Sealed in Steel [ Tank Litrpg ]

"There it is! The colossal abomination heads for the castle!" Reese led Elian to the giant shadow beast that took on the form of a centaur. The horns of its head were taller than the spire atop the town church's belfry it was passing by.

Reese and Elian chased after it, jumping on the rooftops to keep it in view.

Even if physically fit and extremely durable, Elian didn't have the inhuman lower body strength to leap across gaps of several feet. He had a difficult time climbing the Magistrate's temple back then. Same as before, his solution was to create Aether stepping blocks in the air. However, Elian had no way of keeping up with Reese's speed.

"I'll help my father!" Reese shouted before pulling ahead.

Verny and half a dozen spell shard swordsmen exited the church to attack the giant centaur—they were stationed in the center of the town to meet the threats that had managed to wander so deep. The hired mage was there too; he swam in the air, chucking fireballs at the shadow beast's head as he tried to lure it away from the southern part of town. There were also a dozen archers shooting from the church's rooftop, though their arrows, even if enchanted, didn't do much damage.

The giant centaur didn't care for the church, nor Verney's team trying to stop it. It was as if they were merely annoying flies.

Elian frowned as he sensed something was wrong. Why can't they damage it?

What was happening over there? Verney and his men, though not as strong as Maveron's team, should be able to take out a leg. Destroy two legs, and the giant centaur should come down easily enough. Elian couldn't get a good view of the fight because of the distance and the surrounding structures.

The giant centaur turned left down the main street and straight for the castle. Verney's men kept up their attacks. Elian also saw that many smaller shadow beasts followed the giant centaur.

Reese zoomed as fast as he could toward the giant centaur, the tiredness from the hours of fighting forgotten. Doubtless, the townspeople were on his mind. If ever the giant centaur reached the camps of the townspeople, dozens would die. Hundreds even.

Elian looked left, checking the other two giants.

The mercenaries were fighting one that looked like an insect with asymmetrical legs. But they were too few to bring it down quickly. The other giant shadow beast decided to turn around and attack a different section of the wall from behind. Elian thanked the Storm Gods that their problems were lessened a tiny bit.

Other than those three, no other giant shadow beast entered the town. Haford moved to the destroyed eastern wall and rallied the survivors of Maveron's men to stop any more of their larger enemies from entering the town.

But no way they could stop all of the smaller shadow beasts.

"You're the most pressing problem," Elian muttered, examining the giant centaur. Once they got rid of it, they could focus on the regular shadow beasts. And there were many of the smaller ones here.

The giant centaur leisurely trotted down the town's main street, crashing tents and wagons lining it. Occasionally, it smashed against a building. But it never stopped to purposely destroy any structure.

The number of its lesser kin following in its expansive footsteps continued to grow. They soon filled the streets, toppling posts with lantern orbs, plunging the town into darkness as they moved toward the castle.

Are they all coming here? Elian's forehead wrinkled in worry. The giant centaur headed straight for the castle, opening the way for the rest of its kind to kill the townspeople. Was this the strategy of the shadow beasts?

Reese must've realized the same thing. Elian saw that the prodigy swordsman rained slashes on the parade of shadow beasts as he pushed himself to get ahead of the giant centaur. Elian thought that the shadow beasts would climb the houses and shops to attack Reese, but they all ignored him.

Instead, the plentiful lesser shadow beasts latched onto the towering hind legs of the giant centaur and began to climb it. As they ascended, the regular-sized shadow beasts began to dissolve into their colossal kin's body.

"It's… It's getting bigger," Elian whispered. The giant centaur was now several feet taller than when it had passed by the church. It widened to fill the whole street, and more, sideswiping the buildings on both sides.

Verney and his men blew chunks off the giant centaur's flank. They were trying to reach the joint connecting the right foreleg to its body, perhaps aiming to tear the muscles pulling it, if such did exist in this monstrous physiology. But the craters they had made on the giant centaur's side soon closed.

"And it's healing too?" Elian cursed under his breath, understanding how the shadow beasts operated.

