Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait guys. I'm relearning how to write with the keyboard correctly so each sentence I write is taking me forever and since half my brain is focused on correct finger positioning instead of writing, the chapter's quality might be lower :/ Really sorry about that and hopefully its not that bad. Atm deciding whether to take a couple of weeks and learn the correct positioning of fingers or just write in between and hope I'm smart enough to do two things at once since my head is filled with amazing ideas for a couple more "volumes".

And as you asked here's a list of characters and abilities if you forgot something. I'll try to keep it updated and as truthful as I can but if you see any mistakes feel free to comment on the file itself or here on the forums

Character List

Titles and Abilities

Now enjoy ^^

***

Rain was falling.

It was a miserable day for Ace and the weather seemed to have been sharing the sentiment. Murky grey sky, large droplets of water making the world into one large swamp and flashes of thunder from time to time.

The kid watched it all letting the rain soak him to the last thread and tried to remember how he’d gotten here. He remembered creating an illusion to hide his flight to the pond, which he used for [Mirror Walk], and then making himself invisible to friends so actively becoming dead.

After that the memory was kind of hazy.

He was sure he’d travelled to some random mirror which for some unknown reason was put into the middle of the battle ground and he was thrust right into the fight. Ace guessed he was healed by someone at some point because he was still alive but he would have been hard pressed to say by whom and why.

Maybe he was mistaken as a member of one of the armies? That seemed like a logical idea and Ace went with it while looking around to guess what more he could learn from his surroundings.

There were tents close by, lots of them, and they were full of people hiding from the downpour and waiting for the fight to resume. No flags flew so there was no way to tell what kind of army it was and in what part of the world he had landed.

“Hey, kid! Come inside, you’ll catch a cold like that!” someone shouted out and Ace turned in the direction. It was a middle aged man with a beer stomach that called him. He had dark hair and large friendly eyes so the kid decided to trust him for the moment. “What are you doing here?” the man asked after ushering him near a fire. “It’s no place for children.”

Ace closed his eyes for a moment before replying . “I sneaked out” he said faking emotionless tone quite obviously and looking everywhere but at the man that was talking to him. After a moment, he sat down before the fire and shook a few times from the difference in temperatures.

“It is dangerous here for someone as young as you. Why did you do that? Real fights are happening here” the man said sitting down besides the kid with a mug of ale in hand.

Ace turned to look at him, wondering whether he was talking to a player or a npc. It was very important to find that out before being able to put up an appropriate act. “I’m not that young!” he disagreed for the moment.

“How old are you? Eight, nine? You should still be in elementary school!”

That was the answer Ace needed. He tilted his head slightly and looked up at the man. “Elementary? What’s that?”

“You don’t know..” the man’s eyes turned calculating He guessed a hidden quest. A child could hardly present a huge reward but he might have some information regarding some hidden dungeon or something. “So why did you come here?”

“You’ll let me stay?” Ace asked instantly. He didn’t plan to stick around for long, but still. You never know.

“Maybe, so what is a kid like you doing here?”

“Defending what is right!” Ace answered without any hesitation, his eyes glazing over as if they saw things that only he could, things one pushes to the farthest corners of the memory.

“That is not saying much. How did you manage to sneak in? The security here is pretty tight.”

Ace smiled. “I’m a kid! I’m so small you can’t even see me!” he said proudly, puffing up his chest. “My father would say I’m like a fly! Small enough to come in unseen but large enough to cause damage! It..” His voice fell suddenly as if something wrong had happened. A tear glistening in the corner of his eyes.

“Kid?”

“It’s nothing!” he said quickly, shaking his head. “Something got in my eye.”

“That’s the oldest lie in the book... Why are you really here? What about your parents? Won’t they get worried if you don’t come back soon?” the man asked in a quiet, compassionate tone. Or he pretended to. Ace could hear the underlying tone of annoyance and intrigue.

The kid looked up at man with a look too old for someone his age. “No one will miss me. My mother is a hostage saving our lands from being attacked and father is pretending to be fine with it while actually going mad without her. I don’t think he even knows that I exist any longer...” His voice broke at the last part and he lowered his head, keeping his eyes on the flame, following its merry dance.

