"Huh?"

In the camp, a giant who snuck into the camp was surprised to see a strange shadow figure.

'They have monsters here or is a shadow user creating humanoid shadows?' The giant wondered as she focused on the shadow's terrifying appearance.

'It looks less likely that someone made it, as adding such details to a humanoid shadow would be just a waste of energy. In addition to that, most shadow users prefer beasts rather than humanoid shadows.' The giant analysed inwardly before shifting her gaze to her leg.

Resting motionless under her was a soldier that she had just stomped as shown by the cracks beneath it. When the giant confirmed that the soldier was either unconscious or dead, she finally decided to focus on Fafnir while glancing at the tent.

Yes, being in this place wasn't a coincidence.

Her mission was to cause immense damage to the camp!

And what would be better than killing the healer to accomplish this mission? The other giants focused on the supplies storage and the water source, leaving her with the choice of either finding another valuable target or becoming an addition to their numbers.

Of course, she chose the former.

'I need more contribution points!'

Some camps used the concept of contribution points in sharing the spoils. The contribution points could be traded for the available items depending on their value. It was a kind of motivation for the lower soldiers to work harder rather than hiding in the back.

For that giant, killing the healer by herself would give her more points than participating with the other giants.

"Come to me!" The giant roared as she charged toward the shadow with a spear.

But just then, the giant had the urge to sever her own leg.

'S-should I do it?'

As that question crossed her mind, she quickly shook her head and focused on the shadow again. But by then, the shadow wasn't there.

Slash!

"Argh!"

The next moment, a sharp sword slash landed on her back, piercing her armor and cutting her flesh. The giant turned around quickly, but she didn't find anyone.

Slash!

Another slash hit the exact spot!

Fafnir was spamming Shadowstep!

The giant turned around again. As expected, she didn't see anyone.

Fafnir appeared behind her and jumped, aiming a shadow sword at the giant's back. But just then, the giant spun her spear and thrust backward.

Stab!

The spear pierced Fafnir's shoulder, severing his arm. Simultaneously, he persevered, attacking despite the injury, and ensured that the sword landed on her back again.

The giant gritted her teeth and endured the pain. As she turned around, she quickly chanted a spell while looking at Fafnir, who didn't have time to get back on his feet.

"Earth Fist!"

The next moment, the ground beneath Fafnir turned into a giant arm that grabbed him and closed its fingers into a fist. As Fafnir struggled against the fist's force, the giant charged again.

She lunged with a sharp thrust, aiming for Fafnir's exposed head. However, Fafnir's head suddenly shrunk, dodging the giant's spear.

The next second, he turned into a full shadow and slipped through the small gap between the hand's fingers. The giant tried to stab him a few times, but he dodged every single attack.

"Damn you!" The giant gritted her teeth in frustration as she began to chant again. As she was about to cast another spell, her thoughts once again turned into chaos, giving her strange urges to harm herself.

Seizing the opportunity, Fafnir jumped and coiled around her neck.

"Ugh…" Her eyes widened as she felt him squeezing her neck: "Stop… that…"

The giant tried to pull Fafnir away, using her fingers and nails to harm him alongside her own neck. But just then—

Splash!

A giant shadow wolf appeared out of nowhere and bit her head off.

The giant corpse fell to the ground with a loud "thud", then Fafnir crawled away from her.

'I almost used demonic energy.' Fafnir sighed in relief as he started looting her corpse while his arm was regenerating.

Although the current situation was chaotic, he didn't forget that using any of his special energies would make Elizabeth's situation complicated.

Even if Fafnir was supposed to be a "tamed shadow", showing that he had a demon bloodline would show that he was dangerous. After all, most demons were addicted to absorbing corpses.

The silver Ether was an even bigger problem. It might attract unwanted attention and turn Elizabeth into a target.

The chaos energy was also a problem, as that would be even worse than revealing he was a demon. Earlier, he used only a few quick mental attacks to create small opportunities for himself.

