Chapter 37: Behind the Rubble Wall

North tunnel,

"blam...blam...rat...tat...tat...tat,"

Light from magic bullets flew everywhere, turning the dark corridor bright as day. The GEMAs, tanks, and even the infantry troops kept firing down the hallway from behind the barricade that marked the boundary between the tunnel mouth and the city. Suddenly, "psiuuu," a fire-element rocket streaked toward the barricade and "blam," an GEMA caught in the blast exploded, killing its pilot and the surrounding troops. The faces of the remaining pilots and infantry turned pale,

"Fire... don’t stop... fire!" shouted the commander.

Tightening their jaws, narrowing their eyes, and summoning their reckless courage, everyone resumed firing. Standing before them were five giants roughly 22 or 23 feet tall, heavily built, wearing sleeveless iron chest armor, iron shoulder guards, iron gauntlet gloves, iron armored pants extending to iron boots, and helmets concealing their faces like gladiators. They carried weapons that combined a gatling gun with a massive cleaver, casually marching toward the barricade.

Every elemental magic bullet fired by the GEMA squad and the infantry bounced off them harmlessly. Then, "blam," a tank shot a sharp, wind-element cannon round toward one of the giants, impacting his body and causing an explosion. The giant stopped and took a step back, looking down at his struck chest and wiping it off before the four other giants glanced over at him, remaining completely unbothered beneath the hail of gunfire,

"Hoo... you alright?" asked one giant in their language.

"Heh... felt that a bit, but I’m fine," answered the giant who was hit.

"Hahaha... looks like human capability is still just at this level, let’s keep moving, we’re eating good tonight," another giant replied.

One giant aimed his gatling gun toward the GEMA squad and infantry, "dziiiing," firing a continuous volley as "blam," several explosions erupted at the tunnel mouth. The five giants laughed loudly behind their helmets, advancing slowly, having already secured their victory. Meanwhile, the GEMA squad and the city defense forces began to panic, firing blindly. They even resorted to launching giant fireballs, stalactite-like ice spears, and wind slashes sharp as tornadoes, yet the five giants merely raised their hands and absorbed every attack, continuing their relentless forward march.

Just as the city defense forces ran out of options and fell into utter despair, "blaaaar," the tunnel ceiling suddenly collapsed and the ground split wide, rising to form a barrier of rubble and debris, separating the giants from the city defense forces.

"Cease fire... what happened? How could that high tunnel ceiling collapse?" asked the city defense military commander, utterly bewildered by the sight.

Meanwhile, the giants behind the barrier stepped aside to the right and left, spotting a gaping fissure in the earth between them that emitted a layer of frost. One giant turned to look at the wall formed from ceiling debris and raised earth, everything coated in snow like the terminal stop of a mountain avalanche.

"What is this? Why did the ceiling collapse all of a sudden? Hey... who shot the ceiling and split the earth?" asked one giant.

"Don’t know," answered a giant across from him.

"Hey... look back there," shouted one giant.

The five gladiator-like giants turned around, spotting eight red dots approaching from within the darkness. Unwilling to take any chances, the five giants assumed a full combat stance, raising their weapons. Suddenly, "clap," the sound of opening wings echoed, and the approaching red dots increased by four, making a total of twelve red dots with six gathered in the center. One giant finally stepped forward, and "blam," shot a fireball to illuminate the dark.

As the fireball passed over the approaching red dots, the giants’ faces turned pale beneath their masks, because those red dots were the eyes of pitch-black creatures or entities with red glowing eyes and varied body structures, walking slowly and calmly toward them. The creature leading the group in front was a male possessing moth wings patterned with four eyes.

"W... what are those?" asked one giant in the language of the giants.

"Don’t know... but they don’t look like much of a threat to us..."

Before that giant could finish his sentence, a girl wearing a mask with massive red eyes and dark grayish-black biological armor covered in lizard scales was suddenly right in front of his face. Her massive eyes stared directly into the giant’s eyes behind his helmet, caught in the middle of a forward pounce.

"Blam,"

The girl spun in front of the giant, delivering a spinning kick that slammed into the giant’s head, knocking off his helmet along with his head. "Thud," the giant’s massive body immediately sank to its knees, lifeless, while the girl landed squarely on his shoulder, glaring at the remaining giants. Seeing this, none of the four other giants could speak, standing in complete shock at what had just happened to their comrade.

"Y... you bastard! Die!"

