-HUTCH-

I reeled from the explosions of dirt and debris around me, stumbling through the sizzling smoke that the magical blasts had created. Enveloping me was a mantle of mist and rock fragments as I staggered, hearing the booming crack and nearby blasts of the assault from above. Beyond the veil of obfuscation were the terrific roars of the Giant, thrashing and bleating in pain. The scent of burning earth and monster flesh attacked my nostrils, and I was forced to shield my face from the war on my senses. At some point, I’d been struck in the leg by a whistling rock as it flashed by, and the pain in my body screamed at me. I looked down and saw a gash in the muscle of my calf, blood coursing in hot rivulets, the fabric of my pants completely shredded.

Whatever creature had begun this barrage only seemed to care about the Giant, and had disregarded my presence, if they had seen me at all. I tripped over a loose stone and fell to the ground, and the air left my lungs. I struggled to draw in another breath and inhaled the surrounding smoke. It burned my chest painfully, and I coughed so hard that I began to wretch. My eyes stung and I could hardly open them to get my bearings, so I removed my cap and pressed it to my face to block out the cloud, and continued to limp in a direction away from all the noise.

I heard another furious hiss directly above me, and rolled to the side as an additional magical strike rocketed into the spot I’d just been in and a shower of rock fell over me. I picked myself up from the ground and crawled, one handed, farther away, my other hand still fastened to the woolen filter under my eyes.

I could see small, indistinct shapes through the smoke, and forwarded my attention to their form.

That must be Nox, and the guard.

Flashes of magical light crackled overhead, and I picked up my pace. More blasts beat the ground, and the intense quakes they created caused me to almost lose my balance. But, I was able to find stability and with one last push, forced myself to run toward the shapes.

The smoke was thinner here, and I emerged from most of it to find the Cambion boy and the town guard unharmed, but confused.

“Hutch!” Nox exclaimed, waving me over. The soldier nodded at me, but seemed to regard me with suspicion, his grip tight on the shaft of his polearm.

“We need to get out of here,” the guard said, pointing in a vague direction, “let’s let Prince Luxor handle this.”

“But he won’t be able to kill the Giant,” I said, shaking my head, “even if he defeats it now, it will just come back.”

I heard another agonized cry from beyond the curtain of chaos.

The Giant is losing. But it will retreat before it lets itself be killed.

Above us, high in the sky, a form flew freely, a hand out in front of them as they created more magical missiles and fired them into the cloud of destroyed earth. Each bolt was as large as a carriage and struck the ground with the thunderous clap. The monster within the smoke roared, and I saw a massive chunk of earth fly out, directly at the floating form. But the man smoothly dodged in, dipping in the air and allowing the boulder to pass by harmlessly, sailing far away.

“Even if he can’t kill the Giant, he’s going to be a lot more useful than our pathetic lot,” the guard said, motioning at Nox and myself.

“You’re both out of Mana, and I’m nearly in the same boat. We need to let the Prince and the Equites of Aries drive that beast back into the mountains.”

I shook my head.

“But the Giant will come back after it heals up, and it will be that much more dangerous,” I said, “we need my Father, together we can--”

“We need to get the hell out of here,” the guard said, “this is my town, and you’re standing in what’s left of it, so I’m calling the shots. We are leaving. Now.”

I wanted to revolt, but he had called it correctly. I only had a very limited amount of magical energy, and I’d used that up protecting Nox from being killed by the monster. We’d need to get Father so that he and I could actually kill it. It seemed like the guard, in that moment, was right.

“Then let's go back to Ingvald,” I said, “if I can get to my Father, the two of us can sort this out.”

The guard laughed.

“You’re an interesting kid,” he said, “I’ve never encountered a Giant before, but I imagine it is mighty difficult to grapple one the way you did.”

Then his brows lowered seriously.

“However, I’m not going to let two kids like yourselves get mixed up in this. No matter if you have freakish strength or not. We will fall back to the Guardhouse for now. If you want to be helpful you can make sure that the townsfolk are safe.”

I wanted to protest, but Nox cut me off.

“Yes, Hutch, let’s listen to Captain Hyperion,” he said, “I know you’ve got a particular inclination toward these beasts, but if you go out there now, you’ll get killed. Your father is out of reach at the moment, at least until the Challenge of Heroes is over. Let’s regroup and save our strength.”

He looked over my shoulder at the prince, soaring in the air and continuing his barrage.

“This won’t be over anytime soon from the looks of it,” he continued, “let’s see how this plays out.”

But, my anger bubbled up.

“You’re the one who dragged me out here in the first place!” I shouted, “and now you want to leave?!”

Nox bit his lip.

“I may have miscalculated. There’s new variables.”

I just stared at him.

“What does that mean?!”

“Boys.” The captain said seriously.

“Let’s go,” he said, “you can argue all you like back at the barracks.” He grabbed me by the back of my shirt, and scooped Nox up and over his shoulder.

