Noah crept through the Dark City towards the plume of smoke. He ran house to house hiding from any nightmare creatures he was unfamiliar with, or he knew were too powerful to fight.
As his gaze landed upon the steady stream of smoke Noah had noticed that it had expanded as he got closer and closer to his destination. It seemed as if the base of the smoke was moving, as if the fire was being led in the opposite direction of the city walls.
Noah's stomach sank at this. He wasn't stupid, he knew that had to be the power of the nightmare creatures. And he knew that he would have to fight that thing when he arrived.
With a cold sweat and a heavy stomach Noah, now more reluctant than ever, made his way to what seemed to be the living fire.
After a few minutes of running Noah had made it to the tail end of the smoke. Most of the houses were strangely unscathed, as if the fire did not harm the houses. The only signs of fire were the billowing smoke that seemed to be produced out of nowhere, the charred footprints of a much larger being, and the charred remains of humans and monsters alike.
The smoke was very thick, limiting his visibility to about 20 feet in front of him. Noah's gaze fell to the ground and locked onto the footprints. They were much larger than Noah's. It was human-like and based on the footprints it seemed to be standing on two feet.
Noah stared at the footprints for a few seconds really contemplating if this was really worth it. He could always turn around and become a hobo in the streets of the Dark City. Honestly it didn't seem that bad now, but he was already here.
Effie was still fighting and he didn't want to lose a friend, and if she survived, Noah shivered, he would never hear the end of it. Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding, his reluctance faded, being replaced with a solemn grit, and he slowly followed the footprints.
As Noah followed the footprints he noticed that the even steps had become more and more erratic as he went on. Eventually the crackling of fire could be heard and screams and commands started to be heard in the distance.
The sound of combat was the next thing to enter his ears. Not the clang of metal against metal but the sound of wood against stone. Then a meaty slap as if the wood had hit something other than pure stone.
Then a body slid past Noah's feet, sliding headfirst into the base of the wall beside him with a sickening crack. Noah bent down to check the man only to see the man's neck was deformed and bent in ways it shouldn't. His stone armor, which had once been a bastion of defense to the temple that was his body, was caved in, smashing through where his ribs should be and into his body.
The once mighty stone armor started to glow then disappeared into a rain of sparks, leaving the mangled body almost naked in the streets.
Noah's eyes were glued to the gruesome sight and he had to continuously tear his gaze away from it to focus on the immediate danger. He slowly followed the trail left on the ground made of the man's blood. He couldn't see anything yet but he could hear everything. He heard the commands, the footsteps of the people around him, and the sickening thwack of another person being struck.
Then he saw a figure in the distance. A rough outline of a gargantuan figure. Noah thought it had to be at least 12 feet tall. It took one step and the sound of ground cracking could be heard. Then it came into view.
It had a light red pigment of skin. The giant's body was not very athletic with a large beer belly, but its arms were ripped, bursting with muscle. Its feet and hands had claw-like nails and its body radiated a burning heat. Its head had four horns growing out of the top of its head, its teeth were overgrown with its canines curving outwards. In its hand it held a large wooden club that was charred and never seemed to crumble.
The nightmare creature slowly turned to him and within a second had already raised its club to swing at Noah. Noah acted instinctively, moving backwards away from the giant creature. As the club came down from above Noah jumped to his right to avoid the large attack. He quickly got up and ran into a building.
The building was little help as the giant club was swung again, breaking the building that Noah had taken refuge in. Noah rushed out of the wreckage and ran sprinting for any source of cover. The monster doggedly pursued him through the smoke. Then a loud thud. Noah looked back to see the monster's head recoiling back as if struck by a large object.
He looked up to see that Effie had struck the monster across the face. Her enhanced strength allowed her to stun the monster for a second or two. She landed on the ground and instantly sprinted towards Noah.
"Come on Faker, RUN!"
Noah, who was already running away, was passed by Effie. He tried to follow her and ended up following her into a little trench that hid them from view. Noah slid into the trench and as he hit the floor instantly leaned back and put his weight on the dirt wall trying to hide himself from his tall adversary.
Noah looked around the trench to see Savanna with her bow quickly drawn and pointing at him, Leandro with his sword ready to draw, and Miles ready to stab him with the tip of his halberd. Noah put his hand up and said in a joking tone.
