Chapter 97

For the Titan, this world is too fragile.

On this planet, among the creatures that walk the land and fly in the sky, there are few that can match the size of Titans.

Even those that possess wisdom, use tools, and have honed combat skills, if they exist on the ground, would only be other Titans.

Beryl observed the Titan who had suddenly invaded the village and taken the heads off two Titans with a look of intrigue.

An unfamiliar outfit.

But it is quite well-made.

“Are you a banished one?”

Beryl thought about when the recent selection ceremony had occurred and if there had been any Titans like that among those banished.

“It’s not like I would remember.”

The selection ceremony, which had been a matter of life and death, was of no concern to those like him and his fellow Titan.

To them, the disputes of the lesser beings were trivial.

Yet, the fact that a banished one was still alive and, although he had ambushed, was able to eliminate two Titans in an instant.

“A rare case.”

It had been boring due to the unilateral massacre.

There were dead ones, but if the banished one could kill in one blow, wouldn’t it be no problem if they had simply died right there?

It would be a waste of precious food.

Unlike Beryl, who watched the situation with an interesting expression despite having lost two subordinates, Golb, who had followed in panic at Silv’s charge, bit his lip.

“Silv, you fool!”

It was fine that he had killed two at once, but now the enemy had begun to be wary of them.

In the commotion, Golb was also spotted by those watching around.

The giants that surrounded the human village numbered over twenty, and some were even wielding swords.

This alone made the situation quite dangerous…

Golb looked at the relaxed giant despite his subordinates being dead.

“Gigas.”

Just as his master was a High Elf, an outstanding being among Elves, if there were such beings among Titans, they would be the Gigas.

Actual rulers of the giants who did not participate in the selection ceremony as they could not compete with normal Titans.

Given that Silv had already ventured too deep, if Gigas were present, escaping seemed unlikely.

‘… Whether there’s a thought to escape is also a problem.’

He was completely enraged at the sight of the humans’ village devastated.

Silv, who had been friendly with humans and cherished them.

Given his brother’s kind personality, it was impossible not to be troubled by such atrocities.

Moreover, he was already struggling with his own powerlessness due to recent events involving his master.

“Builder… Builder!”

“They’re not bad giants! It’s Silv!”

“Silv will defeat all the bad giants!”

“Over there, Golb is also here!”

The fleeing humans suddenly shouted as they looked at Silv, who had just broken the necks of two giants, and the slightly distant Golb, but for Golb, this was an awkward situation.

“What’s this? Were you famous among humans?”

While the other giants were all on guard, Beryl stepped forward with an amused expression, seemingly finding the situation entertaining, and spoke to Silv.

Silv glared at Beryl with furious eyes and growled.

“Are you their leader?”

“…You have a foul mouth. Don’t you know who I am? You seem a bit slow-witted.”

“Answer me!”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m the leader of these fellows.”

“In the giants’ territory, abundant with food, why did you kill humans? You’re not even hungry! Just playing around!”

At Silv’s outcry, Beryl scratched his head.

“Really? Is a Titan angry just because these humans died?”

“Just…? This is not just! They have families—!”

“Ah, I’m not really interested in that sort of thing.”

Beryl said in an irritated voice.

“I thought something fun would pop up, but it turns out you’re just an oddball. Well, guess you must have been banished from the village for being lacking.”

Then Beryl suddenly had an expression as if he had thought of something.

“Speaking of banished ones, do you happen to know a woman banished from around here?”

At that statement, not only Silv but also Golb, who was holding off the movements of the other giants outside the encirclement of the village, reacted.

The woman that giant referred to was probably not a human woman.

And if it were a female Titan living in Human Territory, unless a new wandering giant had descended from the north…

Both of their minds raced with ominous intuition.

“She was a bit peculiar. Not a man, and it seems like it’s been quite a while since a woman was banished but still alive, and there were traces of other Titans having lived in the cave, aside from her.”

Silv’s face, as well as Golb’s, hardened.

“…What did you do to her?”

Golb’s voice trembled with anger accompanied by dire imaginings.

Beryl, not tearing his gaze from Silv to look at Golb, spoke with a bored expression.

“What did I do? That woman, who should have died long ago, hid among humans, so I gave her an ‘honorable’ death. Well, my subordinates did have a little fun with her first, though.”

As Golb continued to break down Beryl’s words and interpret them multiple times slowly, he gradually came to accept the harsh reality and his face twisted like that of a fiend.

“Kill—her—for me!”

Boom! Crash! Thud!

With that, accompanied by a thunderous roar, the ground shook as Golb’s body charged forward.

“…Both of you have good lungs.”

Beryl frowned slightly and commanded the Titans.

“Banished ones. Those who live off humans. Deal with them. It would be nice if you could play with them a bit to make them understand their place before killing them.”

“Are we the only ones to do it?”

“If I step in, it’ll end quickly.”

“…It looks a bit dangerous.”

“If they’re the kind to die or get hurt by those banished vermin, that’s all they’re worth. It would be a gain for them to die.”

At Beryl’s cold words, the Titans grimaced yet complied.

They dared not refuse the orders of a Titan of Gigas.

With the angry giant brothers’ charge accompanied by a tremendous noise, the battle commenced.

◈ ◈ ◈

Signs of the world’s destruction were present.

It was a thought that arose in the minds of humans trying to keep as far away from the giants’ conflict as possible.

The sky was clear without a cloud in sight, yet there was a constant thundering sound as if lightning was striking the ground.

Every time the giants stomped the ground with all their might, enormous tremors reverberated.

As giants much larger than the height of the barriers struggled, everything around them was swept away.

A giant fell, crashing down after being hit by the punches from the giants, which contained long-held memories of two homes that collapsed beneath its weight.

Bang! Bang!

Boom!

“Ugh!”

