Bargain of Shadows
Chapter 1
The rain fell in sheets, soaking the three travelers even through their thick, treated cloaks. It was falling so hard that they could barely see ahead to keep their horses from stumbling over the ground. Even the trees did little to stop it. The travelers galloped as fast as they dared along the line of cliffs that the forest ended in. They had a feeling of desperation about them, the air of a quarry that knows it's the end of a long chase and there is nothing to be done about it. The cliffs they paced were less than half a dozen meters high, but they might as well have been a hundred for the lack of handholds or paths to cross them they might almost have been smoothed out by a giant sculptor, patiently wearing away the stone to achieve uniformity. Because of the wild ride, their hoods fell back to expose their faces, revealing two men and a woman with red hair who leaned against the necks of their mounts and kicked their heels in palpable desperation.
The woman kept looking back over her shoulder to see if their pursuers were any closer and praying that her black and white horse wouldn't trip. She didn't see anyone but feared she wouldn't until they were almost on top of her and the others. Flapping the reigns in a useless attempt to coax more speed out of the tiring Argo, she tried to think of something, anything they could do. Suddenly the man who was in the lead, yanked back savagely on his reins causing his dark brown mount to rear back on its heels with an angry neigh. The woman struggled to slow her horse and galloped past him before turning around as did the other ride, a tall black man.
"Why stop!" she demanded.
"They'll be on us in a minute!" the black man snarled throwing a nervous glance back along the cliffs to the east.
"Kaarn, I swear I saw an opening in the cliffs!" the first man said pointing at an ivy covered section of the wall.
"Ryu are you crazy? There's nothing there!" Kaarn raged but dismounted and drug his own horse over to the wall for a closer look. He ran his hands against the moss and suddenly froze. "Well I'll be damned, I don't know how I didn't see it before. I think it's wide enough to get the horses through. Alessa, get over here!"
"I don't see anything!" the woman protested but followed the others closer to the cliff.
Just as she was wondering if her companions were hallucinating, Alessa saw an opening in the cliff wall, a path guarded by pillars that were hewn out of the rock on either side, marking the entrance to a long tunnel open to the sky but with a shinning light at the end, one very different from the rain on this side of cliffs. She slid off Argo's back and patted the animal as he sucked air, his great sides heaving and foam clinging to his muzzle. She followed close behind Kaarn and his mare leading Argo at a careful walk through the path.
"They can't miss this place if the path is wide enough for the horses," she whispered, surprised at how the tunnel blunted the sound of the falling rain. It seemed like barely a shower was falling.
"We almost did," Kaarn threw over his shoulder. He looked as exhausted as Alessa felt, his arms and face scratched by their wild ride through the forest.
"Besides we can hold them off from here if your bow stayed dry enough."
Alessa pulled a bowstring from the little waterproof bag she had at her belt. She struggled to fit it around the bow when she bumped into Kaarn.
"That's far enough," she heard Ryu say farther down the passage. "They shouldn't be able to see us easily."
"I wouldn't want to go after us in this little path," Kaarn added.
Alessa handed her reigns to Ryu and squeezed past Argo as Ryu pulled them farther back into the tunnel through the cliffs. It had been made for quick shots from cover, or horseback if one had the skill for it. Kaarn handed his reins to Ryu as well and began to fit an arrow to his crossbow, even more lethal in the narrow space of the path than before. He took a position on one knee, leaning his arm on it to steady the aim of the crossbow while Alessa stood above him bow drawn and ready. A minute passed, then another. Then there was the sound of horses and the curses and metallic clangs of a sudden stop and the three travelers waited while they heard the shouts of confusion by their pursuers. Finally there was the sound of horses riding away slowly and all three of them breathed a sign of relief as they unstrung their arrows. Alessa leaned back against the rock wall as Kaarn sat.
"Did we really escape that easily?" she wondered.
"A wild ride through a forest in a driving rain and you call that easy?" Ryu muttered.
"Point taken but how could they not spot the path?" Alessa persisted. She was already moving to take her horse back from Ryu.
"I don't know and don't care," Kaarn replied. "What I do care about is what we do now."
