They watched curiously as the monster jerked suddenly, then fell over, and a moment later, Chipmunk appeared from the brush behind the creature, scampering up to retrieve his daggers.
"Well done," Elbryan said, though the man was far from earshot.
"And a good thing it is," Pony added.
"All three of us," the ranger instructed, "and get Paulson as well. We must search the area to make sure that no other sentinels were nearby to witness the kills."
The four did just that, circling the area and spying out the spot from every conceivable angle, looking for goblins or any signs that goblins had been about. When they were at last convinced that the kills had been unnoticed, Elbryan hustled them along, coming to a bowl-shaped depression as night descended across the wild mountains. The ranger would have liked to go farther, but they could not travel the difficult and dangerous terrain in the dark, and they certainly could light no torches.
They set their camp with confidence that their progress had gone undetected; they could not know that a giant carried a weapon which had sensed the kills and had led its wielder right to the spot of the disposed goblin carcasses, a spot not so far from their encampment.
The night was cool and quiet, save the moan of the wind across mountain stones. Elbryan and Pony sat close, huddled under a blanket. To the side loomed the huge shape of Bradwarden, the centaur using its bulk to shield Avelyn from the wind. Paulson and Chipmunk were out and about, guarding the perimeter.
"Tomorrow we climb more sheer faces," Elbryan said with some concern.
"Oh, don't ye worry," Bradwarden assured him. "I'll find me way."
"I am more concerned with Avelyn," the ranger remarked. As if on cue, the snoozing monk rolled over and snored loudly. "He is in no shape for this."
"He will make it," Pony said with determination. "I have traveled with Avelyn for many months and have never known him to complain. He sees this as his destiny; he will not be denied by any mountain obstacles."
Elbryan studied Avelyn for a long while, considering his own experiences with the man, and conceded the point.
"Besides," noted the centaur, "he's getting the best of sleep."
Again as if on cue, the monk shifted and snored.
"Chipmunk?" Paulson whispered, his voice quickly buried under the moaning wind. "Is that yerself?" The big man crouched lower, peering intently at a group of trees, the source of the unmistakable sound of a footstep.
Only then did Paulson realize that there seemed to be one extra tree in the group. "Damnation," he whispered, turning to run.
A spinning sliver, flickering in the quiet light, spun right past his head, causing him to cry out and fall away. He hit the ground, looking back toward the giant, noting its surprised, jerky movement as Chipmunk's dagger hit it squarely in the chest with a metallic ring.
"Come on, then!" the big man cried, scrambling to his feet, gaining confidence in the knowledge that his trusted comrade was nearby. The ringing sound of that last impact played in his mind, though; giants were tough enough adversaries without metal armor!
And this one was indeed armored, Paulson realized as the monster closed on him. Again came the spinning slivers, two in rapid succession, this time angled higher to hit the monster about the head. Both did, and both were repelled by a metal helm.
"Don't stay to fight!" Paulson called and he turned to flee, noticing then an orange glow emanating at the giant's side. Mesmerized, the big man hesitated, then he screamed out, realizing that the glow was a spear-like weapon carried by a second giant! He got his weapon up to block, but the demon-forged spike blasted right through it, right through Paulson's raised forearm, and deep into the man's belly.
Waves of searing agony ripped through Paulson. He had never imagined the possibility of such pain. Hardly conscious, he felt himself lifted high into the air and then, with a flick of the giant's huge arms, he was flying free, launched into the night, into death.
Chipmunk ran screaming for his life, tears of fear and horror and the loss of yet another friend streaking his cheeks. Giants were all about him. He could feel the heat of the orange glow following his path. He had to get back to the camp, and yet, he realized that to do so would put them all in jeopardy, would likely bring about the end of the quest!
Chipmunk found a hole instead, burying himself quickly under piled leaves at the base of a thick tree. His confidence mounted as a pair of giants stomped past, oblivious of him. A third came rushing by, and then came the one carrying the glowing spike.
That giant, too, started past, but skidded to a stop just beyond the hole, compelled by the demonic weapon.
