As the dust settled and the initial shock was gone, the sound of the battle was drowned out by the panic of the people around. People flooded away as fast as they could, and it didn't take long before the emergency sirens went off either.

"Warning! Warning! A rampaging Villain has been spotted in the vicinity! Evacuate Immediately!" the sound blasted into Ryan's ears, only adding onto the already noisy environment. He didn't know what was going on, but that was Yamada just now, right? What was happening?

However, Ryan didn't have to wait long to have that questioned answered. From around the corner, a living mountain pushed itself forward, digging its hands into the corners of the nearby buildings for support.

Whatever that was, there was no way it was a person... right? But it definitely felt like one, despite how it looked. Stone covered its whole body, and the only thing hinting at a person was half the face that was still uncovered. Bulging veins that looked like metal pipes climbing up a building covered the dozen-metre tall being. This felt far too familiar, and Ryan's suspicion was quickly supported by the thin green strands that floated off that thing's body, like spider threads on a windy day.

But while that was the case... the Light of Guidance wasn't pointing Ryan at that rampaging titan, but rather at Yamada, who was recovering in the middle of the road, "Yamada got the fragment, so I-"

Runar interrupted his nephew instantly, "No! Leave, now! Take Liam and get as far away as you can!"

"But I-"

"Ryan."

As the two locked eyes for a moment, frustration flooded into Ryan's body. All these people running away, scared for their lives. He never wanted to get into heroics, but he couldn't just stand here and do nothing, right? But... how the hell was Ryan supposed to fight something like that? He didn't even awaken a physical class, or one actually meant for combat at all. Sure, Maximus was with him, but that didn't mean anything either. Maximus wasn't strong enough to take something like... something like that.

"Go, and take Liam. I'll try to send the fragment to you, but just get out of here for now. Yamada and I can take care of this," Runar assured. As the rune mage turned and ran toward the commotion, Ryan turned back to the restaurant that had already been mostly abandoned, his teeth grinding against each other. There were only two people left in there. Liam, who was hiding under the counter, his head between his legs, and Chantora who was trying to get him out so they could all get to safety.

The bottle of artificial blood was spilled on the ground next to Liam, seeping into his clothes. Ryan squatted down next to him, grabbing the boy's arm, "Get up! We need to go!"

Liam was shaking. He was just trying to keep his hands pressed against his ears, "I-I can't, I... don't make me go... Please, please don't..."

The knot in Ryan's throat returned, but he had to push through it, "If we don't go, we can get hurt. Really, really hurt."

Liam glanced up at Ryan, his eyes filled with tears. He wanted to talk, but couldn't get any words out. With a slight sigh, Ryan pushed his hands under the boy's legs and tightly held onto his shoulders, "You're a king, aren't you? Then act like it, and listen to this knight of yours!"

Ryan jumped up, surprised at just how light Liam was. Sure, he was just a kid, but this was ridiculous. He was just so... thin, "Hold onto me, we don't have the leisure of comfort right now. Chantora, are you-"

"Just get movin' and don't worry about me! I can handle myself, just get out of here!" the chef exclaimed, practically pushing Ryan and Liam out of the restaurant. Without a moment's hesitation, Ryan did as told and rushed outside. Most people were gone from the streets by now. Ryan had to get down to the street-level somehow, being up here wasn't safe at all. If that titan and Yamada were up here, they probably left quite a lot of destruction in their path. So the stairway they took earlier was out of question.

Ryan pushed himself forward, as Liam's thin arms wrapped around his neck to support himself. He turned around the corner, running into a nearby alley. He remembered there being another stairway in this direction. But right as he entered the alley, the foot of the titan pressed down on the other side; the ground shook like this was an earthquake.

"R-Ryan, I-"

"It's fine, I got you," Ryan reassured Liam, smiling down at him. His legs felt like giving out right now too, but he couldn't let that happen. He turned around and continued running, "Just close your eyes and don't focus on what's happening."

Liam nervously closed his eyes, pressing his head against Ryan's chest, "I... I'm scared..."

"That's fine. It's normal to be scared in a situation like this," Ryan turned around the corner, "Just listen to my voice, we're almost out of here."

There were people running into a building, so that was probably either the way down or some kind of shelter. But while those people were running in, there were others running out; people carrying guns wearing assault gear.

