Chapter 75: Triple Circle (2)

What in the world is this… Lloyd opened his eyes wide. A new fourth optional skill? Circle shift? This was a reward Lloyd had never even dreamed of. The description of the skill seemed a bit familiar.

Rotation per minute? RPM? Gear from one to six? It looked like an explanation of an automatic transmission, and Lloyd thought he’d be able to adjust the rotation speed of the circle just like how he could change a car’s gears.

Moreover, it’s all separate. I can individually adjust the three circles.

Thump. Thump. His heart pounded as he read the skill description once again. He couldn’t help himself. It was that amazing.

This is massive. Controlling the rotation power of the circles was difficult. Furthermore, what was more difficult was keeping a consistent, desired rotation speed for as long as he wanted.

To put it simply, rotating a mana circle around his heart was similar to twirling a large ring on his finger. Anyone could rotate the ring using one’s finger, and the same went for controlling the rotation speed. However, keeping the rotation at a perfectly equal speed was a challenge. Almost an impossible challenge.

Of course. One can make it rotate at a similar speed, but perfect means keeping it exactly down to the millisecond without losing consistency. But now, with the circle shift made available, Lloyd was able to consistently adjust each of his three circles all at a different speed.

This optional skill is just out of this world. Lloyd gulped dryly. Until a while ago, he only had two circles. And so, he knew very well how tough it was to rotate several circles at differing speeds. Making that happen with two circles was more complex than twirling two rings on each of his hands at different speeds. It would be even harder now that he had three circles.

It’ll be like adding a ring on my ankle while keeping the two rings on my hands. And controlling each of them separately? That alone was beyond the scope of the skill. It almost bordered on a circus trick.

That was why Lloyd considered Javier a monster. He freely controlled the circles as soon as he created them. But now, I can do it too. He’d certainly be rougher and less refined than Javier. It would be impossible to adjust the power beyond the six stages.

Regardless, this is good enough. Controlling the gear through the circle shift and adjusting the rotation power using the gears…

Thanks to it, Lloyd managed to use the mana blast without going through any difficult training. I must make the circles collide to use the mana blast. But the circles held a repulsive force that pushed each other away. They were like two opposing poles of a magnet. And so, creating contact was extremely difficult.

Offsetting such repulsive power required high-speed rotation of the mana circles. But at the same time, the job required a more detailed and meticulous process than simply increasing the rotation speed.

I must have two circles rotate exactly at an accurate proportion. The rotation number was two to three, I think. Lloyd looked back on what had happened some time ago. The two to three rotation ratio… It was something Javier had off-handedly mentioned to him. He had said that it was the most ideal condition for collision. Lloyd remembered that Javier told him this, saying that he should refer to the ratio when he gets another circle. Just then…

“Grrrrrr!”

Something roared from behind. No, it came from above. Astonished, Lloyd lifted his head and looked up. He couldn’t see the night sky. Instead, he saw the mammoth body of the Gigatitan. This only meant one thing.

It’s here already?! Slam! Boooom! The Gigatitan banged the ground with its foreleg, crushing the spot where Ppodong stood just five seconds ago.

This is bad, really. Lloyd gulped dryly. He was out of time.

Grabbing onto Ppodong’s ear, he yelled, “Ppodong!”

“P-Ppodong!”

Pant! Pant!

“Hey, you! You can run away without me, right?!”

“Ppodong!”

“Yes! A little more! I’m going to knock him out with one hit! So hold up until then! Okay?”

“P-Ppodong! Huff, huff!”

Ppodong nodded as he panted for air. Lloyd leaped from Ppodong’s back. Fwoosh! His body floated in the air, and Ppodong’s chubby back became far at once. It seemed his pace grew a bit faster because Lloyd’s weight was off him. Just then, the pillar-like leg of the Gigatitan rushed from behind like greased lightning. Fwoosh!

Lloyd sucked in his breath. His body was still in the air as it was falling, and the leg of the monster charged fast at him. Lloyd braced himself for the impact.

Bam! He crashed against the leg of the monster like he was hit by a pillar. At that instant, Lloyd opened his arms wide and hugged its leg, catching on to the little protrusions of its shell. He was able to stay dangled without falling off, though his stomach churned a bit.