"We should follow this path through the cliffs," Ryu said. "I don't want to go back into that forest again and there's a light down there, we should be able to get out in a little while. I'd like to rest somewhere a little easier than we usually do." Alessa and Kaarn could agree with that, so after making sure everything was once again set, he took the lead through the pass with Alessa in the middle and Kaarn in the rear. The path widened until it was a comfortable for them and their mounts. The light ahead of them grew brightly until the glare forced them to avert their eyes. A wind picked up as well, blowing their wet cloaks out behind them and tossing Alessa's long red hair into tangles.
"How long does this passage go on?" Kaarn shouted.
"I think, I'm out and—Oh my god!" Ryu suddenly stopped with a muffled exclamation that made Alessa and Kaarn hurry after him. They stood on a ledge of stone with worked stone glyphs carved into the surface, behind them on either side of the path two identical pillars to stood guard like their brothers at the entrance. Alessa barely noticed as Kaarn pushed at her from behind and she moved to let him stand on the ledge as well.
Alessa's view of the lands beyond took her breath away. The ledge they were on soared at least 100 meters above the sandy plain below. To either side of the plain were sandstone cliffs rising almost as tall as the ones they had crossed rising away to the south both east and west. Below them was a giant pit with a lake set at the bottom and an oasis farther on, a verdant blot on the golden-brown land below. Along the center of the plain, straight as an arrow, a line of hills of green-white stone stretched south to the marvel that had stunned the travelers.
It was so tall, at first Alessa thought it was a mountain but then she realized that its shape was too regular, to blocky to be any natural formation. It was a structure, something built by hands that towered easily above the cliffs they were on. They had not seen it before only because of they were so close to the cliff face and the trees and because they had been concerned with pursuit. Even from this distance she could spot what had to be enormous pillars standing out from the base and giant arches built halfway up onto the structure that tapered gradually to the top, a smooth pillar of stone that had curious square buttresses built on either size. The three travelers just look at it in mingled wonder and awe.
"If we can see it so well from here…" Ryu managed.
"It must be enormous," Kaarn finished.
"I've never seen anything like it," Alessa replied. "Not anywhere."
"Can we get down to the plain?" Kaarn asked tearing his gaze away from the temple. He led his horse closer to the edge and looked around mouth twisting. "I can't see anything we can use… are we stuck up here?"
"No," Ryu said quite clearly. "We're going to get down there and we're going to find out what that thing is."
Kaarn looked at him. "What? Shouldn't we go…?" he began but Ryu shook his head vehemently.
"No," he said. "I'm tired of running. We're safe enough for now. I intend to satisfy my curiosity."
"It doesn't matter if we can't get down there," Alessa pointed out. "What will we do with the horses, leave them up here? Set them free?" Ryu didn't say anything but turned again and looked out over the strange land they had emerged into. He clearly wanted to go down there and Alessa couldn't blame him, not after seeing that incredible temple that was rising up out of the plains.
"I think I found a path!" Kaarn said excitedly waving them over by the ledge. Sure enough, there was a path, though it was mostly switchbacks and rubble, it was something that the horses could go down and it looked like it led all the way to the valley floor.
"So we're going down there…?" Alessa said and the two other men both nodded. She took a breath, her stomach never particularly easy at the prospect of heights.
"We should tie a rope to each other, in case someone falls. I don't want to take any chances."
They did so, letting Ryu take the lead down the path leading his own horse Nico followed by Kaarn and Alessa once again in the rear position. It took them half a day to get down the cliffs. The path seemed more rocks and pebbles than any kind of place meant to walk, but it held their weight well enough. Ever few twists, the path would widen into a small stone landing where they could rest for a bit before continuing down. Each step was agonizingly careful, placed just so to prevent any disaster and even so, the travelers must have slipped a half-dozen times on their way down to the valley floor. Once they finally reached the ground, Alessa felt no qualms about collapsing back against the rock face and sucking air for a few minutes.
"You were right," Kaarn nodded to Alessa who barely heard him. "The plain is mostly sand. There are some bushes against the rock though."
