by A. K. DuBoff
Despite the number of blasts required, those magical attacks did have a measurable impact on the golem, while my sword did nothing. “Hey, do you think you could charge my sword?” I questioned when he was by my side.
Kaiden kept firing toward the golems. “What?”
“I saw what happened when you took out the last one—the end of your staff was electrified and it pierced its chest,” I explained. “My sword isn’t breaking the surface, but maybe…”
“We can try,” Kaiden said. He paused his assault for a moment, touching the end of the staff to my sabre’s blade. Electric sparks danced across the metal. “Huh. I think that actually worked.”
I grinned. “Nice!”
“Might not last long. Get swinging!”
While he focused on the golem that had grabbed my chest, I refocused on the bottom one that had gone after my feet. It had since stood up and appeared to be sizing up another attack.
I made my move, racing forward for a strike center mass. To distract it, I pretended to be swinging for its neck, but I brought my shoulder back at the last second and switched to a stabbing motion. My electrified blade plunged into the creature’s chest. A roar turned to a gurgle as the golem dissolved into a muddy mound.
I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. “That was ridiculous.”
Kaiden lowered his staff. “Where’s Toran?”
I spun around to search for our other companion. After three seconds, I spotted him engaged with a golem twenty meters away.
We ran in his direction. After going no more than five strides, one of Toran’s fists struck the golem in its chest, and the creature disintegrated. He must have already taken care of the other one, as I didn’t see any golems remaining.
“Was that it? Was that the test?” I asked.
Kaiden shook his head. “I don’t know. There’s still that.” He gestured at the rock titan looming over us.
The massive creature stood motionless, watching us with its expressionless eyes.
I released a long breath. There was no way we could take on something that big, considering how much trouble the little golems had given us. We’d taken out its minions; that seemed like a reasonably rigorous challenge.
“Is that the proof you needed?” Toran shouted to the giant.
In response, the giant clapped its hands together, then pounded its palms against the ground. Following the tremble from the initial impact, the shaking intensified, and the ground once again swelled upward until half a dozen new golems burst through the soil.
My jaw dropped. “You have to be kidding!”
11
“I am not doing all of that again,” Kaiden groaned.
Toran stared up at the rock titan. “We’ve been going about this wrong. We need to go after the giant itself.”
I pointed up at it. “That? How are we supposed to take on that? It’s huge!”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure out something.” He ran toward its foot.
“He pretends to be rational, but he’s out of his mind!” I objected.
“We can’t let him go in alone,” Kaiden said. “Don’t get crushed.”
Dumbstruck, I ran after them. “What kind of advice is that?”
“Sorry, it’s all I’ve got.”
I looked down at my sword; the electrical charge had dissipated. If the blade had been ineffective against the golems, it was laughable against the rock titan. “Do the thing to my sword again,” I requested.
Kaiden touched his staff to my blade while we kept moving forward, slowing just enough to minimize the bounce in our strides. The blade lit up with electrical energy once again.
“Thanks. Be careful,” I told him.
“You too.”
We bolted in separate directions, with Kaiden heading to the giant’s right while I joined Toran on the left to go after it with physical attacks. I knew the clock was ticking with the charge on my blade.
The giant was entirely stone, from what I could see, so there weren’t vulnerable parts of it like there would be with flesh. Its proportions were alien to my eye, with arms that hung down to its knees, short legs, and a rounded torso. I didn’t know how we could possibly disable or kill a stone creature, but I figured the best way to start was to knock it down.
So, I went for its foot. After all, I figure that stubbing my toe always made me want to sit down, so having a sword jammed into a heel probably wouldn’t feel great, either… assuming the creature could feel anything.
The foot more closely resembled a flat-ish boulder than anything in my anatomical frame of reference. I ran up to it and slashed with my sword. The electrified blade sliced into the stone, but the giant seemed completely unfazed. I drew my weapon back and stabbed it at the point where an ankle bone would be on a person. Again, no effect.
“This isn’t working!”
Next to me, Toran was pummeling his fists into the back of the giant’s calf. “Persistence.”
I didn’t buy it. At the rate we were going, the giant might be injured enough to fall sometime in the next century—if it didn’t get annoyed and step on us first.
We’d need a more aggressive approach. I only stood to approximately the middle of the giant’s calf, and its ankle was close to the height of my waist. I’d need to get higher if I was going to access a part of the rock titan that might be more susceptible to real damage.
The giant lifting up its left foot to take a slow step. I took the opportunity, jumping onto the top of the foot.
“Elle!” Toran called, but I ignored him. This was my chance to prove to myself that I had what it took to be a part of the bigger fight unfolding around me.
I held out my hands to either side to keep myself steady as the giant raised its foot. The creature’s forearm was angled at forty-five degrees above me to my left; it was the closest thing to a ramp I’d ever get to access its head. Keeping one arm outstretched for balance, I quickly sheathed my sword. The rock titan was about to complete its step, and I needed to make my move at apex of its stride.