“Ah!” Nox screamed, “let me go you nasty brute!”

“No,” Hyperion said, dragging us along. I tried to resist, but it was useless. My strength was gone, and I was already feeling as though I’d pass out with any further exertion on my part. So I let the captain lead me away from the battle.

---

-KAJA-

CRASH!

Kaja was suddenly laying in a heap of broken wood, shafts of sharp stakes, and barley, her body racked with pain. She was wet, and dizzy, but knew at least that she had just been blasted into a crate outside of a building. She tried to stand, but the strength of the attack had put her nearly out of commission. The hulking specter that had assaulted her stalked directly toward her.

He was bald of pate, with a wide lantern jaw. His eyes were narrow, pressed beneath the ridge of a heavy brow, and the irises lit up blood-red like his companion’s. He wore the same dark clothing as the other man, but he hadn’t taken the time to wrap his head to shield his identity.

Kaja grunted in pain. Her dark hair was matted, and filled with shards of soaked wood. She tried to brush it out of her eyes, but when she moved her arm, lancing pain stopped her. Her bones were broken. She silently cursed her own weakness.

Mother had made me promise to protect them…

The man reached her, and his lewd grin made her skin crawl. His hands were bare, and covered in ancient scars. He lifted them, palms out, and steam began to rise from the center of his hand as he unleashed a magical blast of water that hit Kaja square in the chest. The power behind the blast was so immense that she was forced across the ground, carving a wet fissure into the earth. Her skin burned. The water was hot, scalding her and causing her to scream out in anguish. She had rolled a few times, and was now face down on the ground.

“Is too much of hot?” the man asked in a peculiar accent, “you like cold more?”

He hit her again with another attack, but this time, a mist signalled his movements and a blast of freezing vapor enveloped Kaja, encasing her body in a cocoon of glittering ice. The ice was pure torture against her newly blistered flesh, and she cried out.

But the man with the lantern jaw just laughed.

“No like hot, no like cold,” he said, his eyes crazed and his slackened mouth in a twisting grin, “very picky. Maybe you like sharp?”

His hands raised, he pinched his fingertips together and the chilling mist flowed from his palms and began to take shape. Soon, a shining spear of ice was hovering in front of him, leveled right at Kaja.

“Night, night,” he said, and the spear began to spin in the air.

“Wh-who’s there?” called a voice.

The man in black froze, his head snapping to a forty-five degree angle as he raised his ear to the new sound.

“What’s g-going on over there?” the voice asked, and a man stepped out from behind the corner of the building the two had been battling in front of.

“Are you h-hurting that young woman?”

He was quite unintimidating, his brown hair looking shaggy and unwashed. He was wearing a simple white shirt, buttoned incorrectly and uneven, and his brown breeches had numerous patches replacing holes that had long been forgotten about. He held himself with a nervous demeanor, and the man with the lantern jaw had to smile.

“You in wrong place for you,” he said, turning with a lurch, his arms flailing with his movements as if they weren’t fully connected to his body, “but, right place for me.”

The man in black lifted two meaty hands to the sides of his head and twisted, wrenching a great crack out of his neck and began to saunter toward the new arrival. The anxious man took a step back, and held his hands up.

“H-hey!” he shouted, “stay back.” His tone was pathetic, and almost a whine.

The man in black reached him in an instant, and faster than could be tracked, gathered the hair in the back of the man’s head into his massive hand.

“Night, night,” he said and with a crunching force, yanked the man’s head forward to collide with the crown of his own brow. The light left the man’s eyes, and he dropped unconscious to the ground.

THWAK!

Something hit the lantern-jaw in the back, and he roared. He attempted to reached back toward the pain point, but it was out of reach. He wheeled around, and saw that Kaja was now standing again, one of the javelins from the crate in her hands and she prepared to hurl it.

The man in black chuckled, and when Kaja threw the next one, he was ready. He leaped to the side into a roll, and heard the missile whip past. He kept the momentum and twisted to a stand and a run, and made a direct line towards Kaja. His speed was surprising, despite his size, reaching to within ten feet of her in the blink of an eye. Kaja’s breath caught in her throat and she stumbled backward. The man lifted his palms, forming the ice spear, and let it fly.

“SHOCK SUPRA!”

A brilliant flash instantly blinded Kaja, and she heard a dangerous sizzling crackle and a phenomenally loud boom like thunder. She felt a painful itch on her skin, and she dropped to the ground. The air was filled with a pungent scent, almost like an alchemist’s apothecary. She couldn’t move. The remainder of her energy had been decimated by her snipes with the javelins, and she lay on the ground, completely paralyzed.

It was quiet.

Nothing else happened for a moment, and she watched as the painful blindness from the flash faded, and the night began to slowly become more visible around her. She heard the thudding of boots, and her heart raced, but a stooped shape appeared in her vision.

