It was almost morning, but if you asked Sean, he’d tell you it was the best time to launch an assault on the next hut. They were almost within arm’s reach now, just around the corner. Brandon was unnaturally silent and Sean stood there. The rain was still going strong, and that would serve as their cover —and most people were sleepiest right before dawn.

This time, it was smooth. Too smooth, in fact. He gestured, Brandon stalked closer to the hut. It took the entirety of the night to get there, and that meant they had been running for a few hours, but they were still not even at half the mountain. Sean stood a good ways away from the hut, left behind. That was the plan. Brandon would serve as a tank, and he’d spam his spells. If there was a need to, that is.

Brandon stalked closer and ducked through the bottom of the hut to ensure maximum stealthiness. He was there for a good minute before coming out and Sean let out a sigh. So that meant the kill was relatively successful. But he saw Brandon visibly shaking his head. That’s when he heard it —a massive thud behind him as the very ground underneath him shook.

Then another. And another.

“They really came,” said a deep voice, ever so slowly, and Sean’s knees shook. And slowly, he turned his head. He recognized the giant from his blue eyes —this was the one that had gotten a beatdown from Fillmore.

“Of course they would,” said the one at the center. The previous leader-like one had been killed by Sean, and it seemed that they had replaced him easily. He noted this one was faster when it came to speaking, but not by too much, “They’re humans. They’ll try to outthink us, so we plan for that.”

Cold sweat poured down his back and his palms grew sweaty. His thoughts were scrambled as he struggled to imagine the circles, let alone cast his spells. But then came a moment of clarity as a giant hand came his way. He created a pushed Explosive Mana Ball and jumped back. It was more akin to an instinct rather than a reflex —it felt natural.

As if on cue, the moment he made it out of the effective range, the ball exploded. It had enough force to force the giant’s hand back and create a slight bit of wind, even despite him being almost two meters away. It was different, not being at the epicenter, but Sean could definitely say that it was far better than having it blow up in his face.

But he noticed it. Time seemed to be slowed down for him as he jumped back, almost like bullet time. But his mind was sluggish and couldn’t process anything. He simply saw and knew, but did not think, in a fully reactive state. The Mana Ball didn’t simply explode. Instead, it pushed on to create an indent in the hand, and only after going at least an inch or two into the flesh of the giant’s palms did the ball explode with impressive force.

It bled, and a slight amount of the blood was splattered across his leather armor. The smoke didn’t stay, and instead was blown away by the giant’s movement. Then Sean returned to regular time, in a time where he could think and react as everything gradually sped up and he made out a Brandon rushing past him. Ever so slightly, he saw a glimmer of red from his eyes —it wasn’t metaphorical, but looked like literal light.

“Brandon!” Sean shouted, but he charged on. He was tanking so he had to cast spells!

Sean aimed a finger at the giant at the back and formed the circles required for the spell, and the sigils afterward. One by one, the blue light left his fingertip and formed the circles. Then as he tapped on them, the circles converged and the Mana Ball was created. And the moment it started to glow up, it was pushed away. There was a 2 second counter on it.

But he didn’t stop there. He created another one not even a moment after the first one was created, aiming at the other one —the one that Brandon was attacking was the only one that hadn’t been attacked, who was standing in the middle.

The sound seemed softer today, as if it was a muffled gunshot —definitely not a boom like before. The smoke faded much more quickly than before, perhaps due to him only launching a duo of them, or perhaps the giants were moving toward Sean, as if recognizing him as a danger.

Some of their facial skin had cracked where the blasts hit and blood poured from a few slight injuries, but they weren’t worse for the wear. At least visibly. Sean only hoped that their heads were rattled from the blow. He hoped it was stronger than however hard they could punch —at least comparable to a giant boxer. If so, then he’d be benefitting.

But he turned to look at Brandon, and before he even noticed, he was flying at him. Sean didn’t dodge.

Didn’t have the time to.

The at-least-ninety-kilo boy slammed into Sean and made both of them fly away, but the flight had been severely halted. At least enough for Brandon to not fly off the mountain. But Sean’s entire body ached, especially the ribs. Hopefully they weren’t broken, but he knew full well that it most certainly was. He heard cracks.

But it wasn’t his own.

