by Bruce Sentar
CHAPTER 31
Despite Borris’ protests, they did take everything from his toppled wagon, explaining that they were just carrying it. Otherwise, the gnolls would pick it apart. Ajax calmed the situation with some self-deprecating descriptions of a pack mule.
Ajax was starting to understand that the man just craved control and money.
They hadn’t gotten far with Borris waddling along when Missy stopped short and went alert.
Ajax heard it a second later.
“Giant!” Someone shouted in the distance. Presumably a guard.
The girls shot forward without hesitation.
“Borris, stay back and don’t come out till it’s over.” Ajax rushed to join Sky.
The caravan was a mess. Guards were all over the place. They weren’t actually attacking the giant, but each held a long spear that they jabbed in warning towards the giant as they seemed to be trying to drive it away rather than fighting it.
The guards gathered around the side of the wagons and squared off against the giant. Each side-eyed each other and the guards made threatening gestures but Ajax could see that they were scared of the monster in front of them.
The girls found Ajax and stood next to him as Sir Remblaar walked up to the group. “We need your help.” That was about the last thing that Ajax had expected but he held his tongue and let the man go on. “Giants have a very thick hide. It’s hard to do much damage to him unless you can get at their faces or throats.” He looked at Ajax “We need magic. If my guys distract them, I need you to take them down.”
The girls both deferred to Ajax. Though they had been teasing him in private, now in front of Remblaar they were the picture of women standing behind their man.
Ajax nodded “Sky, let’s go for the face. Missy, can you slow him down if he breaks the guards’ circle?” The girls didn’t have much in the way of magic but Sky had her bow and she could aim for the face. Missy wasn’t going to be much help with doing damage, but he knew she would find some way to help.
He didn’t wait for a response and started firing arcane bullet over the guards. The giant turned sideways and his bullets skimmed off his shoulder and clipped the top of its head.
It didn’t appear to even notice the shots. Ajax wasn’t so sure his magic was going to do much to the giant.
“Can you alter your spell more?” Sky said. She could see they weren’t having much effect.
Ajax tilted his head not sure where she was going but he trusted her. “Yeah I can but the total magic in a shot has to remain consistent.”
Sky was thoughtful at that. “I don’t know if it will take too much out of it, but can you harden the tip more and add some spin?”
“Ah, yeah that would have more penetration for his thick hide. Though I’m going to lose some mass on the bullet.” Ajax was quick coming up with a new image in his mind for the spell. He’d take from the side wall and make it thinner. It looked like the concrete nails he’d seen at work. He’d seen a demonstration at work; a huge nail gun fired those clean into the concrete. That’s what he needed. His image started spinning as he tried to add more power behind it, and he let the spell loose.
There was a small punch like a nail gun as the penetration round fired. The aim was good. Ajax saw it bury itself into the giant’s arm.
There was no blood, but the giant definitely noticed the shot as it reached for its arm and looked through the guards for what had managed to pierce its hide.
Ajax gained confidence and starting firing freely each shot digging into the giant, but they were like small insects to the large creature. However several shots in and it was clearly getting frustrating. The spears were becoming less important and he was starting to look beyond the guards for the source.
A guard wanted its attention and started shouting obscene threats about its dick, causing it to spin and attack him with anger fueled punches. The spears scored shallow cuts during his charge at the man. However, they all knew that it wasn’t enough to take the beast down.
Ajax watched as it realized how little threat the spears actually were. Then as it tore guard after guard apart. It caught one and with two hands separated his legs from his torso. The giant was a brutal beast of slaughter.
“Hurry.” Sir Remblaar was looking worried, and the trio got back to work. Ajax focused on his new magic bullet spell, winding up as he imagined it, before he held out his hand and bright blue magic bullets started pouring out at the giant.
Ajax tried aiming at its eye; there didn’t seem to be any other places that really seemed like weak points. A surge of red numbers started to climb up over the giant’s head. Ajax could see its health bar though; it wasn’t moving down very fast.
An arrow would hit the giant’s head from time to time, but none of them were finding purchase in the giant’s thick hide.
The giant finished tearing apart the guard that had been taunting it and turned to Ajax. Ajax didn’t hesitate to turn and run. He made it behind the wagon line before it caught up. The giant tore apart the wagon, crates exploding their contents everywhere. Ajax heard Borris’ cry of terror over the rumbling of the giant’s.
“Guards, use taunt and kite it around. Don’t try to overwhelm it, just taunt and run. If you see the person it’s focusing on about to get overrun, taunt it and keep it moving. Don’t try to take one of its hits.” Ajax tried to get some order to the situation.
The giant, however, was content to cause chaos. It started to punch the ground and shock waves rippled through the field knocking many of the guards off their feet, taking damage or getting knocked out on the wagon or rocks.
