Bloodletting · Moon-Annihilating Cleave

“Sid! Now!”

Almugard shouted.

“Almugard, since when!?”

He’d likely been fighting monsters on the northern front of the royal capital, spotted me mounting a Gryphon and heading toward the Titan, and came to assist.

“(But how did he get that Titan to its knees?)”

Looking closely, Almugard’s oversized sword seemed to have been driven into the back of the Titan’s knee.

Not a cut but a blunt-force impact delivered by mass and Strength, forcing the joint to bend and throwing off its posture.

An attack like a gigantic knee-tap.

But in the end, it was just a knee-tap.

It only disrupted its stance; it didn’t seem to deal that much damage.

Still—it’s true that its movement stopped.

The chance I wanted.

I couldn’t let it escape.

I immediately carried out the plan I’d devised for the Titan.

“Vanargand! Teleport into the Titan’s gut!”

“Waon!”

Long ago—before I became a slave, when I was a farmer in my hometown, I remembered a fairy tale my mother used to read to me.

A story about a lone adventurer slaying a giant.

They’d get the giant drunk, make it sleep, sneak in through its mouth into its body, and rampage around the inside of its belly—a ridiculous, childlike tale.

But—when facing a real giant, it turned out to be surprisingly effective.

No matter how tough the exterior, any living being has internal organs.

Surely the organs weren’t as hard as the exterior.

Vanargand’s spatial teleportation moves to a specified coordinate.

Against the Titan’s surprisingly nimble movements it had been hard to line up coordinates to enter its body, but now that it had stopped, it was possible!

“Wha—this is fuuuccck it’s hotttttt!?!?”

I shot out with momentum, but the Titan’s insides spat out searing heat like lava.

To move that massive body it must consume enormous calories, so naturally its internal temperature was high…?

I hurried back through the spatio-temporal rift Vanargand created.

I was burned over my whole body, but this level of damage would heal quickly.

“I went through the trouble of connecting the Titan’s interior to spacetime—I’m not going to back out for free.”

It didn’t have to be me who ravaged the Titan.

“—Fill it up.”

Inside Vanargand I summoned Shadows and one after another sent Shadows through the gate into the Titan.

I didn’t think the Shadows could operate well in the Titan’s internal environment, but they didn’t need to rampage.

A few hundred Shadows would be enough to fill its interior.

“This should do it.”

After pouring almost all my available Shadows in, I retreated outside each time to check.

“GuaoooooOOOOOOO!?!?”

‘Oh ho, it’s suffering, eh.’

The Titan’s mouth gaped wide and it clutched its belly, letting out a pained cry.

I must have dealt considerable damage, but it didn’t seem enough to reduce its HP to zero.

――

――――

Moreover, the Titan’s internal heat seemed to be burning them to death; the Shadows I sent inside were perishing at an incredible rate.

At this rate they’d all be wiped out before they could do more than nick the stomach lining, let alone reach lethal organs like the heart or lungs.

“Then—plan two.”

I rode the griffon and raced forward.

My target was the Titan’s face—its eyeballs.

Like organs, the eyeball is mucous membrane—an area that can’t be hardened by training.

Come to think of it, before I awakened as a Shadow Necromancer, when a Minotaur nearly killed me, I survived by manipulating a swallow’s corpse to crush its eyeball.

“This time you die for real—you oversized bastard!”

I reached near the Titan’s face.

I raised 《Dread’s Crimson Moon》, but――

“GuaoooooOOOOOOO!!!!”

“Tch! It recovered!!”

‘The Shadows we sent into its body have all perished…!’

――The Titan’s whole body bulged with countless bumpy protrusions.

It was an Earth-attribute magic attack that hurled sharp rocks in all directions!

“If that’s the case, I should’ve sent Ekarraat in too.”

‘My fair, beautiful skin would get burned to a crisp!’

For all that, she’s picky about nails and skin—real vain.

She’s Undead, so it wouldn’t change anything.

――Anyway, for now I had to focus on dodging the Titan’s attacks and reaching its eyeballs.

“GuaoooooOOOOOOO!!!!”

“Here it comes! But—I’m not getting hit by the same trick twice!”

Countless sharp rocks rained down in a deluge.

I gripped the hilt of 《Dread’s Crimson Moon》 with my right hand and took hold of the blade’s base with my left, as if it were a sheath.

Assuming the stance as if sheathing a sword at my hip, I kicked the griffon’s back and leapt into the air.

――Kick!

I kicked up through the sideways rain of razor rocks, closing the distance to the Titan while evading the sharp projectiles.

Like lightning zigzagging through the air, I darted left and right between the spikes, closing in—

“I’ve wanted to meet you!!”

――And I reached it.

The Titan’s eyes widened in shock, and my image—wearing a cruel smile—was reflected like a glass orb.

A crimson blade that drinks blood and even carves the moon—staining a crescent night crimson—

“《Bloodletting · Moon-Annihilating Cleave《Immortal Bloodpain》》”

Holding 《Dread’s Crimson Moon》 with my left hand as if it were a sheath, I violently drew the blade with my right arm.

In a draw-cut technique, a slash imbued with speed and blood ripped horizontally across the Titan’s two eyes!

“GuaoooooOOOOOOO!?!?”

The Titan uttered an especially loud roar—a death rattle.

It slowly fell onto its back—and then—

――Thuddddddd!!

Raising a tremendous cloud of earth, it collapsed onto the ground.