CHAPTER 346 – A SIMPLE TEST

Everlyn struck the glowing red paver in front of her in frustration. “The stupid thing isn’t responding.” She leapt a meter to the right to touch another of the stones. “Damn it! This ones broken too.” She stood and kicked the second paver for good measure. ”Completely unresponsive! I can see which platform they connect to, but I can’t engage them. The giant’s hijacked our island.”

“No need to get worked up. We were going there, anyway.” Michael reminded her.

She stamped the glowing stone petulantly. “That’s not the point.”

The healer chuckled at her annoyance. “I hate being forced to do things, too. But what’s important about this is that it represents an interesting mechanism. Not sure if its size or first in first served, but knowing that a target island doesn’t get a choice once it’s been engaged sounds valuable.”

Her anger faded. “Thankfully, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that, because we’re aligned with all the competitor races.”

“Maybe,” Michael muttered. “Unless the natives are sapient. Then this may have been a deliberate lesson. I’m glad they’ve done this. We’ll find out the exact mechanism, but if it’s first in first served, we now know even when searching for a new destination to keep our island locked onto something distant so it can’t be hijacked.”

Their platform was rocketing toward where the giant stood, travelling five times as fast as it had when it had come to collect them.

They prepared for the coming confrontation by having Tom move to stand next to Michael and Everlyn at the point where their platform would connect to the giants. The rest of them were fifteen metres further back. They were standing unconcerned with their backs to one of the crypt doors because they had scouted and shown them to be empty and therefore safe. Not completely oblivious. Tom realised Puma was standing alert, facing the dark space, anyway.

They approached the giant, with only the three of them as the engagement party.

This was a topic they had discussed ad nauseum. Everyone else was banned from having any contact with the other races. It was just the three of them that would get that honour. Tom because of both Social Silence and True Dreaming was absolutely required because none of them were naïve enough to think otherwise.. The second factor was the main driver for his presence. Social Silence was good but would not be sufficient to offset Tom’s complete lack of any complementary skills, either ones that were Existentia assisted or otherwise.. But if they were building an alliance based off his visions, then he had to be available for them to hear his experience firsthand. Each of the others species would want to independently verify the truthfulness of his statements. Everlyn and Michael would be there as the primary point of contact because they had sacrificed immediate power to gain skills that could help them in the coming interactions. They would be able to tell what the body language and word choice of the other species actually meant, rather than Tom who despite having shared their thoughts for a period would have to guess at that non-verbal part of standard communication

They were the trained diplomats and he… he was he guessed the expert witness.

The closer they got, the larger the giant became. From kilometres away, it had been a figurine that was more sizeable than the others, but had not exhibited a presence, so to speak. It had been theoretically large, and not much more than a curiosity. Now that they were less than half a kilometre distant that impression had completely changed.

The giant was terrifying to look upon.

Tom wanted to retreat and stop the island, but that was out of their control. They were going to be within range for the giant to express its slightest whim unless the chosen got involved to save them by flying them away to a safer location.

Michael stirred abruptly and exhaled sharply like he had forgotten to breathe for a period. “The descriptions were clear, but… it hits different when you see it up close.”

“Him,” Tom corrected absently, “the giant’s a him, not an it.” Even as he protested, he, a hundred percent agreed with the sentiments. There was nothing in his earth experience which compare to the person they were about to meet. were about to meet. Giant as a moniker was one thing, but to be near him in real like was another. Selena, with her entire team, and Phil were nearby almost ten metres behind it, and their presence meant he couldn’t even assume that their fellow competitor’s size was an optical illusion. They were tiny in comparison only coming up to its knees. How could full grown humans be so small? No, how could it be so massive? It would have towered over the tallest giraffes… It would have dwarfed them. The giant was at least twice their height and ten times their mass.

Earth physics wouldn’t have allowed it to exist anywhere apart from in the ocean. To have it standing there…

Despite all of his life experience, Tom was having an actual bodily reaction. It was a struggle to force himself to breathe normally and not hyperventilate.

