by Jeff Sproul
"Is it just me, or is it a big one?" Vol shouted from the right. "Maybe one of the chieftains?"
"But why would a chieftain be wandering alone?" Kaiz yelled back.
"There's no other giants around, and that's good for us!" said Bavol.
The three horses closed in on the monster. Chaxin couldn't believe how tall it was, and it only seemed to get taller the closer they got to it. Its legs lifted slowly, and it wore something akin to metal plates upon its large feet, fastened by ropes, almost like sandals. It wore a dark robe about its body, which seemed to be comprised of numerous animal hides all stitched together. Over its head was a hood, which concealed its face in shadow.
"This thing is massive!" said Chaxin. "How are we going to kill it with arrows and bolts?" His voice was only loud enough for Kaiz to hear him.
"What did you think 'giant' meant?" said Kaiz. "Just focus your attacks on its head. If you think you can't hit its face or neck, aim for the upper left side of its chest, as its heart is in the same place as ours. If we can manage enough hits on its eyes, neck, and heart, we should be able to bring it down."
"Alright!" said Chaxin. He released his hold on Kaiz's vest strap. He readied the cumbersome crossbow, keeping himself leaned forward so he wouldn't fall back too far as the horse dashed. He dipped a hand into the pouch and pulled out a handful of bolts. He slotted them into the top chamber and pulled back on the right side of the bar to prime the first bolt.
"Take your time, but don't take forever," said Kaiz. "If we run out of ammunition, this fight is going to take a quick turn for the worst."
"I'll do my best!" Chaxin said, holding the readied crossbow securely, his boots placed in stirrups. As long as things didn't get too bumpy, he'd be able to stay securely on the horse. If he got knocked off… well, he didn't want to think about what might happen then.
Vol and Tiris's horse quickened its pace and took the lead. As it did, Tiris readied her bow and aimed at the giant.
Chaxin watched as her first arrow took off. It was hard to see precisely where it hit, as it went under the giant's hood. But with that first arrow, the monster's pace altered. Its head turned towards them, and its outspread fingers, easily the size of thick tree trunks, formed a tight fist.
Kaiz's horse darted in front of the giant as its attention was drawn to Vol's horse. Tiris fired off another arrow, and then another.
Chaxin readied his crossbow and aimed it at the giant’s head. He closed his left eye and gripped the weapon tightly. With his attention squarely upon the giant, he noticed that there were arrows and bolts sticking out of its leather robes. There even seemed to be dark patches in some places. Chaxin paid it little mind as he took his time and aimed. Then, with a squeeze of his finger, he pulled the trigger.
The crossbow gave a subtle kick as it fired, but not enough to disorient him. The metal bolt was darker than the arrows Tiris was firing and light managed to glint off it, allowing him to watch as it stuck into the giant's upper chest, near its collar. He doubted that his first shot was able to do much damage, but he was glad that he'd at least hit it.
He pulled the bar on the side and primed it again. He took aim, and fired once more. The bolt disappeared under the giant's hood, but he couldn't tell if he actually hit the giant, or hit the inside of the thick leathers.
The giant slowly descended and knelt upon one knee. At first, Chaxin thought they might've critically wounded the monster, but then the giant's arm lifted into the air and swung out in a wide arc towards Vol and Tiris.
Vol had turned the horse to run away from the giant, when the monster had stooped down. The thick fingers just barely missed Vol's retreating horse by several feet.
A deep growl billowed out from the giant’s lungs. It rose back to its feet, as Chaxin loosed several more bolts, and Tiris fired arrows at an even greater range. Bavol had taken his horse back behind the giant and was firing bolts in between taking the reins.
The giant seemed unfazed by the three-sided attacks from the riders. It had stopped walking and its arms slowly ascended.
Chaxin kept up his assault. He highly doubted he was anywhere as good a shot as the others, but with each bolt that sunk into the giant, he felt that just maybe they'd be able to pull this off.
The giant's hands loomed in front of the darkened hood. Its fingers curled as if it was holding some unseen thing to its face. They didn't tighten the entire way, and allowed a several-foot wide gap of a circle between its two connected hands.