He realized it after Brandon got up, almost casually, but there was a visible strain on his body despite his face not showing it. His face. What he’d seen hadn’t been an illusion. Brandon’s eyes blazed a crimson red and his teeth were clenched. Sloppily, he threw away his shield, now half of it cracked. And with both hands, he held the axe —it was just a tad bit longer than a throwing one, so it looked too short.

Was this the Skill he spoke of?

Sean could only stare as Brandon charged at the trio once again, and he swung his axe.

It broke in half, but he didn’t stop. He kept on pounding the pointy end of the wood that had been created due to the broken handle, and he didn’t let the edge fly away. He grabbed it from the dull side and hacked away at the shin of the giant ceaselessly.

Sean frowned.

Brandon had gone berserk.

The giant audibly shouted out in pain as his muscles started to tear —the axe was tearing into its shin, and was almost half a meter in. That didn’t bode well for the giant as he knelt down on one leg. The other two tried to interfere, but Sean launched two more Explosive Mana Balls, one each for them.

It wasn’t aimed at their heads this time, but at their bodies. Their chests, to be more specific, and Sean could see them taking a step back after the first. It was working. If he actually managed to pressure them, then he’d be able to throw them off the cliff! But he was dangerously low on Mana.

Not low, per se. Each ball took 35 points from him, and he could cast roughly 14 of them given his current Mana Pool. But he’d already cast four, so he couldn’t waste much more. Focusing on one of them and taking them down one by one would be the most tactical choice, and he did just that.

Sean aimed a volley of three Mana Balls at a singular spot on the previously injured giant’s guts. He didn’t know how many it took to kill the other one, but he knew that he launched more than three, and that it was an overkill —he’d created a literal hole in its stomach.

And if it took more than five… they’d be done for.

But thankfully, it started to show results. The consecutive trio of attacks didn’t explode one by one. They did, but the time gap was so small that it didn’t matter. They added onto each other and it was as if all three of them combined, and exploded, one by one. And those three exploded point-blank.

The giant held his belly with one hand and dropped down to the ground, blood visibly dripping down from between his fingers and the bottom of his hands.

It was a success.

Three was enough, and that meant that he had ample mana to finish off the other two!

Seven Mana Balls left, and two giants. It’d be no problem, he thought.

Brandon kept himself busy in the meantime, almost handling the giant all by himself. He was strong, immensely so. As the giant swung its hands at Brandon with impressive force, he didn’t dodge. Far from it. He punched back. It didn’t do much to protect him from damage, but it stopped the attack in its tracks. But he was sent flying away and right into the mountain. Brandon’s back came into contact with the hard earth and he dropped down.

The red glow in his eyes slowly faded from existence and sputtered out, leaving behind the hazel eyes he had. His left arm was bent the wrong way —the one he used to punch back— but he didn’t shout nor scream. After he fell to the ground, he used the one good hand he had left, with which he still clutched onto his axe, to slowly but surely get up. But he tumbled to the ground moments after.

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The injured giant was still up and moving, and used one of its hands to propel itself toward Brandon, seeking to smash into him with its immense weight.

But Sean wouldn’t allow that.

He let a Mana Ball launch itself at the other giant —the one that wasn’t attacking Brandon, but the giant dodged it with a skillful sidestep. Sean didn’t bother to shoot him any further. He shot at the one that Brandon had injured. Four of them. Sean didn’t think about his Mana. He just shot them.

With the amount of Spells he was using and the circles he was tapping, it almost looked as if he was playing a video game that required you to press a dozen buttons in quick succession on a vertical keyboard. Spell after spell was fired, and they hit their mark —in this case landing on the shoulders of the giant.

It knocked the giant off-course and the giant bled from near the shoulder. It was sent flying away several meters, in fact. The other one was running at Sean, or so he assumed as he started to try and dodge, only to find it dash right past him and back up the mountain.

He didn’t try to give chase nor attack the one that was running away —he was dangerously low on Mana, and if he tried to attack the other one, he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to finish off either of the two remaining without losing consciousness if they were alive.

Sean ran toward Brandon. They weren’t far, only five or so meters away from each other. It was peculiar, how he assumed they were far further despite being in almost close quarters, and each step felt like it took a minute as his mind became more sluggish —the effects of low mana showing itself. His body didn’t get exhausted, far from it. But his mind did.

