Kai was aware of the creatures surrounding them, but he had eyes only for the Gormagyr.

The name alone was drenched in horror, of whispered tales of mad giants that shaped the flesh of those they stole into something new and terrifying.

Between blinks, the face of the young woman who’d been thrown into the rock was replaced by that of Kai’s sister, Min. Intellectually, he knew they looked nothing alike, but the circumstances were close enough to hit home.

Close enough to dip into the deep wellspring of hate that he kept buried.

Kai’s fire roared to life as he channelled a stream of Essence into his spear, igniting the blade. At the same time, a second stream swept through his body, quickening him and reinforcing him in equal measure.

Kai rarely pushed his Essence, preferring to rely on endurance and outlasting his opponent, but he was far too angry for such half-measures right now.

“Close up, stay together!” Ciaran’s voice cut through the howling of the monsters as he sliced one in half with his axe.

The Kranjir began to tighten their formation, turning their attention to the Thralls as several dozen of the foul things emerged from their hiding places.

A pulse of force from Verdan knocked a number of the creatures back, but another blast of magic from the Gormagyr forced the Wizard onto the defensive.

With his Essence enhancing him, Kai was both faster and stronger than the Thralls near him, and in moments, he put three of them down. The acrid stench of burnt fur and seared flesh filled the air, but Kai barely noticed.

Ciaran had chosen to go on the defensive to outlast the Thralls, while Verdan countered the magic of the Gormagyr. It was a reasonable plan, but one that failed to account for the innocents.

Kai could see some of the wooden pen in the distance, and the giant was turning to move over to it with a broad smile.

They’d caught the next captive that had been thrown, but how many more could Verdan field while also fighting off the giant?

A white-furred Thrall with canine features tried to catch Kai by surprise but abruptly slowed down mid-pounce, allowing Kai to easily slit its throat.

Glancing over his shoulder, Kai saw Hedda walk over to him, her fingers flicking out as she cast a series of minor curses at nearby Thralls. The Witches sparrowhawk sat protectively on her shoulder, but its gaze was on the Gormagyr.

“I can suppress its magic,” Hedda said softly as she reached up, and the sparrowhawk hopped into her hand. Flickers of blue and gold sparked in the eyes of the sparrowhawk as it turned to look Kai in the eye before shifting form. Where once had been a sparrowhawk now sat a dark blue athame. “Stab it with Sgian, and I will limit it for as long as I can.”

The burning desire of his fire Essence was pushing Kai to move, to attack, to fight, and Hedda had given him just the thing to do so.

Taking the hawk-turned-dagger, Kai called on both of his elements as he kicked off toward the Gormagyr. A fire was burning in his muscles, fuelling him and letting him move faster, while the air moved around him, posing no resistance to his speed.

The Gormagyr had its back to Kai as it moved toward the pen, letting Kai cover half the distance between them before it noticed him.

“Arrogance,” the giant rumbled, its eyes flashing with magic as a blast of sickly green magic shot out from its hand towards him.

Kai focused on his air Essence, infusing it into the air around him before pushing it into the path of the blast.

Kai wasn’t strong enough in his air element to divert such an attack, but he’d been around Verdan long enough now to know that it would weaken the blast.

The wave of energy that passed through Kai’s block was strong enough to still hurt him but not strong enough to resist the flames of his spear as he cut it apart.

Stolen novel; please report.

A flurry of bright orbs flew over Kai’s head, sticking to the environment around the Gormagyr, illuminating the creature and the wooden pen it had been heading to.

The giant snarled angrily, wincing at the light as it hurled a spear of oily green energy over Kai’s head before hurrying its retreat.

Kai didn’t look back, trusting in Verdan to block the attack, and instead raced after the giant as it moved away from the wooden pen. It seemed to have decided that putting some cover between it and the Wizard was more important than messing with its captives.

Twice more, the Gormagyr threw shapeless blasts of magic at Kai, and twice more, he weakened them before cutting them apart.

The giant had its cover from the rest of the group now, including Hedda, so Kai could only trust that the athame he had in his belt would be enough.

The Gormagyr realised that it was out of sight of the others and turned to Kai with a vicious grin, one that faltered as it realised how close the fast-moving Sorcerer was.