"What's it doing?" asked Chaxin, who slowly lowered the crossbow.
Kaiz glanced to the monster as he directed the horse in a wide circle around it. He saw what it was doing, and his eyes went wide. "Shit! Hold on!"
Chaxin lowered his gaze from the giant for only a moment. He gripped the leather strap on Kaiz's vest, and tightened his grip on the crossbow. "Do you know what it's—"
Chaxin's voice was cut off as a brilliant white beam shot from beneath the monster's hood. The beam went through the gaps its hands were making and seemed to be made of intense white light. The ray cut into the marsh, kicking up dirt and water, vaporizing both as it streaked across the mire, and made contact close to where Vol and Tiris's horse was running. The monster moved its torso and head, and the beam cut a swath of burnt ground in front of their horse.
The horse reared back and launched Tiris away and to the ground. Vol tried to keep his grip on the reins and the horse, but the beast panicked and tumbled as the white beam cut close and cooked the ground beneath its front hooves.
Vol smacked hard against the ground as the horse tumbled onto its side. The beam dissipated, just as quickly as it had appeared. The horse whined and flopped, its two remaining rear legs unable to gain purchase on the ground. Its feral cries filled the surrounding mire.
The monster's hands unfurled and reached up to its hood. Slowly, it pulled the leather back and revealed its weathered and flat face. It looked much like a man, but instead of two eyes, only a single large eye rested in the center of its forehead.
"They were wrong!" said Kaiz, speaking loud enough to be heard as he whipped at the reins to steer the horse around the monster's side. "It's not a giant! It's a cyclops!"
"What's that mean?" asked Chaxin.
Kaiz turned his head and looked to the fallen archers. The two of them seemed to be moving, but their horse was as good as dead without its front legs.
He tilted his head to look back at Chaxin as best he could. "This might not be a fight we can win. Giants are one thing, but a cyclops is on a whole different level!"
"But you've fought them before, haven't you?" Chaxin asked.
"Giants, sure!" said Kaiz. "But none of us has ever fought a cyclops! I don't know anyone who has. No one that's lived, that is. Cyclops are able to focus their mana and expel it from their eye. A giant can at most throw things at you, or attack with melee weapons. Cyclops… well, you just saw what it was capable of! Its lack of depth perception is the only reason the two of them are still alive."
"We have to help them, they're easy targets without a horse!" said Chaxin.
"Get back to shooting!" said Kaiz. "I'll steer us around briefly from the sides. Hit its eye if you can. From what I've heard, it needs to gather its mana before it can attack again. At least I hope."
"You hope?" Chaxin yelled.
"I haven't fought one before!" Kaiz growled back. "Now shut up and shoot at it!"
Kaiz whipped the reins and slowly turned their galloping horse towards the cyclops. He pulled his spear to the side and held it firmly as he narrowed his eyes at the monster. "Don't worry, kid. We're not going to abandon them. But our best hope now is to hit it with everything we got. But our chances of making it through this aren't as high as before."
Chaxin readied the crossbow. His chest pumped as the horse galloped. He aimed at the cyclops, which was slowly heading towards the archers. Tiris and Vol had gotten to their feet and were running in opposite directions, away from the cyclops. From time to time, they wou
ld stop and fire off an arrow at the monster. In response, the cyclops brought one arm up to block any incoming arrows from the two of them. Luckily, it was the arm opposite of the side that Chaxin and Kaiz were charging from.
Chaxin closed his left eye and focused. With a pull of the trigger, he fired another bolt at the cyclops.
The bolt flew right past its neck.
Chaxin swallowed, and a bead of sweat ran down his brow. Hopefully this fight wasn't solely resting on his ability to aim.
"You're going to have to do better than that!" Kaiz yelled back to Chaxin as they rushed toward the cyclops from the monster's left. He raised his spear and held the blade toward the creature. The monster had yet to pay them much mind, as it strode toward the grounded archers—who continued to desperately fire while retreating.
Kaiz pulled his arm through the reins and gripped the spear with both hands. One hand steadied the spear, as the other went to the small lever at the bottom. With a squeeze of his fingers, there was a sudden click and subsequent BANG!
