Chapter 635
Battle Against the Skinless Ones!
Darkness spread like a creeping reptile.
The blood rain, imbued with a curse, descended once more, whistling and covering Avalon Island in the pitch-black night.
With Origen leading the way, Eivass quickly reached the mission’s required gathering points.
Although many giants had already dissolved in the blood rain summoned by the Night Demon, not all of them were wiped out.
[Giant Slayer: Kill all giants in the “Chest,” “Loin,” and “Ribs” gathering points (Points: 500)]
A mission worth five hundred points, explicitly demanding Eivass kill every single giant in these three gathering points, leaving none behind!
What if some giants were still young and managed to avoid the Night Demon’s blood rain curse? What if some were too cowardly to leave their dwellings, or were simply fast asleep, unaware of what was happening outside?
Now, Helchin, as the “Wild Hunt,” had signed a contract. He could not attack or enter any room with lights on and doors closed, nor could he deliberately attack the sick, pregnant, or disabled.
To ensure all giants were killed, Eivass had to put down the Night Demon and Origen, letting them enter every building to complete the extermination mission!
This was not a complicated task.
Two Sixth Tier beings, and one elite Fifth Tier warrior capable of defeating the Sixth Tier Utgarðar-Loki. Not to mention, King of the Wild Hunt Helchin’s abilities were all aura-based, effective for Origen and the Night Demon as well.
For them to take down these gathering points, which housed at most a few Fifth Tier giants, there wasn’t any particularly spectacular battle to recount.
After all, the giants’ way of life dictated their scarcity in population. The three gathering points combined had only a few hundred individuals, fewer than the residents of three apartment buildings.
And this time, Utgarðar-Loki was nowhere to be found to cause trouble.
By the time Eivass reached the third gathering point, he understood why the Lord of Scales and Feathers had specifically chosen these three locations for the mission.
The commonality between “Chest,” “Loin,” and “Ribs” was that they were all adjacent to the “Heart.”
The “Heart” was located on the Glass Island, which Eivass knew very well—the current royal city of Avalon Island!
When Eivass arrived at these three gathering points, he was already near the giants’ royal city. As he reached this area, the darkness, dark clouds, and blood rain also spread into the city.
A large number of giants died from this, and screams of pain and anguish echoed ceaselessly—the giants could no longer afford to underestimate this disaster.
And the mission, which had delayed time by exterminating three gathering points, was actually buying the giants time!
Upon realizing that three gathering points close to their royal city had been completely annihilated, the giants became enraged. Originally, giants would never unite because of invaders… because although giants were all warriors, they had no obligation to obey conscription, nor the compliance to follow military command. They were difficult to mobilize and control.
But Eivass’s mission had completely infuriated these giants, making them take him seriously.
As Eivass reached the third gathering point, a deep red light screen suddenly materialized above the royal city, blocking out the curse-imbued blood rain.
In principle, this was not difficult.
A Fourth Tier Caster, with sufficient materials and a period of preparation, could protect a city in this manner. After all, the curses in the rainwater were inert—it wasn’t blood rain mixed with potent poisons or strong acids intended to kill everyone, and thus it was easily blocked by ordinary barriers.
Rather, such a simple means of avoidance… only came into use when Eivass had already reached the foot of the royal city.
The primary reason was that giants generally lacked knowledge and education. Most giants didn’t recognize the Night Demon or understand the dangers of this blood rain. But this also indicated a complete lack of crisis management awareness among the giants—
After all, they were at least Third Tier when they matured, could easily lift tons with one hand, each gathering point had multiple Fourth Tier giants, and slightly larger gathering points even had a few Fifth Tier giants.
In this era, giants were practically invincible.
When would they ever need to consider crisis planning?
Now, they had finally paid the price.
Although Eivass didn’t know how many giants had been killed by the Night Demon’s blood rain pouring into the royal city… he could hear the increasingly furious and clear shouts from several kilometers away, and thus knew their anger towards him.
Undoubtedly, the hatred Eivass had garnered from the giants far surpassed that of Sir Helchin in history.
Next, a massive, blood-red eyeball, resembling a durian with sharp spikes, suspended itself in the black-red night sky.
It slowly opened its eyes, revealing emerald-green vertical pupils.