“So you think that if we win this war your mother will be released?” the man asked, suddenly noticing something very strange on the kid. He hadn’t paid too much attention to his appearance before so he had though the kid was simply wearing dark red clothes but in the light it showed up to be black, only covered in something red. There was little guessing as to what it was. “Who are you?” the man asked, taking a couple steps back. There was fear in his eyes.

Ace lifted his head in surprise. ‘What had went wrong? Did I make a mistake? Was I too forceful? Too obvious?’ He turned to the man and tried to gauge his expression. The man looked shocked and horrified. What could have brought it out? He looked down at himself and saw something what shouldn’t be there. His best clothes, the lord ones, were thickly covered in dried crimson. ‘Dammit. Couldn’t the rain wash it away?’ He shook his head in disappointment. His act had to change drastically if he wanted to save the situation.

He looked up at the man with a determined expression. “I told you I came here to fight. I’m going to save my mother no matter what!”

“That’s not how kids are like! You shouldn’t be able to survive a couple of minutes alone outside!” the man said with a worried expression, his voice shaking. A rumour of a certain assassin starting to travel around the continents came to the front of his mind. He tried to get a better look at the kid’s face but the tent was dark and the dancing flames made it look twisted, out of shape.

‘Is he getting scared?’ Ace wondered in disbelief. “I’m a lord’s son! I was trained to fight since I could hold a weapon! I’m better than half of your army!” he said with pride. “I’m not like you weak adventurers.”

That seemed to have eased the man’s fears somewhat and he came closer again. “Lord’s son? Which one’s?”

Ace tilted his head, looking at the man as if the guy was an idiot. “Do you really expect me to tell you that and bring more trouble home? Do you think I’m that stupid?”

The man chuckled forcefully. “I was just testing you. If you’re the real deal. Can you sit here for a moment? I need to do something before we can continue our conversation. I’m one of the chiefs after all!”

The kid nodded turning away and the man escaped into the rain. “Do some work? Like hell you need to do it! You’re nothing more than a rich soldier!” Ace hissed to the flames quietly. He had to get out of here and now, before the guy brought reinforcements, but Ace didn’t want to go back to the rain so much...

Not like he really had a choice.

So Ace stood up and eyeing the flame longingly, left through the back of the tent. He was instantly soaked again and it showed up, the wind had picked up making it cold too. Ace muttered angrily under his breath before remembering he had [Gust] and could make a small wind shield around himself. It wouldn’t protect him against everything but at least half of the damage could be nullified.

“That’s much better” he said to the rain and went in search of a mirror that had brought him here. If only he could remember what kind of one he had imagined at the moment he used the spell... But it felt like a pretty futile task, trying to remember something he wasn’t even sure he knew.

“Is there anything else I could use?” he wondered, looking around but there was nothing useful he could see, not that he could see much through the curtain of heavy rain.

“He escaped! Find the kid! He should still be around!” someone shouted from close by and Ace ducked instinctively. It was almost impossible for anyone to see him on such conditions so he quickly straightened up and went to the side. “I found him! He’s near the canteen! Going sideways to dodge you guys!”

Ace cursed under his breath. He had forgotten this wasn’t real life and abilities could track him down no matter what. He had to get out and quickly if he didn’t plan to stay around here for a long while trying to explain himself.

“I’ll get him!” another shouted and Ace jumped to the right, thinking for a way out. There always was one. You just had to look in the right places. ‘What if..?’ he wondered reshaping [Gust] so it was collecting water droplets into a sphere before Ace. Trusting his luck to keep strong, the kid activated [Mirror Walk] and jumped through the sphere that was just barely the width of of him. In his mind he imagined the lake in the cave he’d been before. From there he could easily find his group and see how they were doing.

For a split second he fell into a world of mirrors, but before he could look more into anything, he was being pushed off out of the lake. He quickly stood up, not fancying dying from lack of air and walked out of the water.

