What I Wouldn't Sacrifice
A Shadow of the Colossus Fanfiction
When Faulklin stirred from the black pits of unconsciousness once more, this time it wasn't laying flat on the ground of the large Shrine where the statues of the Colossi sat vigil, but rather to the rolling gait of Rebel's back as the stallion travelled at an even canter. One arm rested across the horse's shoulders and the other - the one that hadn't been dislocated in the fight - instinctively wove into long hair as his face rested against the bridge of its neck.
He could hear the crash of water, some distance, but still close. The faint whiff of salt twinged his nose. He flicked his single eye open just as they emerged from the shadow of the cliff, closing it again when the harsh light of the sun assaulted it. He sat up, blinking his eye open against the bright light.
Dormin's shrine was within easy distance, Daijoudan's mare in the lead and leading Rebel along by the end of the reigns, held in Daijoudan's hand.
Faulklin sat up further and noted that his arm wasn't limp as it should have been, his uninjured hand reaching up to probe his shoulder gingerly, but it was already set back in its socket while he had been unconscious. No mystery as to who had done so.
Why did he wake up here and not back in the Shrine? Daijoudan must have been taking his sweet time to return.
"You awake?"
"Yeah," he sighed in return.
Daijoudan said nothing more to him as they pressed onward back towards the Shrine, Khu flying just above them the entire way until their horses trotted up the steps back inside, the clack of hooves echoing off the walls as they pulled to a halt within.
Khu landed on Faulklin's shoulder as the boy slid down from Rebel's saddle and walked up the steps of the Shrine to where Komeko lay on the alter, five white doves startling from where they sat around it and flying out into the open air. Daijoudan's gaze lingered on them in suspicion as they disappeared between the pillars, but he said nothing.
Faulklin's own eye was fixated on Komeko too much to notice, surveying her pale features, but nothing seemed to have changed. He traced a finger over her face, down her neck, and he thought he felt a small hint of warmth there where it should have been cold as ice by now and his eye widened ever so slightly. He hovered a hand over her nose and lips, waiting almost expectantly to feel a soft breath on his skin, but there was nothing.
It was too bold of a hope. They had only slain five of the Colossi at this point. There were still another eleven to go. Dormin would not grant his wish until he held up his part of the bargain, and he knew as much, but there was a faint sign of life, at least, to reassure him that the beings' promise was not an empty one.
The horses stirred nervously behind them as a ringing filled his ears and Faulklin turned, one of the statues becoming engulfed in light, and then imploding in on itself and crumbling within its small alcove. A harsh murmur in the air and a presence Faulklin was quickly becoming familiarized with filled every inch of the room.
"Thy next foe is... A giant lurks underneath the temple... It lusts for destruction... but a fool, it is not."
Faulklin didn't even wait for the presence to fully fade before he was upon Rebel's back again, flicking the reigns back around the horse's neck and readying to ride. Daijoudan walked down the steps briskly as well.
"Hold on."
"I'm not stopping," Faulklin snapped.
"I didn't tell you to," Daijoudan rebuked harshly, giving the mouthy brat a glare as he went to his horse and retrieved something, tossing it to the kid. "Here."
Faulklin caught it and raised a brow in confusion.
"It's fruit." There had been a tree near the far cliff just outside the 5th Colossus' territory absolutely overflowing with it. Daijoudan himself had eaten here or there in small amounts since they'd arrived, but he knew Faulklin hadn't. He'd meant to convince the boy they needed to find food and eat sooner, but the brunette had been in such a rush to run toward the Colossus and his possible death that Daijoudan hadn't had the chance.
The man was expecting some kind of argument, but instead all he got was silence as the brunette bit into it and flicked Rebel's reigns. He also didn't expect a thanks, nor did he get one, but the brief glance of begrudging gratitude that flickered across the boy's face was enough to satisfy him.
When they exited the Shrine once more, they both noticed something they had been too preoccupied to see before, a narrow pillar of light that rose from the site of the first Colossus' - the Minotaur's - territory. When Daijoudan glanced to the left, there was another, and one beyond that where their most recent fight had probably been. The pillars rose up into the sky and the clouds where the beams touched swirled in a small, stationary funnel.
