“You found her floating down the river? “ Alain repeated what the boy had said as a question. His eyes were frowning rather than showing any concern for the girl. This girl marked the arrival of an unknown variable in his plan.

“Yes! She was holding on to a branch for dear life, that’s how I knew she was still alive.” Renald said. “But she was already unconscious when I retrieved her body from the river. After I brought her here and dried her off yesterday, she had not woken up yet.”

Alain crouched down and examined her wounds and body. He also took the time to look at the high-quality reptilian scale armor that was laid on the side. She’s either rich or a high-level hunter, but so young? Alain thought.

Alain noticed something peculiar on her wounds. The injuries were small and precise. Too precise.

“This wasn’t caused by a giant, it’s too clean,” Alain said.

“W-what does that mean? What else could cause it other than giants?” Renald asked nervously.

“Other humans,” Alain replied. The giants are not the only dangerous monsters in the world, boy. I am sure you already know. Alain thought solemnly, remembering flashes of Renald’s parents.

Renald went silent after hearing that. He copied Alain and crouched down in the ground next to the girl. “Can she still make it?” He asked.

“Yes. It seems her body went into shock and then into a coma. I think she probably consumed nectar which explains why she’s still alive...barely. We just need to apply bandages right now. I’ll give her more nectar to drink as well just in case,” Alain said. He stood up again. “But we need to bring her back to The Sanctuary quickly to get proper treatment. I’ll find a way to do that quietly.”

I can’t risk taking her to the med bay. Her existence will expose everything. Alain thought.

“About that, I’m not going back,” Renald said. He stood up as well.

“What?” Alain turned to look at him with wide eyes.

“I don’t believe everything you promised yet.” The boy turned to look at Alain in the eyes. “I’ve had adults completely ignoring my situation. I reported my parents to the P.O.B dozens of times and they did absolutely nothing. You think I’ll just believe you’re doing this out of kindness?” He said with conviction.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t have thought to pursue you if you don’t have that.” Alain pointed at Snow the giant Kashik with white fur. Snow hissed at Alain as a reply. “But I also didn’t lie about taking you in. Again, I’ve seen your parents, and I relate to you in some manner. I’ll help you.” Alain’s eyes turned dark as he dug down repressed memories.

Renald eyed Alain for a few seconds. “I’ll take both of you to The Sanctuary with Snow. After that, I’m gone again.” He didn't give Alain a chance to reply and walked to Snow and the supplies he had stored in the room. He started tying the supplies to Snow’s back in preparation to leave.

Alain shook his head but continued crouching down to the unconscious girl again. I can’t push him too much, it’ll have the opposite effect. I just hope I can persuade him before we arrived. He thought.

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The two spent another hour preparing to leave in awkward silence. Alain changed the girl’s bandages and gave one vial of nectar to her, leaving him with only one more. Renald was packing up and tying his supplies to Snow’s back.

“The crystal, did you find any more of it?” Alain asked, breaking the eerie silence.

“No,” Renald said, shooking his head. “And trust me I’ve looked deep inside this tunnel until the dead end. There’s no crystal anymore. And the crystal I consumed also faded away into dust.”

“It faded away?”

“Yes. There are no traces of it left. That was the only crystal here. I wouldn’t lie to you about this.” Renald replied.

Damn it! Why did I come all this way then! Alain thought as he frowned deeply. He breathed in and out to calm down. But confirming its existence and effectiveness like this is also good. And I can observe that boy and that thing interacting with each other to study the crystal's full effects. Maybe I can search for it again in the future. Alain thought as he looked at Renald who was tying supplies to the Kashik’s back while also rubbing its fur in affection.

“I’m going to look outside to see the situation. I was chased by a Valang before I entered this hole. You finish preparing everything.” Alain said as he walked off the room. Renald nodded and continued on his business.

Alain walked to the hole’s opening that he used to enter. He focused his hearing to make sure there were no giants nearby and peeked out. He checked the surroundings and didn’t find anything particularly interesting. His enhanced hearing also picked up the stream of the river nearby. But then he looked up into the skies and his eyes went wide.

Alain rushed down inside the hole again and ran to the room where Renald and the others were. Renald looked at him in surprise.

“Finish preparing everything! Now! We’re leaving.” Alain shouted as he picked the girl off the ground and carried her.

“W-what? What happened?”

“It’s the cloud, rain is coming! This hole will be quickly flooded with rainwater if we stay here. We need to leave now and find a new shelter to shield us from the rain.”

“Alright!” Renald finished tying off the last of his supplies. He jumped up and climbed into Snow’s back. “Climb up!”

Alain approached Snow carefully. Snow still had his eyes trained on Alain, ready to pounce any time. “Are you sure he won’t attack me?” He asked nervously.

“He won’t, trust me! We need to leave now if it’s going to rain as you said!”

Alain nodded and jumped up into Snow’s back with the unconscious girl in his arms. He felt...comfortable sitting here. The fur was extremely soft and he could feel the Kashik’s skin was cushioning his sitting.

