Sealed in Steel [ Tank Litrpg ]

B2. 13 - Practice with Giants



Elian and the Grovenians returned to the top of the walls. They gazed at the smoldering horizon. The clouds of smoke, both from the flames and the decomposing shadow beasts, obscured the hills. The wind spells of the town couldn't reach that far. But they had an alternative. Archers let loose arrows with small shards containing wind-burst spells at the hills.

As swirls of wind cleared the smoke, the next wave of enemies appeared. The hills had turned black with shadow beasts. Several towering giants, as large as the one Maveron and the others had just killed, headed the assault.

The archers set fire to the next layer of seals—the light stopped the monsters from turning into clouds and avoiding all the trap seals. Not that there were many of the trap seals left.

"This isn't the end of them," Maveron said. "I fear this is the beginning of the real attack."

"W-we can hold on," Reese said, his voice a pitch higher. He cleared his throat and spoke in a stronger voice, "If it turns out impossible to stop all of the titans of darkness from reaching the walls, we aim to minimize how much damage they can cause if we're quick about it."

"Clear the mobs," Elian said. "Take down the giants one by one, just as we've discussed. But it seems that the big guys heading our way all intend to break down this part of the wall."

Three towering forms approached with thunderous footfalls. The defenders had hoped for the larger monsters to spread out—it was much harder to kill one of the towering shadow beasts if there were others of the same size nearby—but the Storm God didn't listen to their pleas.

"Which one should we fell first?" Reese asked. "The right or the left one? This hefty fellow on the left is much larger and more menacing. Three heads. Several arms. Dealing with it will be a most dangerous affair, but we can't let it reach these walls. It can tear it down quite easily, I'm afraid."

"The abomination on the right is half its size, even if still quite large," said Maveron. "A quadruped. It cannot use its limbs to catch us. Cut off its legs and it's down. I opine we should go from easiest to kill to the most difficult—leave the three-headed one for last."

"Can we kill the three-headed bastard before it reaches the walls?" Reese wondered. "I doubt it, uncle. We should prioritize the most dangerous one."

"What are your thoughts, esteemed Penitent?" asked Maveron.

"Kill the smaller shadow giant first," Elian replied. "That's the fastest. All of you go for it. Then the middle one."

Reese pointed at the largest shadow giant. "What about the—?"

"That big guy's mine," said Elian. "Can't have it meddling in your fight or destroying the wall."

"Will you be alright, Penitent?" Reese asked. "I can join—"

"Go with the rest," Elian cut in. "Remember what Haford said—dividing our firepower means a slower killing speed. I'm confident the giant couldn't kill me. But I can't hold it for long. Be quick in killing the other shadow giants so you can help me."

Elian was also grabbing this opportunity for more practice as a tank. Better get as much experience as he can before going up against the real deal. Even if the enemy couldn't damage him with physical attacks, they could incapacitate him. Worse, they could kill him even without magic. Getting suffocated under the stinky feet of a Giant would be a humiliating way to go.

And he couldn't allow himself to die. No more retries.

Maveron led the group down the walls again, aiming to eliminate the shadow giants before they reached the walls. They didn't wait for all the lesser shadow beasts to get wiped out because the giant ones drew ever closer. Those long strides equated to speed. The agreed-upon strategy was to delay the actual fighting in front of the walls for as long as they could—if it were relatively safe to engage the shadow beasts outside the walls, then go for it.

Elian broke away from the group and headed left.

"May the Hundred-Armed Magistrate's hand guide your path!" Reese shouted at Elian, raising a sword in salute.

I doubt the Magistrate cares much about me, Elian thought as he gathered Aether. Instead of making his constructs glow blindingly bright—it was dumb to incapacitate himself in the process—he formed dozens of low-level orbs displaying various colors. With expert control, he made them frolic in the air like excited bees, making himself a bright target even the shadow giants couldn't miss.

With his rainbow swarm, Elian stood in front of the giant with way too many arms. It was so tall that Elian couldn't see the features of its three heads.

