A Soldier's Life - 475 -

Chapter 475:

“How many?” Kyrenic asked, unfazed by the threat.

“Five that I can see,” I said, guiding Ginger with my knees to get closer and hand him the spyglass. We were about three miles away, and the hill giants would not have spotted us.

Kyrenic studied the scene through the glass, his face turning red in anger, and veins on his forehead showing. He handed it back to me after a few minutes. “The meeting hall is aflame. The shelter would have been in the basement for those unable to fight. Still, seven buildings are not burning or have not been demolished by the foul creatures. There could be survivors. I want to circle from a distance and get a count on the giants. If you think we can manage, I want to attack.” There was pleading in his voice, maybe for hope of saving survivors or just revenge.

I looked at Evie, and my thoughts drifted to some poor, frightened dwarf child trapped in a basement of one of the remaining buildings. I could see that child having witnessed the destruction of her home and the death of her family while giants ate them noisily outside. All I could think of was a poor, petrified child waiting for their death. I nodded in agreement to Kyrenic but wondered if he had influenced me in some way.

I slowly nodded, swung out of Ginger’s saddle, and handed the reins to Baelira. “Wait here. I will take care of as many as I can, and hopefully you don’t need to rush in and save me from my hubris.” Of course, one strike from a hill giant was likely to kill me, so there wouldn’t be much need of saving me. Maveith looked uncertain about the plan but remained silent.

“They would spot you on your approach. While I think you are a formidable warrior, Eryk, even you would not stand a chance against so many giants,” Kyrenic said.

“They will never see me coming.” I pulled out an invisibility potion I got from the manticore dungeon and held it up. “Plus, if I need to run, I have an invisibility potion.” I also moved five aether restoratives into a single pouch for easy access. “I should be able to take out three or four quickly, and then I will hide. Baelira, stay here and protect Evie.” Evie looked ready to object, but I glared at her and silenced her protest.

After we traveled about two miles, circling the town. The smell of burning flesh drifted in the air, but from this distance, there were no sounds from the town. The fighting was over. We could differentiate at least six hill giants, but two of those appeared to be sleeping, so there could be others hidden from sight.

Each of the cursed titans was about 15 feet tall. The dumb brutes were insanely strong for their size, with an adult able to throw hundred-pound boulders hundreds of feet. They were covered in layers of fat, which protected their body but also gave them a child-like appearance. While they didn’t smell as bad as ogres, they came in a close second.

“Where is Alhar?” Baelira asked, drawing my attention. How had I forgotten the elf was even with us? Alhar’s horse was hitched to Maveith’s. I turned toward the town. I didn’t see him until Kyrenic pointed him out. He was crouched and moving toward the town. It was obvious now, but my eyes had scanned for his form a few times and passed right over him.

“Should we follow him?” Kyrenic asked, his blade drawn.

I seriously thought about letting the elf assassin go it alone, but shook my head. Why was he even risking his life? There might have been children to save, but he didn’t seem the type. “Maveith and Kyrenic, you can follow him. Leave the horses; they will be too large a target. I am going to teleport.” Saying aloud that I could teleport sounded weird.

Maveith’s armor appeared, and he took his shield from his mount. The large shield would be his best defense against the hill giants, thanks to its ability to become immovable. He moved with Kyrenic, following the path Alhar had taken. I took the spyglass and planned to try something new. I would use the scope to establish my destination.

I had never teleported myself so far before, and I was not sure if I could establish an anchor at this distance. I studied the chimney of the nearest building for several seconds, both with and without the spyglass. To be safe, I targeted a space about a foot above the roof. It took time to link the spell form at this distance without an anchor. It was like tying tiny strands of threads to where I wanted to go, and when I felt the connection was strong enough, I yanked on all of them while feeding aether into the spell form. I dropped a foot to the roof and crouched. There was no smoke, but the air here had an acidic quality that assaulted the eyes and nostrils.

I drank the invisibility potion and watched my body fade into nothing. My decision not to save the potion to escape might be a terrible judgment. I had read about the potion extensively in my time in Sanctuary. Like the invisibility spell, the potion created a veil around a person. If that veil was disputed by attacking or pushing aether out of your body, you lost the veil. Disrupting the invisibility granted from a potion would occur with any surge of aether, like teleporting or using my dimensional space.

The stench of fecal matter wafted through the air as I moved to the edge of the roof. A depression in the town's center was filled with bodies, dead livestock, and a single dead hill giant. I frowned when I saw that two of the bodies bore tabards of Kyrenic’s order. There were also at least fifteen dwarf soldiers among the dead and numerous horses. This must have been one of the patrols supported by Kyrenic’s order.

