Emperor of Steel

‘I need to save Priest Luther!’

Over the past year, Hwang Bo-sung overcame half of the induced poison with the treatment he got from Priest Luther and his divine power and constant effort to improve, and it wasn’t just that, he gained a significant level of skills.

Honestly, Hwang Bo-sung could knock down 10 expert class mercenaries at any time of the day.

However, there was a strong opponent before him, and he couldn’t measure the limits of his strength.

If he couldn’t assess an opponent’s level, that meant that those particular opponents weren’t that strong.

Therefore, he hadn’t shown off his martial arts.

He listened to the words Priest Luther had said to him.

But in the meantime, the situation had changed.

Out of the mercenaries who joined in, a strong man appeared.

‘Although I can’t give my 100% now, this might turn into a mess.’

Even in the clan and the fifth generation, there weren’t masters who could take on the highest level.

Even those who had reached the highest level wouldn’t be able to fight over a hundred men.

But the man in front of him was told to be a mercenary leader. What kind of mercenary group did he belong to?

‘If something happens, it won’t be easy to escape.’

Hwang Bo-sung, who was deep in his thoughts for a while, frowned and spoke to Philip,

“Stop. I challenge you to a Gigantic Duel.”

“Gigantic Duel?”

Philip’s eyes narrowed as he was about to pull out his sword.

All of a sudden, the warrior from the southern continent asked for a Gigantic Duel.

“You are strong. I know how to honor the strong. That is why I challenge you to a Gigantic Duel since Gigantic Duels are meant for the honored.”

“I know what you are trying to say, but do you have a Gigant with you?” Asked Philip.

“I have something similar to it. If I win, have your mercenaries go back, and if you win, we will move.”

Philip glanced over at Luke to ask him if he could accept the challenge.

Luke nodded.

Honestly, it seemed unlikely that there would be remnants of the rebels there, but he was really curious about the abilities of the southern warrior.

Once Luke gave his permission, Philip, brought his Gigant.

When the trailer holding Marina approached, he opened the breastplate and entered the cockpit.

Hwang Bo-sung wasn’t just standing still in the meantime either.

He put small flags and wrote a few characters on the ground. He sat down in the middle and began to cast a spell. His hands kept moving, and it created a strange form.

“… Warrior, move forward!”

“What is he doing?”

Luke kept his eyes on Hwang Bo-sung from the very beginning. He looked at everything that he was doing. It was because he could sense unusual energy flowing from his body.

‘What? This energy… is like the Aether…’ Thought Luke.

Light and dark, chaos and order, existence and absence.

The conflicting energies were moving in harmony.

It was almost like whirlpools and tornadoes moving in the same direction.

While thinking, as if something had stricken him, Luke jumped up.

“Yes! That is what it is!”

Kwang!

Hwang Bo-sung, who had finished moving his hands, hit his fists on the ground.

The land shook a little, and something red came out of the ground.

Hwang Bo-sung, who moved away, touched the head that was coming from the ground.

“G-Gigant?!”

All the mercenaries were surprised at the sudden appearance of a Gigant.

Luke just shook his head.

“No, it looks very similar to it, but it is completely different.”

Rising from the ground was a humanoid weapon that was about seven meters tall.

Its head had two horns like a bull, and it had large fists at the end of its long arms.

The material it was made of was wood and not steal. However, due to its dark color, it seemed like it was hard.

“Puppet.”

All the Rakan Knights turned to Luke upon hearing what he said.

“You know what that is?”

“I heard it from Sir Mute. He heard it from the merchants of the southern continent, but he never actually saw any.”

Mute, who was currently the Meister of Katarina Magic Tower, wandered around a lot before settling in the Rakan territory.

It was then that he had met a merchant from the southern continent who had come to trade, and according to the traders’ words, the land he came from had a weapon very similar to the Gigants.

“The Puppet was said to be weapons used by the Han Dynasty, which went to war with its neighbors in the southern continent.”

Its inventor was a man called Zegal, and he was considered to be one of the best inventors and geniuses in the history of the southern continent.

The Puppet was originally developed for the purpose of transporting military weapons in harsh terrains and not for combat purposes.

After the death of Zegal, the craft of Puppet making was halted, and it was never used for a long time. However, 200 years ago, it came back when merchants from the southern continent were already able to trade with Rhodesia Continent.

“At that time, the merchants of Rhodesia, who saw the Puppets, and the emperor, who saw it as well, were shocked. They were worried about the men who were entering their continent with such weapons.”

The emperor, therefore, proclaimed to the wizards that he would reward handsomely anyone who could make such a giant weapon.

They were able to create their own version of the Puppet by studying the records left by Zegal.

“Well, then, is that wooden puppet a weapon that is used in the southern continent like a Gigant?”

“No, it wasn’t.”

The Puppet wasn’t as sensational or popular in the southern continent.

It was because it took considerable time and cost to make the Puppet, and they couldn’t be mass-produced like the Gigants.

“There is a great deal of bureaucracy in the Song Empire, and it was a strange power… That was why they had rejected the idea of using magic or anything similar to magic.”

In addition, the warriors of the southern continent didn’t care much about Puppets. They emphasized on physical training rather than developing weapons.

However, not all of the Moorim (Martial Artists) ignored it.

Some of the Moorim’s valued the use of Puppet. They were big, strong, resistant to the enemy force and were a useful source of power.

Thus, the Puppets had been used several times to clear the disputes between the warriors and the apostates.

In the case of Hwang Bo-sung, the three Puppets were given to him at a huge cost.

One was handed over to him as a gift from the clan elder.

When Hwang Bo-sung was attacked by Hwang Bo-kwang, he didn’t have the time to use the Puppet as it consumed a lot of time and movement.

“You pulled out something very interesting, but are you ready to fight?” Philip asked, seeing that the Puppet’s entire body had already come out.

Right then, Hwang Bo-sung nodded and bumped the two fists of his Puppet.

And for the first time in the history of Middle-Earth, the confrontation between a Gigant and Puppet began.