The moment Drim understood what was happening, he fled to the other side of the room. Normally when Jaid spawned a clone, the iris and pupils in her eyes would divide like a cell. But this time, the new pupil kept growing and growing until the black void consumed her eyes.
A similar thing happened with the clone. Normally, when one spawned, it would already be at the size it should be and would never change. This clone started out as a regular-sized Jaid. But then it grew, and grew, and grew, and grew, and eventually it ran out of room to grow.
Jaid, who had been clinging onto the giant’s shoulder, worked her way underneath the armpit for protection. Drim formed his own protection in the form of a giant tree—moderately sized in comparison—once the ceiling started to crack and he hid in its hollow. Rocks started to fall all around the room, and the mountain itself began to buckle.
Eventually, there was no room left for the giant to grow, her flesh filling every crevice, and she jolted upright. The giant Jaid burst through the top of a mountain like popping out of a cake. Debris flew everywhere, so Drim could only hope that it didn’t blast over into the compound. Once the rathequake had stopped, he reabsorbed the tree and stood to face the monster.
The giant Jaid tried to let go of the giant sword that had grown with her, clearly forgetting that it was fused to her very existence. Once she gave up on the idea, she did a big stretch and then shook off any lingering debris. The main Jaid was probably thankful that they were forced to stay attached, or she would have been flung off too. Once that ordeal was over, she climbed back onto the giant’s shoulder, and the giant’s eyes drifted over to her.
“Smash the pretty boy?” the giant asked for confirmation in a deep voice that reverberated around the crater she’d created. And Drim found a giant finger hovering over him directly, pointed at him and blotting out the sun. The clone wasn’t wearing Jaid’s arm and leg armor, most likely to not make the clone heavier than it already was.
“Gu-Guhhh, don’t call him that!” Jaid’s face boiled red with embarrassment. “And no, don't smash. We can’t kill him. We need to capture him alive. But it’s alright if he’s hurt, though.”
“Fineeee,” the giant replied. Her pointing finger turned to a claw, and she tried to pick up Drim with a pinch. While not as slow as the giants in fiction were depicted, Drim was still able to dodge out of its grasp easily. But the giant Jaid wasn’t as dumb as one might first assume. She had predicted both that Drim would dodge and where he’d dodge to. Her giant sword slid over behind him, trapping him against a spontaneous wall.
Drim almost felt like a mouse scurrying away—too easily trapped with nowhere to run. At least it wasn’t a giant cup she was putting over him. That would have been too great of a humiliation to suffer. There was no escape this time as the giant wrapped her fingers around him.
She pulled him up close to her face to get a better look. Her grip was surprisingly delicate. She must have had enough understanding of her strength to not crush him, but there was still no way in hell he’d be able to wiggle free. Once the small Jaid gave a nod, the giant let go of Drim entirely for just a brief moment, causing his stomach to drop like the rest of him.
He barely fell at all though, maybe a foot, but a fraction of an inch by the colossus’ scale. All she did was readjust him in her hand so that he was more centered, like anyone would with everyday items. She then closed her fingers to make a fist, making sure to leave plenty of room, but now Drim was trapped in a pitch-black fleshy prison. There was no way Phon would be able to teleport him out either, not with Jaid’s entire aura enveloping his own.
For now, he’d wait and see what happened, not wanting to take any drastic action. There seemed to be no intent to harm him further, despite Jaid’s declaration, so it could be in his best interests to play along and see what else the CP was scheming. Maybe the pain part she’d mentioned would come later.
Nothing happened for a while, but eventually things started to shift. Drim had to assume they were on the move. He had no idea where to, but the options were limited. There were a few directions to go, only one of them bad, so he hoped they’d pick any but that one.
However, his hopes were quickly strained when he heard muffled screaming from outside. To confirm, he pulled out his tablet. And after blinding himself with the glowing light in the darkness, he pulled up the map. Why did she have to be headed towards the compound…? It was undoubtedly the quickest route to their basecamp, but common sense would dictate that they’d go around the chaos and fighting.
