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He tore the straps apart by brute force, then ripped off his pauldrons, breastplate, and armored skirt piece by piece and threw them to the ground.
Freed of his restraints, the burly man pressed his palms against the wooden gate again. The muscles of his bare back knotted and swelled, forming an outline almost like the character for "ferocity."
The veins in his arms throbbed as though living things were writhing beneath his skin.
Creak...
"It moved! The gate's moving!"
He drove all his strength forward, his feet sinking into the earth and leaving one depression after another.
This was no ordinary soil-compacted over countless years by the repeated footsteps of giants, it had long since become harder than rock.
Amid the crowd's hushed cries, the heavy gate shifted an inch with agonizing slowness, until finally-
Thud.
The burly man dropped to one knee, sweat pouring down his skin like a waterfall, every muscle trembling uncontrollably.
He panted violently, as though he had just struggled out of deep water. That burst of effort had drained every last ounce of his strength.
The gate had opened only a narrow crack, barely wide enough for someone to squeeze through sideways.
"Can we go through now?"
The noble-looking man asked with a broad smile, and the giant soldier guarding the entrance finally nodded.
"Go on."
Once the group had squeezed through the gap, the soldier seized the gate ring and heaved. The heavy scrape of metal made the ground tremble faintly.
As the gate closed, the muscles of his arms suddenly tightened, like ridges rising across a rock face.
Even for a giant, moving these two gates was far from easy.
"Ah, I almost forgot."
The half-giant Taran scratched his unruly hair, dislodging a few grains of sand.
"This gate is called