On the shore he first allowed [Flare] to leave from beneath his cloak and made it light the logs he always carried in his backpack to create a small fire. He had no food he could cook, so he took out some dried meat and ate it with barley bread and fresh water from the lake. It filled his stomach and he thought about going to search for his team mates when his eyes landed on Kris. He took it out from the sheath. It shone softly, reflecting the fire’s light.

Ace brushed the blade softly. His finger slid easily along the surface,winding through the twists before it ended at a sharp point. It was a marvellous piece of weaponry, not only beautiful but also lethal.

He sheaved it and checked his other daggers. Most of them were lacking poison so he took extra care to make sure the situation was remedied. Only when he was sufficiently armed did he stand up again and leave the cave.

Swiftly he moved through the tunnels, following the sounds of battle from somewhere far away. He used [Shadow Veil] to hide his presence to sneak past a couple of snakemen patrols but the closer he got to the giant king’s room, the more packed it got. And soon enough it was impossible to move without touching someone.

Ace wondered what had his friends gotten themselves into since all the monsters in the cave seemed to be after them. Had his sacrifice been for nought? Not that he’d done it to actually save anyone.

He remembered Lancelot and gritted his teeth. The guy was annoying with all that nonsense about Ace being just a kid. He really deserved to be taught a lesson.

Ace activated [Phantasm] to make himself resemble the snakes and walk among them. It was extremely simple as the caves were somewhat dark and his illusion didn’t need to be well detailed to keep him safe.

He walked for awhile among the snakes until they reached the giant cave which had been his execution place, not that they succeeded in their plan. Inside the place, he noticed wind raising. It was hot and violent, draining freshness from the air and making it hard to breathe.

‘That’s most likely one of Skele’s spells... What is he trying to achieve by this?’ The wind started to pick up, small twisters stealing weapons and carrying rocks into the air which then hit unsuspecting snakes. And the winds still grew stronger, twisters combining and creating tornadoes. They lifted snakemen, throwing them around like little pebbles.

Ace backed away somewhat, not wanting to fly around for the moment, but it was almost impossible to move backwards with lots of new creatures coming through the gates and unknowingly pushing those in the front into death. Intense heat, hitting stones in the air and then a wall was the future for most soldiers of the giants army.

“I need to get away” Ace murmured to himself, looking around. There was a wall only a couple of meters from him but there were around five snakes in between. Not thinking too much, Ace used [Hide in Plan Sight] and pushed through the snakemen. They weren’t very eager to move but his skill made him somewhat less noticeable which allowed him to get where he wanted to.

The wall was quite rough so easy to climb. Ace hid behind his veil and started going up. At some point he noticed a small cave at the far side of the wall and moved left and up a bit more. When he was finally done, his hands were raw and bleeding. He ignored it and from his vantage point watched the group struggling. They were doing decently but there were thousands of enemies left. It looked as if someone was trying to cut the sea in half, valiant effort but pointless just the same.

To make things worse the fire tornadoes where coming their way.

Ace could see the group falling apart. They could barely keep up against the strong winds and enemies rushing them to escape being caught and thrown around. There was some shouting done but Ace couldn’t understand it through the howling of the wind. Moments after everyone in the group jumped to one spot and stone walls rose from the ground surrounding them in all five directions.

This meant the snakemen were left alone to face the hurricane which was intent on engulfing the whole cave. Ace made a wall of wind before his entrance to protect himself and watched mesmerised as the place below was devoured by fire and violent wind. Bodies splattered on the walls, others dying from dehydrating or having their heads smashed by large stones, or their companions.

This lasted for a couple of hours before the winds finally exhausted themselves.

It would have been a sight of blood and gore had this not been a game. But it was. And that’s why instead of body parts Ace saw large amounts of dropped items lying around.

His eyes lit up with interest at that and he jumped down. Air rushed through his bones and he understood his own mistake all too soon. He had been over a hundred meters high.

He used [Gust] to slow himself down but it wasn’t much.

The ground was hard.

Very.

Ace felt bones cracking, blood leaving his system.

The inventory was so far away. How was one to raise his hand so high up?

The kid groaned mid curse trying to reach a health potion. It took a couple of tries but he managed. Now he just had to somehow lift it to his mouth. That showed up to be more of a challenge than Ace had ever known it to be.

