Chapter 65

Darius left his room with Gunner in tow, a pacified Portia left seated in his bed with a mesmerized expression. Whatever infatuation she had with him before had now evolved into something else, and Darius did not like that change one bit.

Still, he recognized her goodwill and amended his plans a bit for her sake. As for her feelings, she would have to deal with them on her own, as there was nothing Darius wished to offer her.

Darius turned to Gunner and saw the large lad smiling. With a hint of amusement, he asked: "Well, Gunner, you have been bored to death the whole day, and now you get to let loose. Are you ready?"

Gunner grinned toothily as he clapped his hands together. "Very ready, Master. I look forward to the battle!"

Darius nodded his head. "Good! Take the lead and engage them, you don't need me to hold you back."

Gunner bellowed with laughter as he jumped up and broke through the ceiling of the farmhouse, his body shooting through the air as he reached the outskirts in almost one jump.

One could see a greenish aura surround his body that had been absorbed into his skin. The moment he landed, there was a small earthquake in the area as the large lad broke his fall with the body of a Goblin.

Well, it couldn't be called much of a body after Gunner had practically crushed it into paste. The monsters and bandits currently in combat with the few able-bodied men of the homestead paused to take in Gunner's form with shock.

They could not fathom such strength and power, but Gunner had only just begun. He raised his leg and cast one of his new skills granted to him by Darius, Earthen Stomp!

[Earthen Stomp - Level 1 Skill

Cost: 20 MP

Description: Possessing an affinity with the earth element, channel its power into your legs as you destroy the area around you with a minor quake. This damages an area of 20 meters around the user.]

The moment Gunner's foot - which was charged with greenish energy - collided with the ground, it was as if a meteor had hit the earth. The ground directly around the half-giant cracked and shifted, those who stood above it falling over themselves and ending up concussed at the least.

Gunner laughed loudly and charged forward into an Ogre that had two heads which dual-wielded a club and mace. Unlike his companions, this one wore some stolen hide armor that barely fit its body.

Gunner's movement speed at 15 points of Agility was too fast for the Ogre to follow, since it merely had 8 or 9 points in the same statistic at best. As such, it could only be blown back into many of its fellows once Gunner used another skill granted him by Darius.

[Earthen Punch - Level 1 Skill

Cost: 15 MP

Description: Possessing an affinity with the earth element, channel its power into your fists as you deal more damage to armored or larger enemies. This skill deals 10% blunt damage.]

Gunner's fist glowed with a green light just as he connected his punch with the unlucky Ogre, forcing the monster to spit out a load of blackish-blue blood that smelled disgusting.

Gunner's performance on the battlefield was all-encompassing, forcing all attention on him. The benefit of this was that those fighting for the homestead got a huge boost in morale.

The downside though, was that all enemy attention was focused on him. Many of the monsters charged him while the bandits with ranged weapons focused on him.

Before he could make his next move, hundreds of arrows and various projectile attacks rained towards his position.

Gunner was the only real threat here apart from Shanks, who was also tearing up his side of the battlefield.

Gunner noticed all the enemies and attacks coming towards him and laughed. He activated his bloodline skill, Earthen Guardian that had been increased to level 9!

At this level, it increased his Strength, Endurance, Damage, and Defense by 50%!

Now that Gunner had brought both his Strength and Endurance stats to 20 points, that means he got a free 10 points added!

However, the consumption of the skill had grown as well, as it now cost 10 MP per second to use. With how much Gunner had left, he could only realistically use it for about 7 or so seconds.

Still, the half-giant lad was unperturbed by this, as Darius had already given him many Transmuted mana potions that were increased from lower grades. With them, Gunner could easily restore his MP over the course of the battle.

The half-giant lad received all the projectiles on his body, his hard muscles, and polymer suit repelling everything like they were just small stings of a mosquito. Not even a lick of damage was dealt unto Gunner, who proceeded to rush into the fray of charging enemies.

With his damage and defense buffed by 50%, he did not need to think about protecting himself or doing any fancy moves nor activate any other skill. All he had to do was punch, smash and destroy, nothing more, nothing less.

Unsurprisingly, Gunner was very good at that. He was not adept at using weapons, and from what Darius had read about the Giant race, they weren't the type either.

As Gunner slowly tore through the enemies on the battlefield, Darius finally blinked into the area with a raised eyebrow. Portia had warned them that there were monsters among the lot, but there were far more here than he had expected from the bandit groups.

Foldo really did overwork himself to see the plan through, but Darius had to admit, he had pulled it off spectacularly.

He could see the Diato bandits, lead by Diato, Jorge, and Kevin fighting against Shanks, while the Garwen Bandits were the ones mostly made up of archers who were bombarding Gunner fruitlessly.

As for Foldo and his crew, they were here, but not exactly either. Only a few of his men actively did something on the battlefield, and he sent the ones who were known troublemakers as well as those who were weeds in his group here to represent his group... and to perish.