Katya led the assault on the behemoth that stood in their way. Her breath was laden with fear as she bore witness to the giant’s form. A hulking monstrosity twice as tall as the Bes with blueish white skin that looked like rubber. Their hands were massive, enough to grip a tree trunk and use it as a weapon with their fingers long and dangly.

And their face, it was grotesque, almost human in appearance, yet smushed and contorted, misshapen like dough. Upon their head was hair like seaweed, dangling from his face and swaying in the wind. The giant smiled, and they all saw its gnarled and yellowed teeth, bared and gnashing, hungry for them as it stood by the cave entrance.

‘We need to get away… Now!’

That was the only thought everyone collectively agreed upon, but the terror and fear began to override their judgment, unable to even maintain a proper counteroffensive. So they simply threw their Teni towards its hands. Upon contact, it detonated, skewering the giant’s fingers as it sneered in pain.

Godwin carried Matthias and Peter behind the Keepers while they distracted the giant. Carey made sure to stand on the other side of Godwin, away from the behemoth as if he was providing any sort of meaningful cover. She wanted to close her eyes, pretend it wasn’t even there, but the stinging snow always reminded her of the reality at hand.

Meanwhile, the giant wasn’t so easily discouraged. While the spikes were annoying, slight pain won’t stop it from having its rightfully deserved meal. So it instead tried to backhand the Keepers into the wall.

Katya managed to jump on the hand as it came towards her, while Kariya and Rodion rolled away. Yet, Leonid had a limp and immediately was slammed into the wall, his bones cracking as he vomited out blood, falling onto the snow, unable to move.

Kariya immediately went back for him, and the giant grinned, attempting to swat her away as well. But Katya jumped from the hand she was on to the one he was about to swat with, stabbing it with her spear right before the giant could even touch her comrade.

“Gaaaah!” The giant let out a guttural roar that echoed throughout the valley. Its whole body slammed against the mountainside that the group was on, shaking it, and that snow from the top began to fall down, as well as a few rocks here and there.

Rodion grabbed some rope hanging from his waist, wrapping it around Leonid’s waist as he and Kariya began to carry, or rather drag him, towards the others.

“We need to go! Before an avalanche comes!” Rodion glanced at Katya, who was hanging off her own spear before twirling on the handle and using it as leverage to get on the giant’s arm.

“Go! I’ll do what I can to hold it off!” She removed her spear from its side and checked the back of her hand again, finding a small greenish gold glow emanating from it as she smiled. There was still a chance. There was still hope.

The giant, however, wasn’t keen on his food escaping, but he needed a way to get rid of the nuisance on his hand. Luckily for him, the Teni from the others have jumped from his body and returned to their owners, allowing him to grab Katya.

Unluckily for him, Katya’s own shadowy tendrils shot outwards when his palm was nearly around her body, impaling his fingers once more while she thrusted her spear into his wrist.

“Why you! Ah, I see. I can smell it. The blessings of life, but it is faint like embers from a flame! Thus, I shall snuff you out!”

He slammed Katya into the wall, but with her quick thinking, she jumped off her spear shaft and onto the forearm of the giant and threw a dagger directly into its eye, but it blocked it quite easily with its other hand.

This, however, gave enough time for Katya to grab her spear once more and lunge into the giant’s chest, stabbing it straight through as the behemoth stumbled backwards and pounded the mountainside once more, cracking the stone and sending down huge boulders towards the ground with several thuds.

However, the giant was still alive, injured, angry, and very much alive. It's food was getting away, and this little nuisance was managing to hurt him. He needed to act fast before they all got away. So, he grabbed one of the boulders that fell to the ground and threw it in the direction of where the others went, hoping to crush them.

Katya’s eyes widened, seeing the boulders fly through the air like missiles and crashing into the sides of the mountain with massive thuds, shaking the ground once more. She couldn’t let him continue, so she drove her spear deeper into his chest cavity as if to try and pry him open before leaping up onto their shoulders, unsheathing her knife as she tried to slash his neck.

However, the giant was ready for that, flicking her off his shoulder, this time, aiming for her legs as she was sent flying back down into the ground, now, without any weapons to spare.

“It seems only your chest is protected. No worries, I’ll make sure to scrape out all I can from your body once you have perished!”

----------------------------------------

Boulders flew through the air, crashing into the sides of the mountainside, exploding into chunks of rocks that fell like mortar shells, peppering the ground as the Keepers were bombarded from all sides, shrapnel made from broken rocks flying through the air, cutting across their bodies like razors.

Kariya lept forward, shielding Leonid from the brunt of the blow as the splintered rocks crashed into her body, embedding into her skin. She was saved by the Teni on her vital parts, shielding her.

Godwin had to hug Carey and the others he was carrying, facing away from the blasts as he yelled out.

"The Spirits Bring The Hope I Require!"

