Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Flames

Saber bolted forward with sword raised. "Get in position!" she shouted.

The stone giant didn't let us. It ignored a slash from Saber and charged straight at Becky instead. Its massive blade descended upon the child like a tombstone. Becky met the blow with her bow, but that feeble piece of wood did nothing to stop the attack. The blade sank down, crumpling her into the soil.

Mr. Atlas screamed her name. My heart skipped a beat.

A split second too late, Hei rammed a Graviton Joust into the giant. The attack launched the giant skidding away, but it did not fall over. I rushed over to Becky. Thankfully, she had risen back to her feet by the time I got to her. Blood streaked across her body, and she wobbled, but she already had her bow ready and aimed at the giant. Whether she had somehow dodged, or if she had supernatural durability…I was just glad to see her alive.

"380 health left," Becky self-reported. She shot one, two, three arrows into the giant, in quick succession. Joining her, I launched a crossbow bolt of my own, followed by a Frost Missile. My Missile nailed the giant. Ice bloomed around the creature's joints.

"Kite back!" I shouted to my team. Becky and I could kill it from range, without danger. We had no reason to engage in melee. Hei and Atlas and Saber took their position right in front of Becky and myself, and we began our retreat. All the while, we sustained the attack with our arrows and crossbow and spear-throws.

The giant charged at us, its great strides bringing it ever closer. As it neared striking range, I wove in a second Frost Missile between my crossbow shots, slowing it just enough for us to get away safely. The courtyard of lilies gave us ample room to run around in, but we couldn't retreat in a straight line indefinitely – we needed to lead the giant around in a circle, along the courtyard's outer perimeter. And thankfully, as I directed the retreat from our formation’s rear, the rest of my team seemed to follow.

And Saber…she still had her phone out, and she pointed it at the giant to film. Really? Now?

Focus, Sophia! I chided myself. Calm down and think!

The giant thrusted its great obsidian blade into the earth then twisted it like a key. A fissure opened up before it, and out swarmed a pack of gnarling wolves, with manes and tails alight with fire. I counted two, four…five of them. Despite the inferno shrouding them, they stood no larger than ordinary wolves, unlike the one I met on the mountain. These had to be the bosses' minions, small fries. Which meant I needed to save my Frost Missiles to keep away the giant, and the giant alone.

The wolves, galloping on all fours, outpaced both the giant and us. One pounced at Mr. Atlas. He disemboweled it with arcing swings of his axe. Another circled around our frontline to lunge at me. I shot it with my crossbow, but it shrugged off the wound and closed in with bared fangs.

A barbed dart struck its back. A wire, connecting the dart to Mr. Atlas's arm-cannon, pulled taut to reel the wolf away from me and back to Atlas. He finished it off with two swings of his axe. So that was what his hookshot did in combat.

Hei and Saber each dispatched a wolf themselves, and Becky finished the last one off as we continued to kite back. And I almost missed it, but a soft, white glow pulsed across Mr. Atlas. His eyes shot wide.

"Level up," he reported. He stopped backing away from the giant. Instead, he stood his ground and raised his axe high above his head.

"Sophia! Shoot your spell!" he said. I fired a Frost Missile at the giant, slowing it down as it approached. At the same moment, Atlas aligned the cutting edge of his axe at the charging giant.

"Level two ability, Heavy Cleave," he told us. "Two seconds charge time, 200 damage."

A red aura engulfed the axe. The giant seemed to have sensed danger, for it began to sidestep. But its legs could barely move, half-frozen as they still were by my Frost Missile.

The giant plunged its sword into the ground and twisted the blade. A fissure opened up under it, and the giant began to burrow in.

Mr. Atlas brought down his axe upon the escaping giant. The weapon slammed down, obliterating the ground. The shockwave of the blow blasted forth, shattering stones and felling trees. An entire swath of lilies before him flew into the air as the expanding force ripped them out by the roots. Their stalks and leaves fell back down first, then their white petals drifted down, numerous like snowflakes.

I hope the attack actually managed to hit the giant.

