They’d been exploring the passage from the cavern for cycles, backtracking from dead ends before venturing onwards again. Their exploration was characterised by long stretches of nothing broken up by sudden bursts of violence. When another lava pool disrupted the passage, Julia’s True Sight showed a form on its far edge. Yet Torm surprised her as he teleported to a ledge near it, apparently oblivious to its presence. Molten rock slid off shining bronze-hued scales as it and two others rose to cast nets towards him. While he dodged past two nets, the hooks within a third dug into flesh; the net that had been floating adrift in the air drove downwards with force enough to crack rock as it smashed Torm beneath it. A motion of their long tails quickly setting them upright on broad webbed feet that splayed across the surface of the lava. The closest pulled a trident from its back, even as it found its balance.

[Name: Sscalrcnika

Species: Greater Salamander

Class: Fighter / Hunter

Level: 52 / 55

Health: 2,354

Mana: 605

Defence: 80

Melee Attack Power: 161

Magic: 24

Combat Skills: Net [M] (14), Trident [M] (6), Dagger [Ad] (47)

Details: Sscalrcnika was born in the Kingdom of Wësihôgo, living there were her siblings under the rule of the Elemental Lady of Fire - Ymeri.]

Julia used Analysis on the foe closest to Torm before teleporting beside him. The semi-humanoid trio continued to rise out of the lava as she appeared. The net shredded flesh as Torm tried to force himself to his feet. Julia sent Protean formed spears ladened with Ki stabbing out to drive them back as Inventory absorbed the nets. The wall of spears punched through the scales of the closest Salamander and drove onwards anchoring her to the wall behind. Her companions were more fortunate and escaped the sudden attack with only gaping wounds before vanishing back into the lava. Only Torm’s wounds, and the still struggling captive pinned against the wall, showed they’d been there at all.

Infusing her flesh with Destruction Mana, Julia warped the spears and ripped the pinned Salamander apart, the sudden spray of flesh and blood not even meriting a blink from Torm. As the experience from the kill appeared, Julia teleported them back down the passageway to allow Torm a chance to heal.

[Combat Summary:

Greater Salamander - Sscalrcnika

Total-Experience Gained: 4,494

Monk: 1,200

Succubus: 3,494

Death Strike (16->17)

Silent Kill (8->9)]

It bleeds weird Salamander.

Analysis

[Analysis: Greater Salamander

These elemental dragon kin inhabit regions of the Elemental Plane of Magma, Sea of Ash, Fire, and hot to volcanic regions of the Material Plane. ]

Half breeds or something else?

{{At least something’s getting some action! }}

“It was obvious to my True Sight. How did you not see that Salamander blending with the Lava?” asked Julia, concern sharpening the tone of her voice.

“I honestly missed it. I need to challenge my Perception without True Sight; it would seem.”

“Why don’t you have True Sight on?” Julia asked, confusion clear on her face.

“It can see through your Protean; I thought that would be rude,” replied Torm. While his tone was very matter of fact, Julia could detect something more in his features.

[Sense Motive [Ap] (30) -> [J](1)]

He’s feeling bad about it? There’s something more though, he’s sorry. Oh!

“Oh fuck, I wasn’t thinking about that. You even told me you could see the tiara of horns. I didn’t think I would be flash...” Julia cut off what she almost said and changed tact, “I mean, we should clearly find somewhere else to fight.”

“No, using True Sight so much has obviously made me careless. The Salamanders shouldn’t have gotten the drop on me. My apologies for any embarrassment. I should have made it clear earlier I was keeping True Sight off.”

“So all those times,” Julia said before embarrassment squeezed off the words.

“No,” Torm blurted out hastily, speaking up at the flustered look on her face.

“No, what?” asked Julia, giving him a frown, embarrassment turning to annoyance.

“No, after hearing your story, I normally had True Sight off in your presence. When we met up on the road I was glad your new clothing meant I didn’t have to turn it off watching you. I should have considered the heat effect on your clothing before teleporting to the grotto,” Torm said ruefully.

“Of course, you’d want True Sight on watching a Demoness. Considering who knows what the Sisterhood could have ordered me to do,” remarked Julia.

“Julia, no, it’s not about watching a Demoness. It lets me understand better when I see your thoughts and emotions racing away. While I can’t tell what you think, it let me pick up when you’re caught up in painful emotions. You were hard for me to read with the calmness you had. I’m more used to the high-spirited Norse, whereas you, except when you were pleading Livia’s case, were always so locked down.”

“Let’s you read me like an open book. Yeah, I need to work on my Acting,” said Julia, before shaking her head.