"Those must be the fallen Colossus."
"Valus," Faulklin hummed under his breath distractedly, catching Daijoudan off-guard. "And Pheadra and Avion."
"What?" Daijoudan couldn't help but raise his brows in confusion at the seemingly out-of-the-blue words, their meaning lost on him. There was a look in Faulklin's eye for a flicker of a second, as if he wasn't all-there, before he shook it off like a dream.
"Those are their names."
"And how do you know that?"
Faulklin thought for a moment, and then he simply shrugged. "I just do."
"You 'just do'?" Daijoudan repeated, narrowing his eyes at Faulklin in accusing scrutiny.
Faulklin only returned him an annoyed glared, fully coming back into his default attitude, rather than that uncharacteristic, distant calm. "Did I stutter? Y'know what, never mind. Don't think too hard on it, you might sprain something. Come to think of it, do you even have a brain to damage?"
"Why?" Daijoudan snorted. "Do you need a donation?"
"First you would need one to give," Faulklin retorted, unsheathing his sword and raising it to the light so that they could find their next Colossus to slay. It pointed southwest of where they were and he put the blade away, flicking the reigns.
They rode across the field toward a cluster of trees just to the right side of the Minotaur - Valus' - cliff, branches poking over rock and signifying a forest beyond. There were also tall, narrow pillars, things Daijoudan thought might be tree trunks at first, but realized they were stone and man-made.
The grass as they reached a wide opening between the cliffs became longer and wilder here, some of it reaching as high as the knees of their horses. Sure enough, there was a forest just beyond, the branches soon blotting out all but the sparsest mottling of light on a leaf-blanketed forest floor.
They slowed warily as the shadows overcame them and both listened and looked for any signs of a Colossus, but they saw none, and it seemed too dense with plant life to allow one to move about anyway. So they relaxed slightly as they walked.
Now, though, there was another problem: finding their way through the trees of this unfamiliar place.
They looked and listened, but even for a forest, this place was startlingly silent. No birds chirped their songs here and no animals either prey or predator seemed to stir, even from beneath the foliage of the leaves. It was unnaturally still and even the horses became nervous, noses audibly flaring for signs of some beast lying in wait to spring upon them, but there was nothing.
"Here," Daijoudan broke the silence, tossing another fruit to Faulklin for the boy to catch. "You need to keep up your strength." He eyed the younger male critically as he said this, as if trying to find some source of injury or see through any sort of mask that might be hiding exhaustion. "We should rest, too. These Colossus battles are only going to get harder the further we continue."
"I'm actually feeling pretty good," Faulklin shrugged as he bit into the fruit, shifting back comfortably in Rebel's saddle. Upon smelling the fruit, the stallion arched his head back and sniffed in want, the boy rolling his eyes and smirking as he gave what remained to the equine.
"Don't lie about it," Daijoudan warned.
"No, really," Faulklin stated honestly. "I do." He hadn't really been thinking about it before, but now that he did, he truly felt fine. He was still aching and sore, yes, but not as badly as he had been after the first few fights. He wouldn't quite say that he felt energetic, but he didn't feel as weary as he thought he would, either. Perhaps that should have made him stop and question a little bit more, but it didn't matter. He shrugged to himself again, dismissing it. "I hardly feel tired at all. Maybe even strong and rejuvenated."
He felt Daijoudan's eyes narrow on him once more. Faulklin was a stubborn person, but he was also still human, prone to the same weaknesses and fatigue as everyone else.
Actually, Daijoudan had always known him to be a little on the short side when it came to long-term stamina. He was healthier and stronger than he had been when Daijoudan had first known him, when Mamoru had first taken him in and cared for the boy, but he was still considerably frail for a young man of his age, and rather negligent at taking proper care of himself when Mamoru didn't issue reminders or coax him into doing things he already should. Eating was one of them, which took its toll and showed in his too-thin frame.
