After landing on another harpy's back, Liam used Neontote's flames to incinerate another large group before killing the harpy he was riding. He fell from the sky together with the harpy, hitting the ground at the same time.
He looked at the skies and saw that none of the remaining harpies were close enough for his whip to reach them. Even if they were, only small clusters of about ten would be within range at most.
After landing, he saw around 1,200 harpies still circling in the air and the stone giant who stood a few hundred feet away from him. To deal with the remaining harpies, Liam realized he needed to come up with a new strategy.
'I really need to find more AOE spells when I get back,' Liam thought as he began thinking of a faster, more efficient way to deal with the remaining birdies without using too much energy.
Thinking of a new way. He summoned a chakram construct in one hand and an energy string in the other. As he prepared, the stone giant threw another boulder towards him. He jumped aside just in time, feeling the rush of wind as the massive stone flew past him.
Testing his creation, he wrapped the string around the chakram's handle and swung it around a few times in a wide circle.
'Oh yeah, that'll work,' Liam thought, a grin spreading across his face as he swung the chakram around him horizontally. 'To hell with these birds.'
His left hand glowed in a yellow color, as the strings extended further the more energy he allowed to go into it. The harpies, which were still spread out, all turned to face him again. Most hovered two to three miles away, their beaks opening as they released soundwave attacks one after another.
As the attacks came, Liam used all his strength to push himself off the ground, appearing tens of feet away from his original position in an instant. Using the momentum from his sudden movement, he pulled as hard as he could on the string, sending the chakram flying at lightning-fast speeds toward the harpies.
Liam continued to lengthen the string since it required little energy to do so, allowing the thread to extend while maintaining high speeds.
However, as the thread stretched to a mile in length, Liam began to feel the chakram grow heavier. Even with his physical strength, the farther it traveled, the more effort it took to control its direction properly.
Dodging the soundwaves, Liam spread his domain around him. He created multiple energy-reinforced walls in preparation for the stone giant's next boulder attack.
When the massive rock came his way, the structures absorbed the impact, only denting the structures slightly.
Meanwhile, the chakram, which now had a two-mile-long thread, continued to slice through the skies. Liam changed his stance and pulled the string with precise movements, sending the chakram flying through the harpy-filled air.
Lightning struck as countless harpies were cleaved in half. Organs, feathers, and blood rained down, painting the battlefield red. Some harpies thought they were smarter than the others and attempted to sever the thread with their claws but were also instantly sliced apart by the thread.
'I should've just done this in the first place,' Liam thought, his grin widening as he swung the chakram around him again.
As he glanced through his visor, fewer than 400 harpies remained, all of them were spread thin over several miles.
'I can't reach them from here. Also with how spread out they are, it would just be a waste of time and energy.' Liam thought. The string had become increasingly difficult to manipulate in the right directions, and any further length would make the chakram completely uncontrollable.
That wasn't the only thing Liam had to think about.
On the ground, the stone giant began using large amounts of energy from its core. Large earth spikes rose around it, hundreds of them floating into the air.
Making a split-second decision, Liam did one final spin before twisting his body to make the chakram take a diagonal turn in the air. He aimed it at the stone giant and unsummoned the thread, sending the chakram flying towards the giant.
It slammed into the creature's abdomen with a loud impact, boring a massive hole through its rock body. As it pierced through the rock, stone shards went flying in all directions before the chakram embedded itself deep into the ground behind the giant.
The stone giant, ripped from its concentration by the sudden pain, dropped several of the stone spikes it had created. Letting out a deafening roar, it hurled the remaining spikes towards Liam.
Liam swiftly activated his domain, raising a thick wall to block the oncoming spikes. But the giant wasn't finished yet. It smashed its fists into the earth, generating a powerful seismic wave that rippled towards him.
As the hundreds of earth spikes and the shockwave collided with the stone wall Liam had created, he felt the structure begin to weaken internally due to the shockwave crumbling the inside. The stone giant continued forming more spikes, keeping the pressure up. Liam placed both hands on the wall, channeling energy into it to reinforce its strength.
At the same time, the remaining 400 harpies opened their mouths and released another barrage of soundwaves aimed directly at Liam.
He felt a sharp sting in his ears as the soundwaves struck. His ears had only recently finished healing and had slightly adapted to the harpies' attacks from before. Thankfully, with only 400 harpies remaining compared to the original 3,000, the attack was far less potent.