“A-are you alright?”

It was the cautious voice of the man that the assailant had just head butted. However, the voice was modified, stuffy even, as if he’d suddenly gotten a bad cold. Kaja still couldn’t see perfectly, but she could smell the distinct odor of blood coming from him. Cold hands grasped her shoulders, and she felt herself being lifted into a sitting position.

“Can you speak?” the man asked.

“Barely,” she whispered, “I think I’m going to pass out in a moment.”

“I can carry you,” the man said, “I m-may not look like much, but I help bale hay a-all summer.”

That made Kaja laugh, but she wasn’t sure why. Whatever this man had done had saved her, and she was grateful. Even if he seemed meeker than a field mouse.

“Thank you for… whatever that was,” she said, her voice drifting away from her as the world began to spin.

“I’it’s no p-problem at all,” the man said, “I heard you screaming and, well, I c-couldn’t just stand there.”

“What is your name?” Kaja asked and her head fell back, but the man grabbed her shoulders again, and kept her in place.

“Yulger Eier,” the man said.

----

-HUTCH-

Heldrtown was in a state of pure chaos. As we moved along the main road, common folk ran in every direction. Farther beyond, I could see the powerful illumination of flames.

What is happening here?

We finally arrived at the guard house. It was a slant-roofed building with a tall, central tower protecting a wide, single-level quarters. I’d seen guardposts before, and usually they were bustling, but this one was devoid of any activity. I could hear screaming and crying that set my teeth on edge.

Whoever is doing this has begun razing this place as well.

Captain Hyperion set Nox down in front of the door, and tried tugging on the iron ring for entry. But the thick wooden portal wouldn’t open.

“What the…?” he said, and pounded a mailed fist on the door.

“Open up you damned fools!” he shouted, “it’s Hyperion!”

After just a moment, a small slot opened up in the upper half of the door and a pair of eyes and a bulbous nose peeked out.

“Rafe!” he bellowed, recognizing the face.

“Captain Hyperion!” the voice said, “we thought you’d been killed by the Giant!?”

That seemed to infuriate the guardsman, and he turned red in the face in anger.

“Obviously not, you thick cabbage head! Open the doors! We’ve got to reinforce the town’s defenses!”

The face in the slot looked around nervously.

“Uh, sorry Captain,” he said, “we can’t do that.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Rafe? Open the door right now or I’ll have you cleaning the barracks with broken fingers!”

“Strict orders,” the man recalled nervously.

“Whose orders?!” Hyperion yelled, and yanked futilely on the iron ring again, “I’m your damned captain!”

“From Ingvald,” the man said, his eyes squinting.

“There are townfolk dying out here!” Hyperion exclaimed, “do you damned duty and protect these people!”

“Sorry, Captain,” the man said, “I’ve got to go.” With that he closed the slot and was gone.

Hyperion crashed another fist against the door in anger and frustration, before turning to Nox and I.

“You two,” he said, suddenly, “we’ve got to get things under control. But first, we’ve got to get to the Mayor’s residence. Are you able to walk?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m still exhausted, and probably useless beyond that,” I said, “but I can move my feet.”

Nox scowled and stood up from the ground. He wobbled, and then started to topple over, but I caught him.

“I’ll stay here,” he said, “and if anyone comes by I’ll trip them.”

“I’ll carry you,” Hyperion said, and before the boy could protest, the guard hefted him up and over his shoulder again.

“Oh, just throw me into the fires,” Nox sulked.

“Only if you’re good,” Hyperion said, and began marching back toward the main road.

I was a bit shaky in my steps as well, but after a moment, found my footing and began to limp behind the guardsman.

“How far is it to the Mayor’s?” I asked.

“It’s just up ahead,” Hyperion answered, “right near the bridge. It’s got a big red roof, you can’t miss--”

A blue light suddenly sprang up all around us. It filled the street, and canopied over us in a dome. I tried to continue walking, but I couldn’t. I was frozen. I tried to voice my protest, but my mouth wouldn’t move either. I was utterly and completely bound under this light.

A man stepped out into the street from a darkened alleyway, clutching a large object. He struck me as an oddity. His hair was a pale green, and reached all the way to his shoulders. He was tall and thin, and dressed quite finely. He wore an ornately-sewn rust-colored robe over a pristine, white doublet tucked into black pantaloons. He wore soft leather boots that looked a size too big, but had an intricate and incomprehensible symbol stitched into their vamps. On the bridge of his nose perched a pair of circular, golden bifocals.

He chuckled in a deep timbre, and lifted the item in his hands, a large tome. As he did, I could see the crest of a red ram’s head and crown on his chest.

The Aries Nightsign?

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rich and unsettling, “but you’ll have to be waylaid.” He smiled in a conspiratorial way, and slid the glasses up with his fingers.

“You’ll be coming with me.”