Size doesn’t mean anything, he reminded himself over and over again. Big is not necessarily better.

Not here, at least.

“It’s an aura skill,” Everlyn said tightly next to him. “Once you realise, the fear effect gets easier to resist.”

Tom felt some of the cloying terror lesson. It was still massive, but he had fought heaps of similar sized monsters. Battled and slaughtered. Size did not matter in combat, and his instinctive reaction told him that Everlyn was right.

An aura had wormed its way into him unnoticed.

That was almost as embarrassing as the fear.

Michael grimaced. “Phil’s a real prick you know… He could have warned us. Wouldn’t have cost him a thing”

They lapsed into silence.

The two platforms approached their joining rapidly before his one halted with a bare millimetre of separation between them. The giant waited thirty metres from the edge, but even at that significant distance Tom still had to tilt his head back uncomfortably to look him in the eye.

Tom swallowed and then, with a more confident flare than he actually felt he jumped across the small divide with a forced smile on his face. He would have preferred to have received a debrief from Selena or Phil before this meeting, but that was not an option.

The positioning of the welcoming party had not been created by mistake. The giant wanted to greet him personally. Tom tried to remember the relevant details of the personality even as the unnatural fear continued to claw at him and interfered with his logical thinking.

Its aura this close was absolutely devastating.

Tom remembered that the mind in the slab of flesh in front of him had been honour bound, with an attitude that strength makes right, but had been unwilling to steal from his clan mates. He wasn’t sure there was anything from those memories that he could use for his benefit. That experience of sharing another mind had once felt like a significant advantage, but standing in front of the giant Tom realised how insignificant that knowledge was.

Helplessly, he licked his lips and cursed his past self. He should have directed more True Dreams toward understanding what made the creature tick inside. Going in blind like this was a terrible mistake. If he had spent more time to comprehend the personality he faced, then the aura might not have got the grip on him that it had.

Everything screamed at him to stay at the edge of the platform well away from the giant in order to give him a chance to flee. With iron will, he ignored those false instincts and left Everlyn and Michael behind as he advanced toward it.

Phil had done this. He had approached the giant based on no more than notes sent through the auction house. Somehow Phil had conquered this same fear that was almost paralysing Tom and he had done it with no proof it was safe to do so. While right now, as confirmed by the humans behind the giant, Tom wasn’t facing the uncertain threat the New Zealander had.

There was evidence that the giant was reasonable. Phil and Selena’s entire squad being alive was his proof.

That drove the fear out of him.

He glanced at the New Zealander, who was speculated to be a mass murdering psychopath with genuine respect. The courage he had demonstrated back then was extraordinary and because of that they still had a chance to defeat the dragon..

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He had crossed ten of the thirty metres and planned on getting within five to prove his dominance over its aura.

It shifted its club and Tom’s stride almost faltered. The weapon was as thick as a medium tree but hard in a way that trees weren’t supposed to be. He could see the grain, the splintered end and the carefully worked handle. It was simultaneously an exquisitely crafted artefact and one plucked straight from nature.

There was an odd glint in the giant’s eye that compounded the aura he was facing.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, but with even steps that he was proud of Tom approached to within six metres of the monster before stopping. His instincts screamed that it was too close. For the giant, it was a single step and the more pessimistic part of him told Tom that he was in perfect range for a club attack.

He craned his neck up and waited. Social Silence choked off his throat and his eyes flickered from spot to spot. The fingernails were closer to claws and were the size of his head with a sharpened end and naturally filed to a wicked point. The skin had thin hair over it that was as fine as his own. The jaw looked carnivorous, more dog than monkey.

His domain registered Michael and Everlyn transitioning across to his platform, but they remained on the edge and did not get any closer.

Stubbornly, Tom waited and held himself still apart from his darting eyes while the giant studied him.

Then the giant’s lips parted to show pointed teeth all of which were longer than his finger. They were tightly packed.

Internally, Tom quivered.

“You’re Weak! And those behind you? Are they your slaves? And if so, why would you bless the weakest amongst your pathetic tribe to hold such a position.”

