Chapter 171: Bad Luck, Bad Hands

Chapter 171: Bad Luck, Bad Hands

The ground trembled faintly, and a figure nearly three meters tall appeared at the edge of the island’s primordial forest.

Its entire body was grayish-white, as though it had been built from blocks of stone. Its face was pitted and uneven, with no obvious eyes, nose, mouth, or ears.

“A Stone Giant…” Admiral of Stars Cattleya said softly, naming the monster.

Neither Klein nor Anderson had the slightest understanding of such a creature.

Even so, neither of them turned a questioning look toward Cattleya. They simply stared intently at the monster, each wearing the expression of a seasoned professional.

Cattleya turned toward the Future, which had stopped side-on to the shore. Raising her right hand slightly, she amplified her voice and ordered, “Aim!”

The pirates on watch aboard the ship immediately adjusted the dozens of cannons along the port side, all of them pointing toward the heavy-footed Stone Giant.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Cannonballs flew out one after another, landing around the Stone Giant. Dust surged up at once, blotting out a large stretch of ground.

Amid the obvious tremors of the island, firelight coiled, fragments flew, and the scene seemed capable of destroying everything.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The tall, grayish-white figure broke through the dust and smoke, yet it had not suffered any severe injury. Only a few shallow cracks had appeared across its surface.

Without any change in expression, Admiral of Stars Cattleya said, “It isn’t a type of giant. It is a stone monster.

“Its core is the main ingredient for the Sequence 5 Guardian of the God of Combat pathway, so its defensive power is extremely high.”

Amid the lingering echoes of cannon fire, Klein almost suspected that he had misheard.

If you knew the Stone Giant’s specialty, why did you still fire a full cannon volley at it? Isn’t that just wasting shells? he thought, half puzzled and half lampooning.

Perhaps having guessed what he was thinking, Cattleya watched the Stone Giant approach step by step and said, “I had never encountered this kind of Beyonder creature before, so I wanted to test it.”

I can accept that reason… Klein was left speechless.

At that moment, Anderson Hood, who had been observing the Stone Giant all along, raised a hand.

“Does anyone here have Beyonder abilities in the frost domain?”

“I do,” Admiral of Stars Cattleya replied calmly.

Seeing that Madam Hermit had a way to deal with it, Klein swallowed the words that had nearly left his mouth.

For him, unless absolutely necessary, he truly did not want to activate Creeping Hunger, even though Zombie did possess the ability to control frost.

—On this island, he doubted he could find suitable food for it!

Cattleya took a gray-black scroll from a hidden pocket of her wizard-like robe and softly spoke a word in ancient Hermes:

“Freeze!”

Silently, the scroll was swallowed by ice-blue flames. Immediately, crystalline streams of light began raining down from midair.

They swiftly fell upon the Stone Giant, freezing the target within and hanging one icicle after another over its body.

Amid tooth-aching cracking sounds, the layers of ice shattered in succession. The Stone Giant slowly walked out of the frozen zone. However, the gray-white of its surface had deepened a little, and its movements had become much stiffer than before.

At that moment, Anderson raised both hands at once, like a conductor signaling for applause.

Orange-yellow flames, nearly white at their core, instantly surged up beneath the Stone Giant’s feet, as though it had stepped into a trap.

Steam rapidly rose from its surface, followed by cracking sounds. One deep fissure after another appeared.

Anderson pulled back his right arm, and a blazing white spear condensed in his palm.

The flame at the spear’s tip shrank into a single point, radiating dazzling brilliance.

The long spear flew out and struck precisely into a crack at the Stone Giant’s abdomen, directly burning open…