Chaxin's eyes lit up at the sudden bright flash of light that came from the front of the cylinder attached to Kaiz's spear. A burning projectile streaked up and smacked into the cyclops' cheek with a sudden burst, as embers flew and dissipated.
The cyclops flinched and halted its advance. Its raised hand clutched at its burning cheek, while the projectile continued to smolder into its flesh.
The monster let out a horrendous roaring groan. Its left foot took a single step back. Its eye was half-lidded as it winced in obvious agony.
"Hit its eye!" Kaiz yelled, as he lowered the spear and retook a firm hold of the reins.
Chaxin readied the crossbow and let another bolt fly. It was joined by two dark arrows from further away.
Chaxin's bolt sunk into the thick flesh of the monster's hand, while one of the arrows sailed past and struck the lowered brow.
The cyclops was already groaning from the impact of Kaiz's weapon, but its heavy voice bellowed anew. The sound shook Chaxin to his core. He'd never heard anything so loud. His hands shook, along with everything else. It was almost as if the very ground was quaking beneath them.
Chaxin tried to cover his ears as best he could. It was difficult to steady himself on the horse while also retaining hold of the crossbow.
The cyclops's voice cut out, and without warning, the heavy brow lifted, displaying a deep crimson streak across the pale eye. The pupil flared in a flash of light. The beam reappeared and tore a fissure through the landscape between the two archers. The beam only lasted for a second, but in that time, it effectively separated Vol and Tiris, while also making the terrain more treacherous for Kaiz's horse to navigate.
The beam tore right through the fallen horse, silencing its feral screams forever. A meager blessing.
"I thought it couldn't fire again so soon!" Chaxin called to Kaiz.
"I'm not some cyclops expert!" Kaiz grunted back as he turned the horse to the right, passing close by the monster's left foot.
"That hit might've obscured its vision," said Kaiz. "Where the hell is Bav—" He spotted the other man's horse. "There he is!"
From behind the cyclops, Bavol pulled the reins and halted his horse. He took careful aim and repeatedly fired bolt after bolt into the back of the monster's neck, where the creature's spine should be.
"Come on, your hide can't be that thick!" he groaned. He kept slotting in new bolts. From time to time, he glanced over to Kaiz and Chaxin, who were still mounted and rushing around from the left, but he didn't have a good line of sight on the two archers. He'd seen the first beam and watched them go down, but he wasn't sure if that second beam had taken them out or not. For all he knew, only the three of them were left.
The cyclops managed a single step forward as it stooped into a kneeling position. Its hand swung, smashing into the dirt near where Vol and Tiris had fallen.
"It's going to kill them! We need to get in front of it!" Chaxin yelled, as Kaiz took their horse further behind the monster and closer to Bavol.
"It might be nowhere close to dead! And it's protecting its eye with its other hand now!" Kaiz countered.
"We have to do something!" said Chaxin.
"I know!" said Kaiz as he slowed his horse to join Bavol, who was still firing at the lowered cyclops.
"It's no good," Bavol growled. "Its hide is thicker than a giant's."
Kaiz released his hold on the reins and pulled something out of a pouch in his vest. He dropped it into the cylinder of his spear and then pulled back a tiny lever that made a soft click.
"We need to draw its attention from the archers. They're farther away than what it can reach currently. It's gone into defensive mode. We need to strike from both sides. It can't entirely protect its eye from all angles."
"It's far more dangerous to fight it from the front," said Bavol.
"Well we're not going to bring it down any other way," said Kaiz. "Hit it from the left, we'll sweep around from the right. If you can, try and grab Tiris or Vol."
Bavol grunted. "Alright, let's do it."
With a whip of his hand, Kaiz clutched the reins and sent his horse galloping away.
Bavol shook his head and set off in the other direction.
"You really think we can take it down?" Chaxin yelled. He checked his bolt pouch to see how many he had left. This fight couldn't continue for much longer. At least, not at range.
"We're going to try!" Kaiz replied as their horse darted around the cyclops.
Chaxin watched the monster. He couldn't believe he'd woken to a world where such things existed. How could anyone survive in a place like this for long?
