This devastating attack lasts for a good half a minute before the flames dwindle.

"ARGH-…"

It lets on one final scream as he finally embraces the sweet release of death, then collapses on to the ground and very slowly starts fading out of existence similar to how it just came into existence. The fight is now done, we've killed that monstrosity and walked away unharmed, or have we?

"What was tha- Petra!"

Petra collapses to her knees and looks like her soul has just left her body, she isn't dead, right? Her eyes are still black as the void as well.

"It's fine Ikarus… just give me a second"

We all very quickly rush over to her; she looks like someone who's done a week of all nighters and not slept an inch right now.

I give her one of my wings so she can help pull herself back up but she hasn't got the strength to get back up right now, it might just be that attack is exhausting more than anything else. Her eyes now seem to be fading back to the blind greyness she had originally, I hope she's just exhausted than anything else.

"If it wasn't for you Petra-sama, we'd all be dead right now"

"Yeah, you showed more leadership than any captain I've trained under"

The thing is, her actions saved more than just us during that fight, she literally saved the entire world from being wiped out by two pissed off dragons losing another daughter. We couldn't have dealt with that seeing that priestess's God not being able to contact her right now.

Both those two are just full of praise for her, I would be doing it to but I'm more worried for her right now other than anything else.

"You sure you're alright?"

"Yes… don't need to worry"

I guess she looks a little better than she did thirty seconds ago but I can't help worrying about her, she's pretty much the only human who I've come across that I don't find irritating.

"What was that thing anyway? That was dope as fuck"

Maybe asking some questions might calm me down and might help her relax her mind as well, maybe?

"Heh… a hybrid attack between magic and an ability, it's not something I'd rather get into right now if you don't mind"

Hey eyes are back to normal now; she still seems a little tired though and a bit slow though.

"Get up on my back and you can have a sleep"

"Ikarus, I'm fine… thank you"

Good, I'd hate for her to be hurt.

__________

"Huh, guess this place was an old temple used for sacrifice to gain favour towards the Gods, that guy seemed to be its keeper"

"You can read that Petra-sama?"

Petra is now up and about and has started looking around the cave for any potential loot with Charlotte and Nathan, she's still a tiny bit slow but her condition has already improved thankfully, I'm just off in my own little world rubbing myself up against one of the cave walls since I've got an inch that's needed a scratching since that fight commenced.

This place is the definition of finding a literal gold mine. Seriously though, most of the walls of this large arena look to be filled with the ore, this place is like a prospector's dream.

If I ever fancy building a city or something that needs a large amount of wealth to support it, this is the place I could start my monetary empire. It's actually not a terrible idea, the hot spring island settlement is not even a day's flight away and could even be turned into a trading settlement if they were to find out about this place, ships from all around the world would come to trade for gold, right?

I'll make sure to tell my party to keep this place a secret for now as well, don't want any other pesky people discovering it, I wonder if the empire knows about the gold down here since the prince didn't actually say anything about it so I'll try and hide it if I can. Thinking about it, that plan might not work with the knight's loose tongue, that's an issue for another time though.

Those three are still talking about something Petra has found, no idea what though since my back still itches, I better not have fleas. If they even exist in this world.

"What are you three even looking at?"

"Petra-sama is reading off some ancient language"

(Nathan) "How come you're able to translate it anyway?"

It looks like she's reading off one of the pillars, I don't know why those two are so interested in it, I have a translate ability as well and you don't ask me about stuff like that.

[<-User- wouldn't give comprehensive answer>]

'Erm… fair point, I would just sum in up'

"It's just something I've been able to do since birth, some abilities tend to work that way"

(Nathan) "You're like Ikarus when it comes to languages then"

At least the knight remembers how important my language ability is as well, seems pointless using it now when Petra has one as well. Not even going to question how she can read it since she's blind but whatever, I guess.

…

Wait, did she just say she was born with it? The ability to translate writing? That's a little too close to home.

'Aesa… isn't that suspicions?'

[<Aesa agrees, -user- has valid reason for suspicion. MP is 2%>]

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me or whatever that stupid expression was. I'm not getting fooled for a third time, it might've been a load more thinking about it. Aesa understands how I'm going to confirm this as well, that's the reason for the MP check.

"Petra, come here for a second"

"What do you want Ikarus?"

She slowly comes over to me while speaking and once she's over here, I put my wing onto her hand, it surprises her slightly but she's not against it.

"If I'm wrong, I'll apologize after"

"Wrong abou-"

Before she has the chance to finish, I use the tiny amount of fire I have left to burn her hand and confirm my suspicions, she doesn't flinch and it doesn't even leave a mark as well. She's completely resistant to fire.

"What was that for Ikarus?"

I don't think she realizes she's slipped up; I can be a lot more perceptive than people realize at times. I'm right, I know I am right, am I?

The strong alcohol tolerance, the fact she can translate words with an ability from birth and now the fact that she's completely resistant to fire. Ah, there's even that thing she said about not being able to have children as well and she also is a fire user, even if that fire is pure black. I'm definitely right.

There's only one species that shares those types of characteristics, what are the chances of another species having the exact same type of abilities? There can't be that many coincidences, she's just too damn similar…

"Petra, you… are you a phoenix as well?"

...

__________

---Volume 1 is now finished! Now that the 1st volume is complete, it makes sense to take a break, right? Don't worry, it'll probably only be a few days, maybe up to a week but I doubt it'll be that long, might even return after a couple of days if I get restless. I'd rather not do this but I've got to have breaks sometimes otherwise I'll end up completely burnt out. Once we return, you should be getting 1 a day like the usual.

---I'm basically always working on it anyway, just need to make sure I have enough ideas, enough chapters in advance so when I need to take a break, I can and to make sure it's still entertaining enough.

---I know I've already said it but seriously, thanks to all of you for getting this far! I know my writing quality can be lacking at time but you lot sticking through for this long as well, this author-kun loves all you viewers, obviously not in that way but you all know what I mean…

---Last thing, I've read every comment so far. Even if I don't respond to them all, I've still seen it so if you have any questions, any ideas or even to just complain, comment below. Never be afraid to call me out for making a dumb mistake!

---(You should also check the interval out, might contain one or two things you could find interesting, it has a summary of what it contains at the very start)

---Sayonara!