Alissa ran the whetstone down her sword's edge as the others did their own preparations. They'd spent the night in the makeshift house, and now they had to be out and ready early to catch the caravan on its way out.

Akari of course had the most to do, gathering up her 'house' to send to Rosalina's place. She'd handled it with surprising efficiency, even having enough time to lecture each of the feral cats. Now the channeler seemed to be prepping her adventurer gear.

The catgirl's chosen outfit seemed to be a lamellar chestplate pulled as tight as possible given her figure and a frilly skirt. Alissa waited to see if she'd add any more armor to the ensemble, but instead the channeler just picked out a spiked iron club that was taller than she was and slowly slung it on her back.

"Are you going to be okay with just that gear?" Clara asked. "We can help you get something a little more expensive to start."

"I'll be fine." Akari's ears twitched. "My skin is tougher than any armor while I'm channeling. Besides, Ibaraki says armor slows her down. I think she just likes showing off, but I can't afford to replace the gear she breaks 'accidently' every time we fight." Alissa winced at the thought of having to repair or replace armor every battle.

That settled, the group abandoned the barn turned house and walked through the small village. Most of the people were up and about already, including the caravaneers of course. Soon they were back on the cart with the same dour faced woman from yesterday. After the usual delays, the caravan was off, moving down the road.

Alissa set up the few crates that were on the cart so she could look out over the forests. They were getting further and further from the large cities, so it was even more important to keep a watch. Fili took a seat next to her. Today the mage was smelling of mint and pine, though Alissa doubted people with normal senses of smell could tell.

Rosalina and Akari sat behind them, while Clara plopped right in the middle of the cart. The poor woman was probably trying to avoid unbalancing anything. Alissa was pretty sure Clara had given up being a traveling merchant because any cart she rented would be using a chunk of its load capacity handling the minotaur merge's weight. Not a good way to make a profit.

As they rolled along Rosalina and Akari started chatting, while Fili pulled out a book and started reading through it. Alissa sniffed a little at the mage's action, but to be honest it would probably be good to have one person rested to take over watch when Alissa's mind had been numbed by row upon row of trees and bushes.

Several hours in Alissa finally gave up on trying to focus on keeping watch and looked over to Fili. "What's that book on anyway?"

"It's new research on the origins of magic," Fili said, shutting the book. "It's been centuries since the Fall and we still don't know how exactly it works. Why some people can instinctively draw energy from beyond and manipulate it even as children, while others can't even touch magic without going through a merge."

"Did you awaken as a kid?" Alissa asked.

Fili nodded. "It was probably a good thing. My family wasn't in the best shape financially. I apparently was summoning fire to keep warm during winter. So I got enrolled into one of the boarding schools that feeds into the local magic Tower."

"Is there a power difference between those who awaken young and those who study magic normally?" Alissa asked.

"There's a power difference between everyone, both pre and post merge," Fili replied as she stowed her book. "Those of us who can access it instinctively are all better than the average, but that doesn't mean someone who had to train to access magic is inherently weaker. And since so much of a spell's power is tied to its crafting and variable selection, personal power really only matters in edge cases."

"That's-" Alissa's reply was cut off by a distant thud behind them. Another resounded as she and Fili both turned to see what was happening. There wasn't anything immediately in view, but the horses were getting spooked, and the heavy impacts were getting louder.

Clara slipped off the cart first and loaded her crossbow. "Giants." The driver swore and pulled the cart away from that side of the road. All along the caravan other drivers were pulling their carts to a halt, while guards and traders started prepping their weapons.

The rest of the team hopped off the cart, Alissa's graceful leap followed by Fili's awkward hop, then Akari vaulting over the side. The catgirl hefted the iron club to her shoulder. "Oho! Now this is worth getting called over for!"

Rosalina chanted something and Alissa felt her heart beat a little quicker. A speed enhancement. Probably the best move since the heavy thuds of a giant running were closer than ever.

A flicker of grey caused Alissa to look up and see the boulder heading for their group. "Look out," she yelled as she tackled Fili to the side. The small mage didn't offer much resistance, other than a muffled 'omph.'

The crash of the boulder hitting the road and skipping into the cart drowned out everything else for a moment. The deadly missile, now smeared with red, bounced a few more times into the forest beyond. And then the screams of one of the dying horses assaulted Alissa's ears. The cart was a shattered mess of wood, with one horse dead for sure, the other half crushed, and no signs of their driver.

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Booming laughter brought Alissa's attention back to the approaching enemy. She could see the giant now, its head towering over the smaller trees at the road's edge. It was five times the size of a normal man, wearing a simple classical robe. Worse yet there was the top of another giant's head peeking over the treeline behind the monster.

She pulled Fili up as the guards started shooting the huge bastard. The giant's grin turned into a bellow of pain as arrows and spells struck his exposed body. The monster tried to guard its face with its arm, but that only changed where the pain was coming from. Alissa managed a grin as she saw Clara's crossbow bolt sprout in the creature's wrist.

As Fili started casting Alissa ran forwards. She couldn't do much against these foes, but she had a few tricks to play. And she couldn't do anything from back here.