“They’re not slaves. They are our leaders.”

“But so weak. So underserving.”

“There is power beyond raw attributes.”

The giant regarded him curiously. “It offends me to associate with your kind, but my gut says you’re important. It is a paradox.”

Tom struggled with Social Silence to find an appropriate response. Everything seemed to be wrong. He shut his eyes momentarily to think.

Time slowed dramatically!

All of his alarms screamed warning and not the usual type where if he listened he could negate them. These were far more alarming.

There wasn’t the opportunity to open his eyes to assess the situation. The decision had to be made blind based on the data his domain, traits, skills and pseudo lightning domain were bringing him. The club was hurtling at him far faster than he thought was possible. There should have been a massive sonic boom accompanying it and potentially there was but the noise hadn’t reached him.

The weapon was directed to kill him. This was not a probe, or the playful opening of the spar. This was a lethal surprise attack. His mind was able to map its trajectory. It was going straight through the centre of his mass. A column of death that extended well behind him so he couldn’t flip or leap backward to avoid it.

His intellect was running calculations, and his gut told him that if the blow triggered Lightning Dodge, it would be a disaster. That, his instincts, bolstered by True Dreaming would cause the giant to lose all respect for him. He would probably survive for a time, but the struggle to align all the pieces to defeat the dragon might become impossible. Which was a death sentence in itself, just delayed a few weeks. He needed to prevent that outcome. He couldn’t rely on Lightning Dodge to save him. .

What could he do?

If he threw himself flat… it wouldn’t take him out of the arc. He needed more… but if he added a teleport… No that still wasn’t enough… If he teleported twice? Where would that get him? He imagined his new position and the column of death of the club.

Splattered… was the answer.

His consciousness switched to a different solution.

If he jumped and teleported up and teleported a second time…

Then what?

The locations of how high he could reach along with the club’s position were generated in his mind. No, it was close, but still a disaster. Even that effort would leave him in the killing a zone. A direct impact with everything below his stomach pulverised and what was left of his torso would be launched in a trajectory off the platform.

How about if he utilised extra skills. What happened if he jumped and the rock in his tunic lifted him up at the same time and then he teleported and teleported again and kicked his leg down to force his centre of mass higher … turn just a narrow strip in his thigh to stone and then use his domain to cut off his leg and then…

The club would hit and the leg would be turned into dust and biological sludge, and the horrible energies the club would otherwise have inflicted would not contaminate him directly. If he was reading the alarms right, then even a glancing blow could be fatal if those powers bounced around within him.

He would still be sent flying, but more up than sideways, so it was probable that he would land on the platform… and not require rescue by the chosen.

It would likely work.

Twenty fate left him and he focused on implementing the plan and discovered his subconscious had already reacted. He was leaping up and his eyelids had opened. The stone jerkin he always wore was digging into him as it dragged him straight up.

Time was slowed at the maximum that Black Dodge could give him. With his rank forty-two level speed and a six times multiplier that dilation was significant. Despite, that, the club was swinging at him impossibly fast. The giant’s arms, hands, weapon were a blur while everything else seemed to be frozen in time.

He triggered the first teleport, and the weapon was that much closer already. It was still on track to kill him. His panic manifested the ability to teleport once more, and he vanished and appeared higher. The magic of teleportation and the desperate signals sent to his muscles forced his leg to kick downward. It shifted his body up a fraction. Living Rock formed and his domain created a shearing force.

The leg broke away.

There was the brief impression of chosen shields interceding to save him before they shattered.

Time clicked back to full speed.

There was a pop under him and the concussive blast that followed the club was like being struck by the errant paw of an armageddon ranked monster. He was sent flying high in the air, wind rushed over him. Then he was free falling and when he looked down, he had been thrown almost twenty metres up.

He fell, plunging to the ground.