"It's getting late, we should try to make it to that oasis we saw from the ledge," Ryu added already mounting up on Nico. Kaarn nodded, and Alessa groaned as she got back on her horse. They were all exhausted from the ride and the climb, and so the trip to the oasis took perhaps longer than it might have. Their first obstacle was to climb up over the line of hills that pierced the middle of the plain like some sort of road.
The hills themselves were made of a different type of stone than the sandstone cliffs or the sandy soil. It was far paler and there were some indications that there had been some carving on it. Grass had also sprouted all along the line of hills, odd for that dry land, masking them even more. There was also grass around them, sprouting up out of the soil, almost like the hills were slowly sending life into the sandy ground. By the time there were over the hills and to the other side, the sun was setting in the sky. Luckily the oasis was straight away over relatively flat ground and the three finally reached it only a short time after sunset. The oasis consisted of a pool of water with some trees and a few rocks from which the spring that filled the oasis came. It wasn't a very impressive thing, but it was green and the three travelers set up camp by it as well they could.
While Alessa searched for any broken branches from the few trees, Ryu set up a circle of rocks near the water. Not long after sunset, they had a fire going and they grateful for it when the night grew colder. Their horses were hobbled near by and were quietly cropping the sparse grass that grew up around the oasis. Kaarn set up a pot over the fire filling it with water from the oasis while they all added vegetables and some of their meat from the hunting they'd done in the forest. Alessa used her bow to shoot some of the fruit from the trees to scattered applause and passed it around. Wary at first, they discovered the fruit was delicious. It felt like their stamina had increased just from eating it. Half an hour later, the soup was ready and they ate lost in their own thoughts about the strange place they found themselves.
"You know, it's good to relax a little," Kaarn said. "We haven't slept much since the mountains."
"No," Ryu agreed. "I can't believe they've been tracking us this far from their territory."
"I know, we've been running a long time," Kaarn said with a frown. "How long has it been?"
"I… don't remember," Ryu laughed a little. "I met you in Dusard didn't I?"
"I think so. That was about a year before we reached Genria, wasn't it?" Kaarn continued.
"Yeah… we got there in the summer," he said with a glance at Alessa. "We were there almost two years before we had to run."
"I remember when Genria fell," Alessa said quietly keeping her eyes down. "When I left it tore my heart out, I never thought I'd have so much practice at running." There was bitterness in her voice, but only a little – the dominant theme was exhaustion.
"Nobody would recognize you now," Ryu mocked gently. "Dainty little Alessa who'd never help a weapon in her entire life. Now look at you, you'd fit in fine in an army I've ever seen. A perfect mercenary, who'd have thought."
He trying to alleviate the mood and Alessa recognized it, but decided to get a little angry anyway. She looked daggers at him but then sighed too tired to continue. "If my family were still alive, they'd probably order the guards to throw me out on the street. Servants, regular meals, seems like a dream. I was just into my teens when you showed up. You weren't that much older than I was, I don't think I would have gone with you if you'd hadn't been close to my age."
"There's something about this place," Kaarn said, changing the subject to cheer up the downcast redhead. "It feels… different."
"It really does," Alessa agreed at last. "It's like this place is… rested. Just more alive than anything I've seen before even this desert part of it. I'm glad we decided to explore it a bit, I'd like to find out more about it."
"You were learning to be a mage right?" Ryu said. Alessa nodded, wearing a wistful look.
"Then tomorrow we'll start exploring," Kaarn said. "But for now… I'm exhausted." The travelers agreed and the three of them began to prepare for bed under the star-filled skies, breaking out bedrolls and letting the fire get low.
"G'night princess," Ryu murmured after they were done.
"Don't call me that," Alessa protested, but he was already asleep.
The travelers woke up in the middle of the morning, not until the sun had climbed high enough in the sky to disperse the cool shadows of the rock they had sheltered in the night before. They collected their horses and had some more of the fruit on the trees to eat as they rode southwards along the line of the hills closer to the massive structure in the land. They made good time and by the early afternoon had reached a place where a giant chasm blocked their way closer to the temple. Looking down over the edge, Ryu reported seeing a beach and a large body of water that looked more like a bay than any kind of river. It stretched away to the west, carving a huge gorge in the land. They despaired a bit of making it to the other side, but then Kaarn spotted what looked like a natural rock bridge over the chasm.
