The air was thick with the scent of fear and ozone. Star, along with the six soldiers, watched in horror as a gigantic baby crawled towards them. Its proportions were monstrous, its movements slow and deliberate, yet each shift of its weight sent tremors through the ground.
"Is... Is that a human baby?!" a soldier asked, his voice cracking with disbelief.
"That baby is 4 meters tall! Just imagine the size of its mom," another soldier whispered, shivering. The thought was a cold, suffocating blanket.
"Commander, what should we do?!" The fox lady, her ears twitching nervously, turned to Star.
Star's face was a mask of grim determination. "It's... It's just a baby. It can't be dangerous," she said, though her heart pounded in her chest, betraying her words.
"You five, try your best to remove her from that rock! I'll distract it!"
With a defiant roar, she lunged toward the colossal infant. The five soldiers nodded, their gazes fixed on their trapped teammate.
BAM!!!
'Without my cosmic brain, I can't detect its rank.' Star thought, her mind racing.
'This baby doesn't even have celestial energy, so I can't sense anything from it!'
She closed the distance, her legs a blur of motion.
The giant baby stopped crawling and stretched out a hand, its shadow enveloping Star. She darted to the side, her agility her only weapon. The massive hand smashed into the ground, a deafening crack echoing through the landscape.
"Yes! Follow me!" Star yelled, her voice a beacon of hope as she ran in the opposite direction from her team.
The baby's head, a sphere of innocent horror, turned. Its eyes, the size of dinner plates, fixed on the running figure. But just as it began to move, its gaze snagged on something else—a dead soldier lying prone on the wreckage.
BAM!
The baby changed course, crawling towards the fallen body, completely ignoring Star.
"What is..."
Star skidded to a halt, a wave of shock washing over her as the baby scooped up the dead soldier. It brought the body to its mouth with the casual ease of a child with a toy.
"You!! All my men will be buried in their homes!!" Star's rage flared, hot and sharp. She summoned her high grand class sword, a blade of pure purple starlight, and lunged toward the baby.
"Drop him down!!!" she roared, leaping into the air and slashing downward with all her might.
BAM!!!
"...Huh?" Star was stunned. Her fully maxed high grand purple sword, a weapon capable of sundering mountains, had only left a shallow scratch on the baby's skin. Not even a single drop of blood was drawn.
The baby, sitting with its grotesque meal, turned its head, its huge eyes staring at her over its shoulder. Star scrambled off its back, landing on the ground with a gasp.
"Their defense is insane!" she muttered, her previous confidence shattered.
The giant baby stared at her for another moment before turning back to the dead body in its grasp.
"I will have to use two of my strongest skills! Abyssal Gaze and Snake Domain!!"
Star's eyes bled. But to her horror, nothing happened.
"What?!" she stammered, terror gripping her. The snakes she summoned, a writhing mass of destructive energy, turned to ash the moment they touched the baby's skin.
"This... This is impossible!" she whispered.
She and the six soldiers watched, frozen in place, as the baby bit down on the soldier, eating him whole. The sound of crushing bones echoed in the sudden silence, a sickening symphony of death.
"Impossible," Star muttered, her face a pale mask of dread.
BAM!!!!!
"....?!"
The group gasped, their heads snapping to the distance. Two more giants were walking toward them—a 12-meter and a 14-meter giants.
"A 12-meter and 14-meter giants?" Star's voice was a shaky whisper.
She looked at the baby, then back at the approaching behemoths. "If the little one eats flesh, what about those big guys?"
"No!! We can't die here!!" Star stood up, her remaining defiance burning bright. At that exact moment, the baby finished its meal and turned its gaze on her.
"Fuck you, bastard!!" Star hissed, turning and sprinting back toward her soldiers.
"Those skills almost used up my celestial energy... I can burn the remaining energy I have left and use Star Steps, but I can't leave my teammates behind," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the baby, which was now crawling toward her at an alarming speed.