It felt like his hands were broken in all the places, impossible to move without mind numbing pain passing through. He took a couple of deep breaths and jammed the bottle’s neck in his mouth, drinking the substance in large gulps. It was refreshingly sweet and numbed the pain instantly.

Ace was about to lie around until he regenerated to full health when his instincts warned him about upcoming enemies. There were five of them and they weren’t tallying around but coming straight for him.

Unhurriedly the kid stood up, drinking another potion on the way. His eyes landed on a group of snakemen that looked everything but friendly.

They seemed to be scouts of some sort; light stone armour, short swords. Ace shifted his head to look at the giant gates and found them closed. ‘So they did hide from he hurricane. They’re not as stupid as they look.’ However, that meant the place was empty besides the patrol checking if the winds had subsided. And if he took care of it quickly and efficiently, they would wait sometime before sending in another. group

Ace unsheathed his daggers and with hurting fingers grasped them in his hands. Snakes hissed at him, raising their weapons in a warning sign. The kid wasn’t as nice and simply dashed forward. He slashed at the first snake’s neck, poison entering the monster’s nerve system, and then moved sideways to stab another in the eye. It wasn’t the prettiest fighting style but his choices were pretty limited with them having stone armour all over their bodies.

An attack came from the left so he dodged back to the right and jumped on his opponent there. Three strikes to the face and Ace jumped back as not to get skewered. In the middle of it he remembered to activate [Fear of the Hungry]. [Last Stand] followed suit and with these added bonus statuses it became a child’s play to defeat them.

He might not had gained extra health or resistances but he was an assassin, he had no need for such things. His speed became too quick for the snakes’ eyes to follow, not to mention counter-attacking. Ace’s each attack hit a vital point dealing critical damage and poisoning the blood while nothing landed on him.

Slash there, slash here, a couple of stabs and it was all over.

Bored somewhat Ace decided to grow through the items lying around. Most of them were useless stuff such as stone armour or dull-edged swords, but a couple caught his eye. The first was a pendant radiating greenish light, then a short sword with a wolf’s head on the handle and a journal of some sort.

The last item kept his attention for the longest as he could inspect it and without having an identification skill.

To do that in piece he scaled the wall again, put an illusion around and opened the notebook. The first pages were filled with drawings of frogs and snakes living in harmony and spending time together near the lake but it didn’t last for long. Soon the pages turned red, showing the annihilation of frogs.

Surprisingly it wasn’t the work of giants but snakes shifting into snakemen. Those creatures turned on their unprepared friends and slaughtered them in cold blood. Neither women, nor children were spared.

In the next picture a human shaped frog with a lily crown stood tall and proud before his people, most of which had taken human form too. They couldn’t have been mistaken for one’s as they had greenish wet looking skin and webbed limbs but it was still an interesting ability.

The prince or king was shown leaving the next moment and a snakeman taking the crown which wilted on his head almost instantly. The new ruler was enraged, throwing the flowers away and ordering his troops to kill all the frog people that had been spared after their ruler had abdicated himself.

Some more bloody pages and then a coming of giants. They used their size to break the tunnels and combine three or even four to make it passable for themselves. Snakemen tried fighting back but their attacks were useless against stone armour covered giants. This soon brought their submission and they became pets and errand boys.

Then there was a couple of tranquil pages of snakemen patrolling the tunnels, sitting near a fire and sleeping peacefully.

One of them caught Ace’s eye. A fire burned cheerily at the centre of it, two snakes laughing beside it, but there was something in the background. Ace brought [Flare] closer and took notice of the crimson red and steely grey clashing against bleached green at the right top corner.

Killing was being done there and the two scouts were having a merry time not twenty meters away from it.

That could only mean it wasn’t their kind dying there.

‘So the frog people eradication hadn’t ended with the giants’ arrival? What had they done to the snakes so horrible that such measures would be taken to make sure not a single one survived? It’s a bit too much diligence for a simple national hatred.’ Ace wondered when he heard a sound coming from behind him.

He put the book aside and watched as a group of small hooded creatures emerged from the deepness of the cave he was hiding in. They didn’t notice him through the illusion of nothingness and he was free to get a better look at them.