“Let’s go, Snow!” Snow purred, but from their miniaturized perspective, it was more like a growl. With them on his back, Snow started to walk towards the entrance of the hole before stepping outside.

“You’re right!” Renald looked up to the dark clouds above them. He even saw some crackles of terrifying lightning inside of them.

“It’s going to be a hard one! Summer rain is dangerous! Let’s go!” Alain shouted.

Snow started to dash into the forest. He nimbly jumped over every obstacle with precision and from the humans’ perspective, they might as well be traveling at the speed of sound. Alain’s eyes widened as he marveled at the Kashik.

This is what a tamed giant can do. I need to find that blue crystal. Alain thought.

Suddenly, Alain noticed a sound that was familiar to him from just today but something he did not want to encounter again so soon. He looked back and saw it again.

“It’s the Valang that was chasing me!” Alain shouted.

Renald looked back and saw the Valang. His expression turned dark. “Snow! Go!” He screamed. Snow started to pick up his pace. But the Valang was in pursuit, and it had wings. Soon enough, it already flew close to them.

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“Renald, take her!” Alain gave the unconscious girl to Renald so he could hold her in place. Alain reached down to his satchel and threw a flash bomb to the Valang.

“Look away!” Alain shouted. The flash of blinding lights illuminated the forest. Alain looked back and was shocked to see that the Valang was still flying, It had knocked the bomb out of the way so it would not hit its eyes directly. It had learned what it was after suffering from it before. The gigantic bird cawed in anger and dived down again.

Snow stopped his dash and dodged nimbly out of the way. Alain and Renald had to grab on to his fur tightly to stay on his back. The white Kashik swiped his claws at the incoming Valang. The claws left a small wound for the Valang but the bird’s talons were even sharper than that, The Valang managed to injure Snow’s face and part of his paws. Snow hissed in pain.

“Snow!” Renald screamed in terror as he saw the wounds on his giant friend.

The Valang did not fly up again as it seemed determined to kill the Kashik. It used its talons to stab one of Snow’s legs. As the talons were deep inside Snow's skin, Alain saw the opportunity and throw another flash bomb. As the bird was still preoccupied, it could not dodge and it received the full impact of the blinding light to its eyes. After coming into contact with the flash bombs twice, some of the bird’s retinas and vision have been permanently damaged. It cawed in pain.

“Tell Snow to run now!” Alain shouted.

“Snow!” Renald said urgently.

Snow’s face grimaced with pain and there was a lot of blood tainting his pure white fur. But it realized that they needed to move out of there quickly. Snow held on, forcing his body to suppress the pain and ran off. As they were running away, rumbles of lightning reverberated the skies. Hard rain started to pour into the forest.

“Snow, can you find any shelter for us?” Renald said. He rubbed on Snow’s back worrying about the injuries the Kashik sustained. Snow meowed, or rather groaned, as he took off toward a certain direction. Giants have much more keen senses and instincts in finding shelter in a natural environment.

The rain drizzled down heavily. For these miniaturized humans, each droplet were huge balls of water that hit their bodies with force. Alain motioned to Renald, who was carrying the unconscious girl, to go near him. Alain shielded the two with his body and then took his giant sword-ax on his back and used it as a shield above their head to protect them from the rain. They stayed like that for a while as Snow looked for shelter.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of searching, Snow found what they were looking for. It was a moss-covered carcass of a giant dead tree with its center hollowed out. It was big enough for the humans and Snow to take shelter underneath it and there weren’t any other giants inside of it as well, other than a few insects that were easily killed by Snow. They stepped off Snow’s back and settled down.

“Set the girl down over—”Alain collapsed in exhaustion before even finishing his sentence. He had been physically exerting himself for two days virtually without sleep. With the adrenaline rush of the two Valang chases, his body just could not take it anymore.

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“Alain! Mom is…” A young boy cried as he was exiting a house that was obliterated by an unknown force. Its entire structure had collapsed. Scenes of similar chaos and carnage were unfolding nearby with people panicking and mourning their lost ones.

“L-let’s go!” A young Alain with a frail-looking body said to calm down his younger brother. But he held back tears as well, although there were hints of anger beneath the sadness. Alain pulled on his brother’s arm and dashed off. Sceneries of tragedy played out all around them as they ran.

Alain looked back while he was running. “We will escape this! Don’t worry, we will find a way to keep on living, you hear me? The Giantslayers will be able to defeat that giant!” He said.

The young boy nodded. He looked up to the skies full of stars above as he saw figures of humans fighting a shadow that was very, very large. If the humans called giants ‘giant’ for their size, then that...thing would be what the giants would actually consider ‘giant’.

As they ran, something happened in the blink of an eye. The young boy stopped dead in his tracks with his eyes wide, and blood appeared on his lips. Alain’s momentum was halted as the hand that was pulling his younger brother was not able to move anymore. He turned around to see horror.

“NO!” Alain shouted in the purest sense of agony. A tentacle made out of shadow itself had stabbed through the young boy's chest. Blood had sprayed everywhere and the boy’s mouth was now filled with blood flowing out. His vital organs were destroyed.