The shadow giant had noticed him. It knelt, causing a tremor, and winded back one of its arms for a punch.

Elian might be able to evade this strike. However, he thought it better not to. This wasn't like the computer games he used to play, where tanks had a taunt skill that could keep an enemy focused on his character. If the shadow giant couldn't catch or hit him, it might just ignore him altogether and continue heading for the town.

He couldn't allow that to happen. Maveron and the other Grovenians were busy with the other shadow giants. It was his role to entertain this giant, and he wouldn't fail.

A boulder-sized fist came for Elian, whistling down at an angle. Digging his feet into the ground, he leaned into the strike. The punch collided with him and pushed him back a few yards. His feet raked a mound of dirt.

But then, the punch stopped, its force depleted by his Armor attribute.

The shadow giant retrieved its arm. Elian remained standing. The giant's many heads bowed to look at him, their glowing red eyes growing bigger in confusion. Slits opened all over its faces; rows of fangs revealed them to be mouths. The giant howled in anger. Many guttural voices layered in a deafening chorus.

"Okay, I got its attention," Elian said with a grim smirk, barely able to hear his own voice over the giant's din. "Now, I just have to survive this."

The shadow giant pulled back its many arms, balling its many fists. Its fearsome form was framed by the flames on the hills.

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Elian gripped his mace tightly with his right hand. He turned sideways to protect his mace. He barely had time to chuckle at the thought of protecting his weapon when the shadow giant rained down punches on him.

It was like nonstop Tribulations descending from the heavens. Elian could no longer make sense of what was happening. All he knew was fleshy pistons, as wide as Gideon's carriage, pummeled him unceasingly. Smaller shadow beasts trying to attack him got crushed by the giant's angry fists.

It's not stopping, Elian thought, as several seconds passed. He could feel himself getting buried into the shadow beast's flesh. It's really trying its best to kill me.

Ethereal flesh and bone crashed against him. His world turned upside down. At one point, he was tumbling in the air. Next, he was embedded into the ground. He got dislodged when a punch missed him, landing a foot to his right. It created a crater next to him, its rising rim flinging him away. He tried to stand up as he tumbled over the ground, but the shadow giant gave no pause in its attacks.

Through it all, he had only one thought: don't let go of my precious mace!

Each punch rocked his body. Pain piled up and started to get more pronounced. Losing his mace would mean a huge chunk of his Armor attribute would be gone. He couldn't risk suddenly getting less tanky and suffering serious injuries.

He didn't know how long had passed—a minute, probably—before the shadow giant stopped punching him.

Elian got stuck face down in the dirt and stinky muck that was the remains of shadow beasts. He pushed himself up, right hand still holding the mace's handle. "Ow, my stomach." His mace was underneath him.

He had cuts and bruises in places. Soreness plagued his body. No way he'd come out unharmed after that barrage of attacks. Fortunately, he didn't have any broken bones. Viney seemed to be fine, too, though Elian couldn't use it to regenerate because of its condition.

The giant grunted in annoyance to see Elian still alive and moving about. It held up its arms. Its hands were gone, shredded to nubs against Elian's body and the ground. Such was its fury in punching him. That explained all the smoking chunks spread through the many craters.

"Ghroargh!" the giant shadow beast bellowed, raising its stumpy arms. It wasn't giving up.

Streaks of red light covered its leg, which was on the ground. Reese was here, cutting the giant's joints. Dark blood spurted. The giant tried to stand up from its kneeling position, but staggered as its leg started to give.

Elian turned right, wondering what happened to the other big guys.

The four-legged shadow giant was down, three of its legs cut off from under it. Maveron's group didn't finish it off because they immediately engaged with the middle giant, a humanoid with long arms that dragged across the ground. They got a handle on things, and Reese decided to get a start on the three-headed giant.

Checking leftward, Elian saw that Haford and his men had taken down a serpent-like shadow beast with its body large enough to swallow Gideon's carriage whole. Their enemies were so large that Elian had to use Gideon's carriage as a unit of measure. Unfortunately, though Haford's group managed to take down one shadow giant, another had already reached the walls and started slamming it with its flabby slug body. The noise of each crash reached Elian.

