NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 181
Even though the others had no idea that the two girls were trying to fight a black giant, it was at least enough to sense something bizarre happening.
If anyone saw the slimes that had just been sitting still suddenly all flowing towards somewhere, they’d know something was going down.
So not a single one of them reached out to the others.
There was already a solid trust among them that everyone else would have noticed it too.
What they all encountered as they followed the slime’s flow was the black giant looking like it had just been stabbed through by a massive rock spear, a sight they had seen before.
Their brains momentarily lagged behind the situation, and they gawked in shock, but soon snapped back to reality when the impaled giant started marching forward without a care.
Ageha tried to talk to the giant, but her efforts were cut short when the giant twisted its body and swung its fist.
“What the heck is that?! Is that Blanca?! Wasn’t she captured properly?! Why is she suddenly back up?!”
Seolhwa, who blocked the giant’s swinging fist with a giant Ice Wall, voiced the question that everyone who had just arrived was thinking.
“Uh, now that she’s back to her senses, she’s asking to be killed—it’s crazy!”
Yeonhwa hurled a fireball toward the giant’s torso over Seolhwa’s Ice Wall, but the giant didn’t seem to care at all as it continued to punch and kick at them.
“Are you trying to run away without paying the price?!”
Jinhyeon’s head turned crimson as hellfire rained down on the giant; still, the giant didn’t even pretend to be hurt.
It did feel a bit warm, but that was about it. Their attacks caused no further damage.
The giant, seeming more annoyed at the nuisances clinging to it, waved its hands around while emitting steam from its body, transforming the surrounding area into a fire-resistant environment.
Thus, when Yeonhwa tried to crown the giant’s head with flames, she realized that it was not going to work.
“Aah, come on! Why can’t I do anything useful?!”
She grumbled while trying to maintain the flames, pondering how on earth she could change Blanca’s mind.
While Yeonhwa was brainstorming solutions, Lapiz was desperately trying to bind the giant and bring it to its knees by twisting the earth various ways.
Crushing buildings onto it, collapsing its footing, or even sinking the surrounding area into the ground.
But every time, the giant would just fluidly reshape its body and keep attacking.
Even Ageha’s magical blade wind and Changwon’s telekinetic torrents, unleashed with a willingness to destroy the city, did nothing against the giant.
The giant healed instantly from being cut or shattered while it kept punching the others and spewing poison liquid.
And those attacks were as deadly as Blanca had boasted.
But those attacks weren’t delivered with the intent to hit.
So half-hearted were the blows that one could almost think they were merely a formality, showing no real determination to land a hit.
As a result, even Yeonhwa, with no real escape options, could dodge as long as she kept moving.
They all understood well that Blanca didn’t genuinely want to kill them.
If she truly wanted to kill them, she would’ve unleashed a toxic gas instead of just steam.
Especially Changwon, who had experienced her attacks firsthand, knew better than anyone that Blanca had no intent to murder.
So they all focused on restraining and calming Blanca down, no matter what.
The problem was that none of them could figure out how to do it.
“I can’t find a way to get Blanca out! And can we even hurt her?!”
Exhausted from chanting spells, Ageha shouted, and Minho quickly shot back, “No way!” but then muttered that if it were Changwon, maybe he could do something.
“But killing her is pointless! Just endure! There has to be a way!!!”
He shouted back to Ageha, understanding her frustration but insisting they couldn’t give up.
This vow was also a promise to himself, for he was the one feeling the most frustrated.
No matter how much Blanca’s attacks lacked intent to kill, Minho knew well that coming into contact with the slimes while showing even a hint of hostility was suicide.
But he had no ranged attack tools, so the only thing he could do was circle around the giant and try to figure out where Blanca was.
Of course, he had no chance of finding her.
“Fire’s ineffective, ice doesn’t work, wind’s useless, telekinesis fails, and hitting doesn’t help… what’s left?!”
Seolhwa was throwing giant icicles, knowing it was pointless.