Even Daijoudan was feeling the affects of their fights, starting to become more worn-down than he would like, and he was just as stubborn as the other male, physically stronger, and considerably better at taking care of his needs to make sure he was as effective in everything he did as was humanly possible.
For Faulklin to say that he actually felt rejuvenated after their struggles against five massive monsters most couldn't even fathom in their imaginations, something was wrong. Whether it was related or not, he immediately recalled those black, inky tendrils that had woven out of the slain Colossi's corpses and found new refuge inside the boy afterwards.
"It isn't natural for you to feel that way," the man warned, the tone of his voice entirely serious and foreboding. "Something is wrong if you truly, physically feel that way."
Faulklin glanced sideways at him in question, not seeming even the slightest bit concerned. He was someone that didn't seem to fathom the meaning of the word caution, but then, he didn't seem to fathom a lot of things.
"I don't see what the problem is."
"Just be careful," he advised. Daijoudan already knew the boy wasn't going to listen to his warnings, so he didn't know why he bothered, but he offered up the words anyway. "Whatever those things are that took refuge in you after you killed the Colossi, there's no telling what they might be doing to you, or what this Dormin being is after. Don't let yourself be blinded by it. In all truth, you should probably give up this quest now, before something bad happens to you and it becomes too late to reverse it."
Faulklin merely shrugged again. "It doesn't matter." The same words he had given Dormin, and the same words he stuck by now. As far as he was concerned, it was meaningless. He almost wanted to laugh at the fact that Daijoudan was under the assumption his own life meant anything to him. "I'm still going to see it through, no matter what."
He nudged Rebel faster and left Daijoudan to shake his head with a grumble of exasperation before following.
They passed by a smaller shrine, same as one that they went past on the way to the 5th Colossus'... to Avion's territory, but didn't stop there, instead heading towards a part in the trees where the light became visible again. Their horses splashed through a shallow pond, and they slowed as Faulklin noticed just ahead that the land dropped away below, too steep to travel. He glanced to the right where the trees thinned and he could see the gaping maw of a cave just beyond the light.
Their path took them over a short, naturally weathered bridge and Faulklin held his sword up to find out where the light would guide, but it only bounced off in all separate directions. He pulled his horse to a halt and angled the blade, trying to relocate the direction they would need to find, and saw as it pointed through a rock wall beyond the cave entrance.
They headed through it into the shadows, heading straight away from a bend in the cave, and the wind howled just ahead, signaling an open expanse. Light illuminated a cliff wall on the right, so they would have to turn left.
When they did, the sun reflected gold off the land so intensely that they were blinded, pulling back on the reigns to slow their horses until their vision could adjust, squinting through sand-glittered wind that blew their hair back. Soft grains crunched under-hoof and once they were able to see at last, Faulkln's blue eye widened in awe of an endless sea of sand that melted into heat-blurred obscurity after what Faulklin would guess were a few miles touched only by the breeze.
They rode to the crest of a hill overlooking the desert, the only place within view that sprouted grass, and what vegetation it did have was dry and brittle, shattering under the steps of their mounts. He squinted into the distance, but could see nothing worth his attention that would even remotely suggest the presence of a Colossus, or a structure that might be its resting place or indicate a path, though with the sun in his face, it was hard to tell.
Raising his sword, the blade almost seemed to suck all of the light from the desert, tainting it a deep veil of shadowed blue to his eyes instead of gold. As he turned it left, the beams of light that came slightly together parted again, so instead he angled it right until it pointed at a U-shaped structure of pillars that barely poked out of the side of one of the mountains, rendered visible now that the sun no longer shrouded the land in glare, the sword seeming to rumble a low growl in his hand in eagerness of tasting the blood of another Colossus.
He nudged Rebel's side and they ran towards it, down steep slopes and plowing small waves of sand in front and alongside them as they went, leaving behind a thin trail that was soon blown over and erased by the wind. The shadows of the mountainside were startlingly cool after the sun left his back, but he ignored it and pressed onward toward the entrance, which was blocked by fallen, square stones that seemed almost deliberately placed. Beyond was a tunnel leading down, where their horses couldn't follow. They would have to proceed on foot.