For starters they were not snakes. It was easy to guess and without seeing their legs hidden beneath the long cloaks, the fact that they were walking instead of slithering gave it all away.

The creatures went closer to the edge and extended their hands to cast something, revealing their greenish webbed hands. ‘What the hell is happening her?’ Ace asked himself, leaning back against the wall. ‘First they’re almost all exterminated, then I find proof of that and suddenly some walk right in front of me?’

The mages casted their spells creating shields around the cave entrance and a giant king whose sight was blocked by a stone dome. The guy was sitting very leisurely for one who was not long ago faced by a group of adventurers and a fiery tornado. He didn’t seem to have been affected in the least.

Soon the gates at the back of the huge cavern opened and snakemen started flooding in. There were hundreds of them. And they were still coming. In moments the whole place was filled to the brim with only a few meters free around the stone structure hiding the humans.

From his vantage place Ace could see that it wasn’t even the end to those creatures. A couple of giants entered the scene for variety. ‘Weren’t they all dead yet?’ To check on something he opened the quest menu.

*Reclaiming Home

Frog people were forced out of their place by giants and their pets. Because they’re lacking physical power, they’ve tasked you with fighting for them. If you succeed, you’ll be the hero of frog people.

You can invite up to ten people to aid you in this mission.

Quest Difficulty: C

Quest Reward: two items from the treasury to each person

Eternal gratitude of frog people.

Update1: You have found the Field of Nara which should have housed the remainder of frog people. There are signs of them having lived there, burial ground, pieces of broken items, but everything is very old. It doesn’t seem like anybody entered this place for the last couple of ages.

Upadate2: You swam in the lake of Glu. It restored your health and mana almost instantly. The water there must be blessed. What could be the power of the two plants that can live there? And how can a race having an unlimited supply of this water could be exterminated?

Update3: You have entered the Pit of Despair. It stinks of blood and death but there are traces of frogs here too, although not in the way expected. Those red walls are pictures showing the history of frogs. To your surprise it tells that the frogs have been gone for more than a couple of ages. Long before the giants came to this place. Had you been tricked or is this story a lie?

Update4: You have found a book containing the history of snakes throughout the ages. They seem to have been friends of frogs before something happened separating the two races and starting a war. The snakes seem to have lost but the pages of battles are kind of hazy. Did the frogs really lose or something has happened to make them go extinct? And by the way whose that frog calling himself prince? It is getting pretty obvious he omitted a lot of truths.*

Ace read it all and sat still for a moment, before punching the ground. ‘What kind of help is this? Shouldn’t the updates only add what I noticed instead of creating their own crazy theories! It’s pure...’

A soft whisper brought him back to the world of the living. He raised his head to see all the cloaked figures having turned his way even if they couldn’t see him; illusions didn’t remove the sounds. And they were casting something to reveal him.

Not waiting for that to happen, Ace jumped down from the cave without a second thought.

Again.

It wasn’t any more comfortable than the last time but he knew what was waiting for him now. Mostly.

However, he hadn’t counted for so many sharp pointy objects being raised in the air while on standby. ‘Don’t they know they can injure people like that?’ he asked himself mid-fall, trying desperately to land without getting skewered. Even his immense luck wouldn’t be able to keep him alive through that. Although...

In the end he decided rather not to test it and just angle himself so he landed on someone’s head and not a spear or sword. ‘Why were they even holding them up? Isn't it tiring?’

He hit someone with the loud bang, feeling his bones breaking again. Instantly he rolled sideways between the tails so they would miss him while he was defenceless.

The commotion lasted for a couple of minutes, even bringing a giant over, but nobody knew what had happened. From their point of view the snake warrior had just fallen with a loud breaking sound for no apparent reason. After his hissing they had looked around for a culprit, stone or something, but having not found anything they didn’t fret much about it and just returned to their positions, the giant grumbling loudly.

Ace took a deeper breath and took out a potion to keep himself alive.

Luckily the snakes weren’t moving anywhere so he could safely lie around without being noticed until he was healthy again.