They discovered it was sandwiched between two large hills and another path leading down towards the beach diverged off it to the east. They realized that the path towards the beach had some sort of railing and an odd line was carved into it, more evidence of the work of hands than the stunning temple. As they came out across the bridge, Kaarn looked up and pointed out the broken arches that were at the end of the path, they were so massive and worn they almost looked like part of the landscape by the shapes were too regular for natural formations.
They were so close to the giant temple that they could make out the details on the walls, the strange glyphs on certain sections almost like eyes or faces, the bursts of greenery that rose up along the whole of the temple, and the arches and buttresses that held up the temple as it tapered to the tip. Up close it was so awesome and enormous that the mind struggled to take in the sheer size of the thing. Alessa found herself staring at the temple, which was how she thought of it, almost to the extent of watching where she was going. It was only when she realized her horse Argo was wandering off that she looked down again and caught up to her companions.
The plain the temple was located it on was green and grassy, most of it short, gently waving in the breeze. It was also empty and bordered along the north and east by the ravine. They rode towards the hills that continued right up to the pillars that held up a ledge halfway up the temple. The hills looked just like the one they had seen on the other side of the ravine, in the desert.
"Those hills again," Kaarn wondered.
"They look like some sort of road… or bridge," Alessa put in.
"Indeed, they were a bridge!" another voice said in a ringing tone.
Alessa, Ryu and Kaarn all whipped around, looking right and left then Kaarn spotted the speaker pointing to him. The three looked up and standing on the hill above them was a figured dressed in a snowy robe, with a red-blue tabard with geometric shapes and curves stitched on it. A bizarre wooden mask covered his face, with eye and mouth holes cut into the mask.
"Who are you?" Ryu demanded.
"Strangers!" the robed man cried. "Travelers are not wanted in this place of ens and naught. You must leave here immediately and never return!"
"So kindly put," Alessa muttered, sharing a look with her friends.
"Why?" Kaarn asked. "We have done no harm. We just want to rest."
"That you are here is enough! You must leave now…" he said, raising his arms over his head, a gust of wind caught the tabard making it whip around the man in the robe.
"Wait just a minute—" Alessa began. She never finished because the man in the robe suddenly began chanting loudly in no language she had ever heard. The light around them subtly changed, becoming harsher and delineating everything in sharper lines. The only word Alessa could make out with any certainty was colossus.
"What is he…" Ryu started but broke off with a startled cry as a huge rumbling shook the ground around them, like an earthquake.
The horses of the travelers suddenly went mad, bucking and rearing with wild screams of fright forcing them to fight desperately to stay on and regain control. Seconds later, a sound like falling rocks came from the hills near where the man was standing and a there was tremendous upheaval as the hill grew in size, pulling up out of the earth and raining down dirt and grass. The hill rose higher and higher and giant arms spread out from it, stretching up to the sky and above a lump that could have been a head, until it was nearly the height of the pillars. A huge leg that ended in a cross between a hoof and the base of a pillar smashed down to the earth in front of them causing cracks to spread through the ground and dirt to fountain up in dark sprays. Then the giant thing rumbled and roared defiance and rage, thundering in a deafening roar that could be felt more than heard.
"Run!" Alessa shouted as she kicked Argo into full gallop. The powerful black stallion reached full speed in a dozen strides, panic fueling him so that Alessa could barely control him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kaarn and Ryu doing the same, spreading out but galloping in roughly the same direction as her.
Then the giant began to chase them, each time its feet came into contact with the earth, another ground shaking tremor reverberated making her horse struggle for balance even more. She threw a terrified look back to see the massive beast veering off, chasing one of her companions. She saw back brutally on the reins, hoping training could take the edge off Argo's panic and whirled her mount around in time to see a giant fist smash down right on top of Kaarn and his mare. A massive shockwave extended from the strike and huge cloud of dust was thrown up, obscuring even the giant hand.