Were those people called here to fight against that rampaging titan? Or... were they on that titan's side? Ryan knew that Bluesky practically had a private army, and they each carried weapons enhanced through skills, and many of them were awakened gunmen in the first place. But that didn't matter right now. He had to trust that Runar and Yamada could handle themselves.

"Are you excited for school tomorrow?" Ryan asked, trying to keep his breathing calm as he continued running. Liam almost flinched at the question, clearly not expecting it.

"Wha-What? School?"

"Yeah, are you excited? You remember Modak, right? I'm pretty sure his brothers go to the same school," he explained, and Liam quietly answered.

"That was the... the orc, right?" he asked.

"That's the one. His brothers are a bit of a handful, but they're good kids. I'm sure you'll get along with them," as Ryan explained, he ran up to a bench and climbed on top of it, using it to jump over the barricade between the footpaths and the road. Even up here there were cars sometimes, but they seemed to mostly be small delivery vehicles. Just like the one that was currently being thrown through the air, right into the direction of the building Ryan was running to. He stopped and pulled back, turning around to cover Liam from any debris that might be flung around.

The young boy buried his fingers in Ryan's shirt, "And... and what if they don't like me?"

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Surprised by the question, Ryan didn't immediately know what to say. Sure, he figured that Liam was a bit insecure behind all that 'King' stuff he protected himself with, but revealing how he felt now of all times wasn't really what he thought would happen.

Slowly, Ryan stood back up, "Then they don't like you. That's fine. There's plenty of people that don't like me, either. But I've got a couple of really amazing friends to make up for that. You'll find people like that too, alright?"

Liam carefully nodded as they got closer to the building. They weren't that far away, when the ground in front of the two cracked open. Ryan could barely pull away as a large chunk of the ground, directly between himself and the entrance to the building, fell down to the ground, soon landing on the rooftop of a small building below the overhanging platform.

Even then, there wasn't much time for Ryan to even process what was happening, only able to pull Liam closer to his body in case they fell, as a small blob of green appeared in the corner of his eye.

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

Runar jumped up into the air, clearing the punch from the oversized giant that was attacking them. He glanced over to Yamada.

"Giant Berserker + Fragment Experiment," she quickly filled Runar in, briefly holding one of her guns with her teeth so that she could sign. One of her eyes was shut because of blood that was flowing from her forehead, so she was already in a rough situation. Runar quickly nodded his head, flicking his wrist with his pen in his hand. He drew something into the air, and then continued running. As he did, Runar quickly wrote something onto his underarm as another strike from the giant came at him.

Runar stopped moving, waiting for the right moment. The mellow green droplets spread over the skin of his arm as he swung it to the side. A pillar of rock shot up diagonally, pushing away the giant's arm rapidly. The sudden jolt against the weighted-down arm made giant topple over, dropping onto his knees. Runar twisted his arm around, making another pillar of stone shoot right into the giant's face, throwing him backward quite a bit.

As Yamada came over to him, Runar drew another rune into the air, leaving it there for the time being. When the devil reached him, Runar quickly wiped the blood away from above her eye, writing a few runes onto her skin to stop the bleeding for a while.

After pulling back, Runar signed to her, "Do you have the fragment?"

Yamada quickly nodded, pulling it out of her pocket before pressing the small green stone into the man's hand.

"Keep him busy, I'll send this to Ryan so we can concentrate on taking him-" Runar started, but he didn't even need to finish before Yamada ran off back toward the giant. She began to shoot at him without hesitation. Each shot seemed to take a brief moment to 'charge up', but once the bullet hit, and they did without fail, large chunks of rock were torn off from the giant's body.

Meanwhile, Runar looked at the fragment, unable to stop himself from clicking his tongue, "Shabby workmanship," he grumbled, trying to erase the enchantments on the surface of the gemstone as he placed it down on the ground. After wiping some of the debris away, Runar quickly drew a magic circle around the fragment, as he turned to the side. During the battle between Yamada and the giant, one of those small delivery cars driving up around here was kicked toward Runar.

Rolling his eyes, Runar held his hand outward, blocking the empty car. Though, part of the metal was so dented that it was flung off, hitting the magic circle that Runar had been drawing, "Fucking-"

Annoyed, Runar got up. He held the pen between his lips, pushing his fingers into the metal of the car. With a loud groan, he heaved it above his head, returning it to the giant. Grabbing the pen again, Runar muttered to himself, "Berserkers... always messing up my work."

