[Stone Throne Hall - Battle of Attrition]
The equation had changed, yes. But the outcome was not yet decided. Five giants remained. Their power was reduced by 16%, but they were still towers of moving death. I activated [Sin Eyes: Level 1 - Dark Red] again. Rage boiled in my veins. The pain in my broken ribs turned into fuel.
"Target Two." I identified the giant on the right. Its movement seemed "heavier" than the others. I launched. The shattered floor was my playground. They were slow, and I was a fast cockroach among elephants. The giant raised its axe to strike me. Thanks to their speed reduction, I saw the trajectory clearly. I slid under the handle of the descending axe. WHOOSH! The air current nearly tore my skin, but I crossed over.
I reached its foot. I didn't climb this time. I dug "Void Fang" into its rocky ankle to create a "step," then jumped from it to its knee, and then to its belt. The other giants tried to hit me, but they were hitting their friend. "Fools." I reached the chest. The red light was slightly dim. "Sleep." I stabbed the core. TZZZT! The second giant powered down. It fell slowly, like an ancient tree being felled, impacting the ground and causing another quake.
[Remaining: 4 giants.] [Grid Power Reduction: 32%.]
I landed on the ground, panting violently. My body was at its limit. Regeneration consumed energy reserves, and my muscles screamed. "Two down.. four left." I wiped sweat and blood from my eyes. I was focusing my gaze on the two giants in front of me. But I made a fatal error. I forgot "Spatial Sense." I forgot I was in the middle of a circle.
[Surprise Attack]
Without sound.. and without warning. The third giant, which had been standing directly behind me (and I thought was far away), had moved with uncharacteristic silence for its size. It didn't use the axe. It used its "foot." Not to stomp.. but to kick. A sweeping horizontal kick, the size of a wall moving at sonic speed.
When I felt the shadow cover me, I turned back. It was too late. The stone wall (the sole of its foot) was centimeters from my face. No room to dodge. No room to jump. No room to regenerate. This strike would pulverize my entire body. It would turn me into dust the system couldn't reassemble.
"This.. is the end." This thought passed through my mind as time slowed in the moments of death. I closed my eyes, waiting for the darkness.
But.. instead of darkness.. I felt something else. I felt a "coldness." Not the coldness of snow.. but the coldness of "space." The coldness of the void. A very high-pitched humming sound pierced my ears, as if the world's frequencies were changing. ZZZZZZZT...
I opened my eyes. I expected to be dead. I expected to be in the other world. But I.. was standing. I looked around in astonishment. I wasn't at the giant's foot. I was standing atop the "head" of a distant statue at the hall entrance, 50 meters from the attack site!
"How..?" I looked at my hand. It wasn't trembling. It wasn't bleeding. It was steady.. and surrounded by a faint blue electric aura. I looked down at my previous standing spot. I saw the third giant had completed its kick, smashing a massive stone pillar that was behind me. It had hit air. I had moved.. No, I didn't teleport. I had moved at a speed that made time seem still.
A message appeared before my eyes. But its color wasn't red. It was sky blue.
[System: Despair conditions met.] [New path unlocked.] [Ability Acquired: Sin Eyes (Level 2 - Blue).] [Attributes: Expanded Senses / Super Speed / Kinetic Heaviness / Strength Multiplication.]
I felt something strange in my eyes. There was no longer burning or rage. There was a feeling.. of "expansion." As if I wasn't seeing with my eyes alone. I was seeing with my skin, with my ears, and with a new sixth sense. I was feeling every grain of dust in the hall. Feeling the pulse of the core in the giants' chests as if it were beating in my hand. Feeling the air pathways before they moved.
"Hahaha.." A laugh escaped my mouth. Not a mad laugh, but a calm, cold, and amused laugh. "So this is the feeling.. of being the true hunter."
I jumped from the statue. I didn't land hard. I landed like a feather, but the ground beneath my feet cracked. "Kinetic Heaviness.." I whispered. "My body is light, but my strike has the weight of a mountain."
The third giant (the one that tried to kill me) saw me. It roared with a rocky voice and raised its axe high. It ran towards me. Before, I saw its movement as fast. Now? It was almost "still." I saw the axe descending very slowly, I saw the dust flying from its joints, I saw the light in its chest rippling.
"Slow." I walked towards it. I didn't run. I just walked. The axe came down. at the last moment, I moved. No one saw me. I turned into a "blue flash." A straight line of light sliced the air. I was standing on the ground, and suddenly I was in front of the giant's face (at a height of 20 meters) in a fraction of a millisecond.
I was suspended in the air in front of its solid helmet. "Test run." I clenched my right hand. The blue aura gathered around my fist, emitting a terrifying humming sound that compressed the air around me. A normal punch. Without a dagger. Without a weapon. Just a heavy fist.
I struck its helmet. CRAAAAAAAAAACK!
The sound wasn't a breaking sound. It was a "sonic explosion." The giant's helmet didn't crack.. it evaporated. The giant's rocky head exploded completely into a fine spray of gravel. The force of the blow didn't stop at the head. The shockwave penetrated its body downwards. Its chest split lengthwise. The core in its chest shattered from air pressure alone. Its legs sank into the ground up to the knee from the vertical compressive force.
The massive body fell headless. But the horror didn't end. The shockwave resulting from the punch launched behind the dead giant like an air cannon. It hit the fourth giant standing a distance behind it. The fourth giant flew through the air (with its weight of thousands of tons) and crashed into the back wall of the hall, shattering in half.
One strike. Two kills.
I landed on the ground gracefully. The blue aura in my eyes left a light trail in the air with every turn. I looked at my hand. No scratch. No pain. Only absolute power.
I turned to the remaining two giants (the fifth and sixth). They were standing frozen. Their axes suspended in the air. The light in their chests was trembling.. not just because of the grid weakness.. but as if they were.. "afraid."
I took a step towards them, the glass beneath my foot grinding to ash upon mere touch. I smiled, my eyes shining with a blue brilliance that filled the dark hall. "Two left.." I said, my voice echoing in the corners like a final judgment. "Who's next?"