He was injured, greatly so. But despite that Brandon tried to stand up. Close up, it was apparent that the hand wasn’t the only thing that had been injured. His entire arm had been bent the other direction, his shoulder injured. Sean didn’t know if even he could recover from something like that.

It was then that Sean’s adrenaline rush started to fade, his body deeming the fight over. Pain coursed through his head and he grit his teeth. Every time he breathed, his chest ached. It was difficult, far more difficult than when he broke his arms. At least then he wasn’t being hurt when he didn’t put pressure on his hands.

He flipped Brandon over, as he was lying face-down on the ground, despite his efforts. But then the battle proved itself not over yet. The one he’d shot with 4 Mana Balls somehow stood up once again, unknown to Sean. Only too late did he realize that it was up, as the very presence of the giant made him feel a cold shiver run up his spine.

Sean pointed a finger and scrambled to create the circles in his mind, to no avail.

Nothing happened.

He couldn’t focus.

If he couldn’t focus, he couldn’t cast a Spell.

And if he couldn’t cast a spell, he couldn’t fight. His Mana was useless, and he could only watch as he was swept to the side by one of the giant’s arms. It was still on one knee, but packed a punch nonetheless. Sean tumbled at least a dozen meters toward the hut, the rocks on the ground scraping his skin and creating cuts on his body as he rolled across the ground.

But that was when Brandon’s eyes blazed red once again. And almost effortlessly, he stood up, straining his body even further. His movements were forced, as if he was using purely his muscles to move his body and support himself, without the need for his bones. His footing was wavy and he could barely stand straight —but that didn’t mean he couldn’t move.

In a moment of blind rage, he roared and dashed forward, toward the edge of the road. But it was no suicide. He pushed the giant, and in a contest of strength, the then-sitting giant couldn’t contest a berserker who had broken every possible limiter in the human body. It was so much so that the giant was pushed the rest of the way —five or so meters —and all the way to the edge until he fell.

The sound of the clash was underwhelming, but the scream of the giant as it tumbled down the mountain and onto the road below was. The impact it had with the ground below was as well, but Sean didn’t hear that. He didn’t bother to. His mind was solely focused on the Brandon that was about to jump off the mountain to follow the giant’s trajectory.

And he did the only possible thing to save him. He created a Mana Ball, a non-explosive one, and launched it at Brandon. The curve was still a bit far, and he hoped that it wouldn’t throw him off.

The push wasn’t the strongest thing about his Magic.

The explosion was.

And it did exactly what it intended to. It hit Brandon’s shoulder and tugged at him slightly. Sean had been aiming to at the very least not have him fall to his death, and he succeeded in that. Brandon simply fell to the ground with no resistance as his eyes closed, near the dead giant, eyes glowing no more.

Sean tried to run to Brandon, but his body didn’t allow that. He could only stumble forward, breathing in measured amounts so as to not send a sharp pang of pain throughout his body. So he got there far too slowly for his liking. He didn’t move.

What had he done?

He knelt next to him and put a hand on Brandon’s chest, to feel whether or not he was breathing.

He was.

Thankfully, he was alive. Brandon groaned out after he felt Sean’s hands touch as he lied there, and coughed a few times. Then he asked, his voice weak, “Did I get him?”

It could almost not be heard amidst the rain for those who weren’t paying attention, but Sean was.

“Yeah, you did,” said Sean, and Brandon’s lips twisted to form a smirk, one side slightly more than the other, “You did. That Skill is strong. You’re a true berserker.”

“I’m not going to make it, hunter-mage,” said Brandon, ever so softly. His voice was hoarse and frail, as if he was an old man on his deathbed —Sean didn’t like how he sounded. It sounded like he was… going to die. Brandon then added, “Kill… Helthur.”

“No no no, you’ll make it,” said Sean. He bit his lips and turned to the giant’s body. Its guts weren’t visible as its large hand was covering the wound, “You will.”

“My body is far too gone,” said Brandon and he coughed. It wasn’t a single one. It was a coughing fest, and at the end, blood gushed through his mouth. Weakly, he spat it out, “I can feel it.”

