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Ch 82 - Were getting close to the end of book 1
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 03:44:43 +0000 UTCThe streets were a beehive of frantic movement. Everyone scrambled to either hide or force their way towards the portals.
It was too slow to just push my way through. People were being killed–I didn't have time for this. Three months ago I had made a rule. Keep your feet firmly on the ground. And yes–technically I had broken that rule a couple times in the bandit dungeon when I had to leap onto their walls–I had yet to put my stats to full use.
At level 31 my strength had reached 196 and my agility was at a whopping 231. What did that mean in terms of jumping capability? I was about to find out.
I planted my feet and did my best to hone in on where I had heard the loud crack from before. Once I was reasonably confident I was facing in the right direction I said a silent prayer bent my knees and launched.
The ground disappeared. One second I was planted firmly on the ground. The next, I was airborne—arms flailing. The distance between the treeline and where I had just been was gobbled up at a rapid pace.
My robe flapped loudly as the wind buffeted my body. With no more buildings to obstruct my view, I finally caught a glimpse of what Mischief had been fighting.
Unfortunately a glimpse is all I caught before gravity reminded me of its existence. A glimpse was all I needed though. This wasn’t good.
A group of armor-clad monster’s that reached halfway up the twenty foot tall pine trees gathered at the edge of the treeline.
I didn’t have much time to dwell on it though as my limbs pinwheeled in a fruitless effort to stabilize my fall.
To make matters worse it was obvious my jump had not been enough to clear the entire town.I twisted midair, trying to shift my weight—but it was useless.
I braced myself right before impact.
CRASHHH.
I hit the cabin's branch and twig roof in a sideways cannonball punching through the roof as if it was paper. Splinters and dirt flew in all directions. My momentum was brought to an abrupt halt by the thick cabin wall. I sat dazed and in a crumpled mess, along with a bench and what I can only assume had been a kitchen table.
Even with my barrier spell active the impact was enough to knock the wind from my lungs. I hacked, coughed and wheezed, I sucked in more dust than air. bits of furniture fell from my body as I forced myself to my feet.
After a quick assessment I was pleased to learn that aside from getting the wind knocked out of me I was otherwise unharmed. The combination of my constitution and my barrier had been enough to absorb the damage.
The cabin? Not so much. Luckily it had been vacant when I landed. I pushed my way through the rubble of the collapsed roof and found my way out the door.
My jump had been just short of clearing the entire town. The cabin I had crashed through was only a few rows from the very edge.
The people and crowds were behind me now.
Jordan’s militia had most likely all gone to defend the town at the point of the first attack. They probably didn’t even know about the threat Mischief had been holding off.
So–It would be just the two of us?
Free of the cabins and not hurtling through the air I finally had the chance to get a solid look at our enemies.
They waited patient, still as statues. Dozens and dozens of giants–all at least nine feet tall–some approaching closer to fifteen.
Each of the massive human looking people wore what appeared to be steel plated armor. Aside from the size and the armor it was totally impossible to tell what kind of creature was underneath, since they each wore different styles of slitted helmets.
Well this was definitely not the same run of the mill riff-raff that had stumbled from the raid portals.
But why weren’t they attacking? I couldn’t be more than a few hundred yards off, there was no way that I’d gone unnoticed.
Intrigued, I drew Tranquility from storage and began my trek across the meadow to the armored giants.
The giants were armed with an assortment of different styles of weapons. Swords, halberds, bows, crossbows, spears, and many others.
All the makings of a professional army in the middle ages were present, and the closer I got the more I could tell the weapons weren’t just for show. The giants had been busy, many splattered in red orange blood that had dried and caked to the armor.
It was an intimidating sight. Had Mischief already killed some of these monsters? And where was he now?
Obviously I loved the fact that Mischief had telepathy, but man it would really come in handy if I had the same skill. It’s not like I could just shout Mischief's name. Then again…
It’s not like these guy’s could even understand me anyway. Why couldn’t I?