Urgh! The impact hit Lloyd right in the gut, and he could barely breathe from the intense pain. However, Lloyd clenched his teeth.

Goodness, it’s not like I’m a star of an action movie or something! Lloyd stretched his hand out as he cursed his current situation. He grabbed on the protrusion above and started to crawl up as if he was rock climbing. Thankfully, he had enough stamina because of the triple circle.

Hundreds of yards stretched before him until he got up to its body. Making things worse, it continued to move nonstop. Even in such an unfavorable circumstance, Lloyd managed to quickly move like a cockroach crawling on top of a sink.

Faster! Quickly! He didn’t have much time. The Gigatitan had almost caught up with Ppodong. If I’m late, Ppodong and Javier will be done for. And at last, Lloyd succeeded in going up the back shell of the monster. He rushed toward the direction of its head.

As he ran, he hastily practiced using the mana blast. I don’t have many chances. I must succeed with one try. Basketball, soccer, dancing, swimming, and even walking required some practice to be proficient. It went without saying how much practice would be needed for the mana blast, which was one of the advanced skills in the Asrahan Core Technique.

The rotation ratio is two to three, right? Lloyd recalled Javier’s advice and activated the Circle Shift he had just earned.

[The Asrahan Core Technique Skill Option 4: Circle Shift has been activated.]

Since I’m just practicing, the gear should be set in one, two, and three. The gear set up was complete, and the three circles reacted instantly.

[The Alpha circle is set to gear 1. Fixed at RPM 1,000.]

[The Beta circle is set to gear 2. Fixed at RPM 2,000.]

[The Gamma circle is set to gear 3. Fixed at RPM 3,000.]

Ziiing…! The three circles rotated according to each of its powers.

Between them, the second and third circle showed an unusual reaction. He didn’t have to push the two to collide. They automatically started to draw near.

Eh?! He jumped out of his skin and moved the first circle, hurriedly wrapping it around his heart, which was going at 1,000 RPM. The collision took place afterward. Kaboom! The Beta circle and Gamma circle collided around the heart.

“…!”

This explosive pressure was something Lloyd had never experienced before. A destructive power rushed through him from the inside and hit his heart, which was wrapped with the Alpha circle.

“Argh!”

He wondered if this was what it felt like to have a seizure. Lloyd collapsed on the ground as he clasped his heart and stopped running. He quickly moved his two arms to carry the shovel hung around his back. Then, he dug into the ground and sent the destructive power to the shovel.

Crash! The mana blast shot out of the flat shovel, hitting the back shell of the Gigatitan. The impact sent Lloyd 150 feet in the air.

“Ack!”

He almost fell from its shell. Closely recovering the balance, he landed safely on the monster’s back and clenched his shovel hard.

It’s working. I succeeded. He successfully used the mana blast with his first attempt. No, it was more than just successful. I didn’t have to collide the circles by design. I just had to set the RPM according to the golden ratio, and the two collided on their own.

It only meant one thing. He would be able to use the mana blast whenever he wanted.

Let’s go! Lloyd jumped to his feet, feeling confident, and ran along its back. He neared the area near carapaces 11 and 12, where its weak spot would be. When he got there, it was time for him to do acrobatics.

“Huff! Huff!”

Lloyd crawled down to its side from the back of the Gigatitan and latched on to its carapace. Come on, it’s not like I’m going through military training right now! The carapace was vast and wide, with a lot of thorns here and there. Lloyd grabbed one of them. And, dangling in the air, he grabbed the next one. He continued to move forward just like that.

Above him were the carapace and thorns. Hundreds of feet down him was the ground. Don’t look down. He feared he’d get dizzy if he did so.

Fixing his gaze above, Lloyd dutifully moved from one thorn to another, and he approached the monster’s fatal flaw like a mosquito in the summer secretly trying to latch onto a human body for blood. And at last, he arrived at the weak spot.

That’s it. The connecting part between carapaces 11 and 12. Lloyd saw the hole in between. It was about 20 inches in diameter, and the dent was formed in the direction of the monster’s head.