It’s fine. I wasn’t naked to everyone, and they got to keep the Demoness under observation.

“It wasn’t to gain an advantage; it was….” Torm paused, and Julia took a moment to lift fragments of cloth from his wounds. She’d seen his clothing clean itself before but hadn’t seen it repair to the extent it was doing now.

“Please hear me out. I’m not one for words, so this will probably come out wrong. I worry you won’t tell us when you need help, only when someone else does. Every time you speak of issues, it’s about what you need to do. What you need to deal with? What you need to get better at? Even the advice you ask for is about what you can do. You conduct yourself as if no one else should involve themselves beyond advice, even while you take risks to help others. Even the arrangements you made for those that choose to follow the path you showed them. It wasn’t about it benefiting you it was about helping them have a community. I wanted to make sure I knew when you needed help. You’ve helped so many others it’s only right you receive help as well, to have someone guarding your back you can trust,” Torm explained, the words picking up the pace until they came out in a rush.

“If I involve others in my issues and the Sisterhood learns of them, I could get ordered to betray them,” Julia explained, with a frown.

“So you’re allowed to take risks for others but we’re not allowed to take a chance for you?” asked Torm dryly.

“You already are taking a chance. You’re taking this time to travel with me. You could be with a party that the Dwarves wouldn’t spit at when they come to the gate,” Julia growled out in frustration.

“I’d rather be travelling with you,” Torm stated simply. After pausing he asked quietly, “What was the effect with the Protean spears?”

“Ki Infusion, I’ve added Destruction Mana to my Affinities for it.”

“Oh. Interesting.”

“What is it with you and that word!” an exasperated Julia exclaimed.

“At least it isn’t Celestialness!” Torm retorted, smiling as Julia started giggling. He waited till she calmed before he went to speak again.

“You said Celestialness!” Julia crowed, cutting him off with her gloating cry.

“Let’s just keep that between us, okay,” Torm sighed.

“Maybe, but I say it’s a word now.”

“No,” insisted Torm, a smile from Julia challenging his attempt at sternness. “I could introduce you to one of Óðinn’s Skalds; they’d be able to give you Acting lessons.”

Julia had nodded agreement when Torm spoke again, the smile on his muzzle broadening. “Unless you’d rather ask Moke?”

“Should I ask him about you being moonstruck?” asked Julia, giving Torm a hard look, the last traces of giggles gone in an instant.

“Perhaps an introduction to an Asgard Skald is in order then,” Torm hurriedly offered, waving a white flag in the face of Julia’s question. “I should have told you earlier; my apologies, I assumed you’d be aware of it. There are other regions we can find concentrations of foes for fighting. Dust we should avoid as non-magical clothing and gear decays quickly, perhaps Earth regions,” Torm offered.

“No, I trust you not to go peeking at me. You said you need to challenge your Perception without True Sight, maybe you should have left your True Sight off in Eyrarháls as well,” Julia replied as the last of the cloth lifted free of the broken flesh.

“I… yes, I should have done that as well. I will admit normally I have it on continually to keep watch for trouble towards the Temple. Now I realise how much I depended on what it made clear.”

“Yeah, okay I’ll give you that: responsibility before personal preference,” Julia agreed. Looking over the wounds along his arm, she put out a hand and began focusing Ki to speed his healing. The relieved look on Torm’s face as the Power washed over his injury didn’t match his normal stoicism.

Even the remains of the Salamander were gone by the time they returned to the ambush location in the passageway. With only the barest glance over the dried bloodstains, Torm gestured forward. Their teleports putting them beyond the magma and they continued along the passage as it ascended.

The metallic sound had reverberated through the erratic passage for kilometres before they found its cause. A massive block sealing the passageway did an incomplete job of the task, with gaps showing all around its rough edges. After glancing at the block, Torm muttered a single word.

“Giants.”

The crudely cut stone was a single piece, large enough to block the tunnel at its widest point of five metres. Both the texture of the stonework and where it met the tunnel’s edges conveyed a carelessness in its construction. Though some gaps near the floor were being used to the maker’s advantage: A crevice had split the floor, just before the block, and thick slag running underneath oozed into it as more material pressed from behind. Ash grey bubbles floated above the flow, and as Julia approached them, the group fled en masse; Julia only just managing Analysis on one as they hastened away.

Analysis

[Species: Slag Spirit

Level: 5

Health: 42

Mana: 60

Defence: 24

Melee Attack Power: 0

Magic: 22

Combat Skills: Various innate spell form - Earth / Magma / Metal Affinity

Details: Formed from the blending Earth / Magma / Metal Elemental energies. They are often found drinking energies from melting veins of metal, or foundries on one of these planes. ]

“Do Giants represent a danger to the Dwarves, or will they just be minding their own business?” asked Julia softly, wondering if they should have ventured in a different direction.