He readied his crossbow once again. They were cresting around in front of the cyclops. It reached out and clawed into the ground, a half dozen feet away from what looked to be Vol crawling away on the ground. Tiris was running away, but stuck close to her side of the wide fissure, which continued to smolder and burn from the beam’s intense heat. Chaxin couldn't tell if she was fleeing or attempting to make her way all around the fissure to reach Vol.
The cyclops pulled itself slowly along the ground, its feet slushed through the mire as it neared Vol.
"Vol's not getting up! He must be injured!" said Chaxin.
"Then we've only got one shot at this, else he's a dead man!" said Kaiz. "Take aim!" He pulled the spear back up and lined it up towards the large monster.
Their horse rode close to the cyclops's right side. They didn't have time to take a long curve outside of its reach. Within seconds, they'd entered line of sight on the cyclops's eye.
"On the count of three!" said Kaiz. "One! Two! Three!"
With that, he pulled the lever on the spear.
Chaxin pulled the trigger on his crossbow at the same instant. His bolt shot off, while Kaiz's spear blasted another burning orange pellet at the monster's face.
In the ensuing seconds, Chaxin watched as their dual attacks hit the cyclops's face, and made its eye close. But there was no time to determine if they'd hit it directly or not, as a ball of fire passed over their heads.
Chaxin's attention was drawn to the ball of flame, easily the size of their horse. It rushed above them and exploded against the cyclops's right arm. The explosion buffeted Chaxin and Kaiz with intense heat, due to their proximity. The horse came to an abrupt halt and reared up, and Chaxin was thrown from its back, the cloudy sky filling his vision. There was a billow of smoke, rising from the corner of his gaze. Then, he hit the ground and everything went dark.
Chapter 8: Deal
Chaxin's eyes crept open. His arm was cold and wet. He blinked the haze from his eyes as he looked up at that gray sky.
"We almost died, the lot of us! You wouldn't have stood a chance if it weren't for us!" came the angry voice of a man nearby, a voice Chaxin didn't recognize.
"There's no way we're letting you walk away with it! We risked everything for that kill, and you just came in and tried to steal it!" another voice spoke up, but this one Chaxin recogniz
ed as Bavol's.
Chaxin leaned up, his head spinning. He pulled his right hand out of some muck and wiped it on his pants. He took in his surroundings. He was just to the right of Kaiz. The spear-wielding man held his weapon at the ready, pointed away from him. Bavol was to the left, his own crossbow drawn.
Chaxin looked over and saw three figures, all wearing cloaks, but their hoods were down. One had a bald head and held a staff of some sort, with rune magic written all over it. Another man stood beside him, wearing armor similar to Deloris. A helmet protected his head but the visor was up. He wielded a sword and shield. Then, there was a red-haired woman, who wielded a crossbow as well, pointed right at Bavol.
"We lost one of our comrades to that beast!" said the red-haired woman. Her hair was no longer than her shoulders, and her hands never left the weapon she wielded. "We were routed when it used its beam to cut our path from it. We had to traverse a longer stretch of mire to get to it, and that's when we found you all engaging our quarry!"
"Your quarry?" Kaiz grunted. "That monster was headed for our town. You had more than enough time to engage and defeat it. Which I find hard to believe if it was just the three of you, or even four with your fallen comrade!"
"We're stronger than we look," the bald man spoke, as his grip tightened on his staff. He had been the voice that had spoken first when Chaxin woke. "The cyclops was on its last legs when it detoured and ran from us. All you did was intercept an already dying cyclops and steal the kill! But we'll be damned if we let you take what's rightfully ours!"
Chaxin looked back and forth between Bavol, Kaiz, and the new arrivals. It was then that he noticed that the mound of dirt nearby wasn't a mound at all, but the leather-covered corpse of the fallen cyclops. A thin metal chain lay upon the ground, a good fifteen feet away from the monster's neck. At the end of the chain was a metal entrapment, which was broken. A few feet beyond was a fallen soul crystal. It was roughly the size of a man's skull. Whereas the ones he'd looted earlier were much smaller and narrow, this skull-sized one was rounded with jagged edges.