Changwon adjusted the trajectory to make the icicles go faster, yet they still failed to deal meaningful damage.
Even if the giant froze with holes in its body, countless slimes would quickly cover the wounds, and there was no real need to cover wounds anyway.
“Looks like subduing it without harming is impossible…!”
Changwon concluded that gently extracting it would be a stretch, so he began to gather mana, ready to tear apart the slime giant into pieces and retrieve Blanca from the debris.
As everyone thought that was the only option, Minho racked his brain, trying to recall if he’d missed something.
“Wait, wait! Electricity, electricity! We’ve never tried zapping her!”
“Doesn’t seem like that would work!”
“But it’s better than not trying at all!”
Ageha agreed with Minho’s idea and began preparing a spell to shoot lightning with what little mana she had left.
“Lightning, by the name of Hecate, I command you to vanquish my foe…!”
This lightning, saved up carefully, didn’t deal a massive blow. However, it was enough to make the giant flinch for just a moment.
Seeing that, Yeonhwa had an idea and shouted at Jinhyeon to zap that giant with electricity.
“Did you think of something?!”
“Not sure if it’ll work, but…”
Yeonhwa replied honestly that she didn’t know if it would work or not, but isn’t it better than doing nothing?
“That’s true. Okay, let’s do it! But how do we even do this?!”
Not having heard the actual plan, Changwon asked what she was thinking, and Yeonhwa briefly explained her simple plan.
While Blanca is stunned from being zapped, they would persuade her to give up, a plan that sounded nice but seemed far-fetched.
Lapiz, who had been quietly listening, added that such words wouldn’t easily convince her, adding unease to Yeonhwa’s suggestion.
“But… but, this is all I could think of! And to do something, we need to zap her first!”
Yeonhwa acknowledged she couldn’t think of anything else, asking whether they were going to zap her or not.
“Of course we’re zapping! Jinhyeon, Ageha! You ready?!”
“Yes, ready to fire anytime!”
Jinhyeon didn’t reply, but he was crackling with electricity all over as his answer.
“Alright, then… zap her!”
While Changwon restrained the giant with telekinesis, Ageha and Jinhyeon let loose a barrage of lightning strikes at the giant.
This wasn’t just a taste test; it was the real deal, with blue lightning battering the giant in an effort to take it down, yet it merely got the giant to kneel and not fall.
“Now’s our chance!”
They seized the opening and unleashed an onslaught of attacks to dismember the giant.
Giant icicles, blades of earth shooting up, and unseen colossal hammers all sliced into the giant’s limbs, waist, and body, tearing it apart.
As only the giant’s head remained on the ground, Yeonhwa started dashing toward it.
Jinhyeon and Ageha could no longer fire lightning at that output, and the power of the blue lightning holding back the slimes gradually weakened.
Accordingly, the slimes scattered on the ground began to slowly gather near the head, attempting to reform the body.
Minho, seeing this, thought he had to stop it and was ready to leap out. He feared if he got caught up in it, he’d vanish without a trace.
However, the disaster he feared didn’t occur.
The slimes gracefully dodged Yeonhwa.
“Blanca! I know you’re in there! If, if it was really about playing with friends, that’s one thing, but… we were really friends, right?!!!”
Yeonhwa shouted toward the slime giant’s head, calling out to Blanca inside it.
“So… so! If you can muster the courage to die, can’t you find the courage to live for your friends…?! If you have no reason to live, then use us as a reason!!! Please, I’m begging you!!!”
She didn’t expect a reply.
She just hoped that, by appealing to her emotions, her feelings would reach her even just a little.
“…I’m sorry, Yeonhwa. Really, I’m sorry. I can’t anymore…”
But from deep inside came the response.
Blanca surfaced from the depths of the slimes, making her way closer to the surface.
And right at that moment.
“Just live a little, will you?! Just like always!”
Minho dashed in suddenly, grabbing Blanca and pulling her out of the slime.