I still had about fifty yards that separated me and the giants. If I shouted, would it spook the giants into an attack? Maybe. But wasn’t that bound to happen anyway? I made up my mind.
“Mischief!” My shout echoed out across the meadow.
I waited. Nothing. At least not from Mischief.
For the first time the giants began to shift. One in particular caught my attention. It wasn’t the biggest but still over ten feet in height. It carried a strange looking wooden spear adorned with tassels at its grip and a pitch black spear head.
It tilted its helmeted head–waited a moment–then it strode alone from the formation. Right towards me.
Why had I shouted again?
Clink, clunk, clink, clunk each step the giant took the sound of its heavy armor grew louder. As was my habit I silently recast a barrier spell and adjusted my grip on Tranquility.
The giant’s head inclined just slightly. Had it caught that slight movement of my hand? It was barely a twitch.
I lifted my free hand. “OK, that’s close enough.”
Clink, clunk.
The giant stopped. From only twenty feet away I still had to look up. In the stillness the occasional crash or explosion made its way into the scenic mountain meadow. Neither the giant or myself made the first move. An especially loud explosion reminded me that I didn’t have the luxury of time here. There were other people that still needed help.
Still, so far these giants hadn’t been violent and I didn’t want to launch into another conflict if it could be avoided. Inwardly I was kicking myself for sending Ellison away.
Seconds had already passed and the silence stretched from awkward to uncomfortable. This is just too much, I can’t stand here forever and I can’t communicate. I was just about to draw my sword when a strange sight caught my attention.
From across the meadow a massive black cat burst from the forest. Mischief? I cocked my head in confusion about to wave him down but then it got weirder.
At his heels–hundreds of short little….cats? Or not cats exactly, it was hard to make out from here but they seemed to be five or six feet tall cats that ran on two feet. Had he tamed them? Saved them?
“Mischief…? What the hell are you up to?”
The scraping of metal drew my attention back to the giant, who was now watching Mischief and the miniature cat people make a beeline into town. They disappeared into the homes. What on earth was that?
“Is the dark one your friend?” The voice was muffled but deep and gravelly. My head snapped back onto the giant. Could it communicate?
“What? Do you have the gift of tongues or some kind of translation skill?” Did this giant have a gift like Ellison’s?
The giant didn’t answer right away. Its hand moved and I twitched ready for an attack. But it wasn’t an attack. Slowly the hand rose to the visored helmet, the hand flicked some type of latch–there was a click and the visor raised.
Gradually the giant's face was revealed.
Square chin covered in dark stubble, human lips, a sharp nose, dark tanned skin. For a moment I thought it might be another group of humans that had just grown large, similar to Alex.
Or at least that was until the visor uncovered his eye. Smack dab in the middle of the massive forehead of the giant sat one big perfectly round red eyeball.
Cyclops.
“I can understand your language.” He points to where Mischief had disappeared. “Is that monster your friend?”
I found it strange how handsome this cyclops might be if it wasn’t for the single red eyeball with weirdly long eyelashes. Movies had set a much different expectation.
“He’s not a monster, and yes. That is my friend.”
The giant nodded. “Your friend wouldn’t let us kill our spawns, even going as far as killing several of my men. We don’t take kindly to experience stealing.”
Well ok, I guess that is one question answered–kind of. Why did it seem like this cyclops was more upset at the experience loss than losing his men? Also, those were spawns? Plus what exactly did this guy want from me?
“Well I’m sorry about your men.”
The cyclops' lips pursed. “Not as sorry as I am.” He nodded his head and the visor snapped closed. “No matter, it seems we’ll still get our experience and then some.”
Whoosh
I ducked low, the strange black tip spear zipped past my ear so fast that it created a suction of air as it passed. I had my barrier up but I had no intention of revealing it yet and besides that I didn’t like the look of that strange spear head.
Looks like we weren’t talking anymore. Did they just declare war because Mischief was in my faction? Was it really that simple? Had they been waiting for a peaceful negotiation until Mischief showed up?
It didn’t really matter anymore.