Reese had reached his father and tried his shot at the giant centaur. Reese used his most powerful attacks to stop it, flinging red crescents the size of canoes at its joints. The other shadow beasts absorbed most of the force. Reese's energy slashes couldn't dismember the giant centaur's legs. Any cuts he made were almost instantly healed, patched over by shadow beasts. Elian also noted that Reese had grown tired. After hours of fighting, anyone would be. Elian was too.

Is this their true plan? Maveron had mentioned that shadow beasts weren't mindless. They were capable of basic strategies, such as knowing to focus their forces on the town's weak points, such as the lower wall covering the previous breach.

But it would appear that they, or at least some of them, could come up with something more complex.

The earliest waves tested the town's defenses, the giant shadow beasts testing the walls until they could find somewhere to attack. Then came stronger and stronger waves, with more giant monsters, tiring out the defenders until something broke through. After a breach was made, the monsters would just go that way.

A simple enough strategy. It was anything but.

The real intent of the shadow beasts was to make the Grovenians accustomed to how strong a giant monster was, and how many men were needed to bring it down. Compared to actual Giants, the larger shadow beasts were fairly weak and easy to topple. If a regular soldier of the Giant King's army were to show up, decked out in full armor and enchantments, Maveron's men and the Azure Roc Company wouldn't be able to stop it.

When three giant shadow beasts managed to enter the town, Verney decided that they weren't much of a threat, calling for meager reinforcements. Verney had severely underestimated them due to previous encounters. It may very well be part of the shadow beasts' ruse that no more giant shadow beasts crossed the walls so that the defenders wouldn't do a full retreat, as they had previously done.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

By the time the centaur giant reached the center of the town, past the church where Verney and his men were stationed, the true plan of the shadow beasts was revealed—the centaur giant needed so many more men to kill.

Maveron and Haford were too far away. They would be too late to reinforce Verney if they had even noticed what was happening.

"Harmonize our strikes!" Elian heard Verney shout as he neared them. "Knee of the left foreleg!"

The giant centaur's knee was its most exposed leg joint. They just had to peel away the many shadow beasts covering it like padding. If they could weaken the foreleg, the giant centaur's hefty upper body would bear down on it, perhaps breaking it.

"Prepare!" Verney yelled. "Reese, you go after us."

"Yes, father!" Reese held his twin swords high. Blazing red lightning coiled around the blades.

The Grovenians glowed as they powered up their attacks, running on rooftops parallel to the giant centaur. Elian followed them. He only had his Tribulation to contribute; he was saving it for the direst eventuality.

Verney swung his sword and sent a shot out, swirling energies in the shape of a serpent. "Attack!"

The Grovenians obliged. A cacophony of lights lit up the night. Massive explosions threw shredded body parts of shadow beasts everywhere. Reese followed it with his attack, causing more blasts.

Dark smoke engulfed the main road, reaching up to the houses. Elian and the Grovenians waited with bated breath as they retreated to the rooftops.

The giant centaur stopped walking.

A second passed. Another. The shadow beasts chattered below.

"It's toppling!" Reese shouted, pumping a fist holding a sword in the air.

The Grovenians cheered as the giant centaur began to tip forward. It flailed its arms, smashing the wooden upper floors of buildings as it tried to stop itself from falling. It raised its left foreleg out of the dust clouds, revealing that it had indeed been severed below the knee.

But Elian couldn't get rid of a feeling of wrongness. Viney restlessly wriggled inside his arm. He couldn't understand what it was trying to tell him. And he also felt that intense negativity he had previously encountered when standing next to Thalman, before the Cursed priest shielded his body with Aether Constructs.

If Thalman was the source of negativity of the Dark Forest, the core of the resentment of the magical trees was inside this centaur giant. Elian could sense… something. A strong something inside it.

Would eliminating the source pacify the shadow beasts?

"No!" Verney suddenly shouted.

The centaur giant's severed leg regrew as it fell. The stump stretched out into a new leg and stopped the fall. The leg continued to extend, pushing the centaur giant back up.

"The smaller shadow beasts are remaking the leg," Elian said. "I didn't know they could combine like this."

"This is the first time that I've witnessed this, Penitent," said Verney. "Now, all our efforts are in vain. We cannot stop its advance on the castle."

