Chapter 5: Chapter 5

A roar filled with surprise and anger shakes the night, jump scaring Shana awake.  Her heart pounding, she pushes herself up and looks around.  At the same time, more bestial roars boom out. The most deafening are from right beside the hut.  They are full of frustration and appear to be rising up from below the ground.

 

That’s when she notices Geira dashing for the exit with her spear in hand.  Shana claps her hands together in a fluster and an amethyst light from outside of the hut flashes in through the doors.  She just barely reinforced the path directly outside the door for the Valkyrja to cross without falling into the pit trap.  Breathing out in relief, she again presses her hands together.  The roars of whatever has fallen into her trap become cries of pain and fear before growing silent.

 

Shana then hops out of her futon and makes for the doorway, not paying any mind that her robe is half sliding down one of her shoulders, or even that she is barefoot.  Learning what is happening outside is more important.  What she discovers, however, is nothing she was prepared for and leaves her stunned.

 

Swarming into the rest area are gigantic beings with bulging muscles.  The few still burning campfires do not provide much illumination, but they reveal enough to see that those giants are easily double the height of the travelers trying to fend them off.  Their arms and chests are more robust than logs, allowing them to easily grab people and hurl them over the treetops.  One giant lurches forward and spews fire over a person.  The resulting scream is short lived, but echoes out into the night.  In moments, the woman turns into charred flesh dripping from bones.

 

That attack is enough for various travelers to cry out, “Cacus!  We’re being attacked by cacus!”

 

Shana's left arm whips out to the side.  As her wrist flicks around, her ring and middle fingers instinctively move to press down on her palm, triggering a well practiced spell through muscle memory.  A stream of jet black flames launches from the underside of her wrist, billowing against the cacus barreling towards her. 

 

The cacus cries out as the black flames of the kegare flare up against his chest.  He tries to cover his face, but less than a second later, before the giant can feel any pain, he is dead and falling to the side.  That short moment was all Shana’s flames needed.  They didn’t spread, but everything directly touched was incinerated.  Her flames devoured a gaping hole from the giant’s body.

 

Shana breathes in and exhales to calm her mind.  That surprise attack helped her return to her senses.  The few illumination spells cast during that time reveal a lot of what is happening.  As she already surmised, the encampment is being raided by cacus.  Thea, however, is trying to pull her away from the door.  She pays those warnings and the tugs no mind and instead performs a series of kuji-kiri hand seals.

 

Her spells being shrugged off by the cyclopes the other day are still fresh in her mind.  At present, with everyone running around everywhere, the situation is also too chaotic for any of her more powerful spells.  That said, there is still plenty she can do to help.

 

Nine blue flames manifest around Shana like a mandorla as she finishes by clapping her hands together.  The first flame starts from above her head and the rest run down along her sides.  From there they zip out and hit 9 different cacus in the head, making light explosions on impact. 

 

They don’t injure the cacus, they don’t even leave any signs of having scorched them, but all 9 drop to their knees at an unfathomable and excruciating pain.  Others jump at that opportunity to strike down the afflicted cacus.  Two are killed after much struggle, but the rest get away, albeit with injury.

 

With a click of her tongue, she once more goes through the series of hand seals.  Then, upon clapping her hands together, she generates another round of spirit fire.  As those 9 blue fireballs set off and explode against another set of giants, three of them then grip their heads between their massive palms.  Screaming out in pain, they squeeze and cave in their own skulls.

 

Shana is taken aback by the reaction.  She had heard her “blood-sister” chanting some sort of mantra, but never would have imagined such a result.  She looks over her shoulder to Thea who is hiding behind her and says, “That was… gruesome.”

 

Thea, also surprised by the result, is left staring with her eyes wide open.  She needs a moment to realize Shana is speaking to her.  Still overwhelmed by what just happened, she struggles to form a response.  “Yo- Your attacking their souls made them much more… susceptible.  At best, my magic just confuses and gives headaches.”

 

The back of the hut is smashed in as a cacus barrels through the stone wall from above.  His deafening roar coupled with the shaking from the impact knocks Shana and Thea off balance, but while the latter falls to the ground, the former is springing forward towards the giant.

 

Shana leaps while reaching to her side as if to draw a sword.  Then, bracing her feet against air itself, she draws her zweihander from out of nowhere, and with one swing, slits the cacus’ throat.  She then kicks off the giant’s collapsing body, sending both herself back to Thea’s side and it out of the hut.

 

Yet, before the body is fully out of sight, it stops falling and is flung aside.  Two sets of massive hands then grab opposite sides of the gap in the wall and reveal a pair of ugly faces as they rip more wall away.  That is when a third cacus appears, leaping through the enlarged opening.