"No!" she shrieked, her voice breaking with strain. She drew her bow, not caring that is was one built for quickness, not strength, knowing that her arrows could do nothing against the colossus. She fired anyway, knowing only she had to try, and fighting back the rage that threatened to overwhelm her at the thought of Kaarn dead.
She had to focus to aim the bow, and it forced her to study her target. It wasn't made entirely of rock, though most of its legs and waist were certainly stone. Along its arms and chest, huge patches of brown-gray fur sprouted, and its face was covered with what looked like a stone mask with eyeholes. She watched as it flexed the fingers of the hand that had smashed Kaarn, and fired one arrow after another at the giant chest, screaming with fury.
The arrow flew straight, sticking into the fur near the monster's left shoulder. Her next two arrows also struck there, but the only reaction the creature had was to give a little start of surprise as it threw its shoulders back like a person trying to dislodge a fly or mosquito. A second later the giant head turned towards her, focusing on her intently and the colossus began to lumber after her, laboriously changing direction. Alessa didn't even notice as she fired arrow after arrow at the creature and only annoyed at the increasing panic Argo was exhibiting under her.
"Alessa! Goddamn you Alessa, run!" Ryu was shouting. His own horse Nico was gone, and Ryu was standing with his longbow draw up in full extension with an arrow with a huge point at the end shaped like a chisel. Even at this distance she could see the effort he was using to keep it draw like that and a moment later the arrow shot from the bow and arched up towards the giant glancing off one of the rocky sections of the shoulder. Ryu swore in frustration.
Alessa kicked her frightened horse towards him at last as the monster began to chase after her. She passed Ryu at a gallop and pulled up sharply, forcing her horse into a vicious half turn that made the horse scream. She turned around in time to see Ryu loose a second arrow. Ryu was able to place the second arrow well, stabbing it just above the monster's mask and into his head. This time there was a reaction and the giant through his head back and howled bringing both arms up and grabbing at the air. Instead of resuming the chase however, the giant turned and grabbed at a large chunk of the hillside that had given it birth, crumpling it into a rough ball.
"Come on Ryu!" Alessa shouted. She kicked her mount at him and as she passed him she stuck her arm out and taking a deep breath. Ryu turned and leaped towards her one hand holding the bow, making the jump awkward. Somehow she grabbed Ryu and managed to swing him up behind her. He scrambled onto a sitting position behind her, wrapping his army so tightly around her middle that she struggled to breath. Sawing the reins hard to one side, she forced Argo into a lazy arc that ended in a sharp turn directly away from the giant. That saved their lives as the huge mess of dirt and stone rammed into the earth where they would have been had she kept going straight. Argo almost panicked threatening to throw them off. Alessa felt the same way but she kept him under control even as the creature behind her bent to pick up another projectile.
"There's Nico!" Ryu pointed to a spot in the shadow of the temple where his own mount was sucking air. She wasted no time in galloping towards it as Ryu shouted in her ear. "Distract him with your arrows, I need to use my sword!"
"How can a sword hurt that thing!" she shouted, then blinked away tears. "It killed Kaarn!"
"Maybe I can hamstring it or something," Ryu muttered. Though the words were calm, the harshness of his tone of screamed Ryu's anger and pain.
As they approached Nico, Ryu slid half stumbling to the ground and hurled himself to one side to avoid the still galloping Argo. Half stumbling in his haste, he reached Nico and with a savage pull, broke the wrappings off the blade lashed to the saddle. He mounted up while Alessa struggled to knock an arrow, wondering if it was possible to shoot a bow that size from horseback.
"I can't lose you too!" she shouted. Ryu snarled something angrily and turned his horse to face the monster. With a wordless shout of rage, he urged Nico to gallop towards it.
Alessa was astounded that the horses weren't in more of a panic. They had been in battles before, some even with artillery, but the giant monster was scaring her more than it scared them. Before she could waste anymore time on it, a whistling sound alerted her to another rock flying through the air that smashed to the field a dozen meters behind her. Alessa raced after Ryu and towards the giant colossus then pulled up short barely managed to avoid falling off.