Sir Remblaar started shouting orders. He picked up the kiting strategy that Ajax had called out. The guards started forming wide circles around the giant using taunt to bounce it around the circle. Besides the circle, several archers appeared and began pelting it with arrows. The guards had been over 100 when they set out from Kindle Town; Ajax could only see twenty or so still fighting. He realized just how much a toll Remblaar’s men had taken.
The guards kept up their kiting while the rest of the guards and Sky peppered it with arrows.
They were whittling it down quickly once the guards got a set pattern in, the archers were able to anticipate it’s movements better. However, not all good things last.
After a while, it was heavily marked by arrows and Ajax’s bullets. Blood rivulets ran down his whole body. It looked close to toppling over. It finally stopped dead on its feet. A few guards had gotten cocky and rushed forward to finish it.
The giant let out a bellow of rage to the sky. Its face went red, blood tears ran down its ragged jowls. Its arms flexed and beat like a heart. Each pump they grew steadily larger.
“NO! Get back!” Ajax heard someone yell to the approaching guard. It was too late.
The giant moved faster than he had before and had the man in his hands before Ajax could blink. It bit down tearing the man in half. The taunts and arrows stopped for a moment at the horror of watching this beast’s meal.
When the guards moved again, several tried to flee.
The line broke. The giant quickly started stomping and tossing guards. One landed by Ajax, his entire body broken by the landing.
“Stop running! You have to finish it quickly. It’s almost down.” Ajax tried to shout over the growing chaos.
None of the guards were willing to draw the giant to them now. It was too fast for them to bounce between them.
“Keep on it Sky. It hasn’t even looked this way yet. We might be able to take it down before we get its attention.” Ajax kept pouring shots into the giant.
It bellowed out a deep roar and the guards panicked. Fear spread, and several began to drop their gear and run. Something about that excited the giant, who began to chase and kill the runners. Not that they were getting very far. The giant was whipping back and forth hunting down the scared guards. It was much harder to hit the giant as it bobbed after random guards.
"Ajax!" Missy called out, and
he snapped open his eyes to see the giant bounding back, apparently straight for them. Hopping to his feet, he pushed his magic bullets out as fast as he could. The beast now directly facing him, he was able to score critical hits again by targeting its eyes.
The bold red numbers scrolled up over its health bar. It was at 1%, almost dead. Missy was down to throwing rocks now, while Sky had started creating magic arrow to shoot from her bow. When had she gotten that?
The health bar went black as it stumbled to a stop ten feet from the trio. They all let out a collective sigh. A shadow grew over them and Ajax jumped to attention, tackling the two girls out of the way of the falling giant. The three tumbled to the ground on top of each other as the ground shook with its impact.
Ajax blinked, looking at the position he found himself in. He was on top of both of the girls, his knees between their legs and a hand on each of their chests.
"Mmm Ajax, are we going to celebrate our victory?" Missy said with a wink, the corner of her lips tugging upwards.
Sky pulled his hand deeper into her soft chest, the other hand cupped the back of his head.
"Ehem…” Ajax cleared his throat and tried to soften his embarrassment “We still have work to do ladies." Not waiting for an answer, Ajax jumped up and ran off to meet with the guards.
CHAPTER 32
Remblaar and his men, or rather what remained of them, circled up weary and worn from the battle. Ajax counted eight total. That was an abysmal survival rate, one Ajax wasn’t looking to repeat.
"My wagons!" Of the caravan, Borris now only had two standing, and it looked like there might be enough scraps to cobble together one more Frankenstein wagon. The rest had been smashed beneath the giant’s limbs. "You all failed! My wealth!" He whipped around and started pointing at everyone.
Before Ajax could respond, Sir Remblaar cut Borris off sharply. "My men are injured. Many lost their lives for this and you complain? I won't be working for the Violet Merchants again." He turned to Ajax and nodded before putting him men back to work cleaning up the situation.
He looked sharply at Borris “You will pay their families hazard pay.”
"Hey, Ajax, should we accept that quest? I think if we took a minute to restore while they try to get the wagons up, we could kill Borris." Missy started eyeing the situation.
"I'm out of arrows; let me fill my quiver." Sky didn't turn it down.
Are we really doing this? Ajax still hesitated. It wasn’t the right way to go about this.
Borris was steaming like a pot about to blow. “You all” pointing to Ajax’s group and the remaining guards for effect “cost me a fortune. I won’t be paying the deceased families. No, they will owe me until my losses are recovered. As for you…” He hesitated on the word like it was a disgusting worm. “You will enter my services till your debt is paid off.”