Chipmunk tried to cry out as his covering was pushed aside, as he looked up at the towering, fifteen-foot-tall monster, up at the huge, awful spike. He tried to cry out, but no sound would come forth, only a breathless gurgle, that ended abruptly as the monstrous spike fast descended.
The cries of the doomed pair had alerted Elbryan and the others to the danger, so they were not unprepared when the first of the giants crashed through the brush and charged over the rim of the bowl-shaped encampment. The leading brute, apparently thinking the centaur a mere horse, tramped right by Bradwarden, who stood with head and torso bowed.
As the giant passed, Bradwarden turned, lifting his heavy bow and letting fly. The arrow hit solidly, denting the armor plate and driving through, but not so deep as to cause any serious wound. Three quick strides later, the centaur was upon the giant, ramming hard into the behemoth's back. Bradwarden's heavy bow, swung as a club, rang off the plated armor, splintering as it hit. The giant stumbled and went down, the centaur in fast pursuit, cursing his foolishness in using the bow and reaching for his cudgel. But two more giants were close behind, following their friend in, now bearing down on Bradwarden.
"What does it do?" Pony asked Avelyn as the monk held aloft a stone the woman had not seen before, a clump of black octahedral crystals.
"It is lodestone," Avelyn explained. "Magnetite." He went silent then, sending his thoughts into the stone, using his magical energies to ignite those powers within the stone. The giants were bearing down on Bradwarden in a straight line; Elbryan had gone off to the side and was now calling out the presence of more of the huge fomorians.
Pony left Avelyn's side then, rusting to join with Elbryan.
The orange glow outlined them, three more behemoths closing in. Hawkwing went to work at once, arrow after arrow rushing down to bang hard against metal armor, into the breastplate, then repeatedly into the visor, several tips slipping through to sting the giant face, to make the monster howl in agony.
One of the three fell back from the charge, clutching at its face, blinded by the sting.
Elbryan dropped his bow and drew out Tempest as Pony scrambled by. He ordered her to the left, toward the giant without the glowing spike, for he sensed that the spike held some diabolical power.
Pony readily complied, thinking that the remaining giant, smaller than the spike wielder, would be a quicker kill — not that any giant was an easy kill!
She rushed right for it, feigning a dodge to the side as it lifted its huge sword. By far the quicker, agile Pony went one step left, then back to the right, then straight ahead, under the awkward cut of the giant's weapon, falling into a headlong roll that brought her right between the monster's widespread legs.
The giant reacted quickly, snapping straight and tall, closing its legs to entrap the foolish human.
Pony's graphite defeated that maneuver, though, sent a crackling bolt of energy along the monster's inner thighs that left it swaying, legs widespread, as the woman worked her way out the back. Now Pony went to more conventional weaponry, drawing her sword and turning right back in on the monster, slamming the weapon hard against the giant's lower back, seeking an opening between the protective plates.
She found none, but stayed behind the staggering brute, belting away as the giant tried to turn and grab her.
Elbryan didn't know what to make of this armored foe, and especially of its glowing spike. Why weren't the monster's hands burning? the ranger wondered, for surely that spike was brutally hot.
The giant stabbed straight ahead and Elbryan left those thoughts behind, suddenly more concerned with keeping his body from sporting very large holes. He went around to the side with a flourish, snapping Tempest against the pursuing spike, each hit sending a shower of orange sparks into the air.
Elbryan knew that he had to get up higher, within striking distance of the giant's head. He knew the terrain, had marked it clearly in his thoughts before the night had fallen. He ran hard to the side, then leaped up atop a rounded boulder, gaining a foothold and turning back in a quick charge to meet the rushing monster.
Tempest snapped in, level with the giant's eyes. Up came the spike to block, but too late, and Tempest slashed hard against the visor, twisting the giant's head from the force of the blow.
Out came a straight thrust of the spike; Elbryan turned his hips and skittered back. The ranger leaped ahead and launched a vicious sidelong swipe as the heavy, awkward spike retracted. He connected solidly on the side of the giant's head, knocking the helm away, the behemoth staggering a long stride to the side.