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What a shame. He had been all prepared to snuggle up into Jaid’s surprisingly soft hand and go on trip with her—confident he could escape if need be under the current circumstances. Sadly, going through the compound presented innumerable issues. Well, it was numberable, three to be precise.
First, it meant he’d be failing in his duty in distracing Jaid and keeping her removed as a threat during the raid. Second, there was a chance the giant’s heavy weight and rattling footsteps could damage their buildings even when they were hidden underground. And third, what came directly after the compound was Bisomote.
Drim sincerely hoped that Jaid would have enough forethought to steer the giant away from the compound, but how much control she actually had over the behemoth could be a different issue entirely. There was no way the big woman could walk down Bisomote without there being some—more likely untold—collateral damage.
Trust, reliance, faith, speculation; they were all out the window. Drim’s personal opinions and beliefs didn’t matter now because he had to do his duty. He couldn’t let the giant or Jaid herself take one step onto the premises.
Daylight blinded Drim for a second time as Big Jaid’s fist shot open in pain. He had prodded it with countless thorns and shoved them in deep. The next thing to greet him after the light was gravity, and he started plummeting to the ground. It had to be a few stories at least, an amount he wasn’t comfortable leaving up to ‘being a Fiend’.
It was time for an old trick he hadn’t used in a while. He shot vines out from his ankles and they wrapped around the bottom corners of his cloak. The makeshift parachute snagged the air immediately and lurched him backwards before slowly—well not that slowly—floating him to the ground.
Once his feet touched the dirt, he found himself just a foot away from the front gate. The giant was just a step or two away from crossing the threshold into the compound. It was a good thing that he acted when he did, or he would have failed his mission. Now, this is where he’d have to make his stand.
Still, he felt some pity for the big girl. He’d clearly left her in agony as she desperately tried to dig the thorns out of her hand, blue blood pouring down her arm. It could be a mistake, but he recalled the thorns and would fight her head on without any cheap tricks.
The giant’s eyes lit up in relief, but it didn’t last—quickly turning to anger fuming directly at Drim. She gripped her sword and started to raise it. The boy could tell what was coming next, and he had to stop it at all costs.
Even though the giant had monstrous strength, it still wasn’t easy for her to raise it with just one hand since the other needed a moment to heal. This bought Drim just a bit of time to prepare. He flung one arm behind himself and held the other up in the air. This would require a ridiculous amount of nature energy, far more than he currently had stored up. But thankfully, there was a stockpile nearby.
Every single blade of grass on the compound was his, and it could be recalled at a moment's notice. Starting from the southern gate, a wave of death washed over the estate. Millions of grass leaves wilted at once until they turned black and shriveled to dust. Even Drim’s private garden was harvested, taking every ounce of nature energy he could get.
An endless stream of green light flowed into Drim’s left hand, but it didn’t stay there long. He didn’t really have issues reabsorbing his own stuff, but there was no way he could contain it all. Instead, the energy flowed right through him and out his right hand.
Countless black vines wrapped around his extended blade, making a new blade of thorns. Bigger and bigger it grew, as big as he could make it until Jaid’s blade would come crashing down. Fortunately, the vines were supporting themselves in place through his sheer will and control over his Curse, or the weight of the massive living-weapon would crush him itself.
The blade had grown to almost the giant’s height when Jaid finally swung, the vines blotting out the sun completely from Drim’s perspective. Their two masses of destruction clashed, an unignorable clang echoing around the compound. The giant didn’t take the obstruction well, and pushed down with all of her strength, but Drim pushed back, using every bit of physical and mental energy, straining himself to the brink.
Drim’s force started to overtake hers, so the giant grabbed hold of the lumbering hilt with her second now-healed hand and nearly doubled her strength. That just meant he had to push back harder. Eventually, they reached a stalemate. Any time one made a push, the other met their strength.
But the boss couldn’t let it continue. He still had a job to do and couldn’t let this clash decide the victor. Using what nature energy he had left, more vines started growing out of his blade. They flew over towards the giant and started wrapping themselves around her. Before the behemoth even realized, Drim had already tethered her arm. She could still push down with her strength, but there was no way she’d be able to pull the sword high again. This would have to be their last clash one way or another.