“B-brother.” The young boy only had time to mutter out that word. Alain could see the life in his brother’s eyes slowly slipped away before his eyes turned gray. His eyes were open, but it did not look at anything. The tentacle pulled away from the younger brother’s body and traveled into the sky above. Alain followed the tentacle’s movement to realize it was connected directly to the dark shadow in the night sky that was visible from the city's roof that was ripped off.

Alain was petrified. Red shining eyes and the smirk of the devil looked down at him. Not only in his general direction, but at him. The city was vast and the distances between the two of them were far. Out of the thousands of people running away in panic, the shadow was looking at Alain.

“Pathetic boy. Could not even protect his mother and brother. Now it’s your turn as well” The shadow’s mouth twisted in a wicked smile.

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Alain jolted awake. His breathing was heavy and erratic. He was usually alone in his room when this happens, but he found himself out in the wilderness with the soil below him rather than his bed and other people there with him. He looked around the surrounding area.

“Are you okay?” Renald said worryingly. His face was illuminated by the fire in front of him, the fire was small enough to not spread to the surrounding environment. It had turned nighttime but the sounds of rain could still be heard above them hitting the roof that was the dead tree.

“I’m okay. Just a nightmare” Alain replied. He controlled his breathing so he could calm down.

“You slept like a log. It had been hours since we arrived here.” Renald looked at the unconscious girl next to him. “She still sleeping.”

“It’s fine. It’ll take a while for her body to recover. You know how to start a fire?” Alain asked as he stood up and approach the campfire.

“I had researched how to do it for one of the acting roles I had done in the past.” The boy said. He turned around to gaze at Snow, who was sleeping. “He’s hurt. I don’t know if he could carry us and run tomorrow.”

“We’re not that far from the edge of the forest and after that, it wouldn’t be too far until we reached The Sanctuary. Even if we walked, it would be fine.” Alain replied.

Renald nodded and cast an empty gaze at the fire in front of him.

“I guess more dangerous giants will be out there right? More dangerous than the Valang we encountered.” He asked.

“That’s right. That’s why I’m telling you to stay in The Sanctuary.” Alain said.

Renald hugged his legs. “I don’t know about that. I’ll inevitably see them again, my parents that is.”

Alain raised an eyebrow. “Your parents, since when were they like that?”

“Maybe around three years ago when I started acting,” Renald said. “There was an audition for the local theater and I managed to land the lead child role. The show was a huge success and money started pouring in our normal family. They started to enjoy the luxury they’re able to get now and eventually they turned to...those things.” He grabbed his knees tightly with his hand.

“The nectar rocks.”

“I don’t know what they are. I just know they smell terrible and make my parents go crazy. They wouldn’t let me do any other thing outside acting. They needed the money. I was...not their son anymore.” Renald teared up as he said that.

“I’m sorry to hear that kid.” Alain said. He wasn’t sure how to cheer him up. He didn't exactly have interpersonal skills.

“Don’t call me kid!” Renald wiped off his tears with his sleeves. “What about you? What’s your whole deal?” He asked.

“I’m not that interesting, ki—” Alain almost slipped and called him ‘kid’ again. He coughed. “I’m not that interesting, Renald. I’m a second-year student in the Giantslayer academy so I have one more year left until I finish my training. I guess people say I’m ambitious, and I am. I want to be strong.” He said.

“I’m not sure you’re telling me the entire picture but alright,” Renald said smiling.

“Maybe someday I will. But not now.”

“You know, I’m interested in becoming a Giantslayer as well. I feel like exploration is in my genes. I want to go out there and have adventures like this. I want to become strong enough to protect myself...and now Snow as well” Renald said with his eyes glimmering. The fire reflected on his eyes seemed to mirror his determination.

“Have you done the nectar initiation test yet?” Alain asked.

“No, not yet. Can you tell me about them? Nectars, I mean. Ah, and also about the Giantslayer levels as well! And oh! About the types of Giants too!” The boy said as he started to become excited.

Alain shook his head. “How about I tell you tomorrow on our journey back? It seems we’re going to walk anyway. You need to get some sleep. It’s my turn to keep watch of the surroundings.” He said. There was a strange glimmer of nostalgia in his eyes. A very, very slight smile could also be seen in Alain’s mouth.

Renald noticed his slight change in his demeanor and became intrigued. “Alright. But you promised!” He decided to comply and slept next to the campfire. The sounds of rain still rang through their ears outside.

As Renald was sleeping beside the campfire, the full features of his face were finally illuminated by the light. It was Alain’s first time catching a glimpse of his full face in its entirety since the hole they were at before was too dark and he did not have the time to look while they were being chased by the Valang. Alain’s eyes became watery but he quickly shook his head. He looked at the sleeping Renald one more time.

He looks just like him. Alain thought in his head. He looked below to see his hands trembling. He put it in front of his face, clutched it, and put it down again. He’s gone. There’s nothing I can do about it. Alain said in his mind. It was another lonely night of him staying awake in deep contemplation.