One of the giants raised his weapon, preparing to shoot the girl, but suddenly, "thud," he looked down to see his arm, still holding the weapon, sever and drop to the ground,

"AAAAAAARGH!"

The giant screamed, clutching the stump of his arm as he sank to his knees, spotting a small man in dark biological armor with large red eyes and wings standing in front of him. Traces of blood still lingered on his wings, indicating he had just sliced off the giant’s arm using his wing. The man then turned to look at the girl still standing on the dead giant’s shoulder,

"Hey Corie, you always charge in alone, that’s dangerous, you know," Clyde scolded using telepathy.

"Sorry Brother... just testing things out, hahaha," Corie replied via telepathy.

Watching Clyde and Corie standing silently as if communicating without making a sound, the giant in front of Clyde, wracked with pain, gritted his teeth and suddenly stood up to smash Clyde with his fist, but "thud," a spiked, whip-like tail suddenly drove straight into his helmeted face, piercing through the back of his head and freezing the giant completely, as if time had stopped for him.

Clyde turned to see Casca behind him, extending her long tail into the giant’s face.

"Please don’t lower your guard, Brother," Casca said via telepathy.

"Sorry... my bad," Clyde replied.

Seeing three human-like yet wildly distinct beings possessing extraordinary power capable of killing them, the remaining three giants felt trapped and cornered, "GRAAAAAAH!" all three charging forward to attack Clyde, Casca, and Corie simultaneously with their weapons, but suddenly, "thwack," a massive, white-furred man covered in red-eyed biological armor leapt forward, launching a two-legged dropkick from the side, striking two giants at once and blasting both 22-foot bodies into the debris wall alongside himself.

"Blam,"

The two giants slammed into the wall in a heap. Upon landing, the man hoisted one giant in front of him like a ten-pound sack of rice, and then "blam," "splat," he suplexed the 22-foot-tall body backward, instantly crushing the giant’s head as it struck a narrow fissure in the ground and sank into it. The other giant, slowly standing up while clutching his head, turned pale beneath his helmet upon seeing his lifeless comrade.

Before he could do anything, the furred man in biological armor was back in front of his face, clapping his hands together. "Blam," the man slammed his palms against the giant’s head until the helmet flattened into a sheet, along with his head inside it.

"Pfft... Brother Craig is cheating, I only got to kill one," Corie pouted.

"Haha... sorry, I told you guys, I needed to blow off some steam," Craig said as he landed, flicking the blood off both his hands.

"There’s still one left, right?" Clyde asked, turning to look at the remaining giant, who had halted his charge and pressed himself against the wall.

Naturally, Craig, Casca, and Corie all looked toward the surviving giant. Finding four strange creatures staring back at him, the giant raised his hands, removing his helmet to reveal a handsome face with short black hair and a somewhat crafty expression,

"Please... don’t kill me, I surrender and I won’t cause any trouble... let me go home... I promise I won’t ever come back here," the giant said.

Hearing the giant speak, Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie glanced at one another before looking back at the giant, who had raised his hands along with his weapon.

"Do you guys understand what he’s saying?" Clyde asked.

"Nope... not a clue, and besides, he’s still holding a weapon," Casca answered.

"So... what should we do with him?" Craig asked.

"Leave him to me," Corie answered.

"Hey... wait a second," Clyde replied, trying to stop Corie.

Too late. As if teleporting, Corie had already leapt and was hovering right in front of the giant’s face. Seeing Corie before him, the giant panicked and instinctively swung his cleaver, "clang," Corie blocked it with her arm, snapping the cleaver along with his gatling gun in half. The giant’s face turned deathly pale with terror,

"W... wait... don’t... I didn’t mean..."

"Slap,"

With a spin, Corie struck the giant’s cheek with the back of her hand, spinning his head completely backward. "Thud," the giant collapsed to his knees and fell face down onto the ground, his head facing the ceiling. Corie landed in front of him.

"What was he trying to say just now?" Corie asked, pointing at the giant.

"Who knows... let’s eat first, and after that we head back to the station and leave this damn city," Clyde answered.

"Nice... perfect timing, and since there’s a wall, we can relax a bit," Casca replied.

"Bon appétit, everyone," Craig chimed in.

Instantly, their masks split open into mouths filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and they violently devoured the feast laid out before them. Meanwhile, the city defense forces remained frozen on the other side of the wall, completely unaware of what was happening behind the barrier of rubble.