“Retreat, none of us can deal with that monster!” Alisa yelled as she kept supporting them from the back.

It went in for a headshot, but the man does not seem to bother nor feel the pain; he halted for a good second, then stared at Alisa, roaring once again before pulling the trees on the sides and throwing it towards the girl.

Hunter, unlike the coward, who was braver than usual, deflected everything with his shield, and the trees bounced off like the dead logs that they will soon be.

Back on the foliage were the sword wielders who refused to retreat; they still tried to turn the tables around, targeting the weak points a normal person would have. The joints, the neck, the chest, the head—all of it but all was proven unsuccessful with the giant’s continuous rampage.

They kept sprawling, jumping, and prancing like frogs tapping the back of a snapping turtle, causing no damage but irritation.

In his own risky attempt, one man was almost caught by those wide hands, but Hunter managed to prevent it with an orb shield. But there is a problem. The man had two hands, and Hunter can only apply his same ability once per person. Another man was caught in midair like a fly, unable to dodge a swatter.

“L—LET ME GO," he hysterically screamed, his voice coarse upon realizing what was happening and what’s about to happen. He felt his waist, ribs, and everything below slowly being crushed.

"HELP!" he screamed in agony while the others froze on the spot with their mouths half open while the trees danced gracefully on the passing wind.

Alisa kept on shooting, but with the giant’s single swipe, it disrupted the air around him, causing the arrow to fly back in front of Alisa. No one had any idea what to do. Alisa was shaking, the others are still frozen, and Hunter couldn’t stay still as he imagined himself as the one being crushed.

A loud crack and the scattering of blood said they were too late.

The giant painted the trees, the ground, himself, and the comrades of the fallen. They did not only bathe from his blood but also smelled its fishy smell and tasted its metallic taste. He was almost turned into a pulp; his back bent and his face was the embodiment of suffering. His eyes protruding outwards from the pressure exerted on his body as he cried and vomited blood.

Everybody lost the will to fight.

“MAKE HIM STOP," Nicolas begged upon successfully breaking free from his muzzle. “LET THEM BE," he kept on repeating, squirming on the ankle-deep water as he felt the agony in the air, zapping nonstop, a curse for having a fragment of Anwar in his soul.

“That’s far from a doable request, dear boy”, Liam replied with enthusiasm as things had gone the way he wanted, “If I remember correctly, he’s been hibernating for ten whole years now. No one would be able to stop what he wants to do”, Matthew blurted, taking Nicolas’s attention.

“That’s right, all you can do now is watch until everyone turned into a puddle of blood”, Liam let out a laugh.

Nicolas turned to his brother, asking for sympathy, “Help them, Matthew.”

“Why would I, Isn’t the show fun? It’s not like they’re going to remember this in their next life. Unlike us, they have the luxury to forget”, he calmly replied with a plain look on his face.

That broke Nicolas. He couldn’t do anything; he was a worthless, useless piece of garbage, disposable and couldn’t do anything right and worst of all, his brother turned against him. That’s what he thought to himself as his spirit too started to fail him.

“You cold-blooded monster!”, Hunter charged in with his metal sword but the giant disregarded him and the others as it walked straight for Alisa.

“Look at me, I’m your opponent”, he yelled but his normally sharp sword, like the others, only bounces off the giant like it was a twig.

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He was trembling in anger, his eyes burning from the fact that he failed to protect the poor man. He stopped glaring at the monster and threw his sword to the ground. After taking a deep breath to forcefully calm himself, he raised his right hand into the air.

His whole body began to glow before floating like dust into the air. Slowly, the dust gathered in the air, spiraling like a small storm before condensing into a ball of light. A large shield manifested in the air, large enough for the giant to hide behind if her wanted to.

“I said, I am the one you’ll be fighting”, he cried.

His eyes glowing like never before as he motioned his hands towards the man. The shield that’s hovering above them hurdled towards the giant and pushed him out, of course, saving Alisa's breath from running away. It forced him to stumble to the trees, uprooting them while leaving skid marks on the muddy ground.

“You’re now getting on my nerve”, the giant exclaimed.