'That's manageable,' he thought with a smirk.
He pulled the wall he had created back into the ground and launched himself towards the stone giant. With the harpies now being nuisances instead of a problem, Liam changed his full focus to killing the stone giant.
'The giant by itself should be doable,' Liam reasoned as he closed the distance.
The stone giant, seeing its earth spikes fail, began charging towards him, intending to use its immense physical strength to kill him.
Despite its massive size, the stone giant moved with surprising speed thanks to its incredible physical strength, crossing several hundred feet in mere seconds. As it approached, it raised its enormous stone arm above Liam's head, pouring more energy into it to form additional layers of rock, making its fist even larger.
Liam, who initially planned to dodge, instead used Neontote to redirect the fist, allowing it to slide off Neontote into the ground beside him. The giant's fist smashed into the ground, creating deep cracks in the surface—an impressive feat, given that the ground was part of Liam's domain.
The giant, instead of backing down, pressed on and channeled energy into its fist, attempting to force it through Neontote in an effort to push Liam away from the strange energy field it sensed.
Noticing this, Liam quickly leaped backward.
The giant attempted to pursue him while swinging its other fist downwards. However, Liam acted swiftly, creating several stone chains anchored to the ground behind the giant. The chains wrapped tightly around its head and yanked it backward with force.
Liam is forced to improvise during actual battle, gaining even more battle experience. While Liam fights his battles, other plots have also started moving ;).
The conclusion to this battle is also in my opinion very fun. But hey, my personality has become a little twisted since I started making fanfics.
Feeling the chains tighten around its neck, the giant swung wildly. It gripped the chains with its massive hands and used its energy to send a shockwave through them.
The shockwave weakened the internal structure of the chains, shattering the chains from within, and freeing its movements once more.
Liam didn't waste any time. He summoned dozens more chains, sending them from all directions towards the stone giant. These new restraints wrapped around its arms, legs, torso, and neck—binding nearly every part of its massive body.
'Interesting,' Liam thought, taking a step back. 'I never thought my domain could be used like this. Still, this giant's strength, combined with the harpies, makes this a really strong high-tier opponent.'
'It's likely one of the creatures that serve the strongest being from its dimension directly, I should be careful.'
He then channeled more of his energy into the chains, forming razor-sharp drills along their interiors. The drills began to spin, drilling deep into the giant's body.
The giant roared in pain. Energy surged everywhere through its body, sending a powerful shockwave through the chains. One by one, the bindings shattered, including the drills embedded within them. After the chains broke, the shockwave continued, launching a strong shockwave straight at Liam.
Bracing himself, Liam planted his feet and raised his arms in front of him, at the same time, he started creating several walls within his domain to absorb the shockwave.
However, even with his domain's protection, the shockwave with a large portion of the giant's energy was too much. The impact of the shockwave sent him flying through the air, slamming him into a wall a hundred feet away, which he had quickly created to avoid leaving his domain. He landed on the ground, groaning as debris rained down around him.
Liam stood up slowly, still slightly disorientated from the shock, and looked at the giant. The giant's entire body now had holes in it, with a large gap in its abdomen, while the harpies in the air attempted to help with their sound attacks, but they couldn't do anything.
Liam created new chains, aiming to bind the giant again. But this time, it sent a shockwave through its feet, launching itself forward with a sudden acceleration. It dodged the incoming chains and flew towards Liam.
Liam quickly tried to create structures within his domain in front of the giant, but it managed to place one of its massive hands on his arm. It focused almost all of its remaining energy into a single blow, sending a shockwave directly into Incursio.
The armor around Liam's arm cracked and disintegrated, unable to withstand a shockwave that destabilized its internal structure.
Immediately after, Liam's arm twisted and mangled unnaturally before his body was forcefully flung away by the rest of the shockwave. He slammed into a rock wall some distance away, bleeding profusely from the place his arm had once been. Meanwhile, his arm was crushed completely by the giant's hand.
"Fuck," Liam thought, gritting his teeth against the pain as he slowly got back to his feet, disoriented.
He wasn't overly concerned about losing the arm; he was confident the red energy inside his body could most likely repair the damage. And even if it couldn't, this was the Marvel universe—there were plenty of ways to heal.
Directing all the red cells towards his arm, the blood loss stopped, beginning the regeneration process. His eyes locked onto the giant, which had started retreating using its last strength, as a grin spread across its face.
The giant roared to the sky, summoning the remaining harpies to gather around it.