Their path was a tunnel, lined in several small blockades of stone as they went, but none that were impassible, only a minor nuisance. Finally, after they had traveled a good deal underground, the tunnel opened up. Just ahead was a wider platform that clung to this side of the wall, and at the edge, a crumbled archway where the floor fell away into a deep, long pit. A thicker pillar with an 'm' shaped arc sat in the middle of the deep chamber, and from just above it, an opening where light poured down from above.
As they walked, both noted unhappily that the floor of the large chamber was at least a full hundred feet down, and with what looked like no stairs or way to get down easily. There was also no sign of the aforementioned Colossus and no light to use the sword to locate it, at least not where they were.
"I feel like this is the right place," Faulklin hummed, walking around the edge of the drop to the far end where it overlooked, glancing over the ledge and trying to figure out a safe path down. "But I don't hear or see anything." Even in a quiet tone, his voice sounded startlingly loud in the large chamber.
Even at the end, where he could see to the far side of it, there was no such beasts. Plenty enough structures, carved by the hands of Men, with floors and pillars and a doorway on the far side that was impossible to reach, but nothing to suggest that a Colossus dwelled here, even though this place even matched the cryptic words Dormin had provided that the beast dwelled underground.
Khu croaked from his shoulder and took flight, gliding around the chamber to the far end as if deciding to be his eyes and his lure for the beast, but nothing else turned, and before long, the crow returned to perch on his shoulder where he pet it in appreciation.
He held the sword up, but the light did nothing to show him the way, too far from his reach. Unless he could reach the floor or the top of that pillar, but as he eyed the sides, he knew it would be impossible.
"So what's the plan?" Daijoudan questioned, likewise searching, his posture warily rigid. It was too quiet.
"Well if I could reach that light, I could tell you," Faulklin huffed, staring up at the m-arch in frustration, before his gaze glided over the walls to the sides of it. "But I can't reach it. These walls are man-made... too tall and smooth without purchase for even the most experienced climber. I might be able to if I could get down to the floor level, but I'm wary to go down there without knowing what might be waiting."
Daijoudan nodded his agreement as Faulklin looked for a way to get down. It was looking like the only path was a vertical climb down where the crumbled archway stood, a long row of ledges that led all the way down. They should be able to climb back up that way as well if nothing turned up.
Heading that way, he sheathed his sword and swung down the side, climbing down one precarious ledge at a time, Daijoudan following him. Faulklin was quicker, dropping down and catching each one with his hands, while Daijoudan was a little more reserved, stepping down and only letting his weight down when he was sure his footing was secure. There was a larger ledge that jutted out and allowed for some rest for their arms before they continued, though Faulklin didn't slow, and Daijoudan didn't allow him to go ahead alone either.
When they reached the bottom and dropped down, an earthen rumble made both of them tense, and the loud scraping of stone caused both males to whirl around as the same wall of ledges they had used to climb began to recede into the floor, rattling pieces of loose stone off to rain down in a thin wall of dust. As it fell away further, a humanoid Colossus closely akin to Valus stepped out, its legs flying over them without even seeing the two men.
"...I think I found the Colossus," Faulklin muttered sarcastically, back-pedaling against the wall so as not to be crushed underfoot by one of its great hooves.
"You're hilarious," Daijoudan returned, equally as sarcastic.
The Colossus walked forward several steps, but when it found no foe, it began to turn, both Faulklin and Daijoudan springing into action and running around its legs to avoid its sightline. A wall partly blocked their path further into the temple, but it was easy for them to scale, leaping off to the other side and hoping to buy some time to calculate their strategy.
They swivelled around as they reached the far arch's pillar, the Colossus turning to face them and its blue orbs piercing the darkness frighteningly as it lumbered towards them and the short wall.
It gave them all of three seconds before the Colossus' legs smashed straight through with no effort at all and forced them to keep running for the next one, scaling that wall just behind the large stone pillar. Just as they started to climb over, the Colossus already reached them and smashed through that one too, sending them both to the ground with the rubble in a short daze, only to scramble up as the beast came upon them with much more speed than the last four land-based Colossus had had.
