Chương 171: Chapter 170 [The Giant Arrives]

When Leo had walked into Stonehall a few days ago, he'd noticed how everyone moved around with purpose. He'd noted the lack of fear in the general population and the readiness of the guards. Returning now brought about even more changes. He didn't know if he'd been expecting panic or unease, but that wasn't what he saw. What he saw was a village of warriors, ready for war. Every guard in sight was armored and armed.

The walls were lined thick with fighters, catapults and ballistae already wheeled into position at intervals along the top, crews standing ready beside them. Somewhere near the center of the village, a line of families was being guided toward one of the larger stone buildings—quick and orderly, someone directing traffic with the ease of a routine they'd clearly run before. Nobody was panicking. Nobody was shouting, crying, or standing frozen in the street.

People moved with grim, steady resolve, like this was simply what happened sometimes and everyone already knew their part. Back home, an event like this would have shut the whole country down for a week. Here, people were just getting on with it. He understood why. That didn't make it any less strange to watch. Kai and Ronan peeled off the second they were through the gate, heading straight for a cluster of guards near the center of the activity.

Leo and the others followed but held back when the pair stopped, waiting and watching the village brace itself around them.

"This is mad. It's a totally different place to when the festival was happening," Phil said quietly, looking up at the wall.

"I mean, look. They have actual siegeworks."

"Yeah, it's surreal," Leo agreed.

"Seeing this sort of thing on TV is completely different from standing in the middle of it. You'd think it wouldn't be as weird after what we all just went through. Just shows how slapdash our defense really was." It didn't take long for Kai to return, Yara with him, her expression unreadable.

"Thank you for coming," Yara said, looking around the group.

"The last scout report tells me it's not far out. Your help is going to be invaluable."

"We're happy to help, wherever you need us," Sam said. Yara's gaze moved over each of them in turn, settling last on Leo.

"I'll give it to you straight, since we don't have time for anything else. Scouts have confirmed it's still coming and shows no sign of slowing. We're not sure why it chose this area specifically; it would have made more sense for it to follow the largest section of the horde toward your town. It's a good thing it didn't, but we can't work out if this is some form of instinct or just a complete lack of intelligence. Either way, if it reaches the wall before we're ready, it'll walk straight over.

We don't know if the catapults will even slow it down. None of us have fought anything this size before."

"What do we actually know about them?" Luka asked.

"It's strong, slow-witted, and it uses whatever it can tear out of the ground as a weapon." Yara held Luka's gaze, steady.

"Past that, we're working off instinct, same as you. I'd rather say that plainly than have you find out the hard way." Leo and the others nodded.

"Right," Yara said, moving straight on.

"Here's what we have planned for positioning. Kai and Ronan will lead a ground team in close, working to bring it down. Shai, Torren, and Nessa, you will be joining them, along with some of our guards."

"Rika and I should be up top," Parmo said.

"Best range, best angles on something that tall."

"Agreed," Yara said.

"You're on the wall with our archers."

"What about us?" Leo asked, looking between Phil and himself.

"We can help from both sides. We both have magic we can use at range or up close. Not sure which is more useful here." The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Kai considered it for a moment before answering.

"I've fought plenty of things bigger than us, but nothing built quite like this. So take this as my best guess, not a certainty." He looked between them.

"With something this tall, I'd start you both at range. I've no doubt you'd hold your own on the ground, but we don't know yet how much damage your spells actually do to something this size. Better to learn that from a safe distance than up close." His eyes settled on Leo.

"Your Amp spell is strong, but it drains you fast. If your timing is off down there, that could cost you more than it saves anyone." Then he turned to Phil.

"Your fireballs will likely do more than your blades will. The impact spreads wider, and fire alone probably won't trouble something this size much once it's actually in melee range." Leo and Phil exchanged a look.

"Or it doesn't do enough," Phil said.

"If we're up on the wall lobbing fire and lightning at it and it barely notices, we're better off down there helping to actually cripple the thing."

"You'd be in the way," another guard spoke up.

"The ground team needs room to move around something that size. Too many bodies down there and someone's going to get hit by their own side."

"That's fair," Sam said, glancing at Phil, who sighed and nodded.

"Sam. I think you're best off on the wall as well," Ronan said with a smirk.

"See if you can cast your fog around its face. If that doesn't work, try Phantasm. If it's as stupid as we think it is, you might be able to get it to turn and run back the way it came. Worth a shot."

"Sure, I can do that," Sam agreed.

"What about me?" asked Luka.

"You should be with us, but not focused on helping to bring it down," Torren said.

"Your shields could make the difference between us losing someone or not. Can you do that, Luka?"

"Of course. Happy to help."

The wait afterward stretched longer than any of them expected. Leo stood near the edge of the wall with Phil, both of them watching the treeline for any sign of movement, the rest of the wall's defenders doing the same up and down its length.

"Y'know," Phil said eventually, "this is becoming a bit of a pattern with us."

"What is?"

"Standing around waiting to fight something that really shouldn't exist to us." Phil shrugged.

"The goblin, the kobolds, the horde, now this. Feels a little like we're in a game and it just keeps cranking the difficulty up every time we clear a level."

"At least we're getting better gear," Leo said.

"True." Phil grinned, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"We also got hot party members."

"Didn't realize you thought I was hot, dude. Does Sasha know about this?" Leo grinned.

"Oh, fuck off. You know I meant Sasha."

"Wait until Luka hears about this."

"You're such a prick," Phil laughed.

It was nearly an hour later when someone on the wall shouted the first warning, though by then, it barely qualified as one. The trees at the edge of the forest had already started swaying, whole canopies shuddering with each impact like something enormous was walking straight through them rather than around. The stomping carried ahead of it—a heavy, rhythmic thud that Leo felt through the stone of the wall itself before he properly heard it.

It was the kind of sound that belonged in a movie about dinosaurs, not somewhere he was actually standing. Nobody needed telling. Everybody already knew. Then it broke through the treeline, and the trees around the gap it tore seemed small by comparison, snapping and falling aside like they weighed nothing at all. It stood at around fifteen meters tall, maybe more, and everything about the shape of it looked wrong the longer Leo stared.

The head was too small for the rest of it, undersized enough that its shoulders looked absurdly wide by comparison, humped and thick with muscle. Its eyes were a deep, bloody red, sclera and all, with pupils so small they looked like pinpricks lost in the crimson. A small, flattened nose sat crowded close between them, giving the whole face a strange, half-finished look, like something built wrong on purpose.

Below it, the jaw jutted out huge and heavy, packed with jagged teeth in more than one uneven row, closer to an ocean predator than anything that should walk on land. Strings of drool hung from it, swaying with each lumbering step. Its arms were spindly, almost comically thin against the rest of its bulk, and Leo couldn't work out how something built like that was managing to drag the massive tree trunk gripped in one fist—roots and all, stripped down into something crude enough to pass as a club.

Its legs told a different story, thick through the thigh and tapering down into something closer to human proportions at the ankle, ending in broad, filthy feet tipped with nails long enough to count as claws. It made no attempt to disguise itself, and there was absolutely nothing between its legs—a small, anatomical mercy nobody on the wall seemed to appreciate out loud.

Its stomach hung heavy and round beneath a chest that didn't match the rest of its build, and every breath it took came out ragged and loud, half grunt, half groan, like a language that had died a very long time ago. Someone finally shouted the order to fire. The nearest catapult let loose, the payload arcing high and true, catching the giant square across the face. The giant didn't flinch. It didn't slow. It just kept coming.