She pulled back on the bow amazed that she could do it at without standing on the ground and praying she wouldn't slip. She knew she wouldn't get much force from it this way, but all she needed was a distraction as Ryu said. She fired arrow after arrow and saw them miraculously stick in the fur of the giant. She didn't know how much damage she did, but it couldn't have been much as another rock quickly came her way. She dodged it, and breathing heavily in near panic and tried to spot Ryu.
Ryu gripped his long curved blade and felt his focus narrow to a razor. Kaarn had been his friend, they had been together for years and now like that he was gone. Senselessly. Meaninglessly. He rode in a huge arc around the colossus looking for a place to strike but the pounding hooves of the thing had torn up the ground pretty badly and he was terrified his horse would stumble yet anger drove him to recklessness.
"C'mon Nico, don't give up on me now," he urged his mount as he rode behind the thing. Nothing…. Nothing… there!
The leg of the monster was covered in fur but even if he leaped from Nico's back, he wouldn't be able to reach it, not from the way the giant was moving his legs. He risked a glance at Alessa riding in a random pattern in front of the monster, occasionally stopping to shoot an arrow and dodging the rocks it was throwing. She was doing the best she could, but what could he do….
Then a boulder hit too close to her and her horse tumbled sending her sprawling as well. Ryu watched in horror as the giant approached her and raised a giant hand, bringing it down with a whistling sound to smash the ground where she lay just as it had with Kaarn. But Alessa was lucky, she had taken the fall well and even though she'd lost the bow she still rolled away in time to dodge the hand slap. Then Ryu heard her shout so loudly he could almost make out the words. The shocked look on her face was almost comical as the colossus jerked its hand up with a howl and clutched at it with its other. There was a person on it, with what looked like an axe buried in top of the giant's hand.
"Kaarn!" Ryu shouted, astonished. His friend was alive and causing the colossus no end of trouble. It shook its hand wildly to try and throw him off, but Kaarn had one hand on the hair of the back of the monster's hand and the other on his axe and was hanging on like grim death, he wasn't about to be shaken off. It was then that Ryu realized the monster was standing stock still the fur on its leg an invitation. He smiled wickedly.
"Let's go Nico!" he snarled, galloping towards that tantalizing leg. Gripping sword in his right hand, Ryu stood up on the saddle of his mount and leaped. For a heart freezing instant, he thought he wasn't going to make it but at the last second, he felt fur under his left hand and closed his fingers around it. The feel of it was bizarre, more like stiff rope than hair but he barely noticed as his vision was filled with a strange blue-green glow from a small patch on the leg. Feeling strangely calm, he raised his sword and stabbed into the center of the glow.
The response was immediate as the monster roared so loudly, that Ryu felt himself go deaf and his vision actually shook. The beast went down on one knee, and began to kick furiously as Ryu's grip began to slip on the fur. The glowing spot was gone and the fur around it seemed too thick to let his sword in for a second blow. Growling in frustration, Ryu's grip slipped and when the colossus kicked his leg, he was hurled into the air above the kneeling monster.
He tried to scream but his throat locked with terror as he flew above the monster. Then he was coming down, but much too fast as the colossus slowly stood up. He was going to miss, going to fall behind it and smash to the ground. His heart wanted to burst but then he saw a way. As he fell he stretched out his hand and grabbed onto the fur on the shoulders of the colossus. Amazingly, he made the grab and felt his arm nearly wrenched out of place. Somehow he stayed on and had kept his sword as the monster began to walk forward towards Alessa.
He risked a glance below and saw that Kaarn was on his hands and knees behind the monster, dazed but alive and retching. He began to climb up the back of the beast, slowly, looking for good places to grab though the fur made it easier than he thought it would. Finally he was up on the thing's shoulders, seeing a line of rocks jut out of the beast where a spinal column should be. Each step the monster took, shook him a little and forced him to pause every few meters.
Then he saw it again, the glowing blue circle on the left shoulder of the monster and he was overwhelmed with the desire to strike it. Climbing sideways he laboriously made his way to the shoulder, easier than holding onto the leg because he could actually balance on the monster's broad shoulders without much trouble. Setting himself over the blue circle, he raised his sword again and taking a deep breath, stabbed his blade into the center of it.