“Fire Giants look to kill lesser races, which is to them anything not capable of killing them first. It’s doubtful any other species of Giant exists in this Plane. Watch out for their spell casters, Priests in particular: even if their fire spells won’t hurt, they will certainly improve the combat threat of their kin.”

“Right, gank casters first,” Julia stated with a sharp nod.

“Gank, if it that means kill or get rid of then yes,” Torm sighed, the mutter he gave making Julia’s lips twitch in amusement.

“That is actually a word where I come from so too bad,” Julia said and moved over to peer through the largest gap. Beyond the gap was an obvious foundry, illuminated by a fiery furnace just on the edge of her vision.

Her view through the gaps showed the interior of a massive structure, with a wide archway leading into a cavern. The closest building was a hundred or more metres away, constructed of the same rough-hewn rocks, and stood some three or four giant-sized levels tall. Close by a pair of figures were shovelling ore carelessly into a metal bucket that Julia could have stood within, its surface gleaming the strange blackish-green of adamantine. Near where they currently stood, a long stone trench was the source of the slag flowing towards Julia’s hiding spot. Off to her right, flames burning with a white pulsing heat sent bright light rippling through the area.

Each of the figures loomed at least fourteen or fifteen metres tall, the massive size of the equipment in the foundry making it hard to get a true perspective. Yet from the angle Julia looked up to see their faces, it was doubtful they were any smaller. Black bushy beards covered most of their faces, and matching hair fell well past through shoulders, across their lava red skin. Thick muscles wider than her fingers could fan covered their bare upper torsos. Their pants and boots were the same bronze scales that had covered the Greater Salamanders. They were focused on their work, and the white flames in the foundry reflected off deep-set orbs of darkness; after watching them for a time Julia wondered if her own obsidian orbs looked so heartless.

When she turned on Soul Sight, their cruel malevolence was clear. Julia witnessed what previous ‘food’ had suffered at their hands. A glimpse was more than enough, and Julia turned it off again wishing she hadn’t indulged her curiosity after hearing Torm’s views.

So not just a cultural bias, maybe the Norse legends about Giants aren’t so off base here.

Analysis

[Name: Kobumnyàmí

Species: Fire Giant

Class: Fighter / Smith

Level: 40 / 20

Health: 4,320

Mana: 200

Defence: 70

Melee Attack Power: 127

Combat Skills: Hammer [M] (2), Thrown [Ad] (12) - Innate Spell Forms - Fire Ball [J] (19), Flame Lance [J](22)

Details: The third son of the current chieftainess of the Fire Giant Tribe - Sísakubonà - and apprentice to the Tribe’s smith.]

[Name: Ñonåkalo

Species: Fire Giant

Class: Artificer / Smith

Level: 60 / 60

Health: 7,200

Mana: 4,560

Defence: 86

Melee Attack Power: 106

Combat Skills: Hammer [M] (39), Thrown [Ad] (12) - Innate Spell Forms - Fire Ball [M] (23), Flame Lance [M](22), Fire Wall [M] (3), Various Class spell forms

Details: The eldest son of the current chieftainess of the Fire Giant Tribe - Sísakubonà - and journeyman in service to the Tribe’s smith.]

Moving back to Torm, she repeated the information Analysis had provided her of the inhabitants, keeping her voice low just in case.

“Should I scout and find the other casters first or do we attack and keep an eye out for their arrival?” Julia finished reporting.

“Artificer is a caster type their spells focus on augmenting materials, and equipment. Try to keep him away from tools if you can. Let’s kill these two and then get through the foundry to see what’s in their compound. If others respond quickly we’ll leave, and return another time, your Inventory tricks can always cut us a new passage if they ward this one.”

“I’ll take Ñonåkalo, he’s the one bracing the bucket.”

When Julia appeared behind Ñonåkalo she wasn’t playing. Her arms shifted and twin shears blazing white tore inwards, severing his Achilles’s tendons. Their rupturing rang like a steel cable snapping, the sound clear even through flesh. When the giant tried to catch his balance instead, he crashed down hard. As she restored her arms Julia ran up his body, spiked feet wreathed in the same Mana. The spike’s whiteness making the air scream as she tore muscle and bone with every striking step. Kobumnyàmí swung a shovel to cut across her path, but Teleport set Julia above a pulsing artery. When her feet punched through flesh, they left blood jets in her wake. Multiple sprays were filling the hot air with a metallic tang before she pivoted hard below his ear, tendrils lancing out for a bouncing object close at hand.