Elian racked his brain for anything he could remember about the vengeful spirits of magical trees. Yes, magical trees, especially the ancient ones, could eventually form souls and personalities. But how did that translate to bodies? Wouldn't merging bodies mean they were merging their souls too?

What if they had one soul, fractured into many pieces? In some ways, a forest could be said to be one entity, with each living creature forming one part of the whole. Cells inside the human body were also living things on their own. That could be the case here. Possible that they were up against the vengeful spirit of a forest entity.

Knowing the answer wouldn't help Elian with the current situation.

Looking further down the main road, behind rows of chained wagons turned into walls, he could see people scrambling to flee. Fires erupted, probably from candles or torches that had fallen in the panic. The spreading fires over the camps stoked the fears, leading to more chaos.

Elian's memories of people fleeing before Giants returned to him. Desperate people would hurt or even trample their fellows to save themselves. He predicted many people would be injured or even dead just from the stampede to get out of the giant centaur's way.

"Penitent, how do we stop this?" Reese asked as the giant centaur resumed walking. In Reese's view, Elian seemingly had an idea for everything. Elian taught them about the seals and tanked colossal shadow beasts for hours.

However, Elian wasn't so sure that he had a solution. He could use his Tribulation to cut off another of the giant centaur's legs, but it would just reform.

"Viney?" Elian raised his right arm. Viney's tendrils feebly rose out of its tiny nook in his flesh. He wasn't controlling it.

Viney pointed at the giant centaur walking away with quaking footsteps.

Verney and the Grovenians switched to reducing the numbers of the other shadow beasts to lessen the capabilities of the giant centaur. A fine idea, but it was too late at this point.

Elian chased the giant centaur, with a confused Reese beside him.

"Penitent?" Reese asked, peering at Elian. "What are you doing? What's that on your arm?"

Tell me, Viney… Ignoring Reese, Elian cleared his thoughts and concentrated on connecting with Viney.

Whenever he'd order Viney, he didn't think of words; Viney wasn't going to understand those. He'd think of images, visualizing what he'd want to convey. Not even concrete images because Viney wouldn't understand most of it either.

Just thoughts. Yes, thoughts and emotions. He hoped that Viney would do the same and convey its message.

As a plant, Viney probably had a sense of connection with the shadow beasts that were once magical trees. Viney was also steeped in the same negative energies that fueled the growth of the shadow beasts—another possible connection.

Viney had saved Elian before, without his control. Elian was willing to bet Viney wanted to help again.

Swirls of sensations entered his mind. Difficult to piece together. Not human thoughts. Viney didn't even have a brain. More like instincts.

Something was there… Gripping his heart…

Not his own heart. The giant centaur. Its heart. Its core. A swirl of negativity, of resentment. Destroy it? No? Connect with it. How?

Elian jolted as it all came together. "Reese!"

"Right beside you," Reese replied. "Am I right to assume that you have a plan? We don't have much time."

"I need to get inside the giant centaur's body and—"

"What?"

"—reach the core inside its chest. I need you to open a way inside."

"Core? Inside the shadow beast? Have you gone insane? None of this deranged plan of yours, Penitent. Does this have something to do with that vine on your—"

Elian turned to Reese with a resolute face. "Trust me."

Reese paused for a moment before nodding. "I trust you. I don't know why, but I trust your crazy words. However, what you ask might be impossible. Even with the help of father and his men, I fear we don't have enough firepower to open the chest of the centaur shadow beast."

"Not through its chest," Elian said. "Further up. I'll enter down its mouth. Focus your attacks on its mouth and make a way for me. I'll use my Tribulation to go down further."

"That's insane!"

Elian laughed. "I tell myself that often. Anyway, as you've said—we don't have much time… or other options."

Moments later, Elian found himself above the centaur giant, precariously balancing himself on top of floating Aether blocks. He didn't have time to question his plan because he was focused on maintaining the Aether constructs. Keeping them afloat while bearing the weight of a man took a lot of concentration.

Down below, the Grovenians attacked the giant centaur's head, tearing wide open its mouth and throat. Elian jumped down as the Magistrate's tattoos glowed on his skin. "Smashburger, coleslaw, Tribulation!"