Lin Jie half-kneeling behind the rock, his chest heaving violently.
The backlash from that probing strike a mont ago still lingered inside him, a sensation as if an invisible fist had squeezed his heart through his ribs with brutal force.
Across from him, the Cerne Abbas Giant was slowly adjusting its posture.
"Thud... thud... thud..."
The earth trembled.
Each tremor forcibly recalibrated the vital signs of everyone present.
"Don't hit it."
Marcus wiped the blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, his calf pulsing with intense pain from the feedback he took when he chopped at the giant's lower leg with his battle-axe.
"This thing is a dead knot."
A rare note of helplessness crept into the Burly Man's voice.
"The harder we push, the faster we die. We need to get out of here, fast."
Above them, the cloud layer thinned.
The ard airship hovering in the stratosphere was lowering altitude, the roar of its massive engines filtering down through the heavy fog.
Several ghastly white searchlights swept the wasteland with aimless beams — those were Ackerman's eyes.
Although the Curator's Seal temporarily obscured visual signals in this area, the seismic disturbance caused by the giant's awakening was enormous.
On the hawk faction's monitoring consoles, this level of energy was no different from a pile of campfires in the night.
They were closing in.
"We don't have ti to stall, we have to break this rhythm."
"Or... find a vessel to take the cost."
A weak but resolute voice ca from behind. Silas, who had been in a fragile state all along, struggled upright.
The Shepherd was in terrible shape.
His sheepskin coat was crusted with Gray Frost, his face deathly pale.
Yet one hand still gripped the Bone Flute with deathly force.
"If there is a reservoir. If there is sothing made specifically to hold pain and injury, to take over this feedback loop."
"Then the backlash won't act on you."
William frowned, looking at Silas' tottering body.
"Your flock is all dead."
"I still have myself."
Silas gave a bitter laugh.
He forced his trembling arm up and drove the Bone Flute deep into the palm of his left hand, the sharp bony spike tearing the skin, blood flowing down the flute's tube.
It was an ancient and cruel blood sacrifice.
Using himself as the dium, he would forcibly activate the lowest-tier ability of the Grotesque Armant, the Shepherd Flute — the "Oath of Sacrifice."
"I will be that vessel."
Silas' gaze went slightly unfocused, yet his tone was clearer than ever.
"For the next ten seconds."
"No matter how much damage you deal to that block of stone, no matter how severe the backlash."
"All pain, all impacts, will be transferred onto ."
"This is... the Shepherd's duty."
Lin Jie watched the man he'd only known for a few hours.
He didn't offer any useless "don't push yourself" platitudes.
"Ten seconds."
Lin Jie nodded, his voice hard.
"Just ten seconds."
"We'll break its leg, or sowhere else, make it stop."
At that mont, the giant moved.
It seed to sense prey preparing so kind of resistance; predator instinct decided it would no longer wait.
The thick rocky arm raised high, the Totem Pole in its hand whistling through the wind, aiming precisely at the weakest link in the group.
Julian.
The scholar was crouched behind a half-person-high broken stone.
"Dodge!"
Lin Jie shouted, raising the Serene Heart.
But the distance was too great.
The giant's attack covered every escape vector around Julian.
The multi-ton stone pillar fell like a toppled tower, its shadow instantly swallowing Julian's lean fra.
In that split-second life-or-death mont, Julian displayed astonishing composure.
He jabbed his cane into the frozen earth at his feet, wedging it between two rock crevices.
Then, using the cane as leverage, his body snapped like a taut bow, propelling him outward to the side.
It was an exceedingly risky maneuver.
Using the physics of leverage to gain lateral acceleration in a tiny window of ti.
Boom!
The Totem Pole smashed down where he had just stood.
The ground cracked, rock fragnts sprayed like shrapnel, Julian tumbled through the dust and hit the ground hard.
He had avoided the direct blow, but the shockwave from the impact still threw him clear.
Several sharp shards slashed his cheek, blood streaming down.
Yet he did not feel pain.
Before pain could register in his nervous system, so force had intercepted it.
On the other side of the Stone Circle, Silas spat blood.
His body arched backward, his sternum making a sickening sound.
"Now!"
Lin Jie seized the stiffening that followed the giant's strike.
After swinging the heavy blow, the rocky torso had leaned forward from inertia, exposing the chest and abdon partially shielded by its arms.
"Evelyn! Weak spot!"
Evelyn had been huddled in the shadow behind Lin Jie.
She had not taken part in any earlier probes; she had been adjusting the focus on the Echo Goggles the whole ti.
Although the liquid mithril circuits had been mostly frozen by Gray Frost and the structural-vision function flickered, she caught a fleeting structural anomaly in the instant the giant moved violently and generated heat and vibration.
On that seemingly seamless rock shell, about three ters below the chest, there was a row of extrely concealed seams.
With the giant's breathing, those seams were spewing steam and stone dust outward.
"Abdon!"