I leaped, spreading my arms as I flew toward its wrist—the only point with a small enough circumference to give me a chance of hanging on. My chest slammed against the stone, almost knocking the wind out of me as I landed on an awkward angle half on top of the giant’s hand. I searched with my fingertips for any semblance of a handhold. My left hand came up empty, but I was able to lock in my right hand. Fortunately, my left leg had hooked over the top of the wrist, so I was able to hold myself in place while I continued to search for a proper grip for my left fingers.
The giant raised its hand, blurring the world around me. My stomach lurched from the sudden motion, but I managed to lock in my grip.
A second later, the giant flicked its wrist in an attempt to shake me off. I held on with all my might, realizing that I hadn’t thought through my plan very well—or, at all.
My fingertips burned as I clung to the stone. I started to slip.
The shaking subsided. I may only have a moment to act.
“Elle!” Toran called from below. I look down and saw him holding up a length of rope from the bag Tami had prepared for us.
I shifted my weight to straddle the giant’s wrist, freeing my hands. Toran chucked the rope bundle up to me, keeping hold of one end in his hands. I caught the rope and then dashed up the top side of the giant’s arm toward its shoulder.
I’d only made it as far as the creature’s elbow when its other hand swooped in to brush me off. There was no doubt in my mind I’d be crushed between the two stone surfaces.
With no other option, I rolled off the far side of the arm, still gripping the rope with Toran holding the other end. The rope caught in the stone groove between the creature’s forearm and elbow. I dangled five meters high in the air, not sure if I should climb back up or descend.
“We’ve got it, come on!” Toran shouted. He was waving for me to descend.
I slid down the rope
. My palms burned, forcing me to loosen my grip. I couldn’t control my fall at the end, and I landed hard, rolling to the side.
“Grab the rope!” Toran instructed.
I leaped to my feet and managed to get a hold on the rope before the giant yanked it away. I pulled down my coat sleeves to cover the raw palms of my hand, and then tightened my grip.
A sudden roar behind me almost made me drop it again. One of the six new golems was lumbering toward me.
“Ugh, those things are still here?” I backed away from it, wishing I could sprout another set of hands to hold my sword.
Toran ran toward me while keeping his end of the rope taut on the giant’s arm. He circled his rope above me; the two lengths crossed behind the creature’s arm and cinched tight, unlikely to slip off.
“This way,” he said, dashing behind the rock titan to outpace the pursuing golem.
We kept the rope taut as we looped around the back side of the giant. I wasn’t sure exactly what Toran had planned, but he had the look in his eyes of someone with a vision.
The plan started to become clear as we rounded the creature’s right side. The rope was now angled across the giant’s back from where it was wrapped around the left elbow. Unfortunately, there were also five golems waiting for us, who had encircled Kaiden.
“What are you doing?” he questioned us while blasting an electrical ball at one of the golems.
“Taking this thing down,” Toran replied. He cut across the giant’s front, jumping over its right foot and then the left.
I followed him as closely as I could, glancing to my side to see that Kaiden had halted his energy ball hurling and was backing away from the giant and the golems while keeping an eye on what we were doing.
We rounded the giant’s left ankle, coming full circle with the loop.
“Kaiden!” Toran called.
The other man ran over to us, glancing over his shoulder to make sure the golems couldn’t reach him.
“Hurry,” Toran urged.
We bundled the two ends of the rope together and continued the circuit around the giant’s back for a second pass, taking us dangerously close to the group of golems. At the giant’s right side, the three of us lined up with Toran at the head of the group. Together, we leaned back and pulled as hard as we could.
The rope cinched tighter, keeping the giant from being able to lift its feet. We didn’t have the strength to draw the creature’s legs together and knock it off balance, but it was enough to distract it. The other golems didn’t seem to like us getting the upper hand; they made a run for us.
“Stand clear! Going to rope one,” Toran instructed.
I didn’t know what he meant until I saw him duck one of the golems’ attacks, then roll and loop it from behind with the rope. He deftly circled it, pinning the creature’s hands against its sides.
The golem shrieked, then ran away as it tried to get free from the tie. However, this only drew the rope tighter around the giant. The remaining golems weren’t fooled as easily, and they lunged for us.
“If there’s another stage to the plan, we should do it now!” I shouted over the golems’ roars, drawing my sword once more; the electric charge had long since warn off, but I could at least use it to block attacks.
“I’ll handle them,” Toran said in a calm, even tone.
His hands clenched into fists and he charged toward the golems. He barreled into the throng, landing a firm blow on each golem as he ran past. Something had changed in his offense, though there was no external alteration in appearance. The calm confidence he exhibited moments before had morphed into an aura of determination.
As he raced toward the enemies with his fists drawn back, his eyes narrowed and he set his jaw.