They darted around the other side of the pillar back in the direction they came, only to circle fully around it as the Colossus pursued, almost matching pace, though it took more time and effort for it to turn to circle around the block.
Indeed, this one was neither fool nor slow.
They sprinted hard for the last wall and clamored over it, with Daijoudan up first and offering his hand to help pull the shorter male up quicker, just before the Colossus reached and smashed through that as well, the two diving through some pillars on the far side beneath a stone portico, not having the time to think of anything except running at this point and hiding.
"I feel like a rat, scurrying for cover," Faulklin lamented through panting breath, kneeling against the far wall of their hiding place out of the beast's sight range. "This is ridiculous!"
"Stop whining and figure something out," Daijoudan snapped under his breath. "Because our only escape slid into the floor. There won't be any running away from the fight this time, no matter if we want to or not."
It was true. The other fights, there had been the option of leaving the territory of the Colossus without fighting it. This time they were cornered, and the only way they were getting out was if they killed it, before it killed them. Even then, they might not have a route to escape out of, but they would certainly never locate an exit if they were forced to sprint for their lives.
"And you'd better think of it quick," the man added as the Colossus came to stop in front of their hiding place with a guttural grunt, the only part of its massive form that was visible being its lower legs and knees, and with no fur within reach to climb that either one could see, even on the back of its ankle as Valus had had.
The Colossus pitched forward and they prepared for it to smash into their hiding place too, ready to flee from an avalanche of stone, but instead it bent to one knee and braced a large hand against the ground, a long, dangling beard of fur appearing along with its head as it peered between the pillars on the far side and then scanned past every one, steadily coming towards spotting them.
"Now!" Daijoudan hissed, Faulklin leaping to his feet at the command and dashing forward.
The Colossus spotted him in surprise as the boy sprinted towards it instead of away and began to lift itself back up, but Faulklin reached it just in time to grab onto the end of its beard as it rose to full height. The swing of momentum as it did so, the beard swaying one side and then the other, allowed the short brunette to vault up to the fur just below its shoulder on the chest, climbing as quickly as he could manage.
With a reverberating growl, the large Colossus rolled its shoulders in an attempt to dislodge the miniscule pest, but Faulklin was getting used to the swaying movements of the giants as they had tried to dislodge him each time and held on tightly, not allowing himself to fall.
As Faulklin tried to reach the top of the Colossus' back and its head, Daijoudan drew his silver blade and sprinted from cover, slashing as the monster's leg in an attempt to both distract and wound, but it was like striking solid stone and he tsk'ed, running when he realized his attacks would do no good at all other than draw its attention.
The great behemoth turned to watch him run, but it didn't immediately pursue, its attention still fixed on Faulklin as the boy came close toward the jutting spine of stone that protruded from the center of its back. Daijoudan picked up a stone and hurled it, hitting it on one of the glaring eyes set within the Colossus' stone head and hearing a faint scratch like stone on glass. The beast finally paid him proper attention and began its pursuit, forcing Daijoudan to run as quickly as he could, but at least he didn't have to worry about climbing any more walls or being slowed down by them.
Faulklin took a brief rest on its shoulders, the Colossus occasionally twitching to throw him off, but failed each time. Finally he stood and ran to its head, throwing himself down and plunging his blade into the glyph there, the Colossus letting out a bellow like that of a bull. It planted its legs firmly and arched forward, ready to throw its head back, but when Faulklin stabbed it again, it faltered instead.
A jet of black, inky blood pelted his chest and his clothes, and Faulklin instinctively turned his head aside to avoid getting it in his eyes so that he could still see as the Colossus began to walk again, drawn by Daijoudan's loud, clear whistling, the sound echoing around the chamber. Daijoudan ran about the far edge of the wall, making himself a harder target to hit with the wall being in the beast's way, and it raised a leg to step on him, just as Faulklin stabbed it again and made it falter instead, crashing head-long into the wall and sending down a rain of debris.