If he had used any of these three energies freely, he'd have finished the giant off without losing an arm.

'I need either a way to hide my energies or just become a wanted shadow who doesn't hide anything.'

After Fafnir looted the corpse, he found only a few mana crystals and a strange potion. Of course, he didn't want to waste anything, so he took off her armor and grabbed her spear before returning to the tent.

"Little shadow, you're injured!" Elizabeth noticed Fafnir's missing arm instantly and rushed toward him.

Before she could cast a spell, he held her hand and wrote "I can regenerate".

"Oh, I'm glad…" Elizabeth sighed in relief before realizing that some giants entered the camp.

That was a small problem as most of the strongest attackers were either on the front lines or defending more critical places like the food storage.

As Elizabeth was lost in her thoughts, Fafnir finally remembered the other soldier that was outside. Without a warning, he rapidly left the tent and checked the soldier's condition.

'He's alive.' Fafnir confirmed using his silver eye, seeing the value of the soldier's spirit.

He carefully carried the soldier and returned to the tent, placing the soldier behind another one on the bed.

Elizabeth and Mira didn't hesitate to cast a few healing spells to save his life. Once his breath stabilized, Elizabeth and Mira finally let themselves rest.

They healed all unconscious soldiers just enough to keep them alive, and some others were already in good condition to help protect the tent. They either weren't injured that much or had some special trait and abilities to save their lives.

For some reason, the frequency with which the injured soldiers came for help decreased as the time passed.

Maybe they started winning, leading to less injuries among the Holy Kingdom's soldiers.

Maybe they were losing, leading to less soldiers being able to search for the healer's tent.

Regardless, Elizabeth and Mira just wanted to rest now, as they couldn't rely on the mana crystals. If they consumed more than two or three mana crystals daily, the mana poisoning would be the only conclusion.

Fafnir left the tent and stood on top of it to observe the place with a few others. If any giant came into their sight, they wouldn't hesitate to attack.

As the minutes and hours passed, Fafnir and the others rarely encountered any giants.

They only fought four, and they were easily killed as now Fafnir wasn't alone anymore.

More injured soldiers arrived at the camp, but there was no more pressure on Elizabeth and Mira.

They had healed every and even started to completely heal a few soldiers after their mana pools became stable.

Some of them, like the others, decided to defend the healer's tent, while a few others returned to the battle.

Though there were some exceptions among them. Michael, for example, refused to return to the battlefield or defend the tent by rejecting Elizabeth's healing, saying that the other soldiers deserved it more than him.

He was clearly avoiding his duty, likely afraid of receiving another spear on his stomach, but Elizabeth and Mira couldn't do anything about him. Secretly, they were grateful that they didn't have to send him away.

Ragnar—who was Mira's holy knight—wasn't known whether he was alive or not. They were already worried about him, and they didn't want to be worried about another one of their friends.

BAM!

All of a sudden, Fafnir saw a huge ice pillar rising at the centre of the camp.

"Oh no…"

"THE STORAGE!"

"A lot of our supplies are there!"

The soldiers, both at the front lines and inside the camp, looked at the ice pillar that destroyed the storage in terror and panic.

"Should we help them?"

"Help them? To save what? We have to focus on the secondary storage!"

"What about the healer?"

"Some of us will stay, but the majority must leave."

After a quick discussion, the soldiers decided to leave the tent under the protection of only a few people while the others went to the location of the secondary storage.

It was an urgent situation. Maybe the healer was important, but without supplies, they'd starve to death!

'I didn't need all of them anyway.' Fafnir shrugged as he continued observing the surroundings: 'And if something happens to the food, I'll prioritise Eliza's life and hunt beasts only for her. I don't care about anyone else.'

Unknown to him, everything was already done by the time the soldiers reached the second storage.

The storage was completely safe, but the camp was already empty from any giants, and the giants at the battlefield were retreating.

The camp's first fight with the giant ended with the humans losing their largest storage.

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