ARC 6-Winter War-113 (Patreon)

I raise my arm as I sprint forward, protecting my eyes, and my vision, as the projectiles aimed at us become a constant rain. Kierra slows and moves behind me, ducking so she can use me as cover. I can’t hear her but a soft palm on the small of my back tells me she’s there and urges me forward.

The goliath is impossibly large. The closer we get, the more apparent that fact becomes. Before today, I couldn’t have imagined a living being larger than the Summer Palace. Finally, I understand why the walls around the major cities are so tall. Rather, I think they are not tall enough. Thankfully, the north is an exception when it comes to monstrous threats.

We’re close enough now that I can feel the ground tremble with each of the goliath’s steps. The projectiles raining down on us change. The thin spikes of ice intended to skewer become balls of ice the size of my head. They are much slower but there are so many of them, it’s useless to attempt dodging. And while they also do no damage to my sturdy skin, they explode on impact, spraying shards of ice and show that disrupt my vision. It’s not enough to distract me. Saints, I don’t think anything could obscure the towering mountain before me.

The cold hand of dread grips my heart as I try to imagine a way to bring this thing down. Right not, it seems quite impossible. A mountain could fall on this thing and it could probably walk it off. What do you do against creatures like this?

While I’m still grappling with the problem of how to bring the goliath down, Kierra sprints past me, throwing up snow as she picks up speed. I watch as she leaps onto the swinging nose and runs up it. For a brief moment. A crowd of reapers gathers atop the creature’s head and then the entire front side of the goliath’s nose is coated in ice. Kierra slips. Her hands scramble to find purchase but they skip off the ice. When the goliath swings its nose, she’s sent flying.

There’s a sharp spike of worry as I watch her crash into the snow but I know very well how tough she is. I refocus on the mission. As expected, there are reapers on this thing’s back and they’re going to do everything they can to stop us. I’ll share Kierra’s fate if I try to climb on top of this creature.

I need to reach its back in a moment but that’s too far, even for me. And what good will it do me? I doubt there’s a glowing patch of fur that screams ‘fatal weakness’ up there. The only thing that will change is that I will be just as stumped on how to bring this thing down while surrounded by a crowd of reapers.

Ah, forget it. Even if I can’t bring this thing down, each reaper I kill is one less to harass the camp. It’s all I can do so it’ll have to do.

Decided, I sprint forward. Ignoring the trunk, I focus on its side and leap with all my strength. I just manage to grab the lowest hairs of its belly. I wonder if I resemble the pinch of an insect as I haul myself higher. Probably less. I at least swat such creatures when they bother me. The goliath is completely unbothered, continuing its march without paying me any mind.

The reapers are another story. They gather at the side of the goliath, their mouths pulled back in fierce snarls. This close, I can just barely see the glow of their eyes as ice forms around them, more of the head-sized balls.

I leap sideways as the first is launched at me. There’s no time to waste as I leap again, pushing off the goliath’s side with my boots as I scramble for handholds in the creature’s thick coat. I have to move quickly and unpredictably if I want to avoid Kierra’s fate. I imagine there’s too much area to cover for them to try the same ice trick but if I linger in one spot for too long, I doubt they’ll waste the opportunity.

“Fuck!”

I scream silently as a lucky ice ball hits my hand, breaking my grip. While I’m swinging, half a dozen hit my chest and knock me loose. I let out a stream of curses as I tumble backward, fighting desperately to find another handhold. I do manage it but change tactics. Instead of climbing straight up, I crawl under the goliath’s stomach, using the creature as protection. Safe from the ice, I eagerly scramble toward the creature’s head. Once I reach its neck, I leap upward.

The distance from the goliath’s neck to its head is much shorter than the height of its haunch. It only takes three leaps to reach the top. Faster than the reapers can react. Leaving me standing on the goliath’s head facing an army of the dog-like monsters. Almost as one, hundreds of glowing gazes turn to me. The reapers at the front of the crowd form the doubled-headed scythes I’ve seen them use.

Things quickly become a blur. I vaguely recall slamming into the monsters’ frontline, wanting to keep the advantage. The world becomes dark fur with the occasional flash of white teeth and clear ice. The meaty thumps of my fists hitting the small bodies, the pressure of their jaws as they try to bite me when their magic doesn’t work, and my dizziness as multiple impacts spin me around combined with the strange silence makes everything feel…unreal.