The blows connected two at a time, plowing through the golems and knocking them backward and to the side. Before the first two creatures had fallen halfway down, they had already begun disintegrating. He struck the next two, and they toppled aside, and in one motion he finished off the remaining golem nearby.
With its arms bound, the rock titan was unable to summon more. The one bound to the end of the rope continued to struggle, tightening the hold around the giant.
Toran rounded on the enormous rock beast. “What more must I do to prove myself?”
The rock titan made no verbal response. It looked down at me and nodded, the gaze of its dark eyes burrowing into me. Then, it fell forward—directly for us.
Kaiden and Toran ran to the side.
I was frozen; I knew I had to get out of the way, but it felt like my feet had been rooted to the ground.
“Elle, move!” Toran shouted.
A shadow passed over me as the giant tipped over toward where I was standing.
I willed myself to move, but my feet wouldn’t obey. There wouldn’t be time to escape.
Toran dash toward me in the final moments before the giant would crush me, towering over me to face the falling giant.
I braced for the impact.
A deafening crack of colliding rocks overwhelmed my senses. The light blocked out around me as the giant reached the ground. Only, I wasn’t crushed. Toran and I were still standing, and we were surrounded by a mound of soil. A smaller mound to my left stood where I had last seen the final golem.
Heart pounding in my ears, I brushed the dirt off my hair and shoulders. “What happened?”
Toran shook his head. “I don’t know. I held up my hands over you, and it fell apart the moment it touched me.”
Kaiden ran over to us, gathering his cloak in his hands so it didn’t drag in the wet soil. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
Toran frowned. “That wasn’t how I expected that to go. I thought the giant would give us the artifact if we defeated it.”
Kaiden was silent for several seconds. “Maybe defeating it wasn’t the point. The discipline is Protection, right? You put yourself in harm’s way in an attempt to save Elle, and that’s when it dissolved.”
“Hmm.” Toran nodded. “Perhaps, but what about the artifact?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s not a literal ‘thing’ but rather achieving a certain state of mind?” Kaiden suggested.
I scrunched up my nose. “That doesn’t seem right, given our experience on Crystallis.”
“We assumed it must be an item when we looked at the translation, but there also wasn’t anything in the chamber to indicate a place to insert a physical thing,” he countered.
Toran brushed himself off. “We should look around. Perhaps something new has appeared in the landscape. That giant came from somewhere.”
We hopped over the piles of soil in the battlefield and cleaned ourselves up as best we could. After checking the mound of the former giant to make sure it hadn’t had an item inside it, we decided to go back toward the hills in the direction the rock titan had come from.
We crested two ridges on our trek northeast. The first was identical to the dozens of other rises we had traversed since leaving the shuttle, but at the brow of the second, the landscape changed. In the place that appeared to be a former hill, there was now an open maw of moist soil, presumably the place where the giant had been birthed. At its center was a crystal monument similar to the others we had visited on the planet, only twice the size.
Every crystal I had seen in my lifetime was opaque white that glowed with a soft blue inner light. Aside from the Darkness, there was never anything inside the crystals. This one, however, was different. Suspended within the crystal, three meters from the ground, was a dark object; I couldn’t make out what it was, exactly, from this distance.
“Was this here before?” Kaiden asked.
I shook my head. “We flew right over this area with the shuttle. It must have been covered up until the giant was formed.”
Toran’s gaze was fixed on the object inside the crystal. “I imagine that must be the artifact.”
“A reasonable guess,”
I concurred.
Without another word, Toran loped down the hillside toward the eight-meter-tall crystal. Unlike the other crystals on the world, this one didn’t have any secondary stones ringing it. The base was more than two meters wide, placing the object inside deep in the crystal. As we approached, the object took on more definition, and I realized that it was actually two items placed next to each other—a set of gauntlets.
Toran surveyed the crystal. “If those gauntlets are the artifact, how am I supposed to get them out?”
“Try touching it,” I suggested. “The others activated when you did.”
Tentatively, Toran reached out to place his right palm on the crystal’s smooth side.
The inner, blue glow intensified until I needed to close my eyes to slits. With a sudden burst, the crystal shattered into a fine dust. The gauntlets within floated gently to the ground.
Toran stood in stunned silence for a moment, then reached down to pick them up. As his fingers brushed the gauntlets, a golden wave of light radiated from them and enveloped him. It only lasted for a second, but when it faded, a contented smile was on Toran’s lips and he had a brightness in his eyes where there had only been concern and sadness before.
“I think we found the magical item,” I quipped.
“Indeed.” Toran slipped the backpack off of his shoulders, setting it on the ground, and rested the gauntlets on top. He removed his knuckle guards and placed them inside the bag, then gently picked up the gauntlets.
The gloves didn’t look large enough to accommodate his hands to my eye, yet they slid on with no trouble. Once in place, they moved and flexed more like a second skin than armor. Predominantly black, the gloves were adorned with golden accents and lines of ornate scripture, which appeared to be in the same Laeric language as the crystal monument on Crystallis.