“Begone!” The giant’s roar was empowered by abyssal magic that clutched and pulled at Kai, trying to throw him away.

Kai stumbled as the command turned into a primal scream, his protective shield of air faltering piece by piece as it was ripped from his grasp.

In the space of several feet, Kai went from a headlong sprint to a complete stop, his every muscle straining against the magic binding him.

It wasn’t enough.

The last breath that left the Gormagyr’s cavernous lungs was enough to rip Kai from the ground and throw him against a nearby stalagmite.

Kai gasped in pain as the stalagmite cracked from the impact, and his breath was forced from his body.

The Gormagyr was panting and breathless, but it had enough presence of mind to leap forward, bringing both its fists down at his head.

Hurling himself aside, Kai felt the displaced air from the attack as the giant shattered the stalagmite he’d struck, growling its anger as black blood oozed from multiple small wounds on its hands.

The flesh of the giant was startlingly pale and, though thick, was almost translucent in nature, showing the tar-like blood flowing within its veins.

Kai rolled to his feet and drew on all the speed his fire could give him as he scrambled out of the way of the giant’s hand as it swung through the space he’d occupied a moment before.

The giant was almost three times Kai’s height, meaning that its fists were big enough to cave in his chest with a clean strike.

Glistening green energy wrapped around the giant’s hands as it swung wildly at him, making each strike into a potential death blow.

Kai had fought dangerous creatures more times than he could count at this point, so once he was confident in dodging the giant’s attacks, he began to fight back.

Lightning-fast thrusts and slashes with a tight arc let Kai draw blood again and again, though he found himself limited to its extremities.

For all that the giant was unskilled in close combat, its raw strength and reach advantage did a lot to make up for that.

The howling of the Gormagyr’s Thralls was dying down as Kai’s allies dealt with them, and Kai could see fear in the eyes of his foe.

The current situation was a slow loss for the giant, as Kai was leaving more and more wounds on its arms, and it had yet to do significant damage to him.

Experience told Kai that the giant would try something big to break the deadlock and then escape. It didn’t seem like the kind to fight to the bitter end.

Dozens of Thralls had been under the sway of the Gormagyr, each one representing a life that had been cut short to fuel its machinations.

Allowing it to run free was to allow it to kill more innocents, and Kai would not, could not, accept that.

Kai dug deep into his Essence, drawing on everything he had to empower himself as he split his focus.

Kai saw the resolve crystallise in the Gormagyr’s eyes as it committed to something, but he was already in motion.

A blast of air caught the giant’s jaw as Kai sprang forward, giving him just enough of a distraction that it reacted too slowly to stop him.

Kicking off the ground, Kai tossed his spear in the air and drew the athame that Hedda had given him. Driving the dagger into the giant’s ribs with both hands, Kai yanked the spear back into his hands with a loop of wind and drove the spike down into the Gormagyr’s foot.

The giant roared in pain and disbelief as the magic it had started to summon fizzled out and hunched forward as Kai pinned its foot to the ground.

The loop of wind attached to the spear thickened and grew more substantial as Kai fed every last ounce of Essence he had into it, flicking it up and over the giant’s neck before it could straighten.

Thick muscles strained against Kai’s magic, which restrained the giant for only a moment, but that was long enough for Kai to seize his spear and pull it free, thrusting the flaming blade up into the Gormagyr’s left eye.

“This is for Min,” Kai whispered as he twisted the spear, causing the giant to scream and recoil away from him as thick black blood spurted from the wound.

Kai pulled his spear free and hurried after the giant, intent on dealing a fatal blow, but whatever Hedda had been doing was no longer completely suppressing its magic.

“Die!” The giant roared, one hand clutching its ruined eye as the other threw a point-blank blast of energy at him.

Kai dodged as best he could, but his Essence had been pushed to the breaking point, and he wasn’t fast enough to avoid it completely.

Abyssal energy caught the edge of Kai’s arm, and agony flooded him as every nerve in his arm was set alight.

Disoriented and dizzy, Kai could do little more than feel the rush of air as the Gormagyr backhanded him away, throwing him through the air like a doll.

Gasping in pain as he flew back, Kai watched as the Gormagyr crawled to its feet and hobbled off into the darkness. Injured but very much alive.

He’d failed.

Then Kai struck the rock and was swept away into darkness and pain.