Disclaimer: How long has it been since I've done one of these? Oh well. Bacon is good.

Author's Note: Okey dokey, I think I should let you people know that I'm going to be taking some liberties with the story line later in the story. For instance, I'm going to alter the Shirley's Shrine scene a lot, because Dart's answers are so... generic. It bothers me. I'm also going to change the Dart/Lloyd fight in the Hero Contest, because a basic summary of the battle is, Dart can't hit Lloyd, and he can't turn Dragoon and kick the Wingly's pansy ass, then Lloyd slashes him once and Dart loses. Boring. I'm going to take a little artistic license, and make it more interesting.

Chapter 6

Lavitz and I scrambled back from the wall, seeking to avoid the hail of arrows soaring over the battlements. The arrows continued to fly as soldiers on the ground threw hooks up into the air, securing against the stone lip of the wall. After some grumbles and loud curses, the enemy finally scaled the fort, jumping onto the sentry posts, weapons at the ready. Now that their own soldiers were on the wall, the archers ceased fire, and our sentries charged into battle. As my own adversary met my thrust skillfully, turning my blade aside, I realized that these were not thrown away troops, managed by an inept officer or a fat, barbaric, bumbling slob. These were battle-hardened warriors.

But we were no pushovers either. Most of the guards assigned to protect the precious castle walls were members of the Eighth Knighthood, rigidly trained and under the capable (at least in Lavitz's opinion, and I had no reason to doubt him) leadership of Kaiser. I parried the chop aimed for my neck, and sliced upwards. As my foe dodged, I slashed to the right, aiming for his gut. He blocked, but I had expected that, and put all of my weight into the swing, so that it hurled his sword backwards. By the time he had recovered enough to attack again, my weapon was firmly planted in his chest. He dropped his sword and clutched my bloodstained blade, as if wanting to pry it loose and send his guts spilling to the stone beneath our feet, but the spark of life soon left him, and he fell limp. I jerked my sword free, wiping the unfortunate man's fluids from it as best I could before turning to Lavitz, who had already finished off his opponent.

As our eyes met, a deafening crash came from somewhere to our left. I swore loudly. "Shit, they're attacking the gate."

Lavitz nodded, taking in our situation. He turned to me, his face set into grim lines. "We'd better go down there. It looks like they've got everything under control up here, and most of the inexperienced troops are down there. They might need us."

"Right. Lead the way."

We ran down the paved streets as fast as we could, although we took care to avoid the puddles of blood along the way that the injured had left while heading for treatment. There was no use in slipping on one and breaking an arm before even seeing any action. We skidded into the main plaza, where the heavy wooden gate was already splintering against the powerful blows of the battering ram. By the time we had taken our defensive positions, the door gave way. Sandorans streamed into Hoax, smugly grinning, as though the battle was already over.

We soon gave them cause to think otherwise. I blocked the first stroke that came my way, balling my free hand into a fist and punching the offending Sandoran cleanly across the jaw. As his head jerked awkwardly, I could have sworn the wind around my sword whistled as the steel arced through the air and cleaved of his head. A fountain of crimson spurted from the severed neck, and I grimaced slightly as the blood splattered across my face and armor. Oh well, at least I wouldn't have to spend the rest of the battle trying to avoid it.

After disposing with several more enemies in the same manner, Lavitz and I looked up to see a new figure making his way through the crowd. This man was clad in black leather armor, with his face masked. Lavitz growled slightly under his breath. "Sandoran Elite. Sneaking, treacherous cowards, but they can fight."

I nodded, and dove in, my blade flashing in the fire of the torches. I scored a minor hit, slicing through the leather and drawing a shallow line of red. Was this man a fool? He hadn't even drawn a weapon yet, and he had nothing to block with. However, when Lavitz thrust his spear towards the Sandoran, our enemy jumped nimbly aside with incredible speed. He didn't need a weapon to parry our strokes, the simple audacity of my blow had caught him by surprise.

He unhooked a wooden boomerang from his back, hurling it at me. It bounced off my shoulder, causing a dull pain but nothing serious. I slashed for his neck, but he hoped backwards and my stroke fell short of the mark. Lavitz swung the butt end of his spear, but the mysterious Sandoran merely reached out and batted it aside. He pulled out a large flail, spinning the spiked ball on the chain as he dove for me. I managed to get out of the way as the head of the weapon crashed to the ground, creating a web of cracks in the paved road.

Lavitz took his opportunity, and his spearhead sliced through the vulnerable area under the Sandoran's arm. Blood welled up and spilled down the polished black leather, and I knew that if we could keep him busy for a little while longer, he would die from lack of the life-giving fluid that ran through his veins. However, my mind was racing so faced I only barely noticed him produce a bottle and uncork it. He hurled the liquid contents into the air, where the stuff metamorphosed into a bolt of lightning right before my surprised gaze. Bottled magic, a creation of the Winglies, and often sold to Human item dealers. It slammed into my body, and my highly conductive plate armor offered no resistance, so the magical electricity surged unchecked through my body. The pain was intense, but my head was clear enough that I ducked in time to avoid having my head smashed in by the Sandoran's flail.

