125 - - the end of a storm

The number of Ulil's fingers, which he had just seen through Moe's eyes, was the eighth finger on the turntable.

The battle was already in its final stages.

Ducking behind Garoud, Thor let out a harsh white breath.

The coldness of the surroundings is becoming quite dangerous, although it is better due to the fact that he is moving around.

Thankfully, the blood spurting from his wounds hardens quickly.

The shieldmen are blocking all the stones coming from the front.

However, there is no way to prevent the irregular bouncing of the stones as they hit the ground.

Thor's body was already covered with bruises and lacerations.

It would have been much worse had it not been for his leather armor with its smooth scales.

Thor muttered a few words of thanks in his heart to the skill of the armor store owner.

And also for the support of Moe, who was secretly softening the blow.

Normally, he would have been by now.

But that is not the case now.

Thor, his arm outstretched, lightly touches the shoulder blade of Garudo who stands in front of him.

Unlike the which only hardens and strengthens the body, the mid-branch skill also grants resistance to heat and cold.　

Thanks to this, even in this freezing air, he seems to be able to move as well as usual.

However, the armor that covers their bodies is another matter.

Especially from the large shield that Garudo lifts against the wind, a hard and sharp sound is constantly echoing.

After a quick check, Thor gives up on the armor and returns only the long shield to its new condition.

With this, the remaining number of times he can use is now six.

Although there is still a little room to spare, it is time to start catching up, considering the precautions he will have to take after the defeat.

Thor grips the hilt of his sword again and looks beyond the white cloud of sand.

Suddenly, a swear word from Garudo jumps into his ears.

"d*mn!　Here!"

Almost immediately, a gust of wind from directly above pushed them both hard to the ground.

It was a familiar and violent movement of the air - a breaking wind.

The timing could not have been worse.

The wind came upon them suddenly and raged over the motionless Thor and the others.

The two men, nearly carried away by the raging wave of wind, desperately get down on the ground.

For less than a few seconds.

But it seems like a terribly long time.

Suddenly, Thor notices that the silence has returned.

The sound of the wind, which had been roaring in his ears, has somehow disappeared.

The air, which had been so cold, has now disappeared without a trace, along with the sand.

Thor looks up and holds his breath.

What filled his vision was the figure of a giant standing in his way.

Moreover, the tornado arms protruding from its torso were both split in two at the base.

The giant of sand storm lifted its four arms high in the air.

A long, high-pitched wind howling sound echoed from its entire body.

Sometimes, when the number of swarms increases too much, monsters change into a special form of swarming.

Similarly, the higher-ranking monsters, when cornered, rarely undergo a change called the frenzied phase.

It seemed that this had happened to the monster in front of me.

Garudo and Thor stand up and look up at the giant's body, breathing on their shoulders as it rushes toward the sky.

Everything they have built up to this point has been completely overturned.

The danger has never been greater.

To retreat or to advance.

Thor does not hesitate to choose the difference between a moment of victory and a moment of defeat.

It was a sense of smell acquired by a man who has dived through the eyes of danger alone for twenty-five years.

Thor, who has seen what is going on around him, first returns his body to the best condition it can be in.

Next, he thrust out his fist and struck Garudo hard on the back.

At the same time, he his body to the state in which it is filled with the maximum amount of fighting energy.

This was the signal for the finishing touches.

The shieldsman, who immediately understood the intention, released all his fighting spirit and let out a scream.

--

Garudo's body swells up so much that his armor is bounced off his body from the inside.

For one minute from this moment, all attacks against the shieldman are nullified.

Even a soul-destroying dark technique cannot work on Garudo at all now.

And the tremendous sense of intimidation that was radiated undeniably inflamed the hostility of the monster to the utmost limit.

The Titan raises its four arms in unison at the small, unneglectable being that is groaning at its feet.

As it did so, it slammed them all together.　

Just before the moment, Thor had shot out from behind the shield like an arrow.

He sprints across the bottom of the hollow, aiming for the giant's feet.

The fist of the tornado hits the ground with each Garudo, creating a violent gust of wind.

With the wind at his back, Thor accelerated in a single bound.

He passes under the giant's loins and clings to one of the boulders that has emerged from beneath the sand due to the wind.

This was also Thor's destination.

With all the concentration he can muster, he searches for the past of the mass of rock he has grasped, to see what it was like before this happened.

Then he poured all his magical energy into it.

