His eyesight was blurry as Otis waited for death, but then he heard loud 'thumps' that shook the ground. Then there was a loud grunt, followed by…
Boom!
The Ogre was suddenly thrown to the side, crashing into the wall with its huge body.
Otis' legs finally couldn't hold him any longer and he collapsed to the ground. The helmet fell off his head, revealing the face of a middle-aged man covered in blood. He quickly wiped his eyes and what he saw made his whole body shudder.
A giant was standing before him, brownish-gray and made of stone, more than three meters tall and extremely tough-looking.
Otis almost couldn't believe his eyes. 'I was saved?' he thought in disbelief. But then he remembered, "Ethan!" He crawled towards the unconscious child as fast as he could, leaving a trail of blood behind.
"Ethan!" He came to him and after seeing he was still breathing, he weakly collapsed beside him.
"He's going to be fine," Elly said and placed her hands on Otis, "Don't move, and don't resist." She started slowly healing his injuries.
"U-uncle?" Ethan quietly gasped, still half unconscious.
"Ssssh, sleep child, everything will be alright."
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The stone giant ran towards the Ogre, building up a monstrous momentum. He gripped the monster's head and smashed his knee in its face.
The Ogre's nose was immediately crushed, and the beast roared while stumbling back, blood dripping from its face.
But the stone giant didn't give it a chance to recover. Fists the thickness of an elephant's leg rained punches on its body and each strike made the giant monster take a step back.
Bam, bam, bam, bam!
The pummeling strikes rained down on the beast, however, they didn't seem to do much damage.
Suddenly the Ogre stomped on the ground and steadied its balance, swinging the club at lightning speed and striking the stone giant.
Despite its size, the golem was blasted back as if it was a dry leaf in a wild storm, and broken stones trailed behind. It crashed into a building and almost collapsed it.
Where the club struck, an opening was created, revealing Gerald inside. His chest had some wounds from the strike, and he was bleeding, but it was not too bad.
However, he was pissed! Pain always made him angry for some weird reason. He took a handful of potions and drank them one after the other before discarding the vials and standing back up.
The stones covering his left hand shifted to his chest and covered the gaping hole while also revealing the silver cannon beneath. He started walking forward with the barrel pointing at the Ogre. Then the firing started.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each time the cannon fired, a small puff of blood erupted on the Ogre's skin.
"He's doing it!" one of the warriors observing the fight shouted in elation. His teammates, however, didn't agree.
"No, it might look like it's hurting it, but look! It's barely flinching. It's just making it mad instead!"
And indeed, the cannonballs that could usually tear other monsters apart as if they were made of wet paper, were as if a human getting fired upon with birdshot... One grain at a time.
Gerald was fully concentrated, but even then he could only shoot twice each second! It was completely inadequate.
"Come on, just die already! Stupid Ogre!" another one shouted.
But the giant monster didn't seem to like what the warriors around it were saying, and instead bellowed in rage. Gerald could see the Mana inside it surging, and soon it formed a thick layer at the surface of its skin.
That's also when the sounds of collisions changed.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
"Fuck! You got to be kidding me!" Gerald cursed and stopped firing. The cannonballs were simply bouncing off among a sea of sparks. The skin of the Ogre became like the advanced armor of a modern tank! Now way his primitive cannon could break through!
He had no choice but to try another approach. There was one way he knew would work for sure, but it would be time-consuming and could possibly turn bad in a heartbeat.
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Gesturing towards some rubble, a bunch of stones flew to him, covering his cannon and shaping itself into a new hand. Then what Gerald feared most would happen, happened. A bunch of Orcs and Hobgoblins came over the wall, quickly approaching the two giants on the battlefield.
"Damn it, stand back you filthy beasts!" Gerald stomped on the ground in anger, and three Orcs were instantly impaled by lightning-fast spikes rising from the ground. But that did nothing to stop the rest.
Splat!
"Huh?"
The Ogre actually smashed a Hobgoblin as it came running past, and every other beast near it froze in that instant.
"Stand back!" the Ogre roared in its native tongue. "This human is mine!"
The Orcs didn't dare to retort and immediately turned around and left to attack elsewhere. A hundred meters around Gerald and the Ogre was clear of any weaker monsters now. Somewhat like a safe zone.
That included Gerald's friends, some warriors, and a few soldiers. They were all safe for the moment. The few wounded around were also dragged there since that was the case. A few stone walls were also quickly erected to give them some protection.
"It's only you and me now, Shrek. Though I must say, you look way uglier in real life," Gerald snickered and gestured the pudgy Ogre to attack.