Daijoudan swore foully as he found some distance and whirled around, his eyes searching, simply waiting for a small, broken body to crumple to the ground as the Colossus stepped away, but there was nothing. He didn't see Faulklin on its head or the ground, and he couldn't help but dread that maybe he was now imbedded in the crater left by the beast's skull, nothing more than a splatter that was as much a part of the wall as the rock said structure was constructed out of.
Then he saw a head of brown hair pop up from the other side of the Colossus' spine, balancing carefully on its quivering shoulders and dashing back to where the blade was still imbedded deeply into the Colossus' skull, making the beast groan in disoriented agony.
When Faulklin reached the site of the sword and glyph again, it was nearly impossible to dislodge the blade, the male having to twist and pull hard, making the Colossus stagger and moan, almost falling backwards as he finally loosed the sharp edge and the largest gush of black blood he had earned yet.
The beast raised a hand to try and smash the boy, but Daijoudan divided its attention as he swooped in and draw his white blade along with the silver one, striking its ankle in one direction, then the other in rapid succession.
Much to his surprise, where his silver sword had failed, and Faulklin's had during the fight with the Second Colossus, his white blade actually managed to cut the hide of the beast and earn a roar that might have been pain or simply anger. Nothing sprayed outward, but a black ooze dribbled from the slash and made the beast stagger slightly in what was likely more surprise than anything.
Faulklin glanced down in surprise of his own as he felt the entire beast jerk and turn its attention towards Daijoudan, who was running to a safe distance again.
"The Hell...?"
"My sword can cut its hide where there's no fur!" Daijoudan told him, sheathing his silver one since it was of little use to him in this fight, and instead gripping the white one with both hands.
That was actually surprising to Faulklin, but perhaps that meant the man would be useful to him after all. Between him attacking it from above and hitting its weak points, and Daijoudan slashing it where his own sword couldn't even scratch from below...
That gave him a rather wicked, genius idea.
"After I get my attack in and climb back to its shoulders, slash its leg again, as deep as you can!" Faulklin ordered.
Daijoudan nodded and they both prepared themselves as the Colossus began to recover, the youth stabbing the sword down again into another spot in its head, which earned yet one more bellow. Leaving it lodged there, just enough to stay, he ran to the edge of its face and swung down, hanging by its fur, and smeared some of the black blood over the beast's eyes to blind it. The creature howled alarm and shook its head to clear the haze over its eyes, and when he kicked it in the front of its stone face, it charged forward, crashing headlong into the stone again and lodging the blade in deep while Faulklin climbed to the safety of its mid-back.
The entire chamber rattled with the force of the Colossus' blow, and it was just then that Daijoudan swooped in, leaving a nice, long gash in the back of its leg. It staggered backward, forcing Daijoudan to retreat along the wall and the brunette to scramble to its head now as its shoulders came into contact with the m-arch's support. Faulklin dislodged his blade as the beast fell to its knees, and when it crashed forward into the ground, he was back on its shoulders again, clinging on for dear life.
He could still feel subtle movements in the Colossus' form, knowing that it was dazed, not dead, and that there were more vitals to locate and stab.
Now that he had it grounded and stunned, hopefully he would finish it now before it could recover. He ran across its back, and just above its hip on its back, another glyph sprang to life.
Before the beast could rouse, he dropped to his knees and stabbed the glyph with a vengeance, feeling the small mountain beneath him twitch and writhe. It took four good stabs, but that glyph vanished as well, though much to his displeasure, it wasn't the end of the Colossus, and it began to rise, quickly and with renewed vigor.
Faulklin tumbled down its back and the stone ledges that made up its lower body, hitting the ground and scrambling to his feet to get well out of its way as it stood. He needed to figure out where the last of the glyphs was, then attack it once more. Hopefully now, with it so much nearer to death, it would be slower and less trouble.
While it was turning to find him, he raised his sword in the light cast by the ceiling's hole above, finding it on the back of its left hand.
Before it could fully find its feet, he ran to its hand braced against the ground and leapt atop it, just before it became too far to reach, scrambling up.