This time the colossus went insane. Its howls were so loud that Ryu felt his entire body shake, the noise even worse because he was so close to it. Then it jerked its shoulder and once again he went flying through the air, as it feel to its hands and knees. This time though, he saw once more the glow on the body of the monster that filled his vision. On top of its head just above the mask, the fur was obscured by the glow not of a circle this but a sinuous symbol made of shapes and curves. Bracing himself as he began to fall, he raised his sword to stab while still in the air and readied his other hand to grab the fur. Fierce anticipation filled him.
"Got you now, you son of a whore!" he screamed as he drove his sword all the way to the hilt into the symbol at the bottom of his fall. The colossus moaned loudly, and began to shake its head back and forth trying its best to shake him off. It also raised its hands and tried to beat him off of it, but succeeded only in knocking its own head about and making it stagger. Ryu managed to yank his sword free and kept stabbing the symbol again like a mad man as gouts of black blood spewed around him.
Kaarn groggily looked up in time to see Ryu flying through the air higher than the colossus. His eyes widened as he saw a flash of light from Ryu's sword as it plunged into the monster's head with the force of a lightning bolt. He saw his friend's mouth open and heard his shouts distantly. He was amazed at how loud Ryu was shouting to be heard over the roars of the monster and the pounding of its feet as it struggled to remove him. He looked over at Alessa to see her standing like a statue just in front of the colossus staring at Ryu driving his sword into the head.
Alessa saw the monster try to bend his head down to shake him off but Ryu used the blade sunk into its head as a platform and to her astonishment, braced himself with his feet against the head of the monster and stabbed him again in the strange glowing mark, this time while hanging on with one hand. Each time he stabbed fresh gouts of black spurted out like a fountain covering him and making a dark cloud surround the giant head. Ryu stabbed again and again as the beast stood to its full height and froze, creating a perfect tableau. Ryu gave a shout of triumph and using both hands, drove the sword into the symbol all the way to the hilt. The colossus jerked, and with a mighty groan, began to topple over, falling forward… right on top of Alessa.
With a panicked shriek, Alessa turned and ran, dropping her weapons and fled as fast as she could make her legs move, terrified she would trip and fall. Behind her she heard a growing hum through the air as the massive body fell. In desperation she hurled herself forward and saw the ground shake as the colossus crashed into it. A half second later she smashed into the ground face first, knocking the breath out of her and seeing stars. She lay still for a moment, wondering if she was dead, but the pain of breathing convinced her she was still alive and mostly well.
Alessa rolled over on her back and sat up to find herself face to face with the head of the dead giant. It had missed her by less than the length of her own body and she couldn't help but scream once more. Then she noticed that Ryu lay sprawled between her and the giant head. His body was a mass of scrapes and his own blood and he was covered in dust and the black blood of the giant. His sword lay not far from his right hand. She feared the worst, then sighed in relief as she had heard him groan. Crawling over to him, Alessa tossed the sword out of his reach and cradled his head in her lap.
"Is he alive!" Kaarn demanded, running up to her. He was dirty and his surcoat and armor were torn up and bloodied but he was alive.
"How are you alive?" she gasped. "I mean, Ryu's alive, but… I saw you smashed to bits!"
"I threw myself off, I just got knocked around," he replied kneeling down next to them.
"Alessa…" Ryu whispered. She was so startled she almost dropped him to the ground but then she steadied herself and looked into his eyes. "Kaarn?"
"Right here, friend," Kaarn said moving his head into Ryu's view. Ryu smiled tiredly.
"Got that son of a whore…"
"We certainly did," Alessa grinned.
"Good," he breathed, and closed his eyes. His breathing remained regular, he was only sleeping or so she hoped.
"We need to clean him up," Kaarn said, and Alessa nodded. "Stay with him, while I got look for our horses and that bastard in white. I'll find him, don't worry."
"You already have," said a voice. Alessa and Kaarn turned to see a figure approaching them—it was the man in white.