"I will crush you like a worm!" the Ogre bellowed back in rage and dropped into a charge.
Gerald grinned and waved his giant hands. About ten spells scrolls flew at the assaulting beast and emitted a bright light upon contact.
Babababam!
A chain explosion shook the hearts of people, and without missing a beat, Gerald jumped forward with fists at the ready.
"Why, you little slimy-!"
Bam!
Before the Ogre could recover from the pain and ringing in its ears, Gerald already came and punched it in the face. He struck with such force that his fist almost exploded, and the stones were strewn across the battlefield.
Bam!
He struck with his other hand, this one similarly exploding into a shower of gravel, and doing little damage.
Left, right, left, right…
He continued punching as his armor continued moving up and regrowing his broken fists. From afar it looked like an earth monster, constantly siphoning the rock and stone from the ground, and using the strikes to turn them into small pebbles and sand.
"Wooo! Enough of this!"
His advantage was diminishing as all his strikes felt like landing on a tank with armor of hardened steel. And the Ogre wouldn't just stand there motionless for long.
It roared and smashed him with the club once more, this time with such force that the wooden shaft exploded into splinters, and Gerald flew like a cannonball once more, collapsing a building behind him in the process.
Roar!
The ogre pounded its chest like a gorilla and then dropped on all fours, running and kicking up rocks as it blitzed across the ground.
Gerald barely had enough time to stand up when a ball of muscle and fat crushed into him, collapsing another building as they rolled across the ground.
Many parts of his Stone Golem Armor were broken, but he quickly repaired them with all the stone bits laying around. As long as he had Mana he would be fine.
They both stood up and after a few seconds of staring, they began bashing each other. It was like a certain green fantasy monster fighting against an advanced metal suit specifically designed to defeat it. The monster was mostly fine after a dozen rounds of punches, however, the suit had to be constantly replaced and repaired as it was being torn apart piece by piece.
Gerald certainly felt the pressure. The strikes transferred through the stone, and his whole body was aching even with the Iron Body active at all times.
But the greatest discomfort was on the inside of his mind. He was having the spirits of the defeated monsters try and attack him at the same time as he had to concentrate the most. If he had at least an hour of respite, the fight would have been much easier, that's for sure.
"Keep hiding in your little shell cowardly human, I'll break it open sooner or later, hahaha!" the Ogre roared amidst laughter and continued to pound on the stone.
'Laugh while you can, you stupid beast, we'll see who remains standing in the end!' Gerald thought, and a few dozen empty Earth Crystals dropped from his grasp.
The Ogre was too preoccupied having fun while he carefully monitored his Mana reserves. Stone Golem Armor was quite expensive, but with the help of Earth Crystals, his Mana never dipped below 95%.
Unbeknownst to the Ogre, Gerald was increasing the size of his armor little by little. He kept creating thick shield plates on his hands to defend from the strikes, and when they were getting broken apart instantly, he would use them to build up defenses.
The beast happily kept punching, thinking it was wearing him down while having a bit of an exercise when in reality it was quite the opposite.
Gerald was using it to train the endurance of his mind under extreme pressure while also slowly growing his stone body. He was constantly being supplied with stone from the ground, and his torso was becoming thicker as time went on.
His height was also slowly increasing as he got more comfortable controlling all that rock, but due to the gradual change, as well as his defensive position, the Ogre was none the wiser.
The classic boxing strategy of tiring out your opponent was greatly effective here. Of course, it wasn't about physically exhausting the Ogre. The damn beast could probably continue with this tempo for days. However magic was a whole nother thing entirely.
In their dance of blows, Gerald threw a jab here and there, just making sure it didn't get too suspicious. Still, his strength of above five tones, as well as magic amplification, made his strikes pack quite a punch.
Every time his hits landed on the Ogre's face, the latter recoiled with displeasure. That was especially so when he struck the broken nose. It was a great motivator for the Ogre to fight even harder and burn through its Mana reserves like crazy.
Through Magic Eyes, Gerald was watching the world around him, and the glow of Mana on the Ogre was quickly dimming.
It gave him confidence in his plan, and so he gradually transitioned from a mostly defensive position to a more aggressive attacking stance.
They were soon stuck in a deadlock.
'Why do I feel like I experienced this before,' Gerald frowned inside his shell. 'I really need to get my hands on some trump cards or something… Anything that can speed this up would be great.'
Something like lasers would probably still be useful against this fatty giant, and a burst of 200MP should do the trick, but…
He wasn't exactly willing to sacrifice a finger to do so, because that's what would most certainly happen. He would burn up like a tiny lightbulb powered by lightning.