Trying to ease the tension, Noah raised his hand in mock surrender. "I come in peace," he muttered, forcing a grin under his helmet.
As he said this Noah raised two fingers on his right hand making the universal sign of peace.
Although Noah's joke did not make them laugh it did somewhat lighten the mood. Noah looked around the trench and noticed that the Pathfinder that had the stone armor was not present with the group. Then Noah flashed to the brutal scene earlier, of the man who gruesomely slid into a wall headfirst.
But his thoughts were cut off by Effie who was resting against the wall of the trench. "Dude, where have you been?"
Noah responded in an annoyed tone. "Got attacked by a group of nightmare creatures and the mercenaries kind of left me behind. They probably thought I was dead when I got tackled. It's kinda fair, but come on, they couldn't even try to help me?"
Then Miles chimed in. "Well they're currently getting slaughtered by that beast, so I guess Karma does exist."
For half a second Noah gave Miles a strange look but then laughed it off and changed the subject. "So what's the plan?"
Leandro swiftly answered his question. "Well we're waiting for Alexander to come back with some more intel on the monster before we make an attack plan."
Noah winced. "And this Alexander guy, he wouldn't happen to be the one with the stone armor, would he?"
Leandro, as monotone as ever, responded. "Yeah, why?… oh."
Noah took a deep breath. "Yeeeaahhhh, so can we run now?"
Leandro responded with a voice that had hints of annoyance. "We can't. From what we have gathered it can see through the smoke." He paused for a second then continued, "Plus if we run it will follow us to the outskirts."
Miles then interjected. "Which means we have to kill it."
Noah's heart dropped at the thought of fighting that thing. From what he had seen, that thing could ragdoll people without much effort and send them flying with one swipe of its club, so he wasn't very enthusiastic about fighting that beast.
"So what do we know about it?"
Miles looked to his side, avoiding eye contact. "Not really anything. We know it's at least an awakened creature of some kind, but we don't know the exact class. It also has slight control over fire so based on that we at least know it has 2 or more soul shards." He then shrugged. "Aside from that nothing."
Noah stared at Miles and slowly responded. "Sssoooo are we just winging thi—" Noah was cut off mid-sentence by the Pathfinder who signaled for him to stop talking immediately. As the silence settled the faint sound of footsteps could be heard in the distance. With every step it got louder and louder.
Noah and the group froze. They all sank as close to the ground as possible in an effort to not be seen. Then the footsteps stopped. Leandro then slowly got up and ever so slightly peeked his head over the trench.
Noah saw Leandro's eyes widen then Leandro turned as fast as possible. "MOVE!"
Noah did not have to be told twice and almost instantly sprang up and bolted down the trench. A large bang could be heard behind Noah, kicking up dust and debris. Noah looked behind him to see a large hulking figure through the dust.
Noah started to back away from the club. Then Noah heard a slicing noise and the monster grunted in pain. Then Noah saw Effie running towards the monster and landing a mighty blow. The rest of the Pathfinders instantly sprang into action.
Noah followed in kind, but his attack did little to nothing to the giant. His dagger cut too shallow and his fist did nothing, so his only weapon was his spear. Noah stabbed at the giant whenever the opportunity arose, but it wasn't enough.
As the battle raged on Noah and the Pathfinders became fatigued and slower while the giant didn't. Noah and the Pathfinders knew that sooner or later they would be caught, so they had to come up with a plan quickly.
As Noah was in the heat of battle his mind raced trying to think of any way he could help. After agonizing seconds he came to his one and only solution: THE POISON.
His weapons and attacks lacked any striking power against targets that were too big. So he saw that his only option was to inject a large dose of poison into the giant's body, not to kill but to slow it down.
But how could he do it? His spear didn't inject all at once. It did it overtime, slowly secreting its deadly cocktail into the victim.
Noah's mind raced for an answer and finally an idea came to mind.
A smile slowly crept onto his face. "Yeah… that could work."
As a violent cacophony of sounds raged on, Noah looked for any signs of the Pathfinders, but with the smoke covering the battlefield Noah found it troubling to find a hint of any of them.
Trying his fastest to put his plan into motion Noah then turned towards the general vicinity of the action and yelled at the top of his lungs. "RESTRICT ITS MOVEMENTS!"