Time didn’t slow, but he was only facing mortal forces, normal physics. This was easy enough to counter. His rock tunic exploded around him and cushioned his fall, and slowed him just before he would otherwise have impacted the cobblestones. He landed hard, bounced once, and then he flexed his will. The stone from the platform came under his control and acted to first steady himself and then push him to his feet.

With desperate eyes, he sought to see what the giant was doing.

If it was going to attack again, he would throw himself over the edge of the platform. Risking falling forever into the void was a better risk to take than tanking another blow.

The giant hadn’t moved and was in its relaxed, waiting stance.

A large chunk of the hundred plus kilograms of stone that had helped support him was sacrificed to reform his leg. Magic flowed, converting it to Living Rock so it could become flesh. With his heightened mana pool, it only took about a third of his reserves.

It was staring at him with indifference. “You’re a failure. You cheated by receiving outside help.”

“No,” Tom shouted back. “I am far from a failure. You struck and I endured. The chosen betrayed me and their shields did nothing in any case.” Social Silence did nothing to stop him. It almost seemed approving like it knew more about the situation than he did and believed an assertive pushback was required. “The indisputable fact is that You cheated and I should destroy you all as a fair and measured response.”

“I had no control over them, and I am furious at their interference. Do to them as you will.” Tom hated to say it but knew deep down that anything less than throwing them under the bus was a betrayal of them all. “Or possibly the prudent approach is a retest.” It mused clearly having not listening to any of his protests.

Tom swallowed. “If it is only the two options, a retest is preferable, but the shields did nothing.” He wanted to hit the chosen. The idiots had not read a single one of the context clues. He had not specifically asked them not to help, but nor had he expected the giant to do this. And also with their outlook if they saw a sapient in trouble they were always going to intercede. “It was not my fault.” He repeated, suspecting it would do nothing.

“I agree,” the words were ground out. “The shields may have prevented some knock back, but fundamentally they were ineffective. I see no need to retest. That was an unconventional way of surviving but you survived, So I guessed you passed. We may talk, but I would not suggest the same examination for your companions.”

Tom noted Phil smirking beyond the giant. A blaze of irritation shot through him. By rights, both this introduction and the aura should not have been a surprise to them.

He glanced at Michael and Everlyn and then back to the giant. A frown on his face. “I assume if they talk to you, then they need to survive a blow to prove their worthiness.”

“That is the way. I am happy to give them the test. As you said, attributes are not the full extent of someone’s power. I was wrong about your ability to endure. I could be mistaken about theirs. Too”

Tom swallowed.

The alien competitor had been expecting him to die and despite everything Phil must have told him about the dragon threat he had swung, anyway.

It was not malicious just a cultural misunderstanding… an almost lethal misunderstanding but a minor one at least by intent, nevertheless. To the giant there was a requirement of a minimum level of strength to be considered worthy of joining the discussion.

“Everlyn might survive but Michael won’t.”

“I will test if you believe they should be included in the conversation.”

“I don’t think that is necessary. Phil and I being part of the debate is all that is required.”

The giant’s ears twisted.

“That’s like a nod,” Michael’s voice via the party chat link reached him.

“So be it,” the giant said. “Phil has told me much. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“There is a threat waiting in the next zone that together as a team we can defeat.”

The giant’s cheeks rolled in a disturbing way.

“It’s the equivalent of laughter,” Michael reported, sounding confused.

“Why is that so funny?” Tom demanded more than a little surprised that Social Silence had let the outburst through.

The strange movements stopped, and it seemed to become dead serious once more. “Because my gut has been troubling me and when you said that, it quietened for the first time since I entered the trials. You may be too weak.” The giant stared significantly at the leg that Tom had lost. “To gain my respect or care but you have just enough power to be worthy of aiding me to survive my challenge.” It patted its stomach. “It’s curious and amusing that a nothing like you can shape the world sufficiently to impact my future.”

Tom found that he had nothing to say.

The giant regarded him and then nodded. “We are complete. Consult with Illucada. Finalise the plan and then tell me what is to be done before any crafting is started. It is important that nought is created before we’ve checked with my gut to confirm that we’re on the right track.”