Climbing

Eric reached the guardian's leg, killing anything and everything in his way.

After that, he put his sword in his mouth as he held it with his teeth, and using his two hands, he began to quickly climb the guardian's leg.

Aria's lantern, which he had attached to his armor, swung to the side with each of his movements.

'Faster! I have to be faster!' he thought, as he could hear the monsters beginning to climb the guardian's leg as well.

Suddenly, Eric's body shuddered as the guardian raised its leg and then brought it down, crushing countless creatures below its step.

But the guardian didn't stop there. It began to quickly raise its foot again, only to bring it down once more.

The ground shuddered as each step the guardian took created an earthquake, making the ground tremble.

Seeing that a monster had managed to reach him, Eric quickly grabbed the sword from his mouth with his left hand, preparing to slash while his right hand was the only thing keeping him clinging to the guardian's leg.

"Go to hell!" he shouted as he slashed the weird mass of creature that was following him.

Because he was forced to stop there, the monsters below began catching up.

Putting the sword back in his mouth, he quickened his pace—or at least that was the plan.

Until he shifted his gaze upward, only to see that the giant was looking at him with its massive crimson eyes, slowly opening its enormous jaws.

Eric shuddered.

"It's about to fire at its own leg?!" he screamed, changing his direction from upward to the right. He had to position himself on the opposite side of the leg to dodge the inferno.

Using his exhausted arms and legs, he moved as quickly as possible.

The next moment, the inferno began raining down from the sky, but Eric managed to escape it by reaching the other side of the leg just in time.

Something dark began colliding with the head of the giant.

Focusing his gaze, Eric grinned. It seemed there were also flying monsters that had decided to join the fight for his soul.

The giant's body, taking the blows of thousands of monsters while others clung to it, involuntarily shuddered and collapsed onto one knee.

"Now is the time!" Eric screamed as he managed to reach the thigh of the guardian.

Now that he was on mostly flat ground, he began approaching the torso of the giant with the intention of reaching its head.

But he was quickly stopped as the monsters that had been climbing the guardian's leg also reached its thigh, forcing Eric to fight if he wanted to proceed.

Realizing how ridiculous the situation was, Eric bursted into laughter.

It also didn't help that his desires were getting dangerously amplified.

"Come and get me then! Now I am invincible!" he proclaimed as he charged at them, still laughing like some kind of maniac.

*****

"Finally!" Olivia spoke as she and Aria finally reached the cathedral.

Its beautiful design was hidden beneath the raw, dark corruption that had infected the godly structure.

Arriving at the gates, they saw the once proud and great doors, now darkened by the menacing black energy that had begun to slowly consume them.

Olivia glanced at Aria, who seemed frozen, staring at the cathedral.

'I wonder how strong the calling she's feeling right now is?' Olivia wondered, shifting her gaze to Eric, who was still fighting desperately on the guardian's thigh.

She gritted her teeth before she spoke. "I'll take it from here! You've to liberate the cathedral!"

Aria didn't respond. She simply nodded and slowly began to approach the Cathedral.

Placing her delicate hand on the massive doors, she pushed them open without hesitation and stepped inside without even glancing back.

'As someone from the Life Faction, she's the only one here who can enter the cathedral after it's corrupted. It all depends on her—whether she succeeds and becomes a Grandmaster or fails and becomes a monster as powerful as the guardian,' Olivia thought, stretching out her hand.

"I promised myself I'd never use this again," she muttered irritably as a bow began to slowly materialize in her hands.

No, it wasn't just a bow—it was something much, much greater.

*****

"Fuck!" Eric couldn't help but curse. The monsters surrounding him, despite being easy to split in two, were preventing him from continuing his climb toward the guardian's head.

"This is bad," he muttered, slashing at the creatures. For every one he managed to kill, two more seemed to take its place.

The situation was going from bad to worse. Even if he rushed past the monsters, he wouldn't be able to climb quickly enough, and the monsters below would eventually catch up.

"If only there was something I could use as a foothold!" he cried, frustrated. The guardian's body was too smooth for him to climb quickly.

At least, that was what he thought until—

Suddenly, something black, moving so fast it broke through the sound barrier, appeared in his field of vision.

The next instant, it struck the giant, piercing into its massive body. Now, there was a two-meter-long bolt embedded in the guardian's torso.

Eric quickly shifted his gaze, narrowing his eyes as he saw—

Olivia. She had summoned a bow so large it resembled a siege weapon. She was currently in the process of reloading, preparing to fire another bolt.

As the gears in Eric's head began to turn, he dashed through the monsters, no longer caring about the damage he was going to take.

Some of the monsters slashed at his forehead, leaving deep cuts that caused blood to stream down his face. One managed to grasp part of his armor and ripped it off, exposing his left hand.

Eric screamed, as having his armor removed—whether by himself or someone else—felt like peeling off his own skin.

But despite the pain, he didn't slow down. Instead, he jumped and grabbed hold of the bolt embedded in the guardian's body.

The next second, another bolt collided with the guardian, a bit higher than the previous one.

It seemed he was right—Olivia was creating a path for him.

"I can work with this!" he shouted as he jumped, grasping the second bolt.