 

Thea instinctively grabbing Shana’s arm.  “We have to go!  They’ve found us!”

 

Shana, however, steps forward and flings her zweihander at the center cacus.  It flies straight and plunges into the giant’s eye.  That cacus gasps as his strength fades from his body.  Slowly, he falls back and topples down into the pit, smashing through the skewers Shana created just earlier.

 

The two remaining cacus are enraged at seeing a comrade killed before their eyes and roar out.  They lunge for the black haired girls, crashing their way through the remaining walls of the stone hut.  That 10 identical girls with long black hair appeared while they were distracted give them no pause.  Instead, their blood boils from the excitement of having more bodies to rip open and eat.  The 10 girls, however, rush out the door before they can get close.

 

Shana holds Thea in her arms as she presses her back against the bathroom’s wall.  She is doing her best to make themselves as flat as possible so as to avoid notice.  The howls of frustration from the two caucus at being eluded shake the room, but she soon sighs out in relief when they tear through and out of the hut in chase of the illusions.  She hadn’t even noticed she was holding her breath.  Regardless, once the shaking subsides, Shana turns her attention to Thea.

 

“Any ideas?”
“If we flee, they should follow us.”
“I meant on how to defeat them.”
“You want to fight?”
“They’re after us, aren’t they?  Well, whatever we don’t take down now will just mean more for later.  Besides, right now we’ve got a numbers advantage.”

 

At that moment, multiple explosions begin going off one after the other.  They aren’t loud, but their quick succession makes them very noticeable.  After the tenth explosion, Shana peeks her head out to see what is happening.

 

“They got the last of my illusions.  If they’re smart, they’ll realize we’re still in here, and fast.”
“They saw you, multiple you, run out of here.  As far as they are aware, we’re somewhere out there… for now.”
“Then I’ll just make sure their attention stays away from here.”

 

Thea’s expression fills with worry at Shana’s words, but the girl flashes her a grin full of confidence.  “I’ll be back soon, no worries.”  With those words, she leaps over the roofless wall.  Then after quickly glancing at the various battles taking place, she springs forward.

 

Reaching to her side just like before, her arm vanishes as it nears her waist.  The further she reaches, the more of it that disappears.  Then, as she pulls her arm back, it reappears from the empty space along with her bloodied zweihander.  With one quick swing, she cuts her massive sword through the unguarded back of a cacus’ neck.  The giant tumbles over from the impact, giving an opening for the others to deal with him.

 

Shana clicks her tongue as she darts for someplace else.  Those practice swings in the courtyard weren’t enough for her to adjust.  Her sense of reach is still off, otherwise she’d have severed his spinal cord.  She is going to have to be mindful of it least her cuts end up being too shallow.

  

She then swings her sword down with both arms and severs the outstretched wrist of a cacus.  The giant, having been in the middle of crushing a person’s head and body, roars out.  Blinded by rage and pain, he lunges for Shana, intending to bite off her head.  She just whips out her left hand, and with a quick flick of her wrist, incinerates the creature’s head with her black flames of the kegare.

 

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Then, twisting to the side, she holds out the flat side of her zweihander.  She angles the 7in wide blade so as to cover her body and then braces it with her free hand. At the same time, bright orange flames wash over her sword.  The tongues of fire that slip past the shield lick at her skin, but anything that directly makes contact with her silver sword breaks down into mana and disperses.  That reaction confirms that the fire breathed by the cacus are magical in nature.

 

Yet, magical or not, she is trapped underneath that torrent.  Anything she could do would only endanger the man she just rescued.  A quick glance over her shoulders reveals that he is currently getting up. Then, for some reason, he just stands there.

 

Shana returns her attention to the cacus while saying, “Move, get some place safer!”

 

The piercing clang of metal stabbing into metal rings out behind her.  Geira, mounted atop Vor, has appeared between her and the man she just rescued.  Furthermore, her spear is pointed at his face.

 

“Shana just saved your life and is now protecting you from being roasted alive. Despite that, despite owing her your worthless life, your first thought is to cut her from behind?”  Cold anger laces Geira’s words.  Her tone grows harsher with each word.  “Leave my sight.”

 

“You’re defending her!?  This is all—”

 

Geira thrusts her spear past the man’s face.   The sharp whistle of wind cutting past his ear accompanied by a burning sensation in his cheek silences him.  “I said get lost!  Or I’ll personally ensure your soul forever slaves away in the frozen plains of Niflheim.”

 

The man drops his sword at the threat and runs off in the opposite direction.