As he squatted back down to continue, Runar noticed from the corner of his eye that the giant had deflected the car, and it was currently being thrown over some of the smaller nearby buildings. Figuring, or rather, hoping, that it wouldn't hit anyone, Runar quickly continued drawing the magic circle. Before long, it was finished and Runar activated it; the droplets of Runar's mana gathered around Gaia's fragment, before taking on the form of a small fish. With the fragment floating in its centre, that fish speedily swam away right toward Ryan.

Now that he could concentrate on the battle itself, Runar pulled up his pant legs, drawing a few runes onto his skin, but as he got back up, the giant had its arms raised up above his body. At first Runar wondered if he was trying to surrender, but from that completely maddened look in his eyes, that wasn't the case. The giant slammed his arms down onto the ground. Though extremely thick and built using the surrounding buildings as support, most of this area was an elevated platform above the busy streets of the Channel.

And as the giant slammed his hands into the ground, massive cracks formed that immediately spread far beyond just this street. Panic set in as Runar watched parts of the platform sink down. This part in particular was above one of the Channel's main roads. Without hesitation, Runar leapt to the closest platform that was in danger of sinking down, drawing a simple pattern onto it. Luckily this spell didn't require a ton of complicated runes, since it had been fine-tuned specifically for situations like this. The moment the pattern was activated, the platform stopped sinking down, levitating in place. But this wasn't the only part of the platforms that was in danger of falling. He wouldn't be able to do anything about small debris, but it looks like the people below had been warned to evacuate as well, so hopefully nothing too bad should happen.

Having already sunken below the platform, Runar activated the spell he just placed onto his legs, jumping forward. The moment he pressed his foot onto the underside of the platform, he began to stick to it and was able to run upside down to get closer to the other large pieces falling down. After dodging past the platform's support beams, Runar kicked off and jumped to the next piece. He drew the same pattern as before, activated it, and jumped to the next. Like this, Runar jumped from piece to piece, trying to stop as many of them as he could that could potentially injure someone. In the end, he was able to stop most of the ones that seemed like they were in imminent danger of dropping near where people were running away, though the last of them stopped just a few metres above the street.

The pieces of the platform would now start slowly sinking down to the street level, and once in a solid position, the spell would deactivate. But until then, Runar could use them to get back up. He kicked off the piece that he was on right now, jumping back up to the next and then the next. When they were too far away from each other, Runar ran on the side of the closest building for a while, before finally making his way back up.

Before long, Runar made his way back up to the fractured platforms, where Yamada was still whittling down at the giant. It seemed like her pacifying bullets weren't able to take him down, so Runar had to take over. He glanced around; the runes that he had drawn into the air were still levitating in space. Perfect.

Since Yamada seemed like she was able to keep the giant busy, Runar kept jumping around, drawing different runes into the air, practically using them to draw a circle around the large giant. Once he was done, Runar and Yamada locked eyes for a moment, and she quickly nodded. Runar grabbed a piece of debris on the ground and threw it at Yamada, who was jumping through the air trying to avoid the holes now all over of the platform. She kicked off the piece of debris, pushing herself out of the confines of the large circles of runes. Once only the giant was left within, Runar held his hand forward.

He started to speak in a slow, clean, and deliberate manner. The words were clear, but to anyone else would sound like gibberish, as the runes whose sounds had been lost to most over the centuries were vocalized. As he did, not only his eyes were letting off the characteristic glow of mana-usage, but his mouth was filled with that similar green light. Runes that were engraved onto his tongue, but were hidden most of the time, were glowing as he spoke, strengthening his spell.

The runes that Runar placed into the air were glowing as well, as green droplets started spreading out from them, placing themselves into a regular pattern in a dome around the giant, with the runes as the perimeter. Once they were all in place, the runes thinned out into sheet, connecting to each other and forming a barrier around the giant.

Carefully, Runar took a step forward, and as if the barrier was fleeing from him, it grew smaller and smaller. The giant didn't even know what was happening until the barrier touched his head, slowly but surely pressing him down. Completely enraged, the giant tried to strike at the barrier closing in on him, but no matter what he did, it would only grow closer, until he wasn't even able to stand any more.

Before long, he was forced onto his knees, when the barrier began to contort to his silhouette, practically trapping him in the position he was currently in.

Runar scoffed, finally looking into the fury-filled eyes of the stone-covered, enlarged man, "See? You know how to stay still after all."