Chapter 5: 005 – Running on empty

“Burn, you impure filth!” A booming voice rumbled like thunder as the winds whipped through the houses, tearing off roofs and collapsing walls, before a roaring wall of flame follows it and eviscerates the tribe from the face of the planet.

 

I wake to a burning sensation, as my barrier struggles to hold against the tide of flames. I feel my aura pool emptying at a dangerous rate, and immediately shrink it to only surround my mother. I grit my teeth as my natural tenacity, coupled with my regeneration, keeps me in a state of agony as my flesh burns away, only to regrow in an endless cycle of torment.

 

The dragon breath eventually stops after an indeterminate amount of time, leaving my mother and I lying, half-covered in a massive field of smoking hot black ash. The haze briefly disappears, only to reappear ten times worse as the dragon’s wings blew away the smoke and kicked up clouds of the cloying ashes.

 

I felt my lungs fill with the burning hot remains of our tribe, no matter if I disliked them or not, and I hacked up wet clumps of blood and dust. My eyes blurry and stinging as they are damaged and healed with every second that passed.

 

I blearily glance toward my mother, safe in the cocoon of my power, and freeze. She was wide awake. She had seen everything. Her teary eyes were filled with horror. Not at the state of the village, but at me. At me.

 

I avoided her eyes, ashamed. I hadn’t told her of my abilities before. Will she be angry? Will she hate me? Will she leave me? As I was beginning to fall into an irrational panic, I glanced at her again. She was crying. But in her eyes, I could see her love. That unconditional love which she showered me with from the moment of my birth.

 

She wasn’t horrified or angry with me. She was horrified seeing what I’d endured. She was angry at the cause of my pain. She was crying from her inability to stop it from happening. Saddened at being unable to protect me, like I did her.

 

I strain my almost empty aura reserves to increase the size of my barrier, entering it, only to be tackled to the ground. My still crying mother was smothering me into her breasts as she checked me over for injuries.

 

If anything, my unblemished state made her made her more conflicted. She was relieved that I was fine but knowing that even after being bathed in a dragon’s fire, there was nary a mark to remember it by, only made her think of what else I may have endured without saying anything.

 

So, when a black flame-like pattern suddenly etched its way across my closed left eyelid, she was both relieved and worried.

 

“What’s that mark on your eye? It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Her still red-rimmed eyes widened with worry before they closed as I pat her head.

 

“I’m fine. I don’t know what the mark is but it doesn’t hurt. If you didn’t say anything, I wouldn’t know it was there.” I smile slightly as she relaxes under my head pats before her eyes snapped open again. “What is it?”

 

“I’m supposed to be the one comforting you! Not the other way around.” I didn’t know what to say. I had never heard my mother sound so childish and… petulant? Whiny? No. Neither fit. In fact, I had never heard my mother complain about anything other than the guys trying to get in her pants or the women being bothersome.

 

It was endearing to know that my mother could act like this too, even if the tribe had to be wiped out for it to happen. No, it wasn’t the tribe. I fact, I’m not sure mother has realised fully that the tribe is gone yet. It was me. Seeing me hurt.

Despite the tragic circumstances, I feel a warm glow in my chest and smile, patting her head even more.

 

I wanted this moment to last forever but the world doesn’t wait for us. Outside my barrier, I can hear yelling, high-pitch and whiny.

 

“We finally got to this stupid place, only to see it destroyed by a goddamn dragon! Where the hell are all these legendary creatures coming from anyway? First the Church guides us to a village of giants then a dragon shows up. And to top it all off, It’s fucking cold and my balls are about to freeze off!”

 

“Oh, quit your bitching you piece of shit! You know the only reason you’re here is because of your ability. If we had any choice in the matter, you’d be at the bottom of a ravine, dead. Hell, do we even need you anymore with the giants as ashes?”

 

“Now, now. We need to make sure the heathens are all in fact dead. We don’t want to miss some.”

 

“…Fine. As you say, Lord Oracle.”

 

“Tch. You better make this worth my while when we get back.”

 

I feel dread well up in my heart as my barrier finally flickers out of existence as my aura pool is totally empty. Exhaustion wormed its way through my bones but I lifted my head and spotted a large group of tiny creatures. Humans. Shit.

 

I begin shrinking down, indicating to my mother to do the same. She copies me and when we’re done, she’s only about double the size of the humans and the mountains of ash shield us from sight, even when standing tall.