"This thing is just 4 meters tall, and its defense is already stronger than a fully starred grand weapon... You can't tell me they're unkillable!" she muttered.
__
"Commander! Please!! Leave me!" The lady yelled, her voice filled with desperation as Star reached them.
Star stared at the five horrified soldiers before her. She squatted down beside the lady.
"We tried, Commander... We can't lift it," the second lady said, tears streaming down her face.
'I can use my last energy and destroy the rock.' Star thought. 'But can we outrun them by dragging her along?'
Her gaze swept over the landscape, landing on a treeline more than 50 miles away: 'The distance is too big, and the land here is too flat. We can only be safe if we get to that forest... but reaching it won't be easy.'
She looked over her shoulder at the baby, which was closing the distance with terrifying speed.
"Commander! What should we do?!" the second female soldier asked.
Star blinked, her eyes locking onto the faces of her five soldiers. "She is right... We leave her behind."
The words were a bitter pill in her mouth.
The five soldiers were stunned, but the trapped lady smiled, a radiant, heartbreaking expression:
"Yes!! All of you should go!! Once it gets close, I will destroy my core and blow the hell out of this bastard!!" she said, her expression resolute.
"Don't worry. We will take care of your family!" Star said, her voice thick with emotion.
The lady chuckled. "You don't have to. My real parents are dead... My bitch aunt is the one I am staying with... Commander, can you promise me something?"
Star nodded, her throat tight.
"When you see my aunt again, give her a punch right on the face... Tell her it's from me."
"....?!" Star was dumbfounded. After a second, she nodded and saluted.
"I promise, Nicole!!" she said.
'Maybe when she asked for the next plan, I shouldn't have hesitated...' She paused, looking at Nicole.
"What about the Warship?! You were in it, right?!"
Nicole gave a sad smile. "I wasn't in it."
"...?!" Star was speechless.
BAM!!!
"Go now!!" Nicole yelled, her voice cutting through the air.
Star gritted her teeth, nodded, and ran toward the distant forest, the five soldiers following close behind.
BAM!!!
The six looked over their shoulders, their hearts stopping as the baby pulled Nicole out from the rock. Half of her body was gone. They watched in silent agony as the baby opened its mouth and dropped her inside.
'Shit!!' Star cursed inwardly.
BOOOOOOOM!!!!!
They came to a stop, staring at the smoke cloud that now filled the air.
"Did she kill it?" a soldier asked, his voice full of desperate hope.
"HEEEEEEE!!!!!"
The two massive giants in the distance let out a piercing shriek and started charging toward the explosion.
"Impossible!" Star muttered in horror as the baby giant slowly stood up on its two feet. The explosion had blasted away its lower jaw, but it was still alive.
_____
[Dragon Nation]
"Sorry for asking, but why didn't you tell him about that information?" Brittney asked, her voice quiet.
Patrick took a sip of his tea, his eyes calm and sad. "You mean the vital information?"
"Yes," Brittney nodded.
"Once a titan suffers a dangerous blow that reduces its health by half, they enter a craze state," Patrick explained, placing his cup down.
"Babies gain the strength of teens, and adults gain the strength of five adults... If I tell him that, I am simply crushing all his hope."
"The only weakness I've discovered is by blowing those creatures from the inside out... And I discovered a very dangerous secret," he continued, his voice dropping to a low rumble:
"Once you injure an infant, all the adults in the area will enter a craze state with only one thought in mind."
"What is that?" Brittney asked, her body leaning forward.
"Blood."
_____
[Back to Star]
"HEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"
The group watched as the baby's broken jaw rapidly healed. In less than ten seconds, it was back to normal. Before their stunned gazes, the giant baby charged toward them.
".....???"
"FUCK!!!!!"
The five soldiers turned and ran, while the fox lady transformed into a fox and ran on all fours, her legs a blur. Their only chance of survival was to reach the forest. If they didn't, they would all die right in the hands of the giants.