I couldn’t send out an earth pulse, or my invisibility would be broken. Two hill giants were scavenging among the dead bodies for a tasty morsel; a third was fixated on the burning town hall, perhaps smelling the cooking meat inside and salivating. The two sleeping brutes were near the well in the center of town with overturned buckets and muddy ground nearby. Both of those giants had numerous wounds on their fat rolls.

I checked on the others before deciding to act, Alhar was still a mile out, and Maveith and Kyrenic were a mile behind him. I should have five minutes to get my dirty work done. I descended the one-story building and walked silently through the shadows on hardened earth to the two sleeping brutes. One was lying face down, a pool of drool under his mouth. His hands had caked blood from either his feast of fight. The other looked to be a female with sagginess down to her waist. She was snoring, her crooked teeth being exposed every time her red stained lips flapped. I checked and no other giants had their attention focused this way.

Rhuuk’s broadsword appeared in my hand, breaking my invisibility,  but the blade was already coming down on the back of the neck of one hill giant with a powerful two-handed swing. A meaty thwack and the cracking of vertebrae told me I had succeeded. The spinel cord was severed, and I yanked the blade free. The female’s eyes were just cracking open, crusties falling away from its eyes. I used two air shields to pin her to the ground. She looked momentarily confused as the broadsword came for her throat. The blade failed to kill on the first blow, just cutting into her larynx.

She surged up in panic, her scream muted by her exposed throat. The shields only held briefly, and I reset and swung again. The hill giant had turned, and I caught the side of her neck, cutting through fat and reaching the jugular. A jet of blood twenty feet long barely missed me. As the titan stood, each beat of her heart sent another lance of blood until she covered it after the third with her hand. Her other hand covered her throat, and she tried to scream. It was a strangled cry that had more blood than sound, but it was enough.

The other hill giants heard their companion’s wail and were coming to help. Rhuuk’s blade vanished, and Heartseeker appeared as I slipped into the shadows. When the first hill giant charged around the corner, taking out part of a building, I removed a portion of his chest. He took two steps before realizing he was dead and collapsed to the ground. The aether from the restorative was already surging through my system.

The female’s eyes were wide with panic and anger as she found me. She made the mistake of removing her hands from holding her wounds closed, and a fountain of blood poured from her neck. I felt no remorse for the creature as it weakened and fell to a knee. The two giants that had been guarding the bodies came thundering toward us. I sent out an earth pulse, but the sixth giant was not in range yet. I did confirm there were survivors in a cold cellar of a building, but didn’t have time to study the feedback as I was spotted.

Backpeddling and checking behind me with earth speak, I layered air shields in front of me. The leading hill giant, its face a mask of fury, caught the air shield and tumbled forward. As it braced for its landing, I planted the butt of Heartseeker in the ground and let gravity do the work for me. The tip of Heartseeker was angled toward the giant's sternum and easily pierced it. The shaft bowed dangerously for a moment before snapping straight and bursting through the hill giant’s back, but missing the spine as I had hoped.

I abandoned the spear and drew magebane as the fifth giant moved around its fallen companion. Not trying to prolong the fight, I severed both its legs with my dimensional space and would let it bleed out while I located the last giant. As the giants all stilled from blood loss, the last giant came to me.

The last giant was a smaller specimen, just ten feet tall, with fewer layers of bulbous fat protecting it. The juvenile was the one who had been so engrossed in the burning meeting hall. It slowed and paused at the carnage, slowly processing that its entire family was dead and not even noticing me as I drank another aether restorative. He was not innocent in this act; skulls, both humanoid and beast, clattered on his hip, some still fresh. My aether restored, I walked confidently forward, grasping the haft of Heartseeker as I walked by. I decided not risk the valuable artifact so recklessly in the future and stored it, retrieving a shield.

The fight with the young giant was more practical on my part. Using air shields, I was easily able to prevent the now manic creature from gaining any advantage. I wasn’t torturing the young dumb creature, but practicing on fighting a much larger and stronger foe. Fighting it with magebane and a shield was probably not the best choice, as it took dozens of slashes before it started to slow. Getting enough penetration to deal a fatal injury was much more difficult on this species of giant.

When it did fall, I was surprised the others still had not arrived. I checked with Earth speak and the town was clear, with two buildings harboring five and four dwarves respectively. Once the others arrived, we could let them know it was safe. Five of those dwarves appeared to be children, making me feel just in my decision.

Alhar approached cautiously, jogging into the town and glancing around at all the death. The metallic smell of blood was dominating the air, overpowering the smoke. I was kneeling over one of the hill giants, blending an essence with the collector. “They are all dead? All six?” he asked, visibly shocked and lowering sword.

I looked up from my work. “There were just six,” I said dismissively, turning to hide my grin. “Now, if there had been seven, I might have been in trouble.”

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