He paused, and one of the remaining wagon’s doors opened. Out stepped Darcie, no worse for wear. Ajax was surprised and not because she survived. She was a level twenty five, but had not joined the fight? Should could have saved many lives with just a few spells. Something wasn’t adding up.
The portly woman raised her hand “Earth Shackles” she commanded. The ground rose up under the group of guards and wrapped around them up to the knees.
“Get them too!” Borris called out from behind the safety of a nearby box.
Darcie ignored him. “Come now Ajax, I know you must have the Fiend Summoning book. You got your friend back, which means you were deep in the bandit camp.”
Ajax knew it was a bluff but wasn’t sure if it even mattered. She may only be one person, but she was fresh. The guards were tied up and the three of them weary from a day of travel and a hard fight.
“Nope, I have no book. We were in a hurry.” Ajax gave her a saccharine sweet smile.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll figure out if you’re telling the truth in time. Though did you know your girl has been lying to you?” She said, smiling.
It was an abrupt change of subject, but it made Ajax look to check Missy’s reaction. She had a look of surprise, with a bit of guilt. It caused Ajax’s look to last a moment too long. A rock slammed into his chest as he turned back to Darcie.
“Idiot. Fighting fair is for the poor and weak.” She started casting another spell while Ajax was distracted.
He’d been against turning on the caravan and their previous quest, but he was seriously rethinking that stance.He’d let them walk all over him so he could finish the quest and get the experience, but this was too far. If he didn’t fight back now, he felt like his back would be broken for the rest of his life.
Flipping open his menu, he pulled out the quest
As soon as his AI sent him a message that he’d failed “escort the caravan”, the girls were on Darcie. Both looked furious.
She didn’t respond except to give off a tan glow.
Missy’s sword pinged off the shield as Darcie continued to chant. Slowly the ground started to bubble as a form began to coalesce out of the soil.
“Oh shit, it’s a golem,” Sky called out. “Kill her, before she can summon that thing!”
Ajax woke up from his surprise and started firing at the earth magic shield she’d formed. With each shot the shield dimmed a bit more.
Darcie shot him an angry glare and started chanting faster. He could see that the upper body of the golem was almost out of the ground now.
He remembered the penetration rounds he’d used on the giant; they might have a better chance of getting through Darcie’s shield. He was right. His first shot made it through her shield. But the shield seemed to drive it off course, and it only left a small cut on her cheek.
She sneered, and the half-formed golem reached out and snagged Sky. It drew her into a crushing bear hug.
“Sky!” Ajax wanted to run to her. To help. He knew that taking down Darcie would be a better way than going to free her from the golem.
He lined up his hands again; he wanted to hit the same spot with a dual cast of his penetrating round. He hoped the second round would go straight through if they followed each other in. His first-round went wide going around her harmlessly. The second went low and out the back of her shield.
He’d missed. Ajax looked at Sky, seeing the golem crushing her. Sky’s eyes were wide with trust and faith in him.
Looking back, Darcy had stopped her spell and clutched her throat. Blood was pouring out between her fingers. She looked at him with hate and disgust in her last moments before she crumpled to the ground. Her golem following her in a cascade of loose dirt.
The guards were still removing themselves from the earth shackles. Missy, however, wasn’t done. She leaped forward into Borris and his bean counters, hacking them to pieces.
They were weaker than weak, probably softer targets than even the goblins they had fought days before. It had only been days Ajax reflected, everything was happening so fast.
The Guard Captain wasn’t happy with the sudden change. “Stop, what are you doing?” He stopped trying to free a guard and came at Missy. She parried his first strike and spun around him neatly hamstringing the Guard Captain.
He clutched the back of his leg and hobbled after her. She had done what she needed though and danced away from him nipping at him if he got too close. All she had to do was hold him long enough for Ajax and Sky to take care of the rest.
“He was going to enslave you and you still protect him?” Ajax tried to reason with Remblaar, while starting up a spell to end this. He wasn’t taking any chances given recent events.
“I knew it. Adventurers cannot be trusted.” Sir Remblaar was still bitter, even in the face of death.
“If it wasn’t for the merchant planning to enslave us all. I wouldn’t have had to do this.” Ajax paused his spell for a moment to give the guard captain a chance to speak.
“Our
families will pay if we don’t follow through. The merchants have our names.” Remblaar looked him hard in the eyes.
“Missy stop.” Ajax couldn’t kill them, not for trying to protect their families. “Remblaar, the rest of you. Take some gold, go protect your families. We will make sure the merchants don’t learn of this quickly.”
He looked at the men standing still. “Go. Now.”
That jump-started them and they quickly took off with anything they could grab quickly.
0/8
Prevent evidence from getting out.>
“Sigh, the world just doesn’t want to give you a break.” Sky relaxed her bow and let the men getaway. “We are going to pay for that.”