Noah heard no confirmation of his plea but he did notice that the monster's movements had lessened. Seeing his chance Noah made a mad dash towards the giant's ankles.
Although the giant was being distracted by the Pathfinder it still found a way to send a few strikes at Noah. Noah did his best to avoid the attacks while keeping his forward momentum.
After the longest 100m dash of his life Noah changed direction trying to keep out of stomping range till the right moment.
Noah then yelled for Effie to knock it off balance. After a second or two Noah saw a slight shift in the monster's legs. It leaned slightly, putting more of its weight on one leg.
Once he saw this small change Noah immediately changed his direction back towards the legs of the giant.
Once he got close enough to the ankle Noah threw back his hands. Within his hands the air warped slightly, then a spear black as night appeared in his hands. (Astor's Spear) materialized and Noah gritted his teeth. Putting all his strength and body weight into his strike he drove the spear into the giant's hide.
The spear did not cut easily, only sinking about 2 feet deep, but that was all Noah needed. Noah let go of his spear and raised his fist high into the air. The air distorted once again and his knife appeared. Using the butt end of the handle Noah struck the blade of his spear. Using his other hand to leverage his strike, Noah broke the spear leaving no way to pull out the spearhead.
As Noah backed away from the giant, flames shot out from the wound. The flames cauterized the wound that Noah inflicted and then shot out further towards him. Noah raised his right arm to shield himself from the flames inadvertently causing his armor, which was mostly made of dry rags, to catch on fire.
Noah screamed as the flames licked his skin. The pain was unbearable and under this pressure Noah momentarily lost his situational awareness. The next thing Noah knew he was on the ground.
The taste akin to coins filled his mouth as he coughed gasping for air. Noah's face scrunched up and he clenched his jaw struggling to fight against the pain. As tears filled his eyes he found the power to slightly open them only to see a dark outline rapidly moving towards him.
Noah tried to move but was only able to move about a foot or two to his left and was unable to move fully out of the way of the falling object.
The object came crashing down and landed, crushing Noah's right arm. Noah could feel and hear a sickening crunch as it landed on his arm. Then mind-numbing pain. He looked to the side to see that the giant's foot had crushed his arm.
His scream tore from his throat, raw and broken. The pain wasn't just in his arm; it pulsed through his entire body like a living flame. His vision blurred as his mouth was once again filled with the taste of iron.
He summoned his knife and stabbed at the foot in a frantic attempt to remove its foot from his arm. The giant raised its foot off of Noah's arm and through tear-filled eyes Noah watched as it lined up another stomp.
Then Noah felt a hand on his shoulder.
His perspective shifted, he was now looking at the ground and was swiftly moving backwards.
Through tear-filled eyes he glanced at the person who saved him.
It was none other than Effie. Noah's eyes widened at this revelation. He tried to take a sigh of relief but instead just coughed up more blood. Noah did not know how long Effie had run for, all he did know was that they eventually arrived in a broken down house.
Still semi-lucid, Noah looked around to see a singular corpse sitting in the same house. Effie set Noah down at the corner of the house and took a step back. Noah used his left arm to point at his helmet and ask in a voice no higher than a whisper, "Helmet."
Effie slowly walked over to him and as gently as she could removed his helmet. As the helmet came off Noah felt the unmistakable feeling of fresh air.
With blood coming out of his mouth and dripping down his chin Noah forced a smile out and asked, "How's it look?"
She gave a small cheeky smile. "You or your wound?"
Noah let out a shaky sigh. "Not the time."
Effie's face went serious as she glanced down at his arm. "Well it's pretty bad."
"Salvageable?"
"Probably not."
Noah sat there letting those words sink in. Probably not. It echoed in his head over and over. His mind swirled with a mixture of sadness, and anger but his thoughts were interrupted by Effie.
"What was the plan? From what I saw you kind of just stabbed it in the ankle and got bodied."
Noah responded in a low voice. "Well that spearhead that is now permanently stuck emits poison." He paused for a second to catch his breath. "So it should be weakened till it dies. So once you've killed it can you come back and help me?"
A small smile crept onto Effie's face. "Alright, I'll be back before you know it."
Noah looked up at Effie and also let his own smile show. "Thanks." And like that Effie left to put an end to the giant once and for all.