 

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She picks me up and jogs in the other direction from the humans, ash puffing up from each step, even as she winces from the heat burning her bare feet. Just before we get out of the village, we notice that the humans have set up a perimeter around the village.

 

I’m beginning to question why our ancestors built the village up against a cliff over the ocean. There are no paths of escape. We slowly creep toward the perimeter anyway as the humans couldn’t individually beat us, or even me with my aura reserves dry. The only thing to be wary of is their psychic abilities.

 

Mother puts me down and we rush out. Mother grabs the heads of the two nearest soldiers—or are they mercenaries? Doesn’t matter—and crushes them, grey matter and blood staining her hands. Meanwhile, I break the spine the third. Unfortunately, I was a step behind mother and the final enemy managed to yell out. “Giants!” before I punched his head off his shoulders, causing a meaty smack and snap to resound through the area.

 

Soon cries of, “Giants!” were heard from all around us and then a wave of weakness, far worse than my aura depletion washed over the both of us. To hold our own weight, we had to shrink down to the size we would be if we were human.

 

“What is this?!” I asked mother, beginning to panic.

 

“A psychic ability. Probably brought specifically to weaken us!” She almost snarled with rage. I then remembered that she was alive back during the time of the Giant-slayers and had likely been the target of similar abilities before. “They always have a distance limit or are locked to a specific area. Our only choice is to make for the cliff.”

 

“What? The cliff? But it’s a dead end!”

 

“No. It’s our last chance. Why did you think we built here?”

 

I don’t bother answering as she scooped me up and with all her extremely limited strength, sprinted toward the cliff several hundred metres away. The shouts from behind us grow louder and closer. A couple of arrows even bounced off our skin. No matter how weakened, we still had a giant’s constitution.

 

We soon approached the edge as the filthy humans surrounded us and started jeering. A couple even leered at my mother, licking their lips. That made me see red. I drew from my empty aura pool but managed to find a last few drops. I shot aura threads at the leering humans, but unlike the gentle ones I’d previously demonstrated, these were razor sharp and incredibly fast. They were decapitated before they knew what had happened.

 

The jeers turned into a shocked silence at a child managing to kill several of them. That was when the fat, white robed man finally caught up, puffing heavily. He looked at me before his eyes opened wide in horror. He pointed at me with a shaky hand. “A d-dark Mark…”

 

The surrounding soldiers looked shocked, and many made a gesture with their hand. That was when mother took a deep breath and said, “Know this. You should not have provoked the Giants without your precious Giant-slayers protecting you. Your greed will mark your demise.”

 

“Ha! What giants? Look around. They’re all dead! And you’ll join them soon. Kill them!” the priest in white screamed.

 

“Idiots. You thought we were the last giants?” My mother looked at them with contempt before stepping backward off the cliff.

 

Over the rushing of the air, I could hear her yell, “Get on my back, I’ll need my arms for this!” I quickly followed her instructions, holding onto her shoulders as she shifted into a skydiver pose, her head and hands toward the cliff.

 

Still kilometres below, I could see the black ocean crashing against the cliff face. My throat is dry and all my strength is focussed in my hands as I struggle not to fall unconscious. That last move had really overtaxed my aura and I had been having trouble staying awake ever since. Even the adrenaline of falling at terminal velocity didn’t particularly help.

 

Suddenly my eyes weren’t nearly as heavy and energy once more filled my limbs. We had fallen out of the weakening abilities range. Mother then grows back to her normal size, grabbing hold of the cliff, and planting her feet. The cliff gave way beneath her limbs, dragging deep trenches down the cliff as we fell closer and closer to the dark expanse of ocean.

 

Despite mother’s actions, we were still falling at a fast pace when we reached the bottom of the cliff. Just before we reached the water, mother used her supergiant mode and then as she bend her knees while she shrank to absorb as much of the impact as possible. Even so, she groaned at the strain. She lost her balance as she sank thigh-deep in the water, falling backwards and immediately flailing and shrinking further to keep from crushing me beneath her.

 

I was barely managing to hold onto her shoulders as she rapidly changed sizes, having to change my own size similarly to keep my grip. Once again, I was on the verge of unconsciousness as we landed. My body, my mind, my aura, and my everything had taken a beating and exhaustion was permeating my every cell.

 

My grip loosened and the last thing I saw was my mother being dragged away by some incredible force, even as she tried desperately to reach me. She was clawing at the water, her eyes locked onto my falling form as she screamed my name.

 

Then the water engulfed me, and I knew no more.

 

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