Portal Exploration (3) - 64

A/N: I would like to say one thing. Those of you that are leaving scathing reviews, feel free to do so, but please, just refrain from using cuss words, as Webnovel automatically deletes these reviews, and it's unfair if I'm the only one reading them, isn't it?

"Boom!"

My shots exploded again and again, causing visible damage to the Mossy Giant.

It groaned as it slowly stood up, showing its true size as it eclipsed even the sun.

"Marcielle! Can I take the lead?"

"..." She contemplated over it for a second.

"Sure, what do you want us to do?"

"Sara! Can you use your water stigma to slowly creep water up into the thing's joints? When I give you the signal, suddenly turn the water into ice!"

After I finished saying this, Sara took one look at Marcielle, who gave her a nod, before splitting off from us as she stopped running and started chanting.

By now, Marcielle and I were in the shadow of the colossus, and so, I decided to employ the techniques of a famous manga back in my old world.

Taking out my kusarigama, I shot them forward and up, towards the shoulders of the Mossy giant.

Still running, I shouted to Marcielle,

"You're tasked with drawing the attention of the Giant, under no circumstances do its attacks turn towards Sara, or worse, Trevor."

"Got it."

With that, I jumped and pulled, flying into the air towards the giant.

Noticing me approaching, it swung one of its fists at me, but, the chains of my kusarigama had already shortened, and I pulled again, launching myself just under the fist that had come at me.

I then pulled on only one of the kusarigama, whipping myself in a circular trajectory around the neck of the giant, before pulling on the other kusarigama that stuck in the giant's body, as I started gouging a wide canyon into the giant's neck.

Continuing my circular trajectory, I pulled the kusarigama that had just done the gouging out of the giant, before starting to pull on the other one.

With this, I had gouged two deep wounds into either side of the giant's neck.

Now, it couldn't even do anything against me, as, if it tried to hit me, it would most likely knock its own head off, so it decided to focus on someone else, namely, Marcielle.

By now, I had landed on one of its shoulders, and held onto the moss there tightly, as it started running, trying to stomp on Marcielle.

Looking down from my vantage point, I could see Marcielle nimbly dodging the slow, crushing footsteps of the giant.

Seeing that she was okay, I proceeded to look over at Sara, and, when I saw the signal that she was ready, I raised my hand up in the air.

"Do it!"

Suddenly, the giant's movements stopped as ice broke its limbs apart.

The colossus quickly fell apart, and, as the piece I was on fell to the ground, I jumped off, landing with ease.

Then, without hesitation, as I knew that the thing could reform again if it's head wasn't decapitated, I whipped out my pistol and shot from the side.

I watched as the thin beam of rock that had connected its head and body was blown to bits, and its head fell to the ground with a resounding, "Thud!"

Seeing that our work was done, I calmly wiped the sweat off my head with my arm before turning to Marcielle and Sara.

"Wow, we actually beat it that quickly. You're pretty good at this Error."

"No, not really, I just spent a lot of time studying a lot about different types of beasts."

'Well, actually, I just read it all once in the auxiliary volume of this novel, and memorized it with my perfect memory.'

"Oh, so that's how you knew how to defeat it, and so quickly at that!"

"It's nothing too much to brag about, but it's something I'm proud of."

"Ever humble too... Hey Error, do you have a girlfriend?"

"W-why do you ask?"

"Cause I thought you'd be good for Sara here."

"Sorry, but no can do, I already have a girlfriend."

"Oh, our underclassman has a girlfriend, and who would that be?" They both asked in a teasing tone.

'Why am I getting Annalise vibes here?'

"Elvira Astor."

This completely shut them up for a second, as, being the biggest merchant in the country and the escort of the biggest merchant in the country, they were privy to certain information that nobody else knew about.

"So that's why you're so strong. She's chosen a fine partner."

"But, how have we never heard of you?"

"Because I'm an error."

"..."

"We definitely should have expected that."

"Yep, I don't know how we didn't see that coming."

We then all burst out laughing, as a lighthearted mood descended on the atmosphere around us once again.

With this attitude, we picked up Trevor, who was just severely confused, and then we all left the gate together.

Arriving back in the snowy forest that the gate had been found in, we watched as all the other students were forcibly ejected from the portal.

Seeing that Ms. Krenshaw was already here, we just stayed silent, waiting for her next instructions, as her faced looked grave for some reason.

"Do you guys know how much time you've spent in that portal?"

"Why? Is there something wrong?" I asked, being the only one brave enough to step up.

"Yes, you see, the gate locked immediately after you students entered, and we were left with nothing that we could do..."

"..."

"Ms. Krenshaw... how much time has passed?"

"How much days did you spend in there?" She asked, responding to my question with one of her own.

"Three days and a few hours."

"..."

"Out here... it's been a month and a half."

The only thing we could all think was, 'WHAT?!!!!!!'

I mean, the portal wasn't even that hard to clear, but somehow, it had dilated time by so much that we had been missing for almost two months!

With these two facts combined, I could only feel an ominous feeling rising in my heart.

"Did anything happen while we were gone?" I asked, grimly, already figuring some things out, as the ominous feeling completely bloomed.

I could already feel the machinations of the ones pulling the strings from behind the shadows turning.

This future was going to be bleak.

That was something that I was for sure of.

---

A/N: Gonna shout out one of the books I'm editing called, "Average Mage Wants to Reach the Apex". It's about a mage that's reincarnated into a cultivation world, and, well, the author refers to his novel as, "Another trash cultivation novel". But, to me, it's surprisingly much better than most, so, check it out!