Evelyn scread, pointing at the spot.
"Center line! Under the third rock slab! It's a vent!"
No more explanation was needed.
That was the signal to focus fire.
The Serene Heart in Lin Jie's hand fired instantly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three large-caliber alchemical bullets sped out, precisely drilling into the vent that was belching steam.
The rounds struck the internal rock structure, sparking a spray of hot fragnts.
At the sa ti Lin Jie felt a dull ache in his abdon.
He saw Silas's body convulse violently in the distance, the flute embedded in his palm emitting a wail as blood stained the ground.
Most of the backlash had been borne by that man.
"Go!"
William and Marcus charged at the sa ti.
This was the last chance.
The two heavy fighters sliced in from left and right like twin tips, penetrating the giant's defensive blind spot.
William swung his trench club in a wide arc, leaving a black streak in the air.
Thwack!
The club slamd into the edge of the vent already cracked open by the bullets.
Rock shattered.
A huge armor plate was forced inward.
Then Marcus moved.
His heavy battle-axe cleaved with earth-splitting force, following the gap William had made.
The blade cut into the steam-spewing duct.
Crack!
A crisp sound like bone breaking echoed from inside the giant.
The massive fra suddenly went rigid.
The previously ever-present vibration synchronized with their heartbeats beca chaotic.
It coughed.
Black smoke and debris gushed from the broken vent.
The giant tried to lift its leg to crush the two ants underfoot, but damage to its internal structure had ruined its balance system.
It staggered back two steps, its back slamming into an upright monolith.
"Got it!"
Marcus roared, wanting to press the advantage.
"Don't linger! Move!"
Lin Jie's order was cold and tily.
He grabbed William, who had been about to sprint forward for the finishing blow.
He saw clearly.
The giant was not dead; it had rely entered a protective state due to internal damage.
The rock-ford body was rapidly undulating as surrounding fragnts were drawn toward the wound like iron filings to a magnet.
It was self-repairing, and at astonishing speed.
More importantly, the airship overhead had closed in.
The roar of the propeller churned air louder than the wind.
Several searchlight beams were sweeping rapidly toward the Stone Circle; if they locked on, a destructive strike from the Earth Plough awaited them.
"Take Silas!"
Lin Jie dashed to the corner and hefted the now-completely-unconscious Shepherd onto his back.
Silas' condition was dire.
All seven orifices bled — the price of taking on everyone else's blows.
But he still lived.
The Bone Flute remained lodged in his palm, maintaining a faint last thread of life connection.
"Where to?"
Evelyn supported the injured Julian, anxiety in her voice.
All around was open wasteland; leaving the Stone Circle's cover would make them walking targets.
"Follow the wind."
Silas murmured faintly from Lin Jie's back.
Although unconscious, the local hunter instinct still worked.
One limp hand pointed toward a gap on the southeast side of the Stone Circle.
"That's... the old track."
"Only the flock... knows that route."
Lin Jie carrying Silas led the way toward the gap.
They filed out in single file.
No sooner had they left the Stone Circle than the despairing cold struck again.
White frost fell like a heavy burial shroud, coating their bodies.
All Grotesque Armants fell silent once more.
But they dared not stop.
Behind them, the temporarily paralyzed giant had let out an enraged roar.
It regained its footing.
The Totem Pole was raised again, burning with vengeful fury, crashing down where they had just been.
Boom!
A corner of the Stone Circle was pulverized.
Rocks struck the backs of the group like bullets.
At the sa ti, a blinding searchlight beam swept across the Stone Circle overhead.
The airship had arrived.
"Keep your heads down! Don't look at the light!"
Lin Jie dropped low, using the shadows of the low scrub on the wasteland to sprint toward the direction Silas had indicated.
There was a dry ancient riverbed.
It wound and snaked deep into the earth, forming a natural trench.
The terrain was complex and strewn with jagged stones, a difficult blind spot for observers in the sky.
"Into the ditch!"
Lin Jie led the leap into the riverbed.
The others followed, cold mud and dead grass concealing them.
The overhead roar circled a few tis, then, apparently losing a target, began moving toward Tintagel.
They were safe for the mont.
William leaned against the earthen wall of the trench, gasping.
His arm trembled; the reverberation of that earlier blow had torn muscle.
"This damned place..."
The veteran spat blood-tinged saliva.
"Monsters everywhere, and our weapons are all junk now."
"As long as we're not dead, it isn't a loss."
Lin Jie set Silas down and checked his breathing.
Weak, but steady — the man's life harder than stone.
Lin Jie looked ahead along the riverbed stretching into the dark.
Gray Frost still fell.
The whole world had beco a lifeless gray-white.
But at the far end of that deadland, beneath layers of mist, a light flickered.
"Rest five minutes."
Lin Jie pulled a still-unfrozen flask of strong liquor from his pocket, took a swig, then handed it to William.
"Then we move on."
"In this frozen world, only by staying in motion will you avoid becoming an ice statue."
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