Chapter 215: One Punch Magus

"Damn, I miscalculated my leg strength."

Magna slowly rose from the small crater he had made where he landed.

He had only wanted to try Arthas’s way of traveling by jumping, as it was so cool, so he had leaped with all his strength. In the end, however, he had turned himself into a human missile and launched himself straight onto the giant monster.

Because one of his earliest mutations had given his legs the muscles of a Crimson Lizard, they had apparently received the greatest strength boost so far.

Luckily, his stamina was absurdly high. His body was even more durable than most metals, so he was unharmed, apart from feeling a little dizzy.

Actually, he had even landed in the safest place he could have for the moment.

After all, the safest place to be when facing the Devouring Desolation was probably right on top of it.

Not wanting to jump again before getting used to his body, he climbed out of the crater and looked around from where he stood.

It really did feel as if he were standing on top of a rocky mountain, with a clear view of the surrounding area from his position.

He turned his eyes toward the direction the monster was currently facing, where the suction was pulling everything in.

With his enchanted eyes, he could make out the figures caught at the center of it.

"Oh, they really are Witches."

Even though he couldn’t see their faces clearly, Magna was able to spot their pointy hats and the golden light radiating from them.

Judging by how little light was coming from them, they didn’t seem to have much mana left.

But when he examined the brightness of that light, he was quite surprised to find that every one of them appeared to be far stronger than Celeste or any other Witch he had encountered so far.

Anyway, he was glad he had decided to check. Finding Witches here was already more than he had hoped for.

If there were Witches here, then they would definitely know the way back home.

The problem was that they were clearly not in a good situation. They were in danger.

It wasn’t hard to guess that they were fighting with everything they had just to stay in place and endure the suction.

The spells flying toward the Desolation were still hitting it, but many of them were being swallowed by its mouth and losing their power before they could even reach its body.

Magna watched for a while and decided that maybe he could help them.

He raised his head and looked toward the creature’s summit.

"Okay, let’s try again." He bent his legs for another jump.

This time, he was more experienced than before. He had already seen what his body could do and now more or less understood its limits.

Like a drawn bow, he tensed his body and lowered himself, his feet pressing firmly into the stone beneath him.

Then, in an instant, he pushed off with both legs and shot upward, leaving behind a booming sound and shattered rock.

In only a few seconds, his body had risen so high into the sky that the Witches and Shadows below were no longer visible to him.

"Man, 23,770 strength is amazing."

The sheer freedom that came with such power, the feeling of flying through the air, filled him with excitement.

But even more amazing than that was his 48,536 durability.

As his body reached its peak, began to lose speed, and started falling, he didn’t feel even the slightest bit of panic.

He simply let himself drop, aiming straight for the highest point of the Desolation’s stone body.

As the wind slammed against his face and his body accelerated downward, he pulled back his right arm and took a punching stance.

As the target grew larger and larger in his vision, he couldn’t hold himself back any longer and shouted with a laugh just before impact.

"Galaxy Impact!"

A deafening boom exploded across the battlefield, and a violent shockwave burst outward, shattering stone and scattering fragments in every direction.

—

"W-What the..."

All of the Witches and Shadows froze for a moment in shock at what they had just witnessed.

They had already stopped casting their spells the moment the suction force abruptly disappeared, replaced by that explosion from the monster’s head.

The enormous stone monster, which had looked like a moving mountain just moments ago, suddenly jerked in place.

Its upper body tilted backward, and the peak Magna had struck caved in violently, as though a giant hammer had smashed straight through it.

Cracks spread from the point of impact at terrifying speed, racing across its stony body like branches of lightning.

The massive red gem embedded in its face shook violently, and the crack that had already been there widened even further.

Then the entire top of its head exploded outward.

Chunks of rock the size of houses were blasted into the air, while smaller fragments rained down like a storm over them.

The Shadows, who had been using their shields to defend against the suction, now raised them to block the falling rocks.

But the flying debris wasn’t the only thing that reached them. A ring of force swept across the surroundings, flattening the dust cloud and pushing everything away from the creature for a brief moment.

The Desolation’s mouth, which had been wide open until then, snapped shut, creating another smaller shockwave.

Its huge body swayed once, then again, struggling to keep its balance.

Even from far away, the Witches could see that the stone around the monster’s head had collapsed inward, forming a deep crater where the explosion had occurred.

For the first time since the battle began, the Devouring Desolation looked like it had truly taken damage.

Everyone stood there staring, their minds struggling to catch up with what they had just seen.

"You said that was actually a man?" Renna asked the Shadow with the best eyesight among them.

He couldn’t answer right away, as even he was beginning to question what he had seen.

Eventually, he replied in an uncertain voice. "Yes..."

There was only 1 man they knew who could produce that much power without using a spell, someone whose name immediately came to everyone’s mind.

The problem was that he was highly unlikely to be here.