Jordan looked on in horror as the giant looked down at Vince, his arm bleeding profusely as he struggled to keep his eyes open. The giant was dressed simply, a brown travelers cloak with a hood being all he wore. However, he seemed to radiate with den, and the sword above him appeared to be controlled by him telepathically.
“Use symbiosis to take Vince back to the village. I’ll hold off the giant and escape once you two have some distance between us.” Bryn said, digging into his bag and pulling out 3 red potions.
He handed them to Jordan, and held out his hands. “Give me a sword, I can’t afford to get close enough to inject him with the watch, but putting a paralyze additive on this should work.” Bryn said, Jordan nodding and handing one of his swords over. He scooped the potions into his bag, and closed his eyes, the fog instantly pouring back out of him. He opened his eyes and peeked at the number in the corner of his vision.
4%
“I’m running on empty, but there’s no way Vince is going to live without all the health potions we have left. Distract him, escape, and we’ll get back to town. We can’t beat him until we recover, a spirit sword barbarian is at minimum level 14.” Jordan said as the fog formed a mask over his nose and mouth.
He dashed forward, scooping Vince onto his back as the floating sword thrust down. The blade narrowly missed Jordan’s head, and he raced in the direction of Dregmoor. The giant looked on, his expression unchanging and his demonic eyes unblinking. He wore no armor, his bare chest was an olive green color and bulged with mass. His brown cloth pants were torn in random spots, though he didn’t appear injured at all. As Jordan raced ahead, the giant’s voice boomed as he pointed in their direction.
“I’m going to kill all of you for what you did. You had no idea who you were dealing with you insignificant idiots!” He screamed as the floating sword jetted after the pair. Before it went too far, the sword was hit by a glass vial, a small fireball enveloping it immediately after. The sword fell to the ground as Jordan and Vince disappeared down the path, and the giant looked over at where the explosion had come from.
Bryn stared back at him, another vial in his left hand and a sword in his right. Though he stared unblinking as he locked eyes with his opponent, his mind was filled with nothing but fear. Obviously he wouldn’t be able to beat this guy, but would he even be able to escape?
“You want to be first? I’ve seen the three of you around town the last week or two. The adventurers protecting the town from the scary bandits. If you knew what was behind the doors of Everwatch, what we do would seem like child’s play” he said, his voice dripping with spite.
Bryn looked concerned as he heard what the giant said. What was he talking about?
The giant flicked his hand up and the glowing sword reformed by his side. He snapped his fingers and the sword began floating around without his guidance, as if it was independently controlling itself. He reached to his back and pulled 2 enormous great swords , holding one in each hand. Bryn felt a chill run down his spine, as fighters with incredible strength would barely be able to use one of those with 2 hands, and he gripped one in each fist as if they were feathers.
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Bryn saw the giant whisper something to himself, the swords lighting with black fire as he finished his incantation. He looked ahead at Bryn, his once brown eyes a blood red color. “You set my home on fire and attacked my crew.” He said, slowly walking towards Bryn. “I will slaughter you and that entire village like I should have done in the first place!” He screamed, his voice taking on a demonic deepness.
Bryn stood still, the sword in his hand shaking as his foe approached. What began as slow steps turned to a sprint with super powered speed, the strides of the giant carrying him a dozen feet per step.
“I’m dead” Bryn said as he saw the giant’s speed. His only hope would have been to inject multiple high level enhancement potions and outrun him, but no amount of potions would make up for this difference in quickness. Bryn stood still and held up his sword. “If I can hit him at all, the paralyze additive might buy Jordan enough time to get back to Dregmoor.” He whispered, gulping and charging forward as the giant’s quick steps caused the ground to rumble.
“You guys need to be more careful I can’t keep bailing you out like this” a soft voice said.
Bryn knew there was no one else around him, but he could have sworn the voice came from right next to him. “Even closer actually” the voice said as if answering the doubts forming in Bryn’s mind. As he thrust his sword toward the approaching giant, a white light enveloped his entire body. The light expanded rapidly, and Bryn heard a loud boom before being knocked back several dozen feet.
He landed on his back, though it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. As he got up to his feet, he blinked his eyes repeatedly as he tried to adjust his vision. The giant was still standing, though had been pushed back and was sporting several burn marks on his arm. Bryn looked down at his own body, half expecting to see his own burn marks despite the lack of pain. Instead, he saw that his clothes had been changed to a set of steel armor painted to be eggshell white. He looked at the sword he held in his hand and it had transformed as well. Instead of the decent quality blade Jordan had bought in Zyphtal, a pristine white and gold blade, with the cross guard in the shape of golden wings had taken its place. As he walked forward, he felt another presence inside his body.
“Who are you?” Bryn asked.
“Nice to meet you too” the voice said.
“Sorry kind of have a lot going on right now” Bryn said.”
“Fair enough. Well let’s just say some people where I’m from thought I would be a good fit with your friend, but I think you and I work together better. I had to take over completely last time since our connection was so weak, but now that I’ve gotten more used to you I think we can work together.” The voice said, its tone sounding similar to a young man, perhaps early 20’s.
“Can we beat him?” Bryn asked, looking ahead at the giant who began running toward him again. The black flames licked from his blades, and the glowing sword above him followed at a similarly breakneck speed. His face was radiating with anger, and his eyes were deadlocked on Bryn.
“Only if you let me completely take you over. I’m not going to tell you to trust someone you just met that also invaded your body, but I also don’t think you have that much of a choice. The base form of our connection makes you about as strong as a level 6 fighter, he’d slaughter you. If I take over, I’d find it very unlikely that I’d lose.” The voice said.
Bryn thought for a moment, coming to a conclusion quickly as the giant began to raise his swords to attack. As he approached Bryn, he saw him say two words before he began to swing down.
“Do it” Bryn said.
Just as the 3 swords came down upon Bryn’s head, the immediate area around him exploded in white flames as his sword came up and blocked each blade simultaneously. As the giant looked down at what had blocked his attack, he saw a pair of eyes staring back at him. Though as his opponent pushed him back with an unnatural amount of force, the giant looked back at an unfamiliar enemy.
Bryn stood tall with his sword in his hand, the blade crackling with white flames. An aura of white energy flowed around him, the mud below him slowly melting from a solid to a liquid once the heat enveloped it. As he strode forward, the flaming white energy around Bryn’s head covered his face completely and began reforming. As it continued to swirl, he started sprinting forward and leaped into the air. As he reached the apex of his jump roughly 15 feet in the air, the giant looked up and could have sworn he saw a pair of massive white wings dozens of feet wide flash behind Bryn before he dove down.
As he fell, the flames around his head formed into a final shape. He raised his blade and swung down as he approached his target. The giant held his weapons up and yelled a mighty battle cry as the blades met, and the magical energy crackled through the marshlands. The giant looked at his opponent and felt fear for the first time that day, as Bryn’s head had formed into the shape of a flaming celestial raptor that screamed with fury.