It’s the place Javier hit with the maba blast. Lloyd tightened the grip around his shovel. He just needed to pierce into this area one more time. He collected his breath and fixed his shovel head exactly at the same angle as Javier did.

It needs to be done in one try. With such resolution in mind, he rotated his circles and set the speed using the Circle Shift. Three, four, and six.

Ziiing…! The circles reacted as soon as he activated the skill. The RPM was set at 3,000, 4,000, and 6,000 for each. Each of them went around this time much more fiercely.

Lloyd wrapped his heart with the Alpha circle with 3,000 RPM. The last step is the collision. Lloyd needed to immediately extract the power after the Beta circle with 4,000 RPM and Gamma circle with 6,000 RPM collided together.

He opened the path of the mana that travels to his right hand, ready to send the explosive power to the shovel. Ziiing! The Beta and Gamma circles resonated, and each narrowed in harmony. The collision would happen soon. Lloyd waited for it to take place with his shovel aimed. It was just at that moment.

Grrrrrr! The Gigatitan let out a ferocious roar. It stopped charging ahead, letting go of Ppodong when it almost caught him. Instead, it drove into the ground with its club-like forearms. But before they hit the surface, it simply curled up the legs, and the rocks that crashed against the impact were sent catapulting in every direction.

The rocks flew up, each of them damaging and fatal. It was like the area between the carapaces 11 and 12 were bombarded with explosives. Booom! Boom!

Lloyd’s eyes were on stalks as he got ready for the mana blast. It occurred to him that the monster might have noticed there was an enemy approaching its weak spot. It appeared so, indeed. That was the only reason why it would smash rocks in his direction.

Bam!

“…!”

Just then, a huge force knocked Lloyd’s head. His head shook violently, and his upper torso bounced terribly. Blood spattered as his head was shoved to the side by the blow.

Was I hit? A sense of daze overcame him. He felt like time had frozen around him. Amid such circumstances, Lloyd’s eyes moved, and they caught a rock that was falling to the ground. It was a little larger than a fist. It had blood on its side, which was smeared after it hit its head.

I can’t fail… now… The mana blast. He wanted to succeed. He had boasted to Javier that he’d succeed. However, the strength in his grip loosened, and he let go of the protrusion he was grabbing with his left hand. His body then started to take a nosedive to the ground. A free fall.

No, I can’t let that happen. Lloyd’s eyes traveled up. Time still seemed to have slowed down. And in such slowness, the carapace of the Gigatitan was slowly growing distant. There, he saw the closely bored hole that seemed strangely visible.

One more time. He just needed to stab it once. Not even twice, just once. Just once, and nothing more. Let’s stab it. Rotate the mana circles. Use the Circle Shift. Keep the ratio Javier taught me… two to three…

Lloyd murmured unconsciously. The concussion was taking over his consciousness, and only one piece of memory was stuck in his head. Two to three. The mana circle rotation had to be kept at a ratio of two to three, and it had to be maintained when it collided.

Two to three… right before he lost consciousness… The Circle Shift was activated. It was the working of Lloyd’s stubborn determination. There were no more detailed adjustments. Just two to three.

Reiterating the words over and over again in his head, Lloyd adjusted the gear out of his instinct. The Alpha circle was set to gear two, and the Beta and Gamma circles were set to gear three.

They rotated in a ferocious manner. Ziiiiing! With the Alpha circle at its center, the rest of them rotated. The three circles reverberated in 2:3 proportion. They drew near at a great speed as they reverberated. There wasn’t a circle that protected the heart. The three of them collided altogether. At that moment, Lloyd, losing consciousness, stretched out his metal shovel the way his body remembered.

Slam! A massive destructive force discharged out of it with a loud noise. It dug into the Gigatitan’s weak spot, ruining the muscle tissues and internal organs protected by its carapace. But the force continued to move. It penetrated. It charged. It smashed every bit of the organs that lay in its way. Then, it blasted and pierced the carapace.

Just like that, the force that was like a tsunami penetrated from the stomach to the back in one stroke. Twack! The marvelous blow was created out of Lloyd’s determination and efforts. For the first time in history, a triple mana blast shot out.