When a giant stomped the ground, a person screamed after being struck by a stone that came flying at incredible speed from a distance.

Merely having been hit by a stone that flew due to the aftermath of the battle, but it left a bruise.

If it had struck his head, he might have died.

The fight among the giants was like a calamity that humans could not possibly resist.

“Ugh—oh!”

Kaboom!

As three giants descended upon the fatigued Silv, he howled and fell to the ground.

Besides the two who had been killed without a fight, four other giants had already perished, leaving a tally of dead giants exceeding four.

When considering that over ten Titans had surrounded a single Silv, it was an extraordinary result.

However, Silv was not unscathed either.

He was bleeding profusely from wounds that appeared to be from sharp objects around his shoulder and waist, soaking his clothes with crimson blood.

He could not withstand the punches of the giants, resulting in numerous bruises covering his body beneath the torn clothing.

“Stab—me!”

Several of the few giants holding swords charged at Silv, who was struggling to get up.

“Ugh!”

Silv’s eyes widened in pain.

The sword that aimed for his heart lodged within his body, deviating from its original position and merely piercing one side.

However, the sword embedded deep within him was undoubtedly a fatal wound.

Perhaps due to his laxity?

As the pressure bearing down on Silv slightly eased, he saw his chance, and his fist shot out.

“Ugh!”

Silv’s fist crushed the neck of one of the giants holding onto him, breaking it cleanly.

He kicked at one of the two giants who had been taken aback in shock.

“Ugh!”

Though it wasn’t a fatal wound, the impact was significant, and the one hit retreated while clutching the injured area.

“This bastard!”

The giant who had stabbed Silv tried to wriggle the sword around in his body, attempting to disrupt him.

“What—!”

Silv’s fist came crashing down on the face of the giant who was struggling with the sword’s handle.

With a sickening crack—

The terrible sound echoed as the face of the giant struck by the punch exploded, and one of its massive eyes rolled away and crashed into a fallen house.

Six.

Silv quietly murmured.

“…Insane.”

The giants felt a chill as they watched Silv stand up, swaying, with a massive sword embedded in his abdomen and a ghastly glare in his eyes.

Even excluding the two giants who died first, eleven giants had fought against a single giant but already six had been added to the fatalities, leaving only five; less than half of the original number.

Moreover, among the dead were actual warriors in the true sense.

“Ch… Chasing a banished one.”

Though he spoke those words, they held no strength.

Whether parent or child, a banished one is someone who lost in the selection ceremony and was expelled from the village.

The moment two of the charging giants were killed by a single punch, the notion of looking down upon him vanished.

Each punch swung by Silv was lethal, while even the punches swung by the giants merely managed to knock him off balance and not bring him down.

Even in the situation where a sword was stuck in him, the fact he still stood up and had not lost his spirit was enough to instill fear.

Golb’s situation was even worse.

Over there, five had died as well, but it seemed to have exhausted them; unlike Silv, they had not managed to embed a knife into their opponent’s abdomen.

Beryl, who had initially laughed at the cruel execution, now wore a stiff expression.

The atmosphere of the battlefield was honest.

While one side consisted of just two and the other was severely injured, it was the group of over ten giants who seemed to be losing morale.

Perhaps due to that?

When dozens of giants crashed through the stone walls and barriers, hope and courage flickered in the eyes of the human onlookers who had been filled with despair.

“Hang in there, Giant!”

From a little distance, a shrill voice of encouragement rang out.

“Shut up!”

Hearing that, one of the giants angrily picked up a nearby stone and threw it.

To the giant, it was small enough to fit in one hand, but to the humans, the rapidly flying rock felt like a boulder, and they screamed.

Thud—

Silv staggered.

As Silv moved to shield the stone that was flying towards the humans with his own body, he glared at the giants with fierce eyes and shouted.

“Look at me! Cowards! Are you weak humans unable to fight?!”

Despite the knife embedded in his abdomen, even though it must have hurt to yell at the top of his lungs, he showed no signs of pain, leaving everyone stunned.

Only Golb discreetly eyed Silv, trying to hide his anxious expression.

“…Foolish giants.”

Seeing his injured brother being overwhelmed by five enemies became an eyesore, and Beryl finally took the sword of a struggling warrior and stepped forward.

“Hey, you lowly one.”

“…What is it… coward?”

“You don’t seem too spirited for someone who’s dying.”

Beryl aimed his sword at Silv and spoke.

“You fought decently. For a lowly bloodline, banished one, and one who roamed the wild, you’ve been all right. Did you figure it out yourself?”

“You… don’t understand anything…”

Silv wheezed out, panting heavily.

“…I wasn’t expecting you to tell me anything. Separately, you seem a bit too valuable to die here. If you apologize for the rudeness you’ve shown me and beg for forgiveness, I’ll let you and that one over there go. Once this is all over, you can return to your village. After all, it seems like a lot of useless parasites have disappeared, so there’s quite some room.”

“Don’t make me laugh… You killed my mother. You’ve killed many humans… Get lost… This is human territory.”

“Oh… was the woman I killed your mother? That’s a bit unfortunate. But still—”

“Get lost!”

Blood spilled from Silv’s mouth as he screamed.

Beryl narrowed his brow, then looked over at Golb, who had temporarily stopped fighting.

“What about you?”

“I’m the same as Silv. Get lost. We won’t return to that ugly place.”

“Hmm.”

Beryl feigned indifference, turned back to Silv, and commanded the giants.

“You lot, while I play with this one, finish half of him. They look like brothers, but they’re both a pair of ill-mannered bastards. I suppose the Gigas must have looked down on them, thinking they’d gain glory by fighting against trash!”

Beryl moved slowly towards Silv, aiming his sword at him.

“Before I kill you, I’ll have to teach you some manners.”

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