Elian clicked his tongue. He couldn't go to Haford's area and help.

It was made clear during their planning that every team should stay put until Verney ordered otherwise. They couldn't decide on their own to leave their spot.

Focus on the giants in front of us. Elian rushed at the giant with three heads, summoning flashy Aether constructs to get its attention. He was able to distract it for a few seconds, giving Reese an opening to cut its other leg.

The giant's knee exploded, its muscles tearing. It flailed its main arms as it toppled forward.

"Penitent!" Reese shouted. "Get out of the way!"

"I know!" Elian sprinted to the right.

The shadow giant fell to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust, ash, and magical miasma. Elian covered his nose as he kept running, managing to keep his footing through the tremors. His eyes watered, and the sense of foreboding from the negative energies gripped his heart. Such an annoying enemy to fight.

He managed to find his way out of the dust clouds. "What the hell's happening?" The quaking continued. Shouldn't it stop? Oh, shit.

The three-headed giant crawled on the ground with its stumpy arms like some kind of insect. Elian and Reese were on its side. Its path to the town was clear.

"Reese! Maveron!"

The Grovenians blew past Elian tried to catch up to the giant. Maveron leapt on top of the giant's back and slammed his magically weighted sword down. That stopped the giant. Reese got to work cutting off its arms. The cannons on the towers also helped. With the rest of the Grovenians arriving, the giant was finally stopped.

"That was close," Elian said. A couple more seconds, and the giant shadow beast would've rammed the weaker wall.

The fight gave him a couple of realizations: one, he needed some kind of movement ability; and two, he needed some way to hold the enemy. His tankiness was useless if he got left behind by the enemy he was supposed to stop.

"Up the walls! Up the walls!" Maveron beckoned to everyone. "Enemies incoming!"

The regular-sized shadow beasts were far weaker than the giants. But they were more numerous and could overwhelm the Grovenians with sheer numbers. The next wave of shadow beasts was so thick that the archers, cannons, and long-ranged spells couldn't dent their numbers.

Soon, the rabid monsters reached the walls and began to scramble up. Since many of them had sharp claws that could grab onto stone blocks, they didn't need ladders or siege towers. Shadow beasts were on the walls.

"Throw them off!" Maveron swung his sword, batting away several monsters.

Elian couldn't do much in the melee. He was just another wall, holding back shadow beasts until Reese could kill them. This highlighted the need for abilities or spells that'd give him more utility in combat. Being hard wasn't enough.

An hour passed, and the wave thinned. The Grovenians sortied out of the walls, quickly finishing the straggling shadow beasts as a fresh batch of giants loomed over the horizon.

"This… is it," Reese said. He was covered in black slime. And so were the rest of the defenders.

"We can't stop them from reaching the walls this time," Elian said.

"I share your assessment, esteemed Penitent," Maveron said. He ordered a message to be relayed to the command post. Drums rolled and horns trumpeted.

Verney responded after several seconds. Red fireworks shot up the sky from the top of the town church's belfry. The archers complied and shot at the pits that were prepared along the line of houses outside the town. The destroyed houses. The pits, filled with oil and dried grass, roared in flames just as the shadow giants passed them.

The sprawling fire reached the 'surprise' hidden among the destroyed houses, igniting the alchemical bombs made from the very magical trees that used to stand on these lands. Those bombs were the main products of Golden Grove. It was also ironic that the magical trees, the original bodies of the shadow beasts, would be used to kill them.

The line of bombs exploded. The earth groaned and quaked. The shockwave and the sound of the blast reached the walls.

Smaller shadow beasts died in the hundreds, their black ashes mixing with the tons of soil thrown in the air. Giant shadow beasts began to fall as their legs were shredded. But there was more to come.

"This is going to be a long night," Elian murmured, a cold hand gripping his heart. With these many shadow beasts, he now understood how Golden Grove was destroyed. He'd continue fighting no matter what.


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