The ground behind me rumbled. I stopped kiting back. When I turned around to check, red and glowing cracks now lined the soil there, half-hidden underneath the lilies.

The cracks widened. The ground bulged. The bulge burst into an eruption of lava.

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I leaped away, tugging Becky along. Molten rock and fire showered us. A lava globule splattered onto the exposed calf of my leg. It stung madly, and I gnashed my teeth and held back my desperation to scream. I quickly scraped the drop off with the edge of my crossbow, but the heat had already seared my flesh. Beside me, Becky cried out. The back of her neck swelled red and welted.

The stone giant resurfaced from the epicenter of the eruption, unscathed. No...it was that fast? It had just burrowed and circled behind us in split seconds.

The giant lumbered at me and raised its sword. Saber rushed toward me also, her eyes blazing with light. She stomped down, raising a golden, crystalline wall that sheltered us. The obsidian sword smashed into her wall, fracturing it but not breaking through. I – along with everyone else – took the chance to back away and re-establish our formation. As soon as the giant circled around the wall in pursuit, we started bombarding it from range again. I checked on Becky. She panted and sweated and bled, and despite her scream earlier, her wits were still in the fight, and she fought as hard as I'd ever seen her.

Please, please hang in there.

"HP?" I asked her.

"280," she gasped.

The lava had done 100 damage to her. I had taken about the same amount. So that was the giant's special ability, a burrow-attack that not only let it dodge and reposition, but also burn everything around where it reappeared. When used as a gap-closer, it countered our strategy of kiting with ranged attacks. But now we knew; next time all we needed to do was stay away from the lava-splash as it resurfaced, then reposition away.

And that we did. We kited back, kept attacking it, until its limbs began to crack. Soon, the giant burrowed again into the ground.

Becky spotted the red glowing cracks behind us, and in the nick of time we avoided the lava shower. The giant emerged from the eruption-hole. Right away, Hei launched it back with a gravity-charged thrust of his spear. The giant, now about fifty yards away, did not pursue us this time. Instead, it sank its blade into the ground once more. What now? More fire wolves? Another burrow-attack, right after having just used it?

Neither of those happened. As we pelted the giant with our attacks, it dropped its sword and planted both palms to the earth. Four lances of obsidian, their tips glowing red-hot, protruded out of the ground in a row before the giant. They levitated up and turned to point at us. One of them shot forward. It blazed across the air with a glowing, fiery trail, then found its mark.

The spear flew into Becky, and for a second I could see the tip burying into her abdomen. Then the spear, head and shaft and all, shattered into embers from the impact.

Becky stumbled back from the blow. Blood soaked through her hoodie and dripped into the soil. With scarcely a grunt, she returned fire with her bow.

It wouldn't be enough at this rate. The giant had its own ranged attacks, and it could very likely kill us from afar before we could bring it down. One of its remaining three spears shifted in the air, aligning its tip to Becky. The giant wanted to finish her off.

Mr. Atlas must've realized as much. He slid in front of Becky to face the spearpoint, staring it down, his brows furrowed. He raised his axe, flat side forward, like a shield. Becky lowered her bow. And though she held her battle-stance still, I could see her legs quivering, whether from exhaustion or fear.

"Don't move, Becky," Mr. Atlas said.

The stone spear spun like a drill, emitting a shrill whistling. It was like how I had spun my ice shards for additional potency.

Then it shot forth at us, igniting the air with cackling heat. Becky, as though instinctively, dodged sideways, to the left of Mr. Atlas.

The spear collided with Mr. Atlas's axe and disintegrated into shrapnel of hot stones and sparks. He grimaced and slid back as the glowing debris pelted his face and chest. Right after, the remaining two spears shot out. They caught Becky as she slipped out from behind Atlas. Their combined impact launched her flying back, like a ragdoll. She hit the ground in a sickening tumble, then finally came to a halt, laying on her side.

Her fingers unfurled around her bow. The weapon dissolved into motes of light.

This time, she didn't get up.

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