--

The next moment, Thor was in a place overlooking the hollow.

At his feet, a white mountain of rock rises up.

This was before the sandstorm incarnate, the monster.

And in front of him was the back of a giant who was curling his body and continuing to beat Garudo.

The thickness of the torso was clearly reduced, as could be seen from below.

It was probably due to the increase of four arms.

This was the chance that Thor had found.

"Sae Frost!"

There was no way that the long-eared Yuril could have missed Garudo's exclamation as he unleashed his full power of martial arts.

The woman who had sensed the movement of Thor and the others was already chanting a new prayer in response.

The pure white mist that had been generated spread through the air and covered the giant monster's back.

The air creaked and froze in the blink of an eye.

"Come in, Mr. Thor."

Seizing the opportunity, Thor kicked the rock at his feet with great force.

His body leaps high into the air, reaching just above the giant's back.

The giant's attention should have been focused on Garudo, but it seems that his frenzied phase was not so sweet.

Reacting to the presence that had come flying directly above them, a series of rolled-up rocks are shot into the sky.

The stones pierced through the frozen back and struck Thor like porcupine spines.

Thor quickly flaps his blue-striped cloak in mid-air.

His maximum defense was already in place before he jumped.

Small purple lightning bolts burst out from the cloak and bounce off the pebbles that are digging into the cloak.

"Go, To-chan!"

The upper half of the monster's body is completely stopped by Yuril's magic.

This made it easy to see inside the torso.

A black mass appears to be floating in the center.

It is the spirit nucleus of the Storm Sand Giant.

Thor's sword breaks through the thin ice and runs toward the target.

The spell of the freezing fog is only near the surface, but for some reason the winds that should be swirling inside have stopped moving.

--.

"Now, Thor!"

As he jumps down, a white blade is swung down, cutting off even the wind.

A clear sound rang out.

A beat later, the black mass of the spirit nucleus shifts in half in the middle.

At the same time, the gathered wind is released in all directions.

Pushed by the wind, Thor's body, which had been leaping through the air, accelerates downward.

However, there was already a visitor at the landing point.

Garudo throws down his shield and opens his arms.

His arms catch the man as he falls.

The two men, half-naked and holding each other, gaze into the air, their armor broken.

Then, after confirming that the monster has completely vanished, they look at each other and quietly clench their fists together.

"...... You did it, Thor. You did a great job of getting down on the ground."

"Yeah, I think we got it all sorted out."

I look up and see Ulil and the others sitting in the middle of the slope.

When they noticed Thor's eyes on them, all three of them waved at me with exhausted faces.

It seems that they have run out of energy.

"Where are you?　Where are you?　Cerce!"

Thor's head whipped around at the sudden cry.

A bearded guide was calling out to the few remaining boulders, as if searching for something.

It seems that the effects of his invincible martial arts have finally worn off, and his steps are unsteady and faltering.

Thor was about to approach and call out to them, when someone suddenly ran by him.

It was Saralisa, holding a lyre.

The player went to the middle of the hollow and plucked the strings lightly.

It was a technique called "Negative Sound Tuning" - a technique to distinguish the density of sand by the echoes of sound.

It seems, however, that she was not looking for a safe zone this time.

Her face changes color, and she rushes to one of the rocky debris.

She throws down her precious lyre and starts to wade through the sand as hard as she can.

Just as Thor and Garudo caught up with her, Saralisa seemed to have dug something.

As they get closer, it becomes clear.　

From beneath the sand emerged the skull of someone.

Something like dead grass clung to its empty eye sockets.

As soon as he noticed it, Garudo let out a guttural sound.

"Oh, I knew it. ....... I knew it, I was too late."

Saralisa says nothing and moves the sand out of the way.

A bundle of seashells was entangled in the exposed white neckbone.

It was probably a decorative cord from which an adventurer's tag had been hung.

At the previous dinner, Saralisa had blurred the meaning of the conspicuous jewelry, but it was originally for this kind of confirmation.

Finally convinced that it was her sister, Saralisa stood up with a sob.

Then, for some reason, she pulled out the knife from her waistband.

Before she could stop herself, the blade, undulating in waves, was sucked into the abdomen of her brother-in-law, who was standing next to her.

Garudo lets out a muffled cry.

He reaches out for Thor, but Saralisa, glaring at him with her reddened eyes, stops him.

"I told you. I told you not to get in the way of me avenging my sister's enemies.