Spirit Soul

The first thing Kyle saw was how a gigantic head squeezed itself through the portal's blue liquid.

His first reaction was to attack it before it would be able to pass through the portal.

But, it looked like Kyle was unable to move.

He felt as if he had been paralyzed for a minute.

It was only then that he realized that death aura was leaking from the undead.

Kyle bit his lower lip as he waited for his body to adjust to the sudden increase of the death aura that filled the entire entrance hall.

This was easier said than done because the death aura was something he had sensed for the first time in more than a month.

Even if the Skeletons and Ghouls were undead, they weren't a lethal threat to him.

Furthermore, they had never been formidable existences, even before turning into Undeads.

Unfortunately, the same didn't apply to the gigantic being that had now fully emerged from the portal.

Not a single other being followed suit and stepped out of the portal.

Based on this, Kyle could quickly figure out that there was no other opponent than the five-meter-tall being he had to defeat.

Even if there was just a single opponent this time, it did little to ease his worry.

Kyle was able to gauge what kind of existence the gigantic, human-like Skeleton in front of him was!

'Don't tell me that's really a Giant Warrior?!'

He thought in shock as he stared at the newest challenge thrown at him.

A gigantic skeletal body whose chest bones held a purple tint was walking towards him.

The purple tint on specific bones was the result of the Giants' ritual every youngling had to participate in.

As such, Kyle was able to determine the rough age of the Giant at the time of its death.

However, that made everything only more confusing.

Kyle sensed from its mana currents that the Giant in front of him was at the Late Fortification stage.

However, it wasn't supposed to be.

'Giants would normally cultivate with primordial energy, and advance to a higher cultivation stage at a very young age…'

Straining his memory, he recalled what he had once heard about Giants.

It took him a while to do so. Based on this, Kyle figured out that his past life's memories were not as good as they ought to be.

This caused him to sigh and shake his head.

He also concluded that the Giant in front of him had lost all of its former racial strength owing to the undead awakening.

In the end, this was not even the most important thing he had to pay attention to.

His eyes flicked to the three-meter-long sword the Giant was holding as if its weight was that of a feather.

Other than that, Kyle could clearly tell that its cultivation base was slightly higher than that of Arashi's.

This meant that it was at least at the Late Fortification stage.

Much to his relief, it hadn't reached the Peak Fortification stage.

This was reassuring because Kyle sensed a chance to survive the perilous threat in front of him.

The Giant warrior was staring at him through its eye sockets.

It was an eerie feeling for him to be stared at by dark green soul flames.

Seeing this caused goosebumps to spread over his entire body, as Kyle instinctively took a step back.

However, only a moment later, Kyle recovered as he unsheathed the Tiola Machete.

Firmly planting his feet on the ground, he entered his combat stance and his expression turned serious as he faced the Skeletal Giant Warrior.

​ Thousands of thoughts echoed through his mind as he tried to think of a solution to tackle the biggest problem-the gigantic longsword.

Not only was it three meters long, but Kyle estimated that its rank was higher than that of the Tiola Machete.

As such, with enough force, it would be strong enough to possibly even break Kyle's machete.

This was the worst that could happen to him.

And, Kyle tried to not think about this possibility because it would unnecessarily burden him.

Under normal circumstances, all the factors would cause Kyle to feel intimidated and scared about the Skeletal Giant Warrior.

But, surprisingly, he had become eerily calm.

He had entered this state after his body had adapted itself to the threat coming from the Undead Giant and death aura.

Thus, he could think rationally, and with a cooled down mind, even if he was not sure why.

Making use of their unique bond, Kyle communicated with Arashi.

Both of them created a plan to face the Undead Giant.

Meanwhile, the Undead Giant swept a glance across the massive entrance hall.

It was evaluating the situation, possible dangers, and obstructions that could hide more opponents.

Through this, Kyle could tell that it was a bit intelligent.

And, if he were to compare it to his previous opponents, it was far more clever.

The Ghouls, let alone the other Skeletons had simply charged at him mindlessly.

As such, he became even more vigilant than he had already been before.

Because of that, Kyle had his eyes trained on the Undead Giant which had changed its stance subtly.

This allowed it to release more of its full strength, without the need of making another move.

Despite this glaring disadvantage, Kyle exerted the Swift Steps movement technique while rushing forward.

At the same time, strong wind currents enveloped him.

Thus, the moment he pushed his feet up from the ground, Kyle's speed accelerated to the fullest.

Arashi followed him making no effort to hide its existence.

Though he was too small to cause lethal injuries in close combat.

At least for now it was impossible until the Spirit Soul grew stronger.

Hence, instead of trying to do something useless, or wasting their time and opportunities needlessly, he made use of the wind affinity.

In fact, the wind affinity allowed both Kyle and Arashi to confidently rush at the Undead Giant at the same time.

It was waiting for them while pulling back the long sword.

