The giant

Natsuo was observing the fight, not knowing how to intervene. The soldiers were organized and seemed to be good on their own, not to mention that Alice was a monster herself, eliminating rows of silent monsters all alone.

But, all of a sudden, from behind the wave of monsters, a giant figure rose up.

It had four limbs and walked on all four, like an animal. Its body was fat and had spikes on its back, all covered with mucosa. On the front, a long sting extended from where the muzzle should have been and, from a hole that looked like a mouth, white mucosa was pouring. It was probably the most ominous creature Natsuo had ever seen.

He ran toward Alice.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It’s the wave’s giant, I thought the artillery already eliminated him, but it’s still alive. We have to defeat it before it reaches the castle!" replied Alice.

She was busy helping other soldiers with normal monsters and Captain More had given her the task to protect Natsuo, so it was difficult for her to take it down while worrying about him. But she was the strongest and a member of Unit 7, if she wasn’t the one that had to fight it, who else would have done it? Besides, she was a girl: if she didn’t show that she was worth her place, the captain would have easily downgraded her.

Natsuo transformed his guitar and twirled his scythe.

"Finally I have something to do. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it" he said.

"What? Are you sure?" Alice seemed hesitant.

If something happened to him, it would be her fault.

"Yeah, trust me. I’m pretty strong, even if it doesn’t seem like it" Natsuo reassured her.

The girl slayed another monster and turned to Natsuo. He was holding his scythe confidently, waiting for her to approve his intervention.

"Okay, I’ll trust you, but be careful: taking down a giant is not easy. Besides, you don’t need to ask for my permission to do what you want" she said.

Natsuo smirked. "I know, I just wanted to make sure that you agreed."

"Tch." Alice killed the monsters in front of Natsuo with extremely fast moves and cleared the way for him. "Be careful, you’re more precious than you think."

"Are you worried about me?" asked Natsuo, jokingly.

"No, it’s just that if you die, they will punish me severely. I can’t let an honorable guest like you die."

"Oh, right, obviously…"

"You just think about the giant, leave the rest to me. I’ve got your back!" said Alice.

Natsuo stretched his back and faced the giant. "Sure, I’ve got this."

Gregory, who was fighting a group of monsters, immediately reached him.

"I smell something exciting. We’re going to take down the giant?"

Natsuo sniggered. "Yeah, let’s destroy it."

He started the playlist and the music played at full volume in his head. He twirled his scythe and leapt forward.

Incredibly, all monsters that were on his way were killed by Alice right in time, she coordinated perfectly with him.

Natsuo ran toward the giant’s left front leg, while Gregory went to the right side.

Natsuo stretched out his scythe, stuck it in the monster’s leg and pulled toward himself. The blade penetrated the thick flesh and cut the leg in two. Mucosa gushed out in streams from the wound, forming a white puddle on the ground.

At the same time, Gregory summoned a huge axe and cut the right front leg.

The giant’s muzzle fell forward and hit the floor, shaking the ground.

Alice took the chance. She leapt forward, jumped toward the monster’s sting and, spinning like a whirligig, cut it into slices. White mucosa rained from the giant.

The monster tried to get up on its back legs to keep moving forward, but an explosion destroyed them. Olive looked out from behind the monster and raised her thumb in Natsuo’s direction.

“Good job, Olive.” He smirked.

"Gregory, create a path for me!" Natsuo exclaimed.

Gregory understood quickly what he meant and molten metal started floating around Natsuo. He took a step in the air and a platform took shape.

Perfect. Natsuo ran in the air, walking on Gregory’s platforms. When he was high enough, he used all the strength he had to jump.

In mid-air, he aimed at the collapsed giant.

"Let’s see if it works" he said.

He slashed the air with his scythe, imagining to launch an attack. The weapon released a sound vibration coloured red that advanced very quickly and became larger as it went along. The vibration hit the giant on the back of its neck and cleanly cut it. The sound of the electric guitar’s second string resounded in the air across the battlefield.

New skill unlocked: VIBRATIONS.

The soldiers turned to Natsuo and cheered for the felling of the giant. Alice let out a sigh of relief under the mask: everything went well.

They were almost done with the humanoids. With the help of Natsuo, Alice, Gregory and Olive, the soldiers got rid of the remaining monsters.

When the last silent monster fell, everyone cheered loudly, exhausted by the battle.

The doctors got out of the castle and brought in all the wounded, while the soldiers dragged in the bodies of other dead soldiers. Even if in Unit 2 there were veterans, unfortunately, someone always died.

Alice approached Natsuo and took off her mask.

"Thank you for defeating the giant, Himura Natsuo."

"No problem, just call me Natsuo." He winked. "We’re a good team, don’t you think?"

"Not really, I’m just used to coordinating with others" replied Alice.

Natsuo sighed. "You’re the funny one at parties, uh?"

Suddenly, Olive ran to Natsuo with a worried expression.

"Natsuo, is there something we can do for the wounded?" Her tone was concerned.

Natsuo ran a hand through his hair and smiled.

"Of course there is."