Chapter 209: Giants.
The street’s noise vanished.
In its place came the distant howl of war.
The vision settled over a city, native to this region, now under siege.
“Defend!”
Boom!
The shout was swallowed by the violent crash of stone giving way.
A watchtower ahead of the line burst apart in a shower of shattered masonry, the blast wave shoving the air itself aside.
A boulder the size of a wagon wheel had torn through it, hurled from beyond the walls.
The impact sent nearby soldiers tumbling, their cries blending with the grinding roar of the wall’s collapse.
"Attack!!!"
"Attack!"
"Save me!"
"Helpp!!"
The man who had shouted a moment before was dragged down in the fall, half-buried in splintered wood and wet earth.
He hit the ground hard, his cheek pressed into a muddy bootprint, the grit and cold water soaking into his skin.
"Arghh! What's going on!"
He pushed himself up on unsteady arms, ears ringing in a dull, high whine.
Dust stung his eyes, the air thick with grit and the acrid taste of pulverized stone.
Around him, the scene was a broken mess, bodies sprawled in unnatural angles, armor dented and split.
Some men still moved, crawling or limping toward the wall.
Others lay pinned beneath debris, voices ragged as they called for help.
"God help us!!"
"Godd! Please, it hurts! It hurts!!!"
Boots thundered in from the rear as reinforcements poured in, the tremor of their approach rippling through the ground.
The soldier stood frozen, not from fear, but from that strange hollow clarity that sometimes gripped a man mid-battle.
Through the haze, he saw her, a young woman in a dented breastplate, her lower half trapped under a slab of stone.
The weight was too much, no human strength could free her in time.
Light slanted through the swirling dust, catching in the wet gleam of her eyes.
Around her, voices clashed, shouts from comrades rushing forward, her own hoarse cries mingling with theirs.
“What… what are we fighting against again?"
The answer stepped into view.
From the breach in the wall, an immense hand emerged, each finger thick as a man’s torso.
Pale skin, disturbingly human, curled around the edge of the boulder. With a casual pull, the stone lifted, scattering pebbles and dust in a soft cascade.
The woman gasped, a sob of relief shaking her shoulders.
Tears slid down her dirt-streaked cheeks, far too soon.
But then...
The soldiers behind her faltered in their charge.
A figure followed the hand through the gap of dust swirling, towering, easily eight to ten meters tall.
The shape was unmistakably human in form, bare and unarmored.
The giant tossed the boulder aside, the ground trembling as it landed.
“Th-thank you…” she managed, her voice breaking.
She still hadn’t looked up, she still hadn't noticed.
The hand that had freed her closed around her body. Her head turned, the motion slow, disbelief dawning in her eyes, her screams were cut off short.
And then the giant’s face leaned close.
Human-like features stretched into a grotesquely gentle smile before its jaws opened wide.
Teeth sank through armor as if it were soft leather.
The crack of splitting metal was drowned beneath the wet sound of tearing flesh.
Blood sprayed in an arc, speckling the dirt. Fragments of what had been her spilled onto the ground in a steaming heap.
Every soldier in sight stopped moving.
As if some invisible hand had pressed pause on the battlefield.
They stood frozen before that section of the wall, their swords hanging slack in their grips, the edges still slick with blood from earlier skirmishes.
Yet now, in the shadow of what loomed before them, those blades felt almost childishly light, absurd tools against something so big.
From beyond, the sound rolled in, distant howls layered with bone-shaking, inhuman roars.
Somewhere in the cacophony came human voices, screams of agony cut short into silence.
Beneath it all, a steady thump… thump… thump… each impact rattling the stone under their feet, pressing the weight further.
“W-we…” One guard’s voice cracked, his words stumbling over themselves. “We were fighting against… these creatures this whole time?”
His armor clinked in time with his shivering frame, the sound tiny compared to the monster’s breathing.
“A… human-eating giant?” another guard whispered, his weapon drooping, the steel trembling between his fingers.
“What… in the world…?” The last words barely escaped before the horror unfolded.
Chunk.
The towering figure before them, its shadow blotting out the light, tossed back its head and swallowed.
The upper half of a woman disappeared down its gullet in a single gulp, her scream still echoing before vanishing into the wet darkness of its throat.
Leather, steel, flesh, nothing remained.
Blood sprayed in an arc, splattering the stones and the stunned guards alike.
The copper stench filled their noses, and in that same moment, their knees buckled.
But instead of crumbling, something else broke loose in their eyes.
They flared wide, bloodshot and furious.
Mouths opened, and from deep in their throats erupted a roar that was half battle cry, half denial of death itself.
Against all odds, die in battle!
“We are the guards of this city! We will never back down no matter the odds we face!”
“DIE!”
Steel flashed.
Some moved with blinding speed, their swords leaving streaks of light as power surged through them.
Basic sword skills for awakeners.
Others, mere mortals threw themselves forward desperately.
The titan did not flinch.
A massive hand blurred through the air, swatting away strikes as if brushing dust from its skin.
Blades rang against its flesh with the hollow note of steel meeting stone, and left no mark.
“I–impossible!” a guard cried, disbelief shattering his focus.
The titan’s eyes, black pits rimmed with burning crimson, snapped to him.
A smile over it's ugly face.
Boom.
A foot the size of a cart came down, caving in the man’s body with a wet, bone-splintering crunch.
Flesh and armor flattened into the cracked stone, unrecognizable.
That was the spark.
The rest charged, some screaming, others silent in grim resolve.
Steel rang, arrows hissed, a halberd slammed deep into the titan’s thigh, drawing a spray of steaming, black blood.
It healed before their eyes.
The wound bubbled and hissed, closing over with tendrils of smoke rising into the air.
No scar. No weakness.
And then… the ground trembled again.
From beyond the wall’s break, more shapes emerged, dozens at first, then hundreds.
Giants, each different in shape and size, some lanky and towering like gaunt nightmares, others hunched and bloated with bellies distended from fresh meals.
The first wave hit the streets.
A lanky giant plucked a fleeing woman from the crowd, her child dangling from her grasp.
She screamed for the boy to run, before the titan’s jaw closed on her torso, snapping spine and clothes in one wet bite.
The child’s shriek was cut short as another giant scooped him up without slowing.
On a nearby rooftop, three guards fired ballista bolts into the nearest giant’s head.
"Die you monsters!!!"
It flinched, just once, before yanking the bolt out with a sickening crunch, the wound sealing as quickly as it had appeared.
A long, bony arm swung, catching two of them mid-chest and sending their bodies cartwheeling into the stone street below.
One awakened guard leapt from the wall, sword blazing with light.
He carved a deep gash across a titan’s cheek, the skin splitting, muscle tearing, only to watch it steam shut before he even landed.
The titan’s hand seized him mid-air.
"What? no!!!"
There was a moment of silent struggle, then it squeezed.
Blood burst between its fingers like water through a cracked cask.
Farther down the street, a bloated titan stumbled forward, its gut dragging low.
It tripped, fell face-first into a scattering crowd, and began scooping them into its mouth like a child eating spilled candy.
Screams echoed between the narrow stone walls, cut short one by one.
Everywhere was chaos. Stone shattered under colossal feet. Arrows snapped against impenetrable skin.
Flesh tore.
Blood ran like rainwater into the gutters.
The smell, iron, smoke, and the hot stench of titanic breath, clung to the air until it was hard to breathe.
And still, more poured in.
"Send the broken blade legion now!"