The Colossus noticed him immediately and flicked its hand hard to throw him off, but Faulklin held on, waiting for it to still and then driving his blade into it. It howled rage but its eyes went not to Faulklin, but Daijoudan, as the man ran forward with his blade and leapt up at its leg, driving the white sword into its thick hide.
The beast staggered at the same moment it tried to flick Faulklin off, side-stepping, and balled its hand into a fist, punching the wall and trying to knock Faulklin off in the process, but the boy held on stubbornly even as the flat of the stone scraped his shoulder raw.
Daijoudan drew his blade out and leapt back, ready to attack again, but the Colossus' attention shifted quicker than he thought it would and the full bulk of its hoof crashed into him and send him flying several feet, hitting the ground hard and rolling several more where he lay dazed and breathless.
Faulklin cursed and drew his blade from the Giant's hand, but when he drove the blade in again, the Colossus smashed him against the wall and he felt something crack, stealing the air from his lungs and almost causing him to lose his grip on the weapon and fur to fall. He barely held on, his consciousness fluttering, and the Colossus lifted its hand with a snarl of annoyance that he still clung to it.
Daijoudan finally managed to draw a harsh breath, the wind having been knocked from his chest, and dragging himself onto his elbows to watch as Faullklin scrambled for a foothold and drew the blade from the Colossus' hand, driving it in again. The beast twitched in rage and flicked him, but he still didn't let go, so as he drew the blade out again, he angled it to strike, only to be smacked into the wall again, so hard that Daijoudan could hear his body hit stone and things break even from a distance.
He swore profusely and tried to stand, but his body didn't want to cooperate, still winded from the merciless kick from the giant, and when the Colossus' arm fell to its side again, he could see Faulklin still barely dangling there by one hand, limp like a rag doll and looking as though he wasn't even conscious. Hell, maybe not even alive.
But the brat moved. He twitched and weakly reached an arm up to grab the fur on the Colossus' hand, kicked his legs until he found purchase to heave himself up, and pull the blade out, gingerly touching the tip to the glyph on its hand, and every hair on the man's head stood up in horrified realization as he saw Faulklin's gleaming eye flutter open and the malicious, suicidal grin that contoured his lips.
Shit!
He didn't care if his body didn't want to move, he forced it, staggering to his feet and sprinting, ignoring that he still couldn't quite breathe properly, but he wasn't anywhere near fast enough to keep it from slamming its hand into the wall again, a shattering roar escaping the beast as it staggered and the blue light of its eyes faded to black.
Daijoudan ran even faster as the giant pitched forward, its knees shattering perfectly lined stone as it collapsed, and then its chest cast a shadow over him. He barely avoided being crushed beneath its full weight as gravity slammed it into the ground, still felt the shockwave of its impact through his entire body, but ignored it as he raced towards Faulklin's still form where the kid lay unmoving.
He almost skidded on his knees as he came to step next to the boy, turning him over and feeling for a pulse or a breath. It was shallow, but a faint gust wafted from his blood-stained lips, and his chest still rose and fell, though it was strained. He tried to figure out just how much had been done. His head seemed safe from any indents or breaks where he had thought it might be crushed against the wall, so that was good, but he could tell immediately that there were at least a couple of ribs that were not only fractured, but snapped clean.
"You fucking idiot," he hissed, gritting his teeth. A dislocated limb, he could mend. He might even be able to re-set the ribs, but those would take weeks to heal, and the trace of blood that he'd coughed up alone promised internal bleeding, though how bad, he couldn't be sure. It might not be lethal, but Faulklin wouldn't be moving around much any time soon. "How the Hell do you plan to finish what you began when you pull stunts like this?"
He didn't get his answer, since even if Faulklin would awaken on his own, the shadows from the Colossus' corpse found the boy and disappeared into his body again, pitching him into an almost coma-like state. Daijoudan snarled under his breath, uttering various complaints, but there was nothing to be done for it now. They needed to figure out how to get out of this damn pit, since it wouldn't matter if they'd survived the fight or not otherwise.