Then something neither Lavitz nor I could have foreseen. The Sandoran mumbled some incomprehensible words, and he split into three copies of himself. Lavitz was as surprised as I, but he charged regardless, his spear aimed for the soldier on the right. But his weapon passed straight through the image and kept on going. Two of them were illusions, and we needed to find out which one was real before the real one bashed our heads in. Taking a wild guess, I slashed for the image on the left. Out of sheer good luck, my blade ripped through solid leather, drawing a long gash that oozed real blood. My boot connected with his chest, and he fell, striking his head against a rock on the way down, and lay still.

I panted slightly, still feeling the unpleasant aftermath of the lightning. Lavitz appeared to have noticed my plight, and tossed me a healing potion. I bobbed my head in a motion of gratitude and gulped down the liquid eagerly. The tonic rushed through my body, cooling and soothing, and I let out an audible sigh of relief. I looked around at the scene before me. Most of the Sandorans were already dead, and casualties on our side were significant, but not outrageous. All in all, I thought the defense had gone well.

Then a huge figure appeared in the gateway. Compared to this new arrival, the bulky prison warden Freugel was dwarfed. Lavitz stared at the huge man in astonishment. "Is that... a Giganto?"

There was no mistaking it. But it still didn't make sense "But... how? They were wiped out a decade ago... weren't they?"

"Apparently they missed one," Lavitz muttered grimly.

Raising a huge ax I doubted I could so much as lift, the Giganto cleaved a human in half with a simple downward swipe. The poor man never had a chance. I had had enough. I charged in, driving my blade between two plates in his bronze armor. He swung the axe at me, and even though I blocked it easily, it felt like my weapon was about to snap in two. This warrior's strength was amazing, and inhuman, removing all doubt in my mind that a Giganto had managed to survive the genocide that claimed the doomed race when I was but a boy.

The butt end of Lavitz's spear slammed hard against the Giganto's broad face. The creature let out a rumbling growl and swatted the knight with a massive hand, and Lavitz stumbled backward. I drove inward again, but my sword bounced off the Giganto's bronze armor with about the same effect as a stick hitting a brick wall. The Giganto gazed at us with something like contempt, and cast his weapon aside. To our surprise, he spoke aloud, his voice low and guttural. "Kongol not scared of puny humans. Kongol not need weapon to beat you."

Lavitz attacked again, undaunted by this display. This time, his spear hit home, the head wedging itself between two plates of the armor. However, the Giganto who called himself Kongol snatched the knight, leaving the weapon behind as if it were nothing more than a rose thorn, and hurled Lavitz bodily at me. Lavitz crashed into me and we were both knocked off our feet and onto the ground. My breath was forced from my lungs, and Lavitz rolled off of me, stammering something apologetic in nature as Kongol jerked the spear free and dropped it to the ground.

I spoke hurriedly. "Apparently he can sense when we're vulnerable. Be careful."

The knight nodded to show he understood, and downed another healing potion. I slashed inward, tracing a line of blood on the Giganto's enormous chest. Lavitz had recovered at this point, and he thrust at Kongol's shoulder, penetrating flesh and armor and drawing blood. Soon, the Giganto was covered in similar scratches, which were nothing on their own, but together they formed a serious problem. He was visibly slowing, and I dared to hope that we might pull this one off.

Another good hit should do it. I raised my weapon high above my head, and brought it down sharply. He caught the blade easily, and punched me full in the face. I stumbled backwards, dizzy and reeling, and fell over. It was humiliating to have come so far and end up pummeled into a bloody pulp by this hulk.

But then my end was delayed by a new presence in the town. A winged creature of darkness landed in the midst of the homes, clouded in mystery and shadow. When I got a good glimpse from the torchlight, I realized with a shock that it was the strange woman that had saved me from the Dragon, clad in black armor with those strange wings. She lifted her rapier to my chest, which was also somehow transformed and radiated a strange aura of power, and my heart sank. It wasn't exactly what I needed at this point, another person after my head.

But the mysterious woman appeared to have other plans. Her voice rang out, contrasting sharply with the sounds of battle. "Spirit of the Red-Eye Dragon, awaken!"

My father's pendant began to glow with a fierce light, brighter and more intense than I had ever seen it before. Flames poured from it, and I was sure that I was going to die. But the fire did not consume me, instead tracing a pattern along my armor. I watched in amazement as the flames hardened into a suit of armor that was identical to the one the woman wore, except that it was red to match her black. A shimmering band of flame appeared on my forehead, and my own weapon was coated in fire, and they both hardened into metal, and my sword exuded the same strange sense of power. Finally, a pair of crackling infernos sprouted from my shoulder blades, transforming into webbed wings similar to that of a bat's... or a Dragon's.

The woman gazed at me with a strange smile of satisfaction, as if she had been suddenly gratified by this strange event after a long, long wait. Lavitz and the Giganto, however, stared at me in awe, Lavitz's admiring, Kongol's fearful. The Giganto was so afraid that he faltered in his orders. "King Doel said nothing about winged humans. Kongol better go and see what Doel wants now."

It almost seemed as though the Giganto was making excuses for his fear in my presence. He scrambled away, and despite my better judgement, I did not pursue. I suppose I must have considered my new predicament more important. As the Giganto faded into the distance, so did our strange armor, the gems gleaming once again as if in a final gasp of breath before they passed into inactivity. I gazed at the woman who had become my savior twice over, and realized that I didn't even know her name. Regardless, there were certainly some things to explain.

"All right, what exactly is going on here?"

Author's Note: Swords, gore, and fire. Yep, I did enjoy writing this chapter, why do you ask? Heh. Anyway, this one was longer, which makes up for the last one. Rejoice.