He looked upwards expecting to see some kind of action but to his surprise it wasn’t the case. The web-handed creatures were standing silently in their positions, couple of staffs with shining jewels at the tops marking their presence in the near darkness of the cave.

Ace waited until he regained his health and then crawled between the tails where the pit was. However, this time he didn’t jump down and instead went down the wall. It wasn’t made for climbing but if he really tried he could find some handholds.

The bottom was empty and he was free to collect the items the blood troll had dropped. It was a stash of red needle like objects, two fangs and a broken dagger. He examined the last item thoroughly having a feeling that it was part of his strange quest.

It’s blade had a black-blue tinge to it corners and was split in two sideways but Ace could see it was no troll made item. The dagger hadn’t been meant as much for fighting as for decorative purposes made of silver mixed with something. Parts of the blade were empty reducing its prowess but showing great workmanship in making fine details and intricate designs. The hilt was of fine red wood sculpted in a simple fashion but to follow with the blades design, there was a dark crimson metal drake added that snaked around the hilt. It had onyx black eyes and its outstretched wings served as a hand protection.

It was clearly a masterpiece, even if a broken one.

However, that helped nothing in trying to uncover the puzzle of what was actually happening here so Ace opened his quest menu again.

*Update5: You have stumbled upon the Sacrificial Dagger. There’s a children’s tale that frog people hold a ritual every month for people that do not follow set rules. They are then brought to a certain room where they are strapped to the altar and sacrificed using this particular dagger. Blood that runs down the sides of the altar collects in the bowl like indentation on the ground. At the end of the ceremony the priest washes his hands in it and all the believers come over to take a sip.*

Ace blinked a couple of times in disbelief before taking notice of the words “there’s a children’s tale”. The game was trying to play him again! It didn’t actually say that the frog people were the bad guys but through rumours and quick judgements tried to make it look so.

‘I’ll need to find that sacrifice room myself if I’m planning to get to the bottom of this.’

The cave was eerily empty after it was cleared from the snakes and most of the giants. Every step and breath echoed loudly and lonely in the vastness of the place.

“Are we really done?” June asked in wonder, her voice very soft but still bouncing of all the walls and returning twisted and no longer intelligible.

Hawk shook his head tiredly. “There’s still one guy left.” He looked at a shadowed corner, night vision provided by Nein’s spirit Sun making it possible to peer inside it.

A giant was sitting leisurely on the throne there. He didn’t seem worried in the least to be the last one standing.

Truth be told they had tried to attack him previously, right after the mages in the cave at the top had been annihilated. It hadn’t gone as well as they might have had expected if they had had time to spare for random wanderings.

Instead of being just an easy kill, the giant king had skin as thick as stone itself. Attacks against him did little to no damage and the snakes descended on them from the back. The group was barely on time to regroup and face back their old enemies before getting wiped out because of their blunder. Turning your defenceless back to an opponent is never a good move.

“How are we supposed to kill that stone mountain?” Kalin asked, throwing his axe on his shoulder and looking thoughtfully at the last remaining enemy. From the corner of his eye he glanced at the creatures surrounding Nein. Five of them simply moved from their positions to him while the other two took shape from the shadows. Seven creatures of high level following his every command. Kalin looked away making a note to stay clear of the guy and at the same time wondering what he was doing in such a low level group.

However, that Monthu guy was the most suspicious one and Kalin had some unfinished business with him. He wondered if he could trick the guy into following him away to talk for a bit.

“By overpowering him with our numbers” Monthu answered seriously. “Mages, how is your mana?”

Aurora opened her eyes and stood up form the position of meditation. “I’m full” she answered and Par did the same. His face was somewhat pale and eyes droopy but he wasn’t complaining. Monthu looked at him with worry and a certain pride. His brother was a strong little fellow.

“I’ll be done in a couple of minutes” Worglan said with his eyes closed, his army of skeletal soldiers standing behind his back. They were still as statues but if you looked in their glowing red eyes you could glimpse madness there. What power could stop these creatures from slaughtering everything in their sight was hard to comprehend.

Monthu sometimes wondered how at later levels melee classes were to equal mages who kept armies of creatures at their beck and call. “Nein you?”