She let her cloak slip off as she hopped over a small bush and ran towards the second giant she'd seen. The howls and frustrated tantrum of the first giant suggested that one was being taken care of.

Which meant she'd have to delay the one in the back so no one would have to do something stupid or reckless and get killed or stuck in a giant merge.

"Going to seduce it? Because I doubt that little sword will do much."

She looked over to see Akari- no, the oni in Akari's body, keeping pace with her easily. It was odd seeing such an indolent grin on the proper woman's face.

"You'll see," Alissa said quickly before focusing on her approach. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she seduced something like a giant, and she wasn't going to find out.

She finally saw her target's body through the trees, and she was pleased to see the creature was only wearing sandals. Good. She changed her angle of attack, moving slightly to the side, so she wasn't directly in its path. Getting stepped on would end her little plan fast.

The earth shook as the giant continued walking forwards. Apparently it was happy to let its comrade take the beating from the caravan's combined might. Monsters were such lovely friends.

As the creature's massive foot set down next to her she rushed forwards. She spun to get as much momentum as she could behind the blow, and buried the knife into the creature's ankle. The tough flesh resisted, but not for long.

Her dagger's blade was a foot long. A pin to a creature thirty feet tall. But it was enough to pierce the skin.

And that was enough to trigger the pain magic.

The giant howled and stumbled, sending Alissa flying back as the knife was wrenched out of her grasp. The earth shook as the monster landed on its hands, cursing the pain that was slow to fade.

Then Akari skipped over and smashed the monster's kneecap with her club.

Alissa ran as the giant started flailing and rolling around in agony. Trees fell as the massive creature hammered into them, smashing in all directions as it screamed. The trembling earth caused her to mistime a step and she hit the ground herself, swearing as her leg hit a bramble bush.

Fortunately none of the thorns lodged in so she got off with scratches as she rolled to her feet. The giant was putting on an almost childish display, rolling around on the ground, while the oni possessing Akari, Ibaraki, if she remembered right, hopped back and forth, taunting and occasionally hitting it with her club. Alissa wasn't a fan of the technique, but neither of them had any way to make the kill clean.

She reached out, calling her dagger back to her hand. Perhaps with a precise throw she could hit one of the creature's wounds and send it into shock? Better than just sitting and waiting.

Her ruminations were cut off as a massive block of stone materialized and slammed into the giant's head. The monster went still after the first impact, but the block of stone hit it two more times before vanishing. It seemed one of the mages had been given enough time to unleash a finishing spell.

Without giants bellowing and flailing around the screams of injured humans and horses seemed almost quiet. Alissa sighed and fixed up her cloak before sheathing her dagger.

Ibaraki sauntered over to her. "Well that was an interesting fight! Never faced a giant monster before?"

"No." Alissa looked down at the woman. "Have you?"

"Me? Oh of course?" The oni took a long drink from her gourd. "This girl I'm possessing? Nah. Impressed though. She didn't panic at all. She's worried about me grabbing your chest."

Alissa's eyes narrowed. "Don't."

The oni laughed it off. "Please. As if Miss Perfect here would summon a rapist. I don't need force to get people into my bed." She started heading back towards the caravan. "Anyway, better see who got squished in this mess. Probably need a new ride too."

Ibaraki's disregard for the people who might have gotten hurt rubbed Alissa the wrong way, but she kept silent. Hopefully Akari would force the creature to help out if there was anything to be done for survivors.

They made it back to the road to find Fili and Clara keeping watch. The two waved as they left the treeline. Rosalina was behind the duo, healing a wolfman with a broken leg.

"Are you okay?" asked Fili.

"A few scratches," Alissa replied.

"Short on booze," Ibaraki said.

Alissa shrugged as Fili and Clara looked at each other. Clara decided to ignore the oni spirit and gave the results of this mess. "Only two fatalities. Someone's horse fell on them. And our driver."

"Shit." Alissa had hoped the woman had survived, but it seemed the boulder had struck true. "Rosalina confirmed she was dead?"

"Yeah," Clara replied. "Not much to work with either. Just bad luck."

Alissa nodded grimly. Magical healing could patch together almost anything if the caster was good enough and had enough time. But once a soul left to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation it was gone. And souls tended to leave quickly if your head got reduced to a shattered mess.

"Well if you're gonna be walking I'm gonna tag out," Ibaraki said. A shudder passed through the woman's body, and the catgirl let the heavy iron club drop from her shoulder before straightening up. Akari gave a slight bow. "I'll see if I can help Rosalina."

"I'll see what can be recovered from the cart," Alissa said. It was a grim task, but it had to be done.

"I'll help," Fili said. "I might be able to glue some stuff together."

Clara unstrung her crossbow. "And I'll go chat with the other merchants and see what needs to be done." The minotaur merge sighed. "What a mess. Guess this was the unlucky caravan this year."

"Yeah," Alissa agreed as she headed towards the splintered cart. Maybe they'd used up all the bad luck sitting around and everyone else could skip the trouble.

It was unlikely, but you had to hope.