His deep voice sounding like it came from the depths of hell. He stood up and headed for Hunter instead. The ground was shaking with each of his angry steps, but the boy did not flinch. Not again. His mother said it himself: he is a Cromwell; he will become a knight that drives away bad guys.

Hunter struck again, sending the giant away from him. He repeatedly pounded the man as if he were dough needing a bit more of knead. He hammered and hammered and hammered while the man slowly sank to the ground until he was completely out of sight.

The boy’s eyes were glowing in anger, literally, as if his soul would pour out of his body. No one dared to stop him. If he somehow defeated that monster, then he too is a different kind of monster. Those were Anton’s thoughts as he watched from a safe distance, holding firmly to the branch he was on because the ground wouldn’t stop shaking from the unfolding chaos.

Hunter stopped when he felt his strength diminishing and the signs of abusing his ability are coming to fruition. Fatigue, his vision’s starting to blur, his heartbeat even faster than a gazelle desperately shaking of a cheetah on its tail, he was grasping for air, heavily breathing as he knelt on the ground.

“Did he do it?”, Alisa wondered as she and the others regrouped. They are all shaking, most from the shock of how their comrade died in the hands of the enemy, but some from what Hunter was capable of.

They had been with Donnor for a long time, having the same kind of ability, but none of them saw the application of the shield like the boy did. Hunter forced himself to move forward, wobbling towards the crater’s rim. He saw nothing but mud and the collapsed soil.

“That boy has potential”, Liam uttered, impressed by Hunter’s performance as he watched from above.

Matthew happily stood up and stretched his arms and legs, “I can take him if you want to; then you can corrupt him.”

“Don’t give him any ideas!”, Nicolas yelled at him but Matthew stared back at him, non-verbally saying that he does not care about his opinion.

“Nope, I hate those selfless hypocrites, and besides, he might not survive this one”, Liam blurted.

“What do you mean, he clearly won”, Nicolas pointed out.

“Just you watch, the power of the demon I acquired would not fall for a meager contest of strength”, Liam just laughed.

“Get away from that hole, Hunter!”, Anton yelled, putting himself on everyone’s line of sight.

“Shut up, you traitor!”, Alisa shot him, intentionally missing by an inch. The arrow landed beside his head. He froze for a bit as he heard the whooshing projectile on his left ear.

It called for a celebration, and Hunter finally eased out, but they soon knew that what Anton said was a genuine warning.

The exhausted boy flew into the air with no protection; his bare body absorbed all the impact and landed on the other side of the river, headfirst to the rocks.

“Told you he’ll die”, Liam proudly stared back at Nicolas.

Nicolas was iced up like he forgot to speak; when he spoke, it finally synced into him. “Make him stop. I’ll do anything. Just make him stop,”, he pleaded.

“Oh, you’re already doing what I want; there’s nothing left for you to do but wait, shut up, and watch the show because it will be the last things you’ll ever watch.”

No one was sure if Hunter survived that. All that Alisa and the others know, they have nowhere to go, no spirit to fight, and no power to win, especially when Alvor, his father and their strongest swordsman were wiped out of the action that early. They remained as spectators as the man jumped a few meters above ground and far enough to follow Hunter on the other side. The ground shook as he lifted off, just as he landed back down, leaving and creating a crater.

He was so large and heavy that even the flow of the river was disrupted for a moment. It danced like a glass of water on a shaking table.

Alisa took a shot again but the man kept disregarding him.

“We should help him”, she cried, convincing the others but they were all flustered. Some of them crying and one was even exclaiming on the top of his lungs.

“WERE ALL GONNA DIE”

“Wake up, Hunter!”, Alisa shouted, still pathetically shooting, hoping to disrupt what the giant had planned for the boy.

But she was never heard; the boy was unconscious and oblivious that he’s about to be crushed. Those big hands plummeted down like boulders and hit the target without any effort, causing another cave to appear.

Liam couldn’t help himself but laugh, for he thought that the faces of his enemies were a great subject for comedy. The intricate wrinkles on their foreheads, their wide veiny eyes, all having an agonizing expression.

He laughed and laughed, towering over Nicolas, who’s bearing the same expression.