Chapter 36

Mageha’Proté

As cold air enveloped the kordozas and their carapace changed color, Kaleva, Kareya, and Kaveda began encircling counterclockwise in the air. On the other hand, the remaining queens also formed a bigger circle that revolved clockwise.

Once they picked up a relatively steady pace, Kaleva shut her wings and dived diagonally while her body rotated like a drill. In a split of a second, her horn tackled Goliath’s right leg, releasing a strong clattering sound in the area. Before the giant could swing his sword and land a counterattack, an invisible sonic wave from Kasheda struck him and left him stunned for a moment. Given the opportunity, Kaleva immediately opened her wings again and pitched upward, soaring back to their formation. As she did so, Kareya shut her wings, rotated her body at great speed, and descended with her horns covered in red flames directly pointing at Goliath’s right leg. The giant hadn’t even recovered from two consecutive attacks when Kareya hit him and dragged him on the ground. While she maneuvered to make her quick escape, Kapeha fired a long-range wind blast as Kaveda readied herself to execute her own hit-and-run attack.

Everything was going to plan, they thought. Even if the armor seemed invincible, he’s still nothing but an enchanted mindless being. First, they needed to get rid of Goliath’s mobility by severing one of his legs. And then its arms. After that, it would be easy to take him down by destroying the gemstone inside its head which held both his mana and enchantments that enabled him to move and use all his abilities.

However, unbeknownst to other kordovas, Kabera had been seething in humiliation as she flew. As one of the queens of the proud kordovan race, it was unthinkable that a mere enchanted giant armor pushed them in a corner. Even though their offensive and magical abilities fell short to most monsters on the island, they had always prided themselves on their defensive skills. And yet, a mindless opponent before them treated their carapace like butter.

As Kaveda flew back to the sky after landing a successful attack on the giant’s left leg, Kabera didn’t invoke her fire spell to distract the giant. Given a quick moment to retaliate, Goliath swung his blade in a semi-circular manner while lying on his back.

All the Queens’s eyes widened as everything went quiet as though time stood still - or at least - a second that extended into what seemed like a silent eternity.

“Queen Kaveda!” Kaleva and Kareya exclaimed in unison as green substance splattered across the Giant’s body and half of Kaveda’s abdomen fell on the churred ground. Her wings slowed down and not too long later, her main body also fell like a rug. An enormous amount of green liquid leaked from her main body, bathing herself in her sour and foul-smelling blood.

The remaining queens gave Kabera a brief severe look, making her shook in her place. I failed… I failed… she muttered to herself. And they knew that. She failed, not just as a queen, but ultimately as a kordova. Since the moment they were born, all kordovas had instinctually formed groups of three - a kordovash’halowey. Perhaps, they do it to make up for their lack of destructive power to defeat stronger opponents. But when did it start? Kabera wondered as Goliath began to move again. When did she start believing in her power alone? When her initial groupmate died? Or when she became a queen?

Kabera doubled the speed of her wings and used most of her mana to cover her ginormous body with purple fire. It doesn’t matter anymore, she told herself. After all, everyone saw her blunder - her hesitation that caused the life of her kin. She spun like a drill, and dived towards Goliath, using the last bit of her power to amplify her speed. Except for Kasheda, the other queens watched her in pure horror as her horns shattered the giant’s feet before she fell on top of his upper body.

“I am Kabera’Kordoza,” she declared as Goliath lifted her with his left hand. “The proud queen of Kordova’Bera. And I refuse to yield to the likes of you...”

The Giant then used the small space between them to move his sword and stab her. In response, Kaleva and Kaveda immediately descended and snatched her with their feet. Before he could move, Kapeha and Kareya used the opportunity to pin both his hands on the ground. Kasheda then followed suit with the most destructive wave spell in her arsenal and fire it towards both his shoulders. She repeated it a few times before it finally broke and shattered to pieces.

“Finally,” Kapeha muttered. “Please, Queen Kasheda, do the honor.”

The elder didn’t say another word, instead, she began her unrecognizable chant. However, before she could finish, Kaleva spoke nervously, “Hold on…” And then her scream echoed, “Queen Kareya, Queen Kapeha. Please get out of the way.”

“This… is… absurd…” Kapeha stuttered as she flew away, seeing the giant’s feet had already regenerated, and now, even his arms had begun regenerating.

“This is a joke, right?” Kaleva said, laughing humorlessly.

“Enough!” the empress intervened, her voice filled with disappointment. She descended a few meters above the kordozas, prompting them to look at her, but all of them immediately turned down their heads in shame. “I am greatly disappointed. All of you have failed me.”

“We are very sorry, your imperial-”

“I said enough!” She roared. “Daedalus and I shall take it from here.”

They didn’t say anything as they fear that they would incur more wrath from the empress. Instead, they landed on the ground slowly, one by one. It was the kordovan custom that no lower-ranking kordovas are allowed to fly higher than their superior unless they’re given permission. And so, the empress landed too, a few meters away from Goliath, both their heads leveled.

A few more seconds and a magic circle appeared in front of the empress, where a massive semi-transparent purplish fire came out and blasted through the giant.

“Very good, your imperial highness,” Daedalus praised, though his mocking tone revealed his true intentions. Then as the spell subsided after about thirty seconds, he pulled out his sword and pointed it to Goliath. As he expected, even with the empress’s power, the armor still withstood the attack. Its whole body glowed in red-orange hue as though it was about to melt, smoke coming out of its body. Daedalus smiled and waved it once in a small circular manner. In that instant, ice formed below its feet and began to engulf the giant armor. A few seconds later and it was encased in a massive block of crystal ice.

Daedalus tightened his grip on the sword. Then he jumped from the empress back towards the ice crystals once he found the exact location of the gemstone. He then sent the whole ice block a series of swift cuts and strikes, so fast it almost looked invisible through the human eye. After he landed, he stabbed his sword on the ground while the ice broke to pieces like glass and scattered below his feet.

“Such weaklings,” he said sharply, looking at the kordozas fiercely. “You all are such a disappointment...”

The kordozas wanted to protest. However, with the presence of the empress whose demeanor warned them to remain silent, they swallowed their pride and didn’t speak a word. Then after a minute or two, the last bits of their sanity almost left them. Behind the man who called himself Daedalus Harkin, the Giant Armor had begun to emerge from the ground again. He was regenerating at tremendous speed.

When Daedalus sensed a concentration of mana that gradually built itself behind him, he spun in reflex. There it was, Goliath, holding his sword. And without a second, the giant raised its sword over its shoulders and swayed it down, straight towards the Daedalus’s head. Daedalus couldn’t move. With his eyes wide open, only two words escaped his mouth, “Mageha’Proté.”