“I’m ready” the mage answered quietly, obviously thinking something with his brow furrowed. Surprisingly, his eyes weren’t at the giant king but the pit where Ace had perished. “But Sun needs a couple more minutes before she’ll regain her whole mana.”

Monthu nodded. “Any suggestions before we engage?”

“Be wary” Nein said with a troubled look, his eyes returning to Monthu. “This is nowhere near over.”

“You know something we don’t?” June asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“I’ve faced bosses like him before” the guy answered cryptically before turning away. He went to Harp, the white haired female musician with bloody fingers from playing for so long. She smiled at her master like a child asking to be praised but Nein did no such thing. He glanced at her fingers, nodded to himself and suggested a tune for her to play once the battle starts.

June glared at him for a second but then turned towards their last opponent that towered over them forebodingly. Even sitting he was over seven times the human size with small dark eyes that watched them with an unsettling intensity. She had a feeling he had something up his sleeve. More than just the snake army he had released last time.

Only this time it would be worse.

“Ready?” Monthu asked, raising his scythe and glancing over the group. There were wary faces there, a couple of bored ones and one exited. That guy was smiling from ear to ear and eyeing the giant king as if the guy was nothing more than just another enemy to be slaughtered.

Before anyone could react, he was off trying to do exactly that.

Silver chains flashed as Aster jumped on the giant’s clothes and started climbing up. They were made of stone which meant full of handholds. The climb was one a beginner could make.

This time Monthu didn’t wait for him to finish his climb and anger the giant before thy could prepare. He ordered Hawk and Lana to use long ranged attacks while he and all the rest of the melee classes rushed forward to try and hack at the legs. Worglan and Nein had an autonomy to control their armies as they wished and act in the way they saw as best.

The necromancer didn’t think much of it and simply sent his skeletal warriors ahead after giving them a couple of buffs. As if only been waiting for that, the fallen heroes of old screamed in screeching voices and befell the giant king. They climbed on the legs, slashed at them and stabbed where they could.

The giant wasn’t complacent for long after such an onslaught and soon stood up, almost reaching the ceiling of the cavern. He was more than a head taller than all the other giants had been and twice as intimidating with his stoic face. He had yet to change his expression from the moment they had seen him.

Yet, his attacks followed a pretty much similar pattern. It means all he did was stomping, punching the ground and swatting at himself in a vain hope to squash all those that were climbing on his body.

The skeletal warriors cared little for his attacks, going in waves in a bull-headed fashion. Tenths were destroyed by every step or punch of a giant but they pressed on with the careless abandon of the already dead.

The group would have loved that had the skeletons been doing any damage but their old, rusty swords had no way of penetrating giant’s stone like skin and they got in the way of everyone else that actually didn’t want to die and were dodging the attacks.

“We need to soften the skin!” Lancelot shouted from the left foot where he had jumped to escape being trampled. “Or else these undead are just going to kill us instead!”

He had tried his armour shattering punches but they required a lot of concentration and weakened only a very small part of the giant’s foot. If he wanted to make it usable for the skeletons who cared little for where they hit, it’d take him a couple of days, which they didn’t have.

“Heat” Nein suggested to Worglan and the mage nodded in understanding while others just ignored it.

“Par call your elemental and together with him create the hottest fireballs you can, then throw them at the giant’s legs. Aim at a level where humans could hit” the necromancer said to the kid, already thinking of a spell for himself. He was sure he knew one from long ago, before he had turned to the dark arts.

Usually Par only casted the spell and released the balls of fire since they were hot to hold, but this time he didn’t. It meant they used even more of his mana, growing larger and more fiery. Soon the kid could no longer hold them in his hands even with the mage’s natural resistance to the effects of his own spells and he threw them forward shouting “Dodge.”

It was a good thing he did that or Kalin might have had a new haircut.

Now the balls flew passing only a couple of skeletons and torching them in their suits of armour. The fire hit the stone like skin sizzling out and leaving but a small mark where it had landed.

“Again!” Worglan said quickly.