At some point, they switch from trying to kill me to trying to restrict me. They crowd me, pushing as a wave until they back me against one of the ice structures. A wave of water drenches me from head to toe before freezing, trapping me in the building’s wall. I close my eyes as a scythe tries to carve out my eyes, the pressure on my eyelids uncomfortable but preferable to the alternative. Trying circumstances to weave a spell under but I manage. Mostly because it’s simple. A spell to heat my surroundings. A comfort spell as common as a fire arrow.

It normally takes a unit or two of mana to warm a chilly room to a comfortable temperature. Injected with forty units of mana, it’s enough to instantly evaporate even the thick ice trapping me.

The reapers flinch away from the hot steam, howling in silence. It gives me room to move and I dive into the center of them. When they attempt the same tactic as before, I don’t try to fight them off. I simply shift. It’s much harder for them to push on smooth purple ooze. Forming dozens of limbs, I swat the reapers away, throwing them off the goliath. In minutes, the army of hundreds is reduced to dozens. Not just from me knocking them aside. They flee in the face of an enemy they can’t understand, regrouping inside their ice structures.

From a safe height, dozens of ice balls appear above the heads of the reapers. Then they come together, forming something much larger. The ice also tints blue. Never a good thing when elements shift from their natural colors.

The giant ball of ice hits me with enough force that the goliath stumbles. I think I’ve flustered them if they’re harming their precious ally. Another one of the giant projectiles is forming even as I pull together my ooze. But before it can be thrown at me, the goliath stumbles again.

The third stumble is the largest yet. It’s not helped by the second giant ball of ice launched at me. The opposite, even. I don’t know if my luck is exceptional or exceptionally poor but the ice hits the goliath just as it sways. It’s enough to tip it.

Reapers pour out of the buildings like rats from a tipped over barrel as the goliath falls sideways. I’m also thrown from the creature’s back, pulling my ooze into a ball as I hit the snow. A moment later, the tall wave of snow thrown up by the goliath falling covers me, along with chunks of ice from the shattered buildings.

Then, the noise slams into me.

Hundreds of monsters barking, yapping, and yowling in a mixture of anger and pain along with a low groan that shakes my bones in the background. Seems the silence has been broken. Saints, if this is the horrible racket I’ve been avoiding, I wouldn’t mind it—

A horrible screech, full of so much pain it’d be heart-wrenching if my ears didn’t feel like they were fracturing from the onslaught of sound, shakes the air. Which sets off another round of yowling from the reapers.

Once again in my prime form, I claw my way out of the snow, ready to slaughter the lot of them just to make it stop. But as I poke my head out, the first thing I see are the dogs fleeing. Running for their lives. Or more likely, their ears. I don’t blame them.

The goliath grabs my attention with another of its pained yells. Quickly confirming that the reapers are not all rushing toward the camp in a suicidal rush, I turn my attention to the titan. The thrashing titan whose kicking legs make the ground shake beneath me as I stumble my way back to it. I tightly grip its fur and onto the side of its face. On my knees and with my toes dug into its coat to maintain my balance, I clasp my hands and bring them down on the creature’s head. Again and again and again. At some point, the howling of the goliath suddenly dampens as something wet trickles out of my ears but I keep going. Even when I feel the creature’s skull cave, finally, I keep hitting it.

A hand on my shoulder stops me, my ears popping painfully. I look up and scream at the red monster beside me, instinctively lashing out with a fist. It lets out a huff of air, hunching over from the blow.

“A little rough, dedia.” A familiar voice comes from the nightmare.

“Kii?” Now that I’m looking closer, there’s a recognizable shape underneath all the blood and guts. Yes, it’s not a horrible monster without skin. I recognize those eyes, more green than gold in the lack of light.

Red hands reach up, wiping her cheeks to reveal hints of green skin. She flashes a feral smile, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. “Yes.”

“…what did you do?”

“Did you not see? I brought the creature down. Come.” Bloody hands grab my shoulders and pull me out of the goliath’s head. I shiver at the feel of the mushed brains on my hands, a sensation I somehow blanked out until this moment. I don’t know how Kierra is smiling while covered in similar gore. “The rest of the prey is getting away.”