It knew it couldn't strike Liam with another shockwave, even if it sacrificed its life, with its remaining energy reserves it would never reach him. The harpies, though, would provide enough energy to recover partially. It would focus on something more valuable to humans of this dimension.
The harpies swarmed around it, and the giant grabbed them with its massive hands, shoving them into its mouth. With its energy partially replenished, it watched as Liam approached with terrifying speed.
The stone giant smirked and plunged both arms into the earth. Its body began to crumble as it channeled every last ounce of its energy into one final shockwave.
For days, it had been preparing, directing subtle vibrations into the magma chamber far below the mountain. Now, with its remaining strength, it unleashed an immense pulse, aiming ten miles beneath the surface.
Liam paused, glancing around at the decaying stone giant as the shockwave traveled down. He only had seconds to take in his surroundings before what followed, which could only be described as: Horror.
The shockwave weakened the mountain's internal structure, violently agitating the magma chamber below. Magma surged up at an incredible speed, seeking a way out of the immense pressure in the inner core of the Earth.
At the same time, the earth around Liam began to shake violently. The ground beneath his feet cracked open as rocks flew up into the sky with each tremor. Massive fissures spread across the mountain, tearing it apart as it quaked.
'Earthquake.' Liam thought. 'What did it do?'
He ran multiple scenarios through his mind, desperately searching for a way to prevent the catastrophe. But he had no ideas. Even if he had access to the Mirror Dimension, the only person capable of containing such a powerful shockwave without shattering it would have been the Ancient One.
Liam didn't hesitate any longer. He sprinted toward the dimensional tear and hastily began casting the dimensional heal to close it.
'There's barely any pushback from our dimension,' Liam thought, panic going through him.
'Then I need to do this on my own.' He thought, filled with determination.
Pouring massive amounts of energy into the spell, he watched as the tear slowly closed, though it resisted sealing heavily. In the final moment before it sealed, he glimpsed an actual mountain-sized figure moving on the other side. Its enormous eyes fixed on him with interest.
'That's its leader,' Liam thought, relieved as the tear vanished.
Even with the tear closed, the cracks in the ground continued to spread, the terrain crumbling as magma sprayed through. The violent tremors, combined with the magma's pressure, triggered an explosive eruption. Rocks, earth, and debris were launched hundreds of feet into the air as the mountain's structure shattered.
Most of the mountain collapsed in the eruption, creating a chain reaction. Liam was thrown high into the air by the force of the explosion, though he remained unharmed. While in the air, he saw the chaos down below.
'A massive landslide,' Liam realized. A wave of mud, lava, and rocks flowed down the mountain, tearing through everything in its path. 'No… with this earthquake alone, hundreds would already be dead. But this landslide? Half the mountain is coming down.'
"It'll bury everyone in the surrounding cities, Hundreds of thousands will die," Liam muttered. He turned to create a portal and stepped through, but not before hearing another sound behind him.
A maniacal laugh echoed from the crumbling giant. Liam glanced back one last time as the stone giant's body shook violently, its laughter growing louder. Moments later, its head crumbled into dust.
'With this, the island would be forever changed,' Liam thought, understanding the giant's plan as he stepped through the portal. The giant's sacrifice had changed the natural balance, perhaps even increasing the chance of its king manifesting in this dimension.
When Liam reappeared in the city, the scene he saw was one of total devastation. Countless buildings had collapsed, trapping hundreds beneath the rubble. People dug frantically through the debris, searching for loved ones. Some wept openly, while others stood paralyzed with grief.
But everything changed when the ground rumbled again—louder and deeper this time. The sound was deafening, and all movement stopped. Everyone turned their gaze toward the mountain, frozen in fear.
What they saw robbed them of all hope: a thousand-foot-tall wave of earth, rock, mud, and lava coming toward the city. The landslide, visible from miles away, moved forward, obliterating everything in its path.
In the face of certain death, the city's residents reacted in many different ways. An elderly couple held each other, whispering words of love as they prepared to meet death together. Even in their final moments, they smiled, closing their eyes and accepting their fate.
Others prayed, their hands clasped together as they begged their gods for salvation. Some attempted to flee toward the ocean, knowing deep down that it was futile. A few grabbed their weapons, choosing a faster end over the terror of waiting.
Liam watched it all.
This is a longer chapter, I don't know if I have time to upload tomorrow.
It's finally time to get into the manga version of Incursio in depth.