Hearing the "youngest" awakened of the group speak, Holmo was surprised and looked at him with an angry expression, but then he saw the look in Chiron's eyes and instantly knew he shouldn't talk to the madman and sped up their path even faster.
Without wasting a second, he directly went up to the general's office and stormed in. Such audacity was unimaginable by the others. The general, being an ascended, was shocked at this disrespectful action and nearly executed Holmo on the spot for it, being saved by Chiron just in time. He quickly blocked in front of Holmo with both his hands and only got a small bruise. If he wasn't a defense specialist, his arms would have rolled on the floor.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! General! Please listen to me! I know how to stop the army! I know how to let you all escape! I have a plan!"
This most definitely intrigued the general. He scratched his stubbled chin and evaluated Chiron "You're that new awakened guy I heard about, Chiron the thick-skinned, that killed an assassin after my life." The voice didn't seem pleased and the frown on his face was too deep. "Well now, BOY, spit it out. How can YOU stop an army of 27 thousand!"
Chiron gulped as he decided to come completely clean and tell them all about his ability "Sir. My ability allows me to "bunker down" and defend myself and I can bunker down to half my height. I am already in such a state, so I can get smaller and more dense than even this defense!" the general frowned, he had seen this defense, but he didn't see where Chiron was going explaining his rather plain ability "Enough of this! You're wasting valuable evacuation time!"
Chiron nodded hastily "My ability can also condense my organs and make them tougher. This allows me to basically squeeze down on food and other resources inside my body, such as air."
The impatience grew on the general's face "Sir, the city will fall no matter what and we won't be able to get all the food out in time. If you allow me to eat it all, I can condense it in my digestive tract and have days, maybe even weeks or MONTHS worth of food stockpiled in my stomach, that along with the enemy army being only regular soldiers of huge quantity and my unique ability, I can withstand their onslaught almost indefinitely. Well, at least long enough for everyone else to escape and then I will either die a hero, or use the energy and my own powers to escape alive! With this plan, EVERYONE will be able to retreat and live!"
The general actually widened his eyes *This kid is a complete lunatic!* is what he thought. The plan was completely absurd and idiotic, hell, it wasn't even a good one. What Chiron suggested was, to let the enemy keep trying to kill him while everyone else went away. *This might actually work! They can't kill him and can't immediately deploy one of their awakened or ascended to kill him and an awakened rampaging across their unit won't do them any good, so he can stall the frontline almost indefinitely. But I need to test his insight.*
It had nothing to do with a heroic power up or his incomprehensible third or the useless secondary attribute or anything like that for the matter. It was a complete brute force method, that was basically the same as someone declaring 'I bet they'll get tired of beating my ass before I get tired of getting my ass beat' to the general and swearing to the gods it was a good plan!
It was reckless beyond belief and boiled down to one thought Chiron had *The nightmare will end before I die from wounds*. It was the ultimate gamble. Chiron bet his life on this being the ultimate condition to clearing his nightmare. Even if his plan succeeded, but this wasn't enough to end the nightmare, he would die a hero's death, hero to a bunch of illusions. That's if his plan could even remotely work, but something deep in his gut told him this was the was a gamble worth taking!
But the general didn't think about any of that, he barely even cared if Chiron survived. He had only 1 thought *good enough.* and he directly nodded and sent the 50 soldiers, that remained to somewhat maintain the gates, while the citizens and the garrison retreated up and the feast began.
Raw wheat, fruits, vegetables were brought before Chiron. He ate and ate and ate and ate until his weight increased by a kilo of raw cow and pig meat. Then he shrunk to 4'11" and went back up to 6'1" impatiently.
This repeated itself with tens of food groups. Chiron kept going. Eating and eating and eating and eating and eating, until he felt like he was about to explode. He had put on over 80kg of food and was finally obese at a height of 5'8". He had been eating for hours and could barely stand or move, but something deep inside him made him move.
He, even with the massive stiffness and weighing 150+ kilos from the amount of food being digested, stood up and walked... More like waddled his way to the battle. He grabbed his Zweihändler and walked towards the western gate, where the army was only half an hour away from beginning the siege. He didn't stop. The gates were opened to let him through and he kept walking, waddling like a penguin would be a more accurate description. His eyes seemingly blank and lifeless, but his fire never went out.
Struggling to keep his mouth shut to not throw up or let anything from his stomach and throat leave his body. He had used his ability to tightly shut his throat right below his lungs, so he could increase his food capacity even a slight bit. He had wrapped the greatsword in his hands with the bandages surrounding his bloated body, that further helped contain his bursting form.
The enemy soldiers dismissed him as another peace delegation or a moron. His idiotic visage brought them to tears from laughing before arrows flew. Nearly a thousand arrows hit him, but they just bounced off. The man didn't slow down and kept walking, as the army and their siege weapons neared. The gates closed and shut, as the last of the entire garrison left.