Another volley of heated fireballs came and a few more making the place they hit redden somewhat. Then the necromancer smiled and threw a sphere of ice cold water that made the armour of skeletons it passed frost over.

The water splashed against the heated place hissing at the change of temperature and releasing a small gout of steam.

The old mage smiled appreciatively and made Par repeat his actions. They kept this heating and cooling for some five minutes before stopping and ordering someone to try it out. This fell to Wind, the green haired katana spirit of Nein’s. The guy didn’t linger around and slashed at the large reddish space of rock hard skin.

To his, and everyone else’s, surprise instead of leaving a cut or something of a kind his blade cracked the skin. Small lines ran out from the place he had hit where a tear had opened up. It was as if the skin itself was stone, not only alike.

This wasn’t normal but there was no time to stay amazed. The giant was furious with the development and released a mouthful of grunts and curses that resembled a thunder rumbling in the distance.

Then his palms went aflame and a whitish shield of crackling energy rose around him. It covered the whole body like a second skin. Mio who had been standing on the giant’s neck wasn’t quick enough to escape and electricity coursed through him, paralysing the whole body.

Aurora instantly casted her heals but it did little to help the situation. The guy was full health again but electricity was still killing him and he couldn’t move.

“We need to get him away!” June screamed out the obvious, casting a stone wall to stop the giant’s oncoming foot. He staggered for a second finding an obtrusion that hadn’t been there but didn’t fall.

“Hawk” Monthu said, turning to the guy who was already tying a rope to his arrow. “On it” he muttered without rising his eyes and after checking the knot fired.

It hit the beatsman’s right shoulder, dangerously close to his heart, but nothing Aurora’s heals couldn’t repair.

In the meantime Nein ordered Sun, the golden haired priestess of his, to blind the giant while he himself muttered spells of resistance to electricity. First he put it on Hawk and then the others that fought close up besides Mio, his buffs like all others had a limited cast range.

Nein’s vampire boy materialised beside him. “He has no apparent weaknesses I could exploit. There are a few strange openings I saw but it would take time to find a use for them.”

Nein nodded with a thoughtful expression. What opponent didn’t have all the natural weaknesses it should? Something more was going on here than they could see, of this Nein was sure, but just what? He had a feeling they would be forced to find out if they wanted to win.

“Harp, play Final Battle” he said to his female bard. In moments the atmosphere in the cavern changed to a one where everyone felt the need to fight. Healers and mages felt invigorated, filled to the brim with the energy, warriors’ eyes clouded in battle lust while berserkers went even more mad than before. Aster who had jumped on the wall to escape electricity went back to the giant, ignoring the electricity so he could slash and cut with his daggers. His eyes started glowing from the exertion, body pushed past the limit but it didn’t seem he cared.

Brute, the axe spirit, was pretty much the same just on the ground.

Monthu felt the effects too but being of the sane mind, he could control it up to a limit. He went to Hawk and while the giant was preoccupied with the blinding lights and raging berserkers helped to pull Mio down.

When he fell Worglan used a levitation spell to catch him and Aurora healed him another time. He was taking huge amounts of damage from the current running rampant in his body.

“Electricity Resistance” Nein said, throwing the spell the beastman’s way.

It stopped the shaking and Mio opened his eyes somewhat confused as to where he was. “What happened?” he asked, seeing Lana’s relief on her face and hearing Lancelot’s sigh. They had all retreated from the battle to check up on him. Only the skeletons, spirits and bersekers were still in action.

“You almost died, man, that’s what happened” Kalin said like a true friend that he wasn’t. The only reason he had backed was to save energy. Why should he fight while they all were taking a break?

Mio shook his head as if to push away something from his mind. “No matter, we still have a battle to win” his voice was gruff and slightly strained.

Monthu nodded, giving him the peace he needed and turned just in time to see something blackish red dashing form the pit and up the giant king’s leg. It was hard to identify because of its speed but Monthu could have sworn it had the shape of a small human.

Yet Ace was dead for two days more, so who could i-?

He wasn’t the only who noticed it. Others saw the quickly moving red thing too, but they had different ideas on who that might be.

“Is that Silv..?” Hawk whisper asked in a soft, barely audible voice.