Unfortunately, it was only their speed that had increased drastically and not their strength.

As such, despite being faster than the Undead Giant they were unable to hurt it properly.

The only thing they could do was to evade the sword strike without too many difficulties.

But they weren't going to stay idle.

So, the two made a coordinated attack.

While Kyle hit the Giant's forearm in an attempt to sever it, his Spirit Soul attacked its legs, only to fail miserably.

Their attacks were barely worth being counted on.

Rather, 'small scratches' would be a better choice of word that was suitable to the injury he and Arashi had inflicted.

After hitting the Undead Giant's forearm, Kyle had to act quickly.

After receiving the first blow, the Giant was already gearing up to counterattack.

'Great instincts?' He asked himself in shock.

Predicting its move, he jumped to the side.

However, he was just a second late and saw the Undead Giant's left leg kick him.

Cursing inwardly, Kyle twisted his body to an uncomfortable degree.

He was barely able to evade the high-velocity kick by a hair's breadth.

At that moment, he could only curse out thinking that he was a second too slow.

As such, he had already accepted to be kicked.

In his defense, he swung his machete by a few centimeters to block the attack that would hit him at any moment.

Yet, before anything could happen, a fierce wind swept through the entrance hall.

Several wind balls hit the Undead Giant's leg, one after another in rapid succession.

Because of that, the kick's trajectory was altered, missing Kyle by a hair's breadth.

Arashi had manifested wind balls in order to create an impact that covered a large radius, making it more powerful. It forcefully altered the trajectory of the Undead Giant's leg.

With simply crescent wind blades, this wouldn't be possible.

This was the reason Kyle had wanted to use the wind affinity on himself.

And, as expected it had allowed him to reach a higher speed.

Unfortunately, his control over the wind affinity was still lacking!

The Horned Tempest Fox was much better in this than him, which caused Kyle to often feel frustrated.

However, right now, he was overjoyed that Arashi's comprehension of the wind was superior to that of his own.

In comparison to his Spirit Soul, Kyle could only do three things with his wind affinity.

These were to generate a wind current to increase his own speed, slow down others, and manifest either wind blades or needles.

Other than that, Kyle still lacked many things and had to learn and improve a lot.

But that was fine with him.

He had to learn from his mistakes if he wanted to excel.

Skipping that would mean that it was possible for him to make these mistakes in the future, when it's a situation deciding over life and death.

With blazing soul flames, the Undead Giant stared at Arashi for a while.

It was only when Kyle neared it that it turned his attention to Kyle, who was much closer and still on the ground.

Slashing with the longsword, the Undead Giant attacked him.

Once again, Kyle had to throw himself to the side before he noticed that another kick was about to hit him.

It was almost a repetitive attack, and Kyle realized that the Undead Giant was more intelligent than he gave him credit for.

But, its attack pattern was still something he could figure out with enough time.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done because time was not something he could afford to waste right now.

Kyle's movements were restricted on the ground. Thus, instead of evading the kick, Kyle slashed out with the Tiola machete.

He knew that it wouldn't help much, but he had to defend himself.

Thus, he inserted a little soul force into the machete. After he did so, it began to glow in a faint purplish light before clashing with the Giant's leg.

The machete's blade managed to carve in a small cut into the bone. But even to inflict such a small injury, Kyle had to use his entire force that was on par with a Pryr being at the Late Fortification stage.

With that, he was able to block the kick, and deflect it by a few centimeters.

Through this, Kyle realized that the Undead Giant might be a Maest owing to it being able to move solely through the Undead core.

However, its physical strength was much stronger than expected.

His difficulties also increased owing to the heavy weight of the Giant's bones.

Nevertheless, Kyle also understood that he had a chance to fight against the gigantic opponent.

This was because Arashi was already badgering the Giant in an effort to cripple it.

Their plan to fight the Undead Giant was simple, yet extremely useful.

They adopted a strategy while keeping in mind that the opponent was stronger than them in many aspects.

It included terms of attack, defensive, and survivability capabilities.

As such, they aimed to cripple the Undead Giant.

For this, they planned to use Kyle as bait.

Meanwhile, Arashi was supposed to cut off a limb.

This would take some time because Arashi had to target a specific area of their body repeatedly.

He was supposed to shoot the crescent wind blades over and over at the same spot.

But, this was as difficult as it sounded, considering that the opponent was constantly moving around.

In order to make use of the chance they had, Kyle decided to cut off the sword-wielding arm.

This would make many things much easier for Kyle.

Afterward, the Undead Giant would try to pick up the longsword, but that was not how it worked.

At least, not if the plan Kyle set up would work properly.

Little did Kyle know that the Undead Giant in front of him had been an elite in close combat when it had still been alive.

Whether it was fate or not, Kyle had yet to realize that the 10th Wave was much more important than he could have ever thought as it would change his view on combat entirely.