Torm attacked the younger giant with a leaping strike, landed hard against its knee. Cartilage broke and bones ground together as the giant’s bellow rang out. The crack of released tension within the Giant’s twisting body made his knee’s break so much worse. As he fell, Julia stored the bucket that Ñonåkalo had dropped and ejected it to reappear where Kobumnyàmí’s neck would be. The impact of his spine sounding like dropping steel beams as his neck struck its edge.

Julia’s distraction from Ñonåkalo cost her as the still-living giant crushed a hand around her body. Bones cracked and popped within Ki Armour as he brought enraged force to bear. Health dropped away even as Julia pulled with Energy Drain and transformed. The giant’s fist squeezing inwards against the minimal resistance from her now rubbery flesh. A long stress ball with steel spikes crisscrossing down her length. Ki Infusion lacing Destruction Mana through each, and his bones exploded under the force he brought to bear as blackness drank in more Health. Torm moved along his own still living foe as Kobumnyàmí struggled to rise, the impact not having finished the job.

As Ñonåkalo shook his hand to fling her away, a spiked grub blazing with screaming white Mana clamped around his wrist. The maw of a metallic grub eating her way down his arm, spines from her tail catching onto the flesh of his face. The first shake ripped the spines across the bone. When he flinched back, he drove her writhing spines into his own eye. His hand was suddenly clear of teeth as she drove into his skull. Rings of muscles around the grub grew more serrated hooks, and she borrowed through his eye seeking the brain. The screams of agony and terror from the pair calling out for their tribe were short-lived. Julia emerged out of an ear cavity, reforming moments before reinforcements arrived.

An incoming wave of chaos prompted Torm and Julia to move. Torm appearing atop the shoulder of a still gesturing male giant even as Julia was alongside an armoured female. Faced with a foe armoured in Mithril plate, from head to toe, Julia raced past her. As she tried to turn to match Julia’s pace, a fist drove against the pin of a buckle. The snap rang out as Ki Movement pulsed energy through Julia’s form. Legs blurred for a moment before Julia dropped and slid between another’s armoured feet. Her sudden action leaving the two tangled in her wake. More Giants came streaming into the open space in their outer compound, setting them against eight. Past the mass of approaching Giants, a large wall constructed with slightly more care rose high towards the massive cavern’s ceiling.

The male wizard was having his own problem with Torm and the searing pain of brain freeze from the knives deep in his ear. Falling off the Wizard’s shoulder, the knives came free, and Torm teleported again. His destination set him atop an upper balcony, tauntingly in view but away from the immediate fray. As he raced along the railing, a blast of chaos followed him too late. The spell ripped stone apart but Torm was back on the shoulder he’d started from, and knives drove into the flesh of the Wizard’s neck this time.

A glimpse of an incoming sword nearly as large as a Giant prompted Julia to move. Stone screeched against metal as the strike dug into the rock. She’d pushed with Flight and a kick with Ki Strike lashed out; the male Giant’s scream going into high notes. A quick attempt to store his broken cod piece met with resistance, and Julia grounded to run on. The thrashing efforts of the Wizard tossed Torm away, only for him to appear behind a chanting Priestess. Blades cut low and magical cold burst its way through the Giant’s heated flesh. Pain from a severed tendon disrupted the chant as it completed. Though the energy released, her diverted focus wreathed a building’s side in a protective field instead of a Giant.

The Priestess didn’t get up, but with a glance, spat a word of power, a blazing force smacked Torm away. As he rolled to his feet, the number of Giants had grown from an initial eight to fifteen, with thumping sounds heralding more to come. Most among them were heavily armoured, but a few lighter armoured foes carried massive metallic composite bows.

Tracing Missiles, gleaming like bright obsidian, burst across Julia as she moved between foes. The impacts broke ribs and sent her stumbling off balance. As she caught herself, a Giant stomped downwards, but a quick thought meant his foot found a human-sized caltrop. The force on Julia’s form still bent and cracked steel, but Energy Drain nearly healed the damage. A frantic shaking boot wasn’t the cause of the caltrop vanishing as Julia turned into a burr hidden between leather and giant flesh. As he shook his foot again, spikes of destruction drank in health.

As he saw Julia knocked off balance, Torm appeared atop the Wizard’s head. Ki Strike breaking bone, even as Torm saw a foot come down and Julia twist into steel. The Celestial released a blessing of his own as the Wizard struck for him. Seeing the oncoming blow, he braced his feet on the broken bone and leant into the strike. The swatting hand struck his glowing form hard.