“I said you will,” said Sean and he stood up. It was painful, getting up from a kneeling position to a standing one. Whatever was broken didn’t help. He pulled out his dagger, or at least tried to with his right hand. That sent a piercing pain through his body and Sean closed his eyes. He didn’t pull. He used the left one, and it was awkward, but it came out, “Wait. Just a minute… You’ll make it.”

Sean was always fit, but he didn’t fight. However, that meant he could climb on something that was waist-level easily. But it wasn’t easy now. His mind was sluggish, his body ached and couldn’t move properly. It took him five tries to mount the now-dead giant. Its skin was cold, a sharp contrast to Sean who was heated by the Heart Factor and Brandon who had been pushing himself far beyond his limits.

He stared at the chest —the left side of his chest, to be exact. Sean didn’t know biology well, but he knew that the chest was slightly to the left rather than fully so. And he stabbed the dagger into its flesh after kneeling down.

The skin was easy. The dagger penetrated it almost too easily. But the flesh wasn’t. Sean pushed with all his weight and it started to penetrate and dig deeper. With his entire weight and the power of gravity on it, and the loosened muscles of the giant as it could no longer flex its muscles, the entirety of the dagger entered the chest. After a certain point, it just slid down, as if there was no resistance. And most probably, there wasn’t any.

The real challenge was pulling it down. Every moment made him feel like the right side of his body was going to die if he used two hands, but if he used only one, it wouldn’t budge. But he persevered, despite the tears rushing down his face. He didn’t know if it was pain that caused it or the rain giving off the illusion, but it was warm.

His hands were bloody, some of the giant’s blood splattering across his hands as he pulled the dagger across its chest. It was slowly but surely washed away by the rain, but Sean didn’t care about that.

Not now.

Its body gave way and slumped away when he forced his left hand into its flesh. The skin was cold, but the inside of the giant’s body was warm still. It was a pleasant feeling, if you could get behind the fact that you were digging inside someone’s body. The cut was almost at the center of its body, but it had slightly tilted to the left as it went down. He’d come in contact with some bones, but his prize was revealed.

He knew what a heart looked like. The heart of a giant was just that, but larger. He gripped it tightly, which was difficult, given the fact that it was slippery. But he did, and he fell back. The veins that connected it to the body snapped like strings as he pulled and he tumbled down from the giant’s body.

“Eat it,” said Sean. If hunters could reap the benefits of it, then surely, others could, right? They were humans, right? But Brandon didn’t answer, far too quiet. His eyes were empty. It was stuck in one place, as if it couldn’t see anything else. His chest didn’t pulsate, “No no, no. Brandon. Brandon!”

Sean ceaselessly tried to shake him awake, pressed on his chest, but it didn’t do anything aside from move his body. Blood oozed out of Brandon’s mouth as he did so. Then as if shouting would help him, Sean roared with all his might, “Wake up!”

He’d brought him along on this journey.

He could have turned him away when he asked. He could have been the only one to die. It wouldn’t even be a true death.

Sean grit his teeth and looked at the heart in his hand. And he bit into it.

It was chewy and the blood dripped into his mouth. Tearing it out from the rest took effort, but he did. The heart that was as large as a volleyball contained a lot of blood, and the rest of it dripped on his clothes and the ground like. The wetness didn’t bother him. His clothes were as drenched as could be.

Then the notifications popped up.

System Notification

Your title of ‘Giant Slayer’ has been upgraded to the title ‘Big Eater’. Damage against those larger than your race increased from 10% to 20%. Upon consumption of the heart of a being that is larger than your race, you will recover 10% of HP. Title will be active upon the completion of the Calibration and will dictate your Class.

Reward: Strength + 5, Endurance + 5

System Notification

The Race ‘Giant’ does not have the Skill ‘Passive Regeneration’. Heart Factor will not increase.

He fell to the ground, lying back. He didn’t even bother to eat the rest of the heart. There was no point. He’d gotten everything out of it.

Eating raw meat… it wasn’t as bad as he expected. And he closed his eyes, far too exhausted from the Mana expenditure. His mourning for Brandon would have to come the next morning, but now, his mind couldn’t process anything but that he had gotten a title, and that it was good.