 

Geira scoffs as she turns to Shana.  Her anger is burning over, and sharp fury laces her words.  “Are you an idiot?  What were you thinking, leaving yourself exposed like that?”

 

Shana can’t help but smile despite hearing those words.  She hadn’t realized she was in danger, and she wouldn’t have found out until after it was too late.  But now that Geira is there, she finds that any sense of danger came with the revelation has vanished.

 

“Thanks for having my back.”

 

Geira is left speechless at the simple phrase.  Much to her frustration, the anger she felt at Shana’s carelessness evaporated with this words.  Shouting out, she vents by criticizing Shana on the first thing she can find.

 

“How long do you plan on standing there?”
“Then get out of the way.  Hell, there’s two of them now.  They really are stupid.”
“So?  Aren’t you a first rate magician?  Doing something about this should be easy for you.”
“Yeah, I’ve got a few spells.  A lot of people might get caught up in them, though.”
“Your magic is useless!”

 

Geira pulls on Vor’s reins with those words and rides off to the side.  Shana, no longer having to worry about anyone, gets ready to charge through the torrent of flames, but holds back.  Geira had merely looped around and is now charging the two cacus from the side.  With a thrust of her spear, she forces the first one to stumble into the other.  With the two off balance, Shana dashes forward and slits the closest one’s throat.  That opening is all Geira needs to thrust her spear into the other’s throat.

 

Geira looks around while flicking the blood from her spear.  It’s then she notices something off.
“Shana, where’s—”

“Safe, but stay close to the hut.”

 

Geira fights off the temptation to look at it.  Instead, she rides Vor towards a cacus throwing bodies at the hut’s remaining walls.

 

Shana, herself, leaps into the air to make herself more visible and springs towards a cacus tearing off a traveler’s arm with his teeth.  She holds her zweihander ready when she gets yanked out of the air.  Her hair and robe whip upwards as she is slammed onto the ground by her leg.  The impact sends her sword flying into the forest.

 

Groaning, she clutches her head.  Her mind is spinning, but before she can even consider trying to make sense of what just happened, a kick to the stomach sends her crashing through some bushes.  She hits the ground and continues to tumble, only stopping when her back crashes into a large rock jutting from the ground.

 

Trying to breathe sends her into a coughing fit.  Her side, stomach, and back are wracked with pain.  The various cuts covering her body are all bleeding.  Moving is possible, but comes slowly.  She can barely get her arms underneath herself.  Then, gritting her teeth, she pushes herself up only for her arms to collapse under her.

 

With her face flat against the ground, she raises her hands and claps them together.  A bright violet light flashes and a stone spike spears out from beside her.  A gurgled cry rings out followed by a desperate flurry of movement.  Those sounds alone are enough to confirm the cacus was impaled by her spell, there is no need to waste energy looking.

 

Thankfully, nothing seems to be broken.  She just needs a bit longer for the pain to subside.  While a healing spell could patch everything up in a moment, she doesn’t want to use one at the moment.

 

Then, Shana starts pushing herself up onto all fours.  She is too focused on getting up to notice another cacus approach.  He scoops her up off the ground with his massive hand, wrapping fingers that are thicker than her arms around her back, stomach, and chest, and waves her overhead like a trophy.  That shaking coupled with the thunderous roar of triumph that explodes from beside her ear gives her a headache.

 

The cacus’ grip is firm, her arms are bound tight.  She had already been having trouble catching her breath, but that hold makes breathing even more difficult.  No longer able to take it, Shana augments her already inhuman strength by 10 fold and pushes back.  That is more than enough to overpower her captor’s grip, allowing her to create a gap for her left arm to snake out through.  Then, with a flick of her wrist, she releases a torrent of black flames.  The fire trails across the cacus’ body, devouring his head, shoulder, and upper arm along the way. 

 

With the cacus dead, Shana leaps off air and bursts out of his hand.  Dropping onto her feet, she hunches over with her, hands on her knees, gasping for air.  Her robe is in tatters, barely holding together.  Blood and sweat are all that keeps it from falling off.

 

Yet despite everything that has just happened, she has no intention of running and looks up.  The cacus, originally focused on their comrade, are now focused solely on her.  Anger burns in their eyes at the horrific death she delivered to one of their own.

 

Shana stands up straight and meets their piercing stares with a fearless grin.  It didn’t happen anything like how she planned, but she is now the sole center of their attention.  While beckoning them with a finger, she says, “Well, what are you all waiting for?  An invitation?  Catch me if you can!”

 

Without waiting to see how they will react, she disappears into the forest.  The enraged roars echoing out behind her speak of her success and a thunderous charge that makes the forest tremble is soon at her heels. 

 

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