The pupils scanned the surroundings and quickly found Eivass’s location.
A conical light beam projected from there—locking onto the trace of Eivass and his party like a searchlight.
“Party” here referred to the Lizardmen warrior Origen sitting behind him, and the Night Demon in crow form.
Instantly, Eivass felt an intense sense of danger.
“Rooooar—!”
A mad, hysterical roar echoed from afar.
From within the royal city, a group of scarlet giants came charging out.
Each was at least ten meters tall, and there was even one giant fifteen meters tall, twice the height of the others.
Unlike other giants, these giants wore no clothes—not only were they naked, but they had also stripped off their skin, revealing their muscles!
“—It’s the Skinless Ones!”
Origen said in a low voice.
A chilling sense of dread, mixed with exhilarant excitement, washed over him. His heart began to pound uncontrollably, taking this battle with utmost seriousness—even feeling a clear premonition of death.
These elite soldiers among the giants were the cream of the crop of Fifth Tier Extraordinary beings. Not only were their hides tough, but they were also fearless of pain and possessed near-infinitely endless rage.
Even a squad of Pope’s Guards working together would struggle to kill a single Skinless One.
Their entire skin had been peeled off—and not only that, they had undergone a “pre-battle baptism.”
Red-hot steel spikes, resembling the metal javelins used by humans, were driven into their bodies, making sizzling searing sounds, filling the air with the aroma of roasted meat.
Visible white steam rose from their bodies—it was unclear if it was the heat from their blood vessels or the heat generated by the red-hot steel spikes.
For an ordinary human warrior, exerting their full strength might only be enough to inflict one more nail.
These nails were what the Skinless Ones cherished most—
For them, being wounded was an honor. Because Supreme Heaven had bestowed upon them unmatched resilience, and injury was only possible when that resilience was pushed to its absolute limit. It was like a fully filled notebook, or a pair of gloves worn to the point of being unusable.
Therefore, after each injury, they would drive a nail into the wound.
And before the most solemn battles, they would remove all the nails from their bodies, heat them, and then re-drive them into their flesh.
The Skinless Ones drew their strength from pain, and the pain of being skinned would eventually be adapted to and numbed. This fresh pain would awaken their past memories!
They roared madly!
“Urk-oh-ahhhhhhh—”
“Oooooh, that hurts so muchhhhhh—”
“Guru-wiiiya-hahahahahahaha—”
Meaningless, yet terrifying roars echoed from afar.
Saliva and tears streamed down their faces, their expressions contorted in pain. Their skinless faces looked as terrifying as demons, and the scarlet rage that enveloped them made these suffering madmen appear extremely dangerous.
This was the “Rage” that ordinary “Warriors” accumulated after their bodies were fully warmed up and they had fought fiercely on the battlefield for a long time.
With the help of Rage, warriors could use all sorts of extraordinary Martial Skills, unleashing feats that their bodies were originally incapable of. It was a resource similar to, yet different from, Mana… starting at a low level and gradually increasing with the intensity of the battle.
It was precisely because of “Rage” after being severely injured that Origen used an extraordinary Martial Skill to slay Utgarðar-Loki, a higher-ranked opponent!
The more severely injured a warrior was, the more dangerous they became, as the saying goes.
—However, these Skinless Ones were overflowing with blood energy.
This was overflowing Rage—
The characteristic of the Skinless Ones was having an infinite amount of “Rage” resources!
Although Eivass’s mission only required him to kill one Skinless One…
There were ten Skinless Ones before him!
Equivalent to the fighting strength of twenty Pope’s Guards, these beings, weeping tears and emitting hysterical roars and screams, charged towards Eivass with world-shaking might!
One of the Skinless Ones, convulsing all over, angrily thrust its hand into the ground and lifted a mountain—
Though only ten meters tall, it upheaved a rock more than a hundred meters high and hurled it towards Eivass!
—But Eivass advanced instead of retreating!
He instantly turned ethereal, stepping on ice, and passed directly through the giant boulder!
He appeared next to the giant’s neck and swung his deep crimson greatsword.
Eight slashes per second!
Each slash was at full power, unleashing scarlet sword energy as sharp as the moon!
The giant that had thrown the stone had its head directly blown apart by Eivass!
—Instant death upon meeting him!
(End of Chapter)