"The next will not be so blocked!" the ranger promised.
The giant was not without a trick of its own, though. It came at Elbryan, but shifted as Tempest came up to parry, as Elbryan's feet turned defensively sideways, allowing the ranger to retreat back or to either side. The giant plunged the spear down low instead, right into the boulder, and Elbryan was too surprised to seize the momentary opening and charge ahead.
He had to leap away instead, far out to the side, crashing through twigs and saplings, for the boulder superheated, turned red, and then melted away right below him!
The ranger was dazed but knew that he had to keep moving as this pile of molten stone rolled down, igniting small, smokey fires among the twigs.
In the sudden glow, Elbryan saw more forms moving about the perimeter, giant forms, and between the reinforcements and that terrible glowing spike, the ranger knew that he and his friends were overmatched.
Avelyn fell deeper into the stone, felt its energy building to a critical mass. Lodestone was highly magnetic; its enchantment would send it fast to a metal surface. Impossibly fast, faster than a crossbow bolt.
The monk fell back, nearly toppling, as the stone suddenly zipped away, flying unerringly for the armored chest of the giant closest behind Bradwarden.
It hit with a tremendous, thump, jerking the behemoth from the ground, and then, to Avelyn's amazement, for he had never really used magnetite before, the second giant in line shuddered violently as well.
Bradwarden had forced the helm off the fallen giant by then, his cudgel turning the monster's head to mush before it could rise up. The centaur heard the commotion close behind and turned to see both giants slumping to the ground, the closest showing. a neatly blasted hole right through its breastplate, right through its chest, right through its back.
"Oh, good shot!" Bradwarden congratulated Avelyn.
The monk was already running toward Bradwarden, toward the fallen giants, thinking to retrieve the stone. But then there were other giants, all about, huge shadowy forms blurring the otherwise straight line of the perimeter.
"On me back!" the centaur cried.
"My stone!"
"No time!"
"Everyone out!" came a call, Elbryan's voice. "Avelyn with Bradwarden!
Myself with Pony! Paulson with Chipmunk!" If the two are still with us! he added silently. "Out and away, to a direction of your own choosing!"
Pony could hardly believe what she was hearing, what she was seeing. They had come so far together, and now they were being forced into an impromptu, hardly organized retreat. She waited for her turning giant to align itself properly, then scrambled back between its legs once more. Again there came that nasty crackle of energy, and this time, the giant's muscles betrayed it, tensing with the current, and the brute tumbled down.
Pony had no time to stop and take advantage of the situation, though, as she scrambled for the center of the encampment, for Avelyn and Bradwarden, hoping against hope that they might all link together once more.
She saw the monk lying across the centaur's back, Bradwarden's powerful legs pounding away up the north face of the bowl, the same direction from which the first giants had come. They made the lip and went over, and almost immediately after, all the sky lit up with the bright flames of a tremendous fireball.
Pony fell back, all the battle stopped for a moment, and when she caught her breath, the woman was satisfied to hear the receding hoofbeats. Avelyn and Bradwarden, at least, had gotten away.
But how might she and Elbryan? Pony had to wonder as she skittered down the rocky slope, a pair of giants in fast pursuit. Purely on instinct, the woman dove ahead, over the giant Bradwarden had killed. She felt a rush of wind and heard a crash behind her, a giant club smashing against armor.
Still she scrambled, expecting to be buried at any moment, expecting her life to end with a sudden, burning explosion.
Over the next giant she went, trying to regain her footing. But she tripped and stumbled, falling atop the third dead behemoth, her hand tearing against a jagged edge in the monster's breastplate then slipping into the gore of its torn guts.
There was fighting right behind her! She turned and saw Elbryan darting about the giant pair, Tempest working furiously. But he could not win! Even if he beat these two, others were coming fast, including the one with the glowing spike!
Pony's hand instinctively clutched onto something hard and she retracted it to find the stone Avelyn had used. She stared at it curiously for just a moment, trying to discern its energy.