Torm groaned in pain from the strike’s impact, but the noise was lost in the Giant’s screams; his own strike having driven Torm through his skull. Brain matter squelched around Torm’s boots, and as a Celestial aura burst outwards the giant began to fall. Torm reared back and then flung himself forward. In mid-air his form changed and an enormous wolf scrambled claws across rock as it slid away from a now convulsing giant. Light rippled along his wolf form as the blazing aura adjusted to his new shape. The crisp smell of brain seared by Celestial energy left in his wake.

The Priestess’ chanting rose above the din, only for her to gag and grab desperately at her throat. Blood burst from her mouth as she tried to cough something free, but as she coughed again only more blood came. As Torm raced forward to gain the attention of new foes, arrows the size of ballista bolts landed around his racing form. Julia appeared behind her original armoured foe and broke another pin. The greave flapping open as he came close, teeth sharpened by Blessing and Ki struck. The attack twisted the greave out of place and strained more straps as Julia vanished.

Julia prepared a spell as she glanced down from a rooftop perch. Spotting Torm biting deep into exposed flesh, she let it fly. Golden bolts struck Torm, and he felt the energy of her Tracing Missiles impact against his side. The Life Mana within them lessened his pain, as an arrow struck against Julia’s Ki Armour and spun her about. Sent tumbling with angle of the strike Julia went with the motion and slid from her rooftop perch. She changed into two tons of steel and her plunge gathered momentum, the sender of the arrow screamed when a white spike descended upon them.

Julia slid slowly down the passageway wall, leaving a bloodstain in her wake as flesh sealed. Torm limped over and sat down beside her, sniffing at the stench of Demonic blood before shrugging and setting the concern aside. With a glance in his direction, she sighed unhappily.

“Your clothes magically repair, clean themselves, stand up against the elements, and change shape with you. No fair,” Julia stated, her pouting tone not matching the worn expression.

“Hush and worry about healing; that’s more important than clothing.”

“No, clothing is important. I’m pretending to be dressed, and you have indestructible clothing.”

{{You just need to get into his pants. }}

Please don’t start with me.

{{What? Doesn’t he have spares? }}

“The blood loss you have going on is more important to worry about,” Torm said, concern clear as Julia groaned at B’s reply.

“I’ve stopped bleeding, just have to heal. I’m out of Ki; too many giants wearing head to toe metal plates,” Julia grumbled.

“What were those spells you hit me with?” asked Torm.

“I wonder,” Julia said and focused for a moment on a spell.

[Water wall [B](1->2)]

Suddenly a wall of greenish-yellow light appeared across their seated forms, their flesh healing and knitting with increasing speed.

“Bonus, that’s working. Let there be Life,” said Julia, gesturing at the Life Mana wall.

“You have the Life affinity as well; you’re impossible. I thought you were doing some necromantic life transfer,” Torm stated.

“I make Wizards all jelly; I’m sure they wouldn’t be happy knowing my first reaction is hitting things.”

“How many more do you think there are?” asked Torm after the spell faded away.

“At least another thirty, maybe more. We’ll get to them; we’ve put a decent dent in their numbers,” Julia said. Looking at the combat summary she smiled. “We got their leader. She shows in my combat summary as a Priestess. Guess she was the one that I barred from attending; I don’t remember another.”

[Combat Summary:

Fire Giants, Various Levels x47 (50%)

Priestess - Sísakubonà x1 (50%)

Total-Experience Gained: 533,280

Monk: +186,648

Succubus: +186,648

Succubus Level Up!

Wizard: + 159,984

Aggravate Flaws [Ad] (35->37)

Cloak [J] (14->15)

Tracing Missile [Ad] (8->11)

Shock Bolt [J] (37->39)

Greater Teleport [Ad] (32->33)

Death Strike (17) -> [B](17)

Energy Drain [M] (6->7)

Silent Kill (9) -> (12)

Ki Armour [Ad] (39->41)

Ki Strike [M] (5->6)

Ki Movement [J] (29->31)

Ki Infusion [M] (2->3)

Protean [Ad] (34->36)

Silent Storm [M] (30->31)]

“Barred?”

“A spiked steel bar strangely got jammed in her throat. I meant to tangle her vocal cords, but I think I got a major blood vessel,” Julia muttered.

“Shocking.”

“There was no lightning involved, but she thought it was a steal,” Julia quipped before looking at the combat summary again and gifted Torm with a pout. “You didn’t give me a contract on Giants before we started, naughty.”

Torm’s sigh said more than enough, and Julia laughed softly with genuine amusement.