His body was soon shrouded by several golden yellow sprites that slightly redirected the shrapnel headed his way with only scratches grazing his body.

“We… We need to help Katya!” Kariya’s voice was faint as she struggled to get up, and only managed to do so with the help of Rodion.

“We can’t. She gave us this time to move forward. It’s all we can do now, so let’s move it as fast as possible-“

Another boulder flew through the air, this time though, it missed by a long shot, smashing into the valley below.

“If that giant has not been felled by the time we find the Baba, then we stand no chance at all. We need to help her.”

Kariya tried to turn back, but Rodion grabbed her arm. “We can’t! Look at us, we can’t offer anything more than we already have. We can only move forward.”

“You all might not be able to.” Godwin walked towards the Keepers, unloading Peter and Matthias onto them as he gestured to Carey to help.

“But, it is my duty as one of the many Magi of Epithet to protect those under my command. Now go, Carey, I order you to protect the Keepers!”

She nodded, still shaking as he grinned. “Marvelous, now then. Let me be on my way.”

“Wait! What are you doing?”  Leonid managed to vomit out as he weakly tried to reach for Godwin. “We… We swore an oath to protect-”

“But, it is you all who need such protection. I, on the other hand… Do not. I shall hopefully see you all soon, depending on whether or not I survive, of course. It was very fun working with all of you.”

He took a bow and swirled his left hand clockwise and in an instant, accelerated towards the giant in the distance with a mask of calmness over his true look of worry.

‘If this keeps up…’

Godwin glanced at his hand, already sighing as he shook his head.

‘No worries… Perhaps there’s a cure here.’

He focused himself and continued to accelerate forward through the blizzard until he finally saw the silhouette of the giant in the distance, with Katya standing right in front of it. Without wasting any more precious moments, he spoke once more.

"The Spirits Bring The Hope I Require!"

His hand this time was coated in yellow sprites as he hurled his cane towards the giant’s face, and unlike before with the dagger, it managed to pierce right into the massive monster’s eye, causing it to cry out loud in pain.

“AAAAGH!” The giant stumbled backwards, landing on his back, shaking the mountainside once more as the ground beneath them all started to break apart.

Katya turned and found Godwin on one knee, clutching his throat as cracks began to form on it, much like the earth under their feet. “What’s wrong? Why did you come back here? What did you do?”

“Questions… Later, Ms Katya. We must hurry before he gets up-”

Before he could finish, the ground beneath them shook, falling apart as Godwin slipped and began to slide down. However, Katya dashed ahead, throwing the Teni on her body down towards Godwin. Their shadowy tendrils shoot out, piercing his body in non-vital areas, pinning him in place.

He grimaced in pain, but it was far worse than falling to death. “Thank you…” Godwin managed to mutter out as Katya grabbed him by the leg and hurled him several dozen feet ahead into the snow before running towards him.

“Can you do that, Magick? The one where you go quite fast?”

“I… Can, but I fear I won’t be able to do much Magick for longer…” He rubbed his neck as Katya internally cursed as she helped him back up.

“Are you still capable of running?”

Godwin laughed at such a question. “Of course, because it looks like we’re going to do a lot of that right about now.”

He flashed her a smile, but she only nodded back as they ran together through the crumbling mountainside, dashing through falling stone and maneuvering through shattering rubble. Every so often, Katya would glance at the back of her hand, finding that the glow it had seemed to be fading.

With each passing moment, she grew more and more worried. The blessing, why was it fading? Did she do something wrong? What was going to happen? Was it even fading? Was this all in her head?

As the whirlwind of thoughts began to swirl all around her head, a piercing and thunderous roar echoed and broke Katya out of her stupor. It came from behind, and with it, a massive rock landed right in front of her and Godwin, cutting them off from the others.

The earth shook, and ragged breathing could be heard. Walking up behind Godwin and Katya was the giant. He only had his right eye now, with his left, closed, profusely bleeding.

“You… I do not care anymore whether your bones shall slice my teeth. Your death shall be swift and purposeful!”

He grabbed another boulder and dropped it on the two of them. Godwin grabbed hold of Katya, twirling his hands clockwise as he sped out of the drop zone and behind the giant.

Yet he grimaced as he saw cracks begin to form alongside his arm. “Anymore Magick and I’m done…”

Godwin sighed before laughing a little, turning to Katya. “How many giants have you beaten in your life?”

“… I don’t know, but for the sake of the other Keepers, even if it would cost me my life, I would make that number equal to one!”

The giant turned to face them, grabbing the boulder he had tried to use before, raising it up in the air. But, before he could drop it, a shadowy blob was thrown forth, slamming into the giant’s hand, causing him to throw it off the cliff.

Instinctively, the giant, Katya, and Godwin turned to face where the shadowy blob came from. And no words could ever describe the surprise the latter two had as they saw who did it. Well, no words except…

“Peter… Is that you?”