(3)

Theoric still glowing with his orange skin shield, closely watched the ground with his sword held firmly in his hands,- "Been a long time since I've used you in battle, let's hope his scales aren't as strong as Uru metal." he said with a smirk, recalling the time he fought Ulik.

The ground shook violently, right before the creature's green hand came bursting out, trying to stab him with its claws.

Theoric dodging right with a quick timed jumped, landed about where he predicted the head would be, Firmly planting both feet on the ground, he spun his sword point down and pierced the ground, easily piercing through the soft terrain and straight into the eye of the hidden beast who let out a monstrous wail as the ground shifted from its throes.

And then everything went silently still.

Theoric who retreated some distance back after successfully striking the creature had no intention of letting it live. Sigyn was right, the Acanti soul did seem to have affected him somewhat, but this time the creature went too far. There was no way he was going to allow it to live after causing Sigyn so much distress.

Gripping his now bloody sword, he waited for it to make a move.

Minutes later the ground erupted, showing the giant 60-foot tall angry beast with a now noticeable bloody left eye socket. looking around with its one good right eye, its pupil dilating upon seeing it's most hated foe.

This was the first time Theoric could appreciate how truly big it was, the sheer size of it, casting a visibly large shadow over the land as it glared menacingly at him.

And it was furious, after just experiencing the painful screams from the Siren, leaving it all but deaf, now on top of it, it lost an eye.

Giganto angrily roared at him, fully enraged as it shoved its claws into the ground heaving a couple of boulder-sized pieces at him before feverishly rushing over.

Theoric unperturbed by its size rushed forward to meet its charge, ducking past one boulder while forming a pointed barrier in front to take care of the second, splitting most of the impact away as it slammed into his barrier.

Next came the creature swinging its claw just behind the now debris-filled air, easily destroying the pointed barrier. Sword ready, Theoric continued to move forward under the debris, using it as cover as he closed in on the creature's legs, passing the incoming strike that broke the ground behind him.

He swung hard at the creature's right leg intending to make it that much harder for it to fight back. Slamming the blade against its ankle, the only thing he could reach easily, but he only managed to break a few scales.

Now aware of where he was, Giganto lifted his foot and tried stomping him.

Instead of dodging Theoric saw this as a great opportunity to inflict some damage by using the creature's own strength against him. Powering up his shields, he raised his sword to meet the incoming foot.

Taking a knee while tightening his grip, he braced himself as the foot came crashing down.

Easily piercing through the bottom of the foot, Theoric continued to brace himself as he lowered his head for what came next as the foot once released couldn't easily be stopped as it followed through and smashed into his exposed shoulders, cracking his shield as the strong force coupled with its immense weight dealt a massive amount of damage. Pushing him into the dirt as the foot's impact broke through the ground, demolishing the surrounding land.

Preserving, Theoric maintained his shield, preventing it from completely shattering.

Giganto's one good eye widened instantly upon feeling the acute pain stabbing into his foot. Howling it instantly began to lift, only for Theoric now free from worrying of attack, create an energy hand around the hilt of the sword and then used his energy like a stretching arm to push the sword all the way through the foot, the leg, and then out the knee in a shower of blood, effectively crippling the creature in one smooth motion.

But Theoric wasn't done yet as now he had an easily accessible entrance to the insides of the creature. Briefly noting where his sword fell, he put all his focus on the energy he now had on the inside of the creature.

Without mercy, Theoric began to expand it like a sharp root, crawling its way deeper and deeper into the creature's leg, slowly moving its way up.

The pain made the creature go berserk as it fell, clawing at its legs, ripping scales and flesh off as it tried to end it's suffering.

Theoric sneered- "Who asked you to attack us?" he asked rhetorically not expecting an answer as he quicked its end, sending the energy straight where he believed the heart to be.

To his surprise, the creature in its last throes spoke in a sad gravel-like sound voice- "Father... Why?" it asked after gaining a semblance of freedom from Taras's control on the brink of death, not understanding why it was created only to be sent to its death.

Theoric frowned feeling a tinge of regret- "So you were sent by someone? And it sounds like it wasn't entirely by choice."

______________________________________________________________

Taras watching everything from the monitor took note of all this, he would make sure no future creations would come this close to self-awareness again. This test was a complete failure, the creature not only failed to draw blood but also despite having self-awareness near the end it was incomprehensibly stupid when it came to fighting the Eternal man and ultimately provided no real challenge in the end.

Leaving the monitor he walked back over to his favorite project and looked down through the glass with pride,- "Some lessons were learned I suppose, I'll make sure you don't make the same mistakes, and I'll make sure you perform at your peak without any of that unnecessary self-thinking, It'll be best if only I can do the thinking for you."

Full of new inspiration, Taras went straight back to work with new vigor. He was determined to be more than ready for the war, time was ticking but he was confident in pulling